Part 5

In 1716, the Governor and some friends started out to explore the Northwest. They stopped at Germanna to shoe the horses as protection for them on the rocky, mountain roads. The Governor traveled by stagecoach from Williamsburg to Germanna. Here he changed to horseback and accompanied by two groups of rangers and four Indian guides, in addition to the original group, he traced the Rapidan River to its headwaters and then proceeded to climb the east side of the Blue Ridge Mountains. They reached the top near Swift Run Gap and, from this summit, viewed the great Shenandoah Valley and the Allegheny Mountains about twenty miles away. They spent the night there on the summit and then descended the west slope of the mountain, finally arriving at a river which they called Euphrates. This same river is known today as the Shenandoah River, an Indian name meaning "Daughter of the Stars." As had happened earlier on the Batts-Fallon expedition, a volley of gunfire was shot, and Governor Spotswood claimed possession of the land in the name of George I, then King of England. The highest mountain peak which they had climbed they called Mount George in his honor, and the next highest one was called Mount Alexander in honor of the Governor himself. The expedition had been such a pleasant one for the Governor that legend states that he sent to England for small individual golden horseshoe pins with diamonds symbolizing the nailheads and presented one to each of his companions on this memorable trip, bestowing upon them the title of "Knights of the Golden Horseshoe." Governor Spotswood also was a most able diplomat with the Indians, and he tried conscientiously to help them get better educated. For example, he sent white teachers to help them to develop their handicraft and the arts of civilization, and later, he encouraged many of the Indian boys to attend William and Mary College where they could specialize in their particular abilities. Spotswood was later appointed Postmaster General for the Colonies and was responsible for initiating a postal system extending from Charleston to Boston. Colonel Hugh Drysdale succeeded him as Governor for the next four years.

In 1716, the first theater in America was built by William Levingston at Williamsburg. It was constructed for the acting of "Comedies, Drolls and other kind of stage plays ... thought fitt to be acted there." Mary Stagg, the wife of Charles Stagg, who was the manager of the theater, is considered the first theatrical leading lady in America. Although many British actors and musicians were

## participants in this theater, it often suffered from financial

stress. Thus, twenty-nine years later, this theater was donated to Williamsburg to be used as a town hall.

In 1722, Williamsburg, the capital of Colonial Virginia (1699-1780), became the first incorporated municipality in Virginia. It became the leading political, economic, educational and social center of the colony, especially during legislative sessions. Eight years after Williamsburg had been incorporated, William Parks arrived there as a public printer. He set up the first permanent printing press in Virginia and approximately six years later, Virginia's first colonial newspaper, the "Virginia Gazette," was printed.

Colonel Robert Carter, President of the Council, succeeded Governor Drysdale in July 1726. Carter was a very wealthy man whose land holdings--300,000 acres total--were second in Virginia only to the Fairfaxes. Because of his enormous wealth and arrogant manner, he was nicknamed "King" Carter.

In 1728, William Byrd II was the leader of a survey group which followed the Virginia-North Carolina borderline from the Atlantic Ocean two hundred and forty miles westward. This action provided Virginians with knowledge of the type of terrain and its potentiality along this important borderline.

It was in the period 1730-1760 that a majority of the beautiful brick and stone plantation mansions were constructed. The wealthy families preferred the country-side. Some of the mansions built at this time included Westover (William Byrd family), Stratford Hall (Thomas Lee family), Ampthill (Archibald Cary family), Carter's Grove (Robert Carter Burwell family) and Mount Airy (John Tayloe family).

Sir William Gooch was acting chief executive of Virginia for twenty-two years, 1727-1749. His greatest project during this period was the development of settlements in the Shenandoah Valley. At the beginning of the Eighteenth Century, some Scotch-Irish, Germans and French Huguenots settled in Virginia. The Scotch-Irish had migrated first to Pennsylvania and to New Jersey. Upon hearing about the beautiful valley seen by Governor Spotswood, they decided to settle there. Their main settlement was located in the area now included in the Winchester and Staunton areas and in the counties of Augusta and Rockbridge. It became so densely populated with people originally from Northern Ireland that it was called the "Irish Tract." Later, additional Scots direct from Scotland migrated here in large numbers. Germans had already migrated in large numbers to Germanna, the mining town. The French Huguenot immigrants settled mainly along both sides of the James River at Manakintown. Thus, the Shenandoah Valley and the area beyond the Blue Ridge and the Allegheny Mountains were colonized primarily by the Scotch-Irish, German, and French Huguenots.

Two years later, the Quakers organized a church at Hopewell which is the oldest church in northern Virginia. Six years later, the oldest Lutheran church in the South was built in Madison County by some of the Germans from Germanna. Its financial support originally came from friends in Germany, and it was called Hebron Church.

