Upper and Lower Houses of Colonial Virginia

There's two stories here - Upper and lower. If you've read the House of Burgesses journals and the Council journals, maybe you've wondered where those leaders met.

The House of Burgesses, the lower house:

They would pass legislation that would not become law unless the Council, the executive Council and the Governor approved it.

The House of Burgesses had some standing committees, meaning those committees who always existed. George Washington was on the committee.

There were also ad hoc or temporary committees.

The House of Burgesses might form a committee on the fly to study one issue to consider just one piece of narrow legislation, like a citizen's petition for redress or backpay or subsidy.

Click or Touch Picture for Williamsburg Tour

So on to the 2nd story.

That's the upper house, the executive council.

The Executive Council or simply, the 'Council" in colonial Virginia had 3 jobs, one as the advisors to the Governor, one as upper chamber to the House of Burgesses, and one as a sort of court of last resort, like a State Supreme Court, unless the appeal of their decision went to Privy Council in London.

If the Council met as a court, they then assembled on the bottom left. That court was called General Court, but it did operate as the highest court in the land unless you had the wherewithal to appeal to London.

By the 1750s at least if not even as early as the 1730s , most law originated out of the House of Burgesses.

When bills passed the House and Council in different forms, each House appointed members to meet jointly and attempt to reconcile the differences.

After a bill had passed both Houses in the same form, the governor (or in his absence the lieutenant governor or in the absence of both the Council president) had to sign it before it became law; and the Crown always retained the authority to disallow, or veto, any law that the colonial assembly enacted. See source: https://encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/governors-council-the/#heading2

Both chambers sought protection and representation in London.

The Governor and Council hired their own representative to look out for their interests in London. So too did the House of Burgesses choose their own representative in London to look out after their own interests. In particular we have a story on the House of Burgesses representative in London.

Earlier in April 1759 both sides in particular sought a decision by London on solidifying land rights. See the Pistole Controversy, where a fee was charged to patent one's right to a piece of land.

But some decisions were passed by the Council on its own.

In this case, because Council doubled as a Court of last resort in Virginia, they did have a lot of say about county court systems.

Touch or click on map for interactive Google Map

When did they move out of Jamestown and come to this building in Williamsburg?

The statehouse in Jamestown burned down for the fourth time on October 20, 1698. The General Assembly met temporarily in Middle Plantation, 11 miles (18 km) inland from Jamestown, and then in 1699 permanently moved the capital of the colony to Middle Plantation, which they renamed Williamsburg. [Wikipedia]

But the House of Burgesses Journal preface indicates some different dates.

The first session [ 19 March 1702/3 ] was held in the hall of William and Mary College. The state house at Jamestown had been destroyed by fire on October 31, 1698, and though the Assembly that met in April, 1699, had promptly made provision for the erection of a capitol at Williamsburg, the structure was not yet ready for occupancy. Source page #21 https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc2.ark:/13960/t01z4gh37&view=1up&seq=21

The fourth session of this Assembly began at the capitol at Williamsburg on the 18th of April, 1705, and continued through the 12th of May.

Source page #27 https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc2.ark:/13960/t01z4gh37&view=1up&seq=27&skin=2021&q1=williamfburg

Wednesday June the12th 1706

A Bill Entituled an act continuing ye act directing ye building the Capitol and the City of Williamsburg with additions.

Source #272 (p. 224) https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc2.ark:/13960/t01z4gh37&view=1up&seq=272&skin=2021&q1=williamfburg

Jamestown State - touch or click to see link

BTW they kept the bricks of the Jamestown bldg to later build a county courthouse:

Saturday May the 25th 1706

The petition of Mr Robert Beverley and others being referr'd from his Excy and Council to the Consideration of this house was read, praying ye' bricks of ye old state house at James Town, may be assign'd for the building a Court house in the said County: And thereupon

Ordered That the bricks of the old state house at James Town be appropriated to the use of James City County for the building a Court house in the said County, and that no person presume to make sof the said bricks, on any other account what- soever.

Source page #252 (p.204)

https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc2.ark:/13960/t01z4gh37&view=1up&seq=252&skin=2021&q1=Jameftown

See archaeology of the Jamestown statehouse

https://historicjamestowne.org/archaeology/map-of-discoveries/statehouse/

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That's it.

That's our lead story.

There's always more.

Skip around.

Read bits and pieces.

Compiled by Jim Moyer 6/10/2023, updated 06/30/2023, 7/2/2023, 7/9/2023, updated again 4/7/2024

Pistole to Patent land

https://jimmoyer1.wixsite.com/fortloudounva/single-post/richard-bland-and-the-pistole-controversy

The Problem is a Loophole: Lt Gov Dinwiddie knew there was a loophole. He knew of it for years. He was Surveyor General for North and Central America. He found out about that loophole back then. Here's how it worked. First, a fee would be paid for a survey. Then completed, a patent would be issued by the Governor. No fee for that patent. But once that patent was issued, rent by the government could be collected. The loophole? Just don't get a patent. That way you won't have to pay rent to the government. And you could claim that just by having a survey you have some rights to that land. Solution? That act of collecting a fee would solidify the idea that just a survey alone was not enough to confer ownership. You needed that patent.You needed to get that patent. And now you have to pay a fee for that. And after that patent, you will pay rent to the King's Majesty.

