Patrician and Plebeian Part 12

Sainsbury, Noel W.--Papers. Twenty ma.n.u.script volumes in the Virginia State Library. These papers are chiefly copies in abstract of the official correspondence of the home government, and the governors and secretaries of Virginia. They cover the long period from the founding of the colony until the year 1730.

The letters of the governors to the Lords of Trade and Plantations are often quite frank and give the student an insight into their purposes and their methods that can be gained from no other source. They should be studied in connection with the Journals of the House of Burgesses, for they will make clear many points that are purposely left obscure in the transactions of the a.s.sembly. It is a matter for regret that the papers are but abstracts and the State of Virginia should have exact copies made of the originals.

Sale, Edith Tunis.--Manors of Virginia in Colonial Times. One volume. J.B. Lippincott Co., 1909. This work contains accounts of no less than twenty-four manors, including in the list Shirley, Westover, Brandon, Rosewell, Monticello, Gunston Hall, etc. The descriptions of the houses are made more vivid and entertaining by sketches of the families that occupied them. The volume is rich in ill.u.s.trations.

Smith, Capt. John.--Works of, edited by Edward Arber. On Montague Road, Birmingham, England, 1884. Capt. Smith's account of the settling of Jamestown and the struggle of the colonists there was for many years accepted without cavil by historians. His story of his own heroism and of the wickedness of his colleagues has been embodied in almost every American school history. Mr.

Charles Dean, in 1860, was the first to question Smith's veracity, and since that date many historians have taken the ground that his works are quite unreliable. Alexander Brown has contended that his account of Virginia was purposely falsified to further the designs of the Court Party during the reign of James I. The discovery of numerous doc.u.ments relating to the years covered by Smith's histories, and the application of historical criticism to his work, cannot but incline the student to distrust much that he has written.

Spotswood, Alexander.--The Official Letters of. Edited by R.A.

Brock. Virginia Historical Society. Two volumes. These letters are of great value, for they touch upon the most important events of Spotwood's administration. They present, of course, the governor's views upon public matters, and must be studied in conjunction with other evidence for a just understanding of the times. This, fortunately, is to be had in various ma.n.u.scripts, in the Journals of the House of Burgesses, the Journals of the Council and in scattered papers, some of which have been printed.

Stanard, Mary Newton.--The Story of Bacon's Rebellion. The Neale Publishing Co., 1907. One volume. The auth.o.r.ess has had before her in this work the general interest that attaches to the picturesque subject and has written in a light and pleasing style, No deep a.n.a.lysis of the causes and results of the Rebellion are given, but the reader has the feeling throughout that the facts presented have been gathered with great care and that the narrative is as accurate as labor and research can make it.

Stanard, William G. and Mary Newton.--The Colonial Virginia Register. Joel Munsell's Sons, Albany, 1902. This work contains the names of the Governors of Virginia in the Colonial Period, the Secretaries of State, the Auditors General, the Receivers General, the Treasurers, the Attorneys General, the Surveyors General, the Council members, the members of the House of Burgesses and the members of the Conventions of 1775 and 1776.

St.i.th, William.--The History of the First Discovery and Settlement of Virginia. William Parks, Williamsburg, 1747. St.i.th had in the preparation of this work access to some ma.n.u.scripts which are not now in existence. For this reason the work will retain a certain value as a source book of Virginia history. In the main, however, he follows Smith's story with servility, for it did not occur to him that much of the latter was not trustworthy. St.i.th takes his history no further than the year 1624.

The Lower Norfolk County Virginia Antiquary. Press of the Friedenwald Co., Baltimore. Five volumes. This magazine has rendered a true service to Virginia history by publishing many valuable doc.u.ments. .h.i.therto hidden or inaccessible. These papers touch Virginia life in the Colonial Period in many phases and throw light on points. .h.i.therto obscure or misunderstood.

The Southern Literary Messenger.--In 1845 and in the years immediately following, this magazine, stimulated by the great interest that was being shown in Virginia history at that time, published a number of doc.u.ments and articles relating to colonial times. Among these is a reproduction of John Smith's True Relation; papers relating to Sir William Berkeley, contributed by Peter Force; and an account of the General a.s.sembly of 1715.

