The first certain testimony for him is his admission to the Middle Temple on May 7, 1621, as 'Mr. Thomas Culpeper, son and heir apparent of John Culpeper of Astwood, Esq.' (Bidwell, ii, 662). He was then bound with his father and the 'Mr. John Culpeper, jun.,' who was about to be knighted and eventually became the first Lord Culpeper, with whom he was associated to the end of his life. That he had embarked on a serious professional career in the tradition of his father appears from the fact that chambers were assigned to him in the Temple in 1623, when we assume he had attained his majority; and an incidental recital of his name in the Middle Temple records him in 1630 as 'of the utter bar.'

We have seen that his father was one of the original subscribers to the Virginia Company; in 1623, while John¹² was still living, 'Mr. Thomas Culpeper of the Middle Temple, London, Esq.' became a member of that company also, in his own right, when his kinsman, George Scott, 'passed' to him three shares in the company (Records of the Virginia Company, L. C. ed., pp. 389, 412). That the investment connoted more than a casual investment interest appears from the later record (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1633-34, p. 223) of his ownership of a half interest, with his merchant brother, in a ship, the Thomas and John, which was destined to carry many immigrants to Virginia.

The other records of him, until the beginning of war between King and Parliament, are his marriage at Ulcombe in 1628; the baptism and burial there of his first child in 1629; the baptism of three younger children from 1630 to 1634 at Hollingbourne; his probate of his father's will in January, 1635/6, and his name as first born child on his father's MI. (1636). These testimonies show that on his m. he went to live with his uncle, Sir Alexander C., at Ulcombe; but soon transferred his residence to Greenway Court, where his father later joined him.

It may fairly be assumed that he was one of the 'gentlemen from the Inns of Court' who offered their services to the King after the passage of the Grand Remonstrance (Gardiner, x, 124; Bedwell, Middle Temple, p. 52) and that he subsequently served in the royalist army; but his name does not appear in the army lists of 1642 (Peacock, Army Lists of the Roundheads and Cavaliers, 1863; Masson, Life of Milton, ii, 445), nor has diligent search turned up any reference to him in other printed sources for biography during the first war. The next definite record is therefore in January, 1644/5, at Oxford; where he witnessed the will and a codicil of his uncle, Sir Alexander Culpeper¹² (hereinbefore set out) ; under which the inheritance intended for him was placed in trust for his young son (Alexander¹⁴) with the palpable purpose of avoiding the political forfeiture which might follow a bequest to Thomas himself.

Thereafter the record is silent again until 1648, when he turns up as a participant in the royalist plots in Kent (Markham, The Great Lord Fairfax, p. 305).⁴⁵ . In this adventure he was drawn along with the earl of Norwich's little army in its irresolute passage of the Thames, after a smashing defeat at Maidstone, to the refuge found in Colchester in June of that year. And so Thomas¹³ became one of the gallant band who, to the astonishment of all England, for eleven weeks maintained themselves behind improvised fortifications against the grim and angry leaguer of an ever victorious general 'whose name in arms through Europe rings.' When at last starvation brought the garrison of Colchester to its inevitable collapse, Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Culpeper was one of the 'lords, Superior officers and gentlemen of distinction' named by Matthew Carter⁴⁶ who, by the terms of the capitulation, were 'rendered to the mercy of the Lord General.' After executing Lucas and Lisle and reserving the others 'who bore the principal command' for action by the parliament, 'the General distributed to every regiment a certain number of gentlemen who were prisoners, as slaves to the gallies, to ransom themselves; and most of them did afterwards purchase their liberty, by giving as much as they were able for the same, and returned home.' That Thomas Culpeper availed himself of that rigorous quarter and in doing so impoverished himself may be deduced from Sir William Berkeley's later testimony that he 'lost all his estate, life and liberty in the King's service' (Am. & W. I., 1669-74, No. 571).

What next became of him appears in the precedent of the experience of his kinsman and recent comrade in arms, Col. Samuel Tuke, whom John Evelyn records having met in Paris soon after the surrender of Colchester. Thomas Culpeper seems also to have made his way to France. His immediate attraction was that Lord Culpeper was already there. It was thus that our next record is at St. Germains, where, in the court of the 'King of Virginia,' on September 18, 1649, Thomas Culpeper was made one of the original patentees of the Northern Neck.

