The Fabulous History Of The Dismal Swamp Company Part 4

Edmund Pendleton was in Williamsburg to begin sorting Robinson's papers and putting the estate in order. The administrators published an advertis.e.m.e.nt on June 13, calling Robinson's debtors to pay immediately. In saying that the speaker had "advanced large sums of money to a.s.sist and relieve his friends, and others," they left unsaid what everybody knew: by far the largest part of these sums had come from the treasury of Virginia. Pendleton and Lyons did not yet have a list of debtors and amounts. One man who had borrowed more than 2,700 heard that Robinson had kept no correct books. Pendleton found the papers "in great confusion." Robinson had not taken security for loans, seldom had written a statement of a loan, and often had not even recorded it in the borrower's account. Pendleton reconstructed some debts from letters and "endors.e.m.e.nts on sc.r.a.ps of paper." Nor had the speaker kept a record of the money he had taken from the treasury. He also had been lenient to debtors who had owed him for a long time and to sheriffs who had not remitted taxes to the treasury punctually. To sheriffs who brought tax revenues he gave receipts, but he did not enter all the payments on the treasury's books.

Was the loan office the burgesses had pa.s.sed the previous year a ruse to borrow money in England and lend it to Robinson's debtors so that they could repay him, enabling him to return the money to the treasury, thereby neatly s.h.i.+fting the huge debt from Robinson's account to the colony's? Or had Robinson's loans gone out during the year since the Council rejected the loan office, serving as a short-term subst.i.tute?

Richard Bland decided a week after Robinson's death to seek election as speaker. Richard Henry Lee already had begun to campaign for himself, but Bland persuaded Lee to join his camp. Bland adopted Lee's view, advocating separation of the offices of speaker and treasurer, promising "to prevent any unnatural Influence in the House." Peyton Randolph hoped to succeed to both of Robinson's offices. In May, Bland wrote to Lee: "I have no suspicion that the public Funds have been converted to uses for which they were not designed." Such conversion, however, soon became the chief weapon of his candidacy as he censured Robinson for daring "to break through acts of the whole Legislature, and to controul their power by his own authority." The late speaker had used his influence "to protect him for so flagrant a breach of his publick trust." At the same time, Bland knew that many indebted Virginians remained "very importunate for a Loan office." He said that he had in mind "a Scheme of great Extent" for a loan office or a public bank.

Robert Carter Nicholas hoped to become permanent treasurer. He, too, proposed separating the offices of speaker and treasurer. He promised he would have "no Influence." He called on sheriffs to pay their arrears of taxes, warning that he would force them to comply. He said that Robinson's conduct "can admit of no excuse."

During the months between Robinson's death and the convening of the House of Burgesses in November, Williamsburg had two newspapers. Their printers, rivals for the colony's printing contract, were newly willing to publish scandal, satire, and political controversy. Supporters of Peyton Randolph accused and reb.u.t.ted supporters of Richard Bland in the weekly Gazettes Gazettes. William Nelson thought it all "scurrilous," but he and Secretary Nelson read the papers. He had opposed paper money and had helped defeat the loan office, but he blamed Robinson's "Error, or rather let me say the Weakness" on the "set of men he was connected with," who had taken advantage of Robinson's kindness to extract loans.

The published extenuations of Robinson's conduct made a similar case. He had lent money out of charity and had done a public good by keeping more currency in circulation. With an undercurrent of pa.s.sion and perhaps of private information, Edmund Pendleton and William Nelson wrote of Robinson's debtors'"application," "importunities," and "earnest Solicitation," all of which the speaker "never could resist." Critics scorned this defense. Professing to write about a hypothetical speaker-treasurer, one author called Robinson "a Man dest.i.tute of any real Goodness of Heart, and Benevolence of Disposition." He had been "shamefully bepraised." His chief offense was his "very great influence" in the House of Burgesses, enabling him to override opposition and, all could now see, to abuse his office.

The Gazettes Gazettes also published letters debating John Chiswell's conduct and the propriety of releasing him on bail. The chief critic of Chiswell, of the councillors, and of the three attorneys was Robert Bolling, stepson of Richard Bland. With arch sarcasm, he accused the councillors of acting as if they and Chiswell were above the law. High officials should be viewed with "Distrust, the parent of security." To confirm this view he pointed to the deeds of the late speaker. Justifying Robinson, like releasing Chiswell, amounted to "subverting all ideas of virtue and morality." William Byrd could not tolerate publication of such insults. He tried to get a grand jury to indict Bolling and the printers for libel, but the jurors, headed by Mann Page, refused. Byrd's wrath only made him look more willing to violate "indifferent & impartial Justice." also published letters debating John Chiswell's conduct and the propriety of releasing him on bail. The chief critic of Chiswell, of the councillors, and of the three attorneys was Robert Bolling, stepson of Richard Bland. With arch sarcasm, he accused the councillors of acting as if they and Chiswell were above the law. High officials should be viewed with "Distrust, the parent of security." To confirm this view he pointed to the deeds of the late speaker. Justifying Robinson, like releasing Chiswell, amounted to "subverting all ideas of virtue and morality." William Byrd could not tolerate publication of such insults. He tried to get a grand jury to indict Bolling and the printers for libel, but the jurors, headed by Mann Page, refused. Byrd's wrath only made him look more willing to violate "indifferent & impartial Justice."

In their public statements both Robinson's critics and his apologists professed surprise at the speaker's backstairs activities. The writers said that they were pained to learn that "influence" had been at work in the governing of Virginia. They had heard rumors to that effect, but only rumors. So they had not confronted the speaker with public opposition or with private friendly warnings. Indeed, they had re-elected him by acclamation. Only after his death could they see and say that he had betrayed the public's confidence in Virginia's virtue.

As he compiled a list, Edmund Pendleton did not reveal the names of Robinson's debtors. His own was among them, as were those of Benjamin Grymes and John Randolph. The largest single debt, almost 15,000, was owed by William Byrd; members of the House of Burgesses had borrowed more than 37,000. Pendleton was discreet. A graceful man, with polished manners, he "always looked to consequences." The biggest debtors asked him to allow three years to pay. He persuaded the burgesses not to take debtors to court at once, warning against "rigorous Measures," which would ruin many families. Bankrupting debtors would not secure payment. According to Benjamin Waller, who knew most of Williamsburg's political secrets, Pendleton was so smooth that, after having "exerted his every power to ward off" the burgesses' seizure and scrutiny of Robinson's estate, he nevertheless "so conducted himself throughout the enquiry, that he was finally represented as one of its authors."

Pendleton told the burgesses that the estate owed the treasury 100,761 7s. 5d. He a.s.sured them that the a.s.sets, with debts owed to Robinson, would exceed this sum. Not until years later did he reveal in private that he had felt "hopeless," foreseeing "a great deficiency of a.s.sets for satisfying the Public debt." Susanna Robinson and her three children must leave the comfortable house and beautiful gardens overlooking the Mattaponi. Everything must be sold, including Robinson's share in the Dismal Swamp Company. In the meantime, Pendleton continued to pay the company's a.s.sessments. Robinson's merchants in London, John Lidderdale and the Hanburys, quickly brought suit against the estate.

