, should instructions come
from the supreme power in England, it would obey them.

The first Governor under the Commonwealth, Richard Bennett, was
appointed by an act of Assembly on April 30, 1652, his term to last for
one year or until the following meeting of the Assembly, with the
further proviso that the appointment should be in effect "untill the
further pleasures of the states be knowne." Bennett, a planter of
Nansemond County, was a Puritan in his religious outlook and was one of
those who had invited New England to send ministers to Virginia in the
early 1640's. When Parliament decided to conquer the colony in 1651 it
appointed him one of the commissioners for the enterprise. It is
probable that the secret instructions issued to Bennett by the
Parliamentary authorities required him to come to some agreement with
the Burgesses on who should be Governor until a more formal commission
for the office should issue from the supreme power in England. However,
as the years passed, and as instructions from England failed to deal
with Virginia's problems, the House of Burgesses asserted its
prerogative more and more.

On March 31, 1655, Edward Digges was elected Governor by the Assembly to
replace Bennett. Digges was the son of Sir Dudley Digges, Master of the
Rolls under Charles I. He came to Virginia sometime before 1650 and
bought a plantation on the York River, subsequently known as
"Bellfield." The plantation become famous for the quality of the tobacco
grown there, and was also the scene of Digges's efforts at silk
production, in the culture of which he employed three Armenians. When
Digges decided to return to England in 1656, Samuel Mathews was elected
to succeed him. There is some confusion as to whether Governor Mathews
was the man who so bedeviled Sir John Harvey in the 1630's, or his son
of the same name.

When Mathews and the Council attempted to dissolve the Assembly on April
1, 1658, the Burgesses answered that the Governor's action was illegal,
and that they would remain and complete their work. Mathews refused to
concede their point formally, though he declared his willingness to
allow them to continue in fact while the dispute was submitted to the
Lord Protector in England. The Burgesses declared his answer
unsatisfactory. They demanded a specific acknowledgment that the House
remained undissolved. Mathews and the Council finally agreed to revoke
the declaration of dissolution, but still insisted on r