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_The Stronghold_
A Story of Historic Northern Neck of Virginia and Its People
_By_ MIRIAM HAYNIE
_The Dietz Press, Incorporated_
_Richmond, Virginia_
_1959_
Copyright by
MIRIAM HAYNIE
1959
Second Printing July, 1960
Third Printing September, 1964
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA BY
THE DIETZ PRESS, INCORPORATED
TO MY HUSBAND
WILLIAM HAROLD HAYNIE
AND
TO THE MEMORY OF MY MOTHER AND FATHER:
OLIVIA FRANCES JETT WILLIAMS, AND
THOMAS JACKSON WILLIAMS, OF
"PLEASANT GROVE"
NORTHUMBERLAND COUNTY,
VIRGINIA
Acknowledgements
References have been given for each chapter so that in this way the
persons who so kindly gave personal interviews could be recognized
specifically.
I wish to express my appreciation to the personnel of the Reference and
Circulation Section, General Library Division, of the Virginia State
Library, for their splendid service. Without the books from the Library
it would have been impossible for me to have accumulated the material
for this book.
I wish to thank the _Richmond Times-Dispatch_, the _Fredericksburg Free
Lance-Star_ and _Virginia_ and _The Virginia County Magazine_, for their
kind permission to use any material which might be needed from articles
written by myself and previously published in those publications.
M. H.
_Reedville, Virginia,
June, 1959._
CONTENTS
PART I--SEVENTEENTH CENTURY
_Tidewater_
"_Ye Northerne Neck_"
_The People_
_Indians and Early Explorers_
_Captain John Smith_
_Powhatan's Empire_
_Captain Smith Visits the Neck_
"_A Plaine Wildernes_"
"_Wild Beastes_"
"_Birds to Vs Unknowne_"
_The Nominies_
_The Discoverers_
_The River of Swans_
_Mother of Waters_
_Quick-Rising-Water_
_Henry and Pocahontas_
_Henry and King Patowmeke_
_Henry's Relation_
_Betrayed_
_Kidnapped_
_The Indian Trader_
_A Petition_
_From North of the Potomac_
_The First Settler_
_Coan Hall_
_Neighbors_
_The "Kids"_
_Indian Servants_
_Money_
_A Paradise Discovered_
_A Visit to Jamestown_
_Frances_
_Forever Lost_
_Ursula_
_The Yard_
_Kittamaqund_
_The Gift_
_The Cavaliers_
"_Charlie-Over-The-Water_"
_The Legacy_
_The Indian Deed_
_A Summons to Jamestown_
_The Oath_
_County Officers_
_Epraphrodibus's Will_
_The Challenge_
_Trade_
_The Colonial Sailor_
_John Carter_
_Fleet's Point_
_George Mason_
_Mary Calvert_
_He Lived Bravely_
_Witchcraft_
_Seahorse of London_
"_Tenn Mulberry Trees_"
_Roads_
_Markets_
_The Old Dominion_
_The Proprietary_
_A First Lady of Jamestown_
_Land_
_Processioning_
"_The Banquetting House_"
_The Land Agent_
_Hanna and the Horseshoe_
_Muster_
_The Store_
_The Wolf-Drive_
_The Indians and Robert Hen_
_The Royal Cavalcade_
_The King of the Northern Neck_
_Kith and Kin_
_The Fieldings_
_Pirates_
_Christmas at Colonel Fitzhugh's_
_Indian Visitors_
_Horse Racing_
_Manufacture_
_The Potomac Rangers_
PART II--EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
_Murders in Stafford_
_Free Schools_
_The Home in the Forest_
_Cherry Point_
_Sandy Point_
_Augustine_
_Popes Creek_
_The War Path_
_Falmouth_
_Burnt House Field_
_Stratford Hall_
_George Washington_
_Epsewasson_
_Ferry Farm_
_Fredericksburg_
_School Days_
_The Indians_
_The Pow-Wow_
_Mount Vernon_
_Washington Washed Here--_
_The Ordinary_
_Nelly_
_Miss Betsy_
_The Proprietor of the Northern Neck_
_The Marshalls_
_The Leedstown Resolutions_
_Fithian_
_The School in the Wildwood_
_James and John_
_Captain Dobby_
_Pedlars_
_Seven Satin Petticoats_
_Phi Beta Kappa_
_Light-Horse Harry_
_A Band of Brothers_
_The Divine Matilda_
_Madam Washington_
_After the Revolution_
_Mantua_
PART III--NINETEENTH CENTURY
_Robert E. Lee_
_Smith Point Light_
_The Raiders_
_Steamboats_
_Hannah and the Falling Stars_
_Dear to His Heart_
_The Blockade_
_The Home Guard_
_The Mystery of Horse Pond_
_Schooner in a Mill-pond_
_War Bonnets_
_Amanda and the Yankees_
_The Horsehair Ring_
_Miracle at Ketchum's Camp_
_Desperate Passage_
_After the War_
_Speech_
_Shopping Trips_
_Menhaden_
_The Old Stone Pile_
_Keepers of the Light_
_The Headless Dog_
PART IV--CONCLUSION
_The Ancient Mansion Seats_
_Appendix_
_Sources_
List of Illustrations
John Smith in the shallop exploring the waters of Northern Neck,
Virginia
Henry Spelman living amongst the Indians
