Background
William Byrd was born in London on March 28, 1674. He was the son of William Byrd, and Mary, daughter of Warham Horsmanden.
(Excerpt from The Westover Manuscripts: Containing the His...)
Excerpt from The Westover Manuscripts: Containing the History of the Dividing Line Betwixt Virginia and North Carolina; A Journey to the Land of Eden, A. D. 1733; And a Progress to the Mines, Written From 1728 to 1736, and Now First Published Here lieth The Honorable William Byrd, Esq., Being born to one of the amplest fortunes in this country, He was sent early to England for his education; Where, under the care and direction of Sir Robert Southwell, And ever favoured with his particular instructions, He made a happy proficiency in polite and various learning. By the means of the same noble friend, was introduced to the acquaintance of many of the first persons of that age For knowledge, wit, virtue, birth, or high station, And particularly contracted a most intimate and bosom friendship With the learned and illustrious Charles Boyle, Earl of Orrery. He was called to the bar in the Middle Temple. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
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(Colonel William Byrd was a planter and slave-owner from C...)
Colonel William Byrd was a planter and slave-owner from Charles City County, Virginia, possibly also the founder of Richmond, Virginia. ‘The History of the Dividing Line Betwixt Virginia and North Carolina’ is an account of the surveying of the border between the both states named in the title in 1728. Byrd's account of the journey to survey the contentious border included such nuggets as the derivation of the name of "Matrimony Creek," so named because of its 'brawling' waters.
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(This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)
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( Title: History of the Dividing Line and other tracts vi...)
Title: History of the Dividing Line and other tracts viz. "A Journey to the Land of Eden," "A Progress to the Mines," "The Proceedings of the Commissioners appointed to lay out the Bounds of the Northern Neck," "An Essay on Bulk Tobacco," "Miscellaneous Papers". From the papers of W. Byrd. The editor's introduction signed: T. H. W., i.e. Thomas H. Wynne. Publisher: British Library, Historical Print Editions The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. It is one of the world's largest research libraries holding over 150 million items in all known languages and formats: books, journals, newspapers, sound recordings, patents, maps, stamps, prints and much more. Its collections include around 14 million books, along with substantial additional collections of manuscripts and historical items dating back as far as 300 BC. The GENERAL HISTORICAL collection includes books from the British Library digitised by Microsoft. This varied collection includes material that gives readers a 19th century view of the world. Topics include health, education, economics, agriculture, environment, technology, culture, politics, labour and industry, mining, penal policy, and social order. ++++ The below data was compiled from various identification fields in the bibliographic record of this title. This data is provided as an additional tool in helping to insure edition identification: ++++ British Library Byrd, William; W., T H.; 1866. 2 vol. ; 4º. 10410.f.30.
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(This Is A New Release Of The Original 1841 Edition.)
This Is A New Release Of The Original 1841 Edition.
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( Title: History of the Dividing Line and other tracts vi...)
Title: History of the Dividing Line and other tracts viz. "A Journey to the Land of Eden," "A Progress to the Mines," "The Proceedings of the Commissioners appointed to lay out the Bounds of the Northern Neck," "An Essay on Bulk Tobacco," "Miscellaneous Papers". From the papers of W. Byrd. The editor's introduction signed: T. H. W., i.e. Thomas H. Wynne. Publisher: British Library, Historical Print Editions The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. It is one of the world's largest research libraries holding over 150 million items in all known languages and formats: books, journals, newspapers, sound recordings, patents, maps, stamps, prints and much more. Its collections include around 14 million books, along with substantial additional collections of manuscripts and historical items dating back as far as 300 BC. The GENERAL HISTORICAL collection includes books from the British Library digitised by Microsoft. This varied collection includes material that gives readers a 19th century view of the world. Topics include health, education, economics, agriculture, environment, technology, culture, politics, labour and industry, mining, penal policy, and social order. ++++ The below data was compiled from various identification fields in the bibliographic record of this title. This data is provided as an additional tool in helping to insure edition identification: ++++ British Library Byrd, William; W., T H.; 1866. 2 vol. ; 4º. 10410.f.30.
