Virginia Viceroy Their Majesties' Governor General: Francis Howard, Baron Howard of Effingham

by Warren M. Billings

Francis Howard governed Virginia in the troubled 1680s, a time when Virginians and the English government were at odds over the place of the colony within an emerging empire. Chosen for his loyalty to the Stuarts, and because of his penury, Effingham went to the colony determined to bend it to the crown's will even as he furthered his own ambition to become a valued servant to his royal masters. He succeeded in making Virginians more accepting of their place within an Anglo-American community where the colonial extremities were subservient to the imperial center in London.
This volume, which is the first ever full treatment of Effingham and his administration, is grounded in hitherto slightly used manuscript sources, principally those that constitute the surviving corpus of Effingham papers. It details his background and his extraordinary relationship with his wife, but it concentrates mainly on how the governor succeeded in making the colonials accept greater imperial control of their lives.^R

150 pages, Hardcover

First published May 31, 1991

About the author

Warren M. Billings received his PhD from Northern Illinois University in 1968. He is Distinguished Professor of History, Emeritus at the University of New Orleans and Visiting Professor of Law, William and Mary Law School.