Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 1.djvu/169

 COLONIAL COLWCILLORS OF STATE

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that he be sworn to the office of auditor- general of \'irginia. in place of Col. Xathaniel Bacon, the elder. There was a dispute be- tween him and one Robert Ayleway, who claimed to have been properly appointed to the place, but Col. Hyrcl is mentioned as holding the office as late as the year 1703. Col. IJyrd was one of the gentlemen appointed by the gtneral assembly to form the first board of trustees of the newly chartered William and Alary College, and he was one of the four councillors sent to England by Gov. Andros against the charges of Commissary iJlair. Upon his return from a trip to England he brought with him the copy n^ade for the Earl of Southampton of the minutes of the \'ir- ginia Company, which he placed in the famous W'estover Library. This library, commenced by him. was added to by his son and grandson, until it became the largest in America at the time. The records of the \'irginia Company furnished most of the material for William Smith's "History of X'irginia." They are now in the Congressional Library at Washington. In April. 1679. the general assembly passed an act granting to Capt. William Byrd a tract of land extending five miles along the James river on both sides and three miles wide and which included nearly all the ground now occupied by the cities of Richmond and Man- chester. The act was later vetoed by the King, but P)yrd was still granted a large area, nearly 42,000 acres in all. He carried on an exten- sive trade with the Indians and at one time petitioned the exclusive right to the Indian trade in Virginia. He was sent on a number of occasions to treat with the Indians and on one of these trips went as far north as Xcw York and Albany. ?Ie died at Westover. his residence on James river, Dec. 4, 1701.

Wormeley, Christopher, the second of that name to become councillor, was related to the

W'ornicleys of "Rosegill," Middlesex county, but the exact relationship is unknown. He is first mentioned in an order of court of Lancas- ter county, then including Middlesex, dated Nov. 9. ir/)6, which refers to Capt. Christo- pher Wc.rmeley and his wife, who was the widow of Col. Anthony Elliott. In the next year he was a justice of Lancaster, in 1674 a justice of Middlesex, the colonel of the county militia in 1680, and sheriff of the county in 1 6-8 1. It was in 1682 that he was appointed to the Cduncil, a member of which body he remained during the rest (~>f his life, lie held also the offices of collector and naval officer of the lower Potomac district, and deputy escheator. Cnl. Wormeley had taken the part of Gov. Berkeley in Bacon's rebellion, and was accordingly denounced in the proclama- tion (if the rebel leader and commended by the commissioners app<^)inted to suppress the same. He died in 1701.

Lear, John, probably came to X'irginia about 1656. as in that year he had a grant of 100 acres of land on the "Otiuiah River, in West- moreland County." He soon removed to Xansemcnd county, which he rej^resented in th.e house of burgesses from 1666 to 1676. During Bacon's rebellion, he was a staunch supporter of Gov. Berkeley, and remained with him until the rebellion was suppressed, lie was the first to meet the commissioners, sent to suppress the rebellion, and give them an account of the condition of affairs, and by tl^cm was rejjorted to have suffered heavily during the trouble. In 1676 a petition was sent the commissioners from some of the jjtople of Xansemond county, complaining of tlie number of offices held by Col. John Lear ar.d Mr. David Lear, probably his brother, the first of whom was county clerk, escheat mas- ter, notar}- j)ublic and surveyor, and the other "Sheriff superior." As relating to Col. Lear,