| William Byrd II |
Portrait of William Byrd II |
| Born |
William Byrd II
March 28, 1674(1674-03-28)
Westover Plantation, Charles City County, Virginia, British America |
| Died |
26 August 1744
Westover Plantation, Virginia, British America |
| Ethnicity |
English |
| Education |
Felsted School |
| Occupation |
planter and author |
| Known for |
founder of Richmond, Virginia. |
| Religious beliefs |
Anglicanism |
| Spouse(s) |
Lucy Parke (1st)
Maria Taylor (2nd) |
| Children |
Evelyn, Wilhelmina, Anne, Maria, Jane, William Byrd III, |
| Parents |
William Byrd I, Mary Horsmanden |
Colonel William Byrd II (28 March 1674 – 26 August 1744) was a planter and author from Charles City County, Virginia. He is considered the founder of Richmond, Virginia.
Biography
William Byrd II was born at Westover Plantation in Charles City County, Virginia, and educated at Felsted School, England, for the law. He was a member of the King's Counsel for 37 years. He returned to the Colony following his schooling in England, lived in lordly estate on his plantation, Westover Plantation, and gathered the most valuable library in the Virginia Colony, numbering some 4000 books. He was the founder of Richmond and provided the land where the city was laid out in 1737. His father, Colonel William Byrd I, came from England to settle in Virginia.
William Byrd II was a fellow of the Royal Society of Great Britain. He was the author of the Westover Manuscripts, published in 1841 under three titles, The History of the Dividing Line, A Journey to the Land of Eden, and A Progress to the Mines, and most famously, The Secret Diaries of William Byrd of Westover, all remarkable for their style, wit, keen observation, and intrinsic interest to all. His writings have been published in later editions.
Byrd's son, William Byrd III, inherited his family land but chose to fight in the French and Indian War rather than spend much time in Richmond. After he squandered the Byrd fortune, Byrd III parceled up the family estate and sold lots of 100 acres (0.40 km2) in 1768.
Byrd Park in Richmond is named for William Byrd II. He is related to the explorer Richard Evelyn Byrd, for whom Richard Evelyn Byrd Flying Field (the original name for Richmond International Airport) was named, as well as Virginia Governor and U.S. Senator Harry Flood Byrd and U.S. Senator Harry Flood Byrd Jr.
William Byrd II died on 26 August 1744 and was buried at Westover Plantation, Virginia, British America.[1]
Trans-Atlantic Ties
William Byrd I was born in 1674 in present-day Charles County, Virginia. When he was seven years old, his father sent him to London for schooling. While there, Byrd became engrained in London’s society and politics. Not only did he study law, but he was also elected by friends in the aristocracy to the Royal Society in 1696. He also served as a representative of Virginia in London. While Byrd considered himself an Englishman, the fact that he was born in the colonies kept other true Englishmen from considering him as such. Byrd returned to Richmond upon the death of his father in 1705. He had a very large inheritance, and was now required to run the estate.
Byrd became very ambitious after his father’s death and sought the governorship of Virginia. When he was denied the position, William Byrd II returned once more to London on romantic endeavors. He was not only rejected by the elite women but also by the British government. Parliament sent Byrd back to Virginia, where he finally accepted his role as a mere Virginia delegate. His degree of respect was not entirely tainted, however, because it was Byrd who was chosen to commission the survey of the Virginia-North Carolina border.
Personal Relationships
Upon Byrd’s return to Virginia in 1705, he found that the colonies lacked the social vibrancy that he had found in England. Therefore, he began his search for a wife. His goal was not only to find companionship, but also to increase his wealth. Lucy Parke was an obvious candidate for Byrd’s affections. Not only was she beautiful and wealthy, but her father, Colonel Daniel Parke II, was also the governor of the Leeward Islands.