John Chiswell returned to Williamsburg on Thursday, September 11, more than two months before he was due to stand trial. If he read Purdie and Dixon's Virginia Gazette Virginia Gazette on Friday, he found Robert Bolling saying that in publis.h.i.+ng letters of censure critics of Chiswell and of the councillors were not just interested in getting "the blood of Mr. Chiswell" by ensuring that he would be convicted and hanged. "We are desirous of knowing whether some Virginians may ma.s.sacre other Virginians (or sojourners among them) with impunity." The following Friday, Chiswell could read John Blair, president of the Council, almost apologizing for having released him on bail. Robert Hartswell had known Chiswell and Speaker Robinson for almost thirty years. He wrote to the on Friday, he found Robert Bolling saying that in publis.h.i.+ng letters of censure critics of Chiswell and of the councillors were not just interested in getting "the blood of Mr. Chiswell" by ensuring that he would be convicted and hanged. "We are desirous of knowing whether some Virginians may ma.s.sacre other Virginians (or sojourners among them) with impunity." The following Friday, Chiswell could read John Blair, president of the Council, almost apologizing for having released him on bail. Robert Hartswell had known Chiswell and Speaker Robinson for almost thirty years. He wrote to the Gazette Gazette to say that he never would have suspected either man of committing such crimes. More letters appeared in October, leading up to election of a new speaker shortly before the trial. But the case of the murderer of Robert Routledge never came to trial. On Wednesday, October 15, John Chiswell was found dead in his home, amid furniture he had borrowed from Speaker Robinson. to say that he never would have suspected either man of committing such crimes. More letters appeared in October, leading up to election of a new speaker shortly before the trial. But the case of the murderer of Robert Routledge never came to trial. On Wednesday, October 15, John Chiswell was found dead in his home, amid furniture he had borrowed from Speaker Robinson.

Three weeks later the burgesses convened. By a large majority Peyton Randolph defeated Richard Bland to become speaker. By another large majority the burgesses separated the offices of speaker and treasurer. Robert Carter Nicholas remained treasurer. For several more years, Susanna Robinson and her children lived at Pleasant Hill, until Pendleton and Lyons sold the plantation at auction to a Scottish merchant. The speaker's body lay buried about 100 yards from the house. His grave never got a stone.

At the end of May 1766, a few days before John Chiswell entered the tavern at c.u.mberland Court House, Robert Tucker's daughter, Sarah, was married to John Taylor in Norfolk. Tucker kept busy as usual, importing hundreds of hogsheads of rum and barrels of sugar, exporting wheat. His four vessels sailed the Chesapeake and made quick runs to the West Indies. A new brigantine, to be named for his youngest daughter, was rising on the stocks. His credit was good. His bills of exchange pa.s.sed in Baltimore without an endorser. His bakery under the big windmills on the point turned out a ton and a half of bread each day. Yet he spent much time writing to his debtors and confronting them, asking them to pay. He met repeated disappointments.

During the summer, Tucker heard from his London merchants, Edward and Thomas Hunt, that his bills of exchange drawn on Hasenclever, Seton & Crofts were refused by that firm. The Hunts took the bills to sustain Tucker's credit. He did not expect this news. He had loaded that firm's s.h.i.+ps with cargo; his account with Hasenclever, Seton & Crofts showed a large balance in his favor, about 4,700. He could not relax. His interests and risks were widely extended; he did not let a s.h.i.+lling long lie still.

While the Gazette Gazette writers warred over the past and future speaker and the bailment of John Chiswell, disaster struck Robert Tucker. Interrupting the long summer drought, a thunderstorm broke over Norfolk after dark on Thursday, September 4. Lightning hit the city. A bolt fell among Tucker's six warehouses along his wharf extending into the Elizabeth River. These held dry goods, many commodities, and 6,600 gallons of rum. The buildings caught fire; nothing could prevent the flames from consuming them until the burning wharf gave way and collapsed into the river. writers warred over the past and future speaker and the bailment of John Chiswell, disaster struck Robert Tucker. Interrupting the long summer drought, a thunderstorm broke over Norfolk after dark on Thursday, September 4. Lightning hit the city. A bolt fell among Tucker's six warehouses along his wharf extending into the Elizabeth River. These held dry goods, many commodities, and 6,600 gallons of rum. The buildings caught fire; nothing could prevent the flames from consuming them until the burning wharf gave way and collapsed into the river.

For two days Tucker weighed his losses. He estimated them at 2,500 of his own property and a much larger amount in that of others consigned to him. He wrote to William Nelson and to a friend in Baltimore, William Lux, saying that he would continue in business. He announced in the Virginia Gazette Virginia Gazette that he could fill orders for West Indies goods, bread, and flour. In adversity, Tucker showed himself to be, in Nelson's eyes, "a Man of sense & Reflection." But, reading Lux's words of consolation-"your fortune enables you to bear it without feeling it much"-Tucker knew better. that he could fill orders for West Indies goods, bread, and flour. In adversity, Tucker showed himself to be, in Nelson's eyes, "a Man of sense & Reflection." But, reading Lux's words of consolation-"your fortune enables you to bear it without feeling it much"-Tucker knew better.

He tried without success in the autumn to get remittances or a satisfactory accounting from Robert Seton, Baltimore representative of Hasenclever, Seton & Crofts. In London, Andrew Seton went bankrupt. Edward and Thomas Hunt demanded in December that Tucker repay them for picking up his protested bills. He refused, and the Hunts went to court. In the third week of January 1767, an express messenger arrived in Norfolk, bringing word from William Lux that Hasenclever, Seton & Crofts had stopped payment in London. Robert Seton did so immediately afterward. Tucker could expect to lose almost 5,000. Trying to encourage him, Lux wrote that Tucker's "real Capital & great Integrity" would sustain his credit. At the same time, Lux promised to preserve "the greatest Secrecy" about these losses.

That winter Robert Tucker no longer worried about his credit or kept up his indefatigable work. He no longer understood what was happening around him. He had lost his reason "totally." From London word reached Norfolk of the bankruptcy of James Crisp and Francis Warren, of the firm Crisp & Warren. In their s.h.i.+ps Tucker had loaded cargoes for the Barcelona trade. He stood to lose 1,700. No one told him. The mind once embracing many promising enterprises and directing cargoes to and from points north, east, and south of the Chesapeake capes was now dark.

William Nelson and Richard Corbin, Joanna Tucker's brother, visited her in Norfolk in May. To them Robert Tucker seemed "at the point of Death." His brother, John, promised to come from Barbados to manage the estate. With great surprise, William Nelson learned that Robert Tucker was insolvent. His accounts showed that his debts in Virginia and other colonies almost equaled his a.s.sets, other than land and buildings. Nelson roughly estimated the value of the real estate, including Tucker's share in the Dismal Swamp Company, at 5,000. Yet Tucker owed one London firm, the Hunts, almost 6,500 sterling. For more than twenty years Nelson had admired Tucker's hard work and expanding business, taking for granted "that he was very rich." He could only explain to Edward Hunt: "We are often deceived by Appearances."

