in 1691.

In the preface to the first edition of his History of Virginia,
published at London 1705, Robert Beverley says of himself: "I am an
Indian, and don't pretend to be exact in my language." This intimation
may perhaps have been merely playful, but the full and minute account
that he has given of the Indians, shows that he took a peculiar interest
in that race.

In the preface to the second edition of his history, now republished, he
remarks: "My first business in this world being among the public records
of my country, the active thoughts of my youth put me upon taking notes
of the general administration of the government." He was probably a
deputy in his father's office, and perhaps also in that of his brother
Peter Beverley. This Peter Beverley was in 1714 promoted to the place
of speaker of the House of Burgesses, and he was subsequently treasurer
of the colony. Robert Beverley, the historian, was born in Virginia, and
educated in England. He married Ursula, daughter of William Byrd of
Westover, on the James river. She lies buried at Jamestown. John
Fontaine, son of a Huguenot refugee, having come over from England to
Virginia, visited Robert Beverley, the author of this work, in the year
1715, at his residence, near the head of the Mattapony. Here he
cultivated several varieties of the grape, native and French, in a
vineyard of about three acres, situated upon the side of a hill, from
which he made in that year four hundred gallons of wine. He went to very
considerable expense in this enterprise, having constructed vaults of a
wine press. But Fontaine comparing his method with that used in Spain,
deemed it erroneous, and that his vineyard was not rightly managed. The
home-made wine Fontaine drank heartily of, and found it good, but he was
satisfied by the flavor of it that Beverley did not understand how to
make it properly. Beverley lived comfortably, yet although wealthy, had
nothing in or about his house but what was actually necessary. He had
good beds, but no curtains, and instead of cane chairs used wooden
stools. He lived mainly within himself upon the products of his land. He
had laid a sort of wager with some of the neighboring planters, he
giving them one guinea in hand, and they promising to pay him each ten
guineas, if in seven years he should cultivate a vineyard that would
yield at one vintage seven hundred gallons of wine. Beverley thereupon
paid them down one hundred pounds, and Fontaine ente