Jamestown, Virginia, by Charles E. Hatch, Jr.

This publication is one of a series of handbooks describing the historical and archeological areas in the National Park System administered by the National Park Service of the United States Department of the Interior. It is printed by the Government Printing Office and may be purchased from the Superintendent of Documents, Washington 25, D. C. Price 25 cents.

Jamestown is the site of the first permanent English settlement in America {1607}, the point at which the first representative legislative assembly convened {1619} to set a pattern for self-government in America, the locale of stirring events in Bacon’s Rebellion {1676-77}, and the capital of the Colony of Virginia for 92 years {1607-99}.

The first permanent settlement in America by the English at Jamestown was a visible manifestation of the determination of that nation to establish itself in the New World. The overthrow of Spanish seapower during the reign of Queen Elizabeth paved the way for English colonization ventures. Enterprising Britons had already established their influence in India, the Near East, and Russia. Sir Walter Raleigh had made several unsuccessful attempts to establish an enduring settlement along the Carolina coast at Roanoke Island, events now commemorated by Fort Raleigh National Historic Site, and Sir Humphrey Gilbert had tried, to no avail, to make a settlement in Newfoundland.

It remained for the Virginia Company of London, under its charter of April 10, 1606, to found the first permanent English settlement in America. This joint stock company, a commercial organization, from its inception assumed a national character. It was instrumental, under its charter provisions, in guaranteeing to the settlers in the New World the rights, freedoms, and privileges enjoyed by Englishmen at home and the enjoyment of their customary manner of living which they adapted to their new environment with the passage of years.

Jamestown was the site of the first settlement that grew into the Colony of Virginia and gave heart to those men who settled the colonies that came later. The first Virginians landed in May 1607, built houses and a fort, planted crops, and began the struggle for the conquest of a vast primitive land. They brought with them their church and respect for God, maintained trial by jury and their rights as freemen, and soon were developing representative government. All of these things are a part of the story of Jamestown.

In the words of James Bryce, British Ambassador to the United States at the time of the Jamestown Tercentenary, the settlement of “Jamestown was one of the great events in the history of the world—an event 2 to be compared for its momentous consequences with the overthrow of the Persian Empire by Alexander; with the destruction of Carthage by Rome; with the conquest of Gaul by Clovis; with the taking of Constantinople by the Turks—one might almost say with the discovery of America by Columbus.” Here was born the great English-speaking nation beyond the seas, of which Gilbert and Raleigh had dreamed; and here was the cradle of our Republican institutions and liberties.

The Story of Jamestown

On May 13, 1607, three small English ships approached Jamestown Island in Virginia—the Susan Constant of 100 tons commanded by Capt. Christopher Newport and carrying 71 persons; the Godspeed of 40 tons commanded by Capt. Bartholomew Gosnold and carrying 52 persons; and the Discovery, a pinnace, of 20 tons under Capt. John Ratcliffe, carrying 21 persons. During the day (as George Percy, one of the party on board, relates) they maneuvered the ships so close to the shore that they were “moored to the Trees in six fathom [of] water.” The next day, May 14, he continues, “we landed all our men, which were set to worke about the fortification, others some to watch and ward as it was convenient.” Thus, the first permanent English settlement in America was begun on the shores of the James River, in Virginia, about 20 years after the ill-fated attempts to establish a colony on Roanoke Island and 13 years before the Pilgrims made their historic landing at Plymouth, in New England.

THE ENGLISH BACKGROUND.

The settlement at Jamestown, in 1607, was another step, albeit a most significant step, in England’s quest for a place in the vast New World first indicated by Columbus in his discovery of 1492 and made known to Europe through his and other expeditions. King Henry VII of England early sought to establish a claim in North America and sponsored the now famous voyage of John and Sebastian Cabot in 1497. The Cabots touched points along the Atlantic coast, and their discoveries were ever afterward pointed to with pride by Englishmen discussing their rights in the New World. As William Strachey wrote, in 1612, “... our voyages hither for a while might seeme to lye slumbering, yet our tytle could not thereby out sleepe ytself...”. Despite this, England was occupied at home and in Europe and did not press this advantage. Spain took the lead in colonial settlement and held it for decades. How many Englishmen set foot on the North American continent in the first three-quarters of the 16th century may never be known. They were no strangers in the fishing waters off Newfoundland, and in this region there appear to have been landings and temporary settlements. Even so, serious attempts at colonization did not begin until the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and then it was pushed vigorously by men 3 of the mark of Sir Humphrey Gilbert, Sir Walter Raleigh, and their associates.

Sir Humphrey lost his life in 1583 when returning from his attempted settlement of St. John’s Port, Newfoundland. Sir Walter Raleigh diligently sought to establish the English flag to the south. He sent out two colonial expeditions to found a settlement on Roanoke Island in present eastern North Carolina. Both failed in their over-all purpose. It was the expedition of 1587 (the last) which set sail for the Chesapeake Bay country and landed on Roanoke Island that has come down to us as the “Lost Colony”—the settlement that saw the birth of Virginia Dare and that left the baffling inscription suggesting that the members of the colony moved, willingly or unwillingly, to be with the Croatan Indians who lived not far from Roanoke. The early men at Jamestown knew of their countrymen who were lost in America and were under orders to seek them. This they did, but their search went unrewarded.

By 1600, England was readying herself for a concerted drive to establish colonies in the New World. The way had been prepared by the far-sighted Queen Elizabeth and her supporters. Within England there had been growth; capital had accumulated; industry was taking root; commercial organization was beginning; and Englishmen were ready for new adventures. Outwardly, England had grown through its naval successes and had developed a keen hostility to Spain. Individual Englishmen, each depending on his own circumstances, were seeking more profitable employment, personal freedom (particularly religious liberty), land ownership, personal advancement, adventure, and just plain change. A new England was in the making and the British Empire was about to rise in the West and in the Orient as well. With the accession of James I to the English throne, peace was made with Spain, a peace that was maintained although it was an uneasy one—from time to time little more than an armed truce. Yet, because of it, English capital came out of hiding and sought profitable investment. Business development increased and joint stock companies began to organize for overseas settlement.

Colonization was expensive, however, and required the pooled resources of many men. Advertising, which reached a peak early in the 17th century, was put to work in a manner that would do credit to the present day. Its use in commerce and government is by no means of recent date. Spokesmen—speakers, writers, poets, pamphleteers, playwrights, and preachers—solicited all England to take part in these new endeavors which, in their words, gave every assurance of profitable return.

The exploits of men such as Raleigh and Gilbert, Martin Frobisher, Michael Lok, John Davis, Thomas Cavendish, Sir Francis Drake, and Sir John Hawkins had already made England conscious of the potentialities of the New World and of the need to seek a part of it. Others followed these earlier leaders. In 1602 Raleigh sent yet another ship under Samuel Mace to seek the lost settlers of Roanoke, and in the same year a vessel 4 went out under Bartholomew Gosnold who attempted a settlement on Elizabeth’s Island in present Massachusetts. Gosnold and another in this party, Gabriel Archer, were to become prominent later in the Jamestown settlement. In 1603, Martin Pring made a voyage along the northern part of Virginia. In 1605, came the expedition under George Weymouth to the Kennebec River on the New England coast. He spent some weeks here and returned to England carrying with him several Indian natives from that region.

On April 10, 1606, the first Virginia charter received the great seal of England. This document recognized two groups and two spheres of influence that would fall between the thirty-fourth and forty-fifth parallels of north latitude along the American coast. One was interested in North Virginia and was granted to Thomas Hanham, Raleigh Gilbert, William Parker, George Popham, and others of and for Plymouth and other English places. This group was first in the field with exploration, dispatching a ship in August 1606 under Henry Challons. In May 1607, they sent a colony to the mouth of the Kennebec in Maine, but, in the spring of 1608, after a severe winter, the settlement was given up.

The second group, organized under the charter of 1606, was that interested in south Virginia. This patent went to Sir Thomas Gates, Sir George Somers, Richard Hakluyt, Edward Maria Wingfield, and others of and for the city of London. The treasurer of the group was Sir Thomas Smith, one of the most capable businessmen of the day. Richard Hakluyt, the foremost authority on travel, foreign regions, and colonization in general, assembled helpful data and had a large part in the preparation of instructions and orders for those to be sent out as colonists. It was this group and their associates that organized, financed, and directed the expedition that reached Jamestown on May 13, 1607, and saw to it that supplies came through and reinforcements were procured in the lean years of the settlement.

The immediate and long-range reasons for the settlement were many and, perhaps, thoroughly mixed. Profit and exploitation of the country were expected, for, after all, this was a business enterprise and they were necessary for long-range activity. A permanent settlement was the objective. Support, financial and popular, came from a cross section of English life. It seems obvious from accounts and papers of the period that it was generally thought that Virginia was being settled for the glory of God, for the honor of the King, for the welfare of England, and for the advancement of the Company and its individual members. In England and in Virginia they expected and did carry the word of God to the natives, although not with the same verve as the Spanish. They expected to develop natural resources, to free the mother country from dependence on European states, to strengthen their navy, and to increase national wealth and power. They expected to be a thorn in the side of the Spanish Empire; in fact, they hoped one day to challenge and overshadow that empire. They sought to find the answer to agricultural 5 unemployment at home. They sought many things, not the least of them being gold, silver, and land. As the men stepped ashore on Jamestown Island, perhaps each had a slightly different view of why he was there, yet some one or a combination of these motives was probably the reason.

THE FIRST DAYS IN VIRGINIA.

The expedition of 1607 included a cargo of supplies and 144 persons, of whom 104 or 105 (depending on which of the more detailed contemporary accounts is accepted) were to remain in Virginia as the first settlers. The expedition left England late in 1606. The ships sailed down the Thames River from London on December 20 and, after a slow start, they proceeded over the long route through the West Indies. There were stops in the islands, new experiences, and disagreements among the leaders. Captain Newport was in command, and the identity of the councilors who were to govern in Virginia lay hidden in a locked box not to be opened until their destination had been reached. Dissension at one point led to charges against Capt. John Smith who reached the New World in confinement. This was suggestive of the later personal and group feuds and disagreements that plagued the first years of the Virginia Colony.

The “Land of Virginia” was first seen by the lookout on April 26, and just a little later in the same day a party was sent ashore at Cape Henry to make sure what was the first landing in the wilderness which they came 6 to conquer. Having been aboard ship for many weeks, the settlers found the expanse of land, the green virgin trees, the cool, fresh water, and the unspoiled landscape a pleasant view to behold. At Cape Henry they saw Indians and several of the party were wounded by their arrows, notably Capt. Gabriel Archer, one of the experienced leaders. They built a “shallop” (a small boat), went exploring into the country for short distances by land and water, enjoyed the spring flowers, and tasted roasted oysters and “fine beautiful strawberries.” On April 29, a cross was set up among the sand dunes. The next day the ships were moved from Cape Henry into Chesapeake Bay to the site on Hampton Roads which they named Point Comfort (now Old Point Comfort).

For about 2 weeks, explorations were made along both banks of the James, below and above Jamestown, from its mouth to a point as far upstream perhaps as the Appomattox River (Hopewell, Va.). Parties went ashore to investigate promising areas, and communication was established with the native tribes. On May 12, a point of land at the mouth of Archer’s Hope (now College) Creek, a little below Jamestown, was examined in detail. Capt. Gabriel Archer was particularly impressed with this location and urged that it be the point of settlement. The soil seemed good, timber and wildlife were abundant, and it appeared adaptable for defensive measures if these should become necessary. It was not possible, however, to bring the ships close to the shore, and consequently Archer’s Hope was rejected. From this site the ships moved directly to Jamestown, where they arrived May 13. On May 14, they landed and broke ground for the fort and the town that ultimately won the distinction of the first permanent English settlement in America and the capital of the Virginia Colony for almost a century.