Pocahontas is traded for a copper kettle and becomes an hostage to
Captain Argall
First settlers at Coan
"King" Carter attends Christ Church
Mary Ball at Yeocomico Church
The infant, George Washington at Wakefield, his birthplace
Young Washington helping in the handling of "seine" on the Potomac
Young George Washington becomes a friend of Lord Fairfax, Proprietor of
Northern Neck
Young Robert E. Lee learning to ride
Skirmish between the Virginia Militia and the British during the War of
1812 at Farnham Church
"Yankee" foragers during the Civil War
_Introduction_
I have read with a great deal of pleasure the book called _The
Stronghold_, which relates the history of the Northern Neck of Virginia
in story form and was written by my good friend, Miriam Haynie of
Reedville, Virginia. Mrs. Haynie is a native of the Northern Neck of
Virginia, her family on both sides having settled there in the
seventeenth century, and her direct ancestors having remained there
until this day. She is the author of a number of articles dealing with
the history and traditions and customs of the peninsula between the
Rappahannock and Potomac Rivers that have appeared in the _Richmond
Times-Dispatch_, the Washington papers and national publications. She is
devoted to this section of Virginia and has spent a large part of her
life in accumulating an enormous fund of historical data of the region.
_The Stronghold_ is a most interesting book, especially to Virginians
and to natives and descendants of natives of the Northern Neck of
Virginia. It is divided into three sections, the seventeenth century,
the eighteenth century and the nineteenth century. It tells a great deal
about the early history of the Colony and more especially of that
portion of the Colony of Virginia, of which she is a native, from the
days when the white man first came to the Potomac and Rappahannock
Rivers down to the beginning of the twentieth century. She relates in a
most pleasing language the first visits of Captain John Smith to the
waters surrounding the Northern Neck, also the capture of Princess
Pocahontas by the colonists, which occurred on the Potomac River or on
one of its tributaries, and many other events connected with our early
history that we are prone to overlook in the rush and whirl of these
modern days. Her book will be particularly interesting to children as it
is written in simple language and in story form so that a child in the
fifth grade may read and understand it. It is a most entertaining and
interesting work and will impress upon children the early history of our
part of the Colony of Virginia and the hardships endured by our
ancestors who came here to settle in the wilderness. In saying that it
will be particularly interesting to children I do not mean to restrict
interest in the book entirely to children for it will be both
interesting and educational to all lovers of history regardless of age.
As is true in all works of this kind some of the historical statements
she has made will be open to contention but in the main it is a true
and correct history of the Northernmost Peninsula of the Old Dominion
and pays proper attention to the distinguished men and women who first
saw the light of day within its confines. It will be excellent parallel
reading to be engaged in by every student of history in the high schools
of the State. It is also interesting in that it discusses and makes a
record of many traditions and customs peculiar to the region. It will be
both interesting and valuable as a reference book for future historians
of Virginia and will afford great pleasure to all of us who love to read
about the history of our State.
Prior to the coming of good roads to Virginia and the building of the
bridges across the Rappahannock and Potomac Rivers what is known as the
Northern Neck, although actually a peninsula, was to those living in the
eastern portion almost an island and it was but natural that marked
peculiarities of the people of this section distinguished them not only
from those who lived in other sections of the country but to a less
extent from those living in other parts of Virginia. These distinct
peculiarities appeared in pronunciation, in folk-lore and traditions.