When this charter was renewed, May 8, 1669, that Thomas Culpeper was recited to be dead (Am. & W. I., 1669-74, No. 63). It appears elsewhere that Katherine, his wife, died a widow in 1658; but it remains for a final deduction as to when and where she lost her husband. The Virginia records prove that some months after the Northern Neck charter was sealed, Sir Dudley Wyatt, the other junior among the proprietors, went out to the colony and there soon died.⁴⁷ There is no such evidence for Thomas Culpeper,¹³ but the tradition (W. & M. Quar., x, 274) is that he was Wyatt's companion to the end. This is persuasive because it is supported by the facts that both Thomas Culpeper's daughters married in Virginia in 1652, that one of his sons was described by a Virginian in 1671 as 'a gentleman of this Country,' while the other was making a career in Carolina; that his merchant brother John¹³ is shown to have been established in Accomac and that Thomas¹³ himself left no English record of his death or of administration of his estate. We conclude, therefore, that he went out to Virginia in 1650, hoping to establish himself in the Northern Neck; that he took his family with him, and that he died in the colony not later than 1652, when his widow and son returned to England.

He m., 1628, Katherine, dau. of Sir Warham St. Leger (1579-1632), of Ulcombe, co. Kent, and adopted dau. of Sir Alexander Culpeper¹² of Greenway Court,

The m. is entered in the Ulcombe register, July 10, 1628, as 'Thomas Culpeper et Katherina Sentleger.' The bride appears in her place, and the m. is noted, in the Stemnuzta St. Leodigaria (hereinbefore cited), but the best evidence for her is the reference in the will of Sir Alexander C.¹² (1645) to 'Katherine, the grandchild of my wife, whom I therefore call daughter... on her marriage with my nephew Thomas Culpeper.' The only other contemporary testimony available is the admon. granted August 28, 1658 (P.C.C. Admon. Act Book, 1658) on goods of 'Katherine Culpeper of Maidstone, Kent, to her son Alexander C.' That she was sister to that Ursula St. Leger, wife of Daniel Horsmanden, parson of Ulcombe, and grandmother of the wife of the first William Byrd of Virginia, explains the intimacy in Virginia between the Byrds and Frances, Lady Berkeley, as shown by contemporary letters. See Va. Mag., xxvi, 128.

and by her had:

We have conjectured that he was taken to Virginia by his father in 1650 and returned to England after his father's death in 1651; certainly he was in Kent in December, 1652, when, having probably recently come of age, he witnessed the will of his uncle, William Godd (P.C.C. Brent, 120; Cf. Va. Mag., xxiii, 382). After administering upon his mother's estate in August, 1658 (P.C.C. Admon. Act Book, 1658) he was still in England in July, 1660, when he witnessed the will of the first Lord Culpeper. In 1664 and 1666, while the second Lord Culpeper was Governor of the Isle of Wight, 'Capt. Alexander Culpeper' was his Secretary, Commander of Cowes Castle and Vice-Admiral's deputy; and, as such, in correspondence with Secretary Williamson (Cal. Treasury Papers, 1660-67, p. 627). A year later, as 'Alexander C. of Leeds Castle,' he took title, on behalf of Lord Culpeper, to the manor of Newport in the Isle of Wight (Close Roll, 21 Car. II, pt. xiii, No. 151; Cf. Victoria County History, Hampshire, v, 261).

That he went out to Virginia after Lord Culpeper gave up his post in the Isle of Wight may be deduced from the fact that in June, 1671, he was in the colony preparing for a voyage to England, when he was described by William Sherwood of Jamestown, in a letter to Lord Arlington, as 'a gentlemen of this country' (Am. & W. I., 1669-74, No. 540). On this occasion he carried also letters from his new brother-in-law, Sir William Berkeley, soliciting for him a patent for a post in the colony recently vacant by the death of Edmund Scarbrough. The recommendation was effective: on November 17, 1671, there was enrolled (Patent Roll, 23 Car. II, pt. 8 [3131], No. 16; renewed by James II under date of October 21, 1685; there is a transcript in the MS. collection known as Blaythwayt's Charters, ii, 349, now in the Library of Congress) the following patent:

