ultations were held by the authorities of the
colony how to suppress and extinguish them. At first their pastor was
banished, next their other teachers, then many were confined in prison;
next they were generally disarmed, which was a very harsh measure in
such a country, where they were surrounded by the Indian savages;
lastly, the non-conformists were put in a condition of banishment, so
that they knew not how in those straits to dispose of themselves. The
leader in this persecution, according to Hammond, was Colonel Samuel
Matthews, member of the council in 1643, and subsequently agent for
Virginia to the parliament. A number of these dissenters having gained
the consent of Lord Baltimore and his deputy governor of Maryland,
retired to that colony, and settled there. Among these, one of the
principal was Richard Bennet, a merchant and a Roundhead. For a time
these refugees prospered and remained apparently content with their new
place of abode; and others, induced by their example, likewise removed
thither.

King Charles the First, after having been a prisoner for several years,
was beheaded in front of Whitehall Palace, on the 30th day of January,
1648. He died with heroic firmness and dignity.[212:B] The Commonwealth
of England now commenced, and continued till the restoration of Charles
the Second, in 1660. Upon the dissolution of the monarchy in England,
there were not wanting those in Virginia who held that the colonial
government, being derived from the crown, was itself now extinct; but
the assembly, by an act of October of the same year, declared that
whoever should defend the late traitorous proceedings against the king,
should be adjudged an accessory after the fact, to his death, and be
proceeded against accordingly; to asperse the late most pious king's
memory was made an offence punishable at the discretion of the governor
and council; to express a doubt of the right of succession of Charles
the Second, or to propose a change of government, or to derogate from
the full power of the government of the colony, was declared to be high
treason.[213:A] The principle, however, that the authority of the
colonial government ceased with the king's death, was expressly
recognized at the surrender of the colony to the parliamentary naval
force in 1651.

Colonel Norwood, a loyal refugee in Holland, having formed a plan with
two comrades, Major Francis Morrison and Major Richard Fox, to seek
their fortunes in Virgin