e to touch
at James City, "to know whether the governor will command them any
service." "All persons whatsoever, upon the Sabbath days, shall frequent
divine service and sermons, both forenoon and afternoon; and all such as
bear arms shall bring their pieces, swords, powder, and shot."

Captain Henry Spellman, charged by Robert Poole, interpreter, with
speaking ill of the governor "at Opochancano's court," was degraded from
his rank of captain, and condemned to serve the colony for seven years
as interpreter to the governor. Paspaheigh, embracing three hundred
acres of land, was also called Argallstown, and was part of the tract
appropriated to the governor. To compensate the speaker, clerk,
sergeant, and provost marshal, a pound of the best tobacco was levied
from every male above sixteen years of age. The Assembly prayed that the
treasurer, council, and company would not "take it in ill part if these
laws, which we have now brought to light, do pass current, and be of
force till such time as we may know their further pleasure out of
England; for otherwise this people (who now at length have got their
reins of former servitude into their own swindge) would, in short time,
grow so insolent as they would shake off all government, and there would
be no living among them." They also prayed the company to "give us power
to allow or disallow of their orders of court, as his majesty hath given
_them_ power to allow or reject _our_ laws." So early did it appear,
that from the necessity of the case, the colony must in large part
legislate for itself, and so early did a spirit of independence manifest
itself. Owing to the heat of the weather, several of the burgesses fell
sick, and one died, and thus the governor was obliged abruptly, on the
fourth of August, to prorogue the Assembly till the first of
March.[142:A] There being as yet no counties laid off, the
representatives were elected from the several towns, plantations, and
hundreds, styled boroughs, and hence they were called burgesses.

FOOTNOTES:

[138:A] Court and Times of James the First, i. 161.

[138:B] A Welsh name.

[139:A] Macocks, the seat on James River, opposite to Berkley, was
called after this planter, who was the first proprietor.

[139:B] This interesting document, discovered by Mr. Bancroft, was
published by the New York Historical Society in 1857, and a number of
copies were sent to Richmond by George Henry Moore, Esq., Secretary of
that Society,