Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 1.djvu/72

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\'IRGIX]A BIOGRAPHY

Eventually, by purchase Lord Thomas Cul- peper possessed himself of both patents and all the privileges and benefits of each. Natu- rally these grants were very distasteful to the Virginians, and for a long time they paid no attention to the demands of the patentees and of Culpeper, and sent various agents to Eng- land to protest against them. In 1675 Cul- peper obtained from the king a commission to succeed Sir \\'illiam Berkeley, on his demise, as governor of Virginia, and in May, 1680, he came to Virginia, hoping doubtless to put some life into the privileges of his pro- prietorship. He brought instructions intendecf to put the government of Virginia on a more royal basis, but he succeeded in carrying out only a part of his policy. The clerk of the a.ssembly, who had hitherto been elected by that body, became now the appointee of the governor, a permanent revenue was established rendering the salaries of the governor and council independent of the people; and instead of annual meetings of the assembly, the cus- tom of calling it for special occasions and pro- roguing it from time to time, was begun. In August, not long after the adjournment of the assembly, Culpeper set out for England by way of New England, whereupon, Sir Henry Chicheley reassumed the government. Cul- peper was absent for more than two years from Virginia, during which time, on account of the low price of tobacco, the Plant Cutters rebellion occurred. Culpeper was ordered by the king to return to his charge, and he arrived in Virginia December 17, 1682, but found the rebellion already suppressed by Sir Henry Chicheley. To serve as an example, he, how- ever, executed two of the ring leaders, and continued under bond for his appearance Major Robert Beverley, clerk of the assembly, who had been arrested by Sir Henry Chiche-

ley as the chief instigator. Before leaving England he had received fresh instructions aimed at the rights and liberties of the assem- bly, but Culpeper declined to oppose himself to the popular will on most of the questions. The assembly, however, lost its power as the court of appeals, and the council, by order of the crown, was made the court of last resort, except in cases of £300 value, when an appeal might be made to the privy council in Eng- land. Culpeper soon gave the king and his advisers an opportunity of punishing him and replacing him with a more efi-icient instrument of tyranny. Directly in face of an order of the council forbidding him to receive any pres- ents, he accepted large sums of money from the assembly, and contrary to another express order forbidding any colonial governor from absenting himself from his government with- out special leave, he returned a second time to England after a stay in the colony of only about five months. He was at once deprived of his office, and Lord Howard of Effingham dispatched to succeed him. A year later he sold the larger share of his Virginia rights to the crown for an annuity of i6oo for twenty years, retaining only the portion of the terri- tory called the Northern Neck, which was now confirmed to him by a patent from the crown dated September 2"], 1688. While governor, however, he made a little headway in bringing the residents of the Northern Neck to submit to him as proprietor, and for many years after his death, which occurred in 1690, the inhabi- tants continued indififerent. It was not till 1703, when Robert Carter became the manag- ing agent, that the people began to patent lands in his office. The proprietor then was Thomas Lord Fairfax, who before 1692 married Kath- erine, Lord Culpeper's only daughter, and heiress by his wife. Lady Marguerite Hesse.