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William Byrd was born in London on March 28, 1674. He was the son of William Byrd, and Mary, daughter of Warham Horsmanden.
As a frontier plantation, peopled chiefly with negroes, was no place to educate a boy, William Byrd was early entrusted to relatives in England. In 1684 he was at school under Christopher Glassock. Six years later he visited Holland, and in 1692 was pursuing his studies at the Middle Temple.
Later in 1692 William Byrd returned to Virginia. Heir to a large estate, well educated, socially charming, enjoying the friendship of prominent men both in England and Virginia, Byrd at once assumed an important position in the colony. The very year of his return he was elected to the House of Burgesses. In 1697 he was back in England, defending Sir Edmund Andros against charges of hostility to the Anglican Church in Virginia. The next year we find him acting as agent for the colony.
Upon the death of his father he returned to Virginia. The same year he was made receiver general, but did not enter the Council of State until September 12, 1709. The early years of his official career were full of strife. In 1710 Alexander Spotswood came to Virginia as lieutenant governor.
He tried to put an end to the monopolizing of vast tracts of land by enforcing the collection of quit-rents. And then, while Byrd, Ludwell, Carter, Blair, and the others were still angrily resisting this measure, Spotswood delivered a blow at their judicial power. For decades the Council had served as the supreme court in Virginia.
Spotswood now announced his intention of setting up a court of oyer and terminer, and of appointing to it others than members of the Council. The Council replied by preferring charges against Spotswood, which Byrd, who was once more in England, pressed before the Board of Trade.
Spotswood maintained that his action was necessary if the king's prerogative was to be preserved.
In 1718 Spotswood attempted unsuccessfully to have Byrd removed from the Council. Byrd returned to Virginia in 1720 with orders to both sides to reconcile their differences, and Spotswood's removal soon after left the Council with powers undiminished. Byrd's later years were spent in peace, at his beautiful home, which he had erected at Westover, Virginia. Despite the elegance of his life, he was more than once so oppressed with debt that he had to sell land and negroes to satisfy his creditors.
In 1728 William Byrd served as one of the commissioners to run the dividing line between Virginia and North Carolina, and in 1736 he surveyed the bounds of the Northern Neck.
He died August 26, 1744, and was buried in the garden at Westover.
(Excerpt from The Westover Manuscripts: Containing the His...)
(Colonel William Byrd was a planter and slave-owner from C...)
( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)
( Title: History of the Dividing Line and other tracts vi...)
( Title: History of the Dividing Line and other tracts vi...)
(This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)
(This Is A New Release Of The Original 1841 Edition.)
As William Byrd I possessed to a superlative degree the business acumen of the wealthy seventeenth-century Virginians, so William Byrd II typified the grace, charm, the culture, and also the rather lax business methods of the Virginians of the eighteenth century.
An extensive landowner on the frontiers, he was deeply interested in western expansion.
Quotations:
"A library, a garden, a grove, and a purling stream are the innocent scenes that divert our leisure, " he wrote.
The power of the governor had been "reduced to a desperate gasp, " he wrote, and unless the Council were curbed, "the haughtiness of a Carter, the hypocrisy of a Blair the malice of a Byrd, " would henceforth rule the colony.
It was a serious menace to liberty, he pointed out, for a governor to "take upon him by his own absolute will to appoint judges, who without appeal are to determine concerning not only the lives and liberties, but also concerning the whole estates" of the colonists.
Decades before the French established themselves on the Ohio, Byrd pointed out the danger from that source. "They may build forts to command the passes, " he wrote, "to secure their own traffic and settlements westward (and) to invade the British colonies from thence".
He was a Fellow of the Royal Society.
Energetic, forceful, stubborn, Spotswood soon found himself embroiled with the group of wealthy planters whose power centered in the Council.
Byrd's portrait reveals a well-built man, elegantly attired, with prominent nose, firm mouth, broad forehead, and rather haughty demeanor.
In 1706 he married Lucy, daughter of General Daniel Parke. His first wife died in 1716, and later he married Maria, daughter of Thomas Taylor of Kensington.