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THIRD AND SEPARATE CHARTER TO THE FIRST COLONY.

PART I.

Charter of

and pleased, for the good and welfare of the said plan-Third tation, that the said Treasurer and Company shall, for James I. the dispatch and finishing of the said lottery or lotte- to the London Co., ries, have six months warning after the said year ended, March 12, before our will and pleasure shall, for and on that behalf, 1611-12. be construed, deemed, and adjudged, to be in any wise altered or determined.

where to

XVII. And our further will and pleasure is, that the Lotteries, said lottery or lotteries shall and may be opened, and be opened. held, within our City of London, or in any other City or Town, or elsewhere, within this our Realm of England, with such prizes, articles, conditions, and limitations, as to them, the said Treasurer and Company, at their discretion shall seem convenient.

point man

the Lotte

XVIII. And that it shall and may be lawful, to and May apfor the said Treasurer and Company, to elect and choose, agers of receivers, auditors, surveyors, commissioners, or any the other officers, whatsoever, at their will and pleasure, for the better marshalling, disposing, guiding, and governing of the said lottery and lotteries; and that it shall likewise be lawful, to and for the said Treasurer, and any two of the said councel, to minister to all, and every such person, so elected and chosen for officers, as aforesaid, one or more oaths, for their good behaviour, just and true dealing, in and about the said lottery or lotteries, to the intent and purpose, that none of our loving subjects, putting in their names, or otherwise adventuring in the said general lottery or lotteries, may be, in any wise, defrauded and deceived of their said monies, or evil and indirectly dealt withal in their said adventures.

Schemes

Lotteries.

XIX. And we further grant in manner and form May pubaforesaid, that it shall and may be lawful, to and for lish the the said Treasurer and Company, under the seal of the of their said councel for the plantation, to publish, or to cause and procure to be published, by proclamation or otherwise (the said proclamation to be made in their name by virtue of these presents) the said lottery or lotte

PART I.

Third

Charter of

VIRGINIA,

ries in all cities, towns, boroughs, and other places James I. within our said Realm of England; and we will and to the Lon- command all mayors, justices of the peace, sheriffs, don Co., March 12, bailiffs, constables, and other officers and loving sub1611-12.

jects, whatsoever, that, in no wise, they hinder or delay the progress and proceedings of the said lottery or lotteries, but be therein touching the premises, aiding and assisting, by all honest, good, and lawful means and endeavours.

Patents to XX. And further our will and pleasure is, that in all be con- questions, and doubts, that shall arise, upon any diffibeneficial- culty of construction or interpretation of any thing

strued

ly.

Former Grants, &c., confirmed.

contained in these, or any other our former letters pattents, the same shall be taken and interpreted, in most ample and beneficial manner for the said Treasurer and Company, and their successors, and every member thereof.

XXI. And lastly, we do by these presents, ratify and confirm unto the said Treasurer and Company, and their successors, for ever; all and all manner of privileges, franchises, liberties, immunities, preheminences, profits, and commodities, whatsoever, granted unto them in any our former letters pattents, and not in these presents revoked, altered, changed, or abridged; although express mention of the true yearly value or certainty of the premises, or any of them, or of any other gift or grant, by us or any of our progenitors, or predecessors, to the aforesaid Treasurer and Company heretofore made, in these presents is not made; or any statute, act, ordinance, provision, proclamation, or restraint to the contrary thereof heretofore made, ordained, or provided, or any other matter, cause, or thing whatsoever, to the contrary, in any wise, notwithstanding.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, We have caused these our letters to be made pattents-WITNESS OURSELF, at West* 1. Henning's minster, the Twelfth day of March in the ninth year of Statutes at our reign of England, France and Ireland; and of ScotLarge

land the five-and-fortieth.*

UNDER THE THIRD CHARTER OF JAMES I.

PART I.

Charter to

1611-12.

This charter, in its various provisions, sets forth fully The Third the causes which prompted its procurement by the com- the London pany, and its publication by the Crown: And I cannot Company, give the reader a better idea of the history and condition of the colony at Jamestown, up to the time it was issued, than may be gathered from its fourteenth and fifteenth sections. In many important aspects it relieved the embarrassments which had hitherto beset the company in England, and hindered their operations.

He

under Sir

1611.

