rized to act as governor until the
king's pleasure should be known. The assembly having collected the
evidence, deputed two members of the council to go out with Harvey to
prefer the charges against him. It was also ordered that during the
vacancy in the office of governor, the secretary (Clayborne) should sign
commissions and passes, and manage the affairs of the Indians.[195:B]

King Charles the First, offended at the presumption of the council and
assembly, reinstated Sir John, and he resumed his place, in or before
the month of January, 1636. Chalmers[195:C] says that he returned in
April, 1637. Thus the first open resistance to tyranny, and vindication
of constitutional right, took place in the colony of Virginia; and the
deposition of Harvey foreshadowed the downfall of Charles the First. The
laws that had been enacted by the first assembly of Maryland, having
been sent over to England for his approval, he rejected them, on the
ground that the right of framing them was vested in himself; and he
directed an assembly to be summoned to meet in January, 1638, to have
his dissent announced to them.

Early in 1637 a court was established by the Maryland authorities, in
Kent Island, and toward the close of that year Captain George Evelin was
appointed commander of the island. Many of Clayborne's adherents there
refused to submit to the jurisdiction of Lord Baltimore's colony, and
the governor, Leonard Calvert, found it necessary to repair there in
March, 1638, in person, with a military force, to reduce to submission
these Virginia malecontents. The Maryland legislature, convened in
compliance with Lord Baltimore's orders, refused to acquiesce in his
claim of the legislative power, and in the event they gained their
point, his lordship being satisfied with a controlling influence in the
choice of the delegates, and his veto.

The Virginians captured by Cornwallis in his engagement with Warren, had
been detained prisoners without being brought to trial, there being no
competent tribunal in the colony. At length Thomas Smith, second in
command to Warren, was brought to trial for the murder of William
Ashmore, (who had been killed in the skirmish,) and was found guilty,
and sentenced to death; but it is not certain that he was executed.
Clayborne was attainted, and his property confiscated; and these
proceedings probably produced those disturbances in Kent Island which
required the governor's presence.

Harvey, after hi