SIR FRANCIS WYATT.
The father of Sir Francis was George Wyatt, and his mother was a
daughter of Sir Thomas Finch. His sister Eleanora married Sir John
Finch; and his wife was a daughter of Samuel Sandys. Sir Francis
arrived in Virginia in October, 1621, with an appointment to relieve
Governor Yeardley (whose term expired November 18th) at the request
of the latter. Sir Francis was accompanied by his brother, Rev. Hunt
Wyatt, Dr. John Pott, physician (afterward Acting Governor of the
Colony), William Claiborne (subsequently prominent, and designated in
history as "the rebel") as surveyor, and George Sandys, treasurer, who
during his stay translated the Metamorphoses of Ovid and the First Book
of Virgil's Æneid. This first Anglo-American poetical production was
published in London in 1626. Sir Francis brought with him a new constitution
for the Colony, granted July 24th, by which all former immunities
and franchises were confirmed. Trial by jury was first secured,
and an annual assembly provided. During the administration of Wyatt,
which was judicious, occurred the Indian massacre of March 22, 1622,
in which three hundred and forty-seven of the colonists fell victims; and
on the 16th of June, 1624, the charter of the Virginia Company was
annulled. The death of his father, Sir George Wyatt, in 1626, calling
Sir Francis to Ireland to attend to his private affairs, he was succeeded
in the government of Virginia by Sir George Yeardley. Sir Francis
was re-appointed Governor in November, 1639, but was relieved by Sir
William Berkeley in February, 1642. He died at Bexley, Kent, England
in 1644.
