DALE, Sir THOMAS ( ? -1619). A colonial Governor of Virginia. He served for some time as an English officer in the Netherlands, and in 1606 was knighted by King James. In 1611 he was sent to Virginia, by the London Company, with supplies, and, in the absence of Lord de la Warr (q.v.), the Go•erno•-General. assumed con trol of the Government. He was nominally re lieved in August of this year. by Sir Thomas Gates, but nevertheless remained the leading spirit of the colony. holding the position of High Marshal, and from 1614 to 1616 was again in full control. He returned to England in 1616; was put in command of a fleet sent out by the East India Company against the Dutch in 1618; defeated a Dutch fleet off the site of the present Batavia in November of this year; and in 1619 died at. Masulipatam, India. His administration in Virginia was remarkable for its pitiless severity. Finding the colonists dejected, listless. and dis inclined to work. he placed them under martial law, and inaugurated a code known as 'Dale's Code,' whose rigor has become proverbial. The years 1611-1616 were long known among the col onists as 'the five years of slavery.' Dale founded
a new settlement at Henrico, overcame the Ap pomattox Indians. and by apportioning some of the lands among private individuals. took the first step toward abolishing the pernicious communal system. TH.: administration of affairs was approved by the London Company, and Sir Edwin Sandys (q.v.), one of the most influential members, said in 1619 that "Dale . . . with great and constant severity reclavined almost miraculously those idle and disordered people. and reduced them to labor and an hone_st fashion of life." MAI information concerning Dale and his administration is given in Brown. The genesis of the United States (Boston, 1890). and The First Republic in America (Boston, 1898). A copy of 'Dale's Laws' may be found in Force, Tracts and Other Papers Relating to the in America, yon iii. (Washington, 1836-46). Con sult also Prince, First Criminal Code of Virginia," in the Report of the American Ilistori cal Society for 1899 (Washington, 1900).