With the exception of the colored people at least ninety-five per cent
of the ancestors of the present population of this section came from
Great Britain and preserved with little change the speech, the culture
and the habits of the British people and it is these things that
distinguished them to some extent from people living in other parts of
the country. In Colonial days a very high state of culture was in
existence among the great plantations of the Northern Neck and their
contributions to the development of this country have included several
of the great heroes of the nation. To a considerable extent all these
attributes have been handed down from generation to generation and every
one in the Northern Neck well knows and is proud of the fact that George
Washington and Robert E. Lee were natives of the section.
All these things are emphasized by Miriam Haynie in her most excellent
and readable book, which will be a real contribution to the history of
Virginia.
ROBERT O. NORRIS, JR.
_Lively, Virginia,
May 16, 1959._
PART I
Seventeenth Century
THE STRONGHOLD
_TIDEWATER_
The country surrounding the Chesapeake Bay, which is known as the
Tidewater, has been compared to the Bible Lands, the Netherlands and
Venice.
Captain John Smith, military leader of the expedition to Virginia in
1607, who explored and mapped the Chesapeake Bay and the Bay Country,
described it thus:
"There is but one entrance by sea into this country, and that is at the
mouth of a very goodly Bay, the widenesse whereof is 18 or 20 miles.
"Within is a country ... heaven and earth never agreed better to frame a
place for man's habitation.... Here are ... hils, plaines, valleys,
rivers and brookes all running most pleasantly into a faire Bay
compassed but for the mouth with fruitfull and delightsome land...."
"_YE NORTHERNE NECK_"
On the western shore of the Bay there are three peninsulas, or necks,
carved out of Virginia's shoreline by the tidal rivers.
The third, and northernmost, of these peninsulas lies between the
Rappahannock and the Potomac Rivers. It was probably referred to orally
by the first white men who settled at Jamestown as "the northern neck."
The name appeared in print certainly as early as 1677, when in an
official document it was mentioned as "ye Northerne Neck."
This third peninsula north lies aloof, and long, between its broad
rivers, as they flow into the Chesapeake Bay on the east.
From the Bay the narrow strip of land, only fifteen or twenty miles
wide, runs inland between the rivers for almost a hundred miles, until
it narrows near Fredericksburg so that the rivers almost join--not quite
an island but more cut-off than the usual peninsula. In the old days
when there were almost no roads, and no bridges, the Neck was to those
living in the eastern portion more like an island than a peninsula. Only
from the west could one travel in or out by land and that exit was
rarely used.
Its geographical position made the Northern Neck for many years almost
as inaccessible as an ancient stronghold surrounded by a moat.
_THE PEOPLE_
The Northern Neck could be compared with ancient Mesopotamia--a land
between two rivers where a new civilization started.
The early settlers came to the wilderness in satins and velvets, they
surrounded themselves with the niceties of living, as near like those
they had left in England as was possible. They shopped in London as they
had before and traded with the world directly from their own
habitations.
But the conditions of their new wilderness home changed and moulded them
and made them into something different--a new breed of men.
By the time unusual men were needed to shape an unusual type of
government, descendants from this stock were ready for the undertaking.
In the Northern Neck there are still so many reminders of these
remarkable people that it is not hard to imagine them as they might have
been in their habitat several centuries ago--John Mottrom sailing into
the Coan in his brightly-colored shallop; the Mottrom children playing
their medieval games in the shadow of the primeval woods; Ursula
twirling the venison roast on its hempen string before the fire; Hanna
Neale passing the witchcraft test; young Jack Lee dashing down the
forest aisles on his spirited mount; George Mason pulling the arrows
from the "poor people"; Moore Fauntleroy measuring off his thirty arm's
lengths of rhoanoke for the waiting Accopatough; King Carter rumbling
down his avenue in his coach and six; Mary Ball on her dapple gray;
James Monroe and John Marshall walking down the Parson's Lane with
school books and muskets; Nelly Madison singing to her new baby; young
George Washington riding down to see "Miss Betsy" on a fruitless
mission, and little Robert E. Lee saying good-bye to the cherubs in the
nursery fireplace....
