COLOXIAL PRESIDEXTS AXD GOXERXORS
43
ClaihoriK'. surveyor-general : and ( icorge
Sandys, uncle of his wife, who acted as treas-
urer of the colony. I le brought with hini also
an ordinance of the London Company, con-
tirniing the government and freedom granted
under Vardley in ihn). \\ yatt had not long
arrived before a great calamity befell the col-
ony. Powhatan had died in 1618. and the real
head of the Indians in Virginia was his
brother, the ferocious Opechancanough. lie
arranged a massacre of the whites, and the
blow fell March 22. 1622. One-fourth of the
settlers were destroyed, and the number would
have been much larger had not ( iovernor
W'vatt received news through a Christian In-
dian named Chanco of the impending massacre
in time to save Jamestown and put the neigh-
boring settlements on their guard. After the
massacre the colonists concentrated for some
time the surviving population in five or six
well fortified places. Jamestown Peninsula was
one of these, and as the old quarters were over-
crowded. Claiborne, the surveyor, laid out in
1623 a new section for habitation on the river
side, eastward of the old stockade. The addi-
tions were called "New Town." where already
stood, it is believed, the governor's house, built
by Gates in 1614. enlarged by Argall in 1617.
and granted by the London Company in 1618
to the use of ("lovernor Yardley and his
successors forever. "Xew Town" never became
a town of much size, for the settlers soon drove
the Indians into the forests, and it was not long
before the abandonerl plantations were rees-
tablished.
The Indian massacre was speedily followed by the revocation of the charter of the London Company, which ^^'yatt and other leaders in Virginia regarded as a dire calamity, though time proved the contrary. In January. 1624.
they signed a protest called the "Tragicall
Relation," denouncing the administration of
the London Company by Sir Thomas Smythe
and extolling that of Sandys and Southamp-
ton and asking for the old charter. The father
of Governor \\'\att died in September, 1625,
and he asked permission of the king to return
to Rngland. which was granted, and Sir George
Vardley became governor in May, 1626. Wyatt
remained in England till iC^^g. when he
returned once more as governor. His appoint-
ment seems to have been due to the efforts of
the leaders of the old London Company, who
had never ceasefl their work for restoration
of the charter. His administration was a
reaction against that of Sir John Harvey. He
reversed the edit of banishment against Rev.
Anthony Panton. and Harvc\- himself was
broken with suits in the courts. George
Sandys, his wife's uncle, was sent to England
to voice the wishes of the governor and assem-
bly for the restoration of the old London
Company charter. He could get no direct
promise from the king, and so he had recourse
to parliament, which did in fact reissue the
old charter of 1609, though it never went into
effect in X'irginia. i.efore that time Wyatt
was recalled, and Sir William Perkeley arrived
as governor in 1642.
The Wyatt faniil\- to which Sir l-'rancis be- longed was one of great anti(|uity and of much renown. His great-great-grandfather. Sir Henry Wyatt. had taken a leading part in favor of Henry \'H. against Richard III., and his grandfather. Sir Thomas, had been exe- cuted for raising a rebellion against Queen Mary. Sir Erancis died in 1644. at Boxley. the home of the Wvatts, in county Kent, Eng- land. His brother. Rev. Hawte Wyatt. has many descendants in Virginia.
