Bacon's Rebellion

It was not long before the Governour (still at Accomack)
had intimation of Bacons death. He had a long time bin shut
up in the Arke (as we may say) and now thought good to send
out a winged Messinger to see, if happely the Delluge was any
whit abated; and whether any dry-ground emerg’d its head,
on which, with safety, he might sett his foot, without danger
of being wetshod in blood, which accordingly he effected,
under the command of one Maj. Beverly,¹ a parson calculated
to the Lattitude of the Servis, which required descretion,
Courage, and Celerity, as qualetys wholly subservant to milli-
tary affares: And all though he returnd not with an Olive
branch in his Mouth, the Hyrogliph of peace, yet he went back
with the Laurell upon his browes, the emblim of Conquest
and tryumph, haveing snapt up one Coll: Hansford² and his

     ¹Major Robert Beverley, sr., one of the ruling faction with Berkeley, the
Ludwells, Hill, and Hartwell, came to Virginia in 1668 and settled in Middlesex
County. He was deemed by Bacon one of the chief enemies of the popular cause
and was named in the Declaration of the People. He accompanied Berkeley to
the Eastern Shore, but was sent back with troops to suppress the insurrection.
In this work, particularly after Bacon’s death in October, he was successful, and
accomplished his end with so much energy as to call forth charges of oppression.
The commissioners were hostile to Beverley and he was afterward removed from
the council, but reinstated on the arrival of Governor Culpeper. The commis-
sioners reported him as saying in the presence of Wiseman, their secretary, that
he had not plundered enough, and that the rebellion was ended too soon for his
purpose. They also charged him with “fomenting the ill-humours” between
Governor Berkeley and Colonel Jeffreys, and with refusing to honor their demand,
made upon him, April 19, 1677, as clerk of the House, to deliver the journal of
the session beginning February 20. In the latter case, the commissioners were
compelled to seize the journals, thus committing “a great violation of their
privileges,” as the House claimed. Beverley was a vigorous but harsh man,
hostile to the commissioners, though in his way loyal to the colony. His son,
Robert Beverley, jr., was the author of a History of Virginia.

     ² Captain Thomas Hansford was one of the most active of Bacon’s followers,
and is characterized by Mr. Bruce as a man of “high and noble spirit,” “the
noblest of all the victims of Berkeley’s insane wrath.” One of his fingers was cut
off by Captain William Digges, son of Governor Edward Digges, who in conse-
quence had to flee across the Potomac to St. Mary’s, Maryland, where he became
o ne of Lord Baltimore’s chief supporters, and took a prominent part in opposing
the uprising of 1689. Hansford was captured about the middle of November, 1676,
and, with four others, executed at Accomac, by martial law, as a rebel. The
commissioners declared that this execution was illegal, as Hansford had had
"no tryal or conviction by lawful jury.”