_INDIANS AND EARLY EXPLORERS_
What men first knew this land between the Rappahannock and the Potomac
Rivers?
It is believed that Indians lived along the shores of the Chesapeake
Bay's tributaries three thousand years ago.
The Vikings may have entered the Bay and explored the nearby streams and
lands in the eleventh century.
Cabot, an Italian seaman under commission from King Henry VII of
England, may have entered the Chesapeake at the end of the fifteenth
century.
Spaniards sailed into the Bay and explored some of the region in the
sixteenth century.
European traditions tell of adventurers of other nations who may have
visited this region.
Late in the year 1607, Captain John Smith traveled from Jamestown as far
north as the Potomac when, as a captive of Opechancanough, he was
paraded before the Indian tribes of the Tidewater region. He may have
been the first white man to make a comprehensive tour of the Northern
Neck of Virginia.
_CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH_
When John Smith heard about the New World across the seas it sounded
good to him--it was the sort of adventure that he had been waiting for
all of his life.
He had been born in Lincolnshire, England, in 1579. Even as a small lad
John Smith had been "set upon brave adventures." Tradition says that he
sold his books and satchel and was preparing to run away to sea when he
was stopped by the death of his father.
He was soon apprenticed to a merchant but he hated the counting-house.
He longed to be free and go to sea. When he was about fifteen he could
no longer stand being caged so he ran away. After a number of adventures
he became a soldier in the Netherlands.
Some time later he went home on a visit to Lincolnshire, where he "lived
a great deal in society." He soon tired of this way of life and retired
to a wooded pasture where he built himself a shelter of boughs and
became a hermit.
In the peace and solitude of the pasture he studied Machiavelli's _Arte
of Warre_ and the writings of Marcus Aurelius. He exercised with a good
horse, a lance and a ring, and lived mostly on venison, which he took
without worrying too much over the game laws. His other wants were
supplied by a servant, his only contact with the world.
Because of his unusual mode of life news of John Smith traveled around
the countryside but it did not worry him because "he provoked the wonder
of the peasantry."
At length an Italian gentleman, who had become interested in what he had
heard of John Smith, penetrated his forest hideout and persuaded him to
come into society once more. After many more adventures and hairbreadth
escapes in foreign lands he returned to England in 1604, in time for
another adventure. He was still a young man, about twenty-five, but he
was matured and hardened far beyond his years.
When the little band of colonists set sail for America from Blackwall,
England in December 1606, John Smith was with them.
The voyage was a stormy one in more ways than one. By the time the
little "sea-wagons" arrived in the West Indies Smith, who had been put
in irons, came very near being hanged, according to tradition.
It was April when the ships with their bedraggled passengers entered the
Chesapeake Bay. The fragrance of "pyne" reached them from the virgin
forest that covered the face of the land. It was a New World in every
sense of the meaning--new, fresh, untouched.
When the sealed orders of the King were opened it was found that John
Smith had been named a member of the Council. He demanded trial for the
charges preferred against him: "that he plotted on arrival in Virginia
to murder the Council and make himself the king there." He was tried and
acquitted by the first jury to serve in America. Smith was released but
was not yet admitted to the Council.
As it turned out John Smith was the only man among them who was prepared
to build a new country. In the beginning he warned the colonists that
"no man is entitled to a place in America, he must make his own."
_POWHATAN'S EMPIRE_
When John Smith started exploring the region around the Chesapeake he
found that it was inhabited by a number of small Indian tribes. These
Indians were known as the Algonquians.
These tribes made up a confederation under the iron rule of a powerful
"king" called Powhatan. At his command there were about twenty-five
hundred warriors.
Smith made a map which shows a total of one hundred and sixty-one
villages within Powhatan's "32 Kingdomes."
Indian villages were owned in common. The hunting grounds, and pieces of
cleared land used for the cultivation of corn, tobacco and vegetables
belonged to the tribe. A warrior owned nothing except his garments,
tomahawks, bows and arrows.
The Algonquians had no written laws. Their customs were handed down
through the old men around the campfires from generation to generation.
These unwritten laws were well-defined and worked in a positive and
forceful way.
The tribes between the Rappahannock and the Potomac Rivers belonged to
the Powhatan confederacy. Their language was a variety of the Delaware
Indian language.
