User:MPS/WilliamsburgianVirginia

This is a User Subpage devoted to a specific topic that I am trying to flesh out. I intend to edit articles related to an under-represented time period in Virginia History; namely, the 1700 - 1740 time period (Late Baroque / Georgian Era.) I am also interested in exploring the links between Colonial Virginia and London in this timeframe, perhaps to discover the reason why the Governor George Hamilton, 1st Earl of Orkney apparently did not set foot in Virginia during his ~50 year tenure as Royal Governor. The page name (User:MPS/WilliamsburgianVirginia) was chosen because Jamestown burned in 1698 and the capital Williamsburg was named soon after.) The Georgian era technically did not begin until 1714 and lasted through 4 Georges until the 1830s. Much of the Colony of Virginia article is focused on the founding of Jamestown in 1607 and the development of the early colony.

Potential Topics

 * Major events of the time
 * Timeline
 * Plantation Houses
 * Notable people of the time
 * Londoners
 * Virginians
 * Additional Articles
 * References / See Also

Major events of the time

 * 1704 -- In August, John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough wins a military victory at the Battle of Blenheim helping King William III of England and the Grand Alliance (League of Augsburg) preserve the Hapsburg Vienna from conquest by the the Franco-Bavarian alliance.
 * 1713 -- Treaty of Utrecht helps end the War of the Spanish Succession, setting up Hanoverian (German-speaking) George I as the heir to the British throne.
 * 1720 -- South Sea Company popped in 1720, causing a major economic disaster in Britain. Robert Walpole was able to employ political influence to successfully restore public confidence in the financial system and protect influential people such as Charles Spencer, 3rd Earl of Sunderland and James Stanhope, 1st Earl Stanhope, and in doing so he regained First Lord of the Treasury and became Britain's first prime minister under King George I and remained in that position for almost 21 years, until 1742.

1640s
1642 -- Due to Puritan influence, the London theatre closure 1642 -- On 2 September 1642, just after the First English Civil War (1642 - 1646) had begun, the Long Parliament ordered the closure of all London theatres. The closure was the culmination of the rising anti-theatrical sentiment among Puritans, and along with William Prynne's Histriomastix (1633), its text was the most notorious attack on theatre in English history.

1649 - Charles I executed by Oliver Cromwell. During the Interregnum period (1653 - 1659), Oliver Cromwell oversees The Protectorate as Charles II resides in Europe.

1650s
1650 -- Due to its loyalty to the deposed King Charles I, the Rump Parliament passes An Act for prohibiting Trade with the Barbadoes, Virginia, Bermuda and Antego 1651 - Frontiersmen from the English colony of Virginia (to include George Durant and Nathaniel Batts from Nansemond County, Virginia) began to settle in the northern half of the Carolina region forming the Albemarle Settlements on the Roanoke River west of the Chowan River. The southern half of the Carolinas saw the immigration of plantation owners from Barbados, who established slave plantations which cultivated cash crops such as tobacco, cotton, rice and indigo. In 1663 this area would be known as the Province of Carolina.

1658 -- When Cromwell died 3 September 1658, he was succeeded by his son Richard Cromwell who was then replaced by the Committee of Safety (England) on 25 May 1659 on the authority of the New Model Army who established a Rump Parliament.

1660s

 * 1660 -- The Stuart Restoration in 1660 overturns the Commonwealth of England and re-establishes the House of Stuart. The reign of King Charles II lasts from 1660 to 1685. Since Charles II likes the theater, the decidedly non-Puritan era of Restoration comedy begins, with sometimes bawdy humor as a part of performances. The stereotype of the debaucherous aristocrat (Rake (stock character) ) is popularized in the culture.
 * 1665-1666 -- the Great Plague of London killed an estimated 100,000 people—almost a quarter of London's population—in 18 months. The plague was caused by the Yersinia pestis bacterium, which is usually transmitted to a human by the bite of a flea or louse.
 * The London Gazette was first published as The Oxford Gazette on 7 November 1665. Charles II and the Royal Court had moved to Oxford to escape the Great Plague of London, and courtiers were unwilling to touch London newspapers for fear of contagion. The Gazette was "Published by Authority" by Henry Muddiman, and its first publication is noted by Samuel Pepys in his diary. The King returned to London as the plague dissipated, and the Gazette moved too, with the first issue of The London Gazette (labelled No. 24) being published on 5 February 1666. The Gazette was not a newspaper in the modern sense: it was sent by post to subscribers, not printed for sale to the general public.
 * 1666 -- the September 1666 Great Fire of London guts the medieval City of London, leading to a need for reconstruction.

1670s
1671 -- London-born Theodorick Bland of Westover dies at his Westover Plantation grounds, where the Westover Church had been build in the 1620s. His eldest son, Theodorick, inherited the land and joined with his brother, Richard, in its ownership. The brothers eventually conveyed 1,200 acres of the property to William Byrd I in 1688 for £300 and 10,000 pounds of tobacco and cask.


