44
VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY
West, Francis, deputy governor of \'ir-
ginia from November 14. 1627. on the death
of Governor Yardley. to .March 5, 1629, when
Dr. John Pott was elected by the council to
take his place. West having i.een selected to
go to England to represent the interest of the
colony, which was still in an unsettled condi-
tion by the revocation of the charter in 1624.
He was born October 28, 1586, and was a
brother of Thomas Lord Delaware. When
Captain Newport came over with the "Second
Supply" in October, 1608, he was accompanied
by Francis West, who was elected a member
of the council there in August. 1609, after the
arrival of the "Third Supply" sent out under
the new charter. During the "starving time"
which soon followed, West attempted to get
provisions from the Indians, but being unsuc-
cessful he left the colony to its fate and sailed
away to England. After a few months he
returned again to Virginia, and after Percy
left in 1612 he succeeded him as commandant
at Jamestown in which office he continued till
1 61 7, when he was succeeded by Captain Wil-
liam Powell. He was a member of the coun-
cil again from April, 1619. to February. 1633.
In connection with his brothers, Lord Dela-
ware, and John and Nathaniel West, he owned
lands at Westovcr and Shirley. In November,
1622, he was appointed admiral of New Eng-
land, and went there to suppress illicit fishing,
but he found the New Englanders difficult
persons to deal with. In 1624 Captain West
was living on his estate at Westover in Vir-
ginia, and soon after succeeded Sir George
Yardley as deputy governor. His administra-
tion is distinguished for the assembling at
Jamestown on March 26, 1628. after an inter-
val of four years, of the regular law making
body — an event second only in importance to
the original meeting in 1619; for its restor-
ation was proof that despite the revocation
of her charter Mrginia was to continue in the
enjo_\-ment of political liberty. After Pott took
charge in 1629. West went to England, but he
was in Virginia again prior to December,
1 63 1, when he attended a meeting of the coun-
cil, again in February and September, 1632,
and in February, 1633. After the last date he
drops out of Virginia records, and there is
a tradition in Earl Delaware's family that he
\\as drowned.
Pott, John, governor of Virginia from March 5. 1629, to March 24, 1630, came to \'irginia with Governor Wyatt in 1621 to fill the position of physician general, vacant by the death of Lawrence Bohun, slain in a naval battle between the Spanish and the English in the West Indies. He was a Master of Arts, and was recommended to the London Com- pany by Theodore Gulstone, founder of the Gulstonian lectureship in the London College of Physicians. He was made a member of the council in 162 1, and on the departure of Fran- cis West to England in 1629, Dr. John Pott was chosen by the council temporary governor. He figured as such little more than a year, and the leading event of this time was the arrival at Jamestown of the first Lord Baltimore — the proprietor of Avalon in Newfoundland. Pott tendered to him the oath of allegiance and supremacy, which Baltimore as a Catholic refused to take. Sir John Harvey, who was a friend of Baltimore, on his arrival arrested Dr. Pott, and a jury convicted him of felony, for stealing cattle, but politics was doubtless at the bottom, and the king pardoned him. Some- time later, however, Pott had his revenge by taking part with the other councillors in Har- vey's arrest and deposition from the govern-
ment. Dr. Pott was the first to locate land at