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PART I.

Second

Charter

I. to the London

Judicial

in the Co

Council.

VIRGINIA,

God, christian peace, and civil quietness, each with of James other, whereby every one may, with more safety, pleasure, and profit, enjoy that whereunto they shall Co., May attain with great pain and peril; We for us, our heirs, 23, 1609. and successors, are likewise pleased and contented, and by these presents, do give, and grant unto the said Treasurer and Company, and their successors; and to and execu- such governors, officers, and ministers, as shall be, by tive powers vested our said Councel, constituted and appointed, according lonial Gov. to the nature and limits of their offices and places respecternors and ively, that they shall and may, from time to time forever hereafter, within the said precincts of Virginia; or in the way by seas thither and from thence, have full and absolute power and authority, to correct, punish, pardon, govern and rule, all such, the subjects of us, our heirs and successors, as shall from time to time adventure themselves in any voyage thither, or that shall, at any time hereafter inhabit in the precincts and territories of the said colony as aforesaid, according to such orders, ordinances, constitutions, directions, and instructions, as by our said Councel, as aforesaid, shall be established; and in defect thereof, in case of necessity, according to the good discretions of the said governor and officers, respectively, as well in cases capital and criminal as

Proviso. civil, both marine and other; so always as the said statutes, ordinances and proceedings, as near as conveniently may be, be agreeable to the laws, statutes, government, and policy of this our Realm of England.

Colonial

empower

XXIV. And we do further, of our special grace, Governor certain knowledge, and mere motion grant, declare and ed to en- ordain, that such principal governor, as, from time to force martial law, time, shall duly and lawfully be authorized and apin cases of pointed, in manner and form in these presents heretoor mutiny, fore expressed, shall have full power and authority, to

rebellion

use and exercise martial law, in cases of rebellion or mutiny, in as large and ample manner, as our Lieutenants in our counties, within this our realm of England,

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SECOND AND SEPARATE CHARTER TO THE FIRST COLONY.

PART I.

have or ought to have, by force of their Commission Second

of Lieutenancy.

Charter of
James I. to

1609.

goods to

XXV. And furthermore, if any person or persons, the London Co., adventurers or planters of the said colony, or any other, May 23, at any time or times hereafter, shall transport any Penalty for monies, goods, or merchandizes out of any of our king-fraudulentdoms, with a pretense or purpose to land, sell, or other-ly carrying wise dispose of the same, within the limits or bounds other than the originof the said colony, and yet nevertheless, being at sea, al port of or after he hath landed within any part of the said destinacolony, shall carry the same into any other foreign country, with a purpose there to sell and dispose thereof; that then all the goods and chattels of the said person, or persons, so offending and transported, together with the ship or vessel, wherein such transportation was made, shall be forfeited to us, our heirs and suc

cessors.

tion.

tion of

favorable

XXVI. And further our will and pleasure is, that Construcin all questions and doubts that shall arise, upon any Charters difficulty of construction or interpretation of anything, to be most contained either in this, or in our said former letters to Patentpattents, the same shall be taken and interpreted, in ees. most ample and beneficial manner for the said Treas

urer and Company, and their successors, and every member thereof.

confirmed.

XXVII. And further we do by these presents, ratify Former and confirm unto the said Treasurer and Company, and privileges their successors, all the privileges, franchises, liberties, and immunities, granted in our said former letters pattents, and not in these our letters pattents revoked, altered, changed, or abridged.

XXVIII. And finally, our will and pleasure is, and Adventurwe do further, hereby, for us, our heirs, and successors, ter admitgrant and agree, to and with the said Treasurer and ted to the Company, Company, and their successors, that all and singular entitled to person and persons, which shall, at any time or times, privileges hereafter adventure any sum or sums of money, in and as if heretowards the said Plantation of the said colony in Vir

ers hereaf

full

in named.

PART I.

Charter of

the London Co., May 23, 1609.

VIRGINIA,

Second ginia, and shall be admitted by the said Councel and James I. to Company, as adventurers of the said Colony, in form aforesaid, and shall be enrolled in the book or records of the adventurers of the said Company, shall and may be accounted, accepted, taken, held, and reputed, adventurers of the said colony, and shall and may enjoy all and singular grants, privileges, liberties, benefits, profits, commodities, and immunities, advantages, and emoluments, whatsoever, as fully, largely, amply, and absolutely, as if they, and every of them, had been precisely, plainly, singularly, and distinctly, named and inserted in these our letters pattents.

