Culpeper's Rebellion
IV. A New Government,
A New Disorder (Part 2)

About the sixth of December Culpeper went to Chowan precinct and there seized the marshal of the county, Edward Wade, along with his papers. On Culpeper's return Miller's clerk was seized.¹⁶² Shortly afterward an armed party from Chowan arrived at Crawford's house with the marshal their prisoner.¹⁶³

After Miller and other deputies had been held close prisoner for fourteen or fifteen days, they were escorted to Durant's house in several guard boats filled with armed men. There the prisoners were again held close and not permitted to talk to one another. As the prisoners and their escorting guards passed Gillam's ship, three guns were fired as a salute and another three were fired when they arrived at Durant's house.¹⁶⁴

The following day a group of armed men headed by Bird found Miller's commissions and other papers as well as the great seal of the county in a box that had been hidden in a tobacco hogshead. The box was returned to Durant's house where it was broken open in the presence of Culpeper, Crawford, and Durant. At the beat of a drum Miller was accused of blasphemy, treason, and other crimes and, at the urging of the crowd, was placed in irons. At this point the stocks and pillory were overturned and thrown into the river.¹⁶⁵

The mob then made merry with money belonging to Miller, their merriment made more exuberant with drink provided by Gillam. Gillam later testified that he always tried to attend court days, since so large a gathering of people made sales easier. Gillam also confessed that he did serve drink to his customers at that December 1677 court, and he saw to it that Miller got his share.¹⁶⁶ The mob expressed its dislike of the king's proclamations and of the Lords Proprietors' authority. Meanwhile, scouts and parties were being sent throughout the countryside to "Threaten, seize, disarm, imprison, or chase out of y^e Country all in authority or office or any else that would not Joyn with y^m"¹⁶⁷ No specific mention is made of the "pipeing guard" after the arrival of Gillam's ship although it was not effective in protecting Miller against seizure. They were also most likely those members who were being chased out of the country back to Virginia.

Miller and the other prisoners were held at Durant's house for four or five days until Foster arrived with Hudson as his prisoner. On Foster's arrival the sixty to seventy men already gathered there held an election for their assembly of eighteen members. Jenkins, Bird, Crawford, White, and James Blount from the new assembly were then chosen to sit with Richard Foster as a court in the cases of Biggs, who was accused of murder, and John Nixon, another Council member who was accused of treason. Miller, still in irons, was then brought before the court and a jury impaneled from the crowd with Mordslay Bouden, a New England trader, as foreman.¹⁶⁸ Miller believed that only four of the jury could read or write.¹⁶⁹

Two stories of the actions of this jury emerged from the testimony. Miller, who was most directly concerned, treated the matter somewhat casually. Hudson, on the other hand, delivered a highly colored description of the events. Miller testified that the jury went out with such articles as Culpeper, their chief councillor and scribe, and George Durant, their attorney general, had contrived against Miller. The jury quickly returned, and, as the foreman blurted out in open court, "did what y^e s^d Culpeper had ordered him to do."¹⁷⁰ Grand juries were expected to return either Billa vera (true bill) or Ignoramus (we ignore the bill).¹⁷¹ Hudson's story of these events is that the foreman consulted with Culpeper, their collector, chief scribe and counsellor, about what verdict he should bring in. Culpeper told him that he must "Indoss Billa vera." The jury went out and quickly returned, but the foreman had put down "Bill of Error."' While the court looked on with amazement, Culpeper snatched the paper from the foreman and told the court that it was only a mistake of the foreman, but the foreman said he had done as Culpeper had told him. The bill was then mended and without the jury retiring for a second time, and a true bill rendered. Hudson further testified that this series of events was confirmed to him by Foster and others of the court.¹⁷² The representation to the Lords Proprietors made by an unknown person at an unknown time, but which sounds much like the words of Biggs, confirms that Durant altered the verdict of a jury in the case of Thomas Miller.¹⁷³

