foundation which could not be altered without their own consent; so that our history does not afford an instance of any farther attempt to dismember the Colony from their immediate dependence upon the Crown, except that in the Year 1674 the Lords Arlington and Culpeper obtained a grant, for the term of 31 years, from Charles II. of all the lands, rights, jurisdictions, quitrents, and other royalties within the Dominion of Virginia. But this grant was so vigorously and firmly opposed by the Grand Assembly that it was vacated and surrendered to the Crown, as will be more particularly related in the course of these Annals.

VARINA.

That portion of Sir Thomas Dale's settlement on the north side of James River, including Farrar's Island, formed by the great bend known as "The Dutch Gap," (which, after a circuit of seven miles, forms an isthmus of only three hundred and sixty feet across from water to water,) and extending down the river for three miles, to a swamp, contained a large tract of fertile land which produced tobacco so nearly like that of Varina, in Spain, as to induce the first planters to call the place by that

name.

It

Varina is rich in historical associations and recollections. was here that Sir Thomas Dale, sometime Governor of Virginia, in the early days of the colony, had his house and plantation where he usually resided. It was here also that "master" John Rolfe, sometime secretary of the colony, had his habitation, and cultivated a fine tract of land. And it was here that having married Pocahontas, at Jamestown, under the eye and sanction of Sir Thomas Dale, in the year 1613, he lived with her in happy

wedlock; "and ever after," as Stith writes, "they had friendly trade and commerce, as well with Powhatan himself, as with all his subjects."

When the county of Henrico was subsequently formed, in the year 1634, the court-house was located near the river, in the centre of the settlement, and a portion consisting of two hundred acres of this land (including the court-house,) was laid off for a Glebe for the parish of Henrico. Not far from the court-house, and nearer to the river, a comfortable parsonage was built of brick, for the residence of the parson, or rector. About this time, Thomas Rolfe, the only son of John Rolfe and Pocahontas, owned the farm which had been his father's, adjoining the Glebe, and on which his grandson, John Bolling, afterwards resided. There was indeed quite a village around the court-hosue. An uncommonly large oak, with a wide-spreading limb occasionally used as a gallows, standing near the court-house, was alive and flourishing twenty years ago.

The last occupant of the Parsonage at Varina, was the Rev. William Stith, who wrote his History of Virginia here, about the year 1746. He preached alternately in the church at Four-mile Creek, (so called from its distance from Henrico,) and in St. John's church, on Richmond Hill. Mr. Stith was succeeded by the Rev. Miles Selden, who resided near Richmond. Some years after the death of Parson Buchanan, the Glebe was sold to Pleasant Aikin, who demolished the old and substantial court-house erected in the year 1636, and now not a vestige of it can be seen. The sites, however, of the Parsonage, and of Bolling's and Bullington's houses, may yet be traced. The site of the old town

of Henrico, two miles above, affords a beautiful water-view. The breast-work thrown up by Sir Thomas Dale, is distinctly visible, and the bricks, though scattered about, still indicate the positions of the houses in the town.

R. R.

THE ENGAGEMENT OF NORTHAMPTON.

We submit the following copy of an interesting document which has been obligingly transcribed for us, at our request, from the original in an old Record Book in the Court of Northampton County, in which we lately read it ourselves, not without some trouble to our eyes, from the strange characters in which it is written. It obviously relates to the time of the surrender of Virginia to the British Parliament, or rather to Cromwell who had sent out a naval force to reduce our loyal and refractory colony to his sway. This event, it will be remembered, occurred in March 1651, and the Articles of Surrender are dated the 12th of that month. (See Hen. Stat. at Large, vol. I, p. 263.) Yet the caption of this paper is dated the 11th of the month, before the Surrender-though the signatures, it seems, were not added till the 25th, &c., after it. We may infer from this, that the loyal inhabitants of Northampton, were apprized of what was going on at Jamestown, and were moving to take their ground accordingly, in time. It should be noted, however, that by the terms of the Engagement they do not exactly surrender to the British Parliament, whose authority they were not prepared to acknowledge; but only agree to yield a peaceable and orderly obedience to it, as to the government de facto, if not de jure: a fair distinction, and, no doubt, a piece of sound discretion.

"The Engagm't tendred to ye Inhabitants of Northampton County Eleaventh of March 1651. Ano. 1651.

Wee whose Names are subscribed; doe hereby Engage and promise to bee true and faithfull to the Commonwealth of England as it is nowe Established without Kinge or House of Lords—

Tricessimo die Marty 1651.

Recordnt'r vicesimo die mensie Augusty Ano. 1652.

Teste, EDM. MATHEWS, Clc. Cur.

26 of July 1653, in open Court Leift: Sprigge subscribed this Ingagm't, THO. SPRIGGE.

Teste,

EDM. MATHEWS, Clec. Cur. Count. Northampton.

FITZHUGH'S LETTERS.

We are indebted to our esteemed correspondent in Fredericksburg, for the following copies of some old letters, which he introduces to us in these words:

"DEAR SIR,-I happen to have, protempore, a manuscript volume containing copies of letters written at different times between 1679 and 1699, by a certain ' Wm. ffitzhugh,' (as he spells his name,) who lived somewhere in the county of Stafford, and as tradition says, at Bedford, in what is now King George. would seem that he was a lawyer of reputation, and a planter too. He was counsel for Robert Beverley, and we have some letters relative to that famous case, which though they throw no

It