1619 by James Horn

Author:James Horn
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Basic Books
Published: 2018-10-15T16:00:00+00:00

both present and to come, may be faithfully brought up in the true knowledge and service of Almighty God, and so learn to frame their lives and conversations,… [that] by their good example, to allure the Heathen people to submit themselves to the Scepter of God’s most righteous and blessed Kingdom, and so finally join with them in the true Christian profession.

Such was the intention in theory, but in practice Company and colony leaders placed their faith in first converting Indian children who in turn would convert their parents, their kin, and the larger population. Each borough, city, and particular plantation, the General Assembly ordered, was to take “a certain number of the natives’ children to be educated” and the most promising boys would be “fitted for the College intended for them that from thence they may be sent to that work of conversion.” James I had already expressed his enthusiasm for the project by ordering charitable collections to be taken throughout the country by the Church of England in 1616 and 1617. Monies would be used to establish a college, which would be built in Henrico together with (eventually) a university on ten thousand acres, allocated by the Company, for teaching Powhatan children.28

The king supported the Company’s pious efforts, which corresponded to his own broader ambitions in Europe. At Newmarket, he had expressed to Governor Yeardley his enthusiasm for the college and the prospect of Indian children “as laborers into gods harvest,” converting those of “their own nation to the Christian faith.” The letter writer R. F. observed that in discussions about spreading religion “his Majesty, like a true nursing father of god’s church, expressed marvelous great zeal and affection.” In England, support for the Company’s religious initiative continued to grow. An anonymous message left on Sandys’s chair at a court meeting wished him good luck “in the name of the Lord, who is daily magnified by the experiment of your Zeal and Piety in giving beginning to the foundation of the College in Virginia the sacred work so due to Heaven and so Longed for one [on] earth.” Together with the letter, several items of valuable church plate were donated, adding to the thousands of pounds collected over the previous five years for the building of churches and schools as well as the college at Henrico.29

Company plans were given further impetus by the arrival of Mr. George Thorpe from Berkeley, Gloucestershire, in the spring of 1620. Formerly a member of Parliament and gentleman of the king’s privy chamber, Thorpe was a major investor in Berkeley Hundred and the Company and was well known to Sandys. Owing to his status and the respect he commanded, he was put in charge of the college lands as one of the governor’s deputies and added to the colony’s council of state. Passionate about the mission to bring Christianity to the Powhatans, he was critical of settlers’ hostile attitude toward the Indians and advised Sandys and the Company to offer gifts such as clothing and household goods to show their “love and hearty affection.

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