As Lucy had already reached the age of 18, her mother was very concerned that she would not find a husband. This was partially due to the humiliation of the Colonel’s many romantic affaires and his stinginess. When Byrd wrote a letter to Lucy’s parents asking to court her, they immediately accepted. Byrd knew easily how to woo Lucy, and wrote passionate letters to her, exclaiming his love with poetic phrases, such as, “Fidelia, possess[ed] the empire of my heart” (Treckel 133). The two were soon wedded. Soon after their marriage, Lucy found her husband to be incapable of the intimacy she desired in the relationship. While Lucy desired an emotional and intellectual relationship, William was able only to provide sexual intimacy. In fact, like many men of the time, including Lucy’s father, Byrd was sexually unfaithful to his wife. Lucy often turned a blind eye to her husband’s affairs, only getting openly upset when his intimacy with others was acted upon publicly.
Lucy and William often fought about other matters, in particular, the running of the household. Byrd wanted a patriarchal household, while Lucy wanted to have some power over household matters. The two disagreed on whose power reigned over the various parts of the estate, and their fights were often heated. Lucy refused to conform to the stereotypical role of the submissive wife, and wished to assert her power over slaves and servants. Byrd often publicly rebuked her when she acted upon this desire, undermining her authority.
Byrd also required absolute sovereignty over the library. To Byrd, the library was a very intimate and personal place, and one in which Lucy did not belong. He disliked her entering the library at all, and loathed her tendency to borrow books when Byrd was not home. It would appear that Byrd feared his wife’s gaining of knowledge, and saw her entrance into his library as a threat to his manhood.
The biggest arguments that William and Lucy had were over money. Lucy had a taste for fine fabrics and imported household items. Byrd found her purchases to be frivolous and often had her sell brand new items. It is likely that Lucy hoped to be able to spend more of her husband’s money, having grown up in the household with her stingy father.
Despite the couple’s differences, there is no doubt that the two were very much in love. It is quite possible that Byrd focused on their sexual relationship because it was the only way that he knew to express his love for his wife. Lucy’s desire for intimacy makes obvious her love for William. When Lucy died of smallpox in 1715, Byrd suffered greatly. He blamed himself for her death, telling friends and family that he felt God was punishing him for his pride in his wife’s beauty and likeability.
Byrd remarried Maria Taylor eight years later. Maria was the exact opposite of Lucy. She was submissive to Byrd’s power over the household, and never disobeyed a single command that he gave her. She was well-mannered and epitomized the English lady that Byrd desired. However, while she kept the household in good order and performed the tasks that Byrd required of her, the relationship lacks the passion that Lucy brought to her marriage with Byrd.
Diaries
The first diary runs from 1709-1712 and was not published until the 1940s. It was originally written in a shorthand code and deals mostly with the day-to-day aspects of Byrd’s life, many of the entries containing the same formulaic phrases. A typical entry read like this:
[October] 6. I rose at 6 o’clock and said my prayers and ate milk for breakfast. Then I proceeded to Williamsburg, where I found all well. I went to the capitol where I sent for the wench to clean my room and when I came I kissed her and felt her, for which God forgive me. . . . About 10 o’clock I went to my lodgings. I had good health but wicked thoughts, God forgive me.
A man of great learning who usually read some Greek or Latin text every morning, and a man of great passion who was forever making vows of repentance and then promptly breaking them, Byrd was not uncomfortable with the contradictions in himself. Though his diary recounts his many romantic exploits (including those with his own wife) he never shows much more than the most cursory remorse for his less savory actions. Indeed, it is difficult for the reader to be much more than amazed at the brazenness of a man who can thank God for having good thoughts right after he recounts having a tryst with another man’s wife.
In addition to the passages recounting his many infidelities, the diary also contains a faithful record of the disobedience of Byrd’s slaves and his subsequent punishment. Byrd was not exactly a kindly master, and beat his slaves often, and sometimes devised other punishments even more cruel and unusual:
September 3, 1709: I ate roast chicken for dinner. In the afternoon I beat Jenny for throwing water on the couch.
December 1, 1709: Eugene was whipped again for pissing in bed and Jenny for concealing it.
December 3, 1709: Eugene pissed abed again for which I made him drink a pint of piss.