As Robert Tucker lingered vacantly among his pictures and maps, his partner in the Dismal Swamp Company, William Waters, lay near death in his house in Williamsburg. Just before Christmas he had written his will, leaving almost everything to his daughter, Sarah, though his wife was to have the house and an income for the remainder of her life. Knowing that his health was declining during the early months of 1767, he made clear his affection for David Meade, the warm-hearted young dreamer he had brought into the Dismal Swamp Company.

In the evening of Sat.u.r.day, May 31, William Waters died. Two weeks later his will went to probate. He owned two plantations on the Eastern Sh.o.r.e and one in Halifax County along the Roanoke River. His slaves tended livestock and grew corn; most were very old or very young. His creditors went to court and won judgments against his estate, only to reveal that "there will not be near enough" to pay them. William Waters's estate was insolvent. This outcome "astonish'd every one" in Williamsburg, Robert Carter Nicholas wrote. "I always thought him so safe a Hand, that I should not have scrupled trusting him with any Part of my Property." In the months after Waters's death David Meade applied himself to business, patenting hundreds of acres in the Dismal Swamp and elsewhere in Nansemond County.

Robert Tucker died on July 1. His obituary in the Virginia Gazette Virginia Gazette recalled the "many years" he had "carried on a very extensive trade" in Norfolk, "with the greatest credit and honour." His executors, knowing what awaited them, held his will for ten weeks before going to probate. Dozens of creditors stood "prepared with their Bills Bonds & proved Accots.," which they took to court. William Nelson, looking back on the ways Robert Tucker had "quite mistook his own Interest," wrote his private obituary for his old friend: "a Life of so much honest Industry was hardly ever spent to so little good Purpose." recalled the "many years" he had "carried on a very extensive trade" in Norfolk, "with the greatest credit and honour." His executors, knowing what awaited them, held his will for ten weeks before going to probate. Dozens of creditors stood "prepared with their Bills Bonds & proved Accots.," which they took to court. William Nelson, looking back on the ways Robert Tucker had "quite mistook his own Interest," wrote his private obituary for his old friend: "a Life of so much honest Industry was hardly ever spent to so little good Purpose."

Under such heavy blows, Joanna Tucker had grown "extreamly weak." Nelson thought that liquidation of the estate, selling the contents of her house at auction, would kill her. Her brother-in-law had not yet arrived from Barbados. She and her children gained a friend in October when her daughter, Martha, was married to Thomas Newton, Jr., son of one of Norfolk's leading merchants.

A few months later David Meade, after acquiring still more land near the Dismal Swamp, declared his love for Sarah Waters in the Virginia Gazette Virginia Gazette. Publis.h.i.+ng an acrostic poem encoded with the beloved's name was a favorite exercise. Meade did not use an intricate scheme of the kind John Hatley Norton devised to declare his pa.s.sion for Robert Carter Nicholas's daughter. The first letter of each line of Meade's verse, read down the page, spelled "MISS WATERS." "MISS WATERS." A lover of gardens, Meade used images of flowers to praise her, concluding: A lover of gardens, Meade used images of flowers to praise her, concluding: Th'exulting florist views the various dyes E'en thus fares beauty in each lover's eyes Read o'er these lines you will see the nymph with ease She, like the rose, was made all lips to please.

In the spring they began sixty-two years of married life together.

Executors of the Waters and Tucker estates held auctions of slaves and household goods. Sarah Meade's mother stayed in her house in Williamsburg. The Tucker auction took place fourteen months after Robert Tucker's death. The executors, Thomas Newton, Sr., and John Taylor, waited until his brother arrived from Barbados so that John Tucker could "buy the House & some other Conveniences for the Family." At the sale the executors wanted only watching, not bidding, on many items. A bystander saw Robert Tucker's skilled slaves-millers, bakers, coopers, sawyers, and watermen-bought for Joanna Tucker at one-fourth the market price. In the same manner she retained silver plate and furniture. The hammer fell on bidding for "a new, genteel, fas.h.i.+onable coach," with two horses, at 10. With the a.s.sent of Robert Tucker, Jr., the slave, Jenny, was sold to her husband, Talbot Thompson, a free black man, who won the Council's permission to free her. An auction of Tucker's land set aside for payment of his debts and an auction of his share in the Dismal Swamp Company apparently did not take place. Benjamin Waller, attorney for Edward and Thomas Hunt of London, objected, since the estate's land was the Hunts' only hope for payment of Tucker's debt. But the estate of the late Robert Tucker remained a partner in the Dismal Swamp Company, as did David Meade, whose marriage reunited the halves of William Waters's share.

Just before the stamp tax troubles, Dr. Thomas Walker built a new house at Castle Hill, on an elevation overlooking the gently rising and falling terrain of the piedmont. Compared to the houses of some of his partners, it was modest, a two-story clapboard building with six dormer windows projecting from its slanted roof. For eighteen months, beginning in the summer of 1767, Dr. Walker spent much time far from his new home, working for the Loyal Company, for other western land projects, and for the colony of Virginia. He treated their interests as one. He was fifty-two years old, still wiry and resilient. His energy and his appet.i.te for travel seemed as great as in his climb through c.u.mberland Gap seventeen years earlier.

The Loyal Company's surveyors extended their chains in the steep valleys along the upper reaches of the Greenbrier and New rivers. Walker visited the region in the summer. He missed the wedding of his daughter, Lucy, in August, as did the rest of the family. At the age of sixteen she ran away with her lover, George Gilmer, who was twenty-four. George's mother was Dr. Walker's sister. The parents disapproved of a marriage between first cousins, but Lucy and George were "obstinate": they eloped. Early in the fall, Dr. Walker went down to the tidewater, taking casks of ginseng, which he s.h.i.+pped from York Town, prudently consigning only part to Samuel Gist. He did not accompany George Was.h.i.+ngton and Fielding Lewis on their excursion to Dismal Plantation in October, but he attended a meeting of several partners of the Dismal Swamp Company in Williamsburg on November 3.

At this gathering Dr. Walker saw Was.h.i.+ngton, Lewis, the Nelson brothers, Mann Page, and Edmund Pendleton, representing the late speaker's estate. And he met Francis Farley, newly arrived from Antigua, taking part in his first meeting of the company. Farley had come to Virginia, he said, "to restore my const.i.tution by a Winter." His son, James, already lived in Williamsburg as a student at the College of William and Mary. His daughter, Eleanor, was pregnant again, and Captain Laforey had extended his sh.o.r.e leave for another year at Mayc.o.x. The members of the company paid Was.h.i.+ngton their portions of the last installment of the purchase price for Dismal Plantation.