_CAPTAIN SMITH VISITS THE NECK_
It was bitterly cold, "with frost and snow," when Captain John Smith
first saw the land between the Rappahannock and the Potomac Rivers.
Captain Smith's first visit to the Neck was not one of pleasure or
exploration. He came as a captive of the Indian chief, Opechacanough.
It was in the winter of 1607-08. During that year Smith made "3. or 4.
journies and discovered the people of Chickahamania." It was on the last
of these "journies" that he was taken prisoner, and led about in triumph
and exhibited to the tribes of the Tidewater region, from the James to
the Potomac.
Smith was carried to Tophanocke, "a kingdome upon a River northward."
This river was the Rappahannock. Here they stopped at the village of the
Nantaughtacunds.
Smith and his captors may have sped swiftly and silently through the
forest but when they approached a village a triumphal procession was
formed which was marked by "a barbarous sort of pomp."
Captain Smith was guarded on either side by a savage who kept fast hold
upon his wrist. Opechacanough moved in the middle of the column and the
swords, guns and pistols which had been taken from Smith and his
companions were borne before the Indian chief.
Their approach was heralded by the songs and shrieks and dances of the
warriors. Their yells of death and victory brought out the women and
children to behold their triumph over this strange-looking creature from
another world, after which there was great feasting.
Smith was feasted, too. He was fed so well "with bread and venison that
would have served 20 men" that he believed that he was being fattened to
be eaten later on.
From the Rappahannock the procession pushed on across the Neck until it
reached the village of the Nominies,[1] near the Potomac. Here the same
procedure was again repeated.
[Footnote 1: NOTE: Variously spelled--Onawmanient, Onawma, etc.]
After their stay near the Potomac the parade turned back from whence it
had come. The destination, now, was Powhatan's favorite spot on the York
River, where that great chief was waiting to settle the fate of Captain
John Smith.
When at length Smith was brought before Powhatan, he was received with
all the formal pomp and state known to the savage court. A long
consultation was held by the council there assembled.
Captain Smith knew what the decision was when two large stones were
brought in by the warriors. His end was not yet, however, for Powhatan's
daughter, Pocahontas, according to Smith, saved the day by thrusting
herself between him and the up-raised club.
By the time Captain Smith reached Jamestown again nearly seven weeks had
elapsed since his capture. Though his tour of the Tidewater country had
been under humiliating conditions he had gathered by observation and
from the Indians a large amount of useful knowledge.
"_A PLAINE WILDERNES_"
How did the Northern Neck look to Captain John Smith on his first visit
there?
Just like the rest of the Chesapeake Bay country--"all over-growne with
trees and ... being a plaine wildernes as God first made it."
The size of the trees impressed him most, and the lack of undergrowth
beneath them.
"So lofty and erect," he wrote, "were many of these trees and so great
their diameter that their trunks afforded plank twenty yards in length
and two and a half feet square."
Freedom from undergrowth he found was due to the annual burnings of the
Indians in their efforts to capture whole herds of deer by surrounding
them with a belt of fire. These firings made no impressions upon the
giant trees.
The trees were so far apart, Smith says, "... that a man may gallop a
horse amongst these woods any waie, but where the creeks or Rivers shall
hinder." (Other early writers say that a coach could have been driven
through the trees, and a person could be seen in the forest at a mile
and a half.)
It was winter when Captain Smith first saw the Neck therefore he had a
view unobstructed by foliage of the great tree trunks and spacious
forest aisles, "bespred" with brown pine needles and ornamented with
green vines and scarlet turkey berries.
Since it is impossible to travel far in the Neck without coming upon
some stream of water, many of John Smith's forest vistas must have ended
with a glimpse of a river or frozen pond. He wrote of the many "sweete
and christall springs" that flowed through the woods on their way to the
sea.
Many of the forest trees were white oaks, and some may have been a
thousand or more years old. These groves were revered by the Indians.
Indians were fond of the mulberry tree. Smith notes: "By the dwelling of
the savages are some great Mulberry trees; and in some parts of the
country, they are found growing naturally in prettie groves."
Besides pine, oak and mulberry, there were, Smith writes, "... goodliest
Woods as Beech, Cedar, Cypresse, Walnuts, Sassfras, and other trees
unknowne." Chinquapin was one of the "trees unknowne."