[2]
Byrd often quarreled with his wife over the treatment of their slaves. These disagreements did not bode well for the slaves in question:
[1712 May] 22. . . . My wife caused Prue to be whipped violently notwithstanding I desired not, which provoked me to have Anaka whipped likewise who had deserved it much more . . .
Byrd’s diary is not all about his encounters with women or his treatment of his slaves, however. He was, for a time, receiver general of Virginia and owned the large plantation (and large debts) his father left him upon his death. In 1709, the year he began his secret diary, he was appointed to the Council of Virginia, which meant that he spent much of his time in London. Many of the entries in his diary deal with affairs of state and the running of a plantation, as well as his ongoing education. He was a man of great learning, and most entries record which Greek or Hebrew text he read that morning (or gives the reason he was unable to read), and he was known for his extensive private library. He also mentions in nearly every entry having “danced my dance,” meaning he performed his calisthenic exercises.
Byrd’s secret diary unfolds a picture of a man of many faults who tried daily to fix them and to improve himself in general, and who did not worry overmuch when he failed to do so.
Professional Accomplishments and Publications
William Byrd not only was an avid politician and statesman, but he was also a great writer. Many of his works are now part of the American literary canon. His most famous work is arguably The History of the Dividing Line, published in 1841, but he also wrote The Secret History, which provides a much more “colorful” perspective of the mapping of the border between Virginia and North Carolina. His other works, published in The Westover Manuscripts in 1841, include but are not limited to A Journey to the Land of Eden, A Progress to the Mines, and The Secret Diaries of William Byrd of Westover.
Without a doubt, The History of the Dividing Line is Byrd’s most influential piece of literature. In conjunction with The Secret History, the societal stereotypes and attitudes of the time are revealed. According to Pierre Marambaud, Byrd, “had first prepared a narrative, The Secret History of the Line, which under fictitious names described the persons of the surveying expedition and the incidents that had befallen them” (Marambaud 144).
In The History of the Dividing Line and The Secret History, Byrd incorporates the motifs of slothfulness and sexual desire. He focuses on work ethic in The History of the Dividing Line and emphasizes the sheer laziness of the North Carolinians. Byrd distinguishes the border between Virginia and North Carolina as a cultural border as well as a physical one. He describes the residents of North Carolina as lazy and corrupt, and provides himself as a contrast to their behavior. He describes the ways in which the North Carolinian men chase after women, as well as the ready acquiescence of the women to the men’s urges. He also explains the methods in which he brought control to the sexual situations into which the other men got themselves. For example, Byrd informs the reader that, having encountered a beautiful woman, “Shoebrush [John Lovick] was smitten at the first glance and examined all her neat proportions with a critical exactness. She struggled just enough to make her admirer more eager, so that if I had not been there, he would have been in danger of carrying his joke a little too far” (p. 642, Heath) This is just one of the many examples in which Byrd clearly distinguishes himself as the moral superior of his companions.
It is also likely that Byrd was using these writings as a method of promoting himself politically. In providing himself as the sole person in these stories who is morally upstanding, focused, and responsible, he is describing himself as a great leader. In representing the Carolinians in his commission as morally reprehensible, lazy, lawless people, he is implying that, as he can lead such a difficult group of people, he is clearly capable of leading other, less savage people.
Bibliography
The Westover Manuscripts (1841), comprising :
References
SOURCES
Byrd II, William. "The History of the Dividing Line betwixt Virginia and North Carolina and The Secret History of the Line." The Heath Anthology of American Literature. 6th ed. Vol. A. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Company, 2009. 636-54. Print.
Marambaud, Pierre. “William Byrd of Westover: Cavalier, Diarist, and Chronicler.” The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 78.2 (1970): 144-83. JSTOR. Web. 3 Nov. 2009. < http://www.jstor.org/stable/4247559>.
Treckel, Paula A. ""The Empire of My Heart": The Marriage of William Byrd II and Lucy Parke Byrd." The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 105.2 (1997): 125-56. JSTOR. Web. 03 Nov. 2009. <http://www.jstor.org.proxy.longwood.edu/stable/pdfplus/4249635.pdf>.
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