University of Virginia Library

RECORDS KEPT BY THE OFFICERS IN THE COLONY

The acts of the administration in Virginia are recorded in the volume of
contemporary records of the company kept by the colony which are described
above. They consist of a series of nine orders and proclamations by the governor
and council and of twenty-one orders, proclamations, commissions, and warrants
issued by the governor as the executive officer of the council for the regulation
of affairs in the colony. They cover the years 1621, 1622, and 1623, and concern
the collection of taxes, the designation of laborers for public works, the regu-
lation of prices of commodities, the restraint of relations with the Indians, and
the control of the morals of the citizens. In addition to these documents issued
by the governor is a series of twenty-four commissions and warrants issued to
individuals to act as commanders of cities and hundreds, to carry on trade with
the Indians, to make discoveries, to wage war upon the Indians, and to collect
moneys. Another group of documents in the same collection consists of thirty-
six petitions to the governor and council between 1622 and 1624. They are

claims for wages and for moneys due, demands for fulfillment of contracts,
requests for pardon and for justification in personal quarrels, demands for lands,
and petitions to be allowed to return to deserted plantations and to England.[238]

The only extant record of the council for 1619 is an account of the "putting
out of the Tenants that came over in the B[ona] N[ova] wth other orders of the
Councell," found among the Ferrar papers.[239]

The "courte booke," or original record of the meetings of the governor and
council, in which these petitions were heard and orders issued, is extant from 1624
to 1632, with a record of one court in 1622 and of one in 1623. These are mostly
the actions of the council sitting in a judicial capacity and concern controversies
over property, probate matters, and criminal charges. The punishment seem
extreme. Two actions of the court are particularly interesting, one affecting
Edward Sharpless for sending copies of the colonial records to England, and the
other consisting of accusations against Captain John Martin of slanderous and false
utterances. A few additional orders and warrants are preserved among the Colonial
State papers,[240] together with a report of the proceedings of the assembly in 1619,
written by John Pory and sent to England, the only other account of which was
sent to Sir Edwin Sandys by John Rolfe, and is among the Ferrar papers.[241] The
acts of the assembly for March 5, 1623/24 are the only measures of that body
during the life of the company which are extant, with the exception of the letters
and petitions addressed to the company and to the King, and of a few orders.