 | CHAPTER XXXIII History of Virginia |  |
CHAPTER XXXIII
SECOND ADMINISTRATION OF NICHOLSON
In 1698, Nicholson succeeded Andros, after serving as
governor of Maryland. His second administration was less
acceptable than his first, owing to certain extravagances which
now clouded his conduct. His attitude, for instance, towards
a daughter of the younger Lewis Burwell, whom he pursued
with attentions in spite of the protests and rebuffs of herself
and her family, was, if the story of the affair which has come
down to us be really true, the attitude of a crazy fool or an
unrepressible cad. This was not the first time in history, however,
that the mind and manners of a sensible man were
distorted by an obsession for a charming woman.
He seems to have also fallen out with the majority of his
council; but in this course he appears to have been more
justified than he was in his noisy and violent suit for Miss
Burwell's hand. This majority intemperately accused him
of a long roll of delinquencies—that he had raised thorns
between the Upper and the Lower House, and had even
sworn that he would kill any member of either body who
ran athwart his wishes; that he called the councillors
"dogs," "rascals," "cowards," and "rogues;" that, in the
General Court, he abused the lawyers at the bar and threatened
his fellow-judges when they differed from him in
opinion; that he held the sessions of that court at inconvenient
hours, and packed the grand juries; that he listened to dangerous
tattlers and blasted the reputations of all who
opposed him; that he insulted his subordinates, and, on
one occasion, even seized the attorney-general by the collar;
that he struck some of the first gentlemen in the country, and
men into prison arbitrarily, and publicly stated that his commands
were the law of the country; that he broke into profane
oaths even though he had just come from prayers; and that he
was also lewd in his relations with women.
In short, there was not a social outrage, not a moral impropriety,
of which Nicholson, according to these members of the
council, had not been guilty.
Were these charges well-grounded? Ordinarily, councillors
were more disposed to attribute imaginary virtues than imaginary
sins to the head of their board, since their pecuniary
interests prompted them in the first direction and not in the
second. As these particular councillors, therefore, had nothing
to gain by their reflections on the governor's conduct, beyond
possibly a gratification of personal prejudice, they must at
least be credited with some measure of sincerity in their
aspersions.
But there was one very important body in the Colony who
looked upon Nicholson with as much approval as the majority
of the council looked upon him with disapproval. This was the
clergy, who stood firmly by him in the course of his revived
feud with Blair over the subject of the annual appointment of
the ministers by the vestries instead of their permanent induction,
as in England. There were special reasons why the
custom which had sprung up in the Colony should continue to
prevail, and Blair undoubtedly was right in his conclusion that
it was best that the clergymen in Virginia should not acquire
a title for life to their benefices; but, in taking the opposite
view, Nicholson bravely incurred a large measure of popular
obloquy, although from the standpoint of the Anglican
Church, he was perfectly right. Blair accused him, on this
account, of being neglectful of the interests of religion. This,
the clergymen, in a letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury,
earnestly combatted. "With the exception of the King," they
wrote, "Governor Nicholson is the greatest support of the
Church in America." They indignantly denied Blair's assertion
would not swear in favor of Nicholson for five pounds sterling;"
and they boldly referred to the commissary as "lying
under the scandal of being a perjured person."
The House of Burgesses was as little in sympathy with the
councillors' aspersions as the clergy. Governor Nicholson,
this body declared, had a great respect for the welfare and
prosperity of the country, and no complaints against him from
the people at large had been heard to justify the reflections
which had been cast upon him. The House also pointed out as
a significant fact that four members of the council had positively
refused to countenance the attack launched by their
associates. The burgesses declined to forward the petition of
the hostile six,—one of whom was a direct descendant of the
the restless and unscrupulous Ludwell of the previous era,—
to the Queen as requested, unless accompanied by a statement
from the House in denial of the justness of the accusations.
Blair was, at this time, in England, and he sought to undermine
Nicholson with the government there by submitting a
list of charges against his conduct; but this document was
transmitted at once by the Board of Trade and Plantations
to the governor, who replied to it with his characteristic outspoken
spirit. One of these charges was that he displayed no
interest in the College's welfare. This, if true, would have
been grossly inconsistent with his habitual course during his
previous administration.
Inglis, the head-master, turned the tables on Blair, in 1703,
by twitting him with accepting an annual salary of one hundred
and fifty pounds sterling from an impoverished grammar
school, which, for the same sum, could have secured the services
of the six masters intended at the start. As it was, there
was now a prospect that even the master, usher, and writing-master
would have to be discarded.
In 1705, the commanders of the ships trading with Virginia,
sixty-five in all, came forward voluntarily to testify to the vigilance
of Nicholson's administration. "By his prudent and
time," they said, "and by the pains, trouble, and expense he
has been at to aid them in loading or getting ready to sail, and
further by his judicious use of the guardship for their protection,
he had benefited the interests of the King, the people, and
the merchants alike."
Nicholson was a man capable of entertaining the broad and
comprehensive views of a true statesman. This was demonstrated
by the plan that he drafted for the confederation of all
the colonies, which, like each of the modern overseas dominions
of Great Britain, was to be governed by a viceroy, who should
owe his appointment to the crown. Nor was it any presumption
in him that he should aspire to this exalted office, should
it be created, for, in every position which he had held, he had
expressed enlightened opinions and acted with a disinterested
spirit. It is not beyond the range of possibility that, had a
vice-royalty been established, the Revolution would not have
occurred, and all the Anglo-Saxon countries would be today
politically united.