In May 1607, the days were warm, the nights, cool. Life was stirring in the wilderness and nature had been generous, the colonists thought. There were fruits, abundant timber, deer and other animals for food, and a not too numerous native population. The hot, humid weather of midsummer and the snow, ice, and emptiness of winter were not in evidence. The choice of a site for settlement was both good and bad. The anchorage for ships at Jamestown was good. The island had not then become a true island and had an easily controlled dry land isthmus connection with the mainland. As the river narrows here, it was one of the best control points on the James. It was not used by the Indians; and it was a bit inland, hence somewhat out of range of the Spanish menace. Arable land on the island was limited by inlets and “guts.” The swamps were close and bred mosquitoes in abundance and, with contamination so easy, drinking water was a problem. All of these facts became evident to these first English Americans as the months went by.

When the orders were opened after arrival in Virginia, it was found that the governing body in the colony was to be made up of seven councilors. They were Edward Maria Wingfield, of gallant service in the Low Countries; Bartholomew Gosnold and Christopher Newport, both 7 seasoned seamen and captains; John Ratcliffe, who piloted the Discovery to Virginia; John Martin, an earlier commander under Drake; John Smith, already an experienced adventurer; and George Kendall, a cousin of Sir Edwin Sandys who later was to play a dominant role in the Virginia Company. To this list can be added other prominent names—George Percy, brother to the Earl of Northumberland and a trained sailor; Gabriel Archer, a lawyer who had already explored in the New England country; and Rev. Robert Hunt, the vicar at Jamestown, whose pious and exemplary living was noted by his associates.

THE FORT.

The work of establishing Jamestown and of exploring the country round about began almost simultaneously. The several weeks between May 13 and June 22, when Newport left Virginia for a return to England, were busy ones. At Jamestown an area was cleared of trees and the fort begun. The soil was readied and the English wheat brought over for the purpose was planted. At this point Newport, in one of the small boats, led an exploring party as far as the falls of the James (near present Richmond). He was successful in learning a great deal about the country, but did not succeed in his search for gold or silver. He was absent from Jamestown about a week and returned to find that the Indians had launched a fierce attack on the new settlement which had been saved, perhaps, by the fact that the ships were near at hand. These afforded safe quarters and carried cannon on their decks that had a frightening effect on the natives.

The fort was completed about mid-June. It was triangular in shape, with a “Bulwarke” at each corner which was shaped like a “halfe Moone.” Within the “Bulwarkes” were mounted 4 or 5 pieces of artillery—demiculverins which fired balls of about 9 pounds in weight. The fort enclosed about 1 acre with its river side extending 420 feet and its other sides measuring 300 feet. The principal gate faced the river and was in the south side (curtain) of the fort, although there were other openings, one at each “Bulwarke,” and each was protected by a piece of ordnance. The church, storehouses, and living quarters were flimsily built of perishable materials, within the walls of the palisaded fort, along fixed streets arranged around an open yard. For the first few years this fort was Jamestown.

Before the fort was completed the wheat had come up and was growing nicely, as George Percy wrote in what was probably the first essay on farming along the James River. About June 10, John Smith, partly through the intercession of Robert Hunt, was released and admitted to his seat on the council. Relations with the Indians improved. On June 21, the third Sunday after Trinity, the first recorded Anglican communion at Jamestown was celebrated. “We had a comunyon. Capt. Newport dyned ashore with our dyet, and invyted many of us to supper as a farewell.” The next day, Christopher Newport raised anchor and began the return trip to England. He took letters from those to remain 8 in Virginia and carried accounts describing Virginia and the events that had occurred. The settlement had been made, and the future seemed promising.

SUMMER AND AUTUMN, 1607.

Within the short span of 2 months, conditions changed drastically. The Indians became cautious and distrustful, and provisions, not sufficiently augmented from the country, began to run low. Spoilage destroyed some food, and, with the coming of the hot, humid weather, the brackish drinking water proved dangerous. In August, death struck often and quickly, taking among others the stabilizing hand of Captain Gosnold. Inexperience, unwillingness, or inability to do the hard work that was necessary and the lack of sufficient information about how to survive in a primeval wilderness led to bickering, disagreements, and, to what was more serious still, inaction. They forgot a most important bit of advice that had been given them by “His Majesties Council for Virginia”: “... the way to prosper and achieve good success is to make yourselves all of one mind for the good of your country and your own...”.

On arrival in Virginia the resident councilors, as outlined in their orders, met and named one of their number as president. Real power was with the council, however, and the president was without actual independent authority. This was a serious defect (corrected in the second company charter in 1609) which prevented a well-directed and coordinated program at Jamestown during the first 3 years. As the first summer wore on it was natural that hostility should develop toward the titular head of the colony. Had the first president, Edward Maria Wingfield, been a stronger, more adventurous, and more daring man, conditions might have been a little better, despite his lack of real authority. He was not the leader, however, to act and to reason later. Consequently, opinion was arrayed against him and charges, some unjust no doubt, were formed that led to his deposition and replacement in one of the two celebrated jury trials which occurred at Jamestown about mid-September. His successor, perhaps no more able, was John Ratcliffe who continued for about a year until deposed and replaced by Matthew Scrivener, one of those who came over with the first supply. It was a little later, in 1608, that Capt. John Smith took the helm as chief councilor, which was what the president really was. It was under the presidency of Ratcliffe, however, that Smith emerged as an able, experienced leader, who preferred action to inaction even though it might be questioned later. His work and his decisions, sometimes wise, sometimes not so wise, did much to insure the survival of the colony.

When the first cool days of approaching autumn touched Jamestown in 1607, spirits rose and hopefulness supplanted despair. Disease, which had reduced the number to less than 50 persons, subsided; the oppressive heat lessened; and Indian crops of peas, corn, and beans began to mature. Friendlier relations were established with the natives, and barter 9 trade developed. As the leaves fell, game became easier to get, ducks multiplied in the ponds and marshes, and life in general seemed brighter. Work was resumed at Jamestown in preparation for the coming winter, and exploration was undertaken. It was in December, while investigating the Chickahominy River area, that Smith was taken by the Indians. He was eventually carried before Powhatan who released him, some say through the intercession of the young Pocahontas. This incident Smith did not mention in his detailed account of the events of the Colony written several months later. It was not until a number of years later, in fact, that this romantic story evolved in its present form.

THE FIRST SUPPLY.

Upon returning to Jamestown, Smith was caught in the meshes of a feuding council. All was forgotten early in January, however, when Newport reached Jamestown with the first supply for the settlers. He brought food, equipment, instructions, and news from home. His cargo was not sufficient, but for the moment this was overlooked. The two ships of the supply had left England together, but the second did not reach Virginia until April.

Shortly after Newport’s arrival in January, disaster came to Jamestown. Fire swept through the fort, consuming habitations, provisions, ammunition, and even some of the palisades. This was a serious blow in the face of winter weather. With the help of Newport and his sailors, the church, storehouse, palisades, and cabins were partially rebuilt before he sailed again for England early in April. Much more could have been done had 10 he not consumed so many days in a pompous visit and lengthy negotiations with the wily Powhatan. Then, too, the ships had to be loaded for the return voyage, for the London backers were loudly calling for profitable produce. The first of the spring months were spent in cutting cedar logs and preparing “clapboards” for sale in England, and a little later there seems to have been a mild “gold rush” at Jamestown as some hopeful looking golden colored soil was found. This all delayed early spring clearing and planting, and boded ill for the coming summer when Ratcliffe wasted precious days building a house suitable to his position and Smith engaged in important, yet not particularly pressing, explorations.

THE FIRST MARRIAGE AT JAMESTOWN.

It was in September 1608 that Smith became president in fact and inaugurated a program of physical improvement at Jamestown. The area about the fort was enlarged and the standing structures repaired. At this point, in October, the second supply arrived, including 70 settlers, who, when added to the survivors in Virginia, raised the over-all population to about 120. Among the new arrivals were two women—Mistress Forrest and her maid. Several months later, in the church at Jamestown, the maid, Ann Burras, was married to one of the settlers, John Laydon, a carpenter by trade. This marriage has been ranked as “the first recorded English marriage on the soil of the United States.” Their child, Virginia, born the next year, was the first to be born at Jamestown. Here was the beginning of family life in the new colony. Soon other women would arrive to help continue, or to establish, new homes.

THE SECOND SUPPLY AND EARLY INDUSTRY.

With the second supply came workmen sent over to produce glass, pitch, soap ashes, and other items profitable in England. These men, including some Poles and Dutchmen, were quickly assigned to specific duties. So rapidly did they begin that “trials” of at least one product, glass, were sent home when Newport left Jamestown before the end of the year. As usual, in addition to settlers and supplies, Newport brought more instructions from the company officials. The colony was not succeeding financially, and it was urged that the council spend more time in the preparation of marketable products. It was urged, too, that gold be sought more actively; that Powhatan be crowned as a recognition befitting his position; and that more effort be expended in search of the Roanoke settlers. These things were all desirable, but, at the moment, impracticable. No one understood this better than did Smith, who spoke his mind freely in a letter he wrote for dispatch to the authorities at home. Nevertheless, these projects were emphasized, and the more pressing needs of adequate shelter and sufficient food were neglected.

In the interval from about February to May 1609, Smith reported considerable material progress in and about Jamestown. Perhaps 40 acres 11 were cleared and prepared for planting in Indian corn, the new grain that fast became a staple commodity. A deep well was dug in the fort. The church was re-covered and 20 cabins built. A second trial was made at glass manufacture in the furnaces built late in 1608. A blockhouse was built at the isthmus which connected the island[1] to the mainland for better control of the Indians, and a new fort was erected on a little creek across the river from Jamestown. Smith was now in command, as his fellow councilors either had returned to England or were dead. About this time there came a new disaster. With all attention centered on the numerous construction projects, insufficient protection was given the meager supply of grain. When discovered, rats had consumed almost all of the corn stores. Faced with this situation, Smith found it necessary to scatter the settlers, sending some to live with the Indians and some to eat at the oyster banks where the unbalanced oyster diet is reported to have caused their skin “to peel off from head to foot as if they had been fleade.” Only “a small guarde of gentlemen & some others [were left] about the president at James Towne.”

In midsummer of 1609, conditions at Jamestown were not good, although it is doubtful that they were any worse than during the two previous summers. The settlers were becoming acclimated, and they 12 were learning the ways of the new country. Supplies were low, yet the number of colonists was small, and a good harvest and a good autumn might have improved matters had not some 400 new, inexperienced settlers sailed into the James without their leaders, without instructions, and with damaged supplies. To add to other complications, they brought fever and plague. In the selection of prospective settlers for the voyage the standards had been low, and too many ne’er-do-wells, and even renegades, had been included. This was the third supply, and it reached Jamestown in August 1609.

THE SECOND COMPANY CHARTER AND THE THIRD SUPPLY.

The company had received a new charter in May 1609 which corrected some of the defects of the old and made provision for a strong governor to rule in the Colony. Despite discouraging news from Virginia, the supporters of the enterprise did not abandon their plans to maintain the colony. The second charter, as this was called, was subscribed and incorporated by 56 companies of London and 659 persons, of whom 21 were peers, 96 knights, 11 doctors, ministers, etc., 53 captains, 28 esquires, 58 gentlemen, 110 merchants, 282 citizens, and others not classified. Altogether they represented a cross section of English life in that period.

