o prevent the revocation of the charter. The Governor, the
Council and the Burgesses gave active assistance to Sandys and his
friends by testifying to the wisdom of the management and contradicting
the calumnies of their enemies. In the midst of the controversy the
Privy Council had appointed a commission which they sent to Virginia to
investigate conditions there and to gather evidence against the Company.
This board consisted of John Harvey, John Pory, Abraham Piersey and
Samuel Matthews, men destined to play prominent roles in Virginia
history, but then described as "certayne obscure persons".[221] When the
commissioners reached the colony they made known to the Assembly the
King's desire to revoke the charter and to take upon himself the
direction of the government. They then asked the members to subscribe to
a statement expressing their gratitude for the care of the King, and
willingness to consent to the contemplated change. The Assembly returned
the paper unsigned. "When our consent," they said, "to the surrender of
the Pattents, shalbe required, will be the most proper time
to make reply: in the mean time wee conceive his Majesties intention of
changing the government hath proceeded from much misinformation."[222]

After this they ignored the commissioners, and addressed themselves in
direct letters and petitions to the King and the Privy Council.[223]
They apprehended, they wrote, no danger from the present government,
which had converted into freedom the slavery they had endured in former
times.[224] They prayed that their liberal institutions might not be
destroyed or the old Smith faction of the Company placed over them
again.[225] These papers they sent to England by one of their number,
John Pountis, even refusing to let the commissioners see them. But Pory
succeeded in securing copies from the acting secretary, Edward
Sharpless.[226] The Council, upon learning of this betrayal, were so
incensed against the secretary that they sentenced him to "stand in the
Pillory and there to have his Ears nailed to it, and cut off".[227] His
punishment was modified, however, so that when he was "sett in the
Pillorie", he "lost but a part of one of his eares".[228] The King, upon
learning of this incident, which was represented to him "as a bloody and
barbarous act", became highly incensed against the Council.[229]

In the meanwhile James had appointed a large commission, with Viscount
Mandeville at its head, "to confer,