Essay on Sources
Any political history of Virginia in the colonial period must be based chiefly on the documents in the British Public Record Office. During many months of work in this office the author made more than eight hundred pages of notes and transcripts which he has used freely in the writing of this volume. The notations CO1-3, CO5-1318, etc., in the footnotes all refer to the Public Record Office.
It is especially fortunate that these documents have been preserved, since of the copies left in Virginia, when there were copies, most have been destroyed. Among the scores of manuscript volumes on Virginia in the Record Office, thirty-two are devoted to the correspondence of the Board of Trade, seventeen to the correspondence of the Secretary of State, twenty-two to Entry Books, letters, commissions, warrants, etc., for the period from 1680 to the American Revolution alone.
In this vast collection are found the instructions to governors; memorials concerning the clergy, the revenue, the College of William and Mary; addresses of the Assembly to the Throne; reports of special agents of the Crown; accusations against governors; nominations to office; the journals of the Council and of the House of Burgesses.
During the second half of the nineteenth century William Noel Sainsbury, Assistant Keeper of the Records, made no less than twenty volumes of abstracts of these documents, which have been deposited in the Virginia State Library. They cover the long period from the founding of the colony to 1730. The McDonald Papers, also transcribed from the documents in the Public Record Office, and also deposited in the Virginia State Library, parallel the Sainsbury abstracts, but they are fuller and give some papers overlooked by Sainsbury. The author spent the summer of 1908 in Richmond to study these papers, but they merely whetted his desire to see the original collection. So June, 1910, found him in the chilly old building off Chancery Lane, London, immersed in the musty but fascinating mass of documents.
Virginia historians today no longer have to make the journey across the Atlantic, for the United States Government has had transcriptions made of the papers relating to our colonial history for the Library of Congress. Moreover, the journals of the House of Burgesses and the journals of the Council have been published. Many other documents in the Public Record Office have been published in part or in full in the Calendar of State Papers, Colonial Series, America and West Indies, and in historical magazines.
The Coventry papers relating to Virginia, Barbados, and other colonies, at Longleat, the magnificent residence of the Marquess of Bath, which have been microfilmed by the American Council of Learned Societies, throw a flood of light on Virginia history, especially upon Bacon’s Rebellion. They contain letters from Bacon to Berkeley, from Berkeley to Bacon, and from Philip Ludwell to Lady Berkeley, reports from the Virginia agents who were seeking a charter for the colony, Berkeley’s account of the evacuation of Jamestown, and many other valuable documents. They give new and overwhelming evidence that Bacon and his followers rose in arms, not only to protect the people from the Indians, but to right their wrongs under Berkeley’s government.
The American Council of Learned Societies was also responsible for the microfilming of the Sackville manuscripts belonging to the Earl of Dorset. They contain letters to the British Government from the Virginia House of Burgesses and from the Council in 1631, and throw a gleam of light on an obscure period.
The correspondence of Lord Dunmore and Lord Dartmouth, in the British Public Record Office, is vital to any account of the early years of the Revolution in Virginia. In his letters Dunmore reports on the committees of correspondence, the boycott, the plight of the Tories, his conflict with the Assembly, the arming of the patriots, his flight from Williamsburg, his seizure of Norfolk, etc. This correspondence is available to scholars in microfilm in the Library of Congress.
W. W. Hening (ed.), The Statutes at Large (1809-1823), in thirteen volumes, are indispensable to the historian. In addition to the Virginia laws it publishes a few extremely important documents.
The county records throw light on local government and the use of the patronage by the governors to control the Assembly. It is unfortunate that many documents in the county courthouses were destroyed in the Revolution and the War between the States. Yet the records of Surry, York, Essex, Rappahannock, Accomac, Elizabeth City, and other counties have been preserved.
Peter Force (ed.), Tracts and Other Papers (1836), has many valuable documents relating to early Virginia history. The accounts of Bacon’s Rebellion are of especial interest. Edward Arber (ed.), The Works of Captain John Smith (1910), is a main source for the founding and early history of Jamestown. But Smith’s tendency to glorify himself and the probability that he colored his account to further the designs of King James I and the court party have caused many historians to distrust much that he has written.
