he Governor but demanded that he go to England to answer the people's
complaints. To emphasize their demand Dr. John Pott signaled forty
soldiers who had been concealed outside the Governor's house (where the
meeting was held) to march up to the door, apparently as a form of
threat, although the mutineers protested that the guard was for the
Governor's safety. More days of negotiations passed. The rebellious
Council called an Assembly to hear charges against Harvey, and chose
Capt. John West to be Governor until His Majesty's pleasure might be
known. Finally Harvey agreed to return to England. Francis Pott went on
the same ship home.

In England the Privy Council heard the charges against Harvey and his
defense. None of the accusations stood up, and he was able to show why
the Council had private reasons to desire his removal. The King directed
him to return to his government with increased power, and ordered the
Councilors who had been instrumental in deposing him to be sent to
England for trial. Harvey was able to collect some of his back pay and
to obtain the King's agreement that he should return in a ship of war.
Unfortunately, an old and unseaworthy prize ship was provided him which
had to turn back shortly after its departure, and Harvey was forced to
take passage on an ordinary merchant ship which arrived in Virginia
January 18, 1637. Harvey suffered great losses because of the
unseaworthiness of the prize ship, and petitioned the King for
recompense. He was, however, ordered to pay out of his own pocket all
the losses he had sustained by the affair, although he was authorized to
collect an equivalent amount from the estates of the mutinous Councilors
should they be convicted.

The sending of the mutinous Councilors--Capt. John West, Samuel Mathews,
John Utie, and William Pierce--as prisoners to England, strangely enough
allowed them to accomplish what they had been unable to do in Virginia.
So many and so powerful were their friends, so wealthy were they
themselves, and so many were the charges that they contrived against
Harvey now that he was back in the colony and unable to answer them,
that the King soon reversed himself and ordered Harvey relieved of his
post. The King's action illustrates one of the little appreciated
factors in American colonial history: the role played by petitions to
the King. Three thousand miles of ocean, and months, even years, in
time, separated the assertion from the proof, encou