Nicholas Spencer | |
---|---|
Member of the Virginia Council of State | |
In office 1672–1689 Servingwith John Washington | |
Member of the House of Burgesses for Westmoreland County | |
Assumed office 1668-1669 Servingwith John Washington | |
Preceded by | Isaac Allerton Jr. |
Succeeded by | Richard Lee II |
In office June 1666 –October 1666 | |
Preceded by | Isaac Allerton Jr |
Succeeded by | Isaac Allerton Jr. |
Personal details | |
Born | 1633 |
Died | 1689 Westmoreland County,Colony of Virginia |
Nationality | British |
Occupation | planter,politician |
Colonel Nicholas Spencer,Jr. (1633–1689) was a merchant,planter and politician in colonial Virginia. Born in Cople,Bedfordshire,Spencer migrated to the Westmoreland County,Virginia,where he became a planter and which he twice briefly represented in the Virginia House of Burgesses. Spencer later served as the colony's Secretary [1] and on the Governor's Council,rising to become it President and on the departure of his cousin [2] Thomas Colepeper,2nd Baron Colepeper in 1683,was named Acting Governor (1683–84),in which capacity Spencer served until the arrival of Governor Lord Howard of Effingham. [3] Spencer's role as agent for the Culpepers helped him and his cousin[ citation needed ] Lt. Col. John Washington,ancestor of George Washington,secure the patent for their joint land grant of the Mount Vernon estate.
Nicholas Spencer was born to an aristocratic English family long seated at Cople,Bedfordshire. [4] The family was related to the Spencer family of Northamptonshire,with whom they shared a coat of arms. [5] [6] [7] In 1531 the Spencers bought the manor of Rowlands at Cople, [8] which they owned for several centuries. [9] Nicholas Spencer,Sr.,father of the Virginia emigrant,and his wife,the former Mary Gostwick,second daughter of Sir Edward Gostwick,2nd Baronet, [10] had several sons,of these William inherited the family estates but died childless after making his heir his nephew,also William,son of his next-brother Nicholas who had moved to Virginia. [11] Another brother,Robert Spencer later removed from Surry County,Virginia,to Talbot County,Maryland,where his descendants long lived at Spencer Hall,the family plantation. [12] [13]
Nicholas Spencer sailed from London to Westmoreland County,Virginia,during the tobacco boom of the 1650s,and became agent for his cousin John Colepeper,1st Baron Colepeper. [14] Colepeper had inherited his father's share of ownership in the Virginia Company in 1617,and was subsequently knighted and afterwards raised to the peerage. He became the one-seventh proprietor of the Northern Neck of Virginia under the charter of 1649. Colepeper never lived in the colonies,and his son Thomas Culpeper,2nd Baron Culpeper of Thoresway,who lived at Leeds Castle,did not arrive in Virginia until 1680,twenty years after the tobacco boom ended in a bust prompted by wars with the Dutch and French and the Navigation Act of 1660. Nicholas Spencer had sailed to Virginia to help oversee his cousin John's investment,helping to colonize the frontier during the English Civil War in the mother county,and would survive Bacon's Rebellion.
On arriving in the colony,Spencer secured a lucrative appointment as customs collector,in addition to administrator of his cousin's Virginia estates. (Spencer's job as agent for his Colepeper cousins included such functionary tasks as seizing 'winter beaver skins' or casks of tobacco for debts owed the Colepeper interests). [15] Spencer and his neighbor and longtime burgess John Washington jointly held the post of customs collector on the Potomac. (After Washington died in 1677,Spencer was sole customs collector on the Potomac.) He also won his own land grant. But Spencer was,unlikely as it sounds,apparently an efficient administrator on his own,later being appointed to additional posts in Virginia by virtue of his abilities. [16] Apparently a pragmatic administrator,Spencer was also a hard-nosed capitalist. When it came to slavery,for instance,Spencer weighed the benefits of enslaved labor in a strictly cost-benefit way. "The low price of Tobacco," Spencer wrote,"requires it should bee made as cheap as possible,and that Blacks can make it cheaper than Whites." [17] Spencer's rationale for slavery was probably as succinctly heartless as any committed to paper.
