The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today. Let us move forward with strong and active faith.
— Franklin D. Roosevelt
Petition signed by Charles City County residents in 1710 seeking to increase the size of the county to relieve the tax burden. The first signer is Richard Bradford I and the latter signer Richard Bradford Jr. (at bottom right) is Richard II. (Petition courtesy of the Virginia State Archives.)
As mentioned in the first chapter, Richard I had at least three children: Richard II, John and Ralph. This chapter is primarily written about the oldest of those sons, Richard II. First, however, I will spend a few moments discussing his brothers.
Brother John
Richard II’s brother John Bradford married a woman named Rebecca Pace. Rebecca was the great granddaughter of Richard Pace, the man widely attributed with warning the residents of Jamestown of the impending Indian attack in 1622. Pace was forewarned of the Indians’ plot by a friendly Indian, Chanco, a Christian convert Pace treated like a son. But for that warning, some believe that all of Virginia’s colonists would have died in the ensuing surprise attack. The surprise attack was carried out early on Good Friday, March 22, 1622. Chanco, who was told to kill Pace in that morning assault, struggled with his conscience all night before the attack. Fortunately for Jamestown (not to mention Pace), Chanco declined to kill Pace and instead warned him of the impending attack. Pace rowed across the James River’s backwaters to Jamestown from his mainland home to warn Jamestown residents of the ensuing attack. Jamestown was saved. 103 Rebecca Pace Bradford is mentioned in the will of her father, John Pace. That will, dated March 13, 1736, was probated in Bertie County, North Carolina, in February 1738.
After becoming an adult, John moved off the family’s plantation and moved out of Charles City County altogether. By 1719, John and Rebecca were living in Prince George County, Virginia. Indeed, in that year John, in the earliest record of any Bradford in North Carolina, witnessed the recording of land purchased by his father-in-law Richard Pace. 104 John Bradford’s plantation, which was in the portion of Prince George County that was later broken off and renamed Brunswick County in 1732, abutted Virginia’s border with North Carolina. 105
John and Rebecca Bradford had at least six children: Richard, John Jr. (discussed below), Nathaniel (whose sons John and Nathaniel eventually moved to Wilkes County, Georgia), Frances, Rebecca and Sarah. John Bradford Sr. died in Brunswick County, Virginia and his will, dated November 3, 1732, was probated on November 6, 1735. He left his heirs land in both Brunswick County, Virginia, and Northampton County, North Carolina. After his death, his wife, Rebecca Pace Bradford, married William Aycock and moved to Wilkes County, Georgia. 106
One of John and Rebecca’s sons, John Bradford Jr. (1730-1787), who is often referred to as “Colonel John Bradford of Halifax,” is a distinguished early American. John Bradford Jr. served in many positions of authority in colonial North Carolina and became a Colonel in the North Carolina Militia of Halifax County in the Revolutionary War. In that capacity, Colonel John Bradford was actively involved in battle. Included among his military exploits, Colonel Bradford led his regiment in the left wing of the battle line in Patterson’s Brigade during the battle of Wright’s Mill. Moreover, on April 4, 1776, Colonel Bradford served as Halifax County’s representative to North Carolina’s provisional congress and, as such, was a signer of the famous Halifax Resolves, a pre-cursor to the Declaration of Independence which declared North Carolina’s independence from Great Britain.
Despite the historical prominence of Colonel John Bradford’s career, he was by no means the most famous of John Bradford’s descendants. To the contrary, Colonel Bradford’s grandson, John Branch, had an incredibly illustrious career. Branch, a lawyer, became the Governor of North Carolina (1817-1820), served a six-year term as a United States Senator, acted as Secretary of the Navy for President Andrew Jackson and was finally appointed Governor of the territory of Florida by President John Tyler in 1843. Branch died in North Carolina on January 4, 1863. A drawing of Branch (set forth here) is set forth in The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography. 107
Also of interest, several sons of Henry Bradford (1761-1838, one of Colonel John Bradford’s sons) moved to a place in Leon County, Florida. That place, just north of Tallahassee, was named Bradfordsville after those Bradfords. 108
For more information about this branch of the family (no pun intended), which migrated south to Georgia, Florida, South Carolina and Texas, among other places, I would suggest Sandlund II, Julian Hart Robertson’s The Cox and Bradford Families and two books by John Bennett Boddie: Virginia Historical Genealogies and Southside Virginia Families. 109
Brother Ralph
Unlike John Bradford, very little is known about Richard II’s other brother, Ralph Bradford, other than that he was the son of Richard Bradford I and Frances Taylor Bradford and that he once lived in Prince George County, Virginia (the portion of Charles City County south of the James River until Charles City County was split into Charles City and Prince George Counties in 1703).
The only information that we have about Ralph comes from the only existing record that mentions him: a deed of land. Specifically, on July 14, 1716, Ralph Bradford “of Prince George County” deeded (for ten pounds) 400 acres in Westover Parish “which was given by will by James Ward (deceased) to Frances, Ralph’s mother” with the other part of the deeded land having come from Ralph’s father Richard. This record was witnessed by Ralph’s brother John Bradford, William Wynn and one of Richard II’s sons, Richard Bradford III. 110 No one knows what became of Ralph. Presumably, however, he never married and died without issue.
Richard II: Early Years
Finally, I get to the focus of this chapter: Richard Bradford II, the eldest of Richard I’s sons. Richard II was lucky to be the eldest since the ancient law of primogeniture, which was still in effect in Virginia at the time, provided that the oldest son inherited the entirety of the family’s lands. As a result, Richard II eventually inherited the entirety of his father’s estate, including the 1,197 acre plantation in Charles City County. Richard II lived on that plantation until his death in 1725.
Little is known about Richard II’s days as a youth in Charles City County. Most likely, most of his time was spent working on the family’s plantation, tending the crops, caring for the livestock or clearing further parts of the still-wooded areas of the estate. Although Virginia was the only home he ever knew, perhaps his father told him stories of England and the life he left there. Virginia had no compulsory education laws when Richard I arrived in the colony and formal schooling was practically nonexistent when Richard II and his brothers grew up. Most likely, Richard II and his brothers learned to read and write from their parents. Nevertheless, I am sure that he had a childhood we can be jealous of. Probably born sometime around 1660 (incidentally, almost exactly 300 years before I was), he lived in the cradle of American society at a very exciting time.
Bacon’s Rebellion
Although Bacon’s Rebellion (1676-1677) is a well-known historical event, the details of that conflict merit elaboration here.
While most of the Virginia Colony’s neighboring Indians lived in peace with the English settlers, there were a rash of Indian attacks on the colony’s outlying settlers during late 1675 and early 1676: cornfields were burned, herds were slaughtered and abandoned homes and barns were burned to the ground. As a result, the Virginia Colony’s outlying settlers began to demand more protection from their government. The colony’s governor, Sir William Berkeley, however, refused to alter his policies. Moreover, his treatment of the protesting colonists was undiplomatic, even surly. For example, the following is a report of a meeting between Berkeley and the Bradfords and/or some of their Charles City County neighbors:
When petitions came from the frontiersmen, asking leave to go out against the Indians, he returned a brusk and angry refusal. A delegation from Charles City County met with a typical reception from the irritable old man. As they stood humbly before him, presenting their request for a commission, they spoke of themselves as the Governor’s subjects. Upon this Berkeley blurted out that they were all ‘fools and loggerheads.’ They were subjects of the King, and so was he. He would grant them no commission, and bade them be gone, and a pox take them. Later he issued a proclamation forbidding under heavy penalties all such petitions.111
The colonists became more and more concerned. Governor Berkeley remained staunchly unmoving. Something had to give. It did.
