Otto Thorpe | |
---|---|
Member of the House of Burgesses for York County | |
In office April 1682 | |
Preceded by | John Page |
Succeeded by | Henry Jenkins |
Personal details | |
Born | baptized November 6,1630 King's Cliffe,Northamptonshire,England |
Died | winter of 1696/7 London,England |
Resting place | All-Hallows-the-Wall parish,London |
Spouse(s) | Elizabeth,Frances |
Relatives | George Thorpe |
Otto Thorpe or Thorp(1630-winter of 1696/1697) was an English merchant who became a militia officer and politician of Middle Plantation (the future Williamsburg) in the Colony of Virginia. His home was commandeered during Bacon's Rebellion,and in April 1682,Thorpe briefly represented York County in the House of Burgesses,before returning to England,where he died more than a decade later. [1] [2]
Born to the wife of Thomas Thorpe,Otto was baptised on November 6,1630 in the King's Cliffe village church. [3] A kinsman,George Thorpe,had been a member of the King's bedchamber,and (briefly) a member of Parliament as well as of the Virginia Company of London and other entities before traveling to Berkeley Hundred in the Virginia colony and attempting to negotiate with the native Americans nearby. After that Thorpe's second journey in 1620 with William Tracy,he received 300 acres of land in Middle Plantation for serving as superintendent of the college lands at Henrico,but died with 9 other settlers at Berkeley Hundred during the Massacre of 1622. [4] [2] The exact kin relationship between the two men is unclear,as George Thorpe's heir was William Thorpe,but both men had kin named Thomas.
By 1660 Otto Thorpe had arrived at Middle Plantation and married Elizabeth,the widow of Richard Thorp. [2] After she died,and before 1676,Thorpe remarried,to a woman named Frances,who survived him.
In January 1667/8,Thorpe purchased the former Clarke family land (850 acres in York County) in Middle Plantation from Edward Wyatt. [5] However,by 1672,that purchase was the subject of litigation before the colony's General Court,and still pending four years later. Meanwhile in 1673 Thorpe had sued Thomas Warren,as commander of the ship Daniell to recover the value of goods damaged en route to London. [6] In 1681,Thorpe purchased the former Fenn family land in Middle Plantation from Thomas Claiborne of Romancoke (and his wife Sarah Fenn),except for the two acres underlying Bruton Parish church and cemetery. [7]
After the Long Assembly ended with Bacon's Rebellion and a new Virginia General Assembly had gathered at Jamestown,and Nathaniel Bacon had secured military commissions against Native Americans from Governor William Berkeley. Bacon and his followers returned to besiege Jamestown (with Frances Thorpe among other leading ladies and Indian allies placed atop the fortifications to deter a sally). After Governor Berkeley's forces withdrew,Bacon's followers burnt the colonial capital on September 19,1676. On October 2,Bacon ordered many leading colonists to gather at this man's plantation nearby,and administered an oath which later was considered treasonous. By this time,Thorpe held the rank of captain in the county militia,and would rise to the rank of major in 1680. Thorpe also had been one of the justices of the peace for York County since 1674. [2]
After the conflict,Thorpe requested compensation for the damage Bacon's men had caused his Middle Plantation property,which he specified as carrying off six servants as well as plundering goods worth 1200 pounds sterling,in addition to 400 pounds sterling worth of Thorpe's tobacco which Governor Berkeley's men seized after the conflict and placed aboard his ship for England. However,because Thorpe had signed a written oath Bacon proffered to leading men in August 1676,the commissioners hesitated to approve his claim,despite Thorpe's response that he was drunk when he signed the oath and consistently supported Virginia's government. [8] In early 1678,his kinsman Thomas Thorp was named one of the three Virginia executors of the estate of Thomas Ludwell,who had been a prominent planter as well as the colony's secretary of state (with merchant John Jeffreys as his executor in England). [9]
Although at some point burgess and major planter John Page sued Thorpe for a debt,York County voters elected Thorpe to succeed Page as one the burgesses representing them in the April 1682 assembly session. [10] [11]
Thorp moved to London and wrote a will identifying himself as a merchant on June 28,1686. He died in London during the winter of 1696-97. His widow,Frances,remarrried,to John Annesley of Westminister in Middlesex County,England. Thorpe left his Virginia property to his nephew Capt. Thomas Thorpe,his niece Hannah Thorpe (wife of London merchant John Pell) and his cousin John Grace, [2] Meanwhile in 1699,the Virginia government moved the colony's capital to Middle Plantation,renamed "Williamsburg" to honor the monarch after the Glorious Revolution. On January 25,1700 Hannah Thorpe Pell conveyed her interest in 450 acres in York County called Middle Plantation to Virginia merchant James Whaley. Annesley litigated against Whaley for illegally occupying this decedent's property. [12]
Nathaniel Bacon was an English merchant adventurer who emigrated to the Virginia Colony,where he sat on the Governor's Council but later led Bacon's Rebellion. The Rebellion was briefly successful;but after Bacon’s death from dysentery the rebel forces collapsed.
Bacon's Rebellion was an armed rebellion by Virginia settlers that took place from 1676 to 1677. It was led by Nathaniel Bacon against Colonial Governor William Berkeley,after Berkeley refused Bacon's request to drive Native American Indians out of Virginia. Thousands of Virginians from all classes and races rose up in arms against Berkeley,chasing him from Jamestown and ultimately torching the settlement. The rebellion was first suppressed by a few armed merchant ships from London whose captains sided with Berkeley and the loyalists. Government forces arrived soon after and spent several years defeating pockets of resistance and reforming the colonial government to be once more under direct Crown control. While the rebellion did not succeed in the initial goal of driving the Native Americans from Virginia,it did result in Berkeley being recalled to England,where he died shortly thereafter.
