The correspondence of William Byrd furnishes us with a picture of life in Virginia at the level of a leading politician, and perhaps the wealthiest individual of his time in the colony.
"I have a large family of my own, and my doors are open to everybody, yet I have no bills to pay, and half a crown will rest undisturbed in my pocket for many moons together. Like one of the patriarchs, I have my flocks and my herds, my bondmen and bondwomen, and every sort of trade amongst my own servants, so that I live in a kind of independence of everyone but Providence. However, this sort of life is without expense, yet it is attended with a great deal of trouble. I must take care to keep all my people to their duty, to set all the springs in motion, and to make everyone draw his equal share to carry the machine forward. But then 'tis an amusement in this silent country and a continual exercise of our patience and economy. Another, my lord, that recommends this country very much: we sit securely under our vines and our fig trees without any danger to our property. We have neither public robbers nor private, which your lordship will think very strange when we have often needy governors and pilfering convicts sent amongst us . . . Thus, my lord, we are very happy in our Canaans, if we could but forget the onions and fleshpots of Egypt."
In a later letter, Byrd repeated the above comments and added others,
"We are all of one religion and one party in politics . . . The merchants of England take care that none of us grow very rich, and the felicity of the climate hinders us from being very poor."
Even after his return to Virginia, Byrd never forgot he was a member of the Royal Society. He sent plant samples to England and submitted articles for the benefit of the other members. He was never a professional scientist, but he should be regarded as a serious amateur. Another active interest was in literature. Even at Westover, he pursued his studies. His secret diary, kept in a shorthand, reveals a typical day. He rose early, said his prayers, read a chapter of Hebrew, a hundred verses from Homer, or perhaps a chapter in a Greek version of Josephus. On occasions he mentioned Latin readings, Italian, geometry, or law studies, or perhaps a sermon.
His library was large, thirty-six hundred volumes, the largest in Virginia and equaled only by Cotton Mather in Massachusetts. Eventually it was necessary to employ a librarian, William Proctor, to look after the library. Though there is much evidence that he used his library extensively, he seems not to have quoted widely from it in his own writings. The classification of books in his library was revealed in the sale catalog of 1777. The first four cases were two and fifty works of history, biography, voyages, and travels, and often in the editions of the best quality. There was an extensive law collection, and more than one hundred and thirty medical works. The section entitled "
Entertainment, Poetry, Translations
" was one of the largest sections.
(30 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.