The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography.--Published by the Virginia Historical Society. Seventeen volumes. The wealth of material contained in these volumes can hardly be estimated.

Countless papers, formerly scattered abroad, or hidden in the musty archives of libraries, have been published and rendered accessible to the historian. So vastly important are they that no account of colonial Virginia, no matter of what period, can afford to neglect them. They touch every phase of the life of the colony, political, social, economic and religious. Much s.p.a.ce has been given to biography. From the standpoint of the constructive historian it is to be regretted that the magazine has devoted so little of its s.p.a.ce to short articles culling and arranging and rendering more serviceable the facts published in doc.u.mentary form. But the magazine has done and is still doing a work of vast importance in collecting and preserving historical material.

Tyler, Lyon G.--Narratives of Early Virginia, 1606-1625. Charles Scribner's Sons. One volume. This work includes many important and interesting papers of the period of the London Company.

Selections are made from Capt. John Smith's works. Among the papers given are Observations by Master Geo. Percy; The Relation of the Lord De-La-Ware; Letter of Don Diego de Molina; Letter of Father Pierre Biard; Letter of John Rolfe; and The Virginia Planters' Answer to Capt. Butler.

Williamsburg, the Old Colonial Capital. Whittet and Shepperson, Richmond. An account is given of the settlement and history of the town. This is followed by a brief description of Bruton church and its ministers and by a long chapter on the college. Other chapters are devoted to the capitol, the governors' house, the State prison, the powder magazine, the theatre, the Raleigh Tavern, the printing office, the jail, the courthouses, the hospital for the insane, etc.

The Cradle of the Republic: Jamestown and James River. Whittet and Shepperson, Richmond. The author has described carefully and minutely the village, locating, when possible, public buildings and the homes of the inhabitants. The last chapter is devoted to the places along the river and interesting accounts are given of their origin and their history.

Virginia Historical Society.--Abstract of the Proceedings of the Virginia Company of London, 1619-1624, prepared from the records in the Library of Congress by Conway Robinson and edited by R.A. Brock. Two volumes. Since the infant colony at Jamestown was so intimately connected with the great company which gave it life that the one cannot be understood without a knowledge of the other, this publication of the proceedings of the company is of great importance to a correct understanding of early Virginia history.

Miscellaneous Papers. Edited by R.A. Brock, 1887. On volume.

This collection contains the Charter of the Royal African Company; A Report on the Huguenot Settlement, 1700; Papers of Geo. Gilmer, of Pen Park; and other valuable papers.

Proceedings of the Society at the Annual Meeting Held in 1891, with Historical Papers Read on the Occasion, and Others. Edited by R.A. Brock. One Volume.

William and Mary Quarterly.--Edited by Dr. Lyon G. Tyler.

Williamsburg, Va. Seventeen volumes. This magazine is devoted to the history of Virginia and has published numerous papers relating to that subject. Great s.p.a.ce has been devoted to biography and much light has been thrown upon the ancestry of scores of families. Of great value are a number of articles giving in condensed and clear form the results of study of the new material brought forth. Thus there is a paper upon Education in Colonial Virginia, another on Colonial Libraries, etc. The magazine, like the Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, has rendered an invaluable service to Virginia history.

Thomas J. Wertenbaker was born at Charlottesville, Va., Feb.

6, 1879. After receiving his primary education at private schools he entered Jones' University School. Later he attended the Charlottesville Public High School. In the fall of 1896 he entered the Academic Department of the University of Virginia, where he remained as a student until 1900. During the session of 1900-1901, he taught at St. Matthew's School, of Dobbs Ferry, N.Y. In September, 1901, he re-entered the University of Virginia and in 1902 received the degrees of Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts. For some years after this he was engaged in newspaper work, being editor of the Charlottesville Morning News and editor on the Baltimore News. In the fall of 1906 he re-entered the University of Virginia as a graduate student. In 1907 he was elected a.s.sociate Professor of History and Economics at the Texas Agricultural and Mechanical College and filled that position for two sessions. In 1909 he was made Instructor of History at the University of Virginia and once more matriculated in the Graduate Department of that inst.i.tution. He is a member of the American Historical a.s.sociation and the Virginia Historical Society and is the author of several historical articles and essays.