Artwork from the 80s
While I was attending college I had the good fortune of having a college in my hometown and a job that permitted me to work part time. The advantage of this is that I had no school loans when I finished school. The job I had was working in the Art Department for the local school board district. My boss's name was Mary Jo Burgess.
The teachers gave me a shirt I still have, and don't recall if I ever wore. I also collected a few handmade gifts each Christmas that I worked there - as that was a requirement of the gift exchange. The brown vase, I encountered at an auction in the 2000s - and I immediately recognized it by the signature on the bottom - as it was the same as the silkscreen owl I had received one year as a gift.
How a guy who was addicted to playing sports and otherwise focused on math and science wound up working for the Art Department is a story in itself. Nonetheless it exposed me to a way of thinking and an area of interest that I would have neglected otherwise.
I thought of Ms. Burgess this week as I read an article about the 250th Anniversary of the disbanding of the House of Burgesses in the Virginia Colony. Seeing the article - I began to wonder. "Didn't I see that some of my ancestors were members of the House of Burgesses?" "Were they there on the day it disbanded or at events leading up to its final meeting?"
The House of Burgesses had formed in the earliest days of Jamestown in 1619 as an early self-governing body under the Virginia Company. It transitioned to being under the control of the British Crown in 1624; but by the 1640s the Burgesses were in charge of taxation and local laws. After Bacon’s Rebellion, the Crown increasingly tried to restrain the Burgesses’ power; however, the assembly continued to expand its authority and became the dominant political institution in Virginia. Consequently, Governor John Murray fourth Earl of Dunmore dissolved the assembly in May of 1774. Even so, some members continued meeting informally and sporadically until it completely disbanded on the sixth of May two years later.
The ancestor that I was recalling that had been a member of the House of Burgesses was an eighth great-grandfather, Christopher Robinson. He had been a member of the House of Burgesses from 1685 to 1693 during its time of increasing autonomy. Christopher's son and my seventh great-grandfather, John Robinson, was also a member of the House of Burgesses in 1711 and 1714.
John's father-in-law, and also my eighth great-grandfather, Robert Beverley, was also a member and clerk of the House of Burgesses. Robert was active in commanding Governor Berkeley's forces in defense against Nathaniel Bacon and his rebellion. However, when British commissioners arrived, he sided with the Burgesses against the King's representatives. He was blamed by King James II for disruption in the Colonies.
William Robinson, was my sixth great-grandfather in that lineage - but there is no evidence that he served in the House of Burgesses - though he, too, was active in the civic community. His brother (and therefore my uncle), John Robinson, did serve in the House of Burgesses from 1728 until his death in 1766. So, the family was a participant in the tradition from close to its beginning to near its waning days.
These Robinson, I came to discover after tracking down the name and true identity of my third great-grandmother, Sarah Jane Robinson. She was originally just a name on a slip of paper that my grandfather had written down for my dad. The original note said 'Robertson' instead of 'Robinson' - but it was enough to go on to track down documents that showed her actual name and lineage.
Well, this little diversion peregrinated from artful recollections to name associations, then brought us through some civic-minded family. In doing so it brings me to a question. Has the art of civic responsibility faded, or is it simply aimed at different civic challenges?
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