A Memoir of Sir Edmund Andros, Knt.,: Governor of New England, New York and Virginia, &c., &c.Whitmore, William Henry
History
A Memoir of Sir Edmund Andros, Knt.,: Governor of New England, New York and Virginia, &c., &c.
Whitmore, William Henry
Andros, Edmund, Sir, 1637-1714
At all events, Andros was favorably received at home, and in 1692 was
appointed Governor of Virginia, to which command was joined that of
Maryland. "He brought over to Virginia the Charter of William and Mary
College, of which he laid the foundation. He encouraged manufactures
and the cultivation of cotton in that Colony, regulated the
Secretary's office, where he commanded all the public papers and
records to be sorted and kept in order, and when the State House was
burned, had them carefully preserved, and again sorted and registered.
By these and other commendable acts, he succeeded in gaining the
esteem of the people, and in all likelihood would have been still more
useful to the Colony had his stay been longer, but his administration
closed in November, 1698." (O'CALLAGHAN, Woolley's Journal, p. 67.)
Strangely enough, the Governor who in Massachusetts was chiefly hated
for his love of Episcopacy, was overthrown in Virginia for quarrelling
with the Church authorities. The Earl of Bellomont writes in 1690, in
a letter printed in N.Y. Col. Doc. iv. 490, "Sir Edmund Andros for
quarreling with Doctor Blair in Virginia, brought the resentment of
the Bishop of London and the Church (they say) on his head, which is
the reason he has lost his government, and by the same rule they would
get me recalled by making this a church quarrel." Bishop Meade in his
"Old Churches and Families of Virginia," i. 157-8, gives some account
of this controversy. The opponent of Andros was the Rev. James Blair,
Commissary of the Bishop of London and President of the College, who
seems to have passed nearly all his life in disputes with successive
Governors; and it is no proof that Andros was in the wrong that he was
recalled and superseded. The record of the trial of Dr. Blair is
preserved at Lambeth, the result being that he returned triumphant
with a good sum of money for his College.
Sir Edmund soon reappears, however, as the recipient of Court favor,
being in 1704 appointed Governor of Guernsey, an office which he held
for two years, retaining also the post of Bailiff of the Island, which
he had for life. This is nearly the last we learn of him, and his age,
nearly seventy years, must have debarred him from farther service. We
find his name indeed among the new members in the "Proceedings of the
Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, 20 Feb.
1712-3 to 19 Feb. 1713-4;"[11] and this was in the last year of his
life, as he was buried at St. Anne's, Soho, Westminster, London, 27th
Feb. 1713-4, in his 76th year.
[Footnote 11: Communicated by W.S. Appleton, Esq.]
There remain to be noticed only a few items in respect to Sir Edmund's
marriages, all occurring after his return from Virginia.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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