Colonial governor; born in
Scotland about 1690.
While acting as clerk to a collector of customs in the
West Indies he discovered and exposed enormous frauds practised by his principal, and was rewarded with the
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office of surveyor of the customs, and afterwards with that of lieutenant-governor of
Virginia.
He arrived in the colony in 1752.
He was rapacious, and unscrupulous in the accumulation of wealth.
Owing to his exaction of enormous fees authorized by the board of trade for the issue of patents for lands, he gained the ill — will of the people of
Virginia, and when he called for money to enable him to oppose the encroachments of the
French, the
House of Burgesses paid no attention to his expressed wishes.
Dinwiddie, unmindful of this conduct, enlisted a captain's command, and sent them to build a fort at the forks of the
Ohio (now
Pittsburg), and called on neighboring colonies for aid in the work.
He sent
George Washington to the
French commander on a mission of observation.
Washington proved himself to be a zealous officer; and
Dinwiddie, discovering his capacity, made him adjutant-general of a military district.
The revelations made to
Washington at
Fort Le Boeuf, the evident preparations of the
French to make a concerted movement to secure the occupation of the
Ohio region, and the tenor of St. Pierre's answer to
Dinwiddie's letter, convinced the
latter of the necessity of quick and energetic countervailing measures.
St. Pierre declared that he was acting under the instructions of his superior, the
Marquis Duquesne, at
Montreal, and refused to withdraw his troops from the disputed territory.
Dinwiddie immediately prepared for an expedition against the
French, and asked the other colonies to co-operate with
Virginia.
This was the first call for a general colonial union against the common enemy.
All hesitated excepting
North Carolina.
The legislature of that province promptly voted 400 men, who were soon on the march for
Winchester, the place of rendezvous; but they eventually proved of little worth, for, doubtful of being paid for their services, a great part of them were disbanded before they reached the Shenandoah Valley.
Some volunteers from
South Carolina and New York hastened to the gathering-place.
Virginia responded to the call to arms by organizing a regiment of 600 men, of which
Joshua Fry was appointed colonel and
Major Washington lieutenant-colonel.
The Virginians assembled at
Alexandria, on the
Potomac, whence
Lieutenant-Colonel Washington, with the advance, marched (April 2, 1754) at their head for the
Ohio.
Meanwhile
Captain Trent had recruited a company among the traders west of the mountains, and had begun the erection of a fort at the forks of the
Ohio.
They were attacked (April 18) by a party of French and Indians, who expelled
Trent and his men, completed the fort, and named it
Duquesne, in honor of the
captain-general of
Canada.
News of this event reached
Washington at
Will's Creek (now
Cumberland). He pushed forward with 150 men to a point on the
Monongahela less than 40 miles from
Fort Duquesne.
There he was informed that a strong force of French and Indians was marching to intercept him. He wisely fell back to the Great Meadows, where he erected a stockade, and called it
Fort Necessity.
Before it was completed, a few of his troops attacked an advanced party of the enemy under Jumonville in the night, and the commander and several of his men were killed.
Some of his captured men were sent to
Governor Dinwiddie.
Reinforced,
Washington marched for
Fort Duquesne again, but was driven back to
Fort Necessity, which he was obliged to surrender on July 3.
See
necessity, Fort.
Dinwiddie was the first to suggest to
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the
British board of trade the taxing of the colonies (1754) for funds to carry on the war with the
French and
Indians; and he was one of the five colonial governors who memorialized Parliament (1755) in favor of the measure.
He had much clashing and vexation with the
House of Burgesses; and worn out with trouble and age, he left
Virginia under a cloud caused by a charge made by his enemies that he had appropriated to his own use £20,000 transmitted to him for compensation to the Virginians for money expended by them in the public service.
He died in
Clifton, England, Aug. 1, 1770.