Dr. Walker's trips grew longer and more urgent in the summer of 1768. Governor Fauquier died in March. In June the Council appointed Walker and his old ally, Andrew Lewis, as Virginia's commissioners to negotiations for new boundaries between whites' settlement and Indian lands. They headed northward for the upper valley of the Susquehanna River in July, accompanied by two of Walker's sons, Thomas and John. They were gone until November. In Albemarle County, during their absence, John Walker's wife, Elizabeth Moore Walker, was approached by his friend, Thomas Jefferson, who, as Jefferson later put it, "offered love to a handsome lady." After waiting at Shamokin, Pennsylvania, Dr. Walker and Andrew Lewis learned that Sir William Johnson had changed the time and place of the conference with the Six Nations of the Iroquois. The Virginians continued northward, past the Catskill Mountains, across the Mohawk River, to Johnson Hall, a mansion in the forest, where Indian guests came far more frequently than whites.

Two weeks later, Walker's party accompanied Sir William up the Mohawk to Fort Stanwix. There they watched the Indian delegations arrive in October. Hundreds from each of the Six Nations, dozens from other tribes, who had good reason to believe that the treaty would affect their interests-more than 3,000 Indians from 16 tribes gathered around Fort Stanwix. After days of speeches, bargaining, and private meetings, the treaty was signed on November 5 in a ceremony on the fort's parade ground. Twenty boatloads of stacked goods, the king's gifts formed three sides of a rectangle, within which Sir William Johnson, representatives of Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and Dr. Walker received leading men of the Six Nations, their formalities watched from the ramparts of the fort and elsewhere by hundreds of Indian men. Walker then traveled down the Mohawk and Hudson rivers, arriving in New York City in mid-November.

Returning, by way of Philadelphia, to Williamsburg, Walker prepared to head southward. John Stuart, the Crown's representative to southern Indians, had reached an agreement with the Cherokees in mid-October. As Walker had feared when he called his presence at those negotiations "an absolute necessity," Stuart had a.s.sented, in Walker's absence, to a line separating colonists from Cherokees which excluded the Loyal Company from much of its grant. Though Stuart had obeyed orders from London, Walker must go to South Carolina to show him that the Cherokees wished to cede still more land, that they even "disclaimed" land a.s.signed to them. With Andrew Lewis, Walker left Williamsburg late in December, crossing the dividing line into North Carolina. They reached Brunswick, near Cape Fear, on January 5, 1769. Governor William Tryon promised his a.s.sistance. He had invited two Cherokee leaders to visit him, and these men accepted Walker's invitation to sail to South Carolina. In Charleston, on January 11, Walker and Lewis made their case to Stuart, adding, in a meeting two days later, testimony from the two Cherokees. Stuart was unmoved. Walker and Lewis returned to Williamsburg to make their report on February 2. On this urgent trip, Walker missed the wedding of his daughter, Mildred, and Joseph Hornsby of Williamsburg. Walker approved of young Hornsby, a rising storekeeper with solid habits.

Each of Dr. Walker's long journeys had ties to the others. The new arrangements with Indians were going to surprise and displease many people: officials in London, Indians of the Ohio Valley, Cherokees, and some colonists in Virginia and the middle colonies. Walker intended to be among those who gave surprises, not received them.

Virginians had grown more openly restive under royal prohibition of surveys and settlement beyond the crest of the Alleghenies. The House of Burgesses addressed the Board of Trade, seeking resumption of lawful settlement. George Mercer still represented the Ohio Company in London. The Mississippi Company concluded that it needed an agent, too. On December 16, 1767, the Mississippi Company made Dr. Walker a member. At the same time, some Pennsylvanians connected with Samuel Wharton, helped by friends in London, hoped to get a large grant west of the mountains, one extending into Virginia's western territory and overlapping claims of the Ohio Company. Westward migration must continue, these rivals agreed. The only question was who would get the land. Dr. Walker and Patrick Henry picked William Fleming to go to the confluence of the Ohio and the Mississippi, making note of the best soil. George Was.h.i.+ngton sent William Crawford to the Ohio Valley to choose tracts Was.h.i.+ngton could obtain from the Virginia Council as soon as the ban on surveys and settlements was lifted. People were getting ready for a land rush to begin soon after a new agreement with the Indians.

By Sir William Johnson's treaty with the Six Nations, they ceded land south of the Ohio, from the mountains to the mouth of the Tennessee. With their marks on the treaty at Fort Stanwix, leaders of the Six Nations signed away land on which they did not live, while Sir William and his colleagues treated the Shawnees, the Delawares, and the Ohio River Iroquois who lived in the valley as dependents of the Six Nations. Both parties ignored the Cherokees' long-standing claim to much of the land ceded by the Iroquois. Sir William, with his signature, accepted on behalf of the Crown a cession of land stretching farther west than his instructions from London allowed-land Wharton and his friends coveted. Dr. Walker, with his signature, gave Virginia's consent to an agreement designed to serve the interests of Wharton's a.s.sociates at the expense of Virginia's claims, especially those of the Ohio Company. At the same time, the treaty gave Dr. Walker and his colleagues in the Loyal Company a boundary far to the west of the line John Stuart had drawn with the Cherokees, the Kanawha River. By next spreading gifts among Cherokees and reaching a new treaty with them, Walker and his friends might complete the Loyal Company's success, having quieted the Iroquois and the Cherokees, sold out the Ohio Valley Indians, and circ.u.mvented the British government's policy for the west. It looked worth eighteen months of strenuous travel.

Afterward, no one could prove what end Walker had sought or what he had said in private. Had he reached an understanding with Sir William Johnson during his two weeks as a guest at Johnson Hall? Had he closed an agreement with Samuel Wharton before lines were drawn on the map at Fort Stanwix? Sir William had said that Walker's presence was "Necessary," lest the absence of Virginia "appear odd to the Indians." Did his presence have a price? Dr. Walker said he had known nothing and done nothing about the substance of negotiations at Fort Stanwix. He convinced even George Mason, a leader of the Ohio Company, that Sir William had frozen him out of all conferences. He implied that he was among the last to learn what the treaty contained. John Stuart, however, had no doubt that Walker served the same purpose in visiting Charleston and in attending at Fort Stanwix. To the Earl of Hillsborough, secretary of state for the American Department, Stuart explained that Walker and Andrew Lewis had a great financial interest in the land they sought to transfer from Indians to whites: "the Rapacity of the Land Jobbers in Virginia is insatiable." During the two months between the treaty of Fort Stanwix and Walker's return from Charleston, the Virginia Council received eighteen pet.i.tions for grants of western land totaling 845,000 acres. Looking at the aftermath of the treaty, the Earl of Hillsborough said: "I...can only lament that a Measure of the Utility of which such great expectation was held out, and which has been adopted at so great an Expense, should have so entirely failed in it's Object, as to have produced the Very Evils to which it was proposed as a Remedy."

Three months after learning of the death of Francis Fauquier, the Earl of Hillsborough chose Norborne Berkeley, Baron de Botetourt, to be governor of Virginia. Of course, Virginia already had a governor, Sir Jeffery Amherst. But he had stayed in England, accepting 1,500 per year from Fauquier, who kept an equal share of the office's salary and fees. Hillsborough and the cabinet ended this arrangement and ordered the new governor to live in Virginia. On July 30, 1768, Lord Botetourt received the appointment from the hands of the king.

