633, he anchored off
Newport News and visited there the Gookins. Later, when his ship sailed
up the James River, he recorded that he stopped at "Littletown," the
plantation of George Menefie, an early Virginia attorney, a prosperous
planter and, said deVries, "a great merchant, who kept us to dinner and
treated us very well."
When young Christopher Calthrope, aged sixteen years, came to Virginia
in 1622, George Sandys, Treasurer of the Colony, proffered him the
entertainment of his home and offered him his own room to lodge in.
Although the young man declined, having other friends, Sandys saw to it
that he was adequately cared for in the Colony.
The hospitality of Captain Samuel Mathews of "Denbigh" was widely known,
even in England, where several, who had visited in Virginia, recorded
the welcome they had received at his extensive plantation at the mouth
of the Warwick River. In 1648, a writer, who signed himself Beauchamp
Plantagenet, recounted his visit to Virginia where, upon arrival at
Newport News, a few miles below "Denbigh," he was welcomed at the home
of Captain Samuel Mathews and given "free quarter everywhere."
Virginia proved a haven to numerous Royalists as previously mentioned.
Many who found it expedient to flee from England, about 1649, sought
refuge in Virginia. Their coming was often kept secret, but they were
accorded a warm welcome. Furthermore, when it was safe to make their
presence generally known, they were received into official life in the
Colony.
Among those who came and received welcome on the Eastern Shore at the
home of Stephen Charlton were Colonel Henry Norwood, Major Richard Fox
and Major Francis Moryson. Later they joined Colonel Mainwaring Hammond,
Sir Henry Chicheley, Sir Thomas Lunsford and Colonel Philip Honeywood at
Captain Ralph Wormeley's, on the Rappahannock River, and joined in the
"feasting and carousing."
[Illustration: Photo by Flournoy, Virginia State Chamber of Commerce
Rosegill--Middlesex County
The first Ralph Wormeley, who died in 1651, at the early age of
thirty-one, cordially welcomed refugee royalists to Rosegill. Sir Henry
Chicheley, Deputy Governor, made his home at Rosegill and died here
Dec. 1, 1682. In 1686, the second Ralph Wormeley was host to the
Frenchman Monsieur Durand of Dauphine, who sought in the Colony a haven
for the Huguenots, his forlorn compatriots.]
Governor Berkeley, a staunch Royalist, made the Cavaliers from across
the seas pa
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