IV.
SIR THOMAS SMITH.
IV. First President of the London Company, and its
Treasurer.
IV. 1605-1607.
King James I., having recently made peace with Spain,
and the passion for the discovery of a northwest passage being
now in its full vigor, a ship was sent out with a view to this
purpose by the Earl of Southampton and Lord Arundel, under
the command of Capt. George Weymouth. He sailed from
England on the last of March, 1605, and remained a month
exploring the American coast. The discovery of which he
seems to have been proudest was that of the Penobscot River.
On his return to England he took with him five Indians, three
of whom he yielded to Sir Ferdinando Gorges, the Governor
of the town of Plymouth, whose attention was thus addressed
to the New World. The information Gorges gathered from
Weymouth filled him with the strongest desire to become a
proprietary of lands beyond the Atlantic. His influence, with
that of Sir John Popham, Lord Chief Justice of England, and
the combined enthusiasm of the assigns of Ralegh, were the
means employed by Providence to induce King James I. to
set his seal to the patent of April 10, 1606. He divided that
portion of North America which stretches from the 34th to the
45th degree of north latitude into two districts, nearly equal.
The southern, called the First Colony, he granted to the London
Company; the northern, called the Second Colony, he
granted to the Plymouth Company. He authorized Sir
Thomas Gates, Sir George Somers, Richard Hakluyt,
Edward Maria Wingfield, and their associates, chiefly resident
in London, to settle any part that they should choose
of the southern district, and vested in them a right of property
to the land extending along the coast fifty miles on each
side of the place of their first habitation, and reaching into
the interior country 100 miles. The northern district he
allotted as a place of settlement to several knights, gentlemen,
and merchants of Bristol, Plymouth, and other parts of
the West of England, with a similar grant of territory. The
following is an extract from the instructions given for the government
of the Colonies:
ARTICLES, INSTRUCTIONS AND ORDERS made, sett down and
established by us, the twentieth day of November, in the year of our
raigne of England, France, and Ireland the fourth and of Scotland
the fortieth, for the good Order and Government of the two several
Colonies and Plantations to be made by our loving subjects, in the
Country commonly called Virginia and America, between thirty-four
and forty-five degrees from the æquinotical line.
Whereas Wee, by our letters pattents under our great seale of England,
bearing date att Westminster, the tenth day of Aprill, in the year of our
raigne of England, France and Ireland the fourth, and of Scotland the
39th, have given lycence to sundry our loving subjects named in the said
letters pattents and to their associates, to deduce and conduct two several
Colonies or plantations of sundry our loving people willing to abide and
inhabit in certain parts of Virginia and America, with divers preheminences,
priviledges, authorities and other things, as in and by the same
letters pattents more particularly it appeareth, Wee according to the effect
and true meaning of the same letters pattents, doe by these presents,
signed with our hand, signe manuel and sealed with our privy seale of
our realme of England, establish and ordaine, that our trusty and well
beloved Sir William Wade, Knight, our Lieutenant of our Tower of London,
Sir Thomas Smith, Knight, Sir Walter Cope, Knight, Sir George
Moor, Knight, Sir Francis Popeham, Knight, Sir Ferdinando Gorges,
Knight, Sir John Trevor, Knight, Sir Henry Montague, Knight, recorder
of the citty of London, Sir William Rumney, Knight, John Dodderidge,
Esq., Sollicitor General, Thomas Warr, Esqr., John Eldred of the citty of
London, merchant, Thomas James of the citty of Bristol, merchant, and
James Bagge of Plymouth, in the county of Devonshire, merchant, shall
be our councel for all matters which shall happen in Virginia or any the
territories of America, between thirty-four and fourty-five degrees from
the æquinoctial line northward, and the Islands to the several collonies
limitted and assigned, and that they shall be called the King's Councel of
Virginia, which councel or the most part of them shal have full power
and authority, att our pleasure, in our name, and under us, our heires and
successors, to give directions to the councels of the several collonies which
shal be within any part of the said country of Virginia and America,
within the degrees first above mentioned, with the Islands aforesaid, for
the good government of the people to be planted in those parts, and for
the good ordering and desposing of all causes happening within the same,
and the same to be done for the substance thereof, as neer to the common
lawes of England, and the equity thereof, as may be, and to passe under
our seale, appointed for that councel, which councel, and every and any
of them shall, from time to time be increased, altered or changed, and
others put in their places, att the nomination of us, our heires and successors,
and att our and their will and pleasure, and the same councel of
Virginia, or the more part of them, for the time being, shall nominate and
appoint the first several councellours of those several councells, which are
to be appointed for those two several colonies, which are to be made plantations
in Virginia and America, between the degrees before mentioned,
according to our said letters pattents in that behalfe made; and that each
of the same councels of the same several colonies shal, by the major part
of them, choose one of the same councel, not being the minister of God's
word, to be president of the same councel, and to continue in that office
by the space of one whole year unless he shall in the meantime dye or be
removed from the office; and we doe further hereby establish and ordaine,
that it shal be lawful for the major part of either of the said councells,
upon any just cause, either absence or otherwise, to remove the president
or any other of that councel, from being either president, or any of that
councel; and upon the deathes or removal of any of the presidents or
councel, it shall be lawful for the major part of that councel to elect
another in the place of the party soe dying or removed, so alwaies, as
they shal not be above thirteen of either of the said councellours, and wee
doe establish and ordaine, that the president shal not continue in his office
of presidentship above the space of one year; and wee doe specially
ordaine, charge, and require the said president and councells, and the
ministers of the said several colonies respectively, within their several
limits and precincts, that they, with all diligence, care, and respect, doe
provide, that the true word and service of God and Christian faith be
preached, planted, and used, not only within every of the said several
colonies, and plantations, but alsoe as much as they may amongst the
salvage people which doe or shall adjoine unto them, or border upon them,
according to the doctrines, rights, and religion now professed and established
within our realme of England.
