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===Planter===
===Planter===


Upon reaching legal age, Wormeley inherited Rosegill plantation. After Bacon's Rebellion, discussed below, he compelled his guardian Henry Chicheley to account for the income received from (and disbursements made from) his father's estate during his minority. Meanwhile, Wormeley also patented 2,870 acres of land in Middlesex county, based on people for whose emigration to Virginia he had paid. Also, particularly after Bacon's Rebellion, Wormeley purchased enslaved blacks imported from the Carribeean colonies, although each such contrast cost significantly more than that for an indentured servant, who would only serve a fixed term (if he survived).<ref>Tommy L. Bogger and The Black Church Cultural Affairs Committee, A History of African-Americans in Middlesex County 1646-1992 (Whitestone, Virginia, HS Printing 1995) pp. 5-6</ref>
Upon reaching legal age, Wormeley inherited Rosegill plantation. His father had patented more than 3,000 acres in 1649 (based on people for whose emigration to Virginia he had paid) which became Rosegill plantation, and the boy's stepfather Chicheley had seventeen indentured servants working on his and Wormeley land in 1653.<ref>Darrett B. and Anita H. Rutman, A Place in Time: Middlesex County, Virginia 1650-1750 (W.W. Norton 1984) ISBN=0-393-01801-6 pp. 46 </ref>After Bacon's Rebellion, discussed below, he compelled his guardian Henry Chicheley to account for the income received from (and disbursements made from) his father's estate during his minority.


Particularly after Bacon's Rebellion discussed below, Wormeley purchased enslaved blacks imported from the Carribeean colonies, although each such contract cost significantly more than that for an indentured servant, who would only serve a fixed term (if he survived).<ref>Tommy L. Bogger and The Black Church Cultural Affairs Committee, A History of African-Americans in Middlesex County 1646-1992 (Whitestone, Virginia, HS Printing 1995) pp. 5-6</ref>
⚫
In 1680, Wormeley patented 2,200 acres on the northern side of the [[Rappahannock River]], which he called "Nanzattico", after the [[Nanzatico|people]] noted by Capt. John Smith in 1608 and whose preserve that had once been. This land lay across the river from the land Wormeley controlled following his marriage to Catherine Lunsford, and bordered Portobago Bay. Wormeley would also patent additional acreage inland. In 1693 he patented 13,500 acres in [[King and Queen County, Virginia|King and Queen County]], but was forced to give it up for lack of redevelopment.<ref>McCartney p. 458</ref>

⚫
Based on immigrants for whose entry he had paid, in 1680, Wormeley patented 2,200 acres on the northern side of the [[Rappahannock River]], which he called "Nanzattico", after the [[Nanzatico|people]] noted by Capt. John Smith in 1608 and whose preserve that had once been. This land lay across the river from the land Wormeley controlled following his marriage to Catherine Lunsford, and bordered Portobago Bay. Wormeley would also patent additional acreage inland. In 1693 he patented 13,500 acres in [[King and Queen County, Virginia|King and Queen County]], but was forced to give it up for lack of redevelopment.<ref>McCartney p. 458</ref>


Also in 1680, Wormeley responded to the desire of other Middlesex County residents by offering some of his land for a town, tobacco port and seat of county government, although others wanted the county courthouse on previously obtained (and platted) land. As work finally began on the courthouse in 1691, another fracas ensued when Wormeley refused to deed the underlying land to the county without receiving in return written acknowledgement to what he considered his entitlements. They refused and sought to condemn the land in what became [[Urbanna, Virginia|Urbanna]].<ref>McCartney p. 458</ref>
Also in 1680, Wormeley responded to the desire of other Middlesex County residents by offering some of his land for a town, tobacco port and seat of county government, although others wanted the county courthouse on previously obtained (and platted) land. As work finally began on the courthouse in 1691, another fracas ensued when Wormeley refused to deed the underlying land to the county without receiving in return written acknowledgement to what he considered his entitlements. They refused and sought to condemn the land in what became [[Urbanna, Virginia|Urbanna]].<ref>McCartney p. 458</ref>