 * 1674
 * Bruton Parish established as a consolidation of two other parishes within the Church of England. The first brick version of Bruton Parish church was built in Williamsburg on land and with funds donated by the prominent Williamsburg-area planter and House of Burgesses member John Page. Page died in 1692.
 * As the Treaty of Westminster (1674) ended the Third Anglo-Dutch War, Edmund Andros traveled to America. He was appointed by the James, Duke of York to be the first proprietary governor of the Province of New York. The province's territory included the former territories of New Netherland, including all of present-day New Jersey, the Dutch holdings on the Hudson River from New Amsterdam (renamed New York City) to Albany, as well as Long Island, Martha's Vineyard, and Nantucket. . Signed by the Dutch Republic and the Kingdom of England, the treaty provided for the return of the colony of New Netherland (now New York) to England and renewed the Treaty of Breda of 1667. The treaty also provided for a mixed commission for the regulation of commerce, particularly in the East Indies. Andros arrived in New York harbor in late October and negotiated the handover of the Dutch territories with local representatives and Dutch Governor Anthony Colve, which took place on 10 November 1674. Andros agreed to confirm the existing property holdings and allow the territory's Dutch inhabitants to maintain their Protestant religion.
 * 1675 -- to provide consistent advice to the Privy Council regarding the management of the growing number of English colonies, Charles II forms a permanent body called the Lords of Trade and Plantations
 * Bacon's Rebellion (1676 to 1677 ) led by Nathaniel Bacon against Colonial Governor William Berkeley. The conflict began after Bacon issued the Declaration of the People of Virginia, and after Berkeley refused Bacon's request to drive Native American Indians out of Virginia. The conflict ended soon after Bacon died.
 * At the end of the conflict, Pamunkey tribal leader Cockacoeske signs the Treaty of 1677 along with other "tributary tribes" signed, which guaranteed them control over their traditional homelands, hunting and fishing rights, the right to keep and bear arms, and other rights so long as they maintained their loyalty towards the English Crown.
 * After their trial at Berkeley's Green Spring plantation on January 24, James Crewes and 15 other rebels were hanged. At least part of Crewes' former plantation on Turkey Island in the James River was acquired in August by his neighbor William Randolph, where it became one of the seats of the Randolph family of Virginia.
 * In a similar fashion, Giles Bland (son of John Bland and grandson of Theodorick Bland of Westover) was found guilty of rebellion and his land at Berkeley Hundred was confiscated by Governor Berkeley and later sold to Benjamin Harrison III in 1691. Harrison's son Benjamin Harrison IV later built the Georgian-style brick Berkeley Plantation house there in 1726.


 * Bacon's rebellion began after King Philip's War (June 20, 1675 – April 12, 1678) in the New England Colonies but had similar causes -- In 1684, the Chancery Court in England voided the Massachusetts colonial charter and changed it to a royal colony. Charles II placed Massachusetts under the authority of the unified Dominion of New England in 1685 and put Edmund Andros in charge of the dominion in 1686.
 * 1677 - William of Orange marries Mary II of England (the niece of Charles II and the eldest daughter of James Duke of York) at the Hague, Netherlands.
 * 1679 -- The Exclusion Crisis ran from 1679 until 1681 in the reign of King Charles II of England, Scotland and Ireland. Three Exclusion Bills sought to exclude the King's brother and heir presumptive, James, Duke of York, from the thrones of England, Scotland and Ireland because he was Catholic. None became law. Two new parties formed. The Tories were opposed to this exclusion while the "Country Party", who were soon to be called the Whigs, supported it. While the matter of James's exclusion was not decided in Parliament during Charles's reign,