In late March 1676, false rumors that “Several formidable Bodies of Indians” were moving down the James River towards them invoked terror in the residents of Charles City and Henrico Counties. The frightened residents wanted to meet the enemy (reportedly a group of Doeg Indians) and stop the “approaching calamity” to protect their homes and families. Those frightened colonists even offered to take the unusual measure of paying for their own expenses in such an endeavor. Governor Berkeley, however, denied them permission to take military action. The citizenry, understandably, felt that their government could not, or would not, protect them from their enemies, real or imagined. It was that refusal by Governor Berkeley that ignited Bacon’s Rebellion. 112
After Governor Berkeley refused to give the go-ahead for an attack on the Indians, an enraged Henrico County planter, Nathaniel Bacon Jr. (a man with no military rank or prior notoriety) and a group of neighboring militiamen marched out into the wilderness without the Governor’s permission to meet the alleged Indian threat. Although Bacon and his followers did not find the rumored group of Indians upriver, they wandered around until they did find some Indians — any Indians. Eventually, after a number of misadventures, Bacon and his followers killed a number of both Susquehannock and Occaneechee Indians, even though some of them were actually considered friendly Indians. To the frightened, fired-up colonists, however, that did not seem to matter.
Upon Bacon’s “triumphant” return, Governor Berkeley promptly had him arrested for acting without governmental authority. Berkeley, however, agreed to pardon Bacon after the rebel leader apologized for his actions. Bacon was considered a hero by most colonists since he had killed Indians — even if they were the wrong ones. To the terrified colonists, Bacon seemed to at least be doing something, while Governor Berkeley was becoming increasingly unpopular for his perceived failure to act decisively in response to the perceived Indian threat.
On June 23, 1676, soon after Bacon’s release, Bacon and 500 militiamen captured Jamestown, then the colony’s capital, and demanded permission to march against the Indians. Bacon’s followers were members of the frontier militia, largely from Charles City, Henrico and New Kent counties. Those men were not “fringe” elements of the militia, but, rather, parts of whole military units, complete with officers.
Under duress, the colonial government appointed Bacon the head of the colonial militia and gave him permission to march against the Indians. After Bacon and his followers left town, however, Governor Berkeley proclaiming Bacon a rebel and began raising an army to capture him. Meanwhile, Bacon and his men marched for weeks, encountered few Indians and accomplished nothing. Finally, Bacon heard that Governor Berkeley had revoked his authority to march against the Indians. Thereafter, an enraged Bacon, followed by 300 of his men, marched “in great fury” towards Jamestown where those men had a brief battle with Governor Berkeley’s men. The governor’s troops, however, were understandably unenthusiastic about fighting fellow Virginians who only wanted to defend the colony from reportedly hostile Indians. Berkeley’s forces abandoned Jamestown. After capturing Jamestown, Bacon promptly burned it to the ground. Bacon’s burning of Jamestown, however, was the turning point of Bacon’s Rebellion. The burning of the capital shocked most Virginians and helped turn the tide of public opinion against Bacon.
Bacon’s Rebellion, moreover, took a new direction. Bacon soon recruited a large number of slaves and servants who began to loot and vandalize the property of other Virginians, including, as discussed in the previous chapter, Colonel Edward Hill’s. During their rampage, Bacon and his men seized what is now perhaps the oldest brick home in America and used it as a fortress for three months. (That home near Surry, Virginia, now called “Bacon’s Castle,” is open to the public.) The rebellion became increasingly unpopular. Suddenly, on October 26, Bacon died from what contemporary writers called the “Bloody Flux” and “Lousey Disease.” Modern authors, however, suggest that Bacon died of either malaria or dysentery. Regardless of the illness that did Bacon in, without him the rebels all defected, surrendered or were captured by February 1677. While most of the rebels were pardoned, several were clapped in irons and twenty-three were hanged.
I spend a great deal of time on Bacon’s Rebellion because Richard II, who lived in Charles City County and belonged to the colonial militia during that period, was almost certainly involved in that conflict. The same is also probably true of his father Richard I and, perhaps, his brothers. Regardless, all of the Bradfords heard the rumors of a potential Indian attack prior to that rebellion and were frightened accordingly. As a result, as residents of one of the colony’s outlying areas, the Bradfords almost certainly shared Bacon’s fear of Indian attack. Similarly, they must have shared Bacon’s desire that their government either protect them or authorize them to protect themselves. It is equally possible that the Bradfords — at least initially — supported Bacon and that some of them may have marched into Jamestown with Bacon on that angry June day in 1676 when Bacon first demanded permission to meet the alleged Indian threat. Many of their neighbors did. In fact, so many Charles City County residents followed Bacon to Jamestown on that day that, in their absence, some Indians penetrated to the very heart of Charles City County.
It is similarly possible that a young Richard II, and/or one or more of his brothers, followed Bacon against Richard I’s wishes. Regardless, as owners of a large plantation, the Bradfords parted ways with Bacon when he and his followers turned from attacking Indians to attacking fellow Virginians, particularly since Bacon and his men began to loot the larger plantations. Hence, it is most likely that the Bradfords initially supported, then later disapproved of, the rebellion. Indeed, that scenario is highly likely: some estimate that thousands of Virginians changed sides — sometimes more than once — during Bacon’s Rebellion.
Unfortunately, we will never know what role the Bradfords played in America’s first rebellion. We can be confident, however, that their hearts and minds were once occupied by that conflict of 1676 and 1677 — a conflict, 100 years before the American Revolution, which put the English government on notice that the colonial settlers were an outspoken lot who were not afraid to take matters into their own hands. It was a taste of things to come in 1776.
Marriage, Children
Richard II probably never lived anywhere other than the family’s Charles City County plantation, which he took control of upon his father’s death. Coincidentally, Richard II, like his father, got married and fathered three sons. While the date of that marriage is not recorded, one author believes that it took place in about 1690. 113 The first name of Richard’s wife was Anna and at least one source suggests that her last name was Parish. 114 Although I cannot verify that Anna Bradford’s maiden name was Parish, that would make sense. I will explain.
A man named John Parish was headrighted 390 acres in the “Wyanoke Parish” section of Charles City County on November 20, 1682. Those 390 acres were described in that deed as “beginning in the forke of the Old Tree Run, to Richard Bradford, to Fishing Run.” 115 Hence, the Parish family and the Bradford family were adjoining property owners. Now you know why it makes so much sense that Anna’s last name was likely Parish: Richard II seems to have married the girl next door!
