CULPEPPER LEADS THE MOVEMENT and enterprise, and the movement has been known to history as the "Culpepper Rebellion." A report was quickly spread abroad that Gilliam was about to depart and carry all his cargo away, and the inhabitants would lose the chance of trading with him. Such a misfortune, it was declared, concerned all the people, and to prevent it a revolution was necessary. 125 1677 C. R., I, 293 Biggs and Miller arrested strance of Valentine Byrd, with Culpepper and other coadjutors, immediately embodied a force and seized the person of Timothy Biggs, deputy collector of customs, and arrested him on the charge of murder. The next day a force of forty armed men seized Miller and two other deputies and put them in irons, charging them with treason. Culpepper, who is said to have had considerable experience in insurrection in several of the colonies, now despatched instructions to Richard Foster, who, although one of the council and a deputy, was in alliance with the confederates to arrest Hudson, the deputy collector in Currituck, and to seize his papers and bring him to George Durant's house. And a proclamation, called The Remonthe Remonstrance of the Inhabitants of Pasquotank, was Pasquotank on the same day, December 3d, prepared and sent to the other precincts, setting forth their justification for the revolt. In it the confederates averred that the occasion of securing the records and imprisoning the president was that thereby the country might have a free Parliament, by whom their grievances might be sent home to the Lords Proprietors. Miller they charged with having denied a free election and Dec., 1677 with cheating the country out of one hundred and thirty thousand pounds of tobacco, besides the expense of "near twenty thousand pounds of tobacco he had brought upon us by his piping guard," and they recited his conduct toward Captain Gilliam and Durant, "and many other injuries, mischiefs and grievances he hath brought upon us, that thereby an inevitable ruin is coming upon us (unless prevented), which we are now about to do; and hope and expect that you will join with us therein and subscribe this." C. R., I, 248 C. R., I, 249 1677 C. R., I, 242, 303 C. R., I, 299 Dec., 1677 CHAPTER XI ADMINISTRATIONS OF HARVEY, JENKINS, WILKINSON AND The revolt successful.-A government by the people.-Victory brings moderation.-Quiet succeeds the storm.-The revolt against arbitrary power and the navigation acts.-The Proprietors dilatory. The increase of Albemarle.-The Proprietors acquiesce. -Seth Sothel sent to govern.-John Harvey governor.-Miller flees. Durant dominant.-Biggs retires to Virginia.-The Quakers appeal to the Proprietors for protection.-Harvey dies; ceeded by Jenkins.-Culpepper tried, but acquitted.-Shaftesbury in exile.-Albemarle to observe the law.-Wilkinson governor.Sothel arrives.-John Archdale visits Albemarle.-A view of the situation. Sothel becomes a tyrant.-He is expelled. The revolt successful suc The Revolutionists, having appealed to the country for support, lost no time in dallying. A supply of arms was obtained from the Carolina, and Culpepper conducted a force to Chowan, where he seized the marshal and all the records in his possession. After keeping Miller and the other prisoners about a fortnight at Crawford's house, the Revolutionists proceeded by water to George Durant's, being accompanied by several boats filled with armed men. As they passed the Carolina she, with all her flags and pennons flying, saluted them by firing three of her great guns. At Durant's some seventy men had assembled, and Foster, with an additional party, soon arrived with their prisoner from Currituck. A search was now made for the seal of the colony, which was found, together with Miller's commission and other public documents, concealed in a hogshead of tobacco. Being in possession of the great seal and of the public records, and the old officers deposed and in prison, Durant, Culpepper and their associates proceeded to establish a government and to order matters their own way. EASTCHURCH IN VIRGINIA A government by the people 127 C. R., I, 1677 C. R., I, 298 An Assembly of eighteen members was elected, which deputed five of its members (John Jenkins and Valentine Byrd being among the number) to sit with Foster, one of the Proprietors' deputies, and form a court for the trial of the prisoners, who were charged with treason. A grand jury was formed and a petit jury was being summoned when the proceedings were interrupted by the receipt of a procla- 297, 299 mation issued by Governor Eastchurch, warning them to desist and return to their homes. Eastchurch had reached Virginia eight days before, and on learning of the revolt, hastened to demand that the Revolutionists should disperse and be obedient to lawful authority. The trials were adjourned and a force was despatched to prevent Eastchurch from coming into Albemarle ; and, as Durant had threatened, they kept him out by force of arms. Disappointed and baffled, Eastchurch invoked the aid of the governor of Virginia, there being in that province the troops sent from England to suppress Bacon's Rebellion, and permission was given him to enlist volunteers. To meet this new danger that threatened them the Revolutionists