1680s

 * 1685 -- Charles II dies, and his younger brother King James II takes the throne for three years. (1685–1688).
 * 1685 -- Catholic French King Louis XIV issues the Edict of Fontainebleau (18 October 1685, published 22 October 1685), an edict also known as the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes which in (1598) had granted Huguenots the right to practice their religion without state persecution. Huguenot refugees soon begin to arrive in London.
 * 1685 -- Scottish-born James Blair (clergyman) was ordained in the Church of England, and at the request of Henry Compton, the Bishop of London (responsible for the colonies), Blair travelled to the New World with a mission to "revive and reform the church in the Virginia Colony." His initial assignment was to serve as rector of the Parish of Henrico at Varina. He developed good relationships with prominent political families, such as the Harrison family. He married Sarah Harrison, daughter of Benjamin Harrison Jr., on 2 June 1687 and became the brother-in-law to Philip Ludwell Jr. who had married Hannah Harrison. When John Clayton, Commissary in the Virginia Colony for the Bishop of London, returned to England after just two years of service, Blair succeeded him, making him the colony's highest-ranking religious leader, a position that he would hold for 54 years.
 * 1687 -- Theodorick's son Richard Bland I obtains an unencumbered title to Jordan's Point Plantation near Farrar's Island on the James River.
 * 1688 -- the Glorious Revolution -- Catholic King James VII and II has a son in June (Prince James Francis Edward Stuart, eventually known as the Old Pretender), removing his Anglican daughter Mary and her Protestant husband William III, Prince of Orange, from the line of succession. In November, the Glorious Revolution deposes the house of Stuart, and replaces them with a joint regency of William and Mary. The Bill of Rights 1689 and the Act of Settlement 1701 later establish that Catholics would no longer be allowed to be King of England.
 * Maryland, having been founded as a Catholic colony and formerly protected by the 1649 Maryland Toleration Act, was affected by athe anti-Catholic wave during a Protestant Revolution (Maryland) (also known Coode's Rebellion) in 1689. The Lords Baltimore lost control of their proprietary colony, and for the next 25 years, Maryland would be ruled directly by the British Crown. A rapid succession of Maryland governors included John_Coode_(Governor_of_Maryland)(1689-1691), Nehemiah Blakiston (1691-1692), Lionel Copley (1692-1693), Thomas Lawrence (Governor of Maryland) (1694), Edmund Andros (1693-1694), Nicholas Greenberry (1693-1694), Francis Nicholson (1694-1699) and Nathaniel Blakiston (1698 - 1702)
 * During the 1689 Boston revolt, there were similar religious tensions in Massachusetts as Cotton and Increase Mather led Puritan leaders to restore the Massachusetts Bay Colony and more religious freedom (Declaration of Indulgence in 1687 had established some freedom of religion). Mather's group tried to overthrow former New York governor Sir Edmund Andros who had been appointed Dominion of New England governor in 1686. Simultaneous to unrest in Boston, lieutenant governor of New York Francis Nicholson met civil unrest in New York during Leisler's Rebellion (May 31, 1689 – March 21, 1691). Nicholson set sail for England with New York Governor Thomas Dongan, 2nd Earl of Limerick in June, and arrived in England in August. In acknowledgement of his service in New York, King William rewarded Nicholsen with the lieutenant governorship of Virginia, a position he would hold until 1692.
 * The Nine Years' War(1688 - 1697) in Europe parallels the King William's War] (1688 - 1697) in the North American Colonies. Dutch-born King William leads the [[Grand Alliance (League of Augsburg) (consisting of English, Dutch, and Hapsburg forces) to counter French territorial ambitions. Virginia was too far south to be directly affected by this war, but it did send troops and money to New York mid-1690s.
 * In 1691, House of Burgesses member Arthur Allen II (owner of Bacon's Castle) and fellow burgess-elect James Bray refused to take the newly rewritten oath of allegiance and supremacy which recognized the ascent of William III and Mary II following the Glorious Revolution. Allen cited "Scruple of Conscience" and his oath of allegiance to the former James II, and so was not seated, and also could not hold any office in Virginia for what turned out to be 14 years. Thus, a new election was held in Surry County, and voters elected Benjamin Harrison to replace Allen. Allen also refused an order of the Surry County court to subscribe to the oath in 1697, and in that year the General Assembly questioned the validity of surveys he might make, also citing his refusal to take the oath. Allen finally subscribed to the oath in the spring of 1702 (after James II had died in exile), and was soon thereafter sworn in as one of the board of visitors governing the College of William and Mary.


 * 1689 -- Gin Craze -- With tensions between France and England at a high, Between 1689 and 1697, the Government passed a range of legislation aimed at restricting brandy imports and encouraging gin production. As the monopoly of the London Guild of Distillers was broken in 1690, this opened opening up the market in gin distillation. Additionally, no licenses were needed to make spirits, so distillers of spirits could have smaller, simpler workshops than brewers, who were required to serve food and provide shelter for patrons. . The unfettered production and consumption of gin had profound effects on society, and continued to increased until the 1730s.
 * in 1689, Prince William, Duke of Gloucester is born to Princess Anne and her consort Prince George of Denmark.
 * 1689 In January 1689, the Palace of Whitehall burns to the ground, making the royal residence Kensington Palace. In the summer of 1689, William and Mary bought the Kensington Palace property, then known as Nottingham House, from the Secretary of State Daniel Finch, 2nd Earl of Nottingham, 7th Earl of Winchilsea, for £20,000.

Early 1690s

 * In 1691, the House of Burgesses abolishes the enslavement of Native peoples; however, many Powhatans were held in servitude well into the 18th century.
 * 1694 -- In April 1694, banker and financier John Law enters into a duel with Edward "Beau" Wilson (killing him) over mutual interest in Elizabeth Villers. He was arrested, charged with murder and stood trial at the Old Bailey. He appeared before the infamously sadistic "hanging judge" Salathiel Lovell and was found guilty of murder and sentenced to death. Law was initially incarcerated in Newgate Prison but later escaped to Amsterdam.
 * 1694 -- On December 28 1694, Queen Mary dies. William subsequently ended his four year relationship with Elizabeth Villers, motivated, it is said, by his wife's dying wishes. On 25 November 1695, Elizabeth was married to her cousin, Lord George Hamilton, the fifth son of the 3rd Duchess of Hamilton. A few weeks later, on 3 January, he was honoured with the titles Earl of Orkney. In 1698 Hamilton Earl of Orkney would be named Governor of Virginia.
 * After Lord Francis Howard, 5th Baron Howard of Effingham resigns, King William appoints Edmund Andros as Governor of Virginia. The Lieutenant Governor Francis Nicholson becomes governor of Maryland. Andros lives at Middle Plantation until 1695, worked to organize the provincial records, the maintenance of which had suffered since Bacon's Rebellion (1676 to 1677), and promoted the enforcement of laws designed to prevent slave rebellions.
 * 1693 -- College of William & Mary founded in Middle Plantation under a royal charter issued by King William III and Queen Mary II. The "Main Building (renamed the Wren Building in the 1930s) served as the main academical building on the campus until the completion of the Brafferton (building) in 1723 (built probably by Henry Cary Jr. with funds from Royal Society member Robert Boyle).