It was resolved to send a much larger expedition to Virginia than the three sent prior to this date. It went out in June under Sir Thomas Gates and with him were Sir George Somers and Captain Newport. There were 9 ships and about 500 settlers. The voyage was uneventful until they ran into a stiff hurricane that broke up the fleet and cast ashore in the Bermuda Islands the flagship with its three commanders. The rest of the fleet, except one small ship lost at sea, limped into the James and went on to Jamestown.

Returning to Virginia in the third supply were several men who had been earlier leaders in the colony and who were now all hostile to Smith—Archer, Ratcliffe, and Martin. A confusing scene developed over command. The old leaders, particularly Smith, refused to give way to the new in the absence of Gates, the appointed governor, and his instructions. There was considerable bickering which led to an uneasy settlement, leaving Smith in charge for the duration of his yearly term, now almost expired.

It was obvious to everyone that there were too many men for all to remain at Jamestown. John Martin was sent to attempt a settlement at Nansemond, on the south side of the James below Jamestown, while Capt. Francis West, brother of Lord Delaware, was sent to settle at the falls of the James. Returning to Jamestown after an inspection tour at the falls, Captain Smith was injured by burning gunpowder and incapacitated. The implication in the documents of the period is that Ratcliffe, Archer, and Martin used this opportunity to depose him and to compel him to return to England to face their charges against him. These three men, failing to agree on a replacement from their own number, persuaded 13 George Percy to accept the position of president. Percy was in command during the terrible winter that followed.

THE “STARVING TIME.”

The winter of 1609-10 has been described through the years as the “starving time”—seemingly, an accurate description. It saw the population shrink from 500 to about 60 as a result of disease, sickness, Indian arrows, and malnutrition. It destroyed morale and reduced the men to scavengers stalking the fort, fields, and woods for anything that might be used as food. When spring came there was little spirit left in the settlement. It would seem unjust to attribute the disaster to Percy, who did what he could to ameliorate conditions by attempting trade and keeping the men busy. The “starving time” appears to have been caused by an accumulation of circumstances.

There was the matter of the third supply which arrived in such poor condition very late in the season. Bickering prevented measures that could have been taken to prepare for the winter. Dissension continued even after Smith’s departure. Then, too, the Indians knew of conditions at Jamestown, for they actually kept scouts in the fort much of the time. They were learning the ways of the white man and had come to see that he was most vulnerable in the winter season. Heretofore they had supplied him corn—by gift, by trade, or unwillingly through seizure. In the winter of 1609-10, they had a good opportunity to make him suffer, and throughout this period the Indians were openly hostile. Perhaps the increasingly heavy use of force and armed persuasion in dealing with them had resulted in this attitude which, from their point of view, proved highly effective. In the fall of 1608, they had forced the settlers in from Nansemond and the falls. Then, in the winter of 1609-10, Powhatan captured and killed Ratcliffe who had gone to trade with him. All through that winter it was dangerous to be alone far from the fort.

Not having sufficient stores set aside, not able to deal with the natives, and without the use of the resources of the countryside, there is small wonder that conditions became serious, even desperate, for the settlers. Those few men fortified on Hampton Roads under Capt. James Davis (after Captain West, perhaps under threat from the crew, left Virginia for England in the colony’s best ship) fared far better than did those at Jamestown. Even the coming of spring failed to restore full hope and vitality to the survivors, yet certainly it must have been good to know that winter was over.

VIRGINIA ALMOST ABANDONED.

In May 1610, the hearts of the weary settlers were gladdened when Sir Thomas Gates, their new governor, sailed into the James. For about a year he and the survivors of the wreck of the Sea Venture had labored in Bermuda to make possible the continuation of their voyage to Virginia. The last part of the journey was made in two boats built by them in Bermuda—the Patience and the Deliverance, names suggestive of their thankfulness for survival. It was 14 not a pleasant sight that greeted them at Jamestown. Ruin and desolation were everywhere. Gates, with his Council, on July 7, 1610, wrote that Jamestown seemed

Gates promptly distributed provisions, such as he had, and introduced a code of martial law, the code that was strengthened later by Delaware and made famous by its strict enforcement under the governorship of Sir Thomas Dale. After surveying the condition of the settlement and realizing that the supplies he had brought would not last 3 weeks, Gates took council with the leaders. They decided to abandon the settlement. On June 7, 1610, the settlers, except some of the Poles and Dutchmen who were with Powhatan, boarded the ship, left Jamestown, and started down the James.

The next morning, while still in the river, advance word reached Gates that Lord Delaware had arrived at Point Comfort on the way to Jamestown and was bringing 150 settlers and a generous supply. The bad news carried to England by the returning ships of the third supply, late in 1609, had caused considerable stir in Virginia Company circles and had resulted in Delaware’s decision to go to Virginia. Learning of the new supply, Gates hastened back to Jamestown. The new settlement had been saved in a manner that was recognized at that time as an act of “Providence.”

LORD DELAWARE REACHES JAMESTOWN.

On June 10, Delaware reached “James Citty” and made his landing. He entered the fort through the south gate, and, with his colors flying, went on to the church where Rev. Richard Buck delivered an impressive sermon. Then his ensign, Anthony Scott, read his commission, and Gates formally delivered to him his own authority as governor. Delaware’s speech to the assembled colonists cheered them, advised them, warned them, and reproached them. Thanks to the pen of William Strachey, we have a good account of these events, including the best description of the fort, church, and cabins that is now known to have been preserved. With the arrival of Delaware, the settlement was given new life and new hope. Lean times lay ahead, yet the most difficult years lay behind. Virginia now had a government that made for stability under the governor, and the old settlers, who, a little later, came to be called “Ancient Planters,” had learned well by experience.

Gates, after dealing with the Indians, left for England. Delaware, who continued to live aboard ship for a time, called a Council, reorganized the colonists, and directed operations to promote the welfare of the colony, including the construction of two forts near Point Comfort. He fell sick, however, and, after a long illness, was forced to leave Jamestown and Virginia in March 1611, leaving the now veteran administrator, George Percy, as governor in charge. With Delaware went Dr. Lawrence Bohun, who had experimented extensively with the curative powers of plants and herbs at Jamestown.

SIR THOMAS DALE AND MILITARY LAW.

In May, Sir Thomas Dale, on military leave from his post in the Low Countries, arrived as deputy governor of Virginia. He proceeded to give form and substance to the martial law which had been evoked by his predecessors. It led to rather complete regimentation, and he was severely criticized for it later, particularly by those hostile to his administration. He began by posting proclamations “for the publique view” at Jamestown. Later, he thoroughly inspected suitable settlement sites and surveyed conditions generally. He wrote, on May 25, 1611, that on arrival at Jamestown he found “... no corn sett, some few seeds put into a private garden or Two; but the cattle, cows, goats, swine, Poultry &c to be well and carefully on all hands preserved and all in good plight and likeing.” To get things in order at the seat of government, one party was designated to repair the church, another to work on the stable, another to build a wharf. When things were reasonably well in hand at Jamestown, he made plans to push the decision to open a new settlement above Jamestown which would become the real center of the colony. The reasons for such a removal of the seat of government are well known—not sufficient high land, poor drinking water, too much marsh, and a location not far enough upstream to be out of reach of the Spanish.

JAMESTOWN, 1611-16.

Under Dale, from May 1611 to 1616, and under Gates who replaced him for several years, beginning in August 1611, the emphasis was away from Jamestown, but the capital was not actually moved.

In 1612, “Master George Percie ... [was busy] with the keeping of Jamestown” while much of the colony had been “moved up river.” The first settlement was then looked upon as chiefly a place of safety for hogs and cattle. In 1614, it was made up of “two faire rowes of howses, all of framed Timber, two stories, and an vpper Garret or Corne loft high, besides three large, and substantiall Storehowses ioyned togeather in length some hundred and twenty foot, and in breadth forty ... this town hath been lately newly, and strongly impaled, and a faire platforme for Ordnance in the west Bulworke raised.” Without the town “... in the Island [were] some very pleasant, and beutifull howses, two Blockhouses ... and certain other farme howses.” In 1616, it was a post of 50 under the command of Lt. John Sharpe, who was acting in 16 the absence of Capt. Francis West. Thirty-one of these were “farmors” and all maintained themselves with “food and rayment.”

The Gates-Dale 5-year administration (1611-16) actually saw Virginia established as a going concern. The role of Dale in all of this seems to have been a heavy one. Martial law brought order and uniformity in operations and compelled the people to go to work. Dale saw to it that corn was planted and harvested and that the laws were observed. He made peace with the Indians.

So effective were Dale’s measures that one of his contemporaries, John Rolfe, wrote “whereupon a peace was concluded, which still continues so firme, that our people yearlely plant and reape quietly, and travell in the woods a fowling and a hunting as freely and securely from danger or treacherie as in England. The great blessings of God have followed this peace, and it, next under him, hath bredd our plentie....” All this was accomplished when the fortunes of the Virginia Company were at a low point and little support was being sent to the colony. John Rolfe then went on to predict that Dale’s “worth and name ... will out last the standing of this plantation....”

Martial law, strictly administered at first, was gradually relaxed in application as conditions stabilized, and within a few years Dale took the step of granting 3-acre plots to private men for their enjoyment outside of the common store. This was a big step in the evolution of the private ownership of land. In the beginning, ownership was communal and company controlled. In 1609, a future division of both land and profits was anticipated, but it was about 1619 before individual grants were made. A part of this evolution was the headright system of acquisition, whereby persons were rewarded for venturing to Virginia themselves, or their capital. Dale’s grants of a semiprivate nature, about 1615, were a step in this evolution as well. The headright system which developed at Jamestown and on the banks of the James was later adapted in other colonies and continued in use for generations.

Gates and Dale in their administration had the help of other enterprising and daring early Virginians. There was Capt. Samuel Argall whose later work as governor of the colony has sometimes been criticized, especially his handling of the company finances. This should not becloud his earlier helpfulness in getting Virginia established. He pioneered in making a direct crossing of the Atlantic to save time and to avoid the Spanish, who now were fearful that the Virginia enterprise might succeed and were sending spies to Virginia. (Some of these spies were captured and interned at Jamestown.) Argall led in exploration, both in Virginia waters and northward along the coastline. He was adept at shipbuilding and in the Indian trade. It was evidently he who discovered the best fishing seasons and the fact that the fish made “runs” in the bay and in the rivers. He made an open attack on the French settlements to the north in New England and Nova Scotia, returning to Jamestown with his captives.

POCAHONTAS.

While on a trading expedition on the Potomac, Argall captured Pocahontas and brought her as a prisoner to Jamestown in an attempt to deal with her father, Powhatan. Pocahontas was no stranger at Jamestown. She had often visited there before, once in the spring of 1608 to seek some of her countrymen held as hostages in the fort.

In 1613, Pocahontas was well received at Jamestown, where she had not been for some time; and when her father refused to pay the price asked for her ransom, she was detained. Later, she preferred life with the English and did not wish to return to her native village. She was placed under the tutelage of Rev. Alexander Whitaker who instructed her in the Christian faith. Eventually Pocahontas was baptized. In April 1614, in the church at Jamestown, she married John Rolfe, one of the settlers. This was a celebrated marriage that did much to improve relations with the Indians. About 1616, the couple went to England where Pocahontas was entertained at court. She died there as she was about to return to Virginia, in 1617, and her body rests at Gravesend. She had one son, Thomas Rolfe, who later came to Virginia. Through him many today can trace their ancestry to Pocahontas.

TOBACCO.

After the death of Pocahontas, John Rolfe came back to Virginia alone to resume the work which he had begun there as early as 1610. Perhaps he continued his work with tobacco which had already resulted in a plant that could compete in taste and quality with that which had given the Spanish a monopoly of the tobacco market.

