t in Virginia, to consist of a central office, and a
sub-office in each county, fixing the rates of postage to be paid to
Thomas Neale, Esq., who was authorized by an act of parliament to
establish post-offices in the colonies. The postage on a letter
consisting of one sheet, for a distance not exceeding eighty miles, was
three pence. Four companies of rangers protected the frontiers, while
English frigates guarded the coast; and the colony enjoyed a long
repose.

The amiable and excellent Queen Mary died on the 28th day of December,
1694; and the king now assumed the title of William the Third. Since the
dissolution of the Virginia Company, the superintendence of the colonies
had been entrusted to a committee of the privy council; in 1696 the
board of trade was established for that purpose.

FOOTNOTES:

[344:A] James City Records, cited in "Farmer's Register" for 1839, p.
407

[344:B] Dr. Williamson, of Williamsburg, obligingly sent me the
inscription and the coat of arms, as copied by him from her tombstone,
which was ploughed up on the banks of Queen's Creek.

[345:A] Beverley, B. i. 92.

[346:A] The following gentlemen, nominated by the assembly, were
constituted a senate, or board of trustees: Francis Nicholson,
lieutenant-governor of the colony; William Cole, Ralph Wormley, William
Byrd, Esquires, of the council; John Leare, James Blair, John Farnifold,
Stephen Fauce, and Samuel Gray, clerks (clergymen;) Thomas Milner,
Christopher Robinson, Charles Scarburgh, John Smith, Benjamin Harrison,
Miles Cary, Henry Hartwell, William Randolph, and Matthew Page,
gentlemen and burgesses.

[346:B] Franklin's Correspondence.

[347:A] Hening, iii. 123, 241, 356: Catalogue of William and Mary
College.

[347:B] Anderson's Hist. of Church of England in the Colonies, second
ed., iii. 108.

CHAPTER XLIII.

1696-1698.

State and Condition of Virginia--Exhausting Agriculture--
Depression of Mechanic Art--Merchants--Current Coin--Grants of
Land--Powers of Governor--The Council--Court of Claims--County
Courts--General Court--Secretary, Sheriffs, Collectors, and
Vestries--Revenue--The Church.

THE following statistical account of Virginia appears to have been
reported by Lord Culpepper, in 1781, to the Committee of the colonies.
It is to be found in the Historical Collections of Massachusetts,[349:A]
the manuscript having been communicated by Carter B. Harrison, Esq., of
Virginia, by