House of Burgesses - Origin; Early Years

Origin; Early Years

The Colony of Virginia was founded by an English stock company, the Virginia Company, as a private venture. Early governors provided the stern leadership and harsh judgments required for the colony to survive its early difficulties. As early crises with famine, disease, Indian attack, the need to establish a cash crop and insufficient skilled or committed labor subsided, the colony needed to attract enough new and responsible settlers if it was to grow and prosper. To encourage settlers to come to Virginia, in 1618-1619, the Virginia Company leaders drew up a great charter. Emigrants who paid their own way to Virginia would receive 50 acres of land. They would not be mere sharecroppers. Civil authority would control the military. A council of burgesses, representatives chosen by the inhabitants of the colony for their government, would be convened as the House of Burgesses. The governor could veto their actions and the company still had overall control of the venture, but the settlers would have a say in their own government, including the right of the House of Burgesses to introduce money bills.

On July 30, 1619, the first legislative assembly in the Americas convened for a six-day meeting at the church on Jamestown Island, Virginia. A council chosen by the Virginia Company as advisers to the governor met as a sort of "upper house," while 22 elected representatives met as the House of Burgesses. Together, the House of Burgesses and the Council would be the Virginia General Assembly.

The House's first session of July 30, 1619, accomplished little. It was cut short by an outbreak of malaria. The assembly had 22 members from the following constituencies: James City (Captain William Powell, Ensign William Spense), Charles City (Sergeant Samuel Sharpe, Samuel Jordan), the City of Henricus (Thomas Dowse, John Polentine or John Plentine), Kicoughtan (Captain William Tucker, William Capps), Martin-Brandon (Captain John Martin's Plantation) (Thomas Davis, Robert Stacy), Smythe's Hundred (Captain Thomas Graves, Walter Shelley), Martin's Hundred (John Boys, John Jackson), Argall's Gift Plantation (Thomas Pawlett, Edward Gourgainy), Flowerdew Hundred Plantation or Flowerdieu Hundred (Ensign Edmund Rossingham, John Jefferson), Captain Lawne's Plantation (Captain Christopher Lawne, Ensign Washer), and Captain Ward's Plantation (Captain John Warde or Capt. John Ward, Lt. John Gibbs or Lt. Gibbes).

Especially after the massacre of about 400 colonists on March 22, 1622 by Native Americans and epidemics in the winters before and after the massacre, the governor and council ruled arbitrarily and allowed no dissent. By 1624, the royal government in London had heard enough about the problems of the colony and revoked the charter of the Virginia Company. Virginia became a crown colony and the governor and council would be chosen by the king. Nonetheless, the basic form of government of the colony was retained, although the right of the General Assembly to exist was not officially confirmed until 1639.

In 1634, the General Assembly divided the colony into eight counties for purposes of government, administration and the judicial system. By 1643, the expanding colony had 15 counties. All of the county offices, including a board of commissioners, judges, sheriff, constable and clerks, were appointed positions. Only the members of the House of Burgesses were elected by a vote of the people. Women had no right to vote. While all free men originally were given the right to vote, by 1670 only property owners were allowed to vote.

In 1652, the parliamentary forces of Oliver Cromwell forced the colony to submit to their takeover of the British government. Again, the colonists were able to retain the General Assembly as their governing body. Only taxes agreed to by the assembly were to be levied. Still most Virginia colonists were loyal to Prince Charles and were pleased at his restoration as King Charles II in 1660. He went on directly or indirectly to restrict some of the liberties of the colonists, such as requiring tobacco to be shipped only to England only on English ships with the price set by the English merchant buyers, but the General Assembly remained.

A majority of the members of the General Assembly of 1676 were supporters of Nathaniel Bacon. They enacted legislation designed to further popular sovereignty and representative government and to equalize opportunities. Bacon took little part in the deliberations since he was busy fighting the Native Americans.

The statehouse in Jamestown burned down for the fourth time on October 20, 1698. The House of Burgesses met temporarily in Middle Plantation, 11 miles (18 km) inland from Jamestown, and then in 1699 permanently moved the capital of the colony to Middle Plantation, which they renamed Williamsburg.