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in the royal navy, he would have had no grounds on which to return to Virginia on the affairs of the Colony, or the London Company, and as an officer of the royal navy, he could not have gone there, unless his ship had been ordered to go there by royal command, or he had been granted leave of absence to visit the colony on a merchant ship as a private individual.
We have no record of his having so visited the colony.
It must be remembered just here that his former rank of admiral was not held by commission from the royal government, but was bestowed on him by a mere corporation, the creature of the government, and liable at any moment to be deprived of all power and authority, and of its very existence, by the act of the royal government; a fate which befell the Company in 1624.
I think that Newport departed this life prior to the 17th November, 1619, for the following reason: At a “great and generall courte” of the Company in London, held on that day, the following minute was entered of record:
Whereas, the Company hath formerly granted to Captain Newporte a Bill of Adventure1 of fower hundred pounds, and his sonne2 now desyringe order from this Courte for the layinge out some part of the same; Mr. Treasurer was directed and authorized by this Generall Assembly to write to Sir George Yeardley and his Counsell of State [in Va.] for the effecting thereof.--[Neill.]This minute is, I think, inconsistent with the theory, that Captain Newport was living when it was entered of record; for if he had then been alive, and had conveyed to his son, by deed of gift or of bargain and sale, a part or all of his right to locate lands in Virginia, the son, in that case, instead of applying to the Company in London, would have had recourse direct to the Colonial Authorities, to whom Captain Newport would have written, apprising them of his transfer of right to his son. It may have been that Captain Newport had, at an early day, located lands to the extent of a portion only of his land warrant, or had sold a part of his right to locate lands to such extent, and that his son applied in November, 1619, to the Company in London for authority to locate the residue of lands he might be entitled to as the heir of Christopher Newport.
