Economic Development and Political Authority: Norfolk, Virginia Merchant-Magistrates, 1736-1800
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W&M ScholarWorks Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects Theses, Dissertations, & Master Projects 1991 Economic development and political authority: Norfolk, Virginia merchant-magistrates, 1736-1800 Thomas Costa College of William & Mary - Arts & Sciences Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wm.edu/etd Part of the Business Commons, Economic History Commons, and the United States History Commons Recommended Citation Costa, Thomas, "Economic development and political authority: Norfolk, Virginia merchant-magistrates, 1736-1800" (1991). Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects. Paper 1539623807. https://dx.doi.org/doi:10.21220/s2-myhw-xv82 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses, Dissertations, & Master Projects at W&M ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects by an authorized administrator of W&M ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact [email protected]. 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Ann Arbor, MI 48106 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND POLITICAL AUTHORITY: NORFOLK, VIRGINIA, MERCHANT-MAGISTRATES, 1736-1800 A Dissertation Presented to The Faculty of the Department of History The College of William and Mary in Virginia In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Thomas M. costa 1991 ' -·------ --------- Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. APPROVAL SHEET This dissertation is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Author Approved, August 1991 Thaddeus Tate Peter c. Stewart Department of History, Old Dominion University ii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. To Mary, with love and affection iii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS • •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• v ABSTRACT • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • vi INTRODUCTION • •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 2 CHAPTER I. NORFOLK COUNTY AND TOWN, 1637-1736: FOUNDATIONS OF A COMMERCIAL COMMUNITY •••••••••• 11 CHAPTER II. NORFOLK MERCHANT-MAGISTRATES, 1736-1750: ESTABLISHMENT OF A COMMERCIAL OLIGARCHY ••••••• 39 CHAPTER III. NEW MEASURES, NEW MEN: COMMERCIAL EXPANSION AND NORFOLK MAGISTRATES, 1750-1770 ••••••••••• 76 CHAPTER IV. CRISIS IN CONFIDENCE: MAGISTRATES AND VIOLENCE IN NORFOLK, 1762-1769 ••••••.••••••• 116 CHAPTER V. NORFOLK MERCHANTS AND THE IMPERIAL CRISIS: COMMERCIAL DEVELOPMENT AND THE VIRGINIA MERCHANTS' ASSOCIATION ••••••••••••••••••..••• 162 CHAPTER VI. NORFOLK MERCHANTS AND THE IMPERIAL CRISIS II: INDEBTEDNESS AND LOYALTIES, 1770-1775 •••••••• 200 CHAPTER VII. NORFOLK MERCHANTS IN THE REVOLUTION, 1775-1783 ................................... 236 CHAPTER VIII. NORFOLK IN THE CONFEDERATION PERIOD: REBUILDING THE BOROUGH, 1781-1787 •••••••••. 280 CHAPTER IX. COMMERCIAL NORFOLK, 1790-1800: BANK AND CHAMBER •.•••••••••.•.••••••••••.•••• 318 BIBLIOGRAPHY • ••••••••••••...•.••••••••••.••••••••.••..••• 3 6 0 iv Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank Professor John Selby, director of this dissertation. His patient guidance penetrated much of my fuzzy thinking and provided me with direction as the outlines of this study began finally to emerge. In addition, Professor Selby's editorial touch has done much to smooth the rough edges of my prose. Professor Thad Tate's immense knowledge of colonial Virginia helped me place this local study in the context of wider provincial developments. Professor James Whittenburg will remain a model of teaching and professionalism for the remainder of my career. Professor M. Boyd Coyner also gave his time and effort to make this a better work. Peter Stewart of Old Dominion University merits special mention as scholar and friend. It was he who first piqued my interest in the history of my horne community. Our friendship and collaboration over the years has been a constant source of interest and pride. Others aided in the completion of this project. Mary Ferrari contributed her knowledge of colonial Norfolk, as did Elizabeth Wingo. Fran Jacobson helped with some knotty software problems. Another scholar and friend, although not directly concerned in this dissertation, deserves thanks. Mark Fernandez was an important reason that graduate school was such an enjoyable experience. Finally, I owe most of all to my wife, Mary E. Martin, to whom this work is affectionately dedicated. Her patient coping with the many challenges of living with someone engaged in a long-term research project well-illustrates that hackneyed phrase, "For .better or for worse." She's earned all the credit in the world. v Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ABSTRACT Colonial Norfolk, Virginia, developed a more diversified economy than much of the rest of the tobacco growing Chesapeake. Through a vigorous trade to the West Indies in agricultural products, local merchants prospered, and in 1736 a group of the leading local traders received a charter incorporating Norfolk town as a borough. From that time until the Revolution, through the offices of mayor and aldermen, who corresponded to county magistrates elsewhere in Virginia, the founding merchants and their hand-picked successors governed the town. Norfolk's merchant-magistrates retained their grip on the town's political and economic life until after the Revolution, despite competition from new arrivals who came to Norfolk after 1750. This influx of new men resulted from economic developments in the wider Atlantic trading world which fueled significant local commercial expansion and created tensions resulting in violence in Norfolk in the 1760s. The turbulence of the 1760s played a role in determining how Norfolk's merchant-magistrates reacted to the growing imperial crisis. While the established leaders formed the core of the area's patriot group during the Revolution, many of the newer arrivals remained loyal to Great Britain. At the beginning of the conflict, Norfolk Borough was almost totally destroyed, and its merchants, patriot and loyalist, became dispersed. Norfolk's patriot merchants provided much-needed aid in supplying Virginia during the Revolution, and their wartime careers placed them in a favorable position to resume leadership of the borough after the war. In the post-war years, while the merchant-magistrates lost their oligarchic hold on local government with the revision of the borough charter in 1787, Norfolk's commercial vitality resumed. By 1800, Norfolk's leading merchants' saw their economic pre eminence confirmed through the establishment of the Norfolk branch of the Bank of the United States and the Norfolk Chamber of Commerce in 1800. vi Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND POLITICAL AUTHORITY: NORFOLK, VIRGINIA, MERCHANT-MAGISTRATES, 1736-1800 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Introduction Historians of the colonial Chesapeake have rightly stressed the