Ralph Wormeley Jr.

[1][2][3]: 458–459 Born shortly before the death of his planter father, Ralph Wormeley Sr., he was raised by his mother, the former Agatha Eltonhead (who had also survived a previous husband) and his stepfather, Sir Henry Chicheley, the lieutenant governor for the Virginia colony.

[6] Nonetheless, after coming of age and Bacon's Rebellion discussed below, Wormeley compelled his guardian Chicheley to account for the income received from (and disbursements made from) his father's estate during his minority.

[7] Particularly after Bacon's Rebellion, Wormeley purchased enslaved blacks imported from the Caribbean colonies, although each such contract cost significantly more than that for an indentured servant, who would only serve a fixed term (if he survived).

They were still raiding Middlesex county plantations in 1694, but after Governor Edmund Andros scolded area planters for their lax patrols, Mingo was caught and executed.

[12] Meanwhile, based on immigrants for whose entry he had paid, in 1680, Wormeley patented 2,200 acres on the northern side of the Rappahannock River, which he called "Nanzattico", after the people noted by Capt.

As work finally began on the courthouse in 1691, another fracas ensued when Wormeley refused to deed the underlying land to the county without receiving in return written acknowledgement to what he considered his entitlements (such as quitrents signifying his baronial role).

In fact, one of Wormeley's first public acts (as an 18 year old not quite of legal age) was joining John Custis in abstaining from the vote of the Lancaster County justices of the peace uniting the parishes north and south of the river, and then stalking from the courtroom.

The southsiders then petitioned the General Assembly in Jamestown asking that its order be put in effect, and won separation (by a law creating Middlesex County) six months later.

[18] During Bacon's Rebellion, mostly white current or former indentured servants first attacked acculturated Native peoples, seeking their land, then seized wealthy landowners and vandalized their properties.

[23][24] While on the Governor's Council, Wormeley served as the Secretary of State for the colony, and was able to extract fees for ministerial tasks, including authorizing county clerks.

[27] The following year, he and his cousin Christopher Wormeley were ordered to return the records of the Virginia General Assembly formerly possessed by former clerk and Middlesex planter Robert Beverly to the colony's capital, still Jamestown until shortly before his man's death.

Wormeley would also acquire a house at Jamestown, as the law required of men of his position, but would be criticized in his final years for delegating too many of his duties there to a junior clerk.

Her two previous husbands, Thomas Lunsford and Peter Jenings held high offices in the colony as well as land, including at Nanzattico, which Wormeley re-patented.