Bacon's Rebellion

which (the doors of the house being fast lock’d on them) many
by threats, Force and Feare were feigne to subscribe. The
tenor of the oath¹ is as follows:

     1. You are to oppose what Forces shall be sent out of England
by his Majesty against mee, till such tyme I have acquainted the
King with the state of this country, and have had an answer.

     2 . You shall sweare that what the Governor and councill have
acted is illegal and destructive to the country, and what I have
done is according to the Lawes of England.

     3. You shall sweare from your hearts that my comission is law-
full and legally obtained.

     4. You shall sweare to divulge what you shall heare at any
time spoken against mee.

      5. You shall keepe my secrets, and not discover them to any person.

     Copyes of this oath are sent to all or most of the countyes
of Virginia, and by the Magistrates and others of the respes-
tive Precincts administered to the People, which none (or very
few) for feare or Force durst or did refuse. To Perfect all at
once, and to make all secure, which soe long as the Governour
was at Liberty they thought could not bee, But that hee would
still seeke means whereby to regaine his Place and authority,
and not to be soe basely extruded that high Trust lawfully
residing in him, They take Capt. Larrimore’s ship by sur-
prize, man her with 200 men and Guns to goe to Accomack
and seize the Governour, Pretending to send him home Pris-
oner to his Ma’tie for to receive Tryall of his demeritts towards
his Majesties subjects of Virginia, and for the likely losse of that
Colony for want of due and tymely care for the Preserva-
tion of it against the dayly Incursions and Encroachments of
the Native Salvages, who had destroy’d and laid wast the

by Giles Bland, when Thorp was by drink bereaved of his common reason,” but
afterward refused to take up arms in the insurgent cause. As a result he and his
wife were imprisoned by Bacon and plundered of property worth £1200, while
Berkeley stripped him of the remainder of his estate (Virginia Magazine, V. 67;
Acts P. C. Col., I., §1189).

      ¹Three oaths were exacted by Bacon: one shortly after June 25 at the ren-
dezvous, Falls of James River, just before the march against the Indians; the
second, the “illegal” oath, at Middle Plantation; and the third, the same as the
second, taken by the Gloucester men at Tindall’s Point in October.