Middle Plantation in the Virginia Colony was the unincorporated town established in 1632 that became Williamsburg in 1699. It was located on high ground about halfway across the Virginia Peninsula between the James River and York River. Middle Plantation represented the first major inland settlement for the colony. It was established by an Act of Assembly to provide a link between Jamestown and Chiskiack,a settlement located across the Peninsula on the York River.
Philip Cottington Ludwell was an English-born planter and politician in colonial Virginia who sat on the Virginia Governor's Council,the first of three generations of men with the same name to do so,and briefly served as speaker of the House of Burgesses. In addition to operating plantations in Virginia using enslaved labor,Ludwell also served as the first governor of the Carolinas,during the colony's transition from proprietary rule to royal colony.
Berkeley Hundred was a Virginia Colony,founded in 1619,which comprised about eight thousand acres (32 km2) on the north bank of the James River. It was near Herring Creek in an area which is now known as Charles City County,Virginia. It was the site of an early documented Thanksgiving when the settlers landed in what later was the United States. In 1622,following the Indian Massacre of 1622,the colony was for a time abandoned. In the mid 18th century,it became known as Berkeley Plantation,the traditional home of the Harrison family of Virginia. In 1862,amid fighting in the Civil War,the area was the scene of the creation and first bugle rendition of present-day "Taps".
Colonel Thomas Ballard was a prominent colonial Virginia landowner and politician who played a role in Bacon's Rebellion. He served on the Governor's Council 1670–79 and was Speaker of the Virginia House of Burgesses 1680–82.
Thomas Godwin was a Virginia politician,planter and real estate speculator in Tidewater Virginia. He thrice served in the House of Burgesses representing the Nansemond River area,and was its Speaker in the June 1676 session that preceded Bacon's Rebellion.
Col. William Travers was a lawyer,early settler and politician of Colonial Virginia.
Arthur Allen II,also known as Major Allen was a Virginia colonial planter,merchant,military officer and controversial politician who twice served as Speaker of the Virginia House of Burgesses. He supported Governor William Berkeley during Bacon's Rebellion and became a prominent member of the Green Spring faction opposing later royal governors.
James Crewes was a British merchant who traded with the Virginia colony before emigrating there. He became a planter in Henrico County and represented it for one session of the House of Burgesses,but was executed for his participation in Bacon's Rebellion.
William Kendall Sr. (I) (1621-1686) was an English merchant,planter,military officer and politician who came to own considerable land on Virginia's Eastern Shore. He represented Northampton County several times before and after Bacon's Rebellion,and during 1685 became the 21st Speaker of the Virginia House of Burgesses while representing Accomack County.
Samuel Sharpe,sometimes referred to as Samuel Sharp or "Ssamuel" was an early Virginia colonist who settled in the area that became Charles City County,Virginia. He came to Virginia in 1610 with most of the passengers and crew of the Sea Venture as they made their way to the colony after 10 months in Bermuda. They had wrecked in a storm there and built two small boats to complete their journey to Jamestown. Along with Samuel Jordan,he represented Charles City as a burgess in the first general assembly of the Virginia House of Burgesses in Jamestown,Virginia in 1619. He was a representative for Westover,an incorporation of Charles City,in the 1623/24 assembly and signed a letter along with several burgesses at the time of that assembly.
Sir Richard Kemp was a planter and politician in the Colony of Virginia. Kemp served as the Colony's Secretary and on the Governor's Council from 1634 to 1649. As the council's senior member,he also served as the acting Colonial Governor of Virginia from 1644 to 1645 during travels by Governor Sir William Berkeley. Kemp had also worked closely relation with Berkeley's predecessor,Sir John Harvey.
Samuel Swann was a planter,militia officer and politician in the Colony of Virginia and the Colony of North Carolina.
Thomas Swann was a planter,tavernkeeper,militia officer and politician in the Colony of Virginia who sat in both houses of the Virginia General Assembly and survived Bacon's Rebellion.
James Bray (ca.1630-1691) was a British merchant who also became an attorney,planter and politician in the Colony of Virginia,serving nearly a decade on the Virginia Governor's Council through Bacon's Rebellion (1670-1679),and later representing James City County in the House of Burgesses,although unseated when he refused to make a loyalty oath.
William Cole emigrated from Essex,England to the Colony of Virginia in 1618,and in 1629 was one of the two men who represented Nutmeg Quarter in the House of Burgesses.
George Jordan (1620-1679) was a British attorney who also became a planter and politician in the Colony of Virginia. He twice served as the colony's attorney general and at various times represented James City County and Surry County in the House of Burgesses,and may have served on the Virginia Governor's Council.
Thomas Milner,emigrated from England to the Virginia colony where he became a merchant,planter,military officer and politician who twice served as Speaker of the Virginia House of Burgesses.
Richard Lawrence was an Oxford University graduate who emigrated to the Virginia colony where after various real estate speculations,he married a wealthy widow and became a tavernkeeper in Jamestown. Lawrence became one of Nathaniel Bacon's closest confidantes during Bacon's Rebellion and briefly served in the House of Burgesses during that conflict,after which he vanished with two other men otherwise likely to have been sentenced to death for treason.