"I am more glad to see you, Mr Drummond, than any man in this colony!  You shall be hanged in half an hour!"
--quote attributed to Sir William Berkeley, Governor of the Royal Province of Virginia (1660-1677) upon William Drummond's capture in White Oak Swamp.

William Drummond and Bacon's Rebellion

William Drummond was a native of Scotland, who came to Virginia in 1637 as an indentured servant.  Records indicate that he was involved in planning an insurrection, or at least the escape of, indentured servants off the plantations around Jamestown. He was given a public flogging and an additional year of servitude for his part.

In later years he became an important and influential member of the community.  He served as Justice of the Peace and High Sherriff of James City County.  Sir William Berkeley sent Drummond to North Carolina in 1664 to serve two years as the first governor of the new colony. Drummond returned to Jamestown in 1667.  In 1676 he sat as a burgess for James City county. 

During Bacon's Rebellion, William Drummond was Nathaniel Bacon's ardent and enthusiastic suporter. 

"These men were not seeking social change or anything resembling democracy; they were conspiring to bring together by the action of the new assembly a variety of causes under the aegis of political reform...an insurrection against the dictatorial, incompetent, corrupt, and unprinicpled administration...of Governor Berkeley and his small clique of councilors and officials...." (2)

He held Jamestown for Bacon and, as a last resort, set fire to the town, with his own hand setting fire to his residence, one of the most prominent in the villiage, then carried off the public records as the town burned.

"But Sir William Berkeley got the upper hand.  William Drummond was captured and brought before him.  The vindictive old governor could not hide his satisfaction.  "I am more glad to see you, Mr. Drummond, than any man in this colony!  You shall be hanged in half and hour." (1)  According to legend, Berkeley even took the ring, Drummond's wife's,  off Drummond's finger before he hung him. (3)

"The British government did not approve of Sir William Berkeley's high-handed massacres.  Drummond's property was restored to Sarah, his widow.  He left five children, one of them a son, also William, and one daughter, who married Samuel Swann, Governor of North Carolina."

Sources: 
1) Days of Yester-Year in Colony and Commonwealth: A Sketchbook of Virginia, W. H. T. Squires, Printcraft Press, Inc., 1928
2) Jamestown:1544-1699, Carl Bridenbaugh, Oxford University Press, 1980
3) The Real America in Romance: The Red Frontier, The Age of Aspiration, 1643-1680, edited by Edwin Markham, William H. Wise and Company, 1912