Authors Robert
7 days
30 days
All time
Recent
Popular
If Augustus Caesar truly "found Rome a city of bricks and left it a city of marble" then Sir William Berkeley may rightly be called the Virginian Caesar. He found us on the verge of economic ruin, torn apart by political, social and religious strife. He left us a nation.
🧵:
Early on in his governorship Sir William succeeded in breaking the power of the warlords, something attempted and miserably failed at by previous
He then set about constructing a new elite for Virginia. Sir William was himself the younger son of an ancient and gentle family, a devout Anglican and a staunch monarchist. Those Sir William recruited would nearly all be exactly as he was in birth and beliefs.
Much of the elite migration to Virginia occured during the 1650s when the Puritans gained the upper hand in England with "Virginia [being] the only city of refuge left in His Majesty's Dominions, in those times, for distressed cavaliers" as one writer put it.
As a result of Sir William's recruitment the first Madison, Mason, Lee and Washington arrived in Virginia, families which would birth important figures later on. One Samuel Filmer also arrived, son of Sir Robert Filmer who wrote the famous royalist treatise "Patriarcha".
🧵:
Early on in his governorship Sir William succeeded in breaking the power of the warlords, something attempted and miserably failed at by previous
Early on the Virginia colony was naught but several isolated plantations dotted along the James River. They operated autonomously outside of the governor's control and, using their indentured servants as private armies, often raided one another. This was our Warlord Era. pic.twitter.com/sgDIRSnjza
— Robert (@rfhirst) October 18, 2022
He then set about constructing a new elite for Virginia. Sir William was himself the younger son of an ancient and gentle family, a devout Anglican and a staunch monarchist. Those Sir William recruited would nearly all be exactly as he was in birth and beliefs.
Much of the elite migration to Virginia occured during the 1650s when the Puritans gained the upper hand in England with "Virginia [being] the only city of refuge left in His Majesty's Dominions, in those times, for distressed cavaliers" as one writer put it.
As a result of Sir William's recruitment the first Madison, Mason, Lee and Washington arrived in Virginia, families which would birth important figures later on. One Samuel Filmer also arrived, son of Sir Robert Filmer who wrote the famous royalist treatise "Patriarcha".