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 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.”