In the first years of the settlement every effort had been made to find products in the New World that would assure financial success for the settlers and the company. Pitch, tar, timber, sassafras, cedar, and other natural products were sent in the returning ships. Attempts to produce glass on a paying scale proved futile, as did early efforts to make silk, using the native mulberry trees growing in abundance. The glass furnaces 18 fell into disuse, and rats ate the silkworms. The native tobacco plant, found growing wild was “... not of the best kind ... [but was] poore and weake, and of a byting tast ...” and held little promise.

About 1610-11, the seed of a different species of the plant was imported from Trinidad, then famous for the quality of its tobacco. Later some came from Venezuela. These were planted and a process of selection and crossbreeding began which resulted in the commercially valuable Virginia leaf. John Rolfe, a smoker himself, has been credited as the pioneer English colonist in this experimentation.

In addition to the improvement of the plant, Rolfe was one of the first regularly to grow tobacco for export and as such was the father of the Virginia tobacco trade and industry. The first experimental shipment of the newly developed Virginia leaf came about 1613, and because of its pleasant taste it was well received in some quarters. Production was slow for several years. Dale restricted its cultivation until basic commodities, such as corn, were well advanced. In the 1615-16 period only 2,300 pounds reached London from Virginia. Capt. George Yeardley, the next to govern, gave the new crop his whole-hearted support, with the result that in 1617 exports reached the 20,000 pound total, and by 1619 this had been more than doubled. Thus, a new trade and industry were born in the colony, which proved to be the economic salvation of Virginia, and provided a means for making slavery profitable. Tobacco and slavery together led to the development of important characteristics of the whole social, political, and economic structure of the Old South. One of the immediate effects of tobacco culture in Virginia was the impetus it gave to the expansion of the area of settlement and to the number of settlers coming to Virginia.

THE SPREAD OF SETTLEMENT.

Jamestown was planned as the first permanent English settlement in Virginia. The fixed intention was to establish other seats as soon as possible. As the limitations of Jamestown became obvious, the desire for other townsites was intensified. Soon after the settlement was made at Jamestown, temporary garrisons were placed at outlying points for protective and administrative reasons—at Kecoughtan 19 (Hampton-Newport News), Cape Henry, and at the falls of the James. The first efforts in this direction, except at Kecoughtan, ended in the autumn of 1609 under pressure from the Indians. With the arrival of Delaware, Kecoughtan (renamed Elizabeth City in 1619) was established as a permanent settlement. Dale and Gates went on to establish the city of Henricus (Henrico) well up the James near the falls. Then came Charles City (the earlier Bermuda Nether Hundred) which developed into the last of the four settlements established by the company, each of which had the designation “city.” These four settlements were the only towns specifically set up by the company and consequently under its complete control. These later came to be mentioned in the records as the “Four Ancient Boroughs” or “four ancient Incorporations.” As one of these, Jamestown became the center of the political subdivision that developed into one of the original Virginia shires in 1634. Within the next decade the term county replaced that of shire, and today, although Jamestown has ceased to exist as a corporate organization, James City County continues to function as the oldest governing unit in English America.

Although the four “cities” constituted the first settlements in Virginia and were the only ones established directly under company control, they were but the beginning. About 1616, a new plan gave rise to the creation of settlements known as “particular plantations,” sometimes called “hundreds” as a result of the practice of awarding land on the basis of 100 acres or of sending settlers in groups of the same number. These were established with company permission, which included a grant of land made to individual groups of stockholders organized for the purpose of setting up a specific settlement. The first of these was Martin’s Hundred, in 1617, and others followed rapidly. By the summer of 1619, there were seven particular plantations already functioning, in addition to the original “cities,” a term sometimes thought to derive from the form of government being used by the “City of Geneva” in Switzerland which was held in high esteem by some of the company officials, particularly by Sir Edwin Sandys who became Treasurer of the Virginia Company in 1618.

With the spread of settlement east and west along the James and outward along its rivers and creeks as well, Jamestown lay approximately in the center of an expanding and growing colony. It was the capital town and the principal center of the colony’s social and political life. In size it remained small, yet it was intimately and directly related to all of the significant developments of the 17th century. Its physical aspects changed with the evolution of 17th century architectural patterns and designs. Life in the town was varied and perhaps representative of the best in the colony for almost a century. As wealth accumulated, the manner of living broadened and improved. There is strong evidence that Jamestown was the first to feel the impact of the advantages and efforts that this produced, particularly in the first half century of its existence. 20 Material progress is evident as early as 1619 in the letter of John Pory, secretary of the colony, written from Virginia late in that year:

THE BEGINNING OF REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT.

In 1618, there were internal changes in the Virginia Company that led to the resignation of Sir Thomas Smith as treasurer, and to the election of Sir Edwin Sandys as his successor. This roughly corresponded to changes in company policy toward the administration of the colony and to intensified efforts to develop Virginia. It led to the abolition of martial law, to the establishment of individual property ownership, and greater freedom and participation in matters of government. Virginia already enjoyed a high degree of religious freedom due, perhaps, to the fact that a number of company officers were strongly under the influence of the puritan element within the Church of England. This, together with the fact that Virginia was not settled purely for religious reasons, caused less stress to be put on absolute uniformity in church matters. Sir George Yeardley, recently knighted, returned to Virginia as governor in April 1619, and was the first spokesman in the colony for the new policy toward Virginia. In England it had been ably advanced on behalf of the colony by Sir Edwin Sandys, the Earl of Southampton, and John and Nicholas Ferrar.

Soon after his arrival, Yeardley issued a call for a representative legislative assembly which convened at Jamestown on July 30, 1619, and remained in session until August 4. This was the earliest example of our present system of representative government in America. The full intentions behind the moves that led to this historic meeting may never be known. It seems to have been an attempt to give to the Englishmen in America those rights and privileges of Englishmen that had been guaranteed to them in the original company charter, rather than a planned attempt to establish self-government in the New World on a scale that might have been in violation of English law and custom at the time. Whatever the motive, the significance of this meeting in the church at Jamestown remains the same. This body of duly chosen representatives of the people has continued in existence and its evolution leads directly to our State legislatures and to the Congress of the United States.

DEVELOPMENTS, 1619-24.

Another significant development of 1619 was the sending by the company of maidens to Virginia to be wives of the settlers. Although many women were already established with their 21 families in the Jamestown colony, the company recognized that homes and children for all the men would be conducive to established family life and permanent residence. Under this new project, the first maidens arrived in May and June 1620. Others followed, as ships brought more and more young women seeking their fortunes in Virginia.

The third momentous event in 1619 was the arrival of Negroes in a Dutch warship. They remained in Virginia, some finding homes, and some as indentured servants even as some white men were at that time. Nevertheless, this first arrival of Negroes was to lead to the introduction of slavery into the colony. It was more than a generation before the institution of slavery began to be entrenched as the backbone of the economic life in Virginia, yet this event of 1619 was the first move in that direction.

Under Dale, the emphasis on colonization was away from Jamestown, yet later governors found the original seat desirable. Capt. Samuel Argall, who succeeded Yeardley as deputy governor in 1617, wrote that he advanced physical improvements prior to his hasty withdrawal from Virginia in the spring of 1619 to avoid arrest under charges of mismanagement of company affairs. Argall had been the first to prescribe limits for Jamestown. Yeardley followed him as governor, and for the next few years Jamestown, at this time most often called “James City,” witnessed considerable growth and activity. The town, long before, had expanded outside of the fort and spread along the shore on the extreme 22 west end of the island. The borough or incorporation, of which it was the center, extended west to the Chickahominy River and downriver beyond Hog Island. Its territory was along the north side of the river and included the south side as well—the area that later became Surry County. West toward the Chickahominy the area adjacent to Jamestown Island became rather heavily developed and was referred to as the “Suburbs of James City.”

The period from 1619 to 1624 was one of considerable activity for Virginia in general and Jamestown in particular. The reorganized Virginia Company, following its political changes, renewed its efforts to expand the colony and to stimulate profitable employment. Heavy emphasis was placed on new industries, particularly iron and glass, the latter evidently attempted a second time on Glasshouse Point. The planting of mulberry trees and the growing of silkworms were advanced by the dispatch of treatises on silk culture and silkworm eggs in a project in which King James I himself had a personal interest. Immigration to the colony was increased, and measures were taken to meet the religious and educational needs of the settlers. This was the period that saw the attempt to establish a college at Henrico.

The industrial and manufacturing efforts of these years, however, were not destined to succeed. This condition was not due to any laxity on the part of George Sandys, resident treasurer in Virginia, who was something of an economic on-the-spot supervisor for the company. Virginia could not yet support these projects profitably, and interest was lacking on the part of the planters who found in tobacco a source of wealth superior to anything else that had been tried. Tobacco was profitable, and it was grown, at times, even in the streets of Jamestown. It was the profit from tobacco that supported the improved living conditions that came throughout the colony.

These Englishmen who came to settle in the wilderness retained their desire for the advantages of life in England. Books, for example, were highly valued, and with the passage of the years were no uncommon commodity in Virginia. As early as 1608, Rev. Robert Hunt had a library at Jamestown, which was consumed by fire in January of that year. Each new group of colonists seemingly added to the store on hand—Bibles, Books of Common Prayer, other religious works, medical and scientific treatises, legal publications, accounts of gardening, and such. In 1621, the company wrote to the colonial officials regarding works for a new minister being sent to the colony that: “As for bookes we doubt not but you wilbe able to supplie him out of the lybraries of so many that have died.” By this date there was local literary effort, too, such as that by Treasurer George Sandys who continued his celebrated translation of Ovid’s Metamorphoses in the house of William Pierce at Jamestown. Then, too, in March 1623, a gentleman of the colony sent from “Iames his Towne” the ballad “Good Newes from Virginia” in which, among other things, he describes the arrival of the governor’s 23 wife at Jamestown and uses this to prod others to support the colony and to settle in Virginia.

“NEW TOWNE.”

It is in the 1619 to 1624 period that the first clear picture of Jamestown emerges, for this period corresponds with the earliest known property records that exist. The town had outgrown the original fort in some years past and now appeared as a fairly flourishing settlement. The records reveal that many of the property owners were yeomen, merchants, carpenters, hog-raisers, farmers, joiners, shopkeepers, and ordinary “fellows,” as well as governors and colonial officials. The “New Towne” section of James City developed in this period as the old section proved too small and the residents began to build more substantial houses, principally frame on brick foundations. The Indian massacre of 1622, that wrought such heavy devastation in the colony, did not reach Jamestown which was warned through the efforts of the Indian, Chanco. It did temporarily cause congestion in the Jamestown area, however, as the survivors from the more distant settlements fell back for safety and to regroup. The punitive Indian campaigns that followed were directed from Jamestown by the governor, who resided there.

The population figures taken in these years give a good idea of the size of Jamestown in this period. In February 1624, it is recorded that 183 persons were living in Jamestown and 35 others on the island outside of the town. These are listed by name, as are the 87 who died between April 1623 and the following February. The death toll suggests that the mortality rate was continuing high and that it was still difficult for newcomers to adapt themselves to the Virginia environment. In the 24 “census” of January 1625, a total of 124 residents are listed for “James Citty” and an additional 51 for the island. In the over-all total of 173, 122 were males and 53, females. At that time, Governor Sir Francis Wyatt and former Governor Yeardley had two of the largest musters for the town, which included women, children, indentured servants, and Negroes. Nine Negroes were listed for Jamestown and the island, evidently some of those brought there in 1619.