organized a larger force, and to obtain the necessary funds seized the customs money which Miller had collected, and deposed him as collector and elected Culpepper in his stead, following a precedent that had just been set in Virginia, where the Assembly elected a collector to fill a vacancy. But while collecting recruits and organizing his forces Eastchurch fell ill with fever, and within a month died in Virginia. With his death all appre- C. R., hension of immediate interference with their plans passed away. Durant and his coadjutors were masters of Albemarle. All of the deputies but Foster being arrested, and all opposition overcome, the Revolutionists now proceeded more slowly and with greater caution. I, 298 Their success had been obtained by boldness and resolu- Victory tion, and it was complete; but looking to the future, they moderation realized that their situation called for the exercise of wisdom brings 1678 C. R., I, Commis 300 and discretion. The interrupted trials were not resumed. Miller was conveyed to William Jennings's plantation at the upper end of Pasquotank River, where a log house ten feet. square was built for his prison, and there he was confined, not being allowed either writing material or intercourse with any friend. Similar prisons were constructed for each of the other prisoners, and precautions were taken to prevent any of them communicating with England. But Biggs contrived to escape, and, succeeding in his efforts to reach Virginia, hastened to England. To counteract his representations to the Proprietors, the Assembly was convened and two commissioners were despatched to explain their prosioners sent ceedings and to conciliate the Proprietors by promising all manner of obedience to their authority, but they were to enlarge on the tyranny of Miller and to insist strongly for right against him. Chalmers says that these agents were Culpepper and Holden, but apparently he is in error. Somewhat later Holden, who had been in England, returning to Virginia stopped in Boston, and while there wrote to the commissioners of customs about what had taken place in Albemarle, and mentioned that he had never seen and did not know Culpepper. It is said that one of these commissioners was quickly despatched, Gilliam providing the funds, and that the other, George Durant, was to sail in the Carolina after measures to insure safety were perfected. Shortly afterward they were both together in London. to England C. R., I, 288 In the meanwhile there was established in Albemarle what government Culpepper called "the government of the country by their own authority and according to their own model." The people had at last a free Parliament. Thomas Cullen was speaker, and among the members were John Jenkins, Alexander Lillington, Thomas Jarvis, Henry Bonner, William Jennings, Anthony Slocumb, John Varnham, William Crawford, Richard Sanders, Patrick White, and Valentine Byrd, and other substantial men. Byrd's career was, however, fast drawing to a close, and within a year the troubles of Albemarle had ceased for him. REASONS FOR CULPEPPER'S REVOLT Foster, one of the deputies, and the assistants chosen by the Assembly to act with the deputies in forming the grand council, were co-operating with the Revolutionists, and these, under the direction of Durant and Culpepper, managed the public business. While Harvey and many others may have been inactive, yet it does not appear that there was any substantial opposition to the revolt. 129 1677 The revolt one against arbitrary power and tion laws the naviga Purpose of As neither the king's authority nor that of the Proprietors was denied, the Revolutionists did not regard themselves as being in rebellion. Indeed, at one time, when some of the people set up a cry that they would have no lords nor landgraves nor caciques, the leaders quickly hushed them and told them that that would not do. They justified their action on the claim of right to protect themselves from the arbitrary exercise of power by Miller; and as to that, the Proprietors found that they had cause for their action. But before Miller came as deputy-governor Durant had declared his purpose to keep Eastchurch out, and he took measures in preparation for the revolt. From the attending circumstances it reasonably appears that the original purpose was to escape from a too rigid enforcement of the navigation the revolt laws and custom duties, and to this end Culpepper was chosen collector. The annual tax on tobacco was £3,000, and that was the stake at issue. Indeed, just at that time strenuous efforts had been made to obtain from the king a repeal of this export duty. And while Charles, to show his favor to Carolina, did at his own charge send two vessels to convey some foreign Protestants to the province, and remitted some of the duties and restraints of trade, and might have granted this particular request, he was persuaded not to do so by his commissioners of customs, who strongly recommended against it because they foretold the exemption asked for would occasion abuses more easy to prevent than to abolish. of the Thus the outbreak in Albemarle in 1677 was of the same Forerunner color and similar in origin to the outbreak on the continent Revolution |