Botetourt already was a gentleman of the bedchamber, well known to King George. He was a handsome bachelor, fifty years old, who had been in Parliament for twenty-five years. He charmed people and ingratiated himself through good humor and polished affability. If he sometimes overacted, appearing a little peculiar, one had to recall that Lord Botetourt "writes and speaks and thinks very much in the style of chivalry, not in the style of business." A few years earlier, while still a commoner, he had had close ties with George Grenville, who had helped him gain his peerage. John de Botetourt, the first baron, had been a fighter, following the Earl of Lancaster into rebellion against Edward II in 1322. Edward beheaded Lancaster and pardoned Botetourt. In the following century the barony fell into abeyance; there had been no Baron de Botetourt for more than 350 years when Norborne Berkeley's claim won approval in 1764. The new Lord Botetourt was a courtier. His admirers saw the "politest, the most engaging manners." His detractors saw "cringing, bowing, fawning."

Of Botetourt's mission to Virginia, Horace Walpole wrote: "If his graces do not captivate them, he will enrage them to fury; for I take all his douceur to be enamelled on iron." The ministry wanted a governor who would tell Virginians what Parliament demanded, not tell the Board of Trade what Virginians demanded, as Fauquier too often had done. Parliament again had levied taxes on colonists, this time on their purchases of gla.s.s, lead, paper, paint, and tea. And six weeks after Fauquier's death, Virginians again had p.r.o.nounced such taxes unconst.i.tutional, an attack on their liberties. Councillors and burgesses were united, and they encouraged other colonies to oppose taxes. The Earl of Hillsborough, the Duke of Grafton, head of the ministry, and the king sent a governor to represent the authority of Parliament and the Crown. Botetourt, since the first disputes between colonists and the government, had supported that authority in a tone of "violence & pa.s.sion." His critics called him a "tool." As he sailed from Portsmouth, bound for the Chesapeake, on board a sixty-gun s.h.i.+p of the line, HMS Rippon Rippon, he knew that he was supposed to "answer the purposes of our Gracious Master." Accepting his appointment, he had told the king that he was ready to leave that night. In the following weeks he said that he would go to his post with a desire never to return.

The governors.h.i.+p came to Lord Botetourt opportunely. In recent months he had become insolvent, or nearly so. Long a man of comfortable wealth, he ably promoted the interests of Bristol's merchants while in Parliament. He owned coal mines, and he was a member of the Warmley Company, a large manufacturer of copper and bra.s.s. He invested heavily in expansion, apparently including new copper mines, and he borrowed to invest still more. Late in 1767 the company sought a charter from the Crown, which would permit it to raise more capital by selling stock and would free the original members and their private fortunes from liability for the company's obligations. Compet.i.tors pet.i.tioned against such a charter. Botetourt's critics charged that the costly expansion already had failed. Botetourt and his partners were trying to s.h.i.+eld their own a.s.sets from the Warmley Company's creditors, s.h.i.+fting their losses to investors by selling stock in a firm they knew to be doomed. Whether from these motives or from a belief that stockholders' money might yet save the Warmley Company, Lord Botetourt showed great impatience in December 1767 and January 1768 as the Commissioners of the Privy Seal and the Earl of Chatham, Lord Privy Seal, put off final authorization of the charter after it had pa.s.sed all other steps. The delay never ended; no charter came. Sailing for Virginia, Botetourt was "totally ruined." The government furnished him with the silver plate, equipage, and expense account of an amba.s.sador, leading the wit-crackers to say that he was going as plenipotentiary to the Cherokees.

HMS Rippon Rippon dropped anchor in Hampton Roads on Tuesday, October 25, 1768. The next morning Lord Botetourt went ash.o.r.e to an artillery salute. He arrived in Williamsburg at sunset. The houses had candles lit in all their windows. At the gate of the capitol, the councillors, Speaker Peyton Randolph, Attorney General John Randolph, Treasurer Robert Carter Nicholas, and others welcomed him and conducted him to the Council chamber. After a reading of his commission, Botetourt took the oath of office and administered an oath to the councillors. They repaired to the Raleigh Tavern for supper. At ten, the new governor retired to the palace. Botetourt was ready for a quiet life. He soon saw that Williamsburg would offer few temptations. Writing to the orgiastic Francis Dashwood, he used a slang term for copulation, "basket-making": "The trade of Basket making in a certain Stile is at a very low Ebb in Williamsburg, but agree with you that it will continue to flourish in the City of London." Botetourt said he had "completely lost every Idea of that sort." dropped anchor in Hampton Roads on Tuesday, October 25, 1768. The next morning Lord Botetourt went ash.o.r.e to an artillery salute. He arrived in Williamsburg at sunset. The houses had candles lit in all their windows. At the gate of the capitol, the councillors, Speaker Peyton Randolph, Attorney General John Randolph, Treasurer Robert Carter Nicholas, and others welcomed him and conducted him to the Council chamber. After a reading of his commission, Botetourt took the oath of office and administered an oath to the councillors. They repaired to the Raleigh Tavern for supper. At ten, the new governor retired to the palace. Botetourt was ready for a quiet life. He soon saw that Williamsburg would offer few temptations. Writing to the orgiastic Francis Dashwood, he used a slang term for copulation, "basket-making": "The trade of Basket making in a certain Stile is at a very low Ebb in Williamsburg, but agree with you that it will continue to flourish in the City of London." Botetourt said he had "completely lost every Idea of that sort."

Ten or twelve years earlier, George Was.h.i.+ngton would not have missed an event such as the governor's first day in Williamsburg. As Botetourt arrived, however, Was.h.i.+ngton and Fielding Lewis traveled to the Dismal Swamp. They spent a night at Dismal Plantation, then visited their property in North Carolina. They also ventured into the swamp, which was drier at that time of year. They reached Lake Drummond, a destination less important to Was.h.i.+ngton for his ear's detection of the stillness among the ancient trees than for his surveyor's eye on the prospects for drainage. Was.h.i.+ngton met the new governor in Williamsburg the following Monday. With the death of Francis Fauquier, the Dismal Swamp Company had lost a friend who believed in a project to meet the Royal Navy's demand for hemp. Lord Botetourt showed less interest.

From the day of his arrival, Botetourt "practised all his arts" on Virginians. They, in turn, covered him with compliments, finding in him "every Quality, that can recommend him to the good Opinion & Respect of the People." Yet neither William Nelson nor Francis Lightfoot Lee expected the burgesses and the Council to change their opposition to Parliament's new taxes. The governor was "soothing"; he knew how to make people feel happy. They still did not intend to surrender their liberty to the ministry which had sent him. On lesser matters, they accepted the generous condescension of a n.o.bleman eager to gain influence among them. Not long after Lord Botetourt moved into the governor's palace, Dr. Thomas Walker spent time with him, explaining complex matters, especially Virginia's claims in the west and the proper boundaries between whites and Indians. Members of the Council also helped Botetourt understand. The governor became a supporter of new negotiations with the Cherokees and a new treaty to replace the one negotiated by John Stuart. As emissaries to arrange a further cession of land by the Cherokees, Lord Botetourt chose Dr. Walker and Andrew Lewis.

