he made known of establishing an independent
state within the confines of Virginia, commended him to the people of
Jamestown.

Naturally, they wished to get rid of him, and the council tendered him
the oaths of allegiance and supremacy, which, in the various
instructions from the king, they were strictly enjoined to require of
all new-comers. The oath of allegiance occasioned no difficulty, but
the oath of supremacy, which required Baltimore to swear that he
believed the king to be "the only supreme governor in his realm in all
spiritual or ecclesiastical things or causes," was repugnant to him as
a Catholic, and he declined to take it, but offered to subscribe to a
modified form. This was refused, and after several weeks' sojourn Lord
Baltimore sailed away to England to press his suit in person before
the king.[3]

So far as the law of England stood at that time, the effect of the
dissolution of the London Company was to extinguish the debts of the
corporation and vest all its property undisposed of in the crown. On
the other hand, there were the repeated official pledges of Charles
and his father not to disturb the interest of either planter or
adventurer in any part of the territory formerly conveyed by the
charter of 1609.[4] Nevertheless, the king preferred law to equity,
and October 30, 1629, granted to Sir Robert Heath the province of
Carolana in the southern part of Virginia, between thirty-one and
thirty-six degrees.[5] But there was a clause in this charter
excepting any land "actually granted or in possession of any of his
majesty's subjects."

About the same time Cottington, the secretary of state, was directed
to answer Lord Baltimore's letter written from Newfoundland and
promise him "any part of Virginia not already granted." Lord Baltimore
arrived in London soon after this letter was written, and in December,
1629, petitioned to be permitted to "choose for his part" a tract
south of James River and north of Carolana. A charter was made out for
him in February, 1631, and would have passed the seals but for the
intervention of William Claiborne, one of those Virginia councillors
who had offered the oath to Baltimore.[6]

William Claiborne, the second son of Sir Edward Claiborne, of
Westmoreland County, England, went over to Virginia with Governor
Wyatt in 1621 as surveyor-general of the colony. Shortly afterwards he
was made a councillor, and in 1625 secretary of state of the colony.
In the Indian w