52
\'IRGIX]A BIOGRAPHY
Eventually, by purchase Lord Thomas Cul-
peper possessed himself of both patents and
all the privileges and benefits of each. Natu-
rally these grants were very distasteful to the
Virginians, and for a long time they paid no
attention to the demands of the patentees and
of Culpeper, and sent various agents to Eng-
land to protest against them. In 1675 Cul-
peper obtained from the king a commission
to succeed Sir \\'illiam Berkeley, on his
demise, as governor of Virginia, and in May,
1680, he came to Virginia, hoping doubtless to
put some life into the privileges of his pro-
prietorship. He brought instructions intendecf
to put the government of Virginia on a more
royal basis, but he succeeded in carrying out
only a part of his policy. The clerk of the
a.ssembly, who had hitherto been elected by
that body, became now the appointee of the
governor, a permanent revenue was established
rendering the salaries of the governor and
council independent of the people; and instead
of annual meetings of the assembly, the cus-
tom of calling it for special occasions and pro-
roguing it from time to time, was begun. In
August, not long after the adjournment of the
assembly, Culpeper set out for England by
way of New England, whereupon, Sir Henry
Chicheley reassumed the government. Cul-
peper was absent for more than two years
from Virginia, during which time, on account
of the low price of tobacco, the Plant Cutters
rebellion occurred. Culpeper was ordered by
the king to return to his charge, and he arrived
in Virginia December 17, 1682, but found the
rebellion already suppressed by Sir Henry
Chicheley. To serve as an example, he, how-
ever, executed two of the ring leaders, and
continued under bond for his appearance
Major Robert Beverley, clerk of the assembly,
who had been arrested by Sir Henry Chiche-
ley as the chief instigator. Before leaving
England he had received fresh instructions
aimed at the rights and liberties of the assem-
bly, but Culpeper declined to oppose himself
to the popular will on most of the questions.
The assembly, however, lost its power as the
court of appeals, and the council, by order of
the crown, was made the court of last resort,
except in cases of £300 value, when an appeal
might be made to the privy council in Eng-
land. Culpeper soon gave the king and his
advisers an opportunity of punishing him and
replacing him with a more efi-icient instrument
of tyranny. Directly in face of an order of
the council forbidding him to receive any pres-
ents, he accepted large sums of money from
the assembly, and contrary to another express
order forbidding any colonial governor from
absenting himself from his government with-
out special leave, he returned a second time to
England after a stay in the colony of only
about five months. He was at once deprived
of his office, and Lord Howard of Effingham
dispatched to succeed him. A year later he
sold the larger share of his Virginia rights
to the crown for an annuity of i6oo for twenty
years, retaining only the portion of the terri-
tory called the Northern Neck, which was now
confirmed to him by a patent from the crown
dated September 2"], 1688. While governor,
however, he made a little headway in bringing
the residents of the Northern Neck to submit
to him as proprietor, and for many years after
his death, which occurred in 1690, the inhabi-
tants continued indififerent. It was not till
1703, when Robert Carter became the manag-
ing agent, that the people began to patent lands
in his office. The proprietor then was Thomas
Lord Fairfax, who before 1692 married Kath-
erine, Lord Culpeper's only daughter, and
heiress by his wife. Lady Marguerite Hesse.