Francis Farley had opportunities to meet Lord Botetourt. Samuel Martin, Farley's friend in Antigua, wrote a letter of congratulations to Botetourt, to be handed to the governor by James Parke Farley. Martin commended the young man to the governor's notice. Though James looked "well made" and "stout," Antigua's steady heat made him ill. His father agreed that he should live in Virginia. A young man of "uncommon merit" ought to have an introduction to the governor.

Francis Farley's stay in Virginia lasted longer than he had intended. He at first said that he would return to Antigua in the spring of 1768, but he did not sail until the end of the year. His daughter gave him his first grandson on the last day of 1767. She and Captain Laforey named the boy Francis. Before another year pa.s.sed, the Laforeys were getting ready to return to England. At auction, James Parke Farley and William Byrd bought some of their household goods. James's purchases included a woman's saddle and bridle, though he was a bachelor. Spending time with the Byrds at Westover or at Mayc.o.x or in Williamsburg, his eye fell upon William Byrd's daughter, Elizabeth, and hers upon him. She was only fourteen when he bought the saddle, but before she turned seventeen they were married.

Francis Farley enjoyed good health in Virginia, but he saw that Captain Laforey had sometimes neglected his properties. He had "to stay to put things in order." He traveled to the banks of the Dan River in North Carolina to see the Land of Eden for the first time. Before leaving Virginia, he chose an agent to look after his holdings: Robert Munford, a young planter and burgess of Mecklenburg County. Munford's grandfather had known the elder William Byrd well, and his uncle had accompanied Byrd on the trip to the Land of Eden. Munford had served under the younger William Byrd during the war with the French. He agreed to act with Byrd and with James Parke Farley as Francis Farley's representatives in Virginia and North Carolina. At last, Francis Farley sailed for Antigua.

William Anderson grew up in Louisa County in the 1750s. The family knew Samuel Gist as a storekeeper and tobacco merchant. Anderson went to sea. By the time Gist moved to London, Captain Anderson was master of the Rachel and Mary Rachel and Mary, a 300-ton s.h.i.+p with a crew of eighteen, sailing between London and the York River. Chartered by the firms John Norton & Son and James Buchanan & Company, she dropped anchor in the York early in May 1766. After taking on a cargo of tobacco, she sailed for London in August.

Captain Anderson, who was twenty-four, spent the autumn and early winter in London before making a return voyage. He approached Samuel Gist and asked for permission to court Gist's older daughter, Mary, not yet eighteen. Gist rejected him. As one would expect of a young man already master of a s.h.i.+p, Anderson had "a great deale of Pride." But Gist was a merchant and underwriter of "Considerable Fortune." His daughters, he boasted, had "never yet known want." His vision of their future did not include marriage to the likes of the Andersons of Louisa County. He wrote that the captain's "behaviour makes me sick of the Family." He mentioned to Mary that the captain wished to court her and that he had refused this request.

Early in April 1767, Captain Anderson and the Rachel and Mary Rachel and Mary sailed for Virginia, arriving in the York in the second week of June. It was a difficult year for tobacco merchants in the consignment trade. Many planters sold their tobacco in Virginia. No merchant could load a s.h.i.+p without buying. Gist did not like to be forced to pay cash for a cargo. Virginians complained that a conspiracy in London to restrict purchases drove down prices. People in Hanover County believed that Gist directed the plot. This notion was "ridiculous," he wrote; "threaten anybody wth. a Suit who mentions such a thing." sailed for Virginia, arriving in the York in the second week of June. It was a difficult year for tobacco merchants in the consignment trade. Many planters sold their tobacco in Virginia. No merchant could load a s.h.i.+p without buying. Gist did not like to be forced to pay cash for a cargo. Virginians complained that a conspiracy in London to restrict purchases drove down prices. People in Hanover County believed that Gist directed the plot. This notion was "ridiculous," he wrote; "threaten anybody wth. a Suit who mentions such a thing."

The Rachel and Mary Rachel and Mary was loaded by October. Anch.o.r.ed near her in the York, Gist's s.h.i.+p was loaded by October. Anch.o.r.ed near her in the York, Gist's s.h.i.+p Mary and Elizabeth Mary and Elizabeth took on board tobacco, barrel staves, iron, and other commodities. That month both s.h.i.+ps sailed for London. took on board tobacco, barrel staves, iron, and other commodities. That month both s.h.i.+ps sailed for London.

Samuel Gist waxed prosperous as a tobacco merchant and an underwriter at Lloyd's. He was a discriminating judge of ginseng, indigo, and hemp. One who watched him at work wrote: "The sale of Tobacco requires great attention; and besides is one of those things in which persons may be said to be lucky & unlucky. I esteem Mr Gist the best & most thorough Tobacco Merchant of my acquaintance." After the Rachel and Mary Rachel and Mary and the and the Mary and Elizabeth Mary and Elizabeth arrived in the Thames, he had another 443 hogsheads to manage, in addition to his daily appearance at Lloyd's and on 'Change. He did not know that on several occasions, while he walked on 'Change, hearing news and closing deals, his daughter, Mary, admitted Captain William Anderson to Number 25, Savage Gardens. When her father came home, her face and voice revealed nothing to him. She had given money to the servants, and they kept her secret. arrived in the Thames, he had another 443 hogsheads to manage, in addition to his daily appearance at Lloyd's and on 'Change. He did not know that on several occasions, while he walked on 'Change, hearing news and closing deals, his daughter, Mary, admitted Captain William Anderson to Number 25, Savage Gardens. When her father came home, her face and voice revealed nothing to him. She had given money to the servants, and they kept her secret.

Mary's younger sister, Elizabeth, attended a boarding school. After Christmas holidays, Gist left Savage Gardens to take Betsey back to school. On Thursday, January 21, while Gist was away, Captain Anderson came to Number 25. As he and Mary had arranged, she was ready to go. Leaving word that they were fleeing to France, they headed for Scotland.

Gist returned and found only the servants. From them he learned what had happened. For months his daughter had duped him. He felt sick. She had, he thought, "treated me with black ingrat.i.tude." He resolved to strike her out of his life: "she sh[a]ll be to me a stranger for ever nor shall she ev[er] inherit the least part of my Fortune."

Mary Gist and William Anderson were married in Scotland. They returned to London in mid-February, preparing to go to Virginia. "I have not seen her," her father wrote, "& sincerely hope I never shall." John Norton had employed Anderson in the Virginia trade; he wished the young couple well. He could, however, do nothing with Gist. He could only hope to give Anderson some employment: "poor Man! I heartily wish he had to do with a less obdurate Father in Law, and one who wou'd have been more sensible of his Merit."

Gist took some satisfaction from the likelihood that the couple would soon be poor: "they have a dismal Prospect before them." Nevertheless, Mary was his daughter. After she began to "live miserably," he said, he would "supply her wth. such common necessarys as are befitting the Condtn. she has so shamefully chosen." For months his mind dwelt on the subject. He concluded that Captain Anderson was "a Villain," who could "seduce a Girl from her Duty & ruin her." And yet he could not forget his daughter's skill with "every deceitful Art in Practice upon me." Where could she have learned such duplicity?

