Bacon's Rebellion

The History of Bacon’s and Ingram’s Rebellion, though of
unknown origin, was written by a resident of Virginia, as the
text of the narrative shows. The author speaks of Jamestown
as “our Metropolis,” calls the Virginians “our deare Bretheren
and countrymen,” and refers to Major Page as “once my ser-
vant.” That he was familiar with the course of the rebellion
is evident from the narrative itself; and that he obtained a
part of his evidence at first hand appears from his references
to Captain Grantham and from the elaborate abstracts of
documents given in the text. Though the style is verbose
and involved, the general treatment shows the writer to have
been of a literary turn of mind, well read, proficient at cards,
sport, and astronomy, and possessed of an unusual sense of
humor. The manuscript is undoubtedly contemporary with
the events described and was sent to some one not named,
probably in Virginia, as it was in Virginia that it was dis-
covered.

       Toward the close of the eighteenth century, Captain Na-
thaniel Burwell, hearing that the manuscript was in the hands
of an “old and respectable” family of the Northern Neck of
Virginia, secured it as a work of value for the history of the
colony. The Hon. William A. Burwell, a member of Congress
from Virginia, finding the history among his relatives’ papers,
sent it to the Hon. Josiah Quincy, a representative in Con-
gress from Massachusetts in 1812, with permission to print,
after which the original manuscript was to be returned to the
owner. The work appeared in the first volume of the sec-
ond series of the Collections of the Massachusetts Historical
Society (1814), pp. 27-80, but through a misunderstanding the

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