Another source, however, indicates that Richard II’s wife was Anna (or Anne) Roles. Ms. Roles was allegedly born in London, Middlesex, England, in 1665. As is the case with the Parish possibility, however, I can neither confirm nor deny that Ms. Roles was Richard II’s wife.116
Not to be outdone, one researcher has suggested no less than three additional possible surnames of Richard II’s wife. The first of those is Major, since a John Major witnessed her will and, hence, may have been a close relative (the Major family lived in King and Queen County near the mouth of the Mattapony River). That possibility is intriguing, particularly since Richard Bradford (although I am unsure if it was Richard I or Richard II), owned land in that county by 1699. 117 Another possibility is Wynne, since a William Wynne appeared in several records relating to the Charles City County Bradfords. Finally, that researcher suggests that Anna’s last name may have been Comboo, the same last name of a neighbor who once sold land in Charles City County to Richard Bradford. 118
Regardless of Anna Bradford’s maiden name, her and Richard II’s sons were named Richard Bradford (III), Thomas Bradford and Philemon Bradford. There may have been others. Each, like their parents, belonged to the Anglican Church and worked on the plantation. During Richard II’s life, however, Charles City County became less of a frontier. Between 1682 and the century’s end in 1699, that county’s population doubled to 3,899. 119
Trade With London
Virginia remained an English colony throughout Richard II’s life. Hence, much of the colonists’ trade during that period was with England. No doubt, Richard II, like his father before him, shipped tobacco for sale in England after the ships, filled with new colonists, arrived every autumn with freshly-emptied holds waiting to be filled with hogsheads of tobacco. This tobacco was probably carried from the plantation to those ships by way of boat up the James River. The Bradfords, like most planters in that area, probably had a loading dock on their plantation on one of the many waterways leading to the James River. The James River, in turn, leads to the Chesapeake Bay which, in turn, empties into the Atlantic Ocean. Back then, even for local travel, the waterways were used as much as the roads. The Bradford family’s loading dock was probably on Queen’s Creek, a navigable tributary that bordered their property and fed directly into the James River.
In addition to selling their tobacco to buyers in London, the Bradfords purchased many of their wares and goods from merchants living in that distant city. There is proof to that effect. There is a record in the Will and Deed Book of Charles City County for 1692-1694 which states that “On 2 Feb. in 4th year of reign of William & Mary,” a notary public of London named Porten Paul notarized a record for “Henry Dennis of London, Merchant” who had appointed Captain Christopher Morgan, “Master of the ship Perry and Lanyne now bound for James River in Virginia, his attorney, to receive of Richard Bradford, planter, in James River, all things owed” to Dennis. That record was recorded upon the oaths of two witnesses who testified on April 2, 1694, and February 3, 1696, respectively. 120 Notably, however, I am not sure if the Richard Bradford referred to in that record was Richard I or Richard II.
The ship mentioned in the above record, the Perry and Lane, was named after a London firm of that same name owned by Micajah Perry and Thomas Lane. From the late 1600’s until well into the next century, Perry and Lane reportedly handled more of the Virginia tobacco business than any other. Indeed, Virginia planter William Byrd I conducted a great deal of business with Perry and Lane. Copies of Byrd’s letters to that firm are included in The Correspondence of the Three William Byrds of Westover, Virginia, 1684-1776. Those letters show that Byrd was selling tobacco to that firm and, in return, receiving goods (such as hats, thread, linens, ironworks and nails). 121 Richard Bradford apparently conducted a similar trade with London merchants.
As an aside, Captain Christopher Morgan’s ship, Perry and Lane, was among a fleet of ships carrying tobacco and other goods from Virginia that were damaged in a sea storm after docking in Margate Roads, England, in January 1709. While I am not sure whether the Bradfords had any goods aboard that ship at the time, Richard I’s neighbor William Byrd II certainly did. As Byrd’s diary entry of May 6, 1709, states:
In the afternoon Colonel Ludwell returned and brought us the bad news that Captain Morgan had lost his ship in Margate Roads by a storm as likewise had several others. My loss was very great in this ship where I had seven hogsheads of skins and 60 hogsheads of heavy tobacco. The Lord gives and the Lord has taken away…. However I ate a good supper of mutton and asparagus. Then we went to dance away our sorrows. 122
I wonder if the Bradfords similarly danced away their sorrows. In his May 21, 1709, diary entry, Byrd confirmed that the ship mentioned in the above record was indeed the Perry and Lane. On that day, Byrd wrote that he received a letter from Micajah Perry of London who, Byrd reported: “gave me the comfort that skins and 350 hogsheads of tobacco were saved out of the Perry and Lane and some tobacco out of the other ships that were lost in the storm that happened January last in England.” 123 Finally, on May 20, 1709, Byrd wrote that he received a missive from England which told “the sad story of the misfortune of our fleet by the storm, but there are some hopes that the Perry and Lane is not lost as we had been informed, though she was in great danger.” 124
Perhaps Byrd’s dance of sorrow made the difference. Regardless, Virginia tobacco exporters like the Byrds and the Bradfords must have been relieved that many goods were saved from the storm, particularly since there was no insurance to cover shipping losses in those days (a need later filled by Lloyd’s of London). Hopefully the Bradfords did not lose anything in the 1709 Margate Roads storm. Plainly, as the story of that storm illustrates, the family’s fortunes were on the line each time that the family’s goods, imported or exported, crossed the sometimes treacherous Atlantic Ocean.
The record of the Bradford family’s trade with London also shows that the ties of the Bradfords and, indeed, the colony as a whole, to England were still strong at that time and, moreover, suggests that the Bradfords may have corresponded with the relatives and friends who Richard I left behind. If contact could be made to negotiate trade with merchants in London, letters to family and friends in Europe were likewise sent. I wonder what adventures and tales of the colony were passed on in that correspondence. Note, however, the time lags involved: Byrd did learn of a January storm until May. Hence, regardless of a message’s urgency, one had to expect a four month lag between the time a letter was written and the date is was received across the ocean.
Planter
Another important aspect of the 1694 record of Richard Bradford’s debt to the London merchant was that it described him as Richard Bradford planter. Hence, we know that, at least by that time, the Bradfords were involved in planting tobacco. That was an important transition for the family. While the move from a trade, such as that of joyner, to planting was a sign of financial success and greater social status, it cast the dye for generations to come. Thereafter the Bradfords derived their livelihood from the land for hundreds of years: first as planters, next as small farmers, finally, at least for some, as tenant farmers. Eventually, that line of work proved a dead-end for many in the Bradford family — but I am getting 150 years ahead of myself.
The information that Richard was a planter also gives us insight into the daily lives of the Bradfords. Life on a colonial Virginia plantation was a busy one and anyone who wishes to get a flavor of that life can travel to Charles City County where some of the large plantations are still open to the public.
Political Involvement
Richard I and/or Richard II were involved in some very high profile matters in the politics of the Virginia Colony in the early 1700s. Because records of those events generally only refer to “Richard Bradford” with no clarifying reference to either Senior or Junior, we can only speculate as to which of those ancestors were involved in any given event. As we discuss each of those events, however, I will share with you my best guess as to which Richard Bradford was involved. Since I will set forth the reasons for my conclusions, however, you are free to draw your own conclusions from the facts presented. Regardless of the result, one conclusion is unmistakable: the Bradfords were a potent political force in early Virginia.
The Taylor/Minge Dispute
The first of the records reflecting Bradford political involvement involves a stormy meeting of the Governor’s Council in Williamsburg, the town where the colonial government’s seat was moved to from Jamestown in the spring of 1699.
The meeting in question was the Governor’s Council’s first meeting of the winter term on February 23, 1700. It was at that time that a Richard Bradford sailed up the cold James River from Charles City County with neighbors and friends and threw his hat into the ring in regard to a brewing local dispute.
The local dispute that brought Richard to Williamsburg, like many local disputes today, turned ugly. Some background may be helpful. In 1698, Governor Francis Nicholson and the men on the Council were given a complaint by John Taylor (brother of Richard I’s wife, Frances) which stated that, although Taylor had received a commission appointing him as the new clerk for the Charles City County court from the colonial secretary, incumbent clerk James Minge refused to vacate that position. The Charles City County justices, of which Richard Bradford was one, split on the issue of how to resolve the Minge/Taylor dispute. Thereafter, Minge filed charges in the provincial General Court against Taylor and Judge Charles Goodrich, who jointly responded that they “were very much scandalized by the said Minge.”