===Politician===
===Politician===
Wormeley (like his father before him) became one of the justices of the peace for the county of his residence, in this case for Middlesex County, which was formed in 1669. During his minority, his stepfather and other Lancaster County landowners with significant property south of the Rappahannock River had lobbied for creation of a new county, based on the difficulty they had in reaching the county courthouse and other government services which were north of the Rappahannock. The royal government at Jamestown had issued an order to split Lancaster County in 1664, but the Lancaster County justices of the peace (who collectively administered the large county) had delayed in implementing that order. In fact, one of Wormeley's first public acts (as an 18 year old not quite of legal age) was joining [[John Custis]] in abstaining from the vote of the Lancaster County justices of the peace uniting the parishes north and south of the river, and then stalked from the courtroom. The southsiders then petitioned the General Assembly in Jamestown asking that its order be put in effect, and won separation (by a law creating Middlesex County) six months later. Then, the leading planters of the new county (Chicheley, Wormeley and Robert Smith) met at Rosegill to combine what had been the two small rival parishes in the new County, called Lancaster and Pankatank, providing for the repair of the latter and the long-delayed building of the former but designating both as "chapels of ease" to a Mother Church to be built in the middle on Wormeley land.<ref>Rutman pp. 58-59</ref>
⚫
Wormeley (like his father before him) became one of the justices of the peace for the county of his residence, in this case for Middlesex County, which was formed in 1669. Middlesex County voters elected Wormeley as one of their representatives in the House of Burgesses in 1669, and he served througout what later became known as the "Grand Assembly".<ref>Cynthia Miller Leonard, The Virginia General Assembly 1619-1978 (Richmond: Virginia State Library 1978) p. 38 79, 82, 84, 87, 89, 92</ref> In 1675, shortly before [[Bacon's Rebellion]] discussed below, Wormeley was selected for a seat on the [[Virginia Governor's Council]], on which he would remain for the rest of his life.<ref>Leonard p. xxi</ref>

⚫
During Bacon's Rebellion, mostly white current or former indentured servants first attacked acculturated Native peoples, seeking their land, then seized wealthy landowners and vandalized their properties. Wormeley, his stepfather, his cousin [[Christopher Wormeley (burgess)|Christopher Wormeley]] and neighbor [[Christopher Robinson (burgess)|Christopher Robinson]] would all be taken hostage and parts of their plantations destroyed.<ref>McCartney p. 458</ref>
⚫
Middlesex County voters elected Wormeley as one of their first representatives in the House of Burgesses in 1669, and he served througout what later became known as the "Grand Assembly".<ref>Cynthia Miller Leonard, The Virginia General Assembly 1619-1978 (Richmond: Virginia State Library 1978) p. 38 79, 82, 84, 87, 89, 92</ref> In 1675, shortly before [[Bacon's Rebellion]] discussed below, Wormeley was selected for a seat on the [[Virginia Governor's Council]], on which he would remain for the rest of his life.<ref>Leonard p. xxi</ref>

⚫
During Bacon's Rebellion, mostly white current or former indentured servants first attacked acculturated Native peoples, seeking their land, then seized wealthy landowners and vandalized their properties. Wormeley, his stepfather, his cousin [[Christopher Wormeley (burgess)|Christopher Wormeley]] and neighbors (and sometime burgesses) [[Christopher Robinson (burgess)|Christopher Robinson]], [[Walter Whitaker]] and [[John Burnham]] would all be taken hostage and parts of their plantations destroyed, before [[Robert Beverley (major)|Robert Beverley]] and his flying squadron pacified the county on behalf of Governor Berkeley.<ref>McCartney p. 458</ref><ref>Rutman p. 81</ref>

During the administration of Lt.Gov. Effingham (1684-1688), the governor spent most of his time at Rosegill, since his wife and several servants had died in the insalubrious summertime climate at Jamestown.<ref>36 Va.Mag.H&B 100</ref> While on the Governor's Council, Wormeley served as the Secretary of State for the colony, and was able to extract fees for ministerial tasks, including authorizing county clerks.When he became the council's most senior member and its president, he also served as acting Governor, including briefly in late 1693. Some council meetings were held at Rosegill, including when Wormeley was too ill or infirm to travel to Jamestown in 1697 and 1699.<ref>McCartney pp. 458-459</ref>
During the administration of Lt.Gov. Effingham (1684-1688), the governor spent most of his time at Rosegill, since his wife and several servants had died in the insalubrious summertime climate at Jamestown.<ref>36 Va.Mag.H&B 100</ref> While on the Governor's Council, Wormeley served as the Secretary of State for the colony, and was able to extract fees for ministerial tasks, including authorizing county clerks.When he became the council's most senior member and its president, he also served as acting Governor, including briefly in late 1693. Some council meetings were held at Rosegill, including when Wormeley was too ill or infirm to travel to Jamestown in 1697 and 1699.<ref>McCartney pp. 458-459</ref>


Revision as of 23:37, 30 January 2023

Ralph Wormeley Jr.
Member of the House of Burgesses for Middlesex County
In office
1669–1675
Serving with Walter Whitaker
Preceded byposition established
Succeeded byJohn Burnham
Personal details
Born1650
Rosegill plantation, Middlesex County, Colony of Virginia
Died1701
Rosegill plantation, Middlesex County, Colony of Virginia
NationalityBritish
Occupationplanter, politician

