Author: Governor's Council

PRIMARY DOCUMENT

Governor’s Council Declares War on the Patawomeck Tribe (July 10, 1666)

In these minutes from July 10, 1666, the governor’s Council declares war on the Patawomeck Indian Tribe, citing attacks against colonists. The governor’s Council was a Crown-appointed body of colonial Virginia’s most prominent men who advised the royal governor, served as the upper house of the General Assembly, and with the governor constituted the colony’s highest court. The threat of war caused many Patawomeck people to spread across the state or ally with other Indigenous communities to avoid conflict, but a continued Patawomeck presence remained in Stafford and King George counties.

PRIMARY DOCUMENT

The Case of John Graweere (March 31, 1641)

In this case, heard before the General Court on March 31, 1641, John Graweere, a “negro servent” of William Evans, petitions to purchase his enslaved son from the owner of the boy’s enslaved mother.

PRIMARY DOCUMENT

Edmund Jenings Removed from Governor’s Council (1726)

In its meeting on June 25, 1726, the governor’s Council, in consultation with Lieutenant Governor Hugh Drysdale, removed Edmund Jenings from his position on the Council. Jenings had long been absent from meetings, and his health, both physical and mental, was deteriorating. Drysdale, too, was ill, and Jenings, as senior member of the Council, was in line to serve as president, or acting governor, when Drysdale died. With Jenings’s removal, his rival Robert “King” Carter served that role when Drysdale died on June 22, 1726.

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