Literature, Principally Belletristic - University of Tennessee, Knoxville

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• INTELLECTUAL LIFE IN THE COLONIAL SOUTH ' William Sherwood in 1697/1698 in Virginia, or from George Calvert's in r634 to that of Colonel David Brown in r697 in Maryland, Chesapeake colonists conscious of their mortality did more than dispose of lands and property. Almost all of them wrote within accepted limits of form and content, but the individual characters shine through more and more as the century progresses. Rolfe begins with the rolling drums of the usual rhetorical flourishes of sovereign, date, place, and state of health, and the commendation of his soul unto the Christ in whom he believes and his hope of inheriting with Him "a portion of the glorious kingdom of God, with all the holy Angells and Archangells and blessed Saints and Electe of that Eternall kingdome." Then he comes to his two small children of very tender age, whom he commits and commends to the care of his father-inlaw Lieutenant William Pierce. His James City County lands he leaves to "my sonne Thomas the only child of Pocahontas and to the heyers of his body lawfully begotten." There is much more to indicate the sense of piety Rolfe had shown in other writing. His witnesses included the Reverend Richard Bucke and Lady Temperance Yeardley. As already noted, the heirs of Thomas Rolfe have been most fruitful and have multiplied at the same time that his red mother has entered our folklore. Actually the will is by no means Rolfe's best writing, but it adds another document to a great American myth, and it is expressed in both pious and rhetorical phrase.28 Historically important is the r634 will of Benjamin Syms of Elizabeth City County, who after commending his soul to his Creator bequeaths two hundred acres of land and eight "Milch cows" and their increase for the establishment of the first free school of British America. Among the r658, r667, and r687 wills of Henry, Gerrard, and Valentine Peyton of Westmoreland County, that of Gerrard has the language and phrase of the Anglican Prayer Book with perhaps a few extra biblical figures: In the name of God, amen. I Gerrard Peyton ... finding myself sick and weak in body, but of sound and perfect memory calling to mind the frailty of all human flesh and the decree of our Heavenly father that all mankind are once to die and descend into the grave and to sleep until the loud and dreadful trumpet shall sound and awake us all to judgment before the great tribunal judge, both of quick, and dead . . . . First. I give and bequeathe my immortal soul unto God my heavenly maker, who first gave it to me . .. and my body to the earth from whence it came.29 Even more liturgical in tone is the testament of Colonel John Stringer, quoted by Bishop Meade : I bequeath my soul to God, who first gave it me, Father, Son, and Spirit, Unity in Trinity, Trinity in Unity, who hath redeemed and preserved me, in and through Jesus Christ, who died for my sins and the sins of all
· Literature, Principally Belletristic . people that truly and unfeignedly believe in him, for whose sake and loving-kindness I hope to obtain everlasting life; wherefore, dear Father, have mercy on my soul. Among other bequests, he left one thousand pounds of tobacco to have the Lord's Prayer and Commandments put up in the church in the lower part of Northampton County. He also forbade all drinking and shooting at his funeral as unbecoming on such an occasion.30 Two of the more interesting wills of the end of the century came from most prominent gentlemen of the colony. In 1697/1698 the ancient sinner and owner of the Jamestown building in which the provincial governing body met, the fascinating William Sherwood, made a number of bequests to a number of people, his history and divinity books among them, all together probably a generous disposition of possessions. His contemporary, the already frequently mentioned William Fitzhugh, in April 1700, as he thought preparing for a voyage to England which he may or may not have taken, wrote out a long will disposing of great property accumulated in a brief lifetime, for he died in 1701 at fifty. His preamble has the usual liturgical sentences, and then he spells out a little more of his religion and his belief in a proper decorum at a funeral. Imprimis I recommend my Soul into yeo hands of God through the mediation & Intercession of my Blessed Saviour and Redeemer hoping by the merins of his Death and Burial to have my Sins washed away in his Blood nayled to his Cross & buryed in his grave and by his metitts and Passion to obtain everlasting Life & therefore now do dispose and Bequeath such Estate as it hath pleased God in his mercy to bestow upon me, after this manner following after they have disposed my Body to decent Interment without noise feasting drink or Tumult which I not leave but injoin my Exect. or Exects. hereafter named to see decently Ex [ecuted?J 31 Maryland Roman Catholic wills are not too different. In 1634 George Calvert, son of Lord Baltimore, after a fairly conventional preliminary sentence added several others reflecting his religion: First I humbly bequeath my soul into the hands of our Creator and Lord signed by Baptisme with the Character of a Christian professing before God and all the world that I dye a true member of the Catholicke Church beseeching Almighty God to be mercifull unto mee and bring me to be partaker of his Glode to whom be all honor Amen. Secondly I bequeath my body to the earth from whence it was taken and willingly doe accept the death thereof in satisfaction for my sinnes beseeching my sweet Redeemer Christ Jesus to offer it to some part of satisfaction mingling it in the holy Chalice of his blood of amends for my grievous transgressions hoping He will accept it in odour of sweetnesse, Amen.32
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Literature, Principally Belletristic - University of Tennessee, Knoxville

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