PRIMARY DOCUMENT

“The order about Jayle birds” (1670)

ORIGINAL IMAGES
Minutes of the Council and General CourtMinutes of the Council and General Court
CONTEXT

On April 20, 1670, Virginia governor Sir William Berkeley and the governor’s Council issued the following order, glossed in the record as “The order about Jayle birds,” prohibiting the importation of certain English convicts as servants. The concern in part stems from the Gloucester County Conspiracy of 1663, in which a group of servants that included convicts allegedly plotted an insurrection. Some spelling has been updated and contractions expanded.

FULL TEXT

— page 209 —
Minutes of the Council and General Court

The Complaints of severall of the Councell … Inhabitants in the Countyes of Yorke Gloster and middlesex … apprehensions and fears least the honor of his majestie and the … of the Collony be too much hazarded and Endangered by the great number of fellons & other desperate … sent hither from the severall prisons in England being this Day read in Counsell, we have upon most serious and carefull consideracon of the same thought fitt to order and doe hereby accordingly order that for the prevention and avoiding danger which apparently threatens us from the barbarous designes and felonious practices of such wicked villaines that it shall not be permitted to any person tradeing hither to bring in and land any Jaile bird or such others who for notorious offenses have deserved to dye in England from and after the twentieth Day of January next upon paine of being forced to keepe them on board and carry them to some other Country where they may be better Secured, And we have been the more induced to make this order by the horror yet remaining amongst us of the barbaourous designe of such villaines in September 1663 who attempted at once the Subversion of our religion laws

— page 210 —
Minutes of the Council and General Court

libertyes rights and proprietyes the sad effect of which desperate Conspiracy we had undoubtedly felt to the ruine or at least the very great hazard of the peace and welfare of this Collony and neighbor plantations had not god of his infinite mercy prevented it by a tymely and wonderfull discovery of the same, nor hath it been a small motive to us to hinder and prohibite the Importation of such dangerous and Scandalous people Since thereby we apparantly loose our reputacon whilest we are believed to be a place only fitt to receive such base and lewd persons, It is therefore resolved that this order Shall remaine in force untill his majestie shall Signify his pleasure to the contrary or that it be reversed by an order from his most Honorable privy Counsell and that it be forthwith published that all persons concerned therein may take notice of it accordingly:

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TIMELINE
April 20, 1670
Governor Sir William Berkeley and the governor's Council issue an order prohibiting the importation of certain English convicts as servants. They cite the Gloucester County Conspiracy of 1663 as one reason for the action.
CITE THIS ENTRY
APA Citation:
General Assembly. “The order about Jayle birds” (1670). (2020, December 07). In Encyclopedia Virginia. https://encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/the-order-about-jayle-birds-1670.
MLA Citation:
General Assembly. "“The order about Jayle birds” (1670)" Encyclopedia Virginia. Virginia Humanities, (07 Dec. 2020). Web. 25 Sep. 2023
Last updated: 2020, December 07
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