Late 1690s

 * mid 1690s -- Reverend Blair's brother Archibald Blair (burgess) and nephew John Blair Sr. leave Britain and join him in the capitol of Virginia. Archibald held a prominent medical practice and apothecary shop in Williamsburg and his family was associated with several other establishments to include Dr. Blair's Store (a mercantile house) and taverns such as the [[Raleigh Tavern].
 * 1696 -- The Navigation Act 1696 (also known as An Act for preventing Frauds and regulating Abuses in the Plantation Trade) placed new restrictions on colonial trade, and several different administrative provisions to strengthen enforcement and consolidate the earlier acts.
 * Overall, the Navigation acts were meant to prohibit the use of foreign ships, required the employment of English and colonial mariners for 75% of the crews, including East India Company ships. The Acts prohibited colonies from exporting specific, enumerated, products to countries other than Britain and those countries' colonies, and mandated that imports be sourced only through Britain.
 * the Commissioners for Trade and Plantations replaced the Lords of Trade and Plantations to promote trade and to inspect and improve the plantations of the British colonies. It carried out its duties by maintaining correspondence with colonial governors, conducting inquiries, hearing complaints and interviewing merchants and colonial agents. The information so obtained was used to advise King and Parliament. The new board did not exercise executive authority and had no significant powers of appointment. Nevertheless it exerted significant influence owing to its specialised knowledge and the maintenance  of an extensive archive. In the historical documents this organisation was sometimes known colloquially as the "Lords of Trade" or "Board of Trade", however in formal documents it was called the "Lords Commissioners for Trade and Plantations". Political and Education philosopher John Locke in his old age was Secretary of the Commissioners for Trade and Plantations in the late 1690s, and participated in the hearings where James Blair visited London and accused Governor Edmund Andros of general underfunding the administration of the Virginia Colony churches under Blair's charge, and specifically that Andros was obstructing the development of the College of William and Mary through political and monetary maneuvering.
 * 1697 -- While studying law in London at Lincoln's Inn, young William Byrd II stood before the bishop of London and to defend Governor Edmund Andros against James Blair's accusation that  Andros was obstructing the development of the College of William and Mary. Byrd lost the case, and Francis Nicholson again became Lieutenant governor (1698 to 1705) having already served as governor from 1690 - 1692. For the next four years from 1698 - 1702, Byrd became the colonial agent in London and worked to undermine Nicholson's powers.
 * 1698 -- In October, Jamestown burns. On June 7, 1699 Williamsburg is established as the new capital, with the main street designated as "Duke of Gloucester Street".

Early Aughts
1701-- James II of England pretender to the throne, dies in exile.
 * In 1700 and 1701, about 700-800 French Huguenot religious refugees on five ships arrived at Jamestown from London, having been promised land grants and settlement in Lower Norfolk County by the Crown. Many of them had been merchants and artisans in London, which was overflowing with refugees from French Catholic persecution after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685. Others had found temporary refuge in Holland, Switzerland, Germany, and Ireland. As the tobacco plantations along the James River were dependent upon shipping and water transport, the area in the Piedmont above the head of navigation at the fall line had not yet been settled. Thus the French Hugenots settled in modern day Powhatan County, Virginia and Manakin Sabot, Virginia, areas where the Monacan Indian Nation had recently abandoned due to white settlement in the region.
 * 1700 -- In July, Anne's 11-year old son Prince William, Duke of Gloucester dies, provoking a future succession crisis, as neither Mary nor Anne had any other living offspring.
 * in 1701, the Nanfan Treaty an agreement made between representatives of the Iroquois Confederacy with John Nanfan, the acting colonial governor of New York, on behalf of The Crown. The treaty was conducted in Albany, New York and under the treaty, the Five Nations (which became the 'Six Nations' after 1720) granted "after mature deliberation out of a deep sense of the many Royal favours extended to us by the present great Monarch of England King William the Third" the title to a vast area of land, covering significant portions of the present-day Midwestern United States and southern Ontario that they had claimed as a hunting ground, as far west as 'Quadoge' (now Chicago), by right of conquest during the later Beaver Wars of the 17th century.
 * In 1702, King William dies (After his wife Mary's death in 1694, William reigned alone until his own death in 1702). In 1702, Anne (Queen Mary's younger sister and oldest remaining relative of James II of England) assumed the throne as queen of England, Scotland, and Ireland.
 * Anne's younger brother James Francis Edward Stuart then began to claim his father's dethroned rights. On his father's death in 1701, James was recognised by King Louis XIV of France as the rightful heir to the English, Irish and Scottish thrones. Spain, the Papal States, and Modena also recognised him as king of England, Ireland and Scotland and refused to recognise William III, Mary II, or Anne as legitimate sovereigns. As a result of his claiming his father's lost thrones, James was attainted for treason in London on 2 March 1702, and his titles were forfeited under English law.
 * 1702 -- When Queen Anne's War broke out in 1702, Nicholson lent New York £900 of his own money, with the expectation that it would be repaid from Virginia's quit rents (it was not). The publicity of this scheme increased dislike of him in Virginia, and may have played a role in his recall. Virginia was not militarily affected by the war.
 * At the turn of the century, Nicholson courted the teenage Lucy Burwell of the Burwell family of Virginia. Burwell, known for her beauty and charm, did not reciprocate his feelings. Nicholson continued to press Burwell and her parents for the match he desired. Nicholson's temper, along with his unpopular policies, drove four Burwell relatives and two others to petition Anne, Queen of Great Britain for Nicholson's removal as governor, which was achieved in 1705. Titled "Memorial Concerning the Maladministration of Governor Nicholson", it was signed by six councilors John Blair, Benjamin Harrison, Robert Carter, Matthew Page, Philip Ludwell, and John Lightfoot. She married Edmund Berkeley, a successful planter.
 * 1704 -- William Byrd I dies, and William Byrd II returns to Virginia from England.
 * 1704 -- In August, John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough wins a military victory at the Battle of Blenheim helping English Grand Alliance (League of Augsburg) (that had been reconstituted under the Treaty of The Hague (1701)) preserve the Hapsburg Vienna from conquest by the the Franco-Bavarian alliance.
 * 1704 -- Political and Education philosopher John Locke dies.

