when Governor Yeardley arrived. Powell, with his wife and eleven others, was slain at his plantation, "Powle Brooke," by the savages, in the memorable massacre of March 22, 1622.

SIR FRANCIS WYATT.

The father of Sir Francis was George Wyatt, and his mother was a daughter of Sir Thomas Finch. His sister Eleanora married Sir John Finch; and his wife was a daughter of Samuel Sandys. Sir Francis arrived in Virginia in October, 1621, with an appointment to relieve Governor Yeardley (whose term expired November 18th) at the request of the latter. Sir Francis was accompanied by his brother, Rev. Hunt Wyatt, Dr. John Pott, physician (afterward Acting Governor of the Colony), William Claiborne (subsequently prominent, and designated in history as "the rebel ") as surveyor, and George Sandys, treasurer, who during his stay translated the Metamorphoses of Ovid and the First Book of Virgil's Eneid. This first Anglo-American poetical production was published in London in 1626. Sir Francis brought with him a new constitution for the Colony, granted July 24th, by which all former immunities and franchises were confirmed. Trial by jury was first secured, and an annual assembly provided. During the administration of Wyatt, which was judicious, occurred the Indian massacre of March 22, 1622, in which three hundred and forty-seven of the colonists fell victims; and on the 16th of June, 1624, the charter of the Virginia Company was annulled. The death of his father, Sir George Wyatt, in 1626, calling Sir Francis to Ireland to attend to his private affairs, he was succeeded in the government of Virginia by Sir George Yeardley. Sir Francis was re-appointed Governor in November, 1639, but was relieved by Sir William Berkeley in February, 1642. He died at Bexley, Kent, England in 1644.

CAPTAIN FRANCIS WEST.

Captain Francis West, a younger brother of Lord De La Warr, arrived in the Colony in September, 1608. He is said by the historian Neill to have married a widow in the Colony; no issue is mentioned. He was long a member of the Council, and in 1622 held the appointment of Admiral of New England. He owned lands near "Westover," James River, famed as the seat of the Byrds. He was Acting Governor of Virginia from the death of Sir George Yeardley, November 14, 1627, until his departure for England, March 5, 1629, when he was succeeded by Dr. John Pott. He must have returned to Virginia, as his name appears as a member of the Council in 1632-3. By a tradition in the family he is said to have been drowned; when, it is not stated.

DOCTOR JOHN POTT.

Doctor John Pott, who accompanied Sir Francis Wyatt to Virginia as physician, arriving in October, 1621, as President of the Council succeeded Captain Francis West in the Government of Virginia upon the departure of the latter for England. Pott was superseded by the arrival of Sir John Harvey in March, 1630, and in July following by a strange mutation of fortune, the late Governor was tried for cattle-stealing and convicted. This was the first trial by jury in the Colony.

SIR JOHN HARVEY.

John Harvey was commissioned Governor of the Colony March 26, 1628, and knighted soon after. He had been one of the Commissioners sent in 1623 to procure evidence to be used against the Virginia Company to secure the annulling of the charter, and was a member of the provisional government in 1625. He arrived in Virginia in March, 1630. He was one of the most rapacious, tyrannical and unpopular of the royal governors, and in the contest of Colonel William Claiborne with George Calvert, of Maryland, for the possession of Kent Island, Harvey-actuated, it was charged, by motives of private interest-sided with Maryland in the disputes, and rendered himself so obnoxious that an assembly was called for the 7th of May, 1635, to hear complaints against him. Before it met, however, he consented to go to England to answer the charges. He was reinstated by Charles I. as Governor, by commission dated April 2, 1634, but in November, 1639, was displaced by Sir Francis Wyatt.

CAPTAIN JOHN WEST.

Captain John West, a younger brother of Lord De La Warr, and long a member of the Council, succeeded Sir John Harvey when the latter was "thrust out of his Government" April 28, 1635. He was superseded by Sir John Harvey, April 2, 1636. He remained in Virginia, and has many worthy descendants in Virginia in honored family names. In March 1659-60, the House of Burgesses passed an act acknowledging "the many important favors and services rendered to the country of Virginia by the noble family of the West, predecessors to Mr. John West, their now only survivor."

SIR WILLIAM BERKELEY.

