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Ye Kingdome of Accawmacke, Or, the Eastern Shore of Virginia in the Seventeenth Century

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Ye Kingdome of Accawmacke, Or, the Eastern Shore of Virginia in the Seventeenth Century This is a reproduction of a library book that was digitized by Google as part of an ongoing effort to preserve the information in books and make it universally accessible. https://books.google.com LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA ELIZABETH COCKE COLES COLLECTION OF BOOKS ABOUT VIRGINIA i YE KINGDOME OF ACCAWMACKE OR THE EASTERN SHORE OF VIRGINIA IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY BY JENNINGS CROPPER WISE MEMBER Virginia Historical Society THE BELL BOOK AND STATIONERY CO. RICHMOND, VIRGINIA 1911 F 288884 DEDICATED TO THB MEMORY OP MY GRANDFATHER HENRY ALEXANDER WISE OF Virginia and Accomack, " I have met the Black Knight with his visor down, and his shield and lance are broken." PREFACE The author of this volume, which purports to be a History of the Eastern Shore of Virginia in the Seventeenth Cen tury, submits the completed work to the public. He can only say that he has not failed where others have succeeded, for the little peninsula has had no former historian. The task was undertaken in the hope that the very deficiencies in his own narrative might urge a more competent pen to action and inspire a better history of this long-neglected region of the Old Dominion. If this volume accomplish no other result than to impress a more able writer with the valuable material for such a work, if it call attention to events of all-absorbing interest as yet inadequately described, and bring to light from among the musty archives of Acco- mac and Northampton but a few facts bearing upon the history of our State, then will the author rest content in the feeling that while he has not succeeded as a historian, yet he has induced a more accurate portraiture of a country and a people. It is an astonishing fact that such historic documents as the Pledge to the Commonwealth, The Northampton Pro test, The Northampton Grievances, Bacon's Appeal to Ac- comac, and the Accomac Memorial, addressed to Berkeley after the Rebellion of 1676, should all have been utterly neglected by the historians of Virginia, for these documents are not simply matters of local interest, but have a direct bearing upon the general history of the State. Indeed, the texts of these instruments have never before been collected in a single volume. Yet, the disregard of such significant matters in our State annals is no more unaccountable than the absence from the histories of any mention of the remark- T vi PREFACE able industrial and trade development of the Eastern Shore prior to the middle of the Seventeenth Century; of the nourishing mercantile intercourse between that region and New England, New Netherlands, Holland, England and the West Indies ; of the powerful colony of Dutch, German and New England citizens upon the soil of Virginia in its earliest days, and of the fact that the King's forces were equipped, provisioned and paid with money loaned to the King by the loyal gentry of Accomac and Northampton in 1676. The author does not demand that matters of purely local import should fill the pages of a general State history. He does maintain, however, that no work can justly claim to be an accurate and complete history of Early Virginia which disregards such fundamental facts as those above mentioned. In the writing of this brief sketch, the temptation was ever present to dwell upon the genealogy of the people, to intrude facts of family history and tradition into its pages, but the author has succumbed only where it seemed neces sary to illumine historical facts by reference to family con nections, reserving a full genealogical history of the people for a subsequent work, which will also deal with the period from 1700 through the War of 1861-65. To Eastern Shoremen, the death of Mr. Thomas T. Up shur, of Northampton, in January, 1910, was a sad loss, for had ho lived to weave into the form of a history the vast knowledge of his people which he had acquired by a long life of research among their records, no need of this work would have existed. The author desires to express the deepest indebtedness to Mr. Griffin C. Callahan, of Philadelphia, who, though he had for years been collecting historical data concerning the Eastern Shore, unselfishly placed the fruits of his research PREFACE at another's disposal ; to Mr. Philip Alexander Bruce, the greatest of Virginia's historians, who, besides offering many valuable suggestions, performed the laborious task of read ing and correcting the manuscript; to Mr. Win. G. Stanard of the Virginia Historical Society, and Mr. Earl G. Swem, Assistant Librarian of the Virginia State Library, both of whom materially assisted the author in the collection of authorities and rendered research in their libraries both pleasant and simple ; and