The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1877-04-06
IlVs 4As bNVONs
Richmond, Va, April 4, 1877.
virginia Colonial Governors.
By Rev. Edward D. Seill.
M

SIR GEORGE YEARDLEY, KNIGHT.
Next to the enrolment OF the household
OF Governor Wyatt in the census Of 1924 is
Ex-Governor Yeardley, whom the Speaker
OF the First Legislature called ga soldier
truly bred in the University OF War in the
low countries" He and his wife Temper
mce were old settlers. Both left England
with the Gates and Somers expedition.
She al rived in the Falcon in August, 1909.
Yeardley having been with Gates and Som
crs in the ship that was wrecked at Bermu-
| das, remained there all the winter, and IN
May, 1910, arrived in the Deliyerance, q
vessel Of seventy tons, built at that island.
He was not of the same distinguished pa
rentage as his successor. His brother
Ralph kept an apothecary store at the sign
OF the Artichoke, Wood street, London,
| but the records show that Yeardley was
a brave soldier and faithful officer.
Lord Delaware. in lG10, made him CON-
mander of the stockade, near the site OF the
| present Fortress Monroe, and in the fall he
went on an exploration toward the sources
OF the James river. When Sir Thomas
| Dale, in 1915, returned to England the
government was entrusted to Ieardley,
| under whom the ancient planters, in docu-
ment sent to England, state that "the
! Colony lived III peace and the best plenty 1t
| ever had" At this period he resided most
OF the time at Bermuda Hundred, where
Alexander Whitaker preached. About
Christmas, A. ID. 1916, he led an expedition
against the Chickahominy Indians, who had
been troublesome, and conquered peace.
In 1917 he surrendered the government to
Argall, who was not faithful to his trust {;
and the London company, in letter to
Lord Delaware, written the latter part OF the
summer OF 1913, charge him with neglect
and transgressing his commission and In
structions, and ordered him to be sent home.
After the letter OF recall was shipped, in
telligence reached London early in October
that Lord Delaware, the Governor-General,
had died on the voyage to Virginia, and
Yeardley, who was with his wife in Lon
don. was again appointed Deputy Governor.
Sir Philip Mainwaring, on the 18th Of No
vember, 1913, writes to the Earl Arundel: {:
'This morning the King knighted the new
Governor OF Virginia, who, upon long
discourse with the King, doth prove very
understanding. Amongst many other things
he told the King that the people OF that
country do believe in the resurrection OF
the body, and that when the body dies the
soul goes into certain fair, pleasant fields,
there to solace itself until the end Of the
world, and then the soul is to return to the
body aguin and live both together happily
and perpetually- Hereupon the King in-
ferred that the gospel must have been here
tofore Known in that country, although it
be lost, and this fragment only nemains."
Not being connected with the gentry or
nobility, there was a disposition upon the
part OF some in London to sneer at his ap-
pointmens, and on the 18th Of November a
friend wrote to Sir Dudley Carleton .'Here
be two or three ships ready for Virginia,
and one Captain Yeardley, a mean fellow,
by way OF provision, goes as Governor, and
to grace him the more the King Emighted
him this week at New Market, which hath
set him up SO high that he daunts:it up and
dowa in the street with extraordinary
bravery, with fourteen or fifteen lkQeries
after him." He sailed rrpm Londonen the
10Th OF january, and after q tediousv0yage
arrived on the 18th OF Ansl in Virginia.
He found abolt 400 persons An the Colony.
Jamestown, the capital, was fortified vith
swo demi-culrerins, fitted" the ancient
sslanters said, - to shoot down our houses
frtber than to offend an enemy, and mottnt-
ed on rotten carriages The only houses
there were those built by Sir Thomas GateG,
the Governors house having aa addition
placed thereto by ArgMl and church
Of wsood, built by The Inhabitants. twenty
feet i'm breadth apd ffty in length.
The ssly other settlements were Henrico,
Charles City, and Bermuda Hundred, Shir-
ley, AIrahattock, Martins Brandon, and
Henrico c0psisted OF two or
Three old houses and small church in
ruins, with few poor buildings on the
island. At Coxadale and Arrahattock, one
house; at Charles City, six houses. much
decayed. He found three ministers au.
who never received their orders.n Rev.
Whitaker, who had preached at
Bermuda Hundred, on the south side Of
The river, five miles from Henrico, In 1917,
was drowned. When Yeardley succeeded