Captain Matthews, an old planter, of above thirty years' standing, one of the council, and "a most deserving commonwealth man," had a fine house, sowed much hemp and flax, and had it spun; he kept weavers, and had a tannery, where leather was dressed; and had eight shoemakers at work; had forty negro servants, whom he brought up to mechanical trades; he sowed large crops of wheat and barley. The wheat he sold at four shillings (about a dollar) a bushel. He also supplied vessels trading in Virginia, with beef. He had a plenty of cows, a fine dairy, a large number of hogs and poultry. Captain Matthews married a daughter of Sir Thomas Hinton, and "kept a good house, lived bravely, and was a true lover of Virginia." There was a free school, with two hundred acres of land appurtenant, a good house, forty milch cows, and other accommodations. It was endowed by Mr. Benjamin Symms. There were, besides, some small schools in the colony, probably such as are now known as "old-field schools."[209:A] FOOTNOTES: [200:A] 1 Hening, 230; Burk, ii. 68. [201:A] Art. by J. Wingate Thornton, Esq., in Mass Gen. and Antiq. Register for 1847, page 348. [201:B] Ibid., 352. [202:A] Chalmers' Annals, 133. [203:A] 1 Hening, 277. [204:A] Carlyle's Cromwell, i. 144. [205:A] Cohonk, the cry of the wild-geese, was an Indian term for winter. [206:A] Toward the end of 1641 he had petitioned the governor for permission to visit his kinsman, Opechancanough, and Cleopatre, his aunt. [209:A] Hening, i. 252. CHAPTER XXIII. 1648-1659. Beauchamp Plantagenet visits Virginia--Settlement of other Colonies--Dissenters persecuted and banished from Virginia-- Some take refuge in Carolina; some in Maryland--Charles the First executed--Commonwealth of England--Virginia Assembly denounces the Authors of the King's Death--Colonel Norwood's Voyage to Virginia--The Virginia Dissenters in Maryland--The Long Parliament prohibits Trade with Virginia--A Naval Force sent to reduce the Colony, Bennet and Clayborne being two of the Commissioners--Captain Dennis demands surrender of Virginia--Sir William Berkley constrained to yield--Articles of Capitulation.