Spencer's role as an aristocratic bureaucrat in the new colony proved tricky. While simultaneously attempting to rationalize slavery,Spencer was also writing to the Privy Council in England about the Virginia Colony's precarious place on the edge of Catholic Maryland. "Unruly and unorderly spirits lay hold of ye motion of affairs," Spencer wrote,"and that under the pretext of Religion,soe as from those false glasses to pretend to betake themselves to Arms... from the groundless Imaginacon (sic) that the few Papists in Maryland and Virginia had conspired to hyre the Seneca Indians,to ye Cutting off,and totall distroying of all ye Protestants." [18] [19]
At the same time,the forces that were propelling the Virginia Colony into the forefront of American economic and social might – primarily the raising of tobacco based on slavery – were simultaneously making Spencer's administrative role tricky. The Virginia colony of the era was,as the eminent colonial historian Edmund S. Morgan wrote,"the volatile society." There were popular uprisings such as Bacon's Rebellion,as well as the tobacco plant-cutting riots. A communication to the Crown in 1674 noted that his opposition to the Bacon Rebellion,for instance,had taken a toll on Spencer's estates. Having done the country "very good service against the Rebells,in that hee affected part of the Country where he resided,and as wee are credibly informed,by his Correspondence here is much Impaired in his Estate by the late Rebells." [20] Westmoreland County voters twice named Spencer as one of their representatives in the House of Burgesses,and each time he served alongside his neighbor John Washington. [21]
In 1682 Spencer wrote to London in the wake of the events roiling Virginia. "Bacon's Rebellion," Spencer told colonial overseers in London,"had left an itching behind it". It was "plaine" that the class tensions stirred by the Rebellion had lingered,with a "mutinous mob" subsequently engaged in "wild and extravagant" rioting,going from farm to farm,tearing tobacco plants out by their roots. The Virginia government reacted harshly with militia patrols and the promise of steep fines. The "frenzy," according to Spencer,destroyed crops on over 200 plantations,and was driven by a glutted tobacco market which had depressed prices. Even the wives,Spencer wrote,took up hoes laid down by their husbands and continued to rip out the plants. Such civil disobedience,Nicholas Spencer saw,was the price paid by colonial administrators acting the foil for the empire's merchants back home. [22]
When taken with symptoms of illness,Spencer wrote to his brother in England outlining his pains,and asked him to consult an English doctor and send him the diagnosis as quickly as possible. [23]
Nor was Spencer's role as his Colepeper cousins' agent an easy job. As landlords of an almost-feudal domain eventually encompassing over five million acres (20,000 km²) in the new colony,the Colepeper Northern Neck grant,eventually passed on to their Fairfax heirs,came to be seen by some colonists as an onerous reminder of English aristocratic privilege. In Colepeper's absence,it fell to their relation Spencer to do the heavy-lifting of collecting rents and taxes on the Colepeper barony. [24]
Nicholas Spencer was prominent in the affairs of the Virginia colony,residing at his plantation on Nomini Creek. Westmoreland County's Cople Parish,the Anglican parish which embraced half the county,was renamed in 1668 to honor Spencer and his English birthplace at Cople. [25] The Spencer family were related to the Washington family in England, [26] and later in Virginia. Col. Spencer patented the 5,000-acre (20 km2) land grant at Mount Vernon with his cousin Lt. Col. John Washington [ citation needed ] in 1674,with Spencer acting as the go-between in the sale. The successful patent on the acreage was due largely to Spencer,who acted as agent for his cousin Thomas Colepeper,2nd Baron Colepeper,who controlled the Northern Neck of Virginia,in which the tract lay.
When John Washington died in 1677,his son Lawrence,George Washington's grandfather,inherited his father's stake in the Mount Vernon property. (Following Col. Nicholas Spencer's death,the Washingtons and the Spencers divided the land grant,with the Spencer heirs taking the larger southern half of the Mount Vernon grant bordering Dogue Creek,and the Washingtons the portion along Little Hunting Creek. The Spencer heirs paid Lawrence Washington 2,500 pounds of tobacco as compensation for their choice.) Later the Washingtons bought out the Spencer interest at Mount Vernon.
Aside from acting as agent for the Colepeper interests,Spencer was frequently involved in Virginia Colony business,and he often corresponded with English administrators in London, [27] as well as family members in Bedfordshire and elsewhere. [28] When his cousin Thomas Colepeper departed Virginia in 1683,Spencer was named Acting Governor,in which capacity he served for nine months until the April 1684 arrival of Francis Howard,5th Baron Howard of Effingham. Because of the early deaths of his brothers,Spencer was the only surviving son of his father Nicholas,and so inherited extensive family estates in Bedfordshire and Huntingdonshire.