Aside from the population statistics, the musters of January 1625 give much more information. Jamestown had a church, a court-of-guard (guardhouse), 3 stores, a merchant’s store, and 33 houses. Ten of the colony’s 40 boats were here, including a skiff, a “shallop” of 4 tons, and a “barque” of 40 tons. There were stores of fish (24,880 pounds to be exact), corn, peas, and meal. There were four pieces of ordnance, supplies of powder, shot and lead, and, for individual use, “fixt peeces,” snaphances, pistols, swords (to the number of 70), coats of mail, quilted coats, and suits of armor (35 of them complete). The bulk of the colony’s livestock seems to have been localized in the Jamestown area—about half (183) of the cattle, a little more than half (265) of the hogs, and well over half (126) of the goats. The one horse listed for the colony was at Jamestown.

The “census” clearly indicates that the population of Jamestown was not keeping pace with that of the colony. The needs of tobacco culture—open fields and new soil—and the abundance of navigable waters in the rivers, bays, and creeks of tidewater Virginia led to a scattered population, based on the plantation system. These factors prevented the rise of trade centers and large towns for almost a century, despite the best efforts of both home and colonial officials. The idea was to make Jamestown the center of social, political, and economic life and to develop it into a city of some proportions. In size, it never attained that of a city and it failed to dominate trade and commerce. It was, however, the hub of political and social life for as long as it was the capital of Virginia—92 years. Hence, its story is vital to an understanding of American beginnings. Its citizens, in their daily life and work, developed the origins of many of our institutions, styles, and customs in speech, in architecture, in dress, and in government organization.

VIRGINIA MADE A ROYAL COLONY.

The Virginia Company established the first permanent English settlement in America, but did not reap the profits that it had expected. Despite reorganization and large expenditures, it never achieved its full objective and was increasingly subject to criticism. Matters reached a head in 1624 when James I dissolved the company, thereby removing the hand that had guided Virginia affairs for 17 years. With this act Virginia became a royal colony and continued as such until the American Revolution made it free and independent. From the point of view of operations in the colony the change was 25 almost painless although there was concern over land titles and a continuance of the assembly which had already voiced its feeling on taxation without representation. The company governor gave way to the royal appointee, but most institutions were left intact.

Sir Francis Wyatt was the last company governor, and he continued in office for a while as royal governor. When he left for England, in 1626, Yeardley again became governor and served until he died at Jamestown the next year. Capt. Francis West was named to the post as deputy. Another deputy, Dr. John Pott, followed next in turn, and he was replaced by the royal appointee, Sir John Harvey.

GOVERNOR HARVEY DEPOSED.

Sir John Harvey first came to Virginia in 1624 as a member of a committee to report on conditions in the colony. It was in 1630 that he returned as royal governor and settled himself at “James cittie, the seate of the Governor.” In 1632, he had a commodious house here and was complaining of the expense of the entertainment that he had to finance in “the Governors owne house.” Whether because of his personal nature, his own view or interpretation of government, or because of the severe opposition that confronted him, he managed to become thoroughly disliked throughout the colony. His high-handed and autocratic methods arrayed even his council against him.

In the end, his council, in meetings at Jamestown, moved to depose him, naming another to act in his stead—a bold measure, indeed. The assembly, in May 1635, approved this action, and Harvey was returned to England to answer the charges placed against him there. The King, it is true, returned Harvey to his post as royal governor in 1637, but undoubtedly both he and Harvey were impressed by the action that the colonists had taken to redress their grievances—they had deposed a royal governor.

BRICK ARCHITECTURE.

When Governor Harvey reached Jamestown in January 1637 he made a special effort to promote the growth of the town. The assembly passed an act offering a “portion of land for a house and garden” to every person who would undertake to build on it within 2 years. This was the beginning of considerable activity at Jamestown. A number of new patents were issued, and, in January 1639, the governor and his council could report that 12 houses and stores had been constructed and others had been begun. One of those already built was the house of Richard Kemp, secretary of the colony. His house was described as “one of brick” and “the fairest ever known in this country for substance and uniformity.” Kemp’s house is the earliest all-brick house in Virginia that it has been possible to date conclusively up to the present time. It was in 1639, too, that the first brick church was begun, and a levy was collected for the acquisition of a statehouse. Among the new land holders at Jamestown in this period of activity were Capt. Thomas Hill, Rev. Thomas Hampton, and Alexander Stoner, a “brickmaker.” As the area along the river was occupied, additional patentees obtained holdings just outside of the town proper and others settled in the few lots that were not in use. Sir William Berkeley, who became governor in 1641, continued the emphasis on the construction of substantial houses. In that same year, the colony acquired its first statehouse, formerly the property of Harvey and a building in which public business had been transacted for, perhaps, as much as 10 years.

In March 1646, measures were taken to discourage the sale of liquors on the island, and a system of licensed ordinary keepers was adopted. Later in the year, houses for the encouragement of linen manufacture were projected for Jamestown. In 1649, the General Assembly established a market and near the market area was the landing for the ferry that ran across the James to Surry County. Even this new action, however, failed to develop a town of any great extent. The same was true of the Act of 1662 which attempted to encourage a substantial building program for the capital town. Only a few houses were erected before the new impetus had spent itself, and, in 1676, it is known that the town was still little more than a large village. One of the more detailed descriptions at this time relates that “The Towne ... [extended] east and west, about 3 quarters of a mile ... [and] comprehended som[e] 16 or 18 27 houses, most as is the church built of brick, faire and large; and in them about a dozen families (for all the howses are not inhabited) getting their liveings by keeping of ordnaries, at extreordnary rates.”

THE COMMONWEALTH PERIOD.

The decade of 1650-60 corresponds to the period of the Commonwealth Government in England. Virginia, for the most part, appeared loyal to the crown, yet in 1652 the colony submitted to the new government when it demonstrated its power before Jamestown. Governor Berkeley withdrew to his home at Green Spring, just above Jamestown, and the General Assembly assumed the governing role, acting under the Parliament of England. Virginia was given liberal treatment, with considerable freedom in taxation and matters of government. The governors in this interval, elected by the assembly, were Richard Bennett, Edward Digges (an active supporter of the production of silk in Virginia), and Samuel Mathews. In 1660, on the death of Mathews, the assembly recalled Berkeley to the governor’s office, an act that was approved by Charles II, who was restored to the English throne in that year. The decade passed quietly for the colony, although, in the years that followed, it had occasion to remember the liberal control that it had enjoyed. It had witnessed an increased wave of immigration that brought some of those who were fleeing from England, and this more than offset the loss of the Puritans whom Berkeley had forced out of the colony prior to 1650.

In matters of religion, Virginia continued loyal to the Church of England, although there was considerable freedom for the individual. The Puritans found it uncomfortable to remain, however, and two Quaker preachers, William Cole and George Wilson, soon found themselves in prison at Jamestown. Writing “From that dirty dungeon in Jamestown,” in 1662, they described the prison as a place “... where we have not the benefit to do what nature requireth, nor so much as air, to blow in at a window, but close made up with brick and lime....” Lord Baltimore (George Calvert) did not find the colony hospitable when he visited Jamestown with his family in 1629, for, being a Roman Catholic, he could not take the Oath of Allegiance and Supremacy which denied the authority of the Pope.

BACON’S REBELLION, 1676-77.

Bacon’s Rebellion, one of the most dramatic episodes in the history of the English colonies, stands out as a highlight in 17th-century Virginia. It broke in spectacular fashion and is often hailed as a forerunner of the Revolution. It constituted the only serious civil disturbance experienced by Virginia during its entire life as a British colony. It occupies a prominent spot in the annals of the times, and in any chronicle of Jamestown its significance can be multiplied many times, for a number of its stirring events took place at the 28 seat of government and resulted in excessive physical destruction in the town.

The rebellion had its origin in Indian frontier difficulties and a royal Governor (Sir William Berkeley) who, possibly as a result of his involvement in the Indian trade, had become somewhat dictatorial, tyrannical, and a firm advocate of the status quo. The leader for the exposed frontiersmen and the generally disgruntled Virginians came in the person of Nathaniel Bacon, a young man of good birth, training, and education who had come to Virginia in 1674. A distant kinsman of Lord Chancellor Francis Bacon and a relative of another Nathaniel Bacon, who was a leading citizen of Virginia, he soon became established as a first-rate planter at Curles, in Henrico County, and was admitted to the Governor’s Council not long after his arrival.

Considerable underlying discontent had been aroused in Virginia by the low prices for tobacco, the cumulative effects of the Navigation Acts, high taxes, and autocratic rule by Berkeley, whose loyal supporters permeated the government structure and had not allowed an election of burgesses for 15 years. The spark came from the depredations of the Susquehanna Indians who were being forced south by the powerful Iroquois. They made attacks all along the Virginia frontier. Berkeley ordered a counterattack, but cancelled it in favor of maintaining a system of forts along the edge of the western settlements. In March 1676, the Assembly at Jamestown made plans for new forts; this measure, however, was both time-consuming and ineffective. Among the leaders who assembled at the falls of the James for consultation regarding the Indian menace was the young Nathaniel Bacon. William Byrd I was there, too, and, even though he was the officer who had been named to guard the frontier, Bacon was placed in command of the men sent to attack the enemy Indians. A messenger left to request a commission for him from the governor. Berkeley replied that he would discuss the matter with his Council. Bacon then set out with his men to collect allies from among the friendly Indians. While Bacon was on the march he received word from Berkeley ordering him to return or be declared a rebel. Bacon did not turn back but continued into the wilderness in search of the enemy. Action came at Occaneechee Island. Bacon returned with captives and was hailed as a hero by those who had heard of his exploits.

Governor Berkeley realized that the situation was becoming critical and that he could lose control of his government. Prompt action was necessary. He dissolved the House of Burgesses and ordered a new election. The result was that many of his loyal adherents were replaced by representatives, some of whom were unfriendly, even hostile, to him. The new assembly convened in the Statehouse at “James Citty” on June 5, 1676, and among the burgesses was the defiant Bacon who had been returned by the voters of Henrico. An announced rebel and not yet formally removed from the council, it is doubtful that he was eligible for his seat, yet he determined to go to Jamestown and present his credentials.

He boarded his sloop, accompanied by about 40 supporters, and sailed down the James. When near Jamestown he sent ahead to inquire whether he would be allowed to enter the town in peace. A shot from a cannon in the fort gave the negative answer. Despite this, Bacon secretly went ashore at night to confer with two of his friends then living in Jamestown—William Drummond, a former governor in Carolina, and Richard Lawrence, a former Oxford student. Later that night he returned to his boat and started back up the James, but was taken by an officer whom Berkeley had sent out to apprehend him. A dramatic scene followed at Jamestown.

Bacon was brought before the governor, paroled, and restored to the council. Berkeley knew that his opponent had the upper hand and that the House of Burgesses, then in session, was against him. Bacon seemingly could have remained in the capital and personally directed a full program of economic and political reform. This evidently was not his aim. He demanded a commission to go against the Indians, and, when Berkeley delayed, he disappeared from Jamestown, later saying that his person was in danger, although this appears unlikely. Bacon now entered a course from which he could not turn back. With a sizable group of supporters, on June 23, he returned again to Jamestown. He crossed the isthmus “... there le[a]veing a party to secure the passage, then marched into Towne, ... [sent] partyes to the ferry, River & fort, & ... [drew] his forces against the state house.” In the face of this show of force, the governor gave him a commission, and the burgesses passed measures designed to correct many old abuses. Among the new laws was one establishing the bounds of Jamestown to include the entire island and giving the residents within these bounds the right, for the first time, to make their own local ordinances.

