was thrice appointed public agent to the court and ministry of England;
and being thirty-seven years a member, at last became president of the
council of this colony. To all this were added a great elegancy of taste
and life, the well-bred gentleman and polite companion, the splendid
economist, and prudent father of a family, withal the constant enemy of
all exorbitant power, and hearty friend to the liberties of his country.
Nat. Mar. 28, 1674. Mort. Aug. 26, 1744. An. AEtat. 70." His portrait, a
fine face, is preserved. Colonel Byrd amassed the finest private library
which had then been seen in the New World, a catalogue of which, in
quarto, is preserved in the Franklin Library, Philadelphia. Sir Robert
Southwell was envoy extraordinary to Portugal in 1665, and to Brussels
in 1671; was subsequently clerk of the privy council, and was repeatedly
chosen president of the Royal Society. He died in 1702.

France, endeavoring to impose a popish pretender of the house of Stuart
upon the people of England, the colonies were advised to put themselves
in readiness against the threatened blow. Accordingly in the following
year the assembly met, but still adhering to a rigid economy, the
burgesses refused to make any appropriation of money for that purpose.
About this time Edward Trelawney, governor of Jamaica, was authorized to
recruit a regiment in Virginia. In 1745 a rebellion burst forth in
Scotland in favor of the Pretender, Charles Edward Stuart, grandson of
James the Second. When intelligence of this event reached Virginia, the
assembly was again called together, and the college, the clergy, and the
assembly, unanimously pledged their private resources and those of the
colony to support the house of Hanover. A proclamation was also issued
against Romish priests, sent, it was alleged, as emissaries from
Maryland, to seduce the people of Virginia from their allegiance. The
tidings of the overthrow of the Pretender by the Duke of Cumberland, at
Culloden, on the 16th of April, 1746, were joyfully received in the
Ancient Dominion, and celebrated by burning the effigies of the
unfortunate prince, and by bonfires, processions, and illuminations.

About this time the Rev. William Stith was engaged in composing his
"History of Virginia," at Varina, on the James River. It is much to be
regretted that this accurate, judicious, and faithful writer did not
receive encouragement to complete the work down to his own times.

In May, 17