Spencer also was left land by other early prominent settlers in Westmoreland County. In a deposition of 1674 by Lt. Col. John Washington,for instance,who was related to the Pope family of Popes Creek,Washington testified that in his will of 24 June 1674,Washington's kinsman Richard Cole had left all his Virginia lands to Nicholas Spencer. Washington "declareth that hee hath heard Mr. Richard Cole Deceased declare that hee had made a will,and given his whole estate to younge Mr. Nicholas Spencer and further saith not." [29] The controversial Richard Cole had also specified that his body be buried on his plantation in a black walnut coffin with a gravestone of English black marble (to be imported for the purpose) and a tombstone whose epitaph read:"Heere lies Dick Cole a grievous Sinner,That died a Little before Dinner,Yet hopes in Heaven to find a place,To Satiate his Soul with Grace." [30]
Spencer married Frances,the daughter of Col. John Mottrom of Coan Hall of Northumberland County,Virginia. [31] Mottrom was likely the first white settler of the Northern Neck in the early seventeenth century. He later served as the first Burgess for Northumberland in 1645,and presided over the county court for four years. Mottrom's daughter and her husband Nicholas Spencer named one of their sons,Mottrom,after John Mottrom. Another Spencer son,William,returned to England for schooling and remained there,serving as a Whig Member of Parliament for Bedfordshire. William Spencer,the son of the Virginia emigrant Nicholas,married Lady Catherine Wentworth,daughter of Thomas Wentworth,1st Earl of Cleveland. [32] (Following the early death of William,his brother Nicholas Jr. returned to England to succeed to the family estates.)
Nicholas Spencer left five sons:William,Mottrom,Nicholas Jr.,John,and Francis (to whom his father left Mount Vernon). Spencer probably had at least two daughters,Elizabeth Spencer and Lettice Barnard to whom Mottrom Spencer referred to in his will as "my sister Mrs. Lettice Barnard"
Nicholas Spencer died in Virginia in 1688. In his will in April 1688,Spencer styled himself "of Nominy in Westmoreland Co. in Virginia." [33] In his will,filed with the English courts at Canterbury,Col. Spencer named his "singular good friends Coll. Isaac Allerton of Matchotick,Capt. George Brent of Stafford Co. (former Governor of Maryland),and Capt. Lawrence Washington [34] " to serve as trustees of his estates. [35] Capt. Washington,named by Spencer as a trustee,was the younger brother of Lt. Col. John Washington and was born in 1635. He and the other trustees named by Col. Spencer in his will received forty shillings for mourning rings.
Following Nicholas Spencer's death,the family's 6,000-acre (24 km2) plantation at Nomini in Westmoreland was sold. In 1709 Robert Carter purchased the Spencer property from the heirs of Col. Spencer for £800 sterling,marking the end of the Spencer family's residence in Westmoreland,and delineating the future site of Nomini Hall,the Carter family seat in Westmoreland occupying the former Spencer estate. [36]
The English branch of the family continued to live in Bedfordshire,where members of the family served in Parliament and were large landowners. The Spencer family continued to hold its land at Cople,Bedfordshire,until the nineteenth century. "The Spencers' Cople estates," according to the Bedfordshire County Council,"were bought by Francis Brace for the Dowager Duchess of Marlborough,and the manor still was known as Rowlands when part of the Duke of Bedford’s estate at the start of the 19th century." [37] [38]
Westmoreland County is a county located in the Northern Neck of the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 census,the population sits at 18,477. Its county seat is Montross.
Mount Vernon is the former residence and plantation of George Washington,a Founding Father,commander of the Continental Army in the Revolutionary War,and the first president of the United States,and his wife,Martha. An American landmark,the estate lies on the banks of the Potomac River in Fairfax County,Virginia,approximately 15 miles south of Washington,D.C..
The Northern Neck is the northernmost of three peninsulas on the western shore of the Chesapeake Bay in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The Potomac River forms the northern boundary of the peninsula;the Rappahannock River demarcates it on the south. The land between these rivers was formed into Northumberland County in 1648,prior to the creation of Westmoreland County and Lancaster County.
First Families of Virginia were families in the British colony of Virginia who were socially prominent and wealthy,but not necessarily the earliest settlers. They descend from European colonists who primarily settled at Jamestown,Williamsburg,the Northern Neck and along the James River and other navigable waters in Virginia during the 17th century. These elite families generally married within their social class for many generations and,as a result,most surnames of First Families date to the colonial period.
Thomas Fairfax,6th Lord Fairfax of Cameron was a British peer,military officer and planter. The only member of the British peerage to permanently reside in Britain's North American colonies,Fairfax owned the Northern Neck Proprietary in the Colony of Virginia,where he spent the majority of his life. The proprietary had been granted to Fairfax's ancestor John Colepeper,1st Baron Colepeper by Charles II of England in 1649.
John Washington was an English-born merchant,planter,politician and military officer. Born in Tring,Hertfordshire,he subsequently emigrated to the English colony of Virginia and became a member of the planter class. In addition to serving in the Virginia militia and owning several slave plantations,Washington also served for many years in the House of Burgesses,representing Westmoreland County. He was the first member of the Washington family to live in North America and was a paternal great-grandfather of George Washington,the first president of the United States.