It does not appear that the Surveyor General ever returned to the colony. His duty there was performed by deputies, first, Thomas Ludwell, and, later, Philip Ludwell (brother-in-law No. 3), and his relation to Virginia affairs was henceforth chiefly in respect to his interest in the Northern Neck. But he appears several times in other relations to Virginia affairs. Following Bacon's Rebellion, Governor Berkeley consigned to him the indian queen of Wyanoke, when it appears that he was living at Leeds Castle, for it was there he lodged the pinchbeck majesty (Am. & W. I., 1677-80, No. 512). Again, when, in July, 1677, the old cavalier Governor was recalled and reached. England, so reduced by a 'tedious passage and griefe of mind to extreame weakness,' that he died without ever having seen the royal master he had served loyally, if not wisely, administration on the goods of 'Sir William Berkeley, late Governor of Virginia, but died at Twickenham, Middx [the seat of his brother John, Lord Berkeley was granted to 'Alexander Culpeper, esq. natural and lawful brother of Dame Frances Berkeley, relict of deceased, during absence and to use of said Dame Frances Berkeley' (P.C.C. Admon. Act Book, 1677) ; and thereafter he vigorously defended Berkeley's official memory (Am. & W. 1., 1677-80, Nos. 374, 506, 512).

Except for the fact now evident, that he never married, that he held of the estate of Thomas Lord Culpeper a messuage or farm in Hollingbourne, known as Totnams, but lived at Leeds Castle in the household of the deserted chatelaine, Margaret, Lady Culpeper (House of Lords MS., 1695-97, ed. Hist. MSS. Com., ii, 533), little remains to record of the Surveyor General. (Actually, he did marry, see correction below).

That the planters came to resent his non-resident office holding appears from his petition to the Crown in 1678 (Va. Mag., xxiii, 397, 398), the direct attack upon him in the Assembly in 1691 (ibid., xxviii, 15) and his final complaint to the government on December 12, 1694, that Governor Nicholson had 'dispossessed him' of his office (Am. & W. I., 1693-94, No. 1593).⁴⁸ This was the last aot of his life. He was in London pushing a petition for redress when he died, just before Christmas, 1694. Once more Lady Culpeper journeyed up to town on a dead man's affairs: but this time it was to honour a faithful friend. She did for him what she did not deign to do for her husband: she brought his body back to Leeds Castle. He was buried in Bromfield, December 26, 1694, as 'Captain Alexander Culpeper of Leeds Castle'

Although the Northern Neck charter of 1669 recited his father's interest in the original Northern Neck grant of 1649 and subsequent death, Alexander¹⁴ did not then assert on the record a claim of inheritance of that interest. Following the example of his cousin, the second Lord Culpeper, he postponed such a claim until something might be made of it. The opportunity seemed to present itself in 1675 with the proposal of the Virginia colony to buy out the proprietary, and it was then, in the course of futile negotiations, that Alexander¹⁴ made his appearance as one of the proprietors of the Northern Neck, in a certificate (Burk, ii, Appendix, p. liv) by those who were named in the charter of 1669 that 'Thomas, Lord Culpeper, and Alexander Culpeper, Esq. by a collateral agreement with us do hold two-sixths part of the said grant.'

That this interest was kept alive also after the grant of the charter of 1688 appears from the recital of the proprietors by Philip Ludwell when he opened the Northern Neck land office in 1690 (N. N., I, passim), as

In this right Alexander¹⁴ joined in the petition to the Crown, May 21, 1691, for confirmation of the charter of 1688, with the consequence that before his death his interest therein was officially recognised and adjudged by decree of the Privy Council (Acts P. C., Colonial, ii, 188).