In 1749, Augusta Academy was founded by the Presbyterians in Augusta County, and it was the first classical school located west of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Its name was later changed in 1775 to the patriotic title of Liberty Hall. This academy was the forerunner of the Washington and Lee University.

Colonel Thomas Lee was acting Governor from 1749 to 1751. He encouraged westward expansion in the Virginia Colony and believed that the French should be expelled from America. He was the father of the most famous family in Virginia history: the Lee family. He built the now-famous family homestead, Stratford, in Westmoreland County in 1725-1730. During his governorship, some wealthy Virginians formed the Ohio Company whose purpose was to settle a colony west of the Allegheny Mountains on a tract of land 500,000 acres in size. Four years later, the company constructed a fort at the junction of the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers where the present city of Pittsburgh is now located. One hundred and twenty miles north of this fort, the French proceeded to construct Fort LeBoeuf on the Allegheny River. Since many Virginians and other Englishmen from other colonies had been settling in the Ohio Valley, they became much alarmed at the construction and occupation of this French fort. Consequently, the British-Americans began to observe carefully the activities of the French in this region. Colonel Lee had the unusual distinction of being the only Virginian to have a Crown Commission of Governor awarded to him even though he died before the commission reached him.

From 1721 to 1750, nineteen new counties were created: Hanover (formed from New Kent and named for the Duke of Hanover who later became King George of England), Spotsylvania (formed from Essex, King William and King and Queen Counties and named for Lieutenant Governor Spotswood), King George (formed from Richmond and later a part of Westmoreland County and named for George I, King of England), Goochland (formed from Henrico County and named for William Gooch, the Lieutenant-Governor of Virginia at the time), Caroline (formed from Essex, King and Queen and King William Counties and named for Queen Caroline, George II's wife), Prince William (formed from Stafford and King George Counties and named for William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland), Brunswick (formed from Prince George and parts of Surry and Isle of Wight Counties and named for the Duchy of Brunswick in Germany), Orange (formed from Spotsylvania and named for William, Prince of Orange, an English king), Amelia (formed from Prince George and Brunswick Counties and named for Princess Amelia, King George II's youngest daughter), Fairfax (formed from Prince William County and named for Lord Fairfax), Frederick (formed from Orange County and named for Frederick, Prince of Wales, George II's son and George III's father), Louisa (formed from Hanover County and named for King George II's daughter, Princess Louisa, who was also the wife of King Frederick V of Denmark), Albemarle (formed from Goochland County and named for William Anne Keppel, the second Earl of Albemarle, Governor-General of the Colony who remained in England during the entire time), Augusta (formed from Orange and named for Princess Augusta, wife of Frederick, Prince of Wales, George III's father), Lunenburg (formed from Brunswick and named for one of George I's titles: Duke of Brunswick-Lunenburg), Chesterfield (formed from Henrico and named for the famous Lord Chesterfield, Philip Dormer Stanhope), Culpeper (formed from Orange County and named for Lord Thomas Culpeper, Governor of Virginia, 1680-1683), Southampton (formed from Isle of Wight County and named for Henry Wriothesley, the third Earl of Southampton and a leading member of the Virginia Company) and Cumberland (formed from Goochland County and part of Buckingham County and named in honor of William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland).

By 1750, the Virginia colony was enjoying prosperity. Numerous large plantations had come into existence. As more and more soil became impoverished due to a lack of crop rotation, non-use of fertilizer and the intensive planting of the tobacco crop which requires a rich soil, additional land was purchased and added to the existing homestead. Consequently, plantations of 100,000 to 300,000 acres became common, especially around the Tidewater area. The larger the tobacco plantation, the greater the need for cheap labor became apparent. Consequently, the number of Negro slaves increased in Virginia until by 1750, there were approximately 115,000 Negroes and approximately 170,000 free whites. The increase in huge plantations caused the middle class tobacco farmer to migrate westward as he could not successfully compete with the larger tobacco planters. The Virginia plantation owners had become accustomed at this time to allowing the London tobacco merchants to act as their bankers: they would order their necessities, supplies and luxuries (glass, silver, china) via their tobacco credits. Such a system furnished an immediate advantage for the plantation owners but also created a situation whereby the Virginia planters became heavily indebted financially to the London merchants. The plantation owners also became the influential individuals within the colony--politically, economically and socially. Thus, Virginia at this time was practically ruled by an aristocracy. Although the governing power of the assembly had increased gradually, the political power of the commoner or average citizen had not increased accordingly. Membership in the Virginia Council was considered a position of the greatest prestige and was almost an hereditary position. The two required qualifications were wealth and social position. The era of aristocratic living which predominated in the Virginia Colony between 1700-1750 is often referred to as the "Golden Age" of Virginia's colonial history.