By this time Bacon and his men were arrayed solidly against both governor and royal government. The issue was defeat or independence for Virginia, but Virginia was not yet ready and did not elect to face the issue. Bacon, it seems, wanted extreme measures, and there is evidence to indicate that he visualized the formation of an American Republic. Yet when Bacon established himself as the opponent of royal government in Virginia and subordinated his role as supporter of the frontier settlers against misrule, he lost popular support. Had he lived and succeeded in arms, it is questionable that the people would have backed him, for they had not shown much disposition to defy royal authority. The discontent at this time was not so much against that authority as against the misuse of it by Sir William Berkeley.

The issues having been drawn, Bacon pursued his course to the bitter end. He returned to Henrico. When about to move a second time against the Indians, news came that Berkeley was attempting to raise troops in Gloucester County. Consequently, it was to Gloucester that Bacon first moved, only to find that his opponent had withdrawn to Accomac, on 30 the Eastern Shore of Virginia. On August 1, at Middle Plantation (later Williamsburg), Bacon sought to administer his oath of loyalty and to announce his “Declaration of the People” to those assembled there at his summons. His next move was against the Pamunkey Indians. Then it seemed necessary that he move again on Berkeley who now had returned to Jamestown.

On September 13, 1676, he drew up his “few weake and Tyr’d [tired]” men in the “Green Spring Old Field,” just above Jamestown, and posted lookouts on Glasshouse Point. Then he ordered the construction of a trench across the island end of the isthmus. A raiding party advanced as far as the palisade, near the edge of Jamestown proper. Berkeley ordered several ships brought up as close to the shore as possible. Their guns and the small arms of the men along the palisades opened fire against Bacon, but proved ineffective in routing him from his entrenchments. On September 15, Berkeley organized a sally, “with horse and foote in the Van,” which retreated under hot fire from Bacon’s entrenchments. At this point Berkeley’s force lost heart, while his opponent’s spirit reached a new high. In any event, after a week of siege, the governor felt compelled to withdraw from Jamestown. This he did, by boat, 31 with many of his supporters. This was the high point of Bacon’s fortune in arms, and a costly one. Seemingly, it was during the fatiguing siege, which came “in a wett Season,” that he contracted the illness that caused his death and brought an abrupt end to the rebellion.

Following Berkeley’s withdrawal, Bacon and his tired force marched into Jamestown for rest. Wholesale destruction followed. As a contemporary put it, “Here resting a few daies they concerted the burning of the town, wherein Mr. Laurence [Richard Lawrence] and Mr. [William] Drummond owning the two best houses save one, set fire each to his own house, which example the souldiers following laid the whole town (with church and State house) in ashes....” It is known from the records that the destruction was systematic and that the town suffered heavily from the burning. Among those losing homes and possessions of high value were Col. Thomas Swann, Maj. Theophilus Hone “high sheriff of Jamestown,” William Sherwood, and Mr. James’ “orphan,” the last to the value of £1,000. It was estimated that total losses reached a value of 1,500,000 pounds of tobacco. Again the idea was advanced to move the seat of government from Jamestown to some more desirable location. A little later, Tindall’s (now Gloucester) Point, on the York, was given preferential consideration by the assembly as a fit location. The move was not made, however, and the capital remained at Jamestown for another quarter of a century.

From Jamestown, Berkeley moved once more to the Eastern Shore. Bacon, whose men pillaged Green Spring (Berkeley’s home on the mainland, just above Jamestown) on the way, marched to Gloucester, where he became ill and died on October 26, 1676. The rebellion, now without a real leader, quickly collapsed. Joseph Ingram, successor to Bacon, and Gregory Wakelett, cavalry leader in Gloucester County, surrendered in January 1677; Lawrence disappeared in the Chickahominy marshes; and Drummond was promptly hanged. Berkeley moved with haste to silence his opponents, making ready use of the death sentence.

Accommodations for the conduct of government were now wholly inadequate at Jamestown. Consequently, Berkeley called the assembly to meet at Green Spring, which functioned for a time almost as the temporary capital. In February 1677, the commissioners who were sent to investigate Bacon’s Rebellion arrived in Virginia. With them came about 1,000 troops who encamped at Jamestown for the remainder of the winter and ensuing spring. The commissioners, among them Col. Herbert Jeffreys, the next governor, finding so much ruin and desolation at Jamestown, made their headquarters in the home of Col. Thomas Swann across the James from the capital town. Berkeley left for England in May, and Jeffreys took control in Virginia. It was not until March 1679, however, that definite action (following a recommendation of the investigating commissioners) was taken for the restoration of Jamestown. Then it was ordered, in England, that the town be rebuilt and made the metropolis of Virginia “as the most ancient and convenient place.”

JAMESTOWN REBUILT.

Lord Culpeper reached Virginia in May 1680, with instructions to rebuild Jamestown and to develop it into an urban center. In 1683, he was able to report that he had given all possible encouragement to this enterprise and that, although he himself was living at Green Spring, considerable activity had begun. He mentioned specifically that Nathaniel Bacon (the kinsman of the rebel), Joseph Bridger, and William Sherwood had substantial work under way. A little later the fourth statehouse was completed, as was the church. By 1697 the town had been rebuilt and boasted of a statehouse, country house, church, fort, powder magazine, and 20 or 30 houses. In this period William Sherwood, for a time attorney general for the colony, was a major landholder on the island and in the town. Others included Robert Beverley, author of one of the early histories of Virginia; William Edwards, clerk of the Council; Henry Hartwell; and John Page. It was in 1686 that John Clayton, minister at Jamestown, offered proposals for draining the marshes nearby to improve the healthfulness of the spot, a project that never materialized.

STATEHOUSE BURNED AND CAPITAL MOVED.

On October 31, 1698, a fire consumed the Statehouse, prison, and probably other buildings at Jamestown, although the records and papers were saved. This fire led to the removal of the seat of government to Middle Plantation (Williamsburg)—a 33 spot favored by the Governor, Sir Francis Nicholson. Thus, Jamestown was abandoned as the seat of government after 92 years. Its mission had been accomplished, and it had seen Virginia grow from the small settlement of 1607 into a colony of great extent, with a population of perhaps 80,000.

LATER YEARS AT JAMESTOWN.

The removal of the capital ultimately proved the death blow for Jamestown, for this eliminated the primary reason for its existence. Decline set in immediately, but Jamestown retained a seat in the assembly for another three-quarters of a century. Its end as a town, legally and physically, may be given as the period of the American Revolution. There was a military post here early in that struggle. Later, it became a point of exchange for American and British prisoners of war, and it featured in the maneuvers leading to the Siege of Yorktown. It witnessed the movement of Cornwallis’ army across the James and was a landing and resting point for American and French soldiers being sent to join Washington’s allied army.

Even before 1700, property on Jamestown Island was being consolidated into a few hands. The consolidation continued unabated after this date, and before the middle of the 18th century the major part of the island was in the hands of two families—Ambler and Travis—each of which had its own “mansion.” The Travis family estate at Jamestown had grown slowly since before 1650, and Richard Ambler, of 34 Yorktown, acquired, through marriage, the extensive Jaquelin, formerly Sherwood, holdings. After 1830, the island came under a single ownership. Under the Amblers and Travises and later owners of the island, even parts of the townsite itself became farm land and functioned as an integral part of the plantation system which earlier events at Jamestown had helped so materially to create.

The fields, and woods, and marshes lay quietly on the James for generations, contributing in a small, but important, manner to a growing country. Americans often remembered the early years of the colony and the momentous events that had taken place on the island, and joined here to commemorate the deeds of their forefathers. There was the Bicentennial of 1807, the Virginiad of 1822, the 250th anniversary in 1857, and the Tercentennial of 1907. In the years between these events there were thousands who came individually and in small groups, the famous and those now unknown. It was this remembrance and loyalty to one of its great landmarks that led to the establishment of Jamestown Island as a national historic shrine.

Jamestown National Historic Site

The first organized effort toward saving the Jamestown area came in 1893 when the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities acquired 22.5 acres of the old townsite. This land, donated for preservation by Mr. and Mrs. Edward E. Barney, embraced the Old Church Tower, the graveyard, and the west end of the townsite.

The Association which was chartered in 1889 is better known, perhaps, as the APVA. It is a non-profit organization interested in the acquisition, preservation, and restoration of “ancient historic grounds, buildings, monuments, and tombs in the Commonwealth of Virginia” and in the collection and care of relics associated with them or with the history of the State. Its Jamestown property is one of a number of holdings which it administers. Another is the 17th-century Warren House on the Rolfe property in Surry County just across the James River from Jamestown.

Until 1934 the Association was the sole active agency working at Jamestown to conserve and interpret the site for the American people. As the custodian of a significant part of the site of old “James Towne,” it continues working to promote measures insuring the protection of the site and making it available for your use and inspiration. Landscaping, limited reconstruction, some restoration, and the stabilization of the remains of the Old Church Tower, the tombs, and foundations have all been a part of its program, together with the acquisition and display of Jamestown relics. In its work, it has solicited and received aid from various organizations, particularly patriotic societies, in the 35 placement of memorials, and related activities. The Memorial Church was constructed by the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America. The Association was especially active in preparation for the Jamestown Exposition in 1907.

The Association was successful in its efforts to encourage the United States Government to construct the seawall which was built by Col. Samuel H. Yonge in 1900-1901 to halt bank erosion by the James River along the Association grounds. Colonel Yonge became a serious student of Jamestown history and wrote The Site of Old “James Towne,” 1607-1698, a work still available through purchase from the Association. In 1907, the Association made available the grounds on which the Tercentenary Monument was erected, and again in 1956 it provided land on which to place the Jamestown Visitor Center.

In 1940 the Association entered into agreement with the United States of America, through the Secretary of the Interior, to provide for a unified program of development and administration for the island. It was at this time that the APVA grounds were designated as Jamestown National Historic Site. The joint cooperative agreement continues in force and the Association and the National Park Service are working together to preserve, maintain, and interpret this historic area.

In 1956 it became possible to present the townsite as a single unit when the ferry to the island and the State highway crossing the island were moved upriver above Jamestown. The APVA and the Service then combined their separate museum exhibits to form the displays now seen in the Visitor Center, and consolidated other operations at the center where both are hosts to Jamestown visitors.

Colonial National Historical Park

In 1930, by Presidential proclamation, all of Jamestown Island’s 1,559.5 acres (equally divided between marsh and dry land) were included within the boundaries of Colonial National Monument. The monument designation was changed to that of a national historical park by act of Congress in 1936. Actual Federal ownership of the island (other than the 22-acre Association tract) was obtained in 1934, and some years later, a bit of the mainland opposite the western tip of Jamestown was added because of its close ties to the site.

Colonial National Historical Park is made up of several areas of which Jamestown is one. It includes, as well, the Cape Henry Memorial, at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, where the first settlers who established Jamestown first stopped in Virginia; the Yorktown Battlefield; and the Colonial Parkway.

Colonial Parkway

This 23-mile scenic motor road connects historic Jamestown, Williamsburg, and Yorktown. Along its course are descriptive markers that give bits of history which often show the interrelation of Jamestown (where the Nation began), Williamsburg (the 18th-century capital of Virginia where important elements of our Revolutionary leadership were nourished), and Yorktown (where the climatic battle in our struggle for independence was fought).

The Study of Jamestown

When the major part of Jamestown Island, including much of the townsite, was placed in its custody in 1934, the National Park Service, working with the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities, assumed responsibility for preservation of the historic remains on the island and for interpreting the site. This posed many problems, for the Jamestown story is a vital segment of our national history, involving the origins and growth of the culture of this formative period of English colonization. The first pressing concern was the accumulation of data on which to base a more complete understanding of life and conditions as they existed at that time, specifically at Jamestown. This was needed in order to plan for the preservation, development, and interpretation of the area.