lastly, to Mr. John Hart, of Rich mond, who has been an ever appreciated adviser in many phases of this work. It is almost unnecessary to add that the wealth of his torical matter, brought together by the tireless energy of Mr. Bruce, and placed at the disposal of the student in his "Immortal Trilogy," has been lavishly drawn upon. Indeed, no writer of Virginia history may hope to succeed without trespassing upon those priceless pages. At the great risk of unduly cumbering this book in the eyes of the casual reader, the text of many statutes and abstracts of old records have been set forth verbatim, in order that the student may have the authorities at hand. The spelling of various Indian names throughout the work has been purposely varied in order to illustrate the unset tled orthography of native nomenclature. The name selected for this first volume of Eastern Shore History involves the title applied to the little peninsula by the Sovereigns of the Seventeenth Century, who frequently addressed their de crees to "Ye Colony of Virginia and Ye Kingdome of Ac- cawmacke." And now the author, at the completion of his Preface, rests his pen, inviting criticism, but with the conceit of human nature, hopeful that with censure may come some meed of praise. Jennings Cboppeb Wise. Richmond, Va., March 1, 1910. CONTENTS PAGE I. Verrazano Discovers the Eastern Shore — 1624. The Massacre of Gilbert— 1603 1 II. The Coming of the English and Smith's Explora tions— 1607-8 11 III. Argoll's Visit and Dale's Gift— 1613-20 21 IV. The Plantation of Accomack— 1620-34 27 V. The Kingdom of Accawmacke and the Aborigines 49 VI. Origin of the People 68 VII. The County or Shire of Accomack. Kent Island —1634-42 81 VIII. The County of Northampton. Indian Scares — 1642-1652 96 IX. The Dutch War. The Eastern Shore under the Commonwealth. The Northampton Protest — 1652-1659 124 X. The Quakers. Maryland Boundary Troubles. The Assateague War— 1659-1660 153 XI. The Restoration. Accomack Formed from North ampton. The Calvert-Scarburgh Line. The Pirates— 1660-1674 164 XII. The Arlington-Culpeper Grant. Bacon's Rebel lion— 1674-1677 191 XIII. Towns and Courthouses Built. Tobacco Troubles. Jacobitism— 1677-1700 223 ix X CONTENTS PAGE XIV. The Early Church on the Eastern Shore. Puritan Ministers. Makemie 250 XV. The Negro and the Slave 285 XVI. Trade. Commerce. Industries 289 XVII. Horses. Stock. Game. Fish, Etc 307 XVIII. Social Conditions. Customs and Traditions 316 I Vebbazano Discovebs the Eastebw Shore. The Massacbe of Gilbert Between latitude 37° and 39!/^° north and running almost due north and south at about 76° west longitude, is a penin sula formed by the Chesapeake Bay, Atlantic Ocean and Delaware Bay, which embraces the greater part of the State of Delaware, about one third of Maryland, and two counties of Virginia. That portion at present included within the limits of Virginia is about seventy miles in length, extend ing from the Pocomoke River, near where it is intersected by the thirty-eighth parallel of north latitude, to Cape Charles, and having a mean breadth of about eight miles. It is a flat and sandy tract, largely covered with pines and swept by breezes of the Atlantic and Chesapeake, whose waters lave it on either side. The monotony of the country, due to the absence of mountains, hills or broken surface, is relieved by the picturesque bays and creeks which make up into the mainland at frequent intervals along its coasts. The Indians gave this isolated peninsula the name of "Acchawmake," or Accomac,1 which in our tongue signifies 'land beyond the water," a meaning that has reference to the location of the peninsula, separated as it is from the mainland of Virginia by the Chesapeake Bay. 'Spelt variously, Accomack, Accomacke, Accawmake, Acchawraacke, Accomac, Acbomat. (Algonquin for "a broad bay" or "the other side- land.") Chesapeake — a superior or greater salt bay. Pocomoke— "Knobby." 1 2 EASTERN SHORE OF VIRGINIA HISTORY The two counties, which together make up this peninsula, known as the Eastern Shore of Virginia, are Accomac and Northampton, the latter lying to the south of and being a little more than half as large as the former. Together they formerly comprised that section of Virginia known to the first English Colonists as "Ye Antient Kingdome of Ac- cawmake." On account of the physical character of our little penin sula, the English Sovereigns of the Seventeenth Century are said to have called it by the peculiarly appropriate name of "Chersonesus Orientalis," for it resembles not only in physi cal features, but in fertility of soil, the famous peninsula of the Thracian Hellespont. Not only during the period embraced in these pages, but down to a comparatively recent date, in spite of the salubrity of its climate, the astonishing fertility of its soil, the fame of its scholars, soldiers and statesmen, the Eastern Shore remained a terra incognita, a dim and shadowy land some where towards the rising sun.
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