to give their attendance as assistants only to advise with
him". The Governor attempted, he declared, to usurp the whole power of
the courts, without regard to the rights of the Councillors, "whereby
justice was now done but soe farr as suited with his will, to the great
losse of many mens estates and a generall feare in all".[285]

In 1634 the King once more made a proposal to the colonists for the
purchase of their tobacco, and demanded their assent through the General
Assembly. The Burgesses, who dreaded all contracts, drew up an answer
which was "in effect a deniall of his Majesties proposition", and, in
order to give the paper the character of a petition, they all signed it.
This answer the Governor detained, fearing, he said, that the King
"would not take well the matter thereof, and that they should make it a
popular business, by subscribing a multitude of hands thereto, as
thinking thereby to give it countenance".[286] The Governor's arbitrary
action aroused great anger throughout the colony. Matthews wrote Sir
John Wolstenholme, "The Consideration of the wrong done by the Governor
to the whole Colony in detayning the foresaid letters to his Majesty did
exceedingly perplex them whereby they were made sensible of the
condition of the present Government."[287]

The crisis had now come. During the winter of 1634-35 the Councillors
and other leading citizens were holding secret meetings to discuss the
conduct of the Governor. Soon Dr. John Pott, whose private wrongs made
him a leader in the popular discontent, was going from plantation to
plantation, denouncing the Governor's conduct and inciting the people to
resistance. Everywhere the angry planters gathered around him, and
willingly subscribed to a petition for a redress of grievances. In
April, 1635, Pott was holding one of these meetings in York, at the
house of one William Warrens, when several friends of the Governor
presented themselves for admission. "A servant meeting them told them
they must not goe in ... whereupon they desisted and bended themselves
to hearken to the discourse among them." In the confusion of sounds that
came out of the house they could distinguish many angry speeches against
Harvey and cries against his unjust and arbitrary government. When Pott
read his petition, and told the assemblage that it had the support of
some of the Councillors, they all rushed forward to sign their names.

When Harvey heard of these proceedings he was grea