LIX.
LIX. ROBERT DINWIDDIE.
Lieutenant-Governor.
LIX. November 20, 1751, to January, 1758.
Robert Dinwiddie was of Scotch descent and the name
appears in history as far back as 1296. The immediate
ancestors of Governor Dinwiddie had lived in Glasgow, and
his father, Robert Dinwiddie, was a merchant of that city.
His mother was Sarah, daughter of Matthew Cumming, who
was Bailie of Glasgow in 1691, 1696, and 1699. Governor
Dinwiddie was born at his father's seat, "Germiston," in
1693. In December, 1727, he was appointed collector of the
customs in the Island of Bermuda, which position he filled until
1738, when, in acknowledgment of his valuable services in exposing
a long practiced system of fraud in the collection of the
customs of the West India Islands, he was made "Surveyor
General of the Customs of the southern ports of the Continent
of America." This appointment gave rise to some complications
between Dinwiddie and Virginia. In August, 1743,
he was specially commissioned to examine into the duties of
the Collector of Customs of the Island of Barbadoes, and here
he exposed to his Government enormous defalcations. In July,
1751, he was appointed Lieutenant-Governor of Virginia,
which high position he filled honorably and wisely in a time
of great anxiety and critical importance. He it was who first
called young Washington to the public service of his country.
Hearing that the French had made treaties with all the Western
tribes of Indians, and were building forts on the Ohio
River, he determined to send a messenger to remonstrate
against these encroachments. For this difficult and perilous
enterprise George Washington offered himself to the Governor,
and it proved to be the flood in the tide of his career which
led "on to fortune." Undaunted by the wilds which had only
resounded to the war-whoop of the savage or the roar of the
scarcely less savage beast, unchecked by rushing mountain
currents or frozen streams, with nature in all her aspects sternly
opposing his onward way, he achieved his mission and
brought to his Governor a clear and intelligent report of the
situation on the Ohio. It was decisive of war. The services
of this young Virginian were highly appreciated. Being one
day in Williamsburg, he went into the gallery of the House
of Burgesses, where soon he heard the Speaker say, "Gentlemen,
it is proposed that the thanks of this House be given to
Major Washington, who now sits in the gallery, for the very
gallant manner in which he has executed the important trust
lately imposed in him by his Excellency, Governor Dinwiddie."
In a moment the House rose as one man, and turning
towards the blushing young officer, saluted him; he tried to
reply, but so completely overcome was this young hero, who
had not feared to brave any danger in pursuit of duty, that
he stood speechless with emotion. At last he found voice to
say, "Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker!" and then was silent.
The Speaker called out laughingly, "Major Washington,
Major Washington, sit down. Your modesty alone is equal
to your merit."
In reviewing the situation of America at this interesting
and trying period, Bancroft thus beautifully introduces upon
the pages of his history, the man destined to wear the triple
crown of "First in War, First in Peace, and First in the
hearts of his Countrymen":
"Thus, after long years of strife, of repose, and of strife renewed, England
and France solemnly agreed to be at peace. The treaties of Aix-la-Chapelle
had been negotiated by the ablest statesmen of Europe, in the
forms of monarchial diplomacy. They believed themselves the arbiters
of mankind, the pacificators of the world; reconstructing the colonial system
on a basis which should endure for ages, and confirming the peace of
Europe by the nice adjustment of material forces. At the very time of
the Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle, the woods of Virginia sheltered the youthful
George Washington, who had been born by the side of the Potomac,
beneath the roof of a Westmoreland planter, and whose lot almost from
infancy had been that of an orphan. No academy had welcomed him to
its shades, no college crowned him with its honors; to read, to write, to
cipher, these had been his degrees in knowledge. And now, at sixteen
years of age, in quest of an honest maintenance, encountering the severest
toil; cheered onward by being able to write to a school-boy friend, `Dear
Richard, a doubloon is my constant gain every day, and sometimes six
pistoles'; himself his own cook, `having no spit but a forked stick, no
plate but a large chip'; roaming over spurs of the Alleghanies, and along
the banks of the Shenandoah; alive to nature and sometimes `spending
the best of the day in admiring the trees and richness of the land'; among
skin-clad savages with their scalps and rattles, or uncouth emigrants `that
would never speak English'; rarely sleeping in a bed; holding a bearskin
a splendid couch; glad of a resting-place for the night upon a little hay,
straw, or fodder, and often camping in the forests, where the place nearest
the fire was a happy luxury,—this stripling surveyor in the woods, with
no companion but his unlettered associates, and no implements of science
but his compass and chain, contrasted strangely with the imperial magnificence
of the Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle. And yet God had selected,
not Kannitz nor Newcastle, not a monarch of the House of Hapsburg, nor
of Hanover, but the Virginia stripling, to give an impulse to human
affairs; and as far as events can depend on an individual, had placed the
rights and the destinies of countless millions in the keeping of the widow's
son."
The English Ministry having now determined on an
offensive policy by sea and land against France, in 1755 a
fleet was sent into the North American waters, and General
Braddock arrived in Virginia accompanied by two regiments
of the regular army, with the appointment of Commander-inChief.
Braddock was unhappily defeated, and it is narrated
that Washington, who was his volunteer aid-de-camp, though
in danger of pursuit by Indians, did, on the night after this
memorable defeat, in the absence of a chaplain, himself perform
the last funeral rites over the body of Braddock, a
soldier holding the candle or lighted torch while the solemn
words were read.
The situation of affairs had now become so alarming that
the Colonists began to organize local companies. The Assembly
voted ¢40,000 for the service, the Virginia Regiment
was enlarged to sixteen companies, and the command of the
same given to George Washington.
Governor Dinwiddie, after having met the many and
heavy responsibilities of his position, through failing health
requested to be relieved from his trust as Governor of Virginia.
He sailed for England in January, 1758, after receiving
voted testimonials of the regard of the Council and of
the municipal authorities of Williamsburg, the seat of Government
of the Colony. He died at Clifton, Bristol, whither
he had gone in quest of health, on July 27, 1770, and was
interred in the Parish church there.
