Since the statehouse at Jamestown was still in ashes, the Assembly of June, 1680, crowded into the house of Mrs. Susanne Fisher. Some of the Burgesses had come on horseback from their James City or Charles City plantations, others by shallops from the Upper James, still others from the far-off Eastern Shore. A sturdy, stubborn group they were, like other Burgesses before and after them, determined to uphold the rights of the people.
They were dismayed, then, when Governor Culpeper placed before them the three bills prepared and signed by the King. What right has he or the Privy Council to introduce bills in this Assembly? they asked. And they were especially concerned over the King's demand for a perpetual revenue.
There had existed since 1661 a law for laying a duty of two shillings for every hogshead of tobacco exported from the colony. But the revenue was to be disposed of by the Assembly. It was they who decided whether it should be used to pay the Governor's salary, or to defend the colony against the Indians, or for repairing the statehouse, or for paying the salaries of the Burgesses. Now the Privy Council took it upon themselves to draw up a similar act, but differing from the old one in one all-important respect--it specified that the returns should go, not to the Assembly, but "to the King's most excellent Majesty, his heirs and successors forever."
The debate which followed was long and bitter. Every man in the Assembly, whether Burgess or Councillor, knew that the King was demanding the surrender of their birthright.[51] So they replied to the Governor: "The House do most humbly desire to be excused if they do not give their approbation to his Majesty's bill."[52] And when the matter was brought again before them by the Governor, they refused even to resume the debate.
But Culpeper knew that he would be severely blamed by Charles if he did not succeed in forcing this bill through. Returning to the attack he pointed out that the King claimed the right of disposing of all revenues. Moreover, they were in no position to defy him, for he had it in his power to ruin most of them by demanding all arrears of quit rents. We do not know how many lucrative jobs Culpeper handed out to bring the reluctant Burgesses around, but he himself tells us that he won over one influential member by the promise of a seat in the Council.[53]