XXXIV.
COLONEL FRANCIS MORYSON, OR MORRISON.
XXXIV. Deputy or Lieutenant-Governor.
XXXIV. March 23, 1661, to December 23, 1662.
Colonel Moryson had arrived in the Colony in the autumn
of 1649. He was a loyalist and as such received a
warm welcome from Sir William Berkeley, who, it is said,
gave Moryson the command of the fort at Point Comfort.
He became a member of the Council, was Speaker of the
House of Burgesses in 1656, and was finally selected Deputy-Governor
during Sir William Berkeley's absence in England.
During Colonel Moryson's term of office, at a Grand Assembly
held at James City, March 23, 1661-62, the whole
body of the laws of the Colony was reviewed and a copy sent
to England to Sir William Berkeley, "to procure his Majesty's
royal confirmation." These Acts, numbering 142, began
with the following:
Act I.
"Bee itt enacted, for the advancement of Gods glory, and the more
decent celebration of his divine ordinances, that there be a church decently
built in each parish of this country, unles any parish as now setled by
reason of the fewnes or poverty of the inhabitants be incapable of susteyning
soe greate a charge, in which case it is enacted that such parishes
shall be joyned to the next greate parish, of the same county, and that a
chappell of ease be built, in such places, at the particular charge of that
place."
Thus it will be seen that all through the history of the
early settlement of this country a reverence for the Church
is constantly recognized, and though this "outward and visible
sign" may not always have evidenced "an inward and
spiritual grace," still it is edifying to observe that God was
acknowledged
first in all the temporal affairs of the first Virginians.
Bishop Meade relates, in connection with the Parish
of James City, that there exists in the Library of the Theological
Seminary of Virginia "a large silver chalice and
paten, with the inscription on each,
"Ex Dono Jacobi Morrison Armigeri A D 1661."
Also a silver alms-basin with the inscription, "For the use
of James City Parish Church." It is an interesting speculation
as to whether Governor Moryson had any connection
with these gifts.
Colonel Moryson, at the expiration of his term as Governor,
was sent to England as the agent of the Colony, with
an annual salary of ¢200. Whether he ever returned to Virginia
is not recorded, but he left substantial tokens with the
people he had served, of great fidelity to their welfare.
