In May, 1684, Major Robert Beverley was found guilty of high misdemeanors, but judgment being respited, and the prisoner asking pardon on his bended knees, was released upon giving security for his good behavior in the penalty of £2,000. The abject terms in which he now sued for pardon, form a singular contrast to the constancy of his former resistance, and the once gallant and loyal Beverley, the strenuous partizan of Berkley, thus became the victim of that tyranny which he had once so resolutely defended. He had not however lost the esteem of his countrymen, for in 1685 he was again elected clerk of the Assembly. This body strenuously resisted the negative power claimed by the governor, and passed resolutions complaining strongly of his tyranny. He negatived them, and prorogued the Assembly. James II, indignant at these democratical proceedings, ordered their dissolution, and attributing these disorders mainly to Robert Beverley, their clerk, commanded that he should be incapable of holding any office, and that he should be prosecuted, and that in future the appointment of their clerk should be made by the governor.
In the spring of 1687 Robert Beverley died, the persecuted victim of an oppressive government. Long a distinguished loyalist, he lived to become a sort of patriot martyr. It is thus that in the circle of life extremes meet. He married Catherine Hone of James City, and their children were four sons: Peter, William, Harry, and Robert, (the historian,) and three daughters, who married respectively, William Randolph, eldest son of William Randolph of Turkey Island; Sir John Randolph, his brother, of Williamsburg; and John Robinson. Peter Beverley was appointed clerk of the Assembly in 1691.
In the preface to the first edition of his History of Virginia, published at London 1705, Robert Beverley says of himself: "I am an Indian, and don't pretend to be exact in my language." This intimation may perhaps have been merely playful, but the full and minute account that he has given of the Indians, shows that he took a peculiar interest in that race.
In the preface to the second edition of his history, now republished, he remarks: "My first business in this world being among the public records of my country, the active thoughts of my youth put me upon taking notes of the general administration of the government." He was probably a deputy in his father's office, and perhaps also in that of his brother Peter Beverley. This Peter Beverley was in 1714 promoted to the place of speaker of the House of Burgesses, and he was subsequently treasurer of the colony. Robert Beverley, the historian, was born in Virginia, and educated in England. He married Ursula, daughter of William Byrd of Westover, on the James river. She lies buried at Jamestown. John Fontaine, son of a Huguenot refugee, having come over from England to Virginia, visited Robert Beverley, the author of this work, in the year 1715, at his residence, near the head of the Mattapony. Here he cultivated several varieties of the grape, native and French, in a vineyard of about three acres, situated upon the side of a hill, from which he made in that year four hundred gallons of wine. He went to very considerable expense in this enterprise, having constructed vaults of a wine press. But Fontaine comparing his method with that used in Spain, deemed it erroneous, and that his vineyard was not rightly managed. The home-made wine Fontaine drank heartily of, and found it good, but he was satisfied by the flavor of it that Beverley did not understand how to make it properly. Beverley lived comfortably, yet although wealthy, had nothing in or about his house but what was actually necessary. He had good beds, but no curtains, and instead of cane chairs used wooden stools. He lived mainly within himself upon the products of his land. He had laid a sort of wager with some of the neighboring planters, he giving them one guinea in hand, and they promising to pay him each ten guineas, if in seven years he should cultivate a vineyard that would yield at one vintage seven hundred gallons of wine. Beverley thereupon paid them down one hundred pounds, and Fontaine entertained no doubt but that in the next year he would win the thousand guineas. Beverley owned a large tract of land at the place of his residence. On Sunday Fontaine accompanied him to his parish church, seven miles distant, where they heard a good sermon from the Rev. M. De Latané, a Frenchman. A son of Beverley accompanied Fontaine in some of his excursions in that neighborhood. On the banks of the Rappahannock, about five miles below the falls, (Fredericksburg,) Fontaine came upon a tract of three thousand acres of land, which Beverley offered him at £7 10s. per hundred acres, and Fontaine would have purchased it, had not Beverley somewhat singularly insisted upon making a title for nine hundred and ninety-nine years, instead of an absolute fee simple.
