own
May 23 or 24, 1610, and was made Secretary and Recorder of the colony
under Lord Delaware. Of the origin and life of Strachey, who was a
person of importance in Virginia, little is known. The better impression
is that he was the William Strachey of Saffron Walden, who was married
in 1588 and was living in 1620, and that it was his grandson of the same
name who was subsequently connected with the Virginia colony. He was,
judged by his writings, a man of considerable education, a good deal of
a pedant, and shared the credulity and fondness for embellishment of the
writers of his time. His connection with Lord Delaware, and his part
in framing the code of laws in Virginia, which may be inferred from
the fact that he first published them, show that he was a trusted and
capable man.

William Strachey left behind him a manuscript entitled "The Historie of
Travaile into Virginia Britanica, &c., gathered and observed as well by
those who went first thither, as collected by William Strachey, gent.,
three years thither, employed as Secretaire of State." How long he
remained in Virginia is uncertain, but it could not have been "three
years," though he may have been continued Secretary for that period, for
he was in London in 1612, in which year he published there the laws of
Virginia which had been established by Sir Thomas Gates May 24, 1610,
approved by Lord Delaware June 10, 1610, and enlarged by Sir Thomas Dale
June 22, 1611.

The "Travaile" was first published by the Hakluyt Society in 1849. When
and where it was written, and whether it was all composed at one time,
are matters much in dispute. The first book, descriptive of Virginia and
its people, is complete; the second book, a narration of discoveries in
America, is unfinished. Only the first book concerns us. That Strachey
made notes in Virginia may be assumed, but the book was no doubt written
after his return to England.

[This code of laws, with its penalty of whipping and death for what are
held now to be venial offenses, gives it a high place among the Black
Codes. One clause will suffice:

"Every man and woman duly twice a day upon the first towling of the Bell
shall upon the working daies repaire unto the church, to hear divine
service upon pain of losing his or her allowance for the first omission,
for the second to be whipt, and for the third to be condemned to the
Gallies for six months. Likewise no man or woman shall dare to violate
the Sabbath by a