Hooper, Bill, and Randi
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His father always wanted him to become an
Englishman
He was sent to live in England when he was
young in order to go to Felsted
His father thought that this would help him
gain a soft side for England
Most of his classmates teased him due to his
colonial heritage
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Married Lucy Parke
She died in 1717 from small pox
Byrd remarried to Maria Taylor in 1725
He had six children named Evelyn,
Wilhelmina, Anne, Maria, Jane, and William
Byrd III
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Byrd never knew whether to consider himself
a colonial or Englishman
Byrd came to appreciate Virginia and was well
respected in his community
He was appointed to be a county
commissioner and help run the line along the
border of Virginia and North Carolina
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He was one of the first Americans to express
his of the vast American wilderness.
Byrd’s works were never really meant to be
published when he wrote
He saw the woods in a different perspective
than everybody else
Concerning the pioneers and their need to go
west he says, "The pioneers, in short, lived
too close to wilderness for appreciation."
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In his writing, he compares many instances in
his reality to stories from biblical times
In his book, History of the Dividing Line, he
had notes such as the local game and detailed
drawings of the land
He appreciated nature and seemed to be one
with himself while out there
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Byrd writes during a time when colonial
literature was largely composed of Puritan
writers
Byrd’s style of writing even in his most minor
pieces is sophisticated at worst(mostly due to
his use of irony)
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He views each people as a whole
The North Carolinians are placed below the
Virginians for their religious indifference and
the idleness of their men, yet admired for
their fertility and freedom.
Each group is viewed in a balanced, yet highly
judgmental way
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Sometime between 1730 and 1735, Byrd tried
to publish his original Secret History of the
Dividing Line, "a gossipy, satirical narrative
of the expedition,“
In 1744, he published History of the Dividing
Line
In his writing, Byrd sometimes portrays
himself as the man that he always wished he
was (trying to piece together the pieces of his
odd life)
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In his books, you will see his increasing
appreciation for nature in America
His writing also contains a Romantic sense to
it (Romantic movement was in 19th century)
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During the Protestant Reformation, keeping
a diary had become a source of “finding
yourself”
Byrd kept a diary in which he would write
about his days, what he had to eat, what he
did, who he talked to and so forth
Byrd had always wanted to please his father
and rise to his expectations (in his writing he
could create this for himself)
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He was the author of the Westover
Manuscripts, published in 1841 under three
titles, The History of the Dividing Line, A
Journey to the Land of Eden, and A Progress to
the Mines, and most famously, The Secret
Diaries of William Byrd of Westover
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http://pantheon.yale.edu/~thomast/essays/sa
m/sam1.html
Dr. Thomas T. Long, William Byrd II of
Westover