Of Scotch parentage, born in Morocco, soldier under Marlborough, wounded at Blenheim, he was yet in his thirties when he sailed across the Atlantic to the river James.

Virginia liked him, and he liked Virginia.

A man of energy and vision, he first made himself at home with all, and then after his own impulses and upon his own lines went about to develop and to better the colony.

He had his projects and his hobbies, mostly useful, and many sounding with a strong modern tone.
Now and again he quarreled with the Assembly, and he made it many a cutting speech.

But it, too, and all Virginia and the world were growing modern.