Miller later accused the sheriff of being drunk when he gathered a petit jury from the crowd. Another New England trader, Joseph Winslow, was selected as jury foreman, but the proceedings were stopped at that point by the receipt of a proclamation from Governor Eastchurch, who had landed in Virginia eight or nine days earlier. Culpeper, as Miller claimed, "corruptly abbreviated and transcribed [the proclamation] and so by him published to the rabble the originall ... not suffered to bee seen or published to the Inhabitants ... "¹⁷⁴

Armed men were sent north to oppose Eastchurch and to prevent him from entering the county. Miller and the other prisoners were sent to separate places of confinement where they were allowed no writing materials. Culpeper was appointed collector. The assembly and court were broken up and went to their homes. Some, however, stopped aboard Gillam's ship where they were entertained to the firing of several of the ship's guns. Foster, Crawford and Culpeper were seen to go aboard in a boat with Gillam, who shortly thereafter "opened store and traded with y^e Insurrecto^rs chiefly."¹⁷⁵ It was this armed opposition to Eastchurch, the governor appointed by the Lords Proprietors, that should have been punished, but the point was never stressed in the subsequent court proceedings.

In the newly found deposition by Gillam we find the remarkable statement that at Miller's trial Durant approached Gillam with the request that he do what he could to try to prevent some members of the court from demanding Miller's death. Durant reported that he had already spent some time on his own trying to prevent such action until after they had heard from the Lords Proprietors.¹⁷⁶ This statement, if true, would do much to reduce the impression previously held of the strong political power of George Durant in Albemarle County.

Four or five weeks later Eastchurch died in Virginia. This event may be considered the thermidor of the Rebellion since from that time the government settled down and armed action, other than guarding the prisoners, was not required. On receipt of notice of Eastchurch's death the Albemarle County Assembly was called into session to meet at Jenkins' house. Gillam, Culpeper, Durant, John Willoughby, Foster, James Blount, and Crawford were present. This assembly decreed that a loghouse ten or eleven feet square be built to imprison Miller and that he should have no writing materials nor should any friends be allowed to visit him.¹⁷⁷

Biggs was also placed in custody but escaped a short time later. Miller said in his affidavit that when the rebels found that Biggs had escaped from prison, they sent two agents, John Willoughby and George Durant, to England to present their side of the story to the Lords Proprietors.¹⁷⁸ The evidence for this is missing and it probably did not happen since Durant did not leave for England until May 1678. The newly found deposition of a crew member on that voyage makes no mention of Willoughby.¹⁷⁹

John Culpeper was not a key figure in the new government, since his only documented position was that of collector. Not even Miller in his later testimony in England spoke of Culpeper holding any other position except those associated with the events surrounding the first few days after his overthrow. Biggs did not mention Culpeper in his January 1677/78 narrative.¹⁸⁰ Culpeper seems to have been a man capable of using his pen to good effect, but even his fellow conspirators were unwilling to give him a senior position in the new government.

The assignment of the name "Culpeper's Rebellion" appears first in George Chalmers' 1780 work Political Annals where he writes of "Culpepper's rebellion" despite the position of the Lords Proprietors that no rebellion had occurred since Miller was not legally the governor.¹⁸¹ Chalmers may have used this name since only Culpeper was ever tried in connection with this disturbance. He may not have been aware of the 1681 suit brought in Chancery Court by Durant against Miller, Summers, and Leech. Later authors added the capital letter to 'rebellion.' John Hill Wheeler in his 1851 Historical Sketches of North Carolina from 1584 to 1851 is the first writer found to have capitalized 'Rebellion,' but then only in the index.¹⁸² Francis L. Hawks in his History of North Carolina mentions "George Durant, who countenanced Culpepper's rebellion".¹⁸³ William L. Saunders in his preface to the first volume of The Colonial Records of North Carolina, published in 1886, is the first writer found to use the full term 'Culpeper Rebellion' in his text as he says "In 1677 began the Culpeper Rebellion, so-called."¹⁸⁴ Thereafter, the term "Culpeper's Rebellion" is used in most histories which discuss the event. The authenticity of the printed records, and Saunders' clear dislike of the English and all connected with them may have given undue authority to Saunders' acceptance of this mistaken name for the event.