Before Attorney-General Bartholemew Fowler could rule on what had now become the Minge/Taylor/Goodrich dispute, colonist John Wickett joined the fray and filed a petition requesting that Fowler prosecute Minge for taking illegal fees. Enter Richard Bradford, a justice of the peace for Charles City County (and obviously a supporter of his relative John Taylor), who appeared and complained that Minge was neglecting his office and that Taylor ought to be reinstated as county clerk of Charles City County. Fowler, facing a hornet’s nest of controversy, suspended both Taylor and Minge until all of the pending matters related to their dispute were resolved. Fowler eventually acquitted Taylor and returned Taylor to his position as county clerk.
The Minge/Taylor/Goodrich/Wickett/Bradford dispute is recorded for posterity in the record of a February 23, 1698, Governor’s Council meeting held in James City before Governor Francis Nicholson. The members of the Governor’s Council present at that meeting were William Byrd, Edward Hill, Edmund Henings, John Lightfoot and Matthew Page. 125
Richard Bradford, however, was not alone in crossing swords with James Minge. Minge had other enemies. A long-time adversary of Edward Hill in the colonial House of Burgesses, Minge was a prominent member of the rebel forces during Bacon’s Rebellion. One of the few things that protected Minge from execution or other punishment after that rebellion was that he and others begged forgiveness and countered that Colonel Edward Hill used the time after the rebellion to unlawfully arrest his enemies as “suspected rebels” as an excuse to settle old scores and steal their possessions. Thereafter, adding insult to injury, Hill allegedly extorted money from them to get him to use his influence with the governor to attain their freedom. That, however, was not the end of their complaints against Hill. They also accused Hill of other bad deeds, such as running an inn where he allegedly got his patrons drunk, charged them exorbitant prices and then had them arrested for failure to pay their debts. 126
Whatever the truth of the Hill/Minge post-rebellion accusations, Minge was pardoned for his role in Bacon’s Rebellion. Thereafter, Minge returned to public service, only to run head-to-head with Richard Bradford and a host of others in 1700. For reasons that I will explain shortly, I believe that it was Richard II, not Richard I, who complained about the remiss Mr. Minge in 1700.
Loyalty Oaths to the King
The next highly public matter to include the Bradfords occurred in 1701-1702 and involved loyalty oaths to the King of England. Some background may be helpful.
Since Mary Queen of Scots was beheaded in 1587, her descendants who served as English monarchs were, by law, Protestant. On February 6, 1685, however, James II took the throne of England as a Catholic. The Protestant church leaders and politicians of England disapproved of that and, accordingly, offered the throne to William of Orange and his wife Mary, the oldest daughter of James II. We know that couple as “William and Mary.” In return for the promise of the throne, William agreed to leave Holland and invade England. 127
While William and his forces marched to London as requested, King James’s forces disintegrated in the face of tremendous popular support for William and Mary. On Christmas Day, 1688, James II fled to France with his wife and son. Thereafter, James’s daughter and her husband were crowned King William III and Queen Mary II of England. William and Mary College in Williamsburg, created during their reign, was named after them.
William and Mary’s authority to rule England remained unchallenged until September 5, 1701, when exiled King James II died and King Louis XIV of France promptly — and in complete disregard of his treaty with England — declared James II’s son, James Francis Edward, to be the King of England. King William III’s loyal subjects rushed to reassure him of their loyalty (Queen Mary had died in 1694).
Among the loyalty oaths sent to England in the wake of King Louis XIV’s proclamation were two from Charles City County: one signed by the county’s militia officers, and one signed by the county’s justices of the peace, sheriff and members of the Grand Jury. Both of those oaths read as follows:
Dread Soveraign
Wee Your Majesties most Dutyfull subjects, being highly sensible of the great and manifold Blessings wee enjoy under Your Majesties most happy and glorious Reign, & having lately been informed of the French King’s unjust, and unparaleled breach of Faith by Proclaiming the pretended Prince of Wales, King of great Brittain, & the Territorys thereunto belonging, do beg leave upon this Occasion to renew our assurance of Fidelity, to Your Majesties sacred Person & Government, & that wee will & shall at all times, (to the utmost of our Powers) defend & maintain Your Majesties Rightfull & Lawfull Titles, to all your Realms, more especially these, to which wee belong.
The Charles City County loyalty oaths were sent to the Council of Trade and Plantations in England by Virginia’s Lieutenant Governor Francis Nicholson. Since then, those petitions have remained in the Public Record Office in London, where they remain available for public inspection. In addition, an excellent book by Elizabeth Lawrence-Dow, lengthily entitled Autographs of 65 Gentlemen Justices, Militia Officers and Members of the Grand Jury for Charles City/Prince George and Surry Counties Who Signed an Oath of Loyalty to Protestant King William III of England in March 1701/02, includes copies of those oaths. That book also discusses historical information about the signatories from Charles City County. Specifically, that book includes Charles City Countians Richard Bradford (both I and II), John Baxter, William Byrd, John Cocke, James Gunn, Robert Harwood, John Hunt, Daniel Llewellin, Micajah Lowe, Robert New, John Wickett and Thomas Woodham. Also included in Ms. Lawrence-Dow’s book is a discussion of the signatories from Prince George County, a group that includes John Taylor, the brother of Richard I’s wife, Frances Taylor Bradford. Taylor, incidentally, was the man who had recently wrestled with James Minge for the Charles City County clerk’s position.
Author Elizabeth Lawrence-Dow states in her book that Richard I signed one of the oaths as a justice of the peace and that Richard II signed the other as a captain of the militia. 128 For reasons that I will discuss shortly, however, I am not quite so sure. I think those oaths were both signed by the same person — Richard II.
The 1710 Tax Petition
The next highly public appearance by one of the Bradfords involved a complaint over taxes. On August 25, 1702, Virginia’s General Assembly passed an act which divided Charles City County into two parts as of April 23, 1703. After that date, the portion of the county north of the James River (where the Bradfords lived) retained the name Charles City County, while the portion of the county south of the James River became Prince George County.
As a result of the county’s partitioning in 1703, Charles City County lost two-thirds of its area and the number of “tithables” (taxable persons) therein dropped from 1,327 to a low of 553 by 1710.
Charles City County’s shrinking population and tax base caused those who still resided in the county to pay much higher taxes. Hence, in 1710 several of the county’s residents, including both Richard I and Richard II, went to Williamsburg, petition in hand, to protest the increase in their tax burden. As a remedy, those petitioners requested that part of adjoining James City County be added to Charles City County to increase the number of tithables sharing the cost of running Charles City County.
