they began to settle Ashley River, as the new plantation was called, and Charles Town, the site of which was subsequently removed (1679–80) to Oyster Point. West, though he had no experience as ‘a planter,’ took a leading part in the conduct of affairs as deputy for the governor, William Sayle [q. v.], whose health was breaking up. Sayle died on 4 March 1671, whereupon West was unanimously chosen governor by the colonial council. In the following December Sir John Yeamans [q. v.] claimed the governorship on the ground that he had been made a ‘landgrave’ by the proprietors. The council expressed themselves so well satisfied with the administration of West that they resolved not to disturb him in his government; but shortly afterwards an express nomination of Yeamans to the post arrived from England, and in this the colonists acquiesced. West was at the same time appointed ‘register of all writings and documents.’ But Yeamans proved popular neither with the settlers nor with the proprietors, his health was feeble, he was suspected of avarice in private trading, and early in 1674 he retired to Barbados, leaving the field clear for West, to whom the proprietors on 18 May 1674 sent a patent to be landgrave and a commission to be governor (ib. p. 578). His salary was 100l. as governor and 60l. as storekeeper. The new governor's administration was marked by ‘care, fidelity, and prudence.’ He obtained deeds of transfer of lands from Indian chiefs, made regulations respecting the militia, roads, the status of servants and slaves, and in his last parliament of May 1682 passed ‘acts for suppressing idleness, drunkenness, and profanity.’ In the same year was commenced the building of the English church in Charles Town; but the utmost tolerance was extended to the dissenters, who comprised the larger part of the population. West was removed from the governorship towards the close of 1682, having, it is supposed, incurred the displeasure of the proprietors by permitting the sale and transport of Indian slaves from Carolina into other colonies. His dismissal was soon regretted, and in September 1684 he was reappointed governor; but for private reasons he resigned his post and left the colony in the summer of 1685. It is supposed that he visited London, where he seems to have left his wife (ib. p. 168), and that he returned eventually to his estate upon the Ashley River; but nothing is known definitely of his later career.
[Cal. State Papers, America and West Indies, 1669–74, ed. Sainsbury, passim, incorporating the Shaftesbury Papers, briefly described in the Hist. MSS. Comm. 3rd Rep. App. pp. 216–17; Winsor's Hist. of America, 1887, v. 308; Carroll's Hist. Collections of South Carolina, New York, 1836, vol. ii. passim; Rivers's Sketch of the History of South Carolina, Charleston, 1856, chaps. iv. v. and vi. containing the best narrative of West's governorship.]
WEST, NICOLAS (1461–1533), bishop of Ely and diplomatist, was born in 1461 at Putney, Surrey. His father, John West, is alleged by Hatcher and all subsequent biographers to have been a baker at Putney. He was educated at Eton and became scholar of King's College, Cambridge, in 1477, being elected fellow in 1483. Wood, on Hatcher's authority, has a story, which is obviously an exaggeration of some college disturbance, that in connection with an election to the proctorship of the university he set fire to the provost's lodgings, stole some silver spoons, and ran away from the college. As a matter of fact he held his fellowship till the close of 1498, regularly took his degrees in arts, and became LL.D. before 1486, when he was admitted archdeacon of Derby (Le Neve, Fasti, i. 577). In 1499 he was presented by Richard Foxe [q. v.], bishop of Durham, to the rectory of Egglescliffe; but at this time he must have been in deacon's orders only, for on 18 April 1500 Thomas Savage [q. v.], bishop of London, ordained him priest. He retained Egglescliffe until his preferment to a bishopric in 1515. In 1501, upon occasion of a dispute between William Smith or Smyth (1460?–1514) [q. v.], bishop of Lincoln, and the knights hospitallers, relative to a jurisdiction claimed by the knights in the archdeaconry of Leicester, West acted as counsel for the knights (Churton, Life of Bishop Smyth, p. 185). This perhaps introduced him to the notice of Bishop Smyth, who presented him in 1502 to the rectory of Witney in Oxfordshire, a living which he also retained till his elevation to the bench. Godwin states that he was also rector of Elford, near Lichfield. In the same year (1502) he was styled chaplain to the king (Rymer, Fœdera, xiii. 35).
In Foxe West had found a powerful patron. Foxe controlled the foreign relations of the country, and on 18 Nov. 1502 appointed West as junior colleague of Sir Thomas Brandon [q. v.], ambassador to the Emperor Maximilian (ib.) In 1504 we find West a member of the king's council, for he appears sitting as such in the Star-chamber upon the occasion of a decree dated 26 Nov. 1504 which settled the conflicting relations of the merchants of the staple and the merchant adventurers (Churton, Life of Bishop
