Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 1.djvu/107

 COLONIAL COUNCILLORS OF STATE

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Kendall, George, one of the original coun- cil. The record which has come down to us in regard to this man is not at all flattering, but it mu>t be remembered that he stands con- victed on the evidence of bitter enemies. In tlie days in which he lived there was no such tlnng as moderation of expression, lie was a cousin of the Earl of Southampton, and the feet that he was appointed in England a mem- ber of the council in \"irginia shows that he mus-t have been well known in London as a man of experience and courage. Doubtless in Virginia under the terrible stress of circum- stances during the first summer there was much to criticise, and the evidence, at least, shows that he was not a man afraid to speak out his mind. George Percy and W'inglield denounced him as a stirrer up of dissensions, and Capt. Smith also speaks of his being driven from the council, which he says was for "divers reasons" and occurred about June 22, 1607. He was afterwards released, though without the privilege of carrying arms, but was again arrested on the statement of one James Read, a smith, who had been con- demned to death, and who accused Kendall of conspiring to cause a mutiny. Read was forth- with pardoned and Kendall condemned to be shot. The president at the time was John RatclifTe, and Kendall, it is said, sought to prevent the execution by claiming that Sickle- more, and not Ratclifife, was his true name, and that consequently he had no right to pro- nounce judgment. The practical gentlemen of the time refused, however, to delay justice on any such quibble, and, without attempting any controversy on the subject, merely caused John Martin, another councillor, to perform the president's ofifice, which he promptly did, and Kendall quickly paid the penalty of his sins.

Martin, John, one of the councillors, was the son of Sir Richard Martin who "thrice filled the ofifice of lord mayor, and was Master of the Mint in the reigns of Elizabeth and James I." The profession of the law had been chosen for him, but when he was about twenty- 'ine )ears old he went to sea in obedience to a lunging for the then most romantic life of the mariner. Me commanded the "Uenjamin" in Sir Francis Drake's fleet in that com- mander's marauding expedition among the West Indies in 1585. On Drake's homeward voyage Martin touched at Virginia, whither the fleet had repaired in aid of Raleigh's colo- nists on Roanoke Island.

Martin was bitterly opposed to Pres. Wing- field, and after the death of Gosnold, the re- turn to England of Capt. Newport and the deposing of Kendall from the council, he was one of the three remaining councillors who forced Wingfield from the presidency. Mar- tin's health was poor, and besides his other afflictions he was badly smitten w'ith the "gold fever." which gave his enemies afterwards a cliance to ridicule him, amongst whom was Capt. John Smith, who gave him the name of "refining Captain Martin." and helped to make him unpopular. He returned to England in June. 1608, but the following year he came again to Virginia, where he was very coldly welcomed but admitted to the council. Upon Capt. Smith's absence from Jamestown in the summer of 1609, he appointed Martin in his place, but for this office, according to Smith, the latter gentleman had no relish and he re- signed after three hours. But that Martin was no weakling is proved by the fact that he was the only person who protested against the abandonment of Jamestown in 1610, and un- like Smith he stuck to Virginia to the end. He made a second trip to England in 1616,