On the 20th of August, 1716, Alexander Spotswood, Governor of Virginia, accompanied by John Fontaine, started from Williamsburg on his expedition over the Appalachian mountains, as they were then called. Having crossed the York river at the Brick House, they lodged that night at Chelsea, the seat of Austin Moore, on the Mattapony river, in the county of King William. On the following night they were hospitably entertained by Robert Beverley at his residence. The governor left his chaise there, and mounted his horse for the rest of the journey. Beverley accompanied Spotswood in this exploration. On the 26th of August Spotswood was joined by several gentlemen, two small companies of rangers, and four Meherrin Indians. The gentlemen of the party appear to have been Spotswood, Fontaine, Beverley, Austin Smith, Todd, Dr. Robinson, Taylor, Mason, Brooke, and Captains Clouder and Smith. The whole number of the party, including gentlemen, rangers, pioneers, Indians and servants, was probably about fifty. They had with them a large number of riding and pack-horses, an abundant supply of provisions, and an extraordinary variety of liquors.
The camps were named respectively after the gentlemen of the expedition, and the first one being that of the 29th of August, was named in honor of our historian, Robert Beverley. Here "they made," as Fontaine records in his diary, "great fires, supped and drank good punch." In the preface to this edition of the work, (1722,) Beverley says in reference to this Tramontane expedition, "I was with the present Governor (Spotswood) at the head spring of both those rivers, (the York and the Rappahannock,) and their fountains are in the highest range of mountains." Thus it appears that the historian was one of the celebrated knights of the golden horseshoe.
An Abridgement of the Laws of Virginia, published at London in 1722 is ascribed to Robert Beverley. Filial indignation will naturally account for the acrimony which in his history he exhibits towards Lord Culpepper and Lord Howard of Effingham, who had so persecuted his father, the clerk of the Assembly, and against Nicholson, who was Effingham's deputy. In his second edition, when time had mitigated his animosities, Beverley omitted some of his accusations against those governors.
The first edition of Beverley's History of Virginia appeared at London in 1705. It was republished in French at Paris in 1707, and in the same year an edition was issued at Amsterdam. The second English edition was published in 1722 at London. The work is dedicated to the Right Honorable Robert Harley, so celebrated both as a statesman and as the patron of letters.
In the title page appear only the initials of the author's name, thus: "R. B. Gent.," whence the blundering historian, Oldmixon, supposed his name to be "Bullock," and in some German catalogues he received the appellation of "Bird." Warden, an American writer, has repeated this last misnomer. Beverley's work is divided into four parts, styled Books, and the fourth book is again divided into two parts.
Of the history, Mr. Jefferson in his "Notes on Virginia" has remarked, that it is "as concise and unsatisfactory as Stith is prolix and tedious." This criticism, however, is only applicable to Beverley's first book, which includes the civil history of the colony; the other three books on "the present state of Virginia" being sufficiently full and satisfactory. Brief as is the summary of history comprised in book first, it was probably quite ample enough for the taste of the readers of Beverley's day. His style of writing is easy, unsophisticated and pleasing, his simplicity of remark sometimes amusing, and the whole work breathes an earnest, downright, hearty, old-fashioned Virginia spirit. His account of the internal affairs of the colony is faithful, and in the main correct, but in regard to events occurring beyond the precincts of Virginia, he is less reliable. The second book treats of the boundary of Virginia, waters, earth and soil, natural products, fish, wild fowl and hunted game. Book third gives a full and minute description of the manners and customs of the Indians, illustrated by Gribelin's engravings. The contents are the persons and dress of the Indians, marriage and management of children, towns, buildings and fortifications, cookery and food, travelling, reception and entertainments, language, war and peace, religion, diseases