THE ASPINWALL PAPERS.

VIRGINIA.

AT THE COUNCIL CHAMBER, WHITEHALL, the 13th July, 1617.

AN Open Warrant for the reprieve of Christopher Potley, Roger Powell, Sapcot Molineux, Thomas Middleton and Thomas Crouchley, prisoners in Oxford Goal, and to deliver them unto Sir Thomas Smyth k to be transported into Virginia or other parts beyond the seas, with provisoe, that they return not again into England, according

NOTE. The minutes above, from the British State Paper Office, show that the transportation of convicts to Virginia did not begin, as supposed by some, and by Mr. Jefferson among them, at a late period, after the first settlement of the colony. It is nevertheless true, that, during the first ten years, from 1607 to 1617, the emigrants were exclusively of other classes. In the outset, under the charter of 1606, the greater portion were gentlemen, with tradesmen and efficient laborers barely enough to form a sort of village community, but utterly insufficient for a colony dependent upon its own labor and the productions of the country for food and other necessary supplies.

In 1611, the plantation, as a residence, had fallen into such discredit with the laboring as well as the higher classes, that very few of either came out to Virginia. Sir Thomas Dale, who sailed from England early in that year, wrote in the following August to the Earl of Salisbury, that the people brought over with him were such as they were "enforced " to take; "gathering them in riotous, lazy, and infected places: such disordered persons, so profane, so riotous, so full of mutiny and treasonable intendments, that, in a parcel of three hundred, not many gave testimony, beside their names, that they were Christians; and, besides, were of such diseased and crazed bodies, that the sea [voyage] hither and the climate here, but a little scratching them, render them so unhable [powerless], faint, and desperate of recovery, that, of three hundred, not threescore may be employed upon any labor or service." Hamor vindicates the severities of Sir Thomas Dale's administration, as well as "his severe and strict imprinted book of articles" (i.e., The Lawes Divine, Morall, and Martiall), as needful for the salvation of the colony; and he calls the offenders, who were most cruelly punished, 'dangerous, incurable members, for no use so fit as to make examples to others." The treasurer, Sir Thomas Smith, at a later day, in defending himself before the Grievance Committee in Parliament, alleges that Lord De la Warre, Sir Thomas Dale, Sir Thomas Gates, and Captain Argall, did all see the necessity of such laws; and the two latter, then living, were ready to testify, that the colony,

to the form of a former Warrant entered at large the 24th March last.

Upon Certificate from Sir Peter Warberton & Sir Randall Crew.

consisting of such deboyst (debauched) and irregular persons, could not possibly continue, unless the severe laws above referred to should be made and published, in some cases ad terrorem, and in some to be truly executed. Smith (p. 165) says one hundred good laborers and mechanical men would have done more than one thousand such as went with Lord De la Warre, &c.,

In the sequel of his letter, Sir Thomas Dale recommends the Earl of Salisbury, in the ensuing spring, to send out two thousand men to occupy a line of five or six military posts from Hampton to about one hundred miles on James River, above Jamestown. This re-enforcement, he conceived, would effectually curb the insolence of Powhatan for the present; and eventually, with increasing strength and numbers in the settlements, give them the undisturbed control of the whole territory, and insure to the king great revenue from a prosperous and richly productive colony. To make up the more expeditiously this proposed number of two thousand, he urged the transportation to the colony of all convicts condemned to die, out of the common gaols in the realm; and this to be continued for three years. These convicts, he adds, "are not always the worst kind of men, either for birth, spirit, or body," and "would be right glad to escape a just sentence, and make this (Virginia) their new country, and plant therein with all diligence, cheerfulness, and comfort: whereas now, throughout our little colony, owing to some present want of English provisions, almost every man laments himself of being here, and murmurs at his present state; though, haply, he could not better it in England." Owing to the failing health of the Earl when this letter arrived, and to his Lordship's death in the close of the next spring, Sir Thomas Dale's suggestions were probably unheeded. But in June, 1616, when he returned to England in Argall's ship, accompanied by Pocahontas and her husband, John Rolfe, on his arrival at Plymouth he wrote to his friend, Sir Ralph Winwood, then Secretary of State, to urge the policy of speedily augmenting the population of Virginia, and entreats him "to spur us forward to inhabit there." The whole tenor of his letter shows that he still retained all his enthusiastic admiration of Virginia, of the advantages she would afford to England as a relief for her superabundant population, as abounding in supplies for commerce and the navy, and as capable of countervailing, by her importance, the arrogant and jealous hostility of Spain. His endeavors to make up any deficiency in the numbers, sent out, by transporting convicts, appear to have met with success, as early as the 24th of March, 1617, the date of the first warrant entered at large.

