Robert Stacy

Robert Stacy (also spelled "Stacie") was a colonist and politician in the Colony of Virginia who briefly served as one of the 22 members of the first assembly of the Virginia House of Burgesses in 1619.[1][2][3][4]

Biography

On July 30, 1619, the Virginia House of Burgesses was convened as the first representative legislature in the Americas for a six-day meeting at the new timber church on Jamestown Island, Virginia. The legislative body was composed of the Governor, Council of State appointed by the Virginia Company, and 22 locally elected representatives, including Stacy.[5][6]

Stacy was selected to be one of the assembly members to represent the constituency of Martin's Brandon (Captain John Martin's Plantation) in what is present-day Prince George County, Virginia.[7] Stacy was denied his seat in the assembly, however, because Governor Sir George Yeardley learned that Martin refused to give up a clause in his land patent that exempted his land from England's laws and from any laws passed by the General Assembly.[8][1][9][10]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b "Burgesses for the Assembly of 1619". Encyclopedia Virginia. Retrieved 2023-02-06.
  2. ^ Journals of the House of Burgesses of Virginia. Library Board, Virginia State Library. 1915.
  3. ^ "House History". history.house.virginia.gov. Retrieved 2023-02-06.
  4. ^ McCartney, Martha W. (2007). Virginia Immigrants and Adventurers, 1607-1635: A Biographical Dictionary. Genealogical Publishing Com. ISBN 978-0-8063-1774-8.
  5. ^ Billings, Warren M.: A Little Parliament; The Virginia General Assembly in the Seventeenth Century (Richmond, The Library of Virginia, in partnership with Jamestown 2007/Jamestown Yorktown Foundation. 2004) and Kukla, Jon: Political Institutions in Virginia 1619–1660; (New York, Garland Publishing, Inc. 1989). p. 7.
  6. ^ Bosher, Kate Langley. [1] The First House of Burgesses. The North American Review, Vol. 184, No. 612, April 5, 1907, University of Northern Iowa, pp. 736-737. Retrieved July 12, 2020. via JSTOR.org.
  7. ^ Stanard, William G. and Mary Newton Stanard. The Virginia Colonial Register. Albany, NY: Joel Munsell's Sons Publishers, 1902. OCLC 253261475, Retrieved July 15, 2011. p. 52.
  8. ^ Stanard, Mary Newton [2] The Real Beginning of American Democracy: The Virginia Assembly of 1619. The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, Virginia Historical Society, April 1922, Vol. 30, No. 2. pp. 165-166. via JSTOR.org.
  9. ^ Henry, William Wirt (1894). The First Legislative Assembly in America. U.S. Government Printing Office.
  10. ^ "The General Assembly Convenes (1619)". Encyclopedia Virginia. Retrieved 2023-02-06.