Late Aughts

 * The Queen's Theatre opens on April 9, 1705 at the junction of the Haymarket and Charles II Street in the West End of London. To build the theatre, dramatist and architect John Vanbrugh raised the money by subscription, possibly among members of the Kit-Cat Club. Handel first debuted in London 24 February 1711 when his opera Rinaldo was first performed there. It was a great success with the public, despite negative reactions from literary critics hostile to the contemporary trend towards Italian opera in English theatres.
 * 1705 -- Virginia Slave Codes of 1705 -- All servants from non-Christian lands became slaves, rather than indentured servants
 * 1705 -- Governor Edward Nott takes office and begins construction of the Governor's Palace (Williamsburg, Virginia) but never takes residence there. Nott's governorship lasts only a year. When Nott died, his intended succeesson Robert Hunter (colonial administrator) is lost at sea and never serves the post of Governor. As a result, Virginia installs an "acting governor" in Nott's place,  Edmund Jenings (governor). Jenings had served in various positions for the Virginia colony to include the Virginia Governor's Council (Privy Council) and as attorney general since at least 1680. Because of his previous association with Nicholson, he was unpopular among the colonial leadership and this somewhat ineffective during his term 1706 - 1710.
 * 1706 -- Nathaniel Blakiston (former governor or Maryland from 1698 - 1702) is elected as the colonial agent in 1706 and represents Virginia Colony interests in London.
 * 1707 - Merger of Scotland and England Following the 1706 Treaty of Union and the Acts of Union 1707, Queen Anne is then queen of the merged kingdom of Scotland and England.
 * 1708 -- Queen Anne's husband, Prince George of Denmark dies.
 * When he took office in 1710, Governor Alexander Spotswood continued to modify the Governor's Palace.

Early 1710s

 * 1710 the St Paul's Cathedral in London (designed by Christopher Wren) is completed.
 * The Spectator (1711) was a daily publication founded by Joseph Addison and Richard Steele in England, lasting from 1711 to 1712. Each "paper", or "number", was approximately 2,500 words long, and the original run consisted of 555 numbers, beginning on 1 March 1711. The Spectator also had many readers in the American colonies.  In particular, James Madison read the paper avidly as a teenager.  It is said to have had a big influence on his world view, lasting throughout his long life. Benjamin Franklin was also a reader, and the Spectator influenced his style in his "Silence Dogood" letters.  Although The Spectator declares itself to be politically neutral, it was widely recognised as promoting Whig values and interests. The Spectator continued to be popular and widely read in the late 18th and 19th centuries.
 * 1710-11 - The partition of Carolina into the Province of North Carolina and the Province of South Carolina was completed at a meeting of the Lords Proprietors of Carolina held at Craven House in London on December 7, 1710, although the same proprietors continued to control both colonies. During Cary's Rebellion, Quaker and Deputy Governor Thomas Cary refuses to transfer power to The first provincial governor of North Carolina, Edward Hyde. Cary's conflict with the Lords Proprietor may have been due to religious differences, such as Quaker tradition not to take oaths to kings, but also may have been due to dissatisfaction with England's defense of Carolina during the Queen Anne's War (1702–1713). Cary was eventually defeated and captured in Virginia, and Hyde took office as he had planned. In 1711, Virginia Governor Alexander Spotswood sent Cary and his supporters to London to subject them to trial. Cary was released in 1712 without suffering any punishment, "likely due to a lack of clear evidence". In 1712, the Lords proprietor subdivided the Carolina Province into Province of North Carolina and Province of South Carolina.




