To the careless eye the colony
might seem overwhelmingly for King and Church. "If New England be called a
Receptacle of Dissenters, and an Amsterdam of Religion, Pennsylvania the
Nursery of Quakers; Maryland the Retirement of Roman Catholicks, North
Carolina the Refuge of Runaways and South Carolina the Delight of
Buccaneers and Pyrates, Virginia may be justly esteemed the happy Retreat
of true Britons and true Churchmen for the most Part." This "for the most
part" paints the situation, for there existed an opposition, a minority,
which might grow to balance, and overbalance. In the meantime the House of
Burgesses at Williamsburg provided a School for Discussion.
At the time when Parson Jones with his shrewd eyes was observing society in
the Old Dominion, Williamsburg was still a small village, even though it
was the capital. Towns indeed, in any true sense, were nowhere to be found
in Virginia. Yet Williamsburg had a certain distinction. Within it there
arose, beneath and between old forest trees, the college, an admirable
church -- Bruton Church -- the capitol, the Governor's house or "palace," and
many very tolerable dwelling-houses of frame and brick. There were also
taverns, a marketplace, a bowling-green, an arsenal, and presently a
playhouse. The capitol at Williamsburg was a commodious one, able to house
most of the machinery of state. Here were the Council Chamber, "where the
Governor and Council sit in very great state, in imitation of the King and
Council, or the Lord Chancellor and House of Lords," and the great room of
the House of Burgesses, "not unlike the House of Commons.
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