COLONEL SAMUEL MATTHEWS.
Samuel Matthews, who is termed "an ancient planter," was a member
of the Council as early as 1629. In March, 1630, he built the fort
at Point Comfort, James River. He served continuously in the Council,
or Assembly, and latterly as County-Lieutenant of Warwick County,
deriving thence his title of Lieutenant-Colonel. In 1656 he was sent
as one of the agents of the colony to England, and on March 13, 1658,
was elected by the Assembly Governor to succeed Edward Digges. He
was an honest, energetic and capable servant of the colony, and his
death, which occurred in January, 1660, was universally lamented.
The colony was now without a Governor until the 23d of March, when
Sir William Berkeley was elected by the Assembly. There are highly
esteemed descendants of Governor Matthews in Virginia, one of them
being James M. Matthews, Esq., of Richmond, late the able Reporter
of the Court of Appeals of the State.
