While Robert Beverley was in London, he was not idle. He meddled in Virginia politics by writing satirically about Gov. Francis Nicholson and Robert Quarry, the Surveyor-General of Customs. His attacks were not just whims; Beverley believed that the actions of Nicholson and Quarry were against the liberties of Virginians. He wished to arouse the House of Burgesses to the dangers that he saw.
Beverley saw Nicholson and Quarry as Englishmen who were opposed to any independent action by Virginians. Beverley cited slanderous remarks against himself, Robert Carter, Philip Ludwell, and William Byrd, from letters the two men had written to England. He quoted them as saying the Virginians were "obstinate people of Commonwealth principles", who "must be corrected and lowered in time". Beverley was particularly opposed to efforts to establish a standing army. Nicholson was furious.
Beverley cut himself off from the seat of power in Virginia by these actions. The Governor removed Beverley from the office of Clerk of King and Queen County. When Beverley did return to Virginia, he spent the remainder of his days at Beverley Park. He did sit one more term in the House of Burgesses, but generally he shook the dust of Jamestown, and the new city of Williamsburg, from his feet.
While Beverley was still in England, he wrote his history of Virginia, published in London in 1705. This work, as much as anything, has distinguished him from his fellow Virginians. How the book came into being was told by Beverley in the second edition of the history, written in 1722.
"In the year 1703, my affairs called me to England. I was soon informed by a bookseller that he was preparing a history of all of her Majesty’s plantations in America. The publisher desired me to look at it, before it went to press, and I agreed to look at the section on Virginia."
The bookseller brought six sheets of paper with his history, which Byrd saw as sparse and inaccurate. Instead, Beverley offered to write a new history himself. By his experience in the field, and in the halls of government, he was well prepared, since he had been making notes of what he had seen and heard. He finished the work quickly and published it as " The History and Present State of Virginia ". The book attracted considerable attention in England, in Virginia, and in France. Within two years a French version was published. Pirated printings also appeared in French.
Some of the people in Virginia read the book with more wrath than favor. Beverley’s caustic irony makes the book eminently readable today, but, at the time, it was unpleasant reading for the ruling clique in Virginia, as well as some of the more complacent planters. Beverley spared no energies in his criticism of almost everyone he wrote about except the Indians.
(18 Oct 00)
We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the Germanna-L@rootsweb.com email list from 1997 to 2008. We are equally thankful to George Durman (Sgt. George) for hosting the list and republishing the notes via rootsweb.com.