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.