Background
Robert Dinwiddie was born in 1693 at “Germiston, ” near Glasgow. He was the son of Robert Dinwiddie. His mother, a daughter of Matthew Cumming, is called Elizabeth in one place and Sarah in another.
Robert Dinwiddie was born in 1693 at “Germiston, ” near Glasgow. He was the son of Robert Dinwiddie. His mother, a daughter of Matthew Cumming, is called Elizabeth in one place and Sarah in another.
Robert worked in his father’s counting house, and later, apparently, became a merchant.
On December 1, 1727, he was made collector of customs for Bermuda. In 1730 he was placed upon the regular establishment, at £30 a year. So satisfactory was his work that on April 11, 1738, he was made surveyor-general for the Southern Part of America, with jurisdiction over the Carolinas, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Bahama Islands, and Jamaica. In the same year he visited Barbados, where he uncovered many frauds in the revenues.
On June 29, 1743, he appeared before the Lords of the Treasury to explain a plan for collecting the duty on colonial sugar. Late in the same year he was back in Barbados, where he found the frauds in the customs more glaring than ever. Charging several of the officials with false entries, fraudulent sales, and embezzlement, he dismissed them. These men complained to the Lords of the Treasury, and it is probable that Dinwiddie had to spend much time in London defending himself. While surveyor-general he took up his residence in Virginia. His commission entitled him to membership in the councils of the southern colonies, and in October 1741 he took his seat in the Council of Virginia.
On July 20, 1751, he was appointed lieutenantgovernor of Virginia. On Nov. 20 he landed at York, with his wife, Rebecca Affleck, and two daughters, and was escorted to Williamsburg. Despite his acquaintance with Virginia affairs, he made the mistake of provoking a quarrel with the House of Burgesses. It had long been the practise in the colony for those taking up land to secure an order for a certain number of acres, and to occupy them for years before securing a patent. In this way they escaped the payment of quit-rents. Dinwiddie not only ordered all landholders to take out patents at once, but charged a fee of a pistole for signing the patent and for the use of the seal. To the latter provision the Burgesses objected violently. “The rights of the subjects are so secured by law, ” they declared, “that they cannot be deprived of the least part of their property but by their own consent. ” Little dreaming that twenty-two years later the American colonies would rebel against the Crown in support of this principle, Dinwiddie persisted in his course. Thereupon the Burgesses laid the matter before the Board of Trade, through the attorney-general, Peyton Randolph. The Board directed that no fee should be charged for patents on land west of the mountains, or upon lands surveyed before April 22, 1752. This meant victory for the Burgesses, and Dinwiddie reluctantly obeyed. But the dispute was settled only after it had done untold harm by preventing the cooperation of governor and Assembly at a time when the French were threatening the very existence of British America. Dinwiddie was deeply interested in the Ohio region.
Upon his arrival in 1751 he brought with him generous gifts for the Indians, in the hope of binding them to the English interest. He gave his approval and support to the Ohio Company. With alarm he learned that the French not only claimed the region, but had erected a fort on French Creek. If they succeeded in their designs, the English would be cut off from the entire western country.
In 1753 he sent George Washington, then a young officer in the Virginia militia, to warn the French to withdraw. When Washington returned with the report that the French were preparing to descend the Ohio with 220 canoes and 1, 500 men, Dinwiddie tried to anticipate them. In February 1754 he sent seventy men to the site of Pittsburgh to erect a fort. A few weeks later he dispatched after them two larger detachments, the more advanced under Washington, at the same time appealing for aid to the neighboring governors and to the Board of Trade. When the French drove away his workmen from the fort, attacked Washington at Fort Necessity, and drove him back over the mountains, the governor made strenuous efforts for a new expedition. But the Assembly failed him, some of his troops deserted, and he was compelled to abandon the plan. Hope revived when news arrived that two picked regiments under Gen. Edward Braddock had been ordered to Virginia.
During the spring of 1755 Dinwiddie was busy gathering stores of food, recruiting the Virginia companies, urging other governors to aid, seeking Indian allies, pleading with the Assembly for funds. When Braddock led his force into the wilderness, Dinwiddie was confident of success. After the crushing defeat at Great Meadows, he criticized the English general for “leaving half his army forty miles behind, ” and for the “want of scouts to clear the woods. ” But defeat did not discourage him. The Assembly voted £40, 000 and 1, 200 men, which with the remnant of Braddock’s army under Col. Dunbar he thought sufficient to retrieve the situation. To his dismay, Dunbar marched to Philadelphia, leaving “the fort and frontier to be defended by 400 sick and wounded, and the poor remains of our provincial forces. ” Hard upon the heels of the British came the Indians, robbing, pillaging, burning, murdering. So Dinwiddie had to face alone the task of defending hundreds of miles of exposed frontier. He sent out companies of rangers, raised a regiment and placed it under Washington, sent for the friendly Indians, and built forts at the points of greatest danger. Despite these efforts it was a time of terror for western Virginia, and more than once Dinwiddie had to order out the militia to meet expected raids. An expedition to the Shawnee country failed because of rain, snow, and swollen rivers. At last, in the spring of 1757, some four hundred Cherokees, Catawbas, Saponies, Tuscaroras, and Nottaways gathered at Winchester, and for the time being the frontier was comparatively safe. From the outbreak of the war until his return to England Dinwiddie constantly was seeking intercolonial cooperation. Repeatedly he wrote to the governors of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and the Carolinas, urging them to send money and men.
In April 1755 he went to Annapolis for a conference of governors, and two years later he met the Earl of Loudoun at Philadelphia, to discuss plans of defense. His discouraging experience with assemblies led him to suggest that Parliament impose upon the colonies a poll tax of a shilling and a land tax of two shillings for each too acres, to aid in financing the war. “I know our people will be inflamed if they hear of my making this proposal, ” he added. His constant exertions told upon his health. On March 22, 1757, he wrote Pitt asking for leave of absence to visit Bath. He left Virginia on January 12, 1758, and was succeeded by Francis Fauquier. He died at Clifton, Bristol, on July 27, 1770.
His career as colonial administrator was marked by vision, strength, attention to detail, and untiring energy. As the man who precipitated the struggle which brought about the downfall of New France, he is a figure of first importance in the early history of the American continent.
Robert's wife was Rebecca Affleck. They had two daughters.
