Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 1.djvu/173

 COLONIAL COUNCILLORS OF STATE

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aj;ain sworn as a member, lie tlied in or not long before 1703. Tbe Scarborough family was for many generations one of the leading fiimilies in X'irginia.

Fitt, Robert, son of William I'ili. merchant. (and I'ary Pitt, his wife.) of Bristol. England. who made his will May 13. 1622. which was ptoved Feb. 4. 1624, in liristol. Robert Pitt and his two brothers. Ilenry and Thomas, came to X'irginia about \(m). \\o\ivn was a prominent merchant, burgess for Isle of Wight in i<')49, i^>52. 1654 (in which year he is men- ticuied as lieutenant-colonel ) and U)^g, i(:Ax> (in which year he is menti(jncd as colonel). He was a member of the council in 1673. He married Martha Lear, sister of Col. John Lear, of the X'irginia council. His will, dated June 6. 1672, was })rovcd in Isle of Wight county. June 9. 1674.

Wormeley, Ralph, the ■second Raljjh to be councillor, was a son of Ral])h Wormeley, Escj.. burgess and councillor, and of Agatha Elton- head, who married (first) Luke Stubbins. of Northampton county, (second) Ralph Worme- ley, and (third ) Sir Henry Chicheley. He was born in 1650; matriculated. July 4, i6C)5. at Oriel College. Oxford: was a member of the house of burgesses in 1674: appointed mem- ber of the council in 1677; secretary of state in i(x;>3. and became in the same year president of the council. He lived in such state at his residence. "Rosegill." on the Rappahannock river, and had such influence in affairs, that he was called the greatest man in "X'irginia." Lie marrie-l ( first ) Catherine, widow of Colonel Peter Jenings and daughter of Sir Thomas Lunsford. by whom he had two daughters — Elizabeth, who married John Lomax. and Catherine, who married (]awin Corbin. He married (second) Elizabeth Armistead. daugh-

ter of Colonel John Armistead, of (jloucester county, and had several sons and daughters, one of whom was John Wormeley, who was grandfather of Ralph Wormeley. the third councillor of the name (q. v.). "Rosegill," his beautiful home on the Rappahannock, w'as the residence at different times of two of the gov- ernors of X'irginia — Sir Henry Chicheley, who married his mother, and Lord Howard, of l^ffinghani, who i)referred living here to resid- ing at Jamestown. Colonel Wormeley died Decembei- 5, 1703.

Parke, Daniel, Jr., was the only son of Councillor Daniel Parke I., and was born in 1669. He was i)robably e:!ucated in England, but was back in X'irginia soon after reaching manhood, and in \(k)2 was apj)ointed a mem- Ix-r of the council. He was a favorite of (lov. Andros, who gave him. besides the office of c('Uncillor. those of collector and na\al officer of lower James river, escheatcr for the dis- trict between York and James and colonel of militia. Much of the record which has come to us of Col. Parke certainly presents him in a most unfavorable light, but it must be re- membered that it is the product of pens bit- terly opposed to him in the politics of the period. Commissary Blair has left us a pic- ture of him anything but attractive, in which he is presented as a boaster and swaggerer who does not hesitate to take advantage over those who are defenceless, but who will not meet a formidable adversary face to face. Such was his behavior toward Gov. Nicholson, b}- Blair's account, and against his. the com- missary's wife, the former of whom he in- sulted but contrived to avoid the duel, and the latter he bullied in church. Notwithstanding aP this there can be no doubt that Parke was a man of courage and ability. He left X'ir- ginia in 1697, and in 1701 served a campaign