In the mean time, before this charter was issued, an Expedition expedition had been dispatched with a full supply of Thomas stores, and a large number of adventurers, under the Dale, May, direction of Sir Thomas Dale, who also bore a commission appointing him Governor of the colony. arrived at Jamestown on the tenth day of May, 1611, and found the colony in such an alarming state of confusion and anarchy that he was obliged to proclaim martial law in order to reduce it to quiet and subordination. He was soon succeeded by Sir Thomas Gates, Expedition who arrived a second time in the colony, in September Thomas. of the same year. Sir Thomas Gates came under the Gates under this

of Sir

auspices of the new charter, bringing with him six Charter. ships, and upwards of three hundred adventurers, with an ample freight of clothing, merchandize, munitions, and other stores.

The population of the colony was increased in this brief interval to the number of seven hundred men. From this date we observe a more active and efficient management of the concerns of the company in London. The addition to the membership of its Chief Council, of men so illustrious and distinguished, both for rank and opulence, as those named in the fifth section of their new charter; the strength given to their Its effects operations under the provisions of its ninth and fif-pon their teenth sections; the enlargement of the grant from the tions in. Crown under the fourth section, and the more ample and extraordinary powers and privileges conveyed by it as a whole, made this company one of the most power

Planta

America.

PART I.

Advantages of the First over the Second Colony.

VIRGINIA,

ful and influential bodies politic and corporate that had as yet been created in any country. As such it possessed peculiar and uncommon advantages for thịe settlement of the country conveyed to it. In this respect we shall observe a vast difference between it and the Second Colony or the company located at Plymouth. Here too we may mark again the difference between the settlement of New-England, and the planting of the "Old Dominion" of Virginia. Hence the origin of those distinctive characteristics which even now obtain and render unlike these two sections of our country. The causes which combined to promote the planting of the one, and to originate the settlement of the other, really serve as mile-stones to mark the development of the true elements of civil and religious freedom embraced in the Protestantism of the Reformation. The oath of supremacy, made a condition precedent to emigration to Virginia, by the twelfth section of this char

ter, never was, and never could have been made, a conProtestant-dition precedent to the settlement of New-England. ism in New England and Virginia.

Adminis

Sir Thomas

The Puritan adventurer, while he acknowledged his political allegiance to the Sovereign, disavowed, and disavowed even to imprisonment, to proscription, to exile, and to death if need be, the supremacy of the Crown in matters of religion. Still farther on in the progress of protestant principles he disavowed also the supremacy of the Crown in affairs of State. And to this same complexion also did Virginia, the noble, the high-born, the loyal Virginia, come at last, as we shall see hereafter. But to return to the colony.

Hitherto, according to royal instructions, the lands tration of were wrought in common, and the proceeds of cultivaGates, tion, of labour, and of commerce, were deposited in 1612-14. the public magazines, and thence distributed by the

Cape Merchant chosen for that purpose by the colonial council, alike to all as their necessities required. Sir Thomas Gates tried the experiment of dividing a portion of the lands into lots of several acres each, and

UNDER THE THIRD CHARTER OF JAMES I.

PART I.

conveying one of these lots in full right to each family, Under the

London

or individual. The beneficial effects of this policy was Company, at once perceptible in its influence upon the habits and 1612-24. character of the colonists, and in the rapidity with which it promoted the growth and improvement of the entire plantation. Property being thus distributed, each individual occupying his own portion, and reaping from it a reward proportioned to his own labours and exertions, the virtues of industry, sobriety, and frugality were cultivated, while personal ambition was awakened, and individual enterprise encouraged. Sir Thomas Gates ruled over the colony until the year 1614 when he returned again to England, and the gov-Succession ernment devolved a second time upon Sir Thomas of Sir Dale, whose administration of its affairs was efficient, Dale, judicious, and wholesome.

Thomas

1614-16,

mon stock

ed.

The effect of dividing the land into portions and al-The comlotting them to individuals as their own property, to be system cultivated and improved for their own benefit, was abandonfound to be so much more promotive of the interests of the colony, that the system of labouring in common, and depositing the products of this labour in the public stores, for the common benefit, was now entirely abandoned. The Council of the company, convinced that this was the surest way of peopling the country, and encouraging emigration, gave notice that fifty acres The sysof land would be given to each person, who emigrated, land dissubject nevertheless to the general jurisdiction of the tribution adopted company. The consequence was, that large numbers by the of adventurers were induced to plant their families, Company, and try their fortunes in this new country.

tem of

tion of

In the year 1615 the colonists undertook the culti-Cultivavation and exportation of tobacco, but the attempt to tobacco. introduce it into the polished circles in the mother country, excited the odium of the crown, as well as the contempt and ridicule of the principal members of parliament. At length James issued a pamphlet Prohibited by the against it, which he called a Counterblast, and the Com-Crown.

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