Nicholson took the principal part in the removal of the seat
of government from Jamestown to Middle Plantation. He
foresaw the advantage to the College of erecting the capital in
its immediate vicinity. "It would be a greater kindness to
it," he said, "than if some one had presented it with two
thousand pounds sterling." He suggested that the new town
should be laid off in the shape of a cypher, which would represent
the letters W and M; but this was found to be impracticable.
It received the name of Williamsburg; and here a brick
capitol and a brick prison were afterwards erected. Nicholson
was in favor of giving a military training to all male indentured
servants; but now, as formerly, the Assembly opposed
the suggestion, on the ground that it would interfere with the
labors of that class in the field; and besides, they added, it
would put arms in the hands of some,—like the transported
Irish rebels, for instance,—who might persuade the whole body
to rise in revolt, especially at the crisis of a foreign invasion.
any part of the Colony; and he required that all disputes
among the officers should be referred to him for settlement.
He visited from time to time the different fortifications and
was watchful that they should not be allowed to fall out of
repair.
We have seen how generous he proved himself to be, during
his first administration, in supporting clergymen who had not
yet obtained pulpits, and in contributing to the endowment of
readerships in large parishes. He exhibited the same practical
interest in the numerous schools and schoolmasters. No
teacher was permitted by him to give lessons unless he could
show a license. He proposed at one time to purchase the old
court-house at Jamestown, and after restoring it at his own
expense, to convert it into a school for the use of the people
residing in that part of the Colony. He offered to increase
from his own income the salary of every church leader in
Lower Norfolk County who would add to his duties as such on
Sundays the functions of an instructor in ordinary learning
during the week. Other instances of his liberality in encouraging
schoolmasters have been recorded.
Equally enlightened was his conduct towards the dissenters.
In 1699, he informed Mackemie, the founder of Presbyterianism
in Virginia, that not a single right of his sect should
be abridged. He was impatient of the loose methods of pleading
which were employed in the courts, and he endeavored to
introduce in them the procedure which, at this time, prevailed
in the English tribunals of justice. When a new court-house
became necessary for York County, he subscribed an amount
equal to one hundred and twenty-five dollars in our modern
currency for its erection. There was no more persistent advocate
of the establishment of an admiralty court in Virginia
than he,—a court now imperatively called for by the expansion
in the colonial trade.
Nicholson never slackened in his determination to suppress
the pirates who endangered the coast. In 1699, the Shoreham
once the patrol of the adjacent waters. In April of the succeeding
year, an outlaw vessel named ironically La Paix,
which had crept into the Chesapeake after nightfall, dropped
anchor in Lynnhaven Bay. She carried twenty guns on her
deck and thirty-two barrels of powder in her hold. The captain
of the Shoreham, learning of her presence, set sail for
Lynnhaven; but before he could reach it, darkness came on
and he stopped his ship until the ensuing morning. In the
meanwhile, he had taken Nicholson on board. At dawn, he
found himself in the presence of the enemy, who had not
attempted to retreat out to sea. The battle that now began
continued until three in the afternoon, and during all that time
the two ships lay in pistol shot of each other. In vain the
pirate commander manoeuvred to get to windward. His vessel
staggered under broadside after broadside until her masts,
yards, sails, and rigging, were shot away, several of her guns
were knocked off their carriages, and her hull rent and splintered.
So hot, indeed, was the bombardment that her crew
were forced to take refuge in the hold; and the ship, being now
without a pilot, drifted into shallow water. Its ensign was
then run down, and on the Shoreham ceasing to fire, a messenger
was sent on board by the pirates, with the announcement
that they intended to blow up their vessel should they obtain
no assurance of quarter; but, finally, they gave themselves up
on the receipt of a promise from Nicholson that their case
would be referred to the King. One hundred and ten men
surrendered. Ten of these afterwards died in Virginia; three
were detained for trial, convicted, and hung; while the remainder
were transported in shackles to England. Only one person
on board of the Shoreham perished in the fight. This was
Peter Heyman, the collector of customs for the Lower James
River district.
The first organized band of Huguenots to find homes in
Virginia arrived in 1700. They had emigrated from England
under the patronage of King William, the great champion of
de la Luce and their pastor, Richbourg. The second band came
out under the guidance of their pastor, De Joux, who was the
real founder of the permanent settlement on the upper James.
A third and fourth band followed. This was under the guidance
of Louis Latané. There were about one thousand persons
in the four companies, and their removal had been made
possible by the pecuniary generosity of the King and the
Protestant Relief Association.
A large area of land above the Falls, which had been occupied
by the Monacan Indians, was assigned to about five hundred
of these immigrants divided into families; a separate
parish was laid off for their convenience; and for a definite
period, they were exempted from taxation. Each householder
received a tract of one hundred and thirty-three acres. All for
a time resided together in a village, which contained, in addition
to the dwelling houses, a church, a parsonage, and a school
building. As the danger of Indian attack lessened, the people
dispersed to their several farms. From the start, they were
employed in breeding cattle, making wine, planting maize,
and manufacturing cloth. Gradually, the little estates
increased in number, the herds and flocks grew in size, and
slaves were acquired; but as late as 1728 many of the people
continued to speak only the French language. Some of the
most distinguished families in the history of Virginia were
sprung from this religious, gallant, and most intelligent stock
of people.
| CHAPTER XXXIII History of Virginia | |