Sir Thomas Smith, chief of the assignees of the patent
of Sir Walter Ralegh, was the first President of the Council
of the London Company of Virginia, and its Treasurer
until the close of 1618. His services in establishing a Colony
in Virginia, and thus securing a foothold for England in
America, cannot be overestimated, and a history of the factions
in the Virginia Company after this period of its earliest
inauguration, will show the storms and struggles through
which the infant Colony began its life. Sir Thomas Smith
was the third son of Thomas Smith, commonly called "Mr.
Customer Smith," and Alice, daughter and heiress of Sir
Andrew Judde, Lord Mayor of London (by whom he
acquired the manors of Ashford and Westure). Sir Thomas
Smith was born about 1558, was educated at Oxford, and at
an early age became a prominent man.
It is greatly to be regretted that the history of Sir Thomas
Smith's administration of affairs in Virginia rests almost
entirely upon the adverse testimony of his opponents. But
that his services were recognized by the crown, is to be seen
in the fact that in the second charter to "The Treasurer and
Company of Adventurers and Planters of the City of London
for the First Colony in Virginia," he was named as one of
"our Council for the said Company."
"And the said Thomas Smith we do ordain to be Treasurer
of the said Company, which Treasurer shall have authority
to give order for the warning of the Council and summoning
the Company to their courts and meetings."
That the distant colonists may have had their grievances
is true, as is related in "A Briefe Declaration of the Plantation
of Virginia Duringe the First Twelve Yeares, when Sir
Thomas Smith was Governor of the Companie, and downe
to the present tyme" (1621), but, the conclusion is inevitable
that Sir Thomas Smith had much to do with the permanent
establishment of the Virginia Colony. He was Treasurer and
Governor of the Company during the first twelve years, which
ended the 18th of November, 1618, and his administration
was confined to a presidency of the Council and Company in
England, while the affairs of the Colony were managed by one
of the Council resident there. He was never actually Governor
in Virginia.
It was on March 9, 1607, that King James I. issued the
following:
"An Ordinance and Constitution enlarging the number of
our Councel for the two several Colonies and Plantations in
Virginia and America, between thirty-four and forty-five degrees
of northerly latitude, and augmenting their authority,
for the better directing and ordering of such things as shall
concerne the said Colony."
[3]
Sir Thomas Smith died Sept. 4, 1625, at his house at
Tunbridge, and was buried under a most superb monument
in Hone Church, Kent.
The following inscription will give some idea of the scope
of his usefulness, and the honors which he won:
"To the glory of God, and to the pious memorie of the
honorable Sir Thomas Smith, Knt. (late Governor of the East
Indian, Muscovia, French, and Sommer Island Companies;
Treasurer for the Virginia Plantation; prime undertaker [in
the year 1612] for that noble designe, the discoverie of the
North-West passage; principall commissioner for the London
expedition against the pirates and for a voiage to the ryver
Senega, upon the coast of Africa; one of the chief commissioners
for the navie-roial, and sometime ambassador from
His Majestie of Great Britain to the emperour and great duke
of Russia and Muscovia, etc.), who, havinge judiciously, conscionably,
and with admirable facility, managed many difficult
and weighty affairs to the honor and profit of this nation,
rested from his labors the 4th day of Septm., 1625."