The tax petition of 1710 was signed by Richard I, Richard II and thirty-three of their Charles City County neighbors. That petition, addressed to the colony’s Lieutenant Governor, Governor’s Council and House of Burgesses, stated (in full Shakespearean glory):
The Inhabitants of the Said County Humbly shew,
That this County of Charles Citty by being lately Divided into two Countys And that part which is now Charles Citty County being but one third part of what it was before it was Divided is Reduced into soe small a Quantitie of Tithables that the taxes are soe great that the poor Inhabitants of the Said County are not able to Subsist which Causeth many to Remove out the Said County into other Countys where there are more Tithables to bare the burthen, p’pole which they finde is a great Ease to them which causeth many to Remove dayley: and the Said County being bounded on every Side with the Several Countys adjacent Countys to add to this And forasmuch as that part of James Citty County which lieth above the Chickahomony River & bounds on the Lower Side of this County being soe very convenient to this County of Charles Citty and soe very inconvenient to James Citty County to the great grief of the people there Inhabiting and &c: The Inhabitants of Charles Citty County therefore Humbly praye that Your Hon’rs and the Worshipfull the Burgessess of this present Gen’ll Assembly Will be pleas’d to take the Same into your Serious Consideration and agree that a law maye be made for the ading and Joyning of that part of Jamess Citty County which lieth above Chickahomony River as affore Said unto Charles Citty County and that the Said River maye be for the future the bounds Dividing James Citty and Charles Citty County which will be very much to the Sattisfaction of the Inhabitants of that part of James Citty County and to also the Inhabitants in Gen’ll of Charles Citty County and a greate ease to both: &c:
And they in duty bound shall ever praye. 129
The Burgesses, who eventually agreed with the petitioners, redrew the county lines in 1720. Of course, that was not until after the Bradfords had belonged to a greatly reduced taxpaying population in the county for the seventeen years following the county’s original split in 1703.
Which Richard?
Now we must determine whether it was Richard Bradford I or his son Richard Bradford II who participated in the various political and historical events just outlined.
First I will discuss the easy one: the 1710 tax petition. It is obvious that both Richard I and Richard II signed that document since its signers included “Rich’d Bradford” and “Rich’d Bradford Jun’r.” Richard Bradford Senior (Richard I), moreover, was the first person to sign that petition and his prominent signature at the top of that document suggests that he may have been the drafter and/or driving force behind it. Notably, the two Richard Bradfords who signed that petition must have been Richard I and Richard II (not Richard II and Richard III). I say that because the petition’s “Rich’d Bradford Jun’r” signature is very different from the signature of Richard Bradford III that appears on later Charles City County records. Specifically, Richard III’s signature appears on the 1724 county record of the administration of Richard II’s estate. That signature by Richard III looks very different from either of the Richard Bradford signatures on the 1710 tax petition.
The 1701/02 loyalty oaths are a little trickier. As noted earlier, one author believes that Richard Bradford I signed one of those oaths (as justice of the peace) and that Richard II signed the other (as an officer of the militia). With all due respect, however, I must disagree. Those two signatures look virtually identical. Hence, I believe that they were signed by the same Richard Bradford.
Having determined that only one Richard Bradford signed the two loyalty oaths, however, we must determine which Richard Bradford signed those oaths to the King. While it is unclear, I believe that it was Richard II who signed those documents. I base that conclusion on several grounds: (1) when the signatures on the loyalty oaths are compared to the signatures on the 1710 tax petition, it is obvious that the signatures on the loyalty oaths more closely resemble Richard II’s than they do Richard I’s; (2) Richard I was probably in his seventies (or eighties) which suggests that perhaps the younger, and presumably more vigorous Richard II was more likely to take the lead in local public duties; and (3) various documents identify Richard II as “Captain” Richard Bradford, hence clearly identifying Richard II as the signer of the militia officers’ loyalty oath. Therefore, if both loyalty oaths were signed by the same Richard Bradford, that person must have been Richard Bradford II. I could, however, be wrong. Richard I, a local large landowner who was still alive in 1701 and 1702 could have signed one or both of those oaths.
The Richard Bradford who signed the loyalty oaths is the same man who complained about James Minge in 1700 since, in both instances, the signer was the Richard Bradford who was appointed justice of the peace for Charles City County in 1699. For that reason, I think that it was Richard II who sailed down to Williamsburg on a cold February day in 1700 to complain to the colonial government about James Minge’s neglect of office.
While it would be nice to know for sure which Richard Bradford gained such notoriety through his involvement in colonial politics at the turn of the century, the important thing to their descendants is the knowledge that, regardless, the Bradford family was very much a part of colonial Virginia society in our country’s earliest days.
Political Appointee
As shown above, Richard Bradford I and/or Richard Bradford II became politically active and powerful in Charles City County. Richard Bradford (I will soon explain which Richard) was listed as a justice of the peace for Charles City County in 1699, 1702 and 1714. 130 In addition, Richard Bradford (again, I will shortly show which one) was appointed the Charles City County sheriff by the colony’s governor in 1705, 1706, 1710 and 1716. 131 In colonial Virginia, where the colony’s government was largely handled at the county level, those were powerful positions in the community and one could only be appointed to them by the governor himself. Hence, the Bradfords had sufficient clout that one of them was repeatedly placed in those positions by the colony’s most powerful person: the colonial governor who the King of England had appointed to rule the colony on his behalf. Notably, the years listed above (1699, 1702, 1705, 1706, 1710, 1714 and 1716) are miscellaneous years in which Richard Bradford was either appointed to a public position or listed as serving in one. Since the positions of sheriff and justice of the peace lasted for several years each, it is clear that for most or all of the period of 1699 through approximately 1720, there was a Richard Bradford serving as a top local official in Charles City County, Virginia. Before exploring the question of which Richard Bradford that was, however, I will first discuss the responsibilities of the positions of colonial sheriff and justice of the peace.
Justice of the Peace
As a justice of the peace, Richard Bradford appeared at the county’s courtroom on appointed “court days” to transact the county’s business. The justices of the peace sat as judges, made local law, oversaw roads, bridges, ferries and taverns. They also directed the county’s other officers. As a judge, Richard ruled on civil lawsuits (which included the recovery of debts, character defamation actions, fights, etc.), criminal matters (such as claims of fraud, theft, assault, etc.) and, surprisingly often, moral offenses (with fornication, adultery and the begetting of an illegitimate child the most common). In addition, the justices of the peace in Richard’s day took depositions, issued warrants and disposed of the county’s disputes. 132
As a side note, and to give the reader a flavor of that time, I will describe the type of laws that Richard and the other members of the colonial county court were required to enforce. For example, a woman found guilty of giving birth to a child out of wedlock, pursuant to a statute passed in Virginia in 1723, had to pay the local church a fine of either 500 pounds of tobacco or fifty shilling. If she refused, she received “on her bare back at the Publick Whipping Post Twenty Five Lashes well laid on.” Similarly, any convict who was imported into the colony and who committed any crime in the colony was to be “ordered by a Justice of the Peace to be whipped naked.” Any convict or servant who used or created a counterfeit pass in an attempt to leave the colony was to stand at the pillory “for the Space of two houres and receive thirty Lashes well laid on at the Common Whipping Post.” 133 Crime, it would appear, did not pay in colonial Virginia.
By the way, Richard Bradford’s service as a justice of the peace in colonial Virginia qualifies his female descendants to become members of The National Society of the Colonial Dames of America in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Although, to my knowledge, none of the descendants have done so, they can consider this an invitation to do so. 134 Indeed, based on the information set forth in this book, Richard I’s descendants can gain entry into a host of similar organizations.
Sheriff
As a sheriff, on the other hand, Richard was responsible for policing the county, collecting taxes and overseeing the elections of the local representatives to the House of Burgesses (the colony’s elected body of representatives who worked in tandem with the Governor’s Council to run the colony).
