from office. Soon after, his wife joined him in England and died of smallpox. Within two months, he began to look for women to court. While in England, he sold the receiver generalship for £500 to a Virginian. Spotswood sought approval for the Tobacco Inspection Act of 1713—which regulated the quality and sale of tobacco exports—and the Indian Trade Act of 1714—which established a monopoly over commerce with Native Americans. Both were passed by the Virginia General Assembly, but it received a royal veto, which Byrd considered a personal win. Byrd was appointed a London agent in May 1718. Spotswood had Byrd deposed from the council. Byrd promised to seek a reconciliation with Spotswood and to return to Virginia, which he did in February 1720 and reconciled with Spotswood. In 1721, he was appointed a paid agent for the House of Burgesses and returned to England. In 1726, he returned to Virginia. On April 28 of that year, he resumed attendance at the council. In 1728, he was appointed to survey the Virginia and North Carolina border by the next Lieutenant Governor Sir William Gooch. The Tobacco Inspection Act of 1730 was passed and Byrd's land was chosen for construction of a warehouse, of direct benefit to him. He is responsible for the establishment of the cities of Petersburg and, on his own land, Richmond, Virginia in 1733. Gooch appointed Byrd to a commission with commissioners and surveyors to lay out the Northern Neck Proprietary. Byrd wrote the report that was sent with the survey in August 1737 to England, but after his death a report from another commission was chosen. He was the senior councillor by 1743. Marriages Lucy Parke Byrd Byrd courted Lucy Parke, daughter of Jane Ludwell Parke and Daniel Parke (1664–1710), who was Governor of the Leeward Islands. Lucy lived near Colonial Williamsburg at the Parke's Queen's Creek plantation in York County, Virginia with her mother and her sister Frances. Her father, who lived with his mistress, forbid the women from entertaining male callers and did not provide the money to have clothes of their station. This made it difficult for Frances and Lucy to have suitors. Byrd, though, knew Parke and his aristocratic connections, and was favorably impressed with Parke's daughters, particularly Lucy. Byrd married Lucy on May 4, 1706, at the Queen's Creek plantation. Frances was married on the same day to John Custis