_The Pre-Revolutionary War Era_

While Robert Dinwiddie was the acting Governor of Virginia, the English and French rivalry in colonial settlements was becoming bitter in America. In 1753, Governor Dinwiddie selected George Washington to visit General St. Pierre, the commander in charge of the French fort at Presque Isle on the shore of Lake Erie, and to inform him that the Ohio country belonged to the English and that he should withdraw his troops from there at once. Dinwiddie sincerely believed that the land upon which the French fort had been built was English territory. Washington and four comrades rode on horseback from Williamsburg to Fredericksburg where he hired Jacob Vanbraam as an interpreter since Washington could not speak French. They rode to Alexandria where Washington purchased food and essential equipment because there were no towns between Alexandria and Winchester. Two weeks later he reached Winchester, after having made the dangerous crossing of the unbridged Shenandoah River. At Winchester, Washington hired a well-known guide, Christopher Gist, to assist him on his journey to Fort LeBoeuf where the French General had arrived to supervise its fortifications. Two Indian traders also accompanied him. They traveled to Maryland and to Pennsylvania until they reached the French fort, Fort LeBoeuf. The destination was approximately five hundred miles from Williamsburg. Although St. Pierre was polite and friendly, Washington was informed that the French had been ordered to eject every Englishman from the Ohio Valley and that the French had the rightful claim to such territory. Before he departed, Washington noticed a large fleet of birch-bark canoes and boats of pine and was convinced that a war between the English and French would be necessary to settle the dispute over the control of the Northwest.

Washington returned to Williamsburg in January 1754, and reported to Governor Dinwiddie a detailed account of his journey. Washington then prepared a written report which persuaded the members of the General Assembly to realize the seriousness of this matter. Colonel Joshua Fry, with Washington second in command, marched with a troop of one hundred and fifty men against the French in the Ohio Valley. On March 28, near Great Meadows, Washington's group killed the French commander, Coulon de Jumonville, and killed or captured all his soldiers except one. On March 31, 1754, Washington was granted a commission as Lieutenant Colonel of the Virginia Regiment, which he later received at Gadsby's Tavern in Alexandria. In the meantime, Colonel Fry had died suddenly from an accidental fall, and Washington had succeeded to the command.

Fort Necessity, near Farmington, Pennsylvania, a crude structure of defense, was in the process of being constructed by the Virginians at the forks of the Ohio River when seven hundred French soldiers appeared, outnumbering the Virginian troops by at least four hundred men. Washington and his troops were forced to surrender, were allowed to leave with the honors of war and finally trudged back to Winchester. The Battle of Great Meadows and the Battle of Fort Necessity were of historical importance because they marked the beginning of the French and Indian War in America, they were actually the first fighting attacks in the Seven Years War in Europe between the English and the French, and they provided the first real combat fighting experience for George Washington who was only twenty-two years old at the time. The French proceeded to occupy Fort Necessity and after improving it considerably, they changed its name to Fort Duquesne, in honor of Canada's governor.

The following summer, in 1755, Washington returned with a larger army to the Ohio area. Two regiments, one thousand, of British regulars had been sent from England under the command of General Edward Braddock. These soldiers arrived at Alexandria from England, and Washington, having been assigned as an aide-de-camp to General Braddock, joined them there. A conference of five royal Governors--Dinwiddie (Virginia), Morris (Pennsylvania), Sharp (Maryland), DeLacey (New York) and Shirley (Massachusetts)--was held at the Carlyle House in Alexandria on April 14 to formulate plans for the protection of the western frontier against the French and Indian raids along the Ohio River. After much discussion, a campaign plan was adopted whereby General Braddock was to capture Fort Duquesne and expel the French from the Ohio Valley. At this same conference, the suggestion was made that the British Ministry could levy taxes on the colonies to help pay the expense of the war.

Braddock and his troops marched westward from Alexandria into western Pennsylvania near Fort Duquesne through dense wilderness from April 12 to July 9. General Braddock had been accustomed to fighting the European tactics way, but he was wholly unfamiliar with Indian and ambush fighting. Washington anxiously warned Braddock of ambush possibilities, but Braddock continued to have his army march in regular step in close order and in full uniform regalia through the underbrush. Indian scouts daily reported the progress of Braddock's army to the French at Fort Duquesne. When the British troops were within eight miles of the fort, they were attacked by the French and the Indians. The Virginia soldiers, many of whom were experienced in wilderness fighting, ran for cover behind the trees. Braddock, however, ordered his men to keep their formation and fire simultaneously. Thus, they were easy targets for the French and the Indians. Finally, they became so frightened at this unusual type of fighting that they broke ranks and tried to flee. Half of Braddock's 1600 troops were killed or wounded, Braddock himself being fatally wounded in action. This defeat occurred on July 9, 1755.