Dinwiddie concluded that by " the taking of the fee for himself but also the prevention of fraudulent delay in application for patents by those enjoying the use of land under mere surveyors ' warrants but paying no quit - rents since the lands had not yet actually been patented . . . would result in the great augmentation of the revenue going to the king . "

Dinwiddie also said "It has been too long a Practice here [in Virginia], to have Orders for Land … return their Surveys, Works, and Improvements to the Sec’ry’s Office, by wh’ch they pretend to a legal right, and enjoy the Land for Years before they take out a Patent for them, by wh’ch the Crown has been greatly defrauded.

But the House of Burgesses was mad. They saw this problem differently.

Timing is Everything: Lt Gov Dinwiddie imposed that pistole fee without House of Burgesses approval. He did it on lhe last day of the session, warning no one. He did it on the day after the House rewarded him 500 lbs out of their good feelings for him. Now they feel hoodwinked. Bland's Response: Bland and others thought the Legislature had to be involved in authorizing that. No taxation without representation, right? And would that fee not hurt the poor trying to develop land out west? Would that fee only serve the rich? And in so doing hurt westward development and the economy?This pistole controversy was of rich vs poor. How can the lower classes hope to get a start out in the wilderness with such a fee? This controversy was of republican principles vs royal prerogative. Where is the boundary of a legislature's authority?

Sources

https://jimmoyer1.wixsite.com/fortloudounva/single-post/richard-bland-and-the-pistole-controversy

1 Doubloon = 2 Escudos = 1 Pistole - "NOT"

Pistoles is the French word for Doubloons. Doubloons are Pistoles. Pistoles are Doubloons. Both are 2 escudos. A Doubloon = 2 escudos. So does Pistole. A Pistole or Doubloon meant 4 dollars, 2 escudos. But it gets worse.

English nomenclature was confusing, though, since the $8 "double pistole" was the doubloon in English usage, while the $16 "quadruple pistole" was the doubloon in American colonial usage. This was disambiguated in references by calling the $4 the common doubloon or simply doubloon, the $8 the doubloon of four (escudos), and the $16 the doubloon of eight.[5]Spanish America did the same as per es:doblón. - Wikipedia

Source

https://jimmoyer1.wixsite.com/fortloudounva/single-post/1-doubloon-2-escudos-1-pistole-not

piftoles and miffiffippi

While covering a law April 1759 we run into those two words. Miffiffippi? That's Mississippi, where the letter "s" looks like an "f." The rule states that when a word ends in an "s," then that "s" will look like the modern "s." Earlier in the word, that "s" is going to look like an "f." That is why you see piftoles which in modern font would be pistoles. I just don't know why the publishers of the House of Burgess Journals chose to show every double s in the long form S. Whereas when there is a double s in The Declaration of Independence. The first s of the double s is long form but the 2nd s is like the modern s. This Note was added on 5/21/2023 because of a reader's observation the the real rules of long form S and the modern s correspond to what you see in the Declaration of Indepence. And, piftoles? That's realy Pistoles. That's not hand guns. That's a spanish coin whose Spanish name is doubloon. Pistoles is the French word for the Spanish Doubloons. Source

https://jimmoyer1.wixsite.com/fortloudounva/single-post/piftoles-and-miffiffippi

The Council

https://encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/governors-council-the/

compiled by Jim Moyer 3/14 –16/2019, 4/17/2019, 7/12/2019, 3/15/2023

Executive Journals of the Council of Colonial Virginia

Title:Executive Journals of the Council of Colonial Virginia

Author:Virginia. Council

Editor:McIlwaine, H. R. (Henry Read), 1864-1934

Editor:Hall, Wilmer L. (Wilmer Lee), 1885-1957

Editor:Hillman, Benjamin J.

Note:6 volumes; Richmond: Virginia State Library, 1925-1966

Link:Volume I (1680-1699): multiple formats at archive.org

Link:Volume II (1699-1705): multiple formats at archive.org

Link:Volume III (1705-1721): multiple formats at archive.org

Link:Volume IV (1721-1739): multiple formats at archive.org

Link:Volume V (1739-1754): multiple formats at archive.org

Link:Volume VI (1754-1775): page images at HathiTrust

Stable link here:https://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/lookupid?key=olbp65003

http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/lookupid?key=olbp65003

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Burgesses

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_members_of_the_Virginia_House_of_Burgesses

https://encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/house-of-burgesses/

House of Burgesses all years

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First Session of the First Euro White Man Legislature meeting in North America: July 30, 1619

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See first session:

The third Jamestown Anglican Church:

In 1617–1619 when Samuel Argall was governor, he had the inhabitants build a new church "50 foot long and twenty foot broad."[3] Situated nearby the old church, it was wooden and built on a one-foot-wide foundation of cobblestones capped by a wall one brick thick (which are visible under the glass on the floor of the present building). It was in this church where the first Representative Legislative Assembly met, which convened there on July 30, 1619.[4]

https://encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/a-declaration-of-the-state-of-the-colonie-and-affaires-in-virginia-july-22-1620/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamestown_Church#The_third_church