Ralph Wormeley Jr. (1651-1701) was a planter and politician who represented Middlesex County in the House of Burgesses before being elevated to the Virginia Governor's Council and serving as the colony's secretary and briefly as its acting governor. He further developed his father's Rosegill plantation, now on the National Register for Historic Places, as well as operated several plantations in adjoining Tidewater counties using enslaved labor.[1][2][3]

Early life and education

Born shortly before the death of his planter father, Ralph Wormeley Sr., he was raised by his mother, the former Agatha Eltonhead (who had also survived a previous husband) and his stepfather, Sir Henry Chicheley, the lieutenant governor for the Virginia colony. He was educated privately at home, then sent to England where he matriculated at Oriel College, Oxford University on July 14, 1665.[4]

Career

Planter

Upon reaching legal age, Wormeley inherited Rosegill plantation. His father had patented more than 3,000 acres in 1649 (based on people for whose emigration to Virginia he had paid) which became Rosegill plantation, and the boy's stepfather Chicheley had seventeen indentured servants working on his and Wormeley land in 1653.[5]After Bacon's Rebellion, discussed below, he compelled his guardian Henry Chicheley to account for the income received from (and disbursements made from) his father's estate during his minority.

Particularly after Bacon's Rebellion discussed below, Wormeley purchased enslaved blacks imported from the Carribeean colonies, although each such contract cost significantly more than that for an indentured servant, who would only serve a fixed term (if he survived).[6]

Based on immigrants for whose entry he had paid, in 1680, Wormeley patented 2,200 acres on the northern side of the Rappahannock River, which he called "Nanzattico", after the people noted by Capt. John Smith in 1608 and whose preserve that had once been. This land lay across the river from the land Wormeley controlled following his marriage to Catherine Lunsford, and bordered Portobago Bay. Wormeley would also patent additional acreage inland. In 1693 he patented 13,500 acres in King and Queen County, but was forced to give it up for lack of redevelopment.[7]

Also in 1680, Wormeley responded to the desire of other Middlesex County residents by offering some of his land for a town, tobacco port and seat of county government, although others wanted the county courthouse on previously obtained (and platted) land. As work finally began on the courthouse in 1691, another fracas ensued when Wormeley refused to deed the underlying land to the county without receiving in return written acknowledgement to what he considered his entitlements. They refused and sought to condemn the land in what became Urbanna.[8]

Politician

Wormeley (like his father before him) became one of the justices of the peace for the county of his residence, in this case for Middlesex County, which was formed in 1669. During his minority, his stepfather and other Lancaster County landowners with significant property south of the Rappahannock River had lobbied for creation of a new county, based on the difficulty they had in reaching the county courthouse and other government services which were north of the Rappahannock. The royal government at Jamestown had issued an order to split Lancaster County in 1664, but the Lancaster County justices of the peace (who collectively administered the large county) had delayed in implementing that order. In fact, one of Wormeley's first public acts (as an 18 year old not quite of legal age) was joining John Custis in abstaining from the vote of the Lancaster County justices of the peace uniting the parishes north and south of the river, and then stalked from the courtroom. The southsiders then petitioned the General Assembly in Jamestown asking that its order be put in effect, and won separation (by a law creating Middlesex County) six months later. Then, the leading planters of the new county (Chicheley, Wormeley and Robert Smith) met at Rosegill to combine what had been the two small rival parishes in the new County, called Lancaster and Pankatank, providing for the repair of the latter and the long-delayed building of the former but designating both as "chapels of ease" to a Mother Church to be built in the middle on Wormeley land.[9]

Middlesex County voters elected Wormeley as one of their first representatives in the House of Burgesses in 1669, and he served througout what later became known as the "Grand Assembly".[10] In 1675, shortly before Bacon's Rebellion discussed below, Wormeley was selected for a seat on the Virginia Governor's Council, on which he would remain for the rest of his life.[11]

During Bacon's Rebellion, mostly white current or former indentured servants first attacked acculturated Native peoples, seeking their land, then seized wealthy landowners and vandalized their properties. Wormeley, his stepfather, his cousin Christopher Wormeley and neighbors (and sometime burgesses) Christopher Robinson, Walter Whitaker and John Burnham would all be taken hostage and parts of their plantations destroyed, before Robert Beverley and his flying squadron pacified the county on behalf of Governor Berkeley.[12][13]