In addition to this military slaughter, numerous Cherokee Indian raiding parties took place from 1759-1760 in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia where homes were burned and men, women and children were killed unmercifully. Washington was put in charge of this frontier campaign with his headquarters at a fort in Winchester. Eventually, the General Assembly of Virginia raised troops of its own for its defense. The General Assembly then passed a law whereby a "Scalp Market" was established, and anyone bringing male scalps of hostile Indians above the age of twelve years to the market would receive ten pounds per scalp in 1755 to forty-five pounds per scalp in 1758 when the law expired. In July, the British General John Forbes with a large number of English soldiers and some Cherokee allies went to Fort Duquesne via Philadelphia. They were rejoined in September by Colonel Washington. Fort Duquesne was finally won by the English and colonial and Indian soldiers, and Washington, himself, raised the British flag over its ruins on November 25, 1758, ending the Indian attacks also on the frontier. Fort Duquesne had its name changed to Fort Pitt in honor of William Pitt the Elder, a British statesman, who had given ample support to Virginia's colonial policies. Thus, the inhabitants of Virginia played their role in the French and Indian War, apparently a misnomer because the war was actually fought between the French and the Indians and the British and the Indians.

In December 1763, Patrick Henry distinguished himself as a young lawyer by challenging the authority of Parliament and the King in a case commonly called the "Parsons' Cause." The Church of England was the established church of Virginia, and the people were taxed for the parsons' salaries. Because coin money was scarce in the colonies, Virginia, like the other colonies, had adopted the custom of paying their clergymen in tobacco. One disadvantage of this system was the fluctuation of the value of the tobacco, based upon the law of supply and demand. Whenever there was a tobacco crop failure, the value of tobacco increased considerably. This occurred in 1758 when there was so little tobacco available that the House of Burgesses passed a law stating that all debts payable ordinarily in tobacco might be paid in money at the rate of two pence per pound of tobacco. The parsons' salary was 16,000 pounds of tobacco. When the above law was passed allowing the parsons to be paid in money, they felt that it was unfair because tobacco at that time was more valuable at the rate of six pence per pound of tobacco than the money value itself. Furthermore, the parsons had had to accept the same amount of tobacco when the prices had previously declined. King George agreed with the parsons and requested that they be given their 16,000 pounds of tobacco or else a sum of money equivalent to the amount which 16,000 pounds of tobacco would be worth. Such an order was contrary to the law passed by the House of Burgesses and was a continuation of a custom which England had been using of "disallowing" a law passed by the colonial legislature. The Burgesses refused to accept the "disallowing" of their law; in turn, the parsons, knowing that the King had favored their opinion in the matter, took their problem to the Hanover County Court as they believed they were entitled to the back pay for the time which the House of Burgesses' law was in effect. The court had ruled that the parsons were entitled to the back pay and was ready to proceed with the problem of deciding upon the amount which it believed was due each parson.

When this case was first brought to the court for consideration, the individual citizens of the colony tried to obtain the services of a lawyer who would fight against the parsons. Since such a lawyer would be fighting not only against the parsons but against the King himself, some of the lawyers, when asked to act as attorney against the parsons, refused the offer. Patrick Henry, who was only twenty-seven at the time and practically an unknown individual as far as law was concerned, accepted the offer. The self-educated Hanover County resident surprised the people in the court when he began to speak, at first hesitatingly and then most confidently. He first criticized the parsons for trying to take advantage of the scarcity of the tobacco which caused its extraordinarily high price. He then dared to speak against the British Parliament and the King for usurping the power of "disallowing" a law passed by the Virginia legislature. The following quotation illustrates the strong language which he used to express his attitudes in these matters: "The king, by ... disallowing acts of this salutary nature, from being the Father of his people degenerates into a Tyrant, and forfeits all the rights to his subjects' obedience." Thus, he questioned the right of the King to veto a colonial law. He followed these words with comments concerning the rights and privileges of the colonists and the unjust taxing of the colonists for goods brought to the Virginia Colony from England. The jury handed down the verdict that the parsons were entitled to their back pay but awarded damages of one penny to each parson. As a direct result of this case, Patrick Henry became famous and he became a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses shortly afterward. He had dramatically, though unexpectedly, expressed the attitude of most of the colonists toward Parliamentary and royal control of their colony.