THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, May 19, 1996 TAG: 9605170232
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 17 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: Olde Towne Journal
SOURCE: Alan Flanders
LENGTH: Medium: 93 lines
BY 1659, WILLIAM CARVER was one of the Virginia colony's most prominent citizens. He owned patents for most of the land where Portsmouth now stands. He was a successful gentleman farmer, merchant, mariner and ship owner. He also held a seat in the colony's governing body, the House of Burgesses.
As a trusted member of Virginia's landed gentry, he also was called on by the royal governor to serve as a justice for Norfolk County. Notable among his moments on the bench was the trial of Jone Jenkins for ``becoming too familiar with evil spirits and using witchcraft.'' When local Quakers ran into trouble with the established church over the tithing of tobacco and other religious practices not favored by the Church of England, Carver was quick to levy fines and punishments.
However, Carver also found himself on the other side of the bar. At a local dinner party in 1672, he was seated next to a gentleman named Thomas Gilbert. Apparently without provocation, Carver suddenly turned on his dinner companion and stabbed him to death. During his trial, Carver was able to convince the court that he was in fact unconscious of the incident and laboring under some sort of mental disorder. Based on other evidence and primarily upon his good name, he was freed.
Otherwise, a review of his life from every perspective would have you assume Carver was on his way to further prominence in the colony - until his life took a terrible turn that would lead to financial ruin and the gallows.
How such bad fortune came to such a notable Colonial began with his association and support of the colony's most notorious rebel, Nathaniel Bacon.
By 1676, Virginia's once-popular royal governor, Sir William Berkeley, was better known for his arrogance and intolerance to non-Anglican church members and his failure to send the militia against marauding Indians than for his previous public good works. With his endorsement of stricter navigation laws, which small farmers saw as patently unfair abridgments of their freedoms, his popularity plummeted. Leading an uprising against him was Nathaniel Bacon, who organized his own small army to stop the Indian massacres. Bacon naturally won even more support from small farmers like William Carver.
Perceiving Bacon's army now numbering in the hundreds as a threat against his government, Berkeley ordered the Middlesex and Gloucester militias to contain the rebels while he fled to Virginia's Eastern Shore. To prevent Berkeley from regaining a foothold, Bacon seized and burned Jamestown. In what could only be called the chaos of civil war, William Carver became a leader among Bacon's followers.
While occupying the smoldering ruins of Jamestown, Bacon ordered Carver to take command of a large warship, with a crew of 200, that had been commandeered to prevent Berkeley from returning up the James River. Carver then received secret orders from Bacon to sail to Accomack County and capture Berkeley, who then was to be taken to England for trial for cruelty to his subjects.
In a 17th century version of ``Mission Impossible,'' Carver arrived during an interval of peace between the warring factions. Hearing that Carver had arrived off Accomack, Berkeley requested an audience with Carver, who, unaware of the cease-fire, reluctantly agreed with the condition that Berkeley sign a written pledge ensuring his safety. At their meeting, the wily royal governor tried to bribe Carver into joining him, to which Carver replied that if he served the devil he would be true to him, but that in this situation it would be better to return to his Elizabeth River home and live quietly. While this conversation proceeded, Carver was duped - as Berkeley had already sent troops to seize his ship.
As the story goes, Carver finally left the charming clutches of Berkeley and arrived in time to see his ship under attack. After boarding, he was arrested without a struggle and hanged three days later.
Thus, a hangman's noose ended the life of one of Portsmouth's earliest settlers.
As for Bacon, he was stricken with fever and died Oct. 18, 1676. Gov. Berkeley meanwhile was finally ordered home by King Charles II. Hearing about some of the atrocities Berkeley had committed, including the execution of Carver, the King said, ``That old fool has hanged more men in that naked country than I have done for the murder of my father.''
However, history has not dismissed Bacon's rebellion and Carver's role in it that easily. There is no doubt that the size of the uprising and the support it received from men like Carver - harbingers of an American Colonial middle class - helped serve notice to England that trouble lay ahead if Colonial needs were not provided for.
For the next 100 years, things did improve, but not enough as it turned out. And history labels Bacon's rebellion as the ``forerunner of the American Revolution'' and its participants, like William Carver, as its ``torchbearers.'' ILLUSTRATION: Nathaniel Bacon and William Carver conferred in the living room
of Bacon's Castle, in Surry County, during Bacon's Rebellion.
This stained-glass window portrait is of Nathaniel Bacon.
by CNB