William Kendall Sr. (I) (1621-1686) was an English merchant, planter, military officer and politician who came to own considerable land on Virginia's Eastern Shore.
In 1678, after he had donated 1,000 pounds of tobacco to support the local parish, the vestry assigned him the uppermost pew on the east and over against the chancel.
[4][5] In 1657 and 1662, Northampton County voters elected Kendall to represent them in the House of Burgesses, so he served in the Grand Assembly that lasted until 1676, although he had failed to win re-election in 1658, 1659 and 1660.
He and Charles Scarborough of Accomack County were found guilty of uttering "Scandalous & mutinous words Tending to the dishonor of the Right Honorable Governor" and Kendall was fined 50 pounds sterling.
[1] Thus he was one of the burgesses exempted from the general pardon suggested by royal advisors after Bacon's death in the fall of 1676 and which Berkeley issued the following February before departing to England.
[8] When the assembly met that year, the five nominees for Speaker indicated factional alignments, with Thomas Ballard and Edward Hill Jr. being members of the Green Spring faction, William Fitzhugh considered an excellent lawyer and aligned with the Stuart cause but distrusted by some for his partnership with Catholic lawyer George Brent, who also owned property in the Northern Neck of Virginia.
[4][9] Three weeks later, on October 12, 1685, Governor Effingham issued a proclamation against "all Seditious Discourses", which some considered an attempt to end criticism of himself as well as King James II.