The Story of Bacon's RebellionStanard, Mary Newton
History
The Story of Bacon's Rebellion
Stanard, Mary Newton
Bacon's Rebellion, 1676; Virginia -- History -- Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775
Then there is the brave-hearted young bride of the Rebel, trembling with
fears for his safety, no doubt, but exulting in his popularity, and
writing home to tell about it.
We have a series of characteristic pictures in the dusky "Queen of
Pamunkey" upbraiding the Virginians for the death of her consort, the
"mighty Totapotamoy"; the house-wives running out of their homes to see
the victorious Rebel pass and heap him with blessings and gifts of food;
the white-aproned ladies guarding the Rebel fort from the guns of their
own husbands, and, at the end of all, the wife of Major Cheesman upon
her knees before the Governor, praying to be hanged in her husband's
place. Madam Sarah Drummond seems to have been as ardent an admirer of
Bacon as her husband. When others were hesitating for fear of what his
Majesty's "red-coats" might do, she picked up a stick and broke it in
two, saying, "I fear the power of England no more than a broken straw."
The only child left by Nathaniel Bacon was a daughter, Mary, born a
short time before or after his death, and through her many can claim
descent from the Rebel, though none of them bear his name. She grew, in
due time, to womanhood, and married, in England, Hugh Chamberlain, a
famous doctor of medicine and physician to Queen Anne, and became the
mother of three daughters. The eldest of these, Mary, died a spinster,
the second, Anna Maria, became the wife of the Right Honorable Edward
Hopkins, who was a Member of Parliament for Coventry in the time of
William III and Anne, and Secretary of State for Ireland. The third
daughter, Charlotte, married Richard Luther, Esq., of Essex, England.
Young Madam Bacon, so early and tragically widowed, was married twice
afterward--first becoming Madam Jarvis and later Madam Mole. Devoid of
romance as this record sounds, her first love affair and marriage had
not been without a strong flavor of that captivating element. The young
woman's father, Sir Edward Duke, for reasons unknown, opposed the match
with "Nat" Bacon and provided in his will that his bequest to her of
£2,000 should be forfeited if she should persist in marrying "one
Bacon." That Mistress Elizabeth gave up her fortune for him, is but
another proof of the Rebel's charm.
Later, as Madam Jarvis, she and her husband brought suit for a share in
her father's estate, but the Lord Chancellor decided against her, and
gave as his opinion that her father had been right--"such an example of
presumptuous disobedience highly meriting such punishment; she being
only prohibited to marry with one man by name, and nothing in the whole
fair garden of Eden would serve her but this forbidden fruit."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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