The only thing his father had left him had thus become an hereditament to be disposed of by will; and, being now the last surviving male heir of the Feckenharn family, extant in England if not in fact, he felt free to make such a disposition of it as gratitude dictated. In doing this he defined his interest precisely, as follows:

Alexander Culpeper of Hollingbourne, co. Kent, esq. All my goods to the Right Hon. the Lady Culpeper, Baroness Dowager of Thoresway, she to be extrix. Whereas, I am seized to me and my heirs of and in one full sixth part, the whole in six parts to be divided, of and in a certain tract of land in the Continent of America, called the Northern Neck of Virginia, under and by virtue of a grant thereof formerly made by his late Majty, King James II, to the Rt. Honble Thomas, Lord Culpeper, and his heirs forever, I do hereby give the said sixth part unto the said Rt. Honble Margaret, Lady Culpeper, widow and relict of the said Rt. Honble Thomas, Lord Culpeper, deceased, and to her heires for ever.
Witns. Fairfax, John Cripps, Charles Pleydell.
Prob. by Margaret Baroness Dowager of Thoresway, the extrix.
P.C.C. Irby, 3.
Will dated November 29, 1691 and proved January 5, 1694/5.

By virtue of this will, of which no record was made in the colony, an undivided one-sixth interest in the Northern Neck remained a thing separate and apart from the other property rights in the proprietary to puzzle the Virginia lawyers a century later when they came to interpret the will of the last proprietor.

Correction and amplification by Warren Culpepper: Harrison was unaware that Alexander, late in his life, married his second cousin Judith Culpeper, daughter of John, 1st Lord Culpeper, and sister of Thomas, 2nd Lord Culpeper. Alexander, age 58, and Judith, a spinster age 53, were married on 19 Dec 1689 at the Church of St. Mary Magdalene, Old Fish Street in London. Thus the couple was living in Leed's Castle with Judith's sister-in-law, Margaret, Lady Culpeper. Judith died two years later and was buried on 21 Nov 1691. On 29 Nov 1691, Alexander wrote his last will and testament, and while he had no reason at that point to mention his recently deceased wife, he did leave his interest in the Northern Neck to his deceased wife's sister-in-law, Margaret who had invited them to live with her at Leeds Castle.

⁴⁵ It should be noted that the identification of the Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Culpeper of the Colchester campaign with this Thomas¹³, while probable, is not beyond question; for the contemporary Thomas Culpeper of Bedgebury, who was also ruined by the civil wars and ultimately (1675) died in the Fleet, a prisoner of debt, is described in a record of 1657 (Cal. Clarendon State Papers, ii, 366) as Colonel Thomas Culpeper. (Return)

⁴⁷ Sir Dudley Wyatt (1609-1651) has left an incomplete record. Foster records his matriculation at Christ Church College, Oxford, May 7, 1624/5, as 'son of John Wyat, gent.' and as 'aged 16, born Worcester City.' Although no parish register at Worcester can be produced to prove it, this description seems to identify his father as the John Wyat who matriculated at the same college in 1581 as 'aged 20, born Worcester, pleb.;' and in 1612 was presented to the rectory of St. Martins, Worcester, by William Warmistry of Worcester (Nash, Worcestershire, p. cxlii). This deduction is enforced by the fact that on March 5, 1649/50 (P.C.C. Pembroke, 47) 'Sir Dudley Wyat, Knight, next of kin of dec.' had administration c.t.a. of the goods of 'Cecill Warmistry of City of Worcester, widow of William W. late of same, esq.'

Sir Dudley Wyatt appears several times during the first civil war carrying confidential dispatches between the King and the Queen when the latter was in France (Cal. State Papers, Domestic, 1645-47, pp. 17, 31 ; there is a similar reference to him also in Clarendon's Rebellion) and it was in consideration of such service that he was knighted.

He was at St. Germains when the Northern Neck charter was sealed in September, 1649; and his administration upon his sister's estate (cited above) shows that thereafter he returned to England. That he did so in order to close up his affairs preparatory to emigrating to Virginia appears from a letter dated December 2, 1649 (Cal. Clarendon State Papers, ii, 33), addressed to him by Charles Wheler which sought to dissuade him from going to America.

Dr. Tyler's notes from York County records (W. & M. Quar., iii, 37, 192) prove that he duly reached the colony and there died; leaving a will dated March 29, 1650, which was proved in James City, September 25, 1651 (the record is unfortunately lost). The executrix of this will was Hannah, widow of the John Clerke (1614-1644) who died in Virginia a proven member of the Wrotham family, whose Culpeper connection has been hereinbefore cited; and it seems likely, therefore, that she was another sister of Sir Dudley Wyatt, and that her residence in Virginia was a part of the attraction of Sir Dudley thither.