Charles I. (1623) reestablished the government under two councils, ivpriving the Virginians of control over public officials and expenditures; but their acquiescence in his ecclesiastical and civil policy, and royal revenues from tobacco, won his favor. His reign was marked also by the settlement of some Puritans in northeast Virginia. and by the grant of a part of the ter ritory to Lord Baltimore in 1632. William Claiborne seized and claimed disputed territory, Kent Island, for Virginia, having settled it in 1631. Maryland by force and diplomacy from 1634 to 1654 vindicated her claims. A popular insurrection deposed Governor Harvey, who was arbitrary and supported Alaryland. Though re instated. he was soon (1630) succeeded by Sir Francis Wyatt. With the coming of Sir Wil liam Berkeley as Governor in 1642, a strong fig ure appears. The divine right of the King and the maintenance of the Established Church were his creed. He captured Opechancano, who in his second massacre 11644) had killed 300 colo nists, and driven many Puritans into Maryland and New England. On the execution of Charles I. thousands of Cavaliers flocked to Virginia. Its Assembly alone resisted Parliainent, and de clared guilty of treason all persons refusing to acknowledge the 'King that now is! In re taliation, Parliament in 1650 forbade all trade with Virginia, and appointed (1651) four com missioners (two in Virginia) to force the sur render of the colony. Virginia surrendered (1652) to Commissioners Bennett and Claiborne, stipu lating that the act be regarded as 'voluntary,' not a 'conquest :' that full indemnity be granted : a year without oath he allowed for dissatisfied per sons to remove; the use of the Prayer Book be permitted for a year and that Virginia vnjoy her ancient. boundaries. In reality during the whole period of the Commonwealth the As sembly elected the Governors, and there was en tire religious And political toleration. The cir cumstance of acknowledging Charles II. sooner than any other part of the kingdom gave to Virginia the name of the 'Old Dominion.' On the collapse of the Commonwealth, the loyal Assem bly elected Berkeley Governor before Charles 11. was crowned. Charles lqieouraged the ser vant and slave traflie, burdened the colony with navigation acts (1663-72), and 'granted it in part to Court favorites and wholly in 1673 for thirty-one years to Lords Arlington and Culpeper. These acts, restriction of the suffrage to free holders, and Berkeley's refusal to protect the frontier from precipitated a popular re bellion. Nathaniel Bacon (q.v.) asked for a com mission to go against the savages in 1676, and when it was refused, trade a successful campaign without authority. Berkeley evasively answered a second popular demand for Baeon's commission, and upon his advance against the Indians pro claimed him and his fm•ces rebels. A contest for the possession of Jamestown ensued. Bacon won, established a government, burned James town to defeat Berkeley, and, preparing to pur sue him to Accomac, suddenly died from previous hardships. Rumors of his poisoning are discred ited. Berkeley regained power, and took severe measures against his opponents, of whom 23 were executed, eliciting from Charles II. the re mark, "That old fool has hanged more men in that naked country than I have done for the mur der of my father." After this war on Berkeley and the Crown. and reconstruction by English commissioners, royal Governors (Jeffreys, Chicheley, and Culpeper) by incompetence or rapacity increased popular dissatisfaction. In 1677 a lasting Indian peace was secured, and in 1692 William and Mary Col lege, the second oldest college in America, was chartered. A striking exception among royal Gov ernors was Alexander Spotswood (1710-22). He led the `Knights of the Golden Horseshoe' over the Blue Ridge in 1716, established iron manufac tures. aided the Carolina colonists in their strug gle with the Tuscarora Indians, and sent out an expedition which killed the notorious pirate John Teach (`Blackbeard') and captured his men. The first newspaper in the colony (the Virginia Gazdte) was established in 1736, and Post master-General Spotswood organized a postal system in 1738. The population had steadily in creased, and by 1700 was fully 70,000, chiefly of English descent. In 1699 the Huguenot im migration was large, and under Queen Anne a number of German Palatines came over. After 1732 large numbers of sturdy Scotch-Irish and Germans from Pennsylvania filled the Valley and Piedmont Virginia with dissenters, liberty-loving freehold farmers, restive under British oppres sion. Colonel William Byrd's project (1733) for founding Richmond and Petersburg instances ex panding English settlement. The great article of export from the colony was tobacco, the re turns from its sale enabling the wealthier plant ers to surround themselves with luxuries of every kind and the refinements of European civiliza tion.