As both sheriff and justice of the peace, Richard, by statute, was paid a certain amount, in either tobacco or shillings, for each act he performed in his professional capacity. For example, as a result of a statute passed in 1723, the sheriff was paid for carrying out the punishments ordered by the colonial court. That statute provides a fascinating look into colonial America. For example, the sheriff received twenty pounds of tobacco for “ducking any person” (a punishment in which the guilty person was tied in a chair at the end of a long wooden lever and then plunged into water). Similarly, the sheriff was paid ten pounds of tobacco for placing an offender “into the stocks” (a wooden framework with holes that secured the offender’s feet and, sometimes, hands). Finally, the sheriff was paid twenty pounds of tobacco for “pillorying” any person. A “pillory” was a wooden contraption, similar to the stocks except that it secured the head and hands of the convicted person, rather than their feet. 135 I am not sure, however, if those were the going rates when Richard Bradford was sheriff.
One of the colonial sheriff’s most important duties was to oversee the county’s elections of representatives to the Virginia House of Burgesses. Those elections, by the way, were unlike none you would see today. Author Daniel J. Boorstin describes those colonial county elections in his book The Americans: The Colonial Experience. 136
Boorstin’s book describes the scene on election day as follows: the voters came in to the voting place, where the candidates, sheriff and clerks sat at a table. The voters came to the table one at a time to announce their vote aloud and have it publicly recorded and tallied. As a result, candidates who were in danger of losing still had time to send out supporters to round up more votes. Men openly bet on the outcome of the elections and the odds continued to change as results were announced. The candidates’ supporters would sometimes hoot or cheer as individual votes were announced, depending on who received the vote. A vote, moreover, was something that the candidate was expected to acknowledge and show gratitude for. It was, therefore, protocol for a candidate to rise, bow, and thank each person who voted for him. According to Boorstin, the process of thanking people was considered so important that candidates who could not be present at the polling place were expected to have a friend stand in for them to pass on the candidate’s thanks (George Washington, for example, had an influential friend stand in for him at the polls in 1758 when his militia duties kept him away). Richard must have loved overseeing those elections.
The events leading up the colonial elections were similarly fascinating. It was politically incorrect for a candidate to openly solicit votes or even vote for himself. A candidate, however, was expected to indirectly persuade voters by “treating them to large quantities of rum punch, ginger cakes and barbecued beef or pork.” As Boorstin explains, such largesse was not bribery but merely showed voters that the candidate possessed the requisite liberality and substance to adequately represent them. Although the law prohibited a candidate from bribing voters with “money, meat, drinks” or other inducements, “a general reputation for hospitality” was considered the best defense against any suspicion of bribery at election time. 137 I think that I now know where the phrase “pork barrel” politics came from.
Once again, it may have been either Richard I or Richard II who served in the positions of sheriff and justice of the peace. Nevertheless, I believe it was Richard II who received those political appointments. I say that because Richard II, a Captain of the colonial militia, was obviously a community leader. It is conceivable, however, that the appointed political positions before 1710 were held by Richard I and that the latter ones were held by his son Richard II. Regardless, at least one of them wielded great power in Charles City County during the early 1700s.
The Stokes Complaint
Richard II apparently stepped on some toes in carrying out his duties as sheriff and justice of the peace. While I have found only one such complaint, that one complaint is quite intriguing. That complaint, lodged by Sylvanus Stokes “the elder” was lodged with the Governor’s Council at a meeting held “at her Majesty’s Royal College of William & Mary, June 17th 1703.” As that record states:
The petition of Silvanus Stokes the elder of the County of Charles City complaining of great abuses offered him by Capt. Richd Bradford of the sd. County, particularly by breaking open the door of his house and going into bed to his wife. Referred to the Hon’ble Collo. Wm. Byrd and Mr. Benja. Harrison, her Majesty’s Council at Law to inquire into the matter of the said Complt. and if they find justification, that Mr. Harrison to prosecute the sd. Bradford hereupon. 138
I wish I knew more about that dispute. That case, however, disappeared without a trace. Hence, I surmise that Benjamin Harrison and Colonel William Byrd found Stokes’s complaint meritless since Richard was not prosecuted for any wrongdoing and there was no further record of that dispute. Richard’s reputation was, moreover, apparently unsullied by the Stokes complaint. Indeed, Richard continued to serve as justice of the peace and eventually became sheriff. In addition, Richard’s reputation with both Byrd and Harrison, the two colonial leaders who were asked to investigate him, apparently remained untainted. Richard II and his family continued to have business, personal and political involvement with both Byrd and Harrison after that date. I am less sure, however, that he ever reconciled with Sylvanus Stokes the elder.
Leading Landholder
By the time of Richard II’s death in 1724, the land in Bradford hands grew beyond the 1,197 acres Richard I acquired soon after he arrived in the colony. For example, in 1702 Richard I acquired an additional 200 acres by escheat from John Robinson “by inquisition” under John Lightfoot, Esquire. 139 Hence, when a rent roll of the Charles City County was made in 1704 (the county’s earliest surviving rent roll), Richard Bradford was listed as owning 1,397 acres in the county — over two square miles of land. Those holdings made him one of the county’s largest landowners. Indeed, of the ninety-four landowners listed on the 1704 Charles City County rent roll, only seven had more acreage in Charles City County than Richard: Louis Burwell, who owned the Carter’s Grove Plantation (with 8,000 acres); Benjamin Harrison, owner of Berkeley Plantation (6,350 acres); William Hunt (3,130 acres); Edward Hill, owner of the Shirley Plantation (2,100 acres); Thomas Tanner (2,000 acres); Thomas Parker (1,667 acres); and John Hunt (1,500 acres). 140
The Bradford family also owned land outside of Charles City County. For example, Richard owned land in nearby King and Queen County (named after William and Mary). Hence, there is a record from that county dated June 6, 1699, which indicates that John Carleton of that county was headrighted land in that county “next to Richard Bradford’s.” 141
Richard II also acquired a sizable estate in Surry County, Virginia (across the James River from Charles City County) prior to his death. Indeed, one of the expenses noted in the record of the administration of his estate was a payment to three appraisers of Richard II’s Surry County estate. The actual size of that estate, however, is unknown. A burned county, Surry County’s records were destroyed in the Civil War.
William Byrd II
A final record of interest comes from one of the diaries of William Byrd II. The surviving portions of those diaries, originally transcribed in secret code by Byrd, have been translated and published. Byrd’s diaries are famous because they are one of the only contemporary records of their type. Historians who study his diaries consider them an invaluable window into colonial Virginia society. Byrd is also known for writing both the Secret History of the Line and History of the Dividing Line Betwixt Virginia and North Carolina, Run in the Year of Our Lord 1728, both of which are based upon the diaries he kept while on an expedition to map the boundary between those two bordering states.
The Byrd family was one of the most powerful ones in all of Virginia. That family got their start in Virginia when merchant Thomas Stegge Jr. (discussed in the previous chapter), invited his eighteen-year old nephew, William Byrd I, a London goldsmith, to join the business that Stegge had established at the falls of the James River, the future site of Richmond. Upon Stegge’s death in 1671, he left a great deal of land to Byrd. In 1688, Byrd bought 1,200 acres in “West Hundred” in Charles City County which he later named “Westover.” 142
When William Byrd I died in 1704, his son William Byrd II acquired his extensive land holdings. Thereafter, William II laid out the cities of Petersburg and Richmond and, like his father, rose to a position on the Governor’s Council (it was his father that the Bradfords addressed in regard to the Sylvanus Stokes complaint and the Taylor/Minge dispute).