Augustine Washington Sr. was an American planter and merchant. Born in Westmoreland,Virginia,he was the father of ten children,among them the first president of the United States,George Washington,soldier and politician Lawrence Washington,and politician Charles Washington. Born into the planter class of the British colony of Virginia,Washington owned several slave plantations,from which he derived the primary source of his wealth. He also speculated in land development and owned an iron mine. Although Washington never sat in the House of Burgesses,as did his own father and son,he served in various government positions in the counties where he owned land.
Col. Isaac Allerton Jr. was planter,military officer,politician and merchant in colonial America. Like his father,he first traded in New England,and after his father's death,in Virginia. There,he served on the Governor's Council (1687-1691) and for many years in the House of Burgesses,representing Northumberland County and later Westmoreland County.
Colonel Thomas Lee was a planter and politician in colonial Virginia,and a member of the Lee family,a political dynasty. Lee became involved in politics in 1710,serving in both houses of the Virginia General Assembly,and also held important positions as Naval Officer for the Northern Potomac Region and agent for the Northern Neck Proprietary. After his father died,Lee inherited thousands of acres of land as well as enslaved people in then-vast Northumberland and Stafford Counties in Virginia as well as across the Potomac River in Charles County,Maryland. These properties were developed as tobacco plantations. Northumberland County was later subdivided,so some of Lee's properties were in present-day Fairfax,Fauquier,Prince William,and Loudoun counties and counties in the present-day Northern Neck of Virginia.
John Augustine Washington Sr. was an American planter and politician best known as the younger brother of George Washington and the father of Supreme Court Justice Bushrod Washington.,he was also the grandfather of John Augustine Washington Jr.
Cople is a village and civil parish in the English county of Bedfordshire. The name Cople is derived from the phrase Cock Pool,a place where chickens were kept,that was mentioned in the Domesday Book.
John Mottrom,or Mottram,was one of the first,if not the first,white settlers in the Northern Neck region of Virginia between 1635 and 1640.
Architect John Ariss (1725–1799) was born in Westmoreland County,Virginia to a family long settled in the Old Dominion. Several houses now considered National Historic Landmarks have been attributed to him. One of the best documented surviving examples of his work is Traveller's Rest in Kearneysville,West Virginia,which he designed as a farmstead home for American Revolutionary War General Horatio Gates. Ariss is also believed to have designed the Neo-Palladian estate Mount Airy,located in Richmond County,Virginia on Virginia's Northern Neck. In the 1930s,Harewood,a home constructed for Samuel Washington and also now a National Historic Landmark,was also attributed to Ariss,who lived nearby.
Popes Creek is a small tidal tributary stream of the Potomac River in Westmoreland County,Virginia. The George Washington Birthplace National Monument lies adjacent to Popes Creek estuary.
William Fairfax (1691–1757) was a political appointee of the British Crown in several colonies as well as a planter and politician in the Colony of Virginia. Fairfax served as Collector of Customs in Barbados,Chief Justice and governor of the Bahamas;and Customs agent in Marblehead,Massachusetts,before being reassigned to the Colony of Virginia.
Lawrence Washington was a colonial-era Virginia planter,slave holder,lawyer,soldier and politician. He also was the paternal grandfather of George Washington.
Bushrod Washington was an American attorney and politician who served as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1798 to 1829. On the Supreme Court,he was a staunch ally of Chief Justice John Marshall.
The Washington family is an American family of English origins that was part of both the British landed gentry and the American gentry. It was prominent in colonial America and rose to great economic and political eminence especially in the Colony of Virginia as part of the planter class,owning several highly valued plantations,mostly making their money in tobacco farming. Members of the family include the first president of the United States,George Washington (1732–1799),and his nephew,Bushrod Washington (1762–1829),who served as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.
William Augustine Washington was a Virginia planter and officer who served one term in the Virginia House of Delegates representing Westmoreland County,as well as terms as colonel of the county militia and as the county sheriff,before moving to the newly established District of Columbia. The son of the half-brother of President George Washington,he was also one of the seven executors of the former President's estate.
Sir Henry Chicheley was a lieutenant governor of Virginia Colony who also served as Acting Governor during multiple periods in the aftermath of Bacon's Rebellion. Having first visited the Virginia colony as a Royalist in exile,where he served in the House of Burgesses in violation of his probation,Lt. Gov. Chicheley wielded power during a period of sociopolitical turmoil and change,and later in his career was increasingly troubled by England's growing aggression and control over the colony.
Although Col. Spencer stepped down as acting Governor on Effingham's arrival, he continued to serve as Secretary of the Virginia Colony until at least 1689 and perhaps later.