ProtestXXIX. And lastly, because the principal effect antism which we can desire or expect of this action, is, the recognized as opposed conversion and reduction of the people in those parts to Roman-unto the true worship of God and the Christian relithe latter gion, in which respect we should loath that any person

ism, and

guarded against.

should be permitted to pass that we suspected to affect the superstitions of the Church of Rome; We do hereby declare, that it is our will and pleasure, that none be permitted to pass in any voyage, from time to time

to be made into the said country but such as shall first Oath of have taken the Oath of Supremacy; for which purpose, Supremacy we do, by these presents, give full power and authority, ministered to the Treasurer for the time being, and any three of venturers the Councel, to tender and exhibit the said oath, to all before em- such persons, as shall, at any time, be sent and em

to all ad

barkation,

and by

Indefinite

ployed in the said voyage:

whom. Although express mention of the true yearly value description or certainty of the premises, or any of them, or of any of premises not to other gifts or grants by us, or any of our progenitors be prejudi- or predecessors, to the aforesaid Treasurer and Comadventur- pany heretofore made, in these presents is not made;

cial to the

ers.

or any act, statute, ordinance, provision, proclamation, or restraint, to the contrary thereof had, made, ordained, or provided, or any other thing, cause or matter, whatsoever, in any wise notwithstanding, In witness whereof, We have caused these our letters to be made pattent.

SECOND AND SEPARATE CHARTER TO THE FIRST COLONY.

Witness ourself at Westminster, the twenty-third day of May, 1609, in the seventh year of our reign of England, France and Ireland; and of Scotland the xxx. Per Ipsum Regem-LUKIN.

PART Í.

La-War's

It required, as we have seen, no special exercise of Lord Dethe powers conferred in the fifteenth section of this Adminis Charter to invest Lord De-La-War, on his arrival in tration. Virginia, with the ample enjoyment of his title of Governor and Captain General of the colony, or the unembarrassed exercise of his powers. After resettling the adventurers at Jamestown, he entered upon the discharge of his duties with energy, firmness, prudence, and decision. He restored the plantation to a state of union, harmony, and good government, while at the same time he inspired the natives with veneration, and awe of his authority. But declining health prevented him from long discharging the duties of his important and responsible position. He consequently resigned His resigthe government into the hands of Mr. George Percy, nation. one of his associates; and sailed for the West Indies, leaving about two hundred inhabitants in the colony, in the enjoyment of health, tranquillity, and plenty.* * Marshall.

There is nothing particularly interesting, or important to our purpose, connected with the local history of the colony in America. at this period. The form of Condition government under which it existed was hardly tangible, of the plantations and not illustrative of the operation of any of the pro-in Amerivisions of the new charter. The settlers lapsed into ca, 1611. a lewd and disorderly state, leading rather a vagrant life,† restless, and impatient of restraint. The settle- & See Third ment itself must be regarded as a nucleus for further Charter, Sec. xiv., experiments and observations by the Company, rather Post. than the actual commencement of a well ordered and permanently established frame-work of social or political organization.

The shipwreck of Sir Thomas Gates near the Bermu

PART I.

General

these ex

VIRGINIA,

das; the passing to and fro of transport and trading vessels, not as yet numerously or heavily freighted with adventurers, or merchandize; disclosed, from time to

time, the existence of various Islands in the intervening

results of and adjacent sea, which attracted the direct attention peditions of the Company, more than their small plantation in of the Co. Virginia. Their chief ambition seeming to have been,

Third

the Lon

to grasp all, and then more minutely to concern themselves about its particular occupancy and government.

We must therefore leavė Virginia for a brief season Charter to and note the more appropriate operations and embardon Co. rassments of the Corporation in England. These will * See Secs. sufficiently appear from the provisions* of a third viii, ix, and charter to The London Company at this time issued to

xiv.

them by the Crown. This charter commences by reciting in its first and second sections, by way of preamble, the application for the second charter, the name under which the Company was thereby incorporated, See Ante. and the enlarged boundaries as described in its sixth section, and proceeds:

Preamble to the

III. Now, forasmuch as we are given to understand, Third that in those seas, adjoining to the said coast of VirCharter. ginia, and without the compass of those two hundred miles, by us so granted unto the said Treasurer and Company, as aforesaid, and yet not far distant from the said colony in Virginia, there are, or may be, divers lands, lying desolate and uninhabited, some of which are already made known and discovered, by the indus-try, travel, and expences of the said Company, and others also are supposed to be and remain, as yet, unknown and undiscovered, all and every of which it may import the said colony, both in safety and policy of trade, to populate and plant, in regard whereof, as well for the preventing of peril, as for the better commodity and prosperity of the said colony, they have been humble suitors unto us, that we would be pleased to grant unto them an enlargement of our said former letters pattents, as well as for a more ample extent of their

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