After escaping from confinement in Albemarle County Biggs, appeared before the Lords Proprietors in April 1678 and proposed that they send a vessel with eight or ten guns to put down the rebellion. This proposal was put on the calendar of the king and Privy Council but was subsequently withdrawn at the request of the Lords Proprietors.¹⁸⁵ At this time the English government was trying to decide if it should go to war with France in support of the Dutch. During the spring peace negotiations resolved that issue, but the government was quickly embroiled in consideration of paying off the army. Lord Shaftesbury, the senior proprietor at the time, was leading the opposition party and probably had little time for concerns in Albemarle County.¹⁸⁶

In September 1678 Biggs received from customs officials a commission as comptroller and surveyor general of customs in Albemarle County, and by February 1678/79 he was back in Albemarle County attempting to exercise that commission.¹⁸⁷ Culpeper took exception to Biggs trying to take upon himself all functions of the king's affairs including entering and clearing vessels since the latter task was that of the collector. Culpeper tore down the notice to this effect which Biggs had posted and put up a notice of his own addressed to all inhabitants of Albemarle County and stating that he would seize and bring to trial anyone who attempted to clear their vessels through Biggs.¹⁸⁸ In addition to Biggs attempting to assume all the king's affairs in the colony, he was accused by Attorney-General George Durant of helping Miller to escape. Threats against Biggs continued, and he again fled through Virginia to England.¹⁸⁹

On 5 February 1678/9 the Lords Proprietors appointed John Harvey president of the Grand Council to act as governor of Albemaarle County until the arrival of Seth Sothell, a proprietor who had been sent to be governor but was captured en route by Algerian pirates and was still their prisoner. The instructions given Harvey were much the same as those sent to previous governors.¹⁹⁰ From the spring 1672 departure of Governor Carteret until the arrival of the commission of president of the Grand Council for John Harvey in 1679, the Lords Proprietors were not in control of Albemarle County either in theory or in practice. Even after 1679 they had but little control since those who had been in power following the overthrow of Miller managed to acquire many of the positions in the new government.

Robert Holden, recently appointed collector of customs, arrived in Albemarle County in the summer of 1679 after a stop in Boston. During his Boston visit Holden determined that collection of customs in Albemarle County were being handled by "one Mr. Culpeper" and that they "were never more infatuated, cheated and exhausted."¹⁹¹

Between August and November, 1679, Miller escaped from custody with the assistance of several of his friends, including Biggs and Henry Hudson. Miller and Hudson went to England to inform the Lords Proprietors of the events taking place in Albemarle County.¹⁹² Shaftesbury had just lost a fight on the Exclusion Act in the House of Lords and was probably not interested in further offending the king.¹⁹³ Initially the Lords Proprietors supported the testimony of Miller and Hudson, but as additional information became available, King Charles II ordered the Lords Proprietors to appear before the Lords of the Committee of Trade and Foreign Plantations and to bring with them a copy of their charter. Since the Virginia charter had been revoked following a similar procedure, the Lords Proprietors looked very carefully at all of the information available to them before responding.

Miller's complaints, however, were sufficient to cause the Privy Council to issue on 19 December 1679 an arrest order for John Culpeper, who was then aboard a ship at Downes, a protected rendezvous for ships off the English east coast of Kent near Deal. He was arrested at Downes before the ship could depart for Albemarle County and imprisoned in Newgate. By an 11 February 1679/80 order of the Privy Council, Culpeper was charged with treason after he had acknowledged the facts before the Committee of Trade and Plantations.¹⁹⁴ Despite a Habeas Corpus bill passed by the Parliament in April 1679 which required that prisoners be given a speedy trial,¹⁹⁵ Culpeper was held in prison until his 20 November 1680 treason trial. The response of the Lords Proprietors to the king's order for more information was delivered in an address by Lord Shaftesbury who stated that Miller "without any legall authority gott possession of the government."¹⁹⁶ This statement and the rest of Shaftesbury's testimony resulted in the acquittal of Culpeper on charges of rebellion, despite Culpeper's previous acknowledgment of the facts and the testimony against him by Miller, Hudson, Brockwell, Summers, and John Taylor.¹⁹⁷