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Alexander Spotswood's Struggle With His Council, Joan Schools

Honors Theses

The condition of Virginia in 1710 was depressed, both politically and economically. A royal colony, Virginia nevertheless had been establishing her own common laws and "ancient" practices, at the the same time that English control was becoming increasingly inefficient. The situation worsened during the administrations of Edmund Andros and Francis Nicholson and reach a minor climax during the four-year interregnum which began in 1706 and lasted until Spotswood assumed leadership of the government in 1710.

During this period when lack of a royal governor placed colonial affairs in the hands of the Virginia Council and its president, the work of …