ss against the new government. Moreover, the Navigation Acts,
recently passed by Parliament, restricting foreign trade would, if
enforced, prove especially damaging to the people of the Eastern Shore.
Finally, Northampton had not been represented in the Assembly since
1647, except for one Burgess in 1651, and the belief had sprung up that
the county was to become independent of the government at Jamestown. For
various reasons, therefore, Northampton was hostile to the government.
And when the Parliamentary commissioners imposed upon them a tax of
forty-six pounds of tobacco per poll, the people of the county voiced
their anger in no uncertain terms, and selected a committee of six to
draw up a statement of their grievances and present it to the new
Assembly.

"Wee," they protested, "the Inhabitants of Northampton Countie doe
complanye that from tyme to tyme wee have been submitted & bine obedient
unto the paymt of publeq taxacons. Butt after ye yeare 1647, since yt
tyme wee Conceive & have found that ye taxes were very weightie. But in
a more espetiall manner ... the taxacon of fforty sixe pounds of tobacco
p. poll (this present yeare). And desire yt ye same bee taken off ye
charge of ye Countie; furthermore wee alledge that after 1647, wee did
understand & suppose or Countie or Northampton to be disioynted &
sequestered from ye rest of Virginia. Therefore that Llawe wch requireth
& inioyneth Taxacons from us to bee Arbitrarye & illegall; fforasmuch as
wee had neither summons for Ellecon of Burgesses nor voyce in their
Assemblye (during the time aforesd) but only the Singular Burgess in
September, Ano., 1651. Wee conceive that wee may Lawfullie ptest agt the
pceedings in the Act of Assemblie for publiq Taxacons wch have relacon
to Northmton Countie since ye year 1647."[360]

Thus early in the history of the colony was enunciated the principle
that taxation without representation is unjust and illegal. The men of
Northampton do not speak of the doctrine as something new, but as a
thing understood and recognized. Certain it is that the people of
Virginia, in all periods of their colonial history, realized the vast
importance of confining the power of taxation to their own Assembly.

But the leaders of the new government did not receive the petition with
favor. They were willing to give Northampton her due quota of Burgesses,
but they were angered at the suggestion of separation. Moreover, the
disorders on the Eastern Sh