Sir George Ayscue in the
reduction of Barbadoes. In January, 1652, they reached Virginia, where
Curtis showed Claiborne and Bennett his duplicate instructions.
Berkeley, full of fight, called out the militia, twelve hundred
strong, and engaged the assistance of a few Dutch ships then trading
in James River contrary to the recent navigation act.

The commissioners acted with prudence and good sense. They did not
proceed at once to Jamestown, but first issued a proclamation intended
to disabuse the people of any idea that they came to make war.[37] The
result was that in March, 1652, when they appeared before the little
capital, the council and burgesses overruled Berkeley, and entered
into an agreement with Curtis, Claiborne, and Bennett, which proves
the absence of hard feelings on both sides. The Virginians recognized
the authority of the commonwealth of England, and promised to pass no
statute contrary to the laws of Parliament. On the other hand, the
commissioners acknowledged the submission of Virginia, "as a voluntary
act not forced nor constrained by a conquest upon the countrey"; and
conceded her right "to be free from all taxes, customs, and
impositions whatever, not enforced by the General Assembly." In
particular it was stipulated that "Virginia should have and enjoy the
antient bounds and lymitts granted by the charters of the former
kings."

The articles were signed March 12, 1652, and the commissioners soon
after sailed to St. Mary's and received the surrender of Maryland.
They returned in time to be present at a new meeting of the assembly
held at Jamestown in April, at which it was unanimously voted that
until the further pleasure of Parliament was known Richard Bennett
should be governor and William Claiborne secretary of state. To the
burgesses, as the representatives of the people, was handed over the
supreme power of thereafter electing all officers of the colony.[38]
Then Virginia, the last of the British dominions to abandon the king,
entered upon eight years of almost complete self-government, under the
protection of the commonwealth of England.

In 1652 the settlements in Virginia were embraced in thirteen
counties, of which Northampton, on the Accomack Peninsula, extended to
the southern boundary of Maryland. On the James River were nine
counties: Henrico, Charles City, James City, Surry, Warwick,
Warascoyack, or Isle of Wight, Elizabeth City, Nansemond, and Lower
Norfolk. On York River were