COLONIAL COLWCILLORS OF STATE
87
wine and silk \ve highly commend, and assure
you it is the Companie's care to reward your
merit. * * * In the meantime they desire you
to proceed in these noble courses assuring you
of all love and respect." In spite of this, how-
ever, it would seem that his attention was
chiefly given to the colony's relations with the
savages, especially in regard to the conver-
sion of the latter. His manner of winning
their friendship was certainly worthy of his
professions and even went to the length of
building a handsome house in the English
style for Opochankano and putting to death
a number of English mastiffs of which the
Indians had expressed fear. It was certainly
one of the blackest stains on the Indian char-
acter, to be found in all the white man's deal-
ings with him that, when, on ]\Iarch 22, 162 1-
22, the colonists w^ere surprised in the great
massacre, George Thorpe was not spared, but
was murdered with every circumstance of re-
morseless cruelty. Thorpe was twice married,
tirst to Alargaret, a daughter of Sir Thomas
Porter and after her death to Margaret, a
daughter of David Harris, who survived him.
L'pon the next two names in the list of coun-
cillors, the records have but little to say, they
are those of
Middleton, David, councillor, 1620, and
Blewitt, Mr., councillor, 1620, whose Chris- tian name is not given.
Tracy, William, was one of those who formed with Thorpe, Berkeley and others a company to conduct a private plantation in \"rginia. He is believed by Alexander Brown, author of "The Genesis of the United States," to have been the son of Sir John Tracy. It is probable that he came to X'irginia at the same time that Thorpe did, the latter arrived in
March, 1620, as on June 28, of the same year
lie was, along with Thorpe, appointed a mem-
ber of the colonial council. The following
September he sailed in the ship "Supply," with
emigrants for Berkeley Hundred, now Berke-
ley, Charles City county. There is no direct
record of his death, but it is evident that he
did not even live to witness ihe terrible mas-
sacre by the Indians which brought death, in
1622, to his friend and partner, Thorpe, and
to so many of the colonists, as the records
of the company state, under date of July, 1621,
that the news of his death had been received
in England. But although Tracy himself
escaped the horror, one of his daughters, who
had married Capt. Nathaniel Powell, was not
S3 fortunate, but was killed with her husband
in that dreadful affair.
Harwood, William, came to Virginia about 1620, and on June 28, of that year, the, \'ir- ginia Company appointed him, as "Mr. Har- wood the chief of ]\Iartin's Hundred," a mem- ber of the council, along with George Thorpe, William Tracy and others. In a letter dated Aug. 21, 1621, the company again speaks of him as "governor of Martin's Hundred," and in another letter of Jan. 10, 1622, the authori- ties of Virginia are informed by the company that the adventurers of Martin's Hundred de- sired that Air. Harwood might be spared from the office of councillor, their business recjuir- ing his presence continually. He was prob- ably a relative of Sir Edward Harwood, a distinguished soldier, who w^as a member of the Mrginia Company and in 1619 presented a petition to that body in behalf of the pro- prietors of Martin's Hundred. An exami- nation of Sir Edward's will, however, show's no reference to him. '
Pountis, John, was appointed councillor