Alexander Brown, Genesis of the United States (1890), gives many documents on early Virginia history which had long been inaccessible to scholars. Other publications of documents or early histories are Susan M. Kingsbury (ed.), The Records of the Virginia Company of London (1906-1935); J. C. Hotten (ed.), Original Lists of Emigrants to America, 1606-1700 (1874); Lower Norfolk County Antiquary; Lyon G. Tyler (ed.), Narratives of Early Virginia (1907); Charles M. Andrews (ed.), Narratives of Insurrections (1915); Clayton C. Hall (ed.), Narratives of Early Maryland (1910); and Edmund Goldsmid (ed.), Hakluyt’s, The Principal Navigations (1885-1890).
R. A. Brock (ed.), The Official Records of Robert Dinwiddie (1883-1884); while of great value, is incomplete, since many letters in the British Public Record Office have been omitted. R. A. Brock (ed.), The Original Letters of Alexander Spotswood (1882-1885), from the manuscript collection in possession of the Virginia Historical Society, is also far from complete.
Among the historical magazines which have published documents relating to Virginia the most important are The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, William and Mary College Quarterly, Tyler’s Quarterly Historical and Genealogical Magazine, and the Massachusetts Historical Society, Proceedings.
Three narratives, Henry Hartwell, James Blair, and Edward Chilton, The Present State of Virginia and the College; Robert Beverley, The History and Present State of Virginia; and Hugh Jones, The Present State of Virginia, have all the value of primary sources. The Hartwell, Blair, and Chilton history was written in 1697 and first published by John Wyat at the Rose, in St. Paul’s churchyard, London, in 1727. It was republished in 1940, with an able introduction by Hunter D. Farish. Beverley’s volume appeared in 1705, and a new edition was published in 1947. Hugh Jones’ history came out in 1724, was reprinted in 1865 in a limited edition, and republished in 1956. The last edition, edited by Richard L. Morton, has a valuable introduction, and more than a hundred pages of illuminating notes.
There are a number of histories of Virginia. William Stith, The History of the First Discovery and Settlement of Virginia (1747), is little more than a rehash of Captain John Smith’s story. John Burk, The History of Virginia (1822), though more critical, is out of date since the author did not have access to a mass of documents now available to the historian. The same criticism applies to Charles Campbell, History of the Colony and Ancient Dominion of Virginia (1860). Henry Howe, Historical Collections of Virginia (1845), brings together many facts, traditions, and biographical sketches. It also gives brief descriptions of contemporaneous life in the various counties. John Fiske’s Old Virginia and her Neighbors (1900), is interesting, but untrustworthy. Edward D. Neill, Early Settlement of Virginia and Virginiola (1878), The English Colonization of America during the Seventeenth Century (1871), History of the Virginia Company of London (1869), Virginia Vetusta (1885), and Virginia Carolorum (1886), are based on primary sources and are still valuable. John Esten Cooke, Virginia: A History of the People (1884), is interesting but full of mistakes.
Other works on early Virginia history are Alexander Brown, The First Republic in America (1898), T. J. Wertenbaker, Virginia under the Stuarts (1914); Mary Newton Stanard, The Story of Virginia’s First Century (1928); Matthew Page Andrews, The Soul of a Nation (1943), and Virginia, the Old Dominion (1937); William Foote, Sketches of Virginia (1850); Robert R. Howison, A History of Virginia (1848); Conway W. Sams, The Conquest of Virginia (1924); and Wesley Frank Craven, Dissolution of the Virginia Company (1932).
In 1957 the Virginia 350th Anniversary Celebration Corporation published a series of booklets on seventeenth-century Virginia history under the able editorship of Dr. Earl G. Swem. Among them are E. G. Swem and John M. Jennings, A Selected Bibliography of Virginia, 1607-1699; William W. Abbot, A Virginia Chronology, 1585-1783; Samuel M. Bemiss (ed.), The Three Charters of the Virginia Company of London; Wesley Frank Craven, The Virginia Company of London; Charles E. Hatch, Jr., The First Seventeen Years at Jamestown, 1607-1634; Thomas J. Wertenbaker, Bacon’s Rebellion and The Government of Virginia in the Seventeenth Century; Richard L. Morton, Struggle against Tyranny and the Beginning of a New Era; Martha W. Hiden, How Justice Grew. Dr. Wilcomb E. Washburn, Virginia under Charles I and Cromwell, takes issue with most Virginia historians by coming to the defense of Governor John Harvey who was kicked out of Virginia because of his despotic rule, abuse of the courts, and disregard of law.
