The three succeeding papers are printed from the De Jarnette collection. The first is a census in gross without any details of sex, age or social condition. In these respects it lacks the interest which one feels in the list made out in 1623.
In February, 1623, there were living in the Colony 1277 persons, and including 371 who had died during the preceding year,i.e.since April, 1622; it is evident that the greatest number of inhabitants during the year ending February 16, 1623—not including those murdered in the massacre—amounted to 1648; and in 1634, eleven years afterwards, they amounted to 5,119, being an increase of 3,471, or an average of about 315 per annum, by birth and immigration. Accustomed as we are to the rapid growth of new countries this seems but a small increase, but when it is remembered that they made the voyage in sailing vessels only, and that it then not unfrequently lasted three or four months, we have little cause for wonder.
The next paper is a copy of a letter from His Majesty Charles II., to the Governor, Sir Wm. Berkeley, returning his thanks for a present of silk grown in Virginia. The first settlers were very anxious for success in this department of industry, and the House of Burgesses in 1657-'8 passed a law offering a premium of 5,000 pounds of tobacco to any one who made "100 pounds of wound silke in any one year," and in the next session, 1658-'9, the premium was made 10,000 pounds of tobacco for 50 pounds of "wound silke." We have frequently heard repeated a tradition to the effect that Charles II. wore a robe made of Virginia silk at his coronation. The circumstance of which this document is evidence, is probably the nearest approach to any thing of the sort that ever occurred, and hereafter this with the foolish and groundless story of one of the Lees going to see him when an exile at Breda, to offer him a crown and a refuge in Virginia, must be consigned to that oblivion which is likely, soon, we hope, to receive many of the mythical legends which have heretofore passed current for the history of Virginia.
The third is a list of the parishes and their ministers in 1680, the number of the latter showing that the people were poorly provided for in this respect, and that some of the parishes had no ministers. This deficiency was, however, in a measure provided for by the appointment of "readers" under the operation of acts passed February 1632-'3, by which if a minister's curé "is so large that he cannot be present on the Saboth and other holy days.It is thought fitThat they appoint deacons for the readinge of common prayer in their absence;" and further, in March, 1661-'2, it was enacted "That every parish not haveing a minister to officiate every Sunday doe make choice of a grave and sober person to read divine service at the Parish church."—Hen. Vol. I., p. 208; Vol. II., p. 46, 54.
A Listof the number of men, women and children Inhabitinge in the severall Counties wthin the Collony of Virginia. Anno Dne, 1634.
A Listof the number of men, women and children Inhabitinge in the severall Counties wthin the Collony of Virginia. Anno Dne, 1634.
After this list was brought in there arrived a ship of Holand with 145 from the Bermudas.
And since that 60 more in an English shipp wchlikewise came from the Bermudas.
I certify that the foregoing is a true andauthentic copy taken from the volumeabove named.
JOHN McDONAGH,Record Agent,July 14th, 1871.
[Partly damaged by damp.]
Trusty & welbeloved, Wee Greet you well. Wee have received wthmuch content yedutifull respects of that Our Colony in yepresent lately made us by you & yeCouncell there of yefirst product of yenew Manufacture of Silke, wch, as a mark of Our Princely acceptation of yordutyes & of yrparticular encouragement, Wee resolve to give to yorindustry in yeprosecution and improvemtof that or any other usefull Manufacture, Wee have comanded to be wrought up for yeuse of Our owne person, and herein Wee have thought good to * * * * * ledge from Our owne Royall * * * * * you of Our more especiall care & protection in all occasions that may concern that our ancient Colony and Plantation, whose laudable industry, raysed in good part & improved by yesobriety of yegovernmt, we esteeme much, & are desirous by this & any other seasonable expression of Our favor, as farre as in us lies, to encourage. And soe Wee bid you Farewell. Given at Our Court at Whitehall, the—day of November, in ye20thyeare of our Reigne, 1668.
By his Matie'sComand.His Matyto SrWm. Berkeley & Colony.
[Endorsed.]
To our Trusty and Welbeloved Sir William Berkeley, Knt, Our Governour of our Colony of Virginia, to be communicated to yeCouncill of that Our Colony.
I certify that the foregoing is a true andauthentic copy taken from the volumeabove named.
JOHN McDONAGH,Record Agent,July 1st, 1871.
I certify that the foregoing is a true andauthentic copy taken from the volumeabove named.
JOHN McDONAGH,Record Agent,July 1st, 1871.
FOOTNOTES[JJ]The 1/2 occurs in such cases as when one portion of the parish is in one county and the other portion in another. Thus Bristol parish was partly in Henrico and partly in Charles City counties.