The charter of 1609 had fixed the limits of the colony at 200 miles north and 200 miles south of Point Comfort and west and northwest from sea to sea. Under this vague description Virginia claimed that the northwest line was the upper one, and hence her territory increased as it went westward. Maryland and Pennsylvania had in cluded territory that she claimed. but her title to the northwest was undisputed until French colonization expanded. Toward the middle of the eighteenth century English occupation of the territory began. The obit) Company (chiefly Marylanders and Virginians) was formed in 1749, for the exploration of the territory which the French also claimed by Marquette's discovery. (See 0111°,) George Washington was sent by Governor Dinwiddie in 1753 to ask the removal of the French forts, but to no purpose. The French and Indian War (q.v.) followed. The Virginians saved Braddock's army from utter annihilation, and the pioneers organized by Washington held the Virginia frontier against the Indians and the French. Settlements were constantly made beyond the Alleghanies in spite of the King's proclamation in 1763. From 1750 to 1769 Walker, Gist, and Boone explored here. Kentucky was made a separate county of Vir ginia through the influence of George Rogers Clark in 1776.
On the announcement of the policy of Parlia mentary taxation of America Virginia became a leader in resistance. The colonists' claim of the rights of Englishmen and full representation, and pride in the colony's relative position, made her taxation without representation impossible. Pat rick Henry (q.v.) and the jury in the Cause' defied the King. Henry's famous speech in opposition to the Stamp Act, delivered (1765) in the House of Burgesses at Williamsburg, was quoted everywhere, and three of his five resolu tions were adopted denying Parliament's right to tax. They were heralded as the first important protest against this tax. "Virginia gave the signal to the continent," said General Gage. The Burgesses memorialized King and Parliament against the tax act of 1767, and in 1769 passed resolutions against this Parliamentary 'tyranny' and transportation of offenders to England for trial. They proposed colonial correspondence, and circulated an invitation for colonial con currence. Dissolved by Governor Botetourt, they met in revolutionary convention at the Raleigh Tavern and signed and circulated Mason's non importation agreement. After the rude and un scrupulous Lord Dunmore succeeded Botetourt, the Assembly in 1773 appointed a standing legis lative Committee of Correspondence (-Jefferson, Lee, Carr, and others) for colonial concert. When the news of the Boston Port Bill arrived the Assembly passed sympathetic resolutions and was promptly dissolved (1774) by Dunmore. Its members met at. the Raleigh Tavern, and proposed a Virginia convention for August and a general congress of the colonies. Committees of safety were organized and forces raised in every county. Dunmore attempted disarmament by seizing the magazine and removing the gunpowder, but ?Vas driven by a mob (June. 1775) to take refuge on shipboard. George Washington was elected com mander-in-chief of the Continental armies. Pat rick Henry of the Virginia forces, and in the colony a remarkable group of leaders was de veloped, Jefferson, Henry. Richard Henry Lee, George Mason, Edmund Pendleton, and others, who pushed Virginia toward independence. Colonel Woodford defeated the British at Great Bridge. and Dunmore burned Norfolk. but was driven from Virginia by Andrew Lewis (1776). A State convention met in May, 1776, and passed reso lotions asking Congress for a Declaration of In dependence, afterwards moved by 11. H. Lee and drafted by Jefferson. On June 15th the conven tion adopted Mason's famous Virginia Declara tion of Rights. This was followed by the adop tion of a constitution on dlie 29th. Patrick Henry became Governor, and Jefferson afterwards secured acts for religious freedom and the aboli tion of entails. Virginia troops won distinction in the battles of Brandywine and Saratoga, and George Rogers Clark captured ,( 1778 and 1779) the Northwest Territory for Virginia, furnish ing the United States its title by conquest against British claims. Virginia was invaded in 1781. Arnold burned Rielunond, and Tarleton's cavalry devastated the James River nearly captured Governor Jefferson and the As sembly at Charlottesville. Finally Cornwallis was permed in at. Yorktown and sorrendered. The conflicting claims of other colonies and land com panies, and the refusal of Maryland otherwise to join the Confederation, led Virginia (1781-83) to cede her Northwest Territory to the Union, re serving only a small portion for her veterans. The transfer was conditioned on the erection there in of new States and was formally executed March, 1784.