William Byrd II was still serving on the Governor’s Council when Captain Richard Bradford came to his home to visit him on March 5, 1712. As Byrd’s diary states, he was visited that evening by Frank Lightfoot, Tom Randolph, Captain Hunt and Captain Bradford who visited and shared some roast beef with him. That diary entry, in its entirety, said:
I rose about 7 o’clock but read nothing. However I said my prayers and danced my dance before I went out of my chamber, I drank chocolate for breakfast. We were very merry again this morning but poor Colonel Hill had the headache very much. Nothing happened very remarkable. Colonel Eppes came about 11 o’clock from the [illegible] and let me know there was some difficulty in persuading the people to range by turns as they had promised. About one o’clock we went to dinner and I ate some boiled beef for dinner. We took a walk to the ship and about 3 o’clock took leave of the company and went home in the coach but our horses balked at all of the hills on the way and my wife was out of humor because we came away. We got home about 5 o’clock and found all pretty well, thank God. Captain Hunt had been there and left some spice and some fruit for a present. Frank Lightfoot, Tom Randolph, and Captain Hunt came to visit me and stayed and ate some roast beef and Captain Bradford came with them. The two first tarried all night. I neglected to say my prayers but had good health, good thoughts and good humor, thank God Almighty. 143
William Byrd III inherited his family’s vast holdings upon William Byrd II’s death in 1744. William Byrd II, like William Byrd I, was buried in the graveyard at the old Westover Parish church. A gambler and a big spender, however, William Byrd III lost the family fortune before committing suicide on New Year’s Day 1777.
Although the Byrds, like the Bradfords, long ago left Charles City County, William Byrd II built a mansion at Westover which still stands today, long after its construction in 1730. The three portions of the diaries of William Byrd II that have come to light span only a few years: February 6, 1709, through September 29, 1712 (a portion of the diaries that was found in the Huntington Library in 1939 and published two years later); December 13, 1717, through May 19, 1721, a period Byrd spent largely in London (that diary, published in 1958, was found in the Virginia Historical Society’s Library); and August 10, 1739, through August 31, 1741 (which was published in 1942 after it was found in the University of North Carolina Library). Hence, it is possible that he had even greater contact with the Bradford family — particularly with community leader Richard Bradford II. Perhaps someday the remainder of Byrd’s diaries will surface publicly and we will know for sure.
I cannot too highly recommend a reading of Byrd’s diaries. They are witty, interesting and, occasionally, racy. One thing is for sure: Byrd meant for his diaries to remain secret. Nevertheless, the cat is now out of the bag. Those who are interested can find the following in or through most good reference libraries: The Secret Diary of William Byrd of Westover, 1709-1712 (which mentions Captain Bradford); The London Diary, 1717-1721, and other Writings (which also includes Byrd’s History of the Dividing Line, his A Journey to the Land of Eden and, finally, A Progress to the Mines); Another Secret Diary of William Byrd of Westover, 1739-1741: With Letters and Literary Exercises, 1696-1726; and The Correspondence of the Three William Byrds of Westover, Virginia, 1684-1776 (discussed earlier). 144
Byrd’s diaries reveal that his daily life ran the gamut from frequent sparring matches with his wife (e.g., “My wife and I quarreled about her pulling her [eye]brows. She threatened she would not to [the Governor’s Ball in] Williamsburg if she might not pull them; I refused, however, and got the better of her and maintained my authority….”), to typical British understatement (e.g., “I went to the capitol and in the court the Secretary was struck with a fit of apoplexy and died immediately and fell upon me. This made a great consternation.”), to humorous if not earth-shattering commentaries on both historical and everyday matters (e.g., the day after Byrd fought with his wife over the eyebrow incident, Byrd, after being “shaved with a very dull razor,” attended the Governor’s Ball at which “the President [of the Governor’s Council] had the worst clothes of anybody there.”)
Before moving on, I must share my favorite Byrd writing. That writing, a letter to an unworthy (in Byrd’s mind) suitor who Byrd called “Erranti” (no doubt a facetious reference to that supposed “knight errant”) who was winning the heart of Byrd’s sixteen year old daughter Evelyn. That biting but eloquent letter reads as follows:
I am informed upon very good evidence that you have for some time taken the trouble to follow Amasia [disguised name for Evelyn] with your addresses; that now at last you have played the wise part of a knight errant and pursued her into the country with a pompous equipage that does her and your self much honor. What success these worthy steps have met in the girl, I know not; but they shall never meet with any in the father. I fear your circumstances are not flourishing enough to maintain a wife in such splendor that has nothing, and just such a fortune as that my daughter will prove if she venture to marry without my consent. You are deluded if you believe any part of my estate is settled upon her, or that she has anything independent of my pleasure. I confess you have not deserved it from me but I will however stand your friend so far as to assure you beforehand that her portion will be extremely small if she bestows herself upon so clandestine a lover. I have made my will since I heard of your good intention towards me, and have bequeathed my daughter a splendid shilling if she marries any man that tempts her into disobedience…” 145
Little wonder that Byrd’s daughter Evelyn never married. Evelyn, however, has not been forgotten. Charles City County’s 2,500 acre still-functioning Evelynton Plantation was named after her.
Militia Captain
Richard II was undoubtedly involved with William Byrd II through the militia, particularly since Byrd, who was began as a colonel in the militia, was appointed commander of the Charles City/Henrico County regiment in April, 1710. Hence, Richard II, a Captain of that regiment at the time, served directly under Byrd.
Since Richard Bradford II (and any other Charles City County Bradfords in the militia, including one held at the time) served under Byrd, he attended the annual “musters” of the Charles City County militia, including one held in September, 1710. The “muster” was when the county’s troops came together to be trained and reviewed. Mustering was also a time for recruiting new troops. Generally, the colony’s governor reviewed the troops at least once during the annual muster. On that day, the troops wore their full military regalia and put on the best show possible. During the September 1710 muster, Richard II probably held his musket (with his musket balls and gunpowder nearby, of course), wore a sword in his scabbard, may have kept a pistol in his belt and wore whatever body armor (and chain mail) he owned while the governor, during what Byrd’s diary describes as a driving rain, reviewed him and the rest of the Charles City County militia. Richard, along with the rest of the officers, was probably on horseback while the other soldiers stood in formation. Soaked to the bone, Richard probably never forgot the 1710 muster in the rain.
While it is not clear what else happened during a muster, Byrd recorded in his diary that, during the next year’s muster, the men competed for prizes in games meant to sharpen their military skills. There was a footrace (with the winner getting a pistol), then the men “played at cudgels” (a “cudgel” was a short thick wooden club, although your guess is as good as mine as to how they “played at” them, regardless, the winner received a sword). Finally, Byrd records that there was a wrestling competition and that the winner won a musket. Alas, according to Byrd, Richard II did not win any of those awards. As a senior officer, however, Richard probably did not join in those events. Nevertheless, and with unabashed and unbridled family pride, I suggest that Richard II, that loyal defender of the colony, could have won all three if he had so desired.
Tense Moments
Seriously, however, there were some tense moments during the time that Richard II served in the militia under regiment leader Byrd. On August 15, 1711, for example, Byrd recorded that he received a message from the colony’s governor that the colony was in danger from approaching enemy warships, fourteen French men-of-wars to be exact, and that Byrd and his men should prepare for immediate action. The word went out to Captain Richard Bradford and the rest of Byrd’s men.
