LORD CULPEPER.
Thomas, Lord Culpeper, Baron of Thorsway, who had been one of
the Commissioners for Plantations, was on July 8, 1675, appointed by
Charles II., Governor of Virginia for life. He is described as "an
able, but artful and covetous man." Regarding his office doubtless a
sinecure, he lingered in England until a reproof from the King impelled
his departure. He came over to Virginia in 1680, and was sworn into
office May 10th. He brought with him several bills ready prepared for
the consideration of the Assembly, and procured the passage by that
body of several popular acts, including one of "free and general pardon,
indemnitie, and oblivion" for all participants in the recent movement
known as "Bacon's Rebellion."
He had the address, withal, to have the import of two shillings per
hogshead made perpetual, and instead of being accounted for to the
Assembly, as formerly, to be disposed of as his Majesty might deem fit.
He also, notwithstanding the impoverished condition of the Colony,
contrived the enlargement of his salary from one thousand pounds to
upwards of two thousand, besides perquisites amounting to eight hundred
more. He went over to England in August, 1680, leaving Sir Henry
Chicheley as Deputy Governor of the Colony. An act of the Assembly
requiring tobacco for shipment to be laden at established towns, having
created much popular commotion and riotous destruction of tobacco
plant beds, to quell the disaffection Culpeper was commanded to return
to Virginia. He arrived in November, 1682, and as a result of his
measures taken, several of the ring-leaders in the riots were hanged.
One of them, Major Robert Beverley, clerk of the House of Burgesses,
and the father of the Virginia historian of the same name, endured a
lengthy and rigorous imprisonment, and was disfranchised. Culpeper
returned to England September 17, 1683, leaving his kinsman, Nicholas
Spencer, as the executive of the Colony.
Thus, again, quitting his government in violation of his orders, he
was arrested immediately upon his arrival in England, and being found
guilty, also, of receiving presents from the Assembly, a jury of Middlesex
found that he had forfeited his commission. He died in 1719. He was
in 1669 a co-grantee with Henry, Earl of Arlington, of the extensive
territory between the Rappahannock and Potomac Rivers, Virginia,
known as the "Northern Neck." By purchase, he became sole proprietor;
his daughter, Catherine, sole heiress, married Thomas, fifth Lord Fairfax
and Baron Cameron, and the proprietary descended to their son Thomas,
sixth Lord Fairfax, who established his seat, in Virginia, at "Greenway
Court," Frederick County, where he lived in much state, dispensing
a liberal hospitality. He was the friend and patron of Washington,
whom, at the age of sixteen, in 1748, he employed to survey his lands
west of the Blue Ridge. Lord Fairfax died December 12, 1787, aged
90 years; his barony and immense domain of 5,282,000 acres descending
to his only brother Robert, seventh Lord Fairfax, but as the latter
was in the possession of Lord Thomas during the Revolution, it was
confiscated. The portrait of Lord Culpeper in this work is from a
photograph of a copy in the collections of the Virginia Historical Society,
at Richmond, Va., of the original at Leeds Castle, England, painted by
Andr. Hennemorn in 1664.