Gist did not neglect business in the midst of his distress. He acquired another s.h.i.+p, of 150 tons. Registering her on March 8, he gave her the name Elizabeth Elizabeth, after his remaining daughter. She sailed for the York River, bearing a cargo of merchandise with instructions to his representative in Virginia. He gave his debtors a choice: consign their tobacco to him in the Elizabeth Elizabeth, or pay their balances at once or face a suit for debt.

Early in April, William and Mary Anderson took pa.s.sage on board the Brilliant Brilliant, bound for Virginia. She dropped anchor in the York on June 23. William found Mary "most amiable," as did everyone else, except her father. In Louisa County he began to build a store. John Norton, from his offices on Tower Hill, kept working on Gist for a reconciliation, without success.

During the summer the Andersons fell out of Gist's correspondence. He had other concerns. Many underwriters at Lloyd's wished to open a new coffeehouse with a more specialized emphasis on marine insurance and with more careful scrutiny of men offering to subscribe policies. He agreed. Gist offered to help young John Tabb, of the Virginia firm, Thomas Tabb & Son, who was in London with almost 1,000 hogsheads of tobacco consigned to DeBerdt, Burkitt & Sayre, a firm near bankruptcy, unable to accept the large bills of exchange the Tabbs had drawn. Unlike Dennys DeBerdt and Stephen Sayre, Gist kept his attention on business, not allowing himself to be distracted by colonial objections to Parliament's taxes or by troops stationed in Boston. Gist said that out of "friends.h.i.+p and compa.s.sion" he would handle the sale of Tabb's tobacco for a commission of ten s.h.i.+llings per hogshead. Indeed, he would buy much of it. But for one cargo Tabb found another buyer, who offered 400 more than Gist did, and Tabb sold that part of the tobacco himself. Gist protested at being deprived of his profit and silently raised his commission on the tobacco he sold for Tabb.

On August 10, 1768, London merchants trading to Virginia gave "an elegant entertainment" to honor Lord Botetourt at the George and Vulture Tavern in Cornhill. The new governor left for Portsmouth and Virginia with their good will fresh in his mind. Gist had recovered from the shock of his daughter's betrayal, which, he said, "allmost kill'd me." On December 3 one of the hardest workers among the Virginia merchants, Capel Hanbury, suffered a stroke which severely impaired his speech. Gist saw an opportunity. Everyone knew that Capel Hanbury had managed the firm's business. Gist also had heard that friends of the late Speaker Robinson resented the House of Hanbury's unseemly haste in suing the speaker's estate for payment. Gist might reasonably expect to draw away some of the firm's business. He waited until Capel Hanbury died, then offered his "best Services" to Virginia correspondents of the House of Hanbury, promising: "you Shall be dealt with by the Strictest Rules of Justice & Honor."

From his first days in London, Samuel Gist awoke Virginians' suspicions in his dealings as a merchant. He soon fell under political suspicion, too. Colonists followed with concern the fortunes of John Wilkes as he flamboyantly defied the government. Though "grave ones" in Virginia thought him "a wicked abandoned Bankrupt," the cry of "Wilkes and Liberty" held broad appeal among opponents of Parliament's new taxes, though Wilkes earlier had ridiculed Americans' position. In colonial leaders' stylized, theatrical way of talking, he was a hero. Burgesses who pa.s.sed resolutions against taxation and in favor of a boycott of British goods would have accepted the label put on them with contempt by a visiting member of the Fairfax family: "a set of Wilkes's."

In the summer of 1767, Wilkes plotted his return to the House of Commons, this time relying on electors in London. Though he must pay for "some eating & drinking," the cost would be far less than in Aylesbury. After his victory in Middles.e.x on March 28, 1768, some of his followers celebrated by breaking windows. His reimprisonment under a writ of outlawry brought crowds into the streets for weeks. Riots broke out in several parts of London as Parliament came into session in May. Soldiers killed a number of people in St. George's Fields, outside King's Bench Prison.

Wilkes again brought himself before the eyes of the political world by publis.h.i.+ng his accusation that the ministry had planned the killings in St. George's Fields. The government expelled him from the House of Commons. During February and March 1769-Wilkes in prison all the while-he was expelled, re-elected, disqualified, re-elected, annulled, and re-elected. Bets on his fate kept brokers in Exchange Alley as busy as if he were "another regular stock." Wilkes always appeared to enjoy the ferment he stimulated. "He was an incomparable comedian in all he said or did," Sir Nathaniel William Wraxall later wrote, "and he seemed to consider human life itself as a mere comedy."

Many merchants and other men of business in London signed an address to the king to show that much of the City, substantial men, opposed Wilkes. This address appeared, ready for signatures, at the King's Arms Tavern in Cornhill, leading critics to suspect that its authors were not merchants but members of the government. It expressed the signers'"abhorrence of every attempt to spread sedition, to inflame the minds, and alienate the affection of a free and loyal people from the best of kings, and his government." After a raucous meeting at the King's Arms, promoters of the address moved it to the Merchant Seamen's Office on the upper story of the Royal Exchange, where it awaited signatures. More than six hundred men signed, Samuel Gist among them. Others were merchants in overseas trade, marine insurance underwriters, brokers, bankers, and directors of the South Sea Company, the East India Company, and the Bank of England-men who wielded great influence in the City's commerce and finance but little in its political life. Other Chesapeake merchants signed: John Norton, William Molleson, Lionel Lyde, John Buchanan.

A procession of merchants' carriages set out for St. James's Palace on March 22 to deliver the address to the king. Along the way, crowds shouting "Wilkes and liberty," "Wilkes, and no king" "Wilkes and liberty," "Wilkes, and no king" pelted them with dirt and stones, breaking the carriages' windows and blinds, dirtying coachmen, footmen, and merchants. The Horse Guards rode out of the palace grounds with sabers drawn, cleared the streets nearby, and patrolled through the afternoon and evening. Retreating into Nando's Coffee House, the merchants' chairman, Edmund Boehm, lost the address and its signatures for a while but eventually recovered it, and with a few other men, presented it to the king several hours late. After this episode, David Hume, who thought Wilkes a cunning quack, concluded that the drama had moved into its ridiculous phase. Thinking about a historian later writing on these times, he said: "I am delighted to see the daily and hourly Progress of Madness and Folly and Wickedness in England. The Consummation of these Qualities are the true Ingredients for making a fine Narrative in History." pelted them with dirt and stones, breaking the carriages' windows and blinds, dirtying coachmen, footmen, and merchants. The Horse Guards rode out of the palace grounds with sabers drawn, cleared the streets nearby, and patrolled through the afternoon and evening. Retreating into Nando's Coffee House, the merchants' chairman, Edmund Boehm, lost the address and its signatures for a while but eventually recovered it, and with a few other men, presented it to the king several hours late. After this episode, David Hume, who thought Wilkes a cunning quack, concluded that the drama had moved into its ridiculous phase. Thinking about a historian later writing on these times, he said: "I am delighted to see the daily and hourly Progress of Madness and Folly and Wickedness in England. The Consummation of these Qualities are the true Ingredients for making a fine Narrative in History."