 * 1712 -- Newly appointed Governor Spottswood submitted a Tobacco Inspection Act to the House of Burgesses to ensure higher quality of tobacco exports, all Virginia Tobo would have to be inspected before shipping to London. In December 1714, he had the Indian Trade Act passed. All commercial activities with the Indians south of the James River were placed under the exclusive control of the Virginia Indian Company, established with an allocation of £10,000. . The measure should have put an end to the illegal trade that took place along the border and which, according to Spotswood, was one of the reasons for the unrest of the Indians, and at the same time was against the interests of the colonials who were trading privately with the Indian tribes.
 * 1712 When his father died, 39-year old English naturalist Mark Catesby escorts his sister Elisabeth (nee Catesby) Cocke from England to Williamsburg to be with her husband Dr. William Cocke, the personal physician of Governor Spotswood. After a trip to the West Indies, Catesby would later return to England in 1719 but gained prominence within the Royal Society for the next several decades as he studied and classified flora and fauna of North America.
 * 1713 -- Treaty of Utrecht helps end the War of the Spanish Succession, setting up Hanoverian (German-speaking) George I as the heir to the British throne.
 * Great Britain was the main beneficiary; Utrecht marked the point at which it became the primary European commercial power. In Article X, Spain ceded the strategic ports of Gibraltar and Minorca.
 * In a major coup for the British delegation, the British government emerged from the treaty with the Asiento de Negros, which referred to the monopoly contract granted by the Spanish government to other European nations to supply slaves to Spain's colonies in the Americas.
 * In North America, France recognised British suzerainty over the Iroquois, and ceded Nova Scotia and its claims to Newfoundland and territories in Rupert's Land.
 * To celebrate the Peace of Utrecht, Handel's Utrecht Te Deum and Jubilate (an English Language sacred choralcomposition in two parts) is performed at St. Paul's Cathedral on 13 July 1713. This piece and his [[Ode for the Birthday of Queen Anne] that had been performed in earlier in 1713 are considerd to be the first major sacred works to English texts and his first commissions from the British royal family.
 * 1714 -- Thomas Randolph first settled at Tuckahoe (plantation) around 1714 and is recorded as contributing to the construction of the local Dover Parish (also known as St James Parish) church in the early 1720s. Randolph brought with him enslaved people, sufficient enough in number to be called a workforce, that he inherited from his father William Randolph's estate.
 * 1714 -- after 12 years on the throne, Queen Anne dies without an heir (after 17 failed pregnancies and the death of her 11-year old son 14 years earlier). Her Hanoverian cousin George I becomes king due to the rules of primogeniture and recently enacted English laws stating no Catholics could assume the throne. The Georgian Era begins.

Late 1710s
Atterbury Plot of 1722]] and at other times.
 * 1715
 * The Sun King, Louis XIV ends his 72-year (1643 - 1715) reign of France. His five-year-old Louis XV becomes the new king. Until he reached maturity (then defined as his 13th birthday) in 1723, the kingdom was ruled by Louis XV's grand-uncle Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, as Regent of France. Cardinal Fleury was chief minister from 1726 until his death in 1743, at which time Louis XV took sole control of the kingdom.
 * as France was essentially bankrupt after the long rule of Louis XIV, the French government adopted the economic/monetary theories of Scottish financier John Law and gave him a monopolistic charter for the Banque Royale under which the national debt was assigned to the bank in return for extraordinary privileges. The involvement of the French government in the Mississippi Company created a market bubble that burst at the end of 1720, as the prospects of French Louisiana were oversold. In 1720, the capital of French Louisiana moved from La Mobile to Biloxi, but then moved again in 1723 to New Orleans.
 * In 1715, Daniel McCarty (from Westmoreland County) becomes speaker of the Virginia House of Burgesses, a position he would hold until 1720.
 * In 1715 Peyton Randolph House built in Williamsburg (built about 1715 by William Robertson, but John Randolph (politician) purchased in 1724, and his son Peyton Randolph (b1721 d1775) occupied it and eventually inherited it when John Randolh died in 1737 when Peyton was 15. He attended the College of William & Mary and later studied law at Middle Temple at the Inns of Court in London, becoming a member of the bar in 1743. Randolph eventually served as speaker of Virginia's House of Burgesses, president of the first two Virginia Conventions, and president of the First Continental Congress.  He also served briefly as president of the Second Continental Congress.)
 * 1716 In the Fall of 1716, Spotswood leads the Knights of the Golden Horseshoe Expedition over the Blue Ridge Mountains and claims the banks of the Shenandoah River] for King George.
 * 1717 -- Isham Randolph of Dungeness (born in 1687 on the Turkey Island plantation in Henrico County, Virginia) marries Jane Rogers in London at St. Paul's Church in the Shadwell parish (today east London). Jane was from a wealthy landed gentry family of England and Scotland. Isham and Jane Randolph moved to Virginia and in 1718 had their first of nine children. Their second, Jane Randolph (1720-1776), grew up to marry Peter Jefferson and had nine children, including Thomas Jefferson, the third President of the United States.
 * 1717 -- on 17 July, Water Music (composed by German George Frideric Handel) premiers in London. It was composed in response to the newly crowned Hanoverian King George I's request for a concert on the River Thames.
 * 1719 -- Jacobite rising of 1719 was a failed attempt to restore the exiled Catholic House of Stuart via placing James Francis Edward Stuart on the throne of Great Britain. The assault on King George I was defeated at the Battle of Glen Shiel in Scotland. The Jacobists held an English court-in-exile in France and continued to periodically plotted against the Georges in the [[Atterbury Plot|
 * 1719 -- In 1719, Thomas Fairfax, 6th Lord Fairfax of Cameron came into possession of the vast Culpeper family estates in Virginia's Northern Neck Proprietary between the Rappahannock and Potomac Rivers. These lands included a great portion of the Shenandoah and South Branch Potomac valleys, in all consisting of some 5,282,000 acres (21,380 km2). Struggling to keep up an expensive lifestyle and maintain Leeds Castle, Fairfax relied on the income from his Virginia tract, both from the sale of land and the annual quit rents, paid by planters who settled in the Northern Neck. These rents were collected by his resident land agent, Robert "King" Carter (1662–1732).