Among the special studies relating to the political history of Virginia are Philip A. Bruce, The Institutional History of Virginia (1910); Julian A. C. Chandler, The History of Suffrage in Virginia (1901); Oliver P. Chitwood, Justice in Colonial Virginia (1905); Percy S. Flippin, Financial Administration of the Colony of Virginia (1915); Armistead C. Gordon, The Laws of Bacon’s Assembly (1914); Albert O. Porter, County Government in Virginia (1947); Mary N. Stanard, The Story of Bacon’s Rebellion (1907); R. T. Barton, Colonial Decisions (1909); Edward Ingle, Virginia Local Institutions (1885); Elmer I. Miller, The Legislature of the Province of Virginia (1907); Lyon G. Tyler, The Cradle of the Republic (1906); Moncure D. Conway, Omitted Chapters (1888); H. J. Eckenrode, The Revolution in Virginia (1916); Hugh Blair Grigsby, The Virginia Convention of 1776 (1855); Charles R. Lingley, The Transition in Virginia from Colony to Commonwealth (1910); Charles S. Sydnor, Gentlemen Freeholders, Political Practices in Washington’s Virginia (1952); Curtis P. Nettels, George Washington and American Independence (1951).
Biographies of prominent Virginians seem to come in pairs. There are two biographies of William Claiborne, Norton C. Hale, Virginia Venturer (1951), and John H. Claiborne, William Claiborne of Virginia (1917); two biographies devoted to the Lee family, Burton J. Hendrick, The Lees of Virginia (1935), and Cazenove G. Lee, Jr., Lee Chronicle (1956); two short studies of James Blair, Daniel E. Motley, Life of Commissary James Blair (1901), and Edgar L. Pennington, Commissary Blair (1936); two biographies of Edmund Pendleton, Robert L. Hilldrup, The Life and Times of Edmund Pendleton (1939), and David J. Mays, Edmund Pendleton (1952); there are several biographies of Captain John Smith.
Philip A. Bruce, The Virginia Plutarch (1929), gives brief biographies of Sir William Berkeley, Nathaniel Bacon, Alexander Spotswood, William Byrd II, Patrick Henry, and others. Among other biographies are Richmond C. Beatty, William Byrd of Westover (1932); Thomas J. Wertenbaker, Torchbearer of the Revolution, The Story of Bacon’s Rebellion and Its Leader (1940); Leonidas Dodson, Alexander Spotswood (1932); Louis K. Koontz, Robert Dinwiddie (1941); Louis Morton, Robert Carter of Nomini Hall (1941); Kate Mason Rowland, Life and Correspondence of George Mason (1892); William Wirt Henry, Patrick Henry (1891); A. T. S. Goodrick, Edward Randolph (1898-1909); Thomas Jefferson, Autobiography.
There are numerous Virginia local histories, among them W. Asbury Christian, Richmond, Her Past and Present (1912); (1931); Ralph T. Whitelaw, Virginia’s Eastern Shore (1951); John B. Bodie, Seventeenth Century Isle of Wight County, Virginia (1938); Marshall Wingfield, A History of Caroline County, Virginia (1924); and Herbert C. Bradshaw, History of Prince Edward County, Virginia (1955).
The Virginia Gazette is a major source for the history of Virginia in the eighteenth century. The scattered numbers still in existence have been photostated and copies deposited in some of the larger libraries. Their usefulness has been greatly enhanced by the preparation of an Index by Lester J. Cappon and Stella F. Duff.
Virginia historians will always be grateful to Dr. Earl G. Swem for his Virginia Historical Index, covering The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, volumes 1-38; William and Mary College Quarterly, first series, volumes 1-27; second series, volumes 1-10; Hening’s Statutes at Large, and other publications.