A program was drawn up which combined the various types of research that the conditions and problems at Jamestown required. The overall objective was to secure and preserve all possible data on Jamestown history (giving history its broadest interpretation), and to gain 37 a well-rounded picture of the growth of agriculture, industry, commerce, and society during the period Jamestown was inhabited.

Trained historians began to search in the leading libraries of the country. At Jamestown, engineers and archeologists, assisted by historians, architects, and museum technicians, began to survey the island. Little of the old town existed aboveground, yet it was known that there were, in all probability, extensive remains underground. Systematic excavation was begun on the townsite on July 11, 1934.

In the beginning, it was recognized that the program would be of long duration. Initially, in the years prior to World War II, the support of the Emergency Conservation Work (ECW) and the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) proved invaluable. Work all but ceased during the war years and went on at a very slow rate in the years just after the war. The program was renewed with vigor in 1954 as plans for Jamestown’s 350th anniversary began to materialize.

On June 1, 1938, a field laboratory and storage building to house the Jamestown activities was completed, giving the project an adequate physical plant. It soon came to house thousands of cultural objects and included offices as well as facilities for cleaning, sorting, storing, and cataloguing excavated materials. This temporary building served the need for study, and later for interpretation, until it was removed early in 1957. It was replaced, although on a different site, by the Jamestown Visitor Center early in 1957.

The findings of the program have been extensive. Documentary Study has gleaned data which, when carefully examined, yields a more complete picture of 17th-century Jamestown than was thought possible. However, the picture is sketchy and needs the details filled in. For this reason, research continues in anticipation of bridging the gaps.

Archeological work proved more fruitful than the most optimistic had anticipated during the initial phases of the work. The materials and information found beneath the ground at Jamestown have been astonishing in both quantity and type. Architectural and constructural findings are of various types. More than a hundred building-remains have been excavated. Some are only the footings for a frame structure, some are brick foundations in full outline, and others are well-preserved cellars with interesting structural detail. Associated with the sites are fragments of hardware, glass, roofing tile, and related building materials. Some of the building remains are those of the most prominent structures at Jamestown, such as statehouses and governors’ houses. Brick kilns have been found, one being the well-preserved ruins in the Association grounds, showing clearly that 17th-century Virginians made much of their own brick and roofing tile. Pottery manufacture has been documented as well as other such activities. Several types of early wells, often brick-lined, have yielded many objects dropped in accidentally, or by design, while they were still in use.

Even road traces still exist. Some of them, considered in the light of documentary references, have made it possible to reestablish the route of the “Greate Road” formerly connecting the island and the mainland. The reopening of old property line ditches and the rediscovery of fence lines (by identifying old post holes) have aided immeasurably in locating property tracts. This information, added to that of the old land grants and survey plats, has made possible the location of many early landholdings and has helped in the study of the physical layout of the town. Other features uncovered include lime kilns, where the early Jamestown builders burned their own lime for plaster—occasionally found still clinging to basement walls—and brick drains.

The number and variety of objects found in the excavations can only be indicated in general terms. The great bulk of thousands of items now collected is made up of pieces of iron, copper, brass, bronze, pewter, clay, and earth. Occasionally some more perishable materials, such as wool, leather, and wood, are found. Among the more interesting finds are clay tobacco pipes, glass wine bottles, pottery vessels, Delft tiles, gun and sword fragments, bullets, cannon balls, spurs, bits of armor, stirrups and bridles, locks, keys, nails, spoons, forks, shears, pins, thimbles, axes, hoes, window glass, buckles, combs, and rings. A complete list would be much longer. Often only fragments remain, yet in many cases it is possible to make a full restoration of the original piece, such as has been done with a clay baking oven. A special illustrated publication is available, in popular style, describing the archeological work and the collection.

Individually and collectively, these objects give us an insight into the manner in which 17th-century Jamestown men and their families lived. 40 These objects will help you get a more complete picture of the first Virginians—how they dressed, worked, built and equipped their homes, and satisfied their daily needs.

The Development of Jamestown

No attempt will be made to restore Jamestown as it was in 1607 or at any other period. The town was always small and always changing. Jamestown, it might be said, was never a city in the modern concept. It was more a village, a small community. The town of 1607, or 1610, was unlike that of 1623, and that of 1623 was far different from that of 1675. Architecture went all the way from timber and thatch structures to substantial all-brick houses. Even if the town had had a reasonable continuity of building types and plan, known information would be entirely insufficient to allow a restoration. Major discoveries of new material are still expected, yet the detail necessary for an authentic restoration may always be too meager.

The site of old “James Towne” has, however, retained much of the spirit of its antiquity. Its serene and peaceful atmosphere seems to take one back through the years. You may be able, for a moment, to disassociate yourself from the swift pace of present living as you wander past the old foundations and look upon the Old Church Tower.

The National Park Service, following the precedent established by the Association, is endeavoring to preserve this unbroken link with the past. 41 The emphasis is on the presentation of the townsite itself and the island wilderness as the real exhibit. There are “streets” and winding paths, exposed and marked foundations, existing remains, paintings of buildings and scenes, property markings (old ditches, fences of period design, and hedges), and natural planting. Shaded vistas and secluded points for quiet reflection are provided as much as possible. Some use is being made of period-type buildings (but not specific reconstructions) as in the “glasshouse” with its thatch, wattle and daub, and “cruck” design.

Physical features of the 17th century have not survived at Jamestown in sufficient number to illustrate the complete story, and the townsite will not adapt itself to a full coverage. However, there are extensive supplementary exhibits in the Jamestown Visitor Center, which are designed to help you understand and “experience” Jamestown.

Guide to the Area

“James Towne” developed on the west end of Jamestown Island. At its maximum extent it lay along the river for approximately three-quarters of a mile. It was a thin strip of a town between the James River and the marsh that came to be called Pitch and Tar Swamp. At first there was only the fort, then an enlarged palisaded area. Gradually the town grew with the building of houses, a church, a market place, shops, storehouses, forts, statehouses, and other public buildings grouped along streets and paths. The entire townsite is an exhibit area. The Visitor Center (1), at its edge, is a short distance from the parking area across a trestle bridge spanning Pitch and Tar Swamp.

In the Visitor Center, sponsored jointly by the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities and the National Park Service, an orientation program of movies and slides, an information desk, an extensive series of exhibits, and literature and souvenirs are available. The exhibits include many irreplaceable objects, such as earrings of Pocahontas, and many objects recovered from the ground. There are dioramas, a large model of James Fort, illustrated panels, and other displays telling about early Jamestown and explaining the points of interest on the townsite and along the island tour or drive.

The adjacent townsite is easily reached from the Visitor Center, and a good general view of it may be had from the observation terrace around the Tercentenary Monument (2). This shaft of New Hampshire granite rising 103 feet above its base was erected in 1907 to commemorate the 300th anniversary of the settlement.

A footpath leads from the monument terrace to the church area, crossing the trace of the “Greate Road,” which served the town’s residents some 300 years ago. It passes close to the site of a 17th-century brick kiln just inside the entrance to the APVA grounds.

The Church Area (3), the most inspiring spot at Jamestown today, embraces the Old Tower, the Memorial Church, and the Churchyard. The ivy-covered Old Church Tower is the only standing ruin of the 17th-century town. It is believed to have been a part of the first brick church built about 1639. Its 3-foot-thick walls of handmade brick laid in English bond have been standing for more than 300 years. The Memorial Church, directly behind the tower, was erected in 1907 by the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America over the foundations of the early brick church. Within the church are memorials and burials, including the “Knight’s” tomb and that of Rev. John Clough.

Of particular note, inside the church, are the exposed cobblestone foundations of an earlier church said to have housed the first representative legislative assembly in America which convened at Jamestown on July 30, 1619. In the Churchyard many dead are buried, and the few gravestones that have survived the wear of time and weather are a witness to the antiquity of the spot. These carry the names of Berkeley, Blair, Harrison, Ludwell, Bevereley, Lee, Sherwood, and others. Even the extent of the burial ground is unknown. It is more extensive than either the iron grill fence or the old wall (built of bricks from the ruins of one of the 17th-century Jamestown churches) suggests.

Adjacent to the church are a number of memorials and monuments erected through the years, particularly in 1907, to commemorate important 45 events at Jamestown and to honor some of those outstanding in Virginia history. These include the House of Burgesses Monument (4) listing the members of America’s first representative legislative assembly in 1619, the Pocahontas Monument (5), by William Ordway Partridge; and the Capt. John Smith Statue (6), designed by William Couper.

The footpath leads to the concrete walkway on the edge of the seawall. This seawall (built in 1900-1901) along the shoreline of the Association grounds and the later riprap extension of it now protect the site from further erosion. Walk to the right (upriver) along the concrete walkway. It passes near, but outside, the Confederate earthwork thrown up in 1861 when the James River approach to Richmond was being fortified. At one point a bit of history can be read from the ground in a Site Use Exhibit (7). The earth in the side of the embankment has been carefully sliced and various levels are identified—undisturbed ground, the level of Indian use, the zone with evidences of 17th-century use, and, topping all, the earthwork built by Confederate troops in 1861.

Just beyond, but at a point now in the river, due to the erosion of the last three centuries, is the site of “James Fort” (8), which was built in May and June 1607, and constituted the Jamestown settlement in the first few years. There is a large model of “James Fort” in the Visitor Center and a full scale reconstruction of it has been built in Festival Park above Glasshouse Point and adjacent to the Jamestown terminus of the Colonial Parkway.

In the words of William Strachey, recorder for the colony, the fort, as built in 1607, and standing in 1610, was “cast almost into the forme of a 46 Triangle, and so Pallizadoed. The South side next the River ... by reason the advantage of the ground doth so require, contains one hundred and forty yards: the West and East sides a hundred onely. At every Angle or corner, where the lines meete, a Bulwarke or Watchtower is raised, and in each Bulwarke a peece of Ordnance or two well mounted. To every side, a proportioned distance from the Pallisado, is a setled streete of houses, that run along, so as each line of the Angle hath his streete. In the middest is a market place, a Store house, and a Corps du guard, as likewise a pretty Chappel ... [all] inclosed ... round with a Pallizado of Planckes and strong Posts, foure foote deepe in the ground, of yong Oakes, Walnuts, &c ... the principall Gate from the Towne, through the Pallizado, opens to the River ... at each Bulwarke there is a Gate likewise to goe forth, and at every Gate a Demi-Culverin and so in the Market Place....”

Just beyond the fort site, approximately 125 feet from the present seawall, at a point where it makes a pronounced turn to the right, is the First Landing Site (9) which the colonists reached on May 13, 1607. Here the next day, all came ashore and landed supplies. This spot, like the fort site, is now in the river. The Old Cypress (10), standing several hundred feet from the shore above the landing site, is said to have stood at one time on the edge of the island. This is visible evidence of the erosion that has taken at least 25 acres of the western part of the townsite.

Inshore, at this point, the Memorial Cross (11) occupies a position of prominence. This marks the burial ground that extended along the ridge behind it. This is the earliest known burial ground at Jamestown and is thought to have preceded that around the church. It was along this ridge, first used as a cemetery, that Jamestown’s third statehouse (burned by Nathaniel Bacon, Jr., in 1676) was constructed. A decade later the fourth (and last) statehouse was built on the same site. It was the accidental burning of the last statehouse and the structures associated with it, in 1698, that was the immediate reason for moving the seat of government from Jamestown. This group of houses—the Last Statehouse Group (12)—consisted of the last country house, three houses of Philip Ludwell, and the fourth statehouse. The foundations are marked and the footpath, leaving the concrete walkway, follows along these foundations and passes near the Memorial Cross.