Sir William Berkeley, the son of Sir Maurice, and brother of Lord John Berkeley of Stratton, was born near London about 1610. He graduated M. A., at Oxford, in 1629, traveled extensively in Europe in

1630, and returned an accomplished courtier and cavalier. He was commissioned Governor of Virginia, August 9, 1641, and arrived in the Colony in February, 1642, and by some salutary measures as well as by his prepossessing manners, rendered himself acceptable to the colonists. On the 18th of April, 1644, a second Indian massacre occurred in the Colony. The number of the victims has been variously stated as three and five hundred. During a visit of Berkeley to England from June, 1644, to June, 1645, his place was filled by Richard Kempe, a member of the Council, and who had been its Secretary. During the civil war in England, Berkeley took the royal side, and Virginia was the last of the English possessions which acknowledged the authority of Cromwell. He manifested shrewdness as well as courage when the fleet of parliament appeared in James River in 1651, and made terms satisfactory to both parties. He was superseded in the Government, according to Hening, April 30, 1652, by Richard Bennet, but there are grants of land of record in the Virginia Land Registry, signed by Bennet in January, 1652.

He was re-elected Governor by the Assembly March 23, 1660, and commissioned by Charles II., July 31, 1660. He was sent, April 30, 1661, by the Colony to England to protest against the enforcement of the Navigation Act, Colonel Francis Morrison acting as Governor until Berkeley's return in the fall of 1662.

Berkeley lost popularity with the colonists by his extreme severity towards the followers of Nathanial Bacon, whose so-called “rebellion" had been occasioned by Berkeley's own faithlessness and obstinacy. Twenty-three of the participants were executed, and Berkeley was only restrained from the further shedding of blood by the remonstrance of the Assembly.

Charles II. is reported to have said: "The old fool has taken more lives in his naked country than I have taken for my father's murder." Through the influence of the planters, Berkeley was recalled, and died at Twickenham, July 9, 1677, before re could have an interview with the King. Berkeley in his reply to commissioners, sent to inquire into the condition of the Colony, said, "Thank God! there are no free schools or printing presses, and I hope there will be none for a hundred years; for learning has brought disobedience and heresy and sects into the world, and printing has divulged these and other libels."" He wrote two plays, and is the author of "A Description of Virginia," folio, 1663. His widow, Lady Frances Berkeley, who had before been Dame Stephens, and whose maiden name was Culpeper, married thirdly, Philip Ludwell of "Green Spring," Virginia, long the secretary of the Colony.

RICHARD KEMPE.

Richard Kempe appears as a Member of the Council of Virginia in 1642, and as its President, in June, 1644, upon the departure of Sir

William Berkeley for England, became the acting Governor of the colony. It is notable that during his incumbency the first fast and thanksgiving days in the Colony of which any record is preserved, were ordered. "Att James Cittye the 17th of February, 1644-5," it was "enacted by the Governour, Counsell and Burgesses of this present Grand Assembly, for God's glory and the publick benefit of the collony to the end that God might avert his heavie judgments that are now vpon vs, That the last Wednesday in every month be sett apart for a day of ffast and humiliation, And that it be wholly dedicated to prayers and preaching" also, That the eighteenth day of April be yearly celebrated by thanksgivings for our deliverance from the hands of the Salvages." [Referring to the recent massacre by the Indians.] (Hening's Statutes, I., pp. 289, 290.)

Sir William Berkeley, returning in June, 1645, resumed the government of Virginia, but Richard Kempe continued to serve the colony as a member of the Council until 1648, and perhaps later, latterly as the Secretary of the body. He died sometime before 1678. William Kempe, probably a kinsman, was a Burgess from Elizabeth City County in 1630. The name is a highly respected one in Virginia, and the parish records of Middlesex county present frequent representatives among the lists of vestrymen.

RICHARD BENNET.

Richard Bennet, who is mentioned as being "one of Lord Arlington's family," was a merchant, and appears as a Burgess from "Warrosquoyeake" in October, 1629. He was a Member of the Council in 1642. A Puritan in religious belief, he fled into the province of Maryland in 1643 to escape persecution. From thence he went to London, and in September, 1651, returned to Virginia with the appointment from the Parliamentary Government as one of the Commissioners to effect the reduction of the royal colony of Virginia, the remaining Commissioners being Captain Robert Dennis, Thomas Stegge (an uncle of the first William Byrd, of "Westover"), and Colonel William Claiborne, "the rebel." Bennet was elected Governor of the Colony by the Assembly, April 30, 1652, and was continued in office until March 30, 1655, when he was sent to England as the Agent of Virginia to represent its interests before Parliament. In 1666 he commanded the militia of three of the four military districts into which Virginia was divided, with the rank of Major-General. The remaining district was commanded by the Governor, Sir William Berkeley. In 1667 MajorGeneral Bennet served as a Commissioner to Maryland to regulate the cultivation of tobacco. He was a member of the Council as late as 1674, and is presumed to have died soon after this period. He owned the plantations "Weyanoak" and "Kicotan," on James River. His daughter Anne (died November, 1687) married Theodrick Bland, of