f felony was very
rigorous if not erroneous."[39]

The year 1630 was the beginning of a general movement of emigration
northward, and in October Chiskiack, an Indian district on the south
side of the York, about twenty-seven miles below the forks of the
river where Opechancanough resided, was occupied in force. So rapid
was the course of population that in less than two years this first
settlement upon the York was divided into Chiskiack and York. One year
after Chiskiack was settled, Kent Island in Chesapeake Bay was
occupied by a company under William Claiborne, the secretary of state;
and in 1632 Middle Plantation (afterwards Williamsburg) was laid out
and defended by a line of palisades from tide-water to tide-water.[40]

Meanwhile, the old colonial parties did not cease to strive with one
another in England. Harvey had been appointed by the vacillating
Charles to please the former court party, but during the quarrel with
his Parliament over the Petition of Right he became anxious again to
conciliate the colonists and the members of the old company; and in
May, 1631, he appointed[41] a new commission, consisting of the earls
of Dorset and Danby, Sir John Danvers, Sir Dudley Digges, John Ferrar,
Sir Francis Wyatt, and others, to advise him upon "some course for
establishing the advancement of the plantation of Virginia." This
commission had many consultations, and unanimously resolved to
recommend to the king the renewal of the charter of 1612 with all its
former privileges--except the form of government, which was to be
exercised by the king through a council in London and a governor and
council in Virginia, both appointed by him.

In June, 1632, Charles I. so vacillated as to grant Maryland, within
the bounds of "their ancient territories," to Lord Baltimore,
regardless of the protest of the Virginians; and April 28, 1634, he
revoked the liberal commission of 1631, and appointed another, called
"the Commission for Foreign Plantations," composed almost entirely of
opponents of the popular course of government, with William Laud,
archbishop of Canterbury, at the head. This commission had power to
"make laws and orders for government of English colonies planted in
foreign parts, to remove governors and require an account of their
government, to appoint judges and magistrates, to establish courts, to
amend all charters and patents, and to revoke those surreptitiously
and unduly obtained."[42]

Harvey's conduct in