1720s

 * 1720 -- John Holloway replaces Daniel McCarthy as the Speaker of the House of Burgesses, a position he would hold until 1734. In 1722 Holloway would become the first mayor of Williamsburg when the legislature incorporated it as a town.
 * 1720 -- South Sea Company popped in 1720, causing a major economic disaster in Britain. Robert Walpole was able to employ political influence to successfully restore public confidence in the financial system and protect influential people such as Charles Spencer, 3rd Earl of Sunderland and James Stanhope, 1st Earl Stanhope, and in doing so he regained First Lord of the Treasury and became Britain's first prime minister under King George I and remained in that position for almost 21 years, until 1742.
 * 1720 - 1721 -- When his father Richard Perry of Leadenhall Street (d1720) and grandfather Micajah Perry (d 1721) both die in rapid succession, young Micajah Perry takes over the family's tobacco merchant business in London. He was frequently consulted about the Virginia colony by the Board of Trade. However, he lacked the business acumen of his grandfather, and progressively lost business. He achieved more success politically. At the 1727 general election he was elected Member of Parliament (MP) for the City of London, and also that year became Master of the Haberdashers' Company.
 * 1722 -- Hugh Drysdale replaces Spotswood as governor (actually Lieutenant Governor), until he died in July 1726.
 * 1723 -- 17-year old Benjamin Franklin flees Boston from his apprenticeship at his brother James' 1721 newspaper The New-England Courant. After arriving in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Governor Sir William Keith, 4th Baronet (a former Jacobite who had been restored as a surveyor general in Virginia) suggests that he start a newspaper, and sends Franklin to London. Franklin is stranded in London from  1723 to 1726, but after meeting Thomas Denham and working as a typesetter in the St. Bart's print shop in London, Franklin returns to the colonies and starts the The Pennsylvania Gazette in 1728.
 * Former Virginia colonial agent Nathaniel Blakiston dies in February 1722.
 * 1726 -- As Governor Drysdale dies and the council awaits the appointment of a new governor, prominent planter Robert "King" Carter serves as chief executive of Virginia.
 * 1726 - After offending the aristocratic chevalier de Rohan-Chabot in France, Voltaire is exiled to England for 2.5 years (May 1726 - 1729). During this time, he lives near Covent Garden, mingles with members of English high society, meeting Alexander Pope, John Gay, Jonathan Swift, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, and many other members of the nobility and royalty.. He later publishes a series of essays Letters on the English in 1734 based on his experiences.
 * 1727 --
 * 11 June 1727 -- King George I dies and is succeeded by his son George II of Great Britain. While George II would reign until 1760, his wife, Queen Caroline of Ansbach would precede George II in death in November 1737.
 * Sir William Gooch, 1st Baronet serves assumes the governor role, a position he would hold until 1740.
 * 1728 -- Byrd embarks on an expedition with North Carolinian Edward Moseley to survey the border between North Carolina and Virginia, which he later writes a documentary book about it.

1730s

 * 1730 -- Tobacco Inspection Act of 1730 -- The Act called for the inspection and regulation of Virginia's tobacco, the most important crop of the colony.
 * 1732 -- Robert "King" Carter (1662–1732) dies in August. In the fall of 1732, Fairfax read Carter's obituary in the London monthly The Gentleman's Magazine and was astonished to read of the vast personal wealth Carter had accumulated, which included £10,000 in cash: this at a time when the Governor of Virginia was paid an annual salary of £200. Rather than appoint another Virginian to the position, Lord Fairfax arranged to have his cousin Colonel William Fairfax move in 1734 from Massachusetts to Virginia to serve as his resident land agent.
 * 1732 -- after investigating prison conditions in England, the Oglethorpe Committee (including John Perceval, 1st Earl of Egmont and James Oglethorpe form the Trustees for the Establishment of the Colony of Georgia in America and convince George II of Great Britain to authorize the founding of Trustee Georgia, which would later become one of the 13 original colonies. On 14 October 1735, John Wesley and his brother Charles sailed to Savannah but returned to London in 1737.
 * In order to control vice, the Gin Act 1736 imposed taxes on distillation. The law proved immensely unpopular and provoked public rioting and widespread defiance until the Gin Act 1743 reduced the taxes. In light of the difficulty in enforcing the law (and the financial strain of the War of the Austrian Succession), the Gin Act 1743 reduced the cost of an annual gin-selling license from £50 to just 20 shillings. The excise tax on gin producers and penalties for violating the law were also significantly reduced. The question of taxing and regulating gin was later revisited by the Gin Act 1751.


