[or Colepeper]. Colonial governor of Virginia. He was son of John Culpeper, who was created Baron Culpeper of Thoresway, England, in 1644. The son early became one of the owners of Virginia, and in 1669 he purchased the right to the land lying between the Potomac and Rappahannock rivers. In 1673 he, with the Earl of Arlington, received from King Charles II. the grant of the whole territory of Virginia for thirty-one years, and in 1675 the king appointed him governor of the province for life. He did not come to America until 1680, when he caused the governor’s salary of one thousand pounds to be doubled, placed the duties on tobacco and merchandise under the entire control of the king, and brought a general amnesty for all past offenses in the province. He soon went back to England, but returned in 1682, hanged the leading “plant-cutters,” debased the currency and annulled the privilege of appeal from the governor and council to the assembly. In 1683 he returned to England, in violation of his orders, and, in consequence, was prosecuted and deprived of his office and patent, but was allowed an annual pension until the time of his grant expired. Lord Culpeper was cruel, despotic, mercenary, and indifferent to the welfare of his colony. On his death in 1719, his large estate in Virginia, where a county is named for him, descended to his daughter Catherine, Lady Fairfax.
