.^s^r 



'^ 



^ 



Figure 3. — The Great Seal of England. This iourtli seal of Charles II was used between 1672 

 and 1685. On the night of February 7, 1677, an attempt was made to steal the Great Seal 

 from the house of Lord Chancellor Finch. The thief, Thomas Sadler, missed the seal, which 

 was lying under the Lord Chancellor's pillow; however, he made off with the mace and the 

 purse for the seal, and, attended by his confederates, made a mock procession with these items 

 near the Lord Chancellor's house. The escapade cost Sadler his life by hanging. The seal 

 and counterseal are described in A. B. VVyon, The Great Seals of England (London, 1887, 

 nos. 143, 144, and pi. 37). Photos courtesy of the Department of Manuscripts, British 

 Museum, London, Seal l.x.wi.i. 



concerning the charter.''^ A more generous charter 

 had been drafted and authorized by the King on 

 November 19, 1675, and again on April 19, 1676, to 

 pass under the Great Seal of England.'" This earlier 



•5 Edward Channing, .1 History nj the Vnileil Sliiirs, New York, 

 1936, vol. 2, p. 64, footnote 3; Thomas Jefferson Wertenbakcr, 

 in an introduction to a printing of the original unsuccessful 

 charter, Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, 1948, vol. 56, 

 p. 264; George Bancroft, History of the United Stales, Boston, 

 1856, vol. 2, p. 211 (final revised edition. New York, 1883, 

 vol. 1, p. 454). 



'^ Hening, ofi. cit. (footnote 14), p. 531; John Daly Burk, 

 The History of Virginia, Petersburg, Virginia, 1804-1805, vol. 2, 

 p. 249; Minutes of the Court at Whitehall, April 19, 1676, 

 Longleat, vol. 77, folio 70. 



document had, however, despite the importunities of 

 the Mrginia agents, mysteriously failed to be put into 

 effect. Finally, on May 31, 1676, the King directed 

 the Lord Chancellor not to put the Great Seal on the 

 Virginia patent." 



The reasons for the initial delay and final disap- 

 proval of the original charter are obscure, but 

 Bacon's Rebellion was not responsible. Probably the 

 tobacco merchants, the farmers (collectors) of the 

 \'irginia customs, the lords who would be deprived 

 of the full fruits of their grants, and a few of the more 



'" W. Noel Sainsbury, ed., Calendar of State Papers, Colonial 

 Series, America and West Indies, J673-7676, London, 1893, no. 935. 



142 



BULLETIN 22. S: CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE MUSEUM OF HISTORY AND TECHNOLOCiY 