Among merchants not signing the address, some tried to organize a demand for repeal of the new taxes on colonists. They found this difficult. The taxes might be "absurd," as Anthony Bacon called them-what sensible manufacturing nation taxed its own exports?-but they lacked the pervasive effect of the Stamp Act, and they did not arouse so strong or united a resistance. Opponents in the colonies had shown that they would dispute all claims of Parliament's right to tax, a view merchants in London did not share. Many colonists nevertheless conflated their cause and Wilkes's, drawing a sharp distinction between merchants who supported the government against Wilkes and merchants who did not, though neither group agreed with the colonists' const.i.tutional position.

A letter from London, apparently written by Arthur Lee, was published in the Virginia Gazette Virginia Gazette. It said that by signing the address to the king, Gist and his fellow Virginia merchants had applauded "Ministerial conduct against America," the ma.s.sacre of Wilkes's supporters, and abrogation of const.i.tutional liberties. The letter suggested a boycott of the signers. One of Gist's correspondents told him: "They are in a ferment." He and other signers were deemed "inimical to America." Gist replied that he had opposed disturbers of government, without reference to American affairs. He thought Arthur Lee "meant to make himself appear a Patriot in the Eyes of the Ra[bb]le." No one could suppose that Gist wished to hurt America, since he was "so largely concern'd" there in his trade and investments. Three weeks after the merchants' loyal address, Middles.e.x electors gave a large majority of their votes to John Wilkes for the fifth time. The House of Commons declared his opponent, who was supported by the ministry, to be elected.

The day merchants took their address to the king was the second day of business for New Lloyd's Coffee House. Gist and other signers of the address well known at Lloyd's moved their insuring to this establishment. More and more underwriters, merchants, and brokers thought that the original Lloyd's in Lombard Street attracted too many newcomers who were not serious businessmen. Established insurers saw strangers of unknown credit offering to write a line of 100 or 200 on policies circulating in the room. These intruders had heard the usual stories about Lloyd's, underwriters making huge, instant profits: "A Jew last War made 40,000 by Underwriting at one Time from a Letter, Wrote by his Correspondent in Jamaica, containing only these words, 'We are all well.'" Veterans knew that the presence of more men competing to subscribe policies drove premiums down in peacetime. And anyone could see that "every Man at the Coffee House writes policies now a days." People seeking insurance on a large scale could not always avoid unknown, unsafe insurers.

Gist and his colleagues also had tired of interference with marine insurance by hectic promoters of short-term policies which were, in effect, bets on public contingencies. Would Parliament be dissolved and a new election called in the coming year? Would East India Company stock fall to 175 per share in the next three months? Would the Bank of England's notes be discounted during the coming month? Would John Wilkes be elected member for Middles.e.x? Would Britain go to war with France or Spain within the next year? Was King George's mother dead or not dead? Would the Stuart pretender to the English throne soon be made king of Poland? One paid a premium, ranging from 5 to 50, and received 100 if the contingency in question occurred. During the twenty-four hours after the king's mother died, "many thousand pounds" of such policies were done on the question of her death.

Early in 1769, with encouragement from the princ.i.p.al brokers and underwriters of marine insurance, Thomas Fielding, a waiter at Lloyd's, leased Number 5, Pope's Head Alley, a house in a short street running between the Post Office in Lombard Street and the Royal Exchange. He had the building "genteelly fitted up" with tables and booths for underwriters. On March 21, New Lloyd's Coffee House opened. A brief period of "Confusion" about the true headquarters of marine insurance ensued, but New Lloyd's soon prevailed. Underwriters found themselves in more cramped rooms, with new neighbors in the alley: attorneys, stockbrokers, notaries, the Annuity Office, the famous Pope's Head Tavern, and John Barnes and William Golightly's State Lottery Office, crowded with people buying tickets under a lantern sign which read: "Tickets insured." "Tickets insured."

New-Lloyd's List came out on Tuesdays and Fridays with s.h.i.+pping news and stock quotations. Any owner of an outbound vessel seeking a cargo could "put her up for freight at New Lloyd's Coffee House." Vessels for sale were "put up" there, as were reports of vessels' arrivals, departures, and mishaps. People promoting causes, such as breaking the butchers' monopoly on meat or paying a bounty to turbot fishermen, left subscription books open. The arrangement was convenient: "at Lloyd's Coffee-house the Broker can go from one Underwriter to another, who are conversant with different trades, and know how things are...he knows where to find each of those men, and he can form a pretty good judgment by the time he has been round, what he can do his risk for." Every summer, at the start of hurricane and storm season, premiums rose. The same underwriters wrangled with the same brokers in "a constant scene of disputes" to see who would first pay higher premiums and lead the way for all policyholders. Everyone understood the game. Samuel Gist was one of the men in New Lloyd's who "know how things are." He mastered underwriting as he had mastered tobacco-selling. To make money, he had to cla.s.s his risks and spread his resources. To get safer, surer policies, he had to write some for enterprises that looked shaky. "At Lloyd's Coffee House," a broker said, "we give and we take, the good and the bad together; and...by having one good and another bad we are able to get on." came out on Tuesdays and Fridays with s.h.i.+pping news and stock quotations. Any owner of an outbound vessel seeking a cargo could "put her up for freight at New Lloyd's Coffee House." Vessels for sale were "put up" there, as were reports of vessels' arrivals, departures, and mishaps. People promoting causes, such as breaking the butchers' monopoly on meat or paying a bounty to turbot fishermen, left subscription books open. The arrangement was convenient: "at Lloyd's Coffee-house the Broker can go from one Underwriter to another, who are conversant with different trades, and know how things are...he knows where to find each of those men, and he can form a pretty good judgment by the time he has been round, what he can do his risk for." Every summer, at the start of hurricane and storm season, premiums rose. The same underwriters wrangled with the same brokers in "a constant scene of disputes" to see who would first pay higher premiums and lead the way for all policyholders. Everyone understood the game. Samuel Gist was one of the men in New Lloyd's who "know how things are." He mastered underwriting as he had mastered tobacco-selling. To make money, he had to cla.s.s his risks and spread his resources. To get safer, surer policies, he had to write some for enterprises that looked shaky. "At Lloyd's Coffee House," a broker said, "we give and we take, the good and the bad together; and...by having one good and another bad we are able to get on."

Gist was quick to charge policyholders with fraud. Anyone presenting a claim in which Gist found a flaw could expect many meetings with the underwriters and little chance of recovery without going to court. Gist stiffened the resolve of his fellow underwriters. His confident accusations and his refusal to pay a claim left one merchant at a loss for words to express his anger: "what more can I say of the determination of those --." Underwriters encountered many ruses: a s.h.i.+p insured after she had sunk, a cargo of trash insured as if it were valuable merchandise, then mysteriously lost at sea, a vessel scuttled by her captain. One underwriter amused him