The walkway now returns to the Church area. The path follows across a low area, known in the old days as the “Vale,” and into the Confederate earthwork. Here is the bronze relief memorial to The Rev. Robert Hunt (13). He was the chaplain to the first settlers. On the third Sunday 48 after Trinity, in June 1607, he administered the first recorded Holy Communion according to the rites of the Church of England.

The tour route emerges from the Confederate earthworks near the entrance to the church and passes again near the Smith, Pocahontas, and House of Burgesses markers and other memorials. Just beyond, the tour leaves the Association grounds (the west end of the site of old “James Towne”) and follows a walk close to the bank of the river. Beyond, stretches the eastern section of “James Towne.”

It has become possible to define on the ground the pattern of Jamestown as it existed in at least a part of the early period. Utilizing the route 49 of the “Greate Road,” “Back Streete,” “the highway close to the river,” and various connecting ways, a plan now lays on the ground east from the Visitor Center. Exposed original foundations, other ruins marked aboveground in brick and wood (these in dull white), reopened old ditches (which often mark property lines), fences of period type, and replanted hedges are all used. Paintings help in visualizing the houses that once stood on some of the foundations while recorded descriptions, narrative markers, and other aids give information on owners, events, and happenings.

The extreme east end of Jamestown is that area developed after 1619, first actually surveyed by William Claiborne in 1623, and known to its first residents as New Towne. Here it is possible to locate, plot, and identify, with some assurance, a number of the early property holdings.

There is the plot taken up by Capt. John Harvey in 1624, on which he had houses and where he kept a garden and cultivated fruit trees. Across “Back Streete” from the Harvey site was the holding of Dr. John Pott who was sent from England in 1621 accompanied by two surgeons and a chest of medicine. He had a house here by 1622, although it was not until after this date that he obtained his land patent.

West of the Harvey site was the home and lot of George Menefie, an attorney, administrator, and member of the council. Near the home of Menefie was the tract of Ralph Hamor, Dale’s secretary of state, who died in 1626. Farther west were the holdings of John Chew, a merchant (1624), and of Richard Stephens (1623), who had personal difficulties with John Harvey, and who later appears to have been a party to the first duel fought in an English colony. North of the “Back Streete” and west of Pott’s holdings were those of Edward Blaney (a merchant), Capt. Roger Smith, and Capt. William Pierce, whose house George Sandys, in 1623, pronounced “the fairest in Virginia.”

Near the river, in the “New Towne” section, stood the First Statehouse (14) in Virginia. Foundations here (now partly exposed and partly marked) are thought to be those of this significant structure. It served the colony from 1641 to 1656. In it, during the early governorship of Sir William Berkeley, were discussed the measures needful for the government of the growing colony. Here, too, the colony gave its submission to the commonwealth government of Oliver Cromwell in England in 1652, and Richard Bennett was chosen as governor by the assembly to succeed Berkeley.

Even the designation “New Towne” was forgotten in the years after 1650 when the area, including street alinement, changed considerably. Those living in houses here or owning property in Jamestown’s east end then included Sherwood, Thomas Rabley, James Alsop, Richard Holder, William Edwards, and Henry Hartwell, one of the founders of the College of William and Mary. The scanty remains of Hartwell’s Frame 50 House (15) are believed to have been identified and they are marked. In this instance the discovery of a preponderance of “H-H” initialed wine bottle seals furnished a helpful identity clue.

The “Country House” (16) in this early period lay in the “New Towne” section. Perhaps a number of houses stood here on the same site prior to the first brick structure that bears this designation. In excavations on the site, the foundations of the brick building were found, including excellent specimens of ornamental plaster which may have adorned this structure or that of a later private residence of William Sherwood, which was found to have occupied the same site. Its foundations are visible.

Dominating the scene today in this area are the ruined walls of the Jaquelin-Ambler House (17). These are a testimony of the late colonial period (18th century) when Jamestown Island was no longer the seat of government and when, as the town declined, the island became the private estate of two families—Ambler and Travis. The present walls of the Ambler House constitute the center portion of a rather impressive residence that was flanked by two wings. It was begun about 1710 and when fully established, had formal gardens, the brick walls of which were partly uncovered during archeological work on the townsite. Its construction is thought to have obliterated all trace of Richard Kemp’s house, the first recorded all-brick house in Virginia.

Between the Ambler House ruins and the Visitor Center stood a “long house” (18), one made of several sections with common connecting walls. Its long walls have been outlined on the ground as it stood some three centuries ago. Behind this site are the original ruins (displayed under cover) of an early building that appears from its fireboxes and other features to have served some, but as yet unidentified, “manufacturing” 51 purpose. Near it, unmistakeable evidences of pottery manufacturing have been found. This particular locality has evidences, too, of other types of workmanship. Perhaps, for a time, it was a kind of “Production Center” (19) in Jamestown.

The story of Jamestown is not all concerned with the townsite itself. Much of it deals with farming and other activities on the island surrounding the town except on the river front, and especially to the east. The Island Drive is a motor road that gives access to this island area. Starting from the central parking area, it traverses the island’s 1,559.5 acres of marsh and woodland. The full drive is about 5 miles although it has a shorter 3-mile loop. Natural features are named and markers carry legends about the land and the people. Large paintings here and there picture the life of the times in daily activities such as winemaking, tobacco-growing, and lumbering. After passing the Confederate Fort (20), you come to Black Point (21) at the east end of the island where there is an excellent view of the lower reaches of the James River. Then the loop takes you past the Travis Graveyard (22) and The Pond (23), where Lawrence Bohun collected herbs for medical experiment in 1610.

The one-way tour road loops back to the parking area and to the isthmus connecting the island and Glasshouse Point on the mainland, so named because the colonists, in 1608, undertook to produce glass at this location. Here are exhibited the Original Glass Furnace Ruins (24) 52 the remains of the first attempt to produce glass in America. Nearby is a Working Furnace (25) of the same type housed in a thatch-covered building constructed in the manner of those used in Virginia and England three and a half centuries ago. The Jamestown Glasshouse Foundation, Inc., representing a number of leading American glass companies, helped to make this possible. The Foundation operates the furnace and in season the blowing of glass in the old way can be observed. Handmade glass objects can be purchased.

The tour of Jamestown ends here at the “Glasshouse.” From this point the Colonial Parkway leads to Williamsburg and Yorktown. Following this route you can read history on the spot in the order it occurred.

How to Reach Jamestown

Jamestown Island is easily reached over the Colonial Parkway from Williamsburg only 10 miles away. Williamsburg is the nearest rail and bus terminal and the closest point of concentration of housing and eating facilities. The approach from the south is over State Routes 10 and 31 to the ferry over the James River from Scotland to Glasshouse Point near the Jamestown Entrance Gate. From Richmond and points to the West, State Routes 5 and 31 can be used without entering Williamsburg.

About Your Visit

Jamestown is open daily, except on Christmas Day, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. from April 1 to September 30 and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. the rest of the year. A single admission of 50 cents per person is collected at the Entrance Gate on Glasshouse Point. However, during the 350th Jamestown Anniversary Festival season in 1957 this charge is a part of, and included in, a $1 per person admission including all of Jamestown and nearby Festival Park with its reconstructed “James Fort,” ship replicas, and other features. All school students 18 years of age and under, when in groups, and all children under 12 are admitted without charge when accompanied by adults assuming responsibility for their orderly conduct. Organizations and groups are given special service if arrangements are made in advance. All visitors are urged to go first to the Jamestown Visitor Center where literature, information, and a special program are available.

No eating or lodging facilities are available at Jamestown. There is, however, a restaurant and picnic ground in the Virginia State Festival Park at Glasshouse Point.

Administration

Jamestown Island (except Jamestown National Historic Site administered and maintained by the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities) is part of Colonial National Historical Park. The park also includes Yorktown Battlefield, Colonial Parkway, and Cape Henry Memorial. It is administered by the National Park Service of the United States Department of the Interior.

Inquiries relating to the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities area should be addressed to that Association, Jamestown, Va.; those relating to the National Park Service area to the Superintendent, Colonial National Historical Park, Yorktown, Va.

Suggested Readings

Andrews, Matthew Page. Virginia: The Old Dominion. Doubleday Doran. New York. 1937.

Chandler, J. A. C., and Thames, T. B. Colonial Virginia. Times-Dispatch Company. Richmond, Va. 1907.

Forman, Henry Chandlee. Jamestown and St. Mary’s: Buried Cities of Romance. The Johns Hopkins Press. Baltimore. 1938.

Hatch, Charles E., Jr. The First Seventeen Years: Virginia, 1607-1625. Jamestown 350th Anniversary Historical Booklet No. 6. Virginia 350th Anniversary Celebration Corporation. Williamsburg, Va. 1957.

Stanard, Mary Newton. The Story of Virginia’s First Century. J. B. Lippincott. Philadelphia. 1928.

Tyler, Lyon Gardiner. The Cradle of the Republic: Jamestown and James River. Ed. 2. The Hermitage Press. Richmond, Va. 1906.

Wertenbaker, Thomas Jefferson. The First Americans 1607-1690. A History of American Life Series, Vol. II. The Macmillan Company. New York. 1927.

Wright, Louis B. Atlantic Frontier: Colonial American Civilization: 1607-1761. Alfred A. Knopf. New York. 1947.

Yonge, Samuel H. The Site of Old “James Towne” 1607-1698. The Hermitage Press. Richmond, Va. 1907.

Footnotes

NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
HISTORICAL HANDBOOK SERIES

(Price lists of National Park Service publications may be obtained from the Superintendent of Documents, Washington 25, D.C.)

Transcriber’s Notes

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The Project Gutenberg eBook of Jamestown, Virginia: The Townsite and Its Story

Jamestown, Virginia THE TOWNSITE AND ITS STORY

Contents

The Story of Jamestown

THE ENGLISH BACKGROUND.

THE FIRST DAYS IN VIRGINIA.

THE FORT.

SUMMER AND AUTUMN, 1607.

THE FIRST SUPPLY.

THE FIRST MARRIAGE AT JAMESTOWN.

THE SECOND SUPPLY AND EARLY INDUSTRY.

THE SECOND COMPANY CHARTER AND THE THIRD SUPPLY.

THE “STARVING TIME.”

VIRGINIA ALMOST ABANDONED.

LORD DELAWARE REACHES JAMESTOWN.

SIR THOMAS DALE AND MILITARY LAW.

JAMESTOWN, 1611-16.

POCAHONTAS.

TOBACCO.

THE SPREAD OF SETTLEMENT.

THE BEGINNING OF REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT.

DEVELOPMENTS, 1619-24.

“NEW TOWNE.”

VIRGINIA MADE A ROYAL COLONY.

GOVERNOR HARVEY DEPOSED.

BRICK ARCHITECTURE.

THE COMMONWEALTH PERIOD.

BACON’S REBELLION, 1676-77.

JAMESTOWN REBUILT.

STATEHOUSE BURNED AND CAPITAL MOVED.

LATER YEARS AT JAMESTOWN.

Jamestown National Historic Site

Colonial National Historical Park

Colonial Parkway

The Study of Jamestown

The Development of Jamestown

Guide to the Area

How to Reach Jamestown

About Your Visit

Administration

Suggested Readings

Footnotes

NATIONAL PARK SERVICE HISTORICAL HANDBOOK SERIES

Transcriber’s Notes

THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE

Jamestown, Virginia
THE TOWNSITE AND ITS STORY

NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
HISTORICAL HANDBOOK SERIES