The scarcity of laborers, and the profit accruing from the cultivation of tobacco in Virgina, were both so great at this period, that the services even of convicts were coveted.

The king, who loved the revenue derived from tobacco as much as he detested the weed itself, was anxious that its cultivation should not languish for want of laborers; and as he was not restrained by any special law, or any very scrupulous concern for the liberty of the subject, from transporting or banishing whomsoever he chose, he gladly availed himself of all opportunities for supplying the required labor by compulsory transportation, not only of convicts, who, beside being an actual encumbrance and expense, deserved expulsion as nuisances to the community, but also of individuals whose only crime was poverty.

In November, 1619, he commanded the treasurer and company, forthwith and at their own expense, to send away to Virginia one hundred dissolute persons, who, as the treasurer understood, would be very acceptable to the colony. It does not appear that these persons had ever been convicted. In fact, it is evident that it was easy to procure from the Secretary of State a warrant for transporting any vagrant or pauper. The warrant of the 28th of January, 1620, for transporting one hundred youths, was obtained of the Secre

AT HAMPTON COURT- The last of September 1617.

An open Warrant for the reprieving of James Knott out of the prison of Newgate, being convict of Felony, and to deliver him to Sir Thomas Smith, Knight, Governor of the East India Company, or his Assignees, to be Conveyed to the East Indies or other parts beyond the Seas, with proviso not to return into England according to the form of a former warrant entered at large the 24th of March last.

Upon Certificate from the Lord Mayor and Recorder of London.

Another warrant for the reprieving of Henry Hall out of the Goal of Cambridge, being convict of Felony, to be delivered to the said Sir Thomas Smith or his Assignees, to be conveyed as in the former Warrant.

Upon Certificate from the Mayor and
Recorder of Cambridge.

27 Sept. 1618. A warrant for the reprieveing of Henry Johnson, Prisoner in Newgate, Convicted of Fel

tary, Naunton, by Sir Edwin Sandys, at the instance of the Lord Mayor of London; the city contributing £500 towards the expense, in order "to rid itself of the burden of them." The children objecting to go were ordered to be bound to severe masters. (Virginia Papers, State Paper Office.)

It is known, that, in Sir Edwin Sandys' administration as treasurer, ninety young maids were sent out to make wives for the farmer tenants (Comp. Decl., 1620); whether with their own consent or by compulsion is not stated.

In November the previous year, 1618, one Robinson, a clerk in some office, was convicted in the Court of King's Bench, and three days after executed, for counterfeiting the Great Seal of England.

He was accustomed, under color of royal letters-patent, to extort money from ale-housekeepers, and small usurers in the country; and also to take up rich yeoman's daughters to serve His Majesty as breeders in Virginia, unless they paid him money for their release. (II. Birch. Court of James I. p. 107.)

In a letter dated 18 August, 1627, from the Rev. Joseph Mead to Sir Martin Stuteville, one of the Company, it is said, "There are many ships now going to Virginia, and with them, some fourteen or fifteen hundred children, which they have gathered up in divers places. (I. Birch. Charles, p. 262.)

On the 6th of April, 1688, Secretary Kemp wrote to the Secretary of State, Windebanke, that, of the hundreds of people who are now transported, scarce any are brought but as merchandise, and sold to the planters as servants. (State Paper Office, Am. and Va.)

ony, but not for any Murder, &c., as appeareth by the certificate of the Lord Mayor and the Recorder; and to be sent by Sir Thomas Smith, Knt Governor of the East India Company, or his assigns, to the East Indies, or other parts beyond the seas, where he shall direct.

Council Reg

6 Oct 1618. The same to Anne Russell, to be sent to Virginia or other parts beyond the sea.

30 Nov. 1618. James Stringer, a prisoner in New Gate, to be delivered to Sir Tho. Smith, to be sent to Virginia or other parts beyond the Seas.

A Warrant for Transporting Youths to Virginia was issued 28 January, 1619-20.

11 April 1620. Several persons were pardoned & ordered to be sent to the Summer Isles, by Letter to Sir Tho. Smyth.

LETTER OF JOHN PORY, SECRETARY OF VIRGINIA, TO SIR DUDLEY CARLETON.