During the administration of Lt.Gov. Effingham (1684-1688), the governor spent most of his time at Rosegill, since his wife and several servants had died in the insalubrious summertime climate at Jamestown.[14] While on the Governor's Council, Wormeley served as the Secretary of State for the colony, and was able to extract fees for ministerial tasks, including authorizing county clerks.When he became the council's most senior member and its president, he also served as acting Governor, including briefly in late 1693. Some council meetings were held at Rosegill, including when Wormeley was too ill or infirm to travel to Jamestown in 1697 and 1699.[15]

In 1686, Wormeley at Rosegill hosted a French Huguenot, Durand de Dauphine, and also showed him Nanzattico and Portobago plantations. The Frenchman noted that Wormeley had 26 Negro slaves and twenty Christian servants.[16] The following year, he and his cousin Christopher Wormeley were ordered to return the records of the Virginia General Assembly formerly possessed by former clerk and Middlesex planter Robert Beverly to the colony's capital, still Jamestown until shortly before his man's death. Wormeley would also acquire a house at Jamestown, as the law required of men of his position, but would be criticized in his final years for delegating too many of his duties there to a junior clerk.[17]

Personal life

In 1674 Wormeley married the widow of former Virginia Attorney General and planter Col. Peter Jennings, the former Catherine Lunsford (d. 1685). She bore three daughters: Elizabeth (d. 1730) married John Lomax; Katherine (b. 1679) married Gawin Corbin but had no children before her death; Judith (1604-1716) married Mann page of "Rosewell" plantation in Gloucester County. Their eldest sons, Ralph Wormsley III (d. 1713) was educated in England before returning to Virginia to inherit Rosegill, but died before having children.[18] Thus, this man's estate went to his son John Wormeley (1689-1726), whose epitaph stated that he desired no public office.[19] His son (this man's grandson) Ralph Wormely IV would continue both the family's planter and political traditions.

Death and legacy

Wormeley prepared his last will and testament in February 22, 1700 and died on December 5 that winter.[20] His widow remarried, to merchant planter William Churchill, who signed a prenuptual agreement disclaiming any interest in her estate and directing the estate go to her sons Ralph and John and daughter Judity. Wormeley also had a large library, whose titles were recorded in the inventory of his estate.[21] Rosegill plantation remained in the Wormeley family for at least another century, although Ralph Wormeley III deeded Nanzatico plantation to his sister Judith Page, who had already inherited 1500 acres at Manakin in Pamunkey Neck as well as 250 pounds sterling at her marriage.[22] His brother John inherited Rosegill, but the family's political involvement resumed in his son (this man's grandson) Ralph Wormeley (1710-1790), who served in the House of Burgesses and possibly in the Virginia House of Delegates after the conflict (or did his formerly Loyalist great-grandson Ralph Wormeley (1745-1806).[23]

References

  1. ^ Lyon Gardiner Tyler, Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography (1915), vol 1, p. 110
  2. ^ "The Wormeley family" 36 Virginia Magazine of History and Biography (Dec. 1928) pp. 99-100
  3. ^ Martha W. McCartney, Jamestown People to 1800: Landowners, Public Officials, Minorities and Native Leaders (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc ISBN=978-0-8063-1872-1) pp. 458-459
  4. ^ 36 Va Mag. H&B 100
  5. ^ Darrett B. and Anita H. Rutman, A Place in Time: Middlesex County, Virginia 1650-1750 (W.W. Norton 1984) ISBN=0-393-01801-6 pp. 46
  6. ^ Tommy L. Bogger and The Black Church Cultural Affairs Committee, A History of African-Americans in Middlesex County 1646-1992 (Whitestone, Virginia, HS Printing 1995) pp. 5-6
  7. ^ McCartney p. 458
  8. ^ McCartney p. 458
  9. ^ Rutman pp. 58-59
  10. ^ Cynthia Miller Leonard, The Virginia General Assembly 1619-1978 (Richmond: Virginia State Library 1978) p. 38 79, 82, 84, 87, 89, 92
  11. ^ Leonard p. xxi
  12. ^ McCartney p. 458
  13. ^ Rutman p. 81
  14. ^ 36 Va.Mag.H&B 100
  15. ^ McCartney pp. 458-459
  16. ^ 36 Va.Mag.H&B 100 notes Duran's narrative was privately printed in 1925
  17. ^ McCartney pp. 458-459
  18. ^ 36 Va. Mag. H&B pp. 291-293
  19. ^ 36 Va. Mag. H&B pp. 385
  20. ^ McCartney p. 459
  21. ^ "The Wormeley Family", 36 Va.Mag.H&B 283-287 (1929)
  22. ^ 36 Va.Mag.H&B 101
  23. ^ 27 Va.Mag.H&B 82
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