Hancock County family marks 350 years since ancestor’s pardon in Bacon’s Rebellion

While the nation commemorates 250 years of American independence in 2026, one Hancock County family is marking an event that reaches deeper into colonial history: the 350th anniversary of an ancestor’s pardon following his role in Bacon’s Rebellion of 1676.

In a letter to The Hancock Clarion, local resident Carroll D. Sanders wrote that an ancestor, John Sanders, was labeled “notorious” by royal authorities for his part in the armed uprising against Virginia’s colonial government, and that nearly every Sanders family member in Hancock County today traces descent from him.

Carroll Sanders added that as the country celebrates its semiquincentennial, “there are others in Hancock County celebrating another anniversary” connected to that 17th century event.

Colonial court records transcribed in “The Statutes at Large,” a collection of early Virginia laws, identify John Sanders as “a notorious actor in the late rebellion,” referring to Bacon’s Rebellion — an armed revolt led by Nathaniel Bacon against Gov. Sir William Berkeley’s administration.

Those records show that Sanders received a pardon after submitting a formal petition and pledging allegiance to the governor. A civil court that met March 1, 1676-77, at Green Spring, Berkeley’s plantation, granted him the benefit of a royal proclamation of clemency.

In exchange, the court imposed a fine of 2,000 pounds of tobacco and cask, payable the following year to help compensate soldiers loyal to the Crown. Tobacco served as Virginia’s chief currency at the time, making the penalty a major financial burden for planters.

The Green Spring proceedings listed numerous participants in the rebellion; some were executed by hanging, others received seven-year banishment from the colony, and many were ordered to pay fines in tobacco or pork to support royal troops.

Although King Charles II authorized Berkeley to extend a general pardon to most rebels, certain individuals — including Sanders — were initially excluded until they confessed, petitioned and met the government’s terms.

Modern genealogical research on the Sanders family points to the same Green Spring court entry, reinforcing the account of his pardon and tobacco fine.

For Carroll Sanders and the extended Sanders family in Hancock County, the anniversary is both a personal heritage story and a link to broader colonial tensions. Bacon’s Rebellion called attention to conflicts over frontier protection, taxation without adequate representation and governance — grievances that resurfaced, in evolved form, in the debates leading up to the Declaration of Independence nearly a century later.

As Hancock County residents join national and local observances of 250 years of American independence, the Sanders descendants are also honoring an ancestor who fought on the losing side of a 1676 uprising, endured royal scrutiny and, 350 years ago, secured a pardon that preserved his lineage to the present day.