Sir Edwin Sandys, the playmate of William Brewster--one of the Pilgrim
Fathers (p. 29). Sandys and his friends sent Sir George Yeardley to
Virginia as governor. They ordered him to summon an assembly to be made
up of representatives chosen by the freemen of the colony. These
representatives soon did away with Dale's ferocious regulations, and
made other and much milder laws.

[Sidenote: End of the Virginia Company, 1624.]

[Sidenote: Virginia a royal province.]

37. Virginia becomes a Royal Province, 1624.--The Virginians
thought this was a very good way to be governed. But King James thought
that the new rulers of the Virginia Company were much too liberal, and
he determined to destroy the company. The judges in those days dared not
displease the king for he could turn them out of office at any time. So
when he told them to destroy the Virginia charter they took the very
first opportunity to declare it to be of no force. In this way the
Virginia Company came to an end, and Virginia became a royal province
with a governor appointed by the king.

[Sidenote: Intolerance in Virginia.]

[Sidenote: Persecution of the Puritans.]

38. Religious Intolerance.--In 1625 King James died, and his son
Charles became king. He left the Virginians to themselves for the most
part. They liked this. But they did not like his giving the northern
part of Virginia to a Roman Catholic favorite, Lord Baltimore, with the
name of Maryland. Many Roman Catholics soon settled in Lord Baltimore's
colony. The Virginians feared lest they might come to Virginia and made
severe laws against them. Puritan missionaries also came from New
England and began to convert the Virginians to Puritanism. Governor
Berkeley and the leading Virginians were Episcopalians. They did not
like the Puritans any better than they liked the Roman Catholics. They
made harsh laws against them and drove them out of Virginia
into Maryland.

[Sidenote: Maryland given to Baltimore, 1632.]

[Sidenote: Settlement of Maryland. _Higginson_, 121-123; _Eggleston_,
50-53; _Source-book_, 48-51.]

39. Settlement of Maryland.--Maryland included the most valuable
portion of Virginia north of the Potomac. Beside being the owner of all
this land, Lord Baltimore was also the ruler of the colony. He invited
people to go over and settle in Maryland and offered to give them large
tracts of land on the payment of a small sum every year forever. Each
man's payment was small. But all the pa