[JJ]The 1/2 occurs in such cases as when one portion of the parish is in one county and the other portion in another. Thus Bristol parish was partly in Henrico and partly in Charles City counties.
[JJ]The 1/2 occurs in such cases as when one portion of the parish is in one county and the other portion in another. Thus Bristol parish was partly in Henrico and partly in Charles City counties.
CONTENTS
The following additions to the text and notes are suggested as explanatory, without being considered superfluous.
Page 16.—"The sixte petition, to change the sauage name of Kicowtan," was granted. In 1621, Treasurer Sandys in his report to the Company informed them that the name had been changed to Elizabeth Cittie.—Neill's history, page 178.
Page 25.—The word "howes" inserted in connection with various kinds of dogs, is our modern word hoe; Smith has it hows on page 86, and howes on page 162.
Page 29.—Capt. Henry Spelman, was the third son of the distinguished antiquary, Sir Henry Spelman, of Conghan, Norfolk, England. He was about twenty-one years of age when he came to Virginia, in 1609, for which he accounts as follows: "Beinge in displeasuer of my frendes, and desirous to see other countryes. After three months' sayle we cum with prosperus winds in sight of Virginia." Afterwards he says, "I was carried by Capt. Smith, our President, to ye Fales, to ye litell Powhatan, wher, vnknowne to me he sould me to him for a towne called Powhatan."—Spilman's Relation, pp. 15, 16. Dr. Simons, in Smith's General Historie, says: "Captain West and Captain Sickelmore sought abroad to trade; Sickelmore, upon the confidence of Powhatan, with about thirty other as careless as himselfe, were all slaine, onely Jeffrey Shortridge escaped, and Pokahontas, the King's daughter, saued a boy called Henry Spilman, that liued many yeeres after, by her meanes, among the Patawmokes;" this occurred in 1609.—Smith, p. 105. He remained with the Indians but little more than one year, for in 1610 Capt. Argall being sent to the "riuer Patawmoke to trade for corne," where finding him, used Spelman's influence to secure the loading of his vessel with corn, and Spelman returned with him to Jamestown.—Smith, p. 108. Spelman adds, "and brought into England," p. 221. We then lose sight of him until he is arraigned before the Assembly at Jamestown in 1619 (antep. 29) He makes his final appearance in 1623, when we are told, he was sent with a bark and twenty-six men to "trucke in the River Patawmek," where at some place, the name of which was to his companions unknown, he landed with twenty-one of his companions, when the savages made hostile demonstrations "and presently after they" (the five left in the bark) "heard a great brute amongst the Saluages ashore, and saw a man's head thrown downe the banke, whereupon they weighed Anchor and returned home, but how he was surprised or slaine is vncertaine."—Smith p. 161. Spelman wrote a short account of his observations while among the Indians, and it laid in obscurity until the sale of Dawson Turner's library, in 1859, when it was bought by Mr. Joseph Lilly and, by accident, again lost; and at the sale of Mr. Lilly's library, in 1871, it was again discovered and purchased for James F. Hunniwell, Esq., who has had one hundred copies printed for private circulation.
Spelman was not the only Englishman with the savages. In the same year that Spelman was sold for a town, or saved by Pocahontas—whichever version being correct—Admiral Newport gave Powhatan a boy, named Thomas Salvage, in exchange for "Namontack, his trustie seruant." Spelman says Savage was murdered by the Indians, but there is a tradition that he lived nearly all his life with them; became possessor of a tract of land on the eastern shore by gift and that it remained in his family until within the last ten years, when it was sold by some of his descendants then living in Philadelphia. The authority for this statement is obtained in correspondence with Hon. Hugh B. Grigsby, LL. D., President of the Virginia Historical Society.
Page 39.—To note to Jordan's Journey it may be added that a reference to this place is doubtless made when Smith says: "After the massacre many of the inhabitants fortified themselves against other attacks, and Master Samuel Iorden gathered but a few about him at Begger's Bush" (the title of one of Fletcher's comedies) "where he fortified."—Smith, p. 150; Campbell, p. 164.
Page 47.—The following may be added to the note on Glass House: "For glass they," the Indians, "knowe not, though the country wants not sal-sodiack enough to make glasse, and of which we have made some store in a goodly house sett up for the same purpose, a little without the island where Jamestown stands."—Strachey's Virginia Brittania (1612), p. 71. "To take care of Capt. Wm. Norton and certaine Italians sent to sitt a glass house."—Instructions to Sir Francis Wyatt (1621), Hening I., p. 116.
Page 47.—To note on Warwick-Squrake add: "In the autumn of 1607, Capt. Smith, with "six or seaven in company," went to Kicoughtan to get food from the Indians by trade. On his return he discovered the town and county of Warraskoyack."—Smith, page 45.
Richmond, Va.,July 15, 1874.