ed all in peace and love";[31] and at the head of
them was a roan of exemplary piety, Rev. Philip Mallory, son of Dr.
Thomas Mallory, Dean of Chester.[32]

The condition of things about 1648 is thus summed up by Hammond, a
contemporary writer: "Then began the gospel to flourish; civil,
honorable, and men of great estates flocked in; famous buildings went
forward; orchards innumerable were planted and preserved; tradesmen
set to work and, encouraged, staple commodities, as silk, flax,
potashes attempted on.... So that this country, which had a mean
beginning, many back friends, two ruinous and bloody massacres, hath
by God's grace outgrown all, and is become a place of pleasure and
plenty."

Later, after the beheading of King Charles in 1649, there was a large
influx of cavaliers, who, while they raised the quality of society,
much increased the sympathy felt in Virginia for the royal cause.
Under their influence Sir William Berkeley denounced the murder of
King Charles I., and the General Assembly adopted an act making it
treason to defend the late proceedings or to doubt the right of his
son, Charles II., to succeed to the crown.[33] Parliament was not long
in accepting the challenge which Berkeley tendered. In October, 1650,
they adopted an ordinance prohibiting trade with the rebellious
colonies of Virginia, Barbadoes, Antigua, and Bermuda Islands, and
authorizing the Council of State to take measures to reduce them to
terms.[34]

In October, 1651, was passed the first of the navigation acts, which
limited the colonial trade to England, and banished from Virginia the
Dutch vessels, which carried abroad most of the exports. About the
same time, having taken measures against Barbadoes, the Council of
State ordered a squadron to be prepared against Virginia. It was
placed under the command of Captain Robert Dennis; and Thomas Stegge,
Richard Bennett, and William Claiborne, members of Berkeley's council,
were joined with him in a commission[35] to "use their best endeavors
to reduce all the plantations within the Bay of Chesopiack." Bennett
and Claiborne were in Virginia at the time, and probably did not know
of their appointment till the ships arrived in Virginia.

The fleet left England in October, 1651, carrying six hundred men, but
on the way Captain Dennis and Captain Stegge were lost in a storm and
the command devolved on Captain Edmund Curtis.[36] In December they
reached the West Indies, where they assisted