Approximately a week later, on the morning of August 23, after what were probably several anxious days at the Bradford plantation, Richard and all of the other officers in his regiment (except two who had the fever) met at Byrd’s house where they “discoursed of several matters relating to the militia” including a discussion in which they agreed where they would place beacons (large bonfires to highlight the approaching ships) along the James River. Richard and the men dined with Byrd who, incidentally, ate pigeon. Later that day, Byrd was informed by a messenger from the governor that “two French men-of-war and several privateers” had all but arrived and that Byrd should send twenty-five gunners from each county to man the battery at Jamestown. The colony’s annihilation seemed to be at hand.
After Byrd sent out the order to man the battery at Jamestown, he reported that his wife was frightened “and would hardly go to bed, but was persuaded at last” while Byrd himself “could not sleep for thinking of our condition.” I would wager that the story was much the same at the Bradford home that night.
A letter to Byrd on August 26 warned that fifteen French men-of-wars were “within the Cape” and that other ships had landed thousands of men on the colony’s eastern shore. That correspondence no doubt caused extreme alarm in Charles City County. The governor’s next transmission warned that seven ships were coming up the James River.
No doubt panicked by the impending confrontation, the entire county militia, including Richard II and any of his sons and nephews in the county militia, were marched to the lower part of the county. With the whole colony on the alert, the men marched to Williamsburg while beacons along the river lit up the night. Anticlimactically, the approaching ships proved to be English. On August 28 the alarm was ended and everyone returned home. 146
The episode of the non-invasion of August 1711 gives us a little further insight into life in Richard II’s day. First, it illustrates the early Virginia colonists’ constant fear of an attack by the French. At least one author describes that fear as “obsessive” and added that those fears lasted until the fall of French Canada and the Treaty of Paris. It is important to remember that in 1711 America was not America as we now know it: it was a land that was claimed, at least in part, by the European powers of England, France and Spain, not to mention the lands estimated two million native Americans inhabitants. America was “home” to a lot of competing forces.
The 1711 false alarm also highlights the limitations in Richard’s day. With no radar or high-powered telescopes, the colonists could not tell who was coming when they first spotted sails on the horizon. With their motherland thousands of miles and months away, the colonists were on their own and had to take care of themselves. With no radio, television or newspapers, they often had to rely on word of mouth for local and foreign news. One can only wonder how often rumors of impending doom from enemies, real or imagined, rocked the colonists in those early days.
Finally, the scare of 1711 reminds us that, though long dead, Richard II and his contemporaries were once very much alive. They laughed, wept, dreamed and fell in love. Like the Byrds, they had nights in which they worried until dawn. Nevertheless, with the same spirit that brought Richard I bravely across the ocean, they awoke to meet the challenges and promises of each new day. Just like the rest of us.
Pirates
In addition to the fear of the French and the Indians, the colonists in Richard II’s day also contended with pirates. The problem became so bad that in late 1718 the colony passed a statute “to encourage the Apprehending or destroying of Pirates.”
That statute, passed in 1718, described the offending pirates as hailing from North Carolina, “more especially,” that act explains, it was aimed at the pirate crew commanded by “Edward Tach, commonly called Capt. Tach, alias black beard” who “seemed resolved to continue” on his “Piratical Course.” Finding it “absolutely Necessary” to “break that knot of Robbers and all other such Notorious Offenders,” that law established rewards for their capture. For example, the killer of Edward Teach, alias “Blackbeard the Pirate,” was to receive one hundred pounds. All other commanders pirate warranted a reward of twenty pounds, inferior officers merited fifteen pounds, while “every Pirate man, taken or killed on land or on board” would net the vigilante ten pounds. 147
While I strongly doubt that Richard or his family collected any bounty in connection with the end of that notorious pirate’s reign of terror (Blackbeard was killed by a Virginia expedition later that year), they were certainly among the colonists who worried if the goods and supplies they periodically expected from England were going to make it safely past Blackbeard the Pirate and the other high seas offenders on the “Piratical Course.”
Sea Captain Bradford?
One author has suggested that, in 1700, Richard II was master of the ship Francis, a vessel presumably named after Richard II’s mother, Frances Taylor Bradford. That author describes the Francis as a twenty ton sloop which was reportedly built in Maryland in 1695. A “sloop” is a type of single-masted sailing vessel. While I cannot substantiate that legend, there was some sailing background in the family’s history. Richard II’s great-grandfather William Barker, for example, was captain of the ships America and Ye Merchants Hope.
That same author goes on to speculate that Richard II was either a trader or, possibly, a tobacco exporter. That author suggests two facts to support the conclusion that Richard II was a merchant: (1) the large number of neighbors who had accounts with him at his death according to the 1724 administrator’s report of his estate (admittedly, that record does indicate a large number of outstanding accounts); and (2) one of Richard II’s sons, Richard III, reportedly became a merchant in Carolina County, Virginia and Granville County, North Carolina. Again, I can neither confirm or dispel that writer’s conclusions. 148
Regardless of Richard II’s profession: planter, merchant, joyner (like his father), ship’s captain — or some combination thereof — the size of his estate at his death indicates that he was financially comfortable and had the time and stature in the community to be active in both local politics and the colonial militia.
Richard and Anna Pass On
Richard II died in early to mid-1724. His son Richard III was the administrator of his estate. While the value of that estate is not recorded, Richard III recorded expenses of 270.13.1 pounds sterling in the accounting of the administrator’s expenses that he recorded in a document dated June 16, 1724, which was filed in the Charles City County Order Book on August 3, 1725. Included in that amount was a payment of six pounds sterling for Richard II’s funeral and sermon. 149
Richard II’s wife, Anna Bradford, died at about the same time he did. On July 23, 1724, Richard III was also appointed the administrator of her estate. 150 Their graves, like those of Richard I and his wife Frances, have not yet been located. Most likely, all of the Bradfords who died in Charles City County are buried near each other in one of the Charles City County locations discussed at the end of the last chapter.
The close proximity of the deaths of Richard Bradford II and his wife Anna suggests that, perhaps, like many couples in their day, they died of the same contagious illness. In both cases, there is no recorded will, so it is impossible to know the exact extent of the estate they left behind. It is safe, however, to assume that it was relatively large, based on a review of the administrator’s statements filed in the Charles City County court by Richard Bradford III.
In conclusion, Richard II, like his father, was active in the affairs of colonial Virginia, served for years in the militia, and had dealings with some of the most influential families in early America. Like his father, he ruled over a large plantation in Charles City County and lived to a ripe old age. Whereas his father was an immigrant and pioneer, however, Richard II was a military and political leader.
During Richard II’s life, many things happened. The English throne changed hand several times (Charles II’s reign ended in 1685, James II’s ended in 1688, William III’s ended with his death in 1702, and Queen Anne’s ended with her death in 1714, when she was succeeded by George I). Several new colonies were started, including South Carolina in 1669, North Carolina in 1693 and Delaware in 1703. There were some modest changes in technology: the first minute hands began to appear on watches in 1670, London began to light its streets in 1684 and, in 1721, the first rifles began to appear in the colonies, replacing the old musket and ball. England, moreover, merged with Scotland to form Great Britain in 1707. Virginia, however, remained a colony of that distant power throughout Richard’s life. Richard II, an immigrant’s son, died 150 years before America declared its independence from Great Britain.
The Bradfords of Charles City County, Virginia, and Some of Their Descendants, 1653-1993 