RIGHT HONOURABLE, AND MY SINGULAR GOOD LORDE Having mett with so fitt a messenger as this man of warre of Flushing,* I could not but imparte with your lordship (to

*This Dutch man-of-war is the one which, Smith says (Va. p. 126), "sold us twenty negars," the first Africans imported into this country, and the vessel from whose commander, serving under the flag of a friendly power, Kendall, Deputy-governor of Bermuda, extorted fourteen negroes as the price of water and victuals, which had been at first refused, though asked for to save the lives of the famished ship's company. The negroes were part of one hundred captured from a Spanish vessel by the ship "Treasurer," Captain Elfred (I. Burke, p. 326; Smith's Va. p. 190). This vessel, as early as 1612, was employed in the service of the colony, under the command of Captain Argall (Strachey, chap. 9). Argall had previously sailed to and from Virginia, twice as commander; first, in 1609, in a vessel sent out with the leave of the Council in London, by John Cornelius, one of the company, "to trucke with the colony and fish for sturgeon;" and, in the following year, in the "Delawarre," by which her owner, Lord Delawarre, the Governor and Captain-general, came out to Virginia in June, and, on account of ill health, returned for England the next March, 1611. In the first vessel, "Cornelius's, small barke," he took a new course,

whom I am so everlastingly bounde) these poore fruites of our labours here; wherein though your worship will

north of the Azores, instead of " tracing through the torrid zone" as usual. He also yielded willingly to the unceremonious seizure of the "wines, biscuits," and other provisions of that vessel, which the necessities of the starving colonists enforced them to take, although his voyage was thereby lost. (Smith's Va. p. 88; IV. Purch. p. 1734; Planters' Declaration, Manuscript.)

From his own letter, in the fourth volume of Purchas, p. 1764, it appears, that he laid his course in the "Treasurer," to Virginia, fifty leagues to the northward of the Azores. After his arrival, he went in her to procure corn from the Indians, and brought away eleven hundred bushels for the colony, and three hundred for his ship. It was in the "Treasurer" that he effected, soon after, the capture of Pocahontas, which secured the colony from the hostility of her father Powhatan, and enabled him to make a treaty with Powhatan's enemies, the Chickahominies, for an annual tribute of corn. It was in the same ship also that he signalized himself by the reduction of the French settlements at Mount Desert, St. Croix, and Port Royal, and those of the Dutch on the Hudson.

Lord De la Warre had appointed Argall one of the five captains of companies, as early as 16th June, 1610, and, a few days after, one of his council. This last appointment was made on the eve of his departure for Bermuda in the "Discovery," in company with Sir George Somers in the "Patience," in quest of provisions for a six months' supply of the colony.

Lord De la Warre, in his relation, which he delivered to the Virginia Council in London on the 11th of June, 1611, adverts to the "trade found out by Captain Argall with Patamack, a king as great as Powhatan.". About the same period, he placed Argall in command of the "Treasurer." She was owned by "Lord De la Warre, his noble associates, and some other private adventurers." (Planters' Declaration.) Pory says that Argall also was part owner. As commander, he might at first have had some small share in the vessel; but it would have hardly been compatible with his pecuniary circumstances to have retained it till 1619, two years after he left the vessel in London. The control of the vessel would of course be committed chiefly to Lord De la Warre as a principal owner, and, by his official position and other circumstances, best fitted to promote the interest of all the owners, as long as she was employed in American waters. The active command of her, the execution of orders received from the Governor-general or his deputy, remained with Argall until after his arrival at Plymouth in England, on the 3d of June, 1616, with Sir Thomas Dale, Pocahontas, and John Rolfe, her husband. His command then terminated: a few months after, he was elected Deputy-governor of Virginia, not by the particular favor of any one, if we may except his friends, the Governor-general, Lord De la Warre and his late Deputy, Sir Thomas Dale, but on account of his own distinguished personal merits and eminent services. Stith, relying implicitly upon the partisan documents and records framed by Argall's enemies, repeats their version of his conduct, and adds to it bitter and groundless accusations of his own. He is equally unsparing in his language respecting the Earl of Warwick, Sir Thomas Smith, the company treasurer, and even Pory himself, who certainly, in the letter above, shows that he was no friend of Argall. Stith represents, for instance, the first voyage of Argall as illegal, and a mere act of favoritism towards a kinsman of the treasurer, and therefore connived at by the Council: yet he knew, that, the vessel belonging to Cornelius, he, and not Argall, the commander, would reap the benefit of the voyage; that she was also employed as a carrier of letters and despatches by the company; and ought also to have known that it was quite competent for the Council to license Cornelius or any other of the adventurers "to truck with the colony and to fish for sturgeon." (Smith's Va. p. 88.)

Stith also (p. 159) accuses Pory of having intentionally retarded the departure of Sir George Yeardley's ship so long as to allow a small vessel from Plymouth to reach Virginia, and enable Argall to escape before Sir George arrived to arrest him. If this were