 * 1736 -- William Parks founds the first newspaper in America south of the Potomac River, the Virginia Gazette based on the London Gazette.


 * 1737 - Theater Censorship -- Under the Licensing Act 1737, the Lord Chamberlain was granted the ability to vet the performance of any new plays: he could prevent any new play, or any modification to an existing play, from being performed for any reason, and was not required to justify his decision. New plays were required to be submitted to the Lord Chamberlain for a licence before they could be performed, and theatre owners could be prosecuted for staging a play (or part of a play) that had not received prior approval. A licence, once granted, could be also withdrawn.  The Licensing Act 1737 also limited spoken drama to the patent theatres, originally only the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane and Theatre Royal, Covent Garden in London.
 * 1738 -- First Great Awakening -- George Whitefield arrives at Christ Church (Savannah, Georgia) in 1740, Whitefield preached nearly every day for months to large crowds as large as eighty thousand people as he travelled throughout the colonies, especially New England. His journey on horseback from New York City to Charleston, South Carolina, was at that time the longest in North America ever documented.


 * December 1738 -- Virginia-born orphan Philip Ludwell III is received into the Eastern Orthodox Church, and making him the earliest known Eastern Orthodox Christian in North America.
 * 1739 -- War of Jenkins' Ear (1739-1748) War between Britain and Spain over access to markets in Spanish America, draws in some of the Colonies. This was somewhat of an extension of Anglo-Spanish War (1727–1729).
 * 1739 - Sea captain and Georgia Trustee Thomas Coram finally achieves his vision and convinces George II to establish the Hospital for the Maintenance and Education of Exposed and Deserted Young Children in London, which would be come a fashionable chairty among the British elite.
 * late 1730s / Early 1740s - To aid the safe settlement of the Shenandoah Valley along the Great Indian Warpath (also known in parts as the Great Wagon Road or the Valley Pike), Gooch negotiates a peace between the Iroquois and their enemeies to the south.
 * The Battle of Galudoghson took place in December 1742, at a site near present-day Glasgow, Virginia, when the Augusta County militia engaged in combat with Onondaga and Oneida Indians. These warriors had traveled to Virginia from Pennsylvania under the command of an Iroquois chief named Jonnhaty, to participate in a campaign against the Catawba.
 * The battle was the first armed conflict between settlers in Western Virginia and Native Americans. The battle was one factor that led colonial authorities to negotiate with Native American leaders for the 1744 Treaty of Lancaster where the Iroquois ceded land
 * Sir William Gooch, the colonial governor of Virginia, agreed to pay the Iroquois / Haudenosaunee 100 pounds sterling for any settled territory in the Shenandoah Valley which they claimed belong to them. The following year, in the Treaty of Lancaster, the Haudenosaunee sold their remaining claims in the Shenandoah Valley for 200 pounds sterling in gold and 200 pounds sterling worth of goods..

1740s

 * 1748 -- the King George's War  (1744–1748) ends. It was an extension of the War of the Austrian Succession (1740–1748) in Europe, where the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748) ended antagonism between the British and French. In London, George Frideric Handel composes Music for the Royal Fireworks to celebrate the end of this war.

1750s

 * 1754 -- French and Indian War (1754–1763) begins as the Braddock Expedition seeks to claim fur trade rights in the Ohio Country to the British.

Plantation Houses

 * Westover (William Byrd II)
 * Corotoman (King Carter)
 * List of James River plantations

Virginia counties seemingly named for famous Brits of the Georgian era

 * Abermarle County, Virginia
 * Brunswick County, Virginia
 * Charles City County, Virginia
 * Charlotte County, Virginia
 * Chesterfield County, Virginia
 * Dinwiddie County, Virginia
 * Fairfax county, Virginia
 * Goochland County, Virginia
 * King And Queen County, Virginia
 * King George County, Virginia
 * [[King William County, Virginia
 * Lunenburg County, Virginia]]
 * Orange County, Virginia - (William III of Orange)
 * Prince Edward County, Virginia
 * Prince George County, Virginia
 * Prince William County, Virginia
 * Spotsylvania County, Virginia
 * Wythe County, Virginia

Notable people of the time

 * Governor Alexander Spotswood and others from the List of colonial governors of Virginia

Additional Articles

 * History_of_Virginia
 * Tobacco in the American colonies
 * Colony of Virginia
 * Georgian era
 * List of colonial governors of Virginia
 * Colonial Williamsburg
 * Category:Speakers of the Virginia House of Burgesses
 * First Families of Virginia
 * Randolph family of Virginia

References / See Also

 * https://research.colonialwilliamsburg.org/foundation/journal/Autumn03/society.cfm