Locust and tulip poplar were plentiful. Sweet gum, live oak, holly and
cedar flourished in low grounds. Bayberry grew in the swamps and near
the edge of the water.
When Captain Smith first saw the Neck it was bitterly cold, with "frost
and snow," so he may not have seen the pine needles and scarlet turkey
berries. The forest aisles may have been deeply covered with snow.
"_WILD BEASTES_"
If the forest floor was covered with snow when Captain John Smith was
led a captive across the Northern Neck in the winter of 1607, it is
probable that he saw snowshoe rabbits scampering about between the big
trees. Porcupines lived there too, and wild-cats, pole-cats and a marten
known as "black fox." The little animal he saw with the spotted coat,
like the skin of a fawn, was a ground squirrel.
John Smith saw the flying squirrel and the opossum for he describes
them: "A small beast they haue ... we call them flying squirrels,
because spreading their legs, and so stretching the largeness of their
skins, that they have bin seene to fly 30 or 40 yards. An opassom hath
an head like a Swine, and a taile like a Rat, and is the bigness of a
Cat."
Ordinary squirrels, rabbits, foxes and "Rackoones" were abundant.
Captain John Smith no doubt saw beaver at work when they crossed the
many streams. "The Beaver," he wrote, "is as bigge as an ordinary water
dogge ... His taile somewhat like ... a Racket, bare without haire."
The procession of Indians and the lone white man may have come upon a
herd of heavy, slow-moving "Kine." (These were buffalo but are believed
to have lacked the hump.) They were not as wild as the other animals of
the wilderness. Perhaps Smith caught glimpses of the elk that roamed the
forest.
At night John Smith heard the sounds of many wild beasts. The wolves
were small but numerous and ravenous. In the evening they hunted like a
pack of beagle hounds.
If the procession happened to be encamped near the head of a river he
probably heard before morning the scream of a panther as he stalked his
prey.
But of all the animals in the Tidewater region at that time, Smith says
"Of beastes the chiefe are Deare."
The Northern Neck had been hunted less by the Indians than the lower
peninsulas, and it was teeming with wildlife. The primeval forest
furnished home and food for the "wild beastes."
"_BIRDS TO VS UNKNOWNE_"
When John Smith traveled across the Northern Neck, from the Rappahannock
to the Potomac, in the winter of 1607, he probably saw many birds, for
this was their season.
"In winter," he wrote, "there are great plenty of Swans, Craynes gray
and white with blacke wings, Herons, Geese, Brants, Ducke, Wigeon,
Dotterell, Oxeies, Parrots, and Pigeons. Of all those sorts great
abundance, and some other strange kinds, to vs unknowne by name. But in
sommer not any, or a very few to be seene."
For ages wildfowl had been multiplying with little to hinder them. The
Indians killed only what they needed and their weapons were too
primitive to make an impression on the great flocks of waterfowl that
came to the rivers and marshes to feed on the heavy growth of wild
celery, oats and other aquatic plants.
In early winter when these fowl gathered in their annual migration from
the North the sky, it was said, was darkened with them as they arose and
descended from their feeding grounds in the marshes lying along shore.
John Smith probably heard the trumpet notes of the swans and saw the
pattern of flight of the wild geese many times while on his "journie."
He may have at some time seen one of the flightless Great Auks, swimming
along down the Bay on its way South for the winter. Or he may have
espied a heath hen on the shores of the Chesapeake.
It is doubtful if he saw very many of the "Parrots" he mentioned. They
were nocturnal creatures--small, swift, bright and beautiful. The
passenger pigeons came in such flocks that their "weights brake down the
limbs of large trees thereon they rested at night."
There were many red birds to brighten the somber forest aisles. A little
bird with white breast and black wings and back was called "snow-bird"
by the English because it arrived at the first fall of snow. Captain
Smith probably saw these in the vicinity of the Indian villages as they
stayed near habitations.
Turkeys were common in the reedy marshes. Flocks of four and five
hundred were not unusual. These wild turkeys, early writers say,
averaged forty pounds in weight.
Quail and other common varieties of birds were abundant.
_THE NOMINIES_
The Indians reckoned their years by winters, or cohonks, as they called
them, "which was a name taken from the note of the wild geese,
intimating so many times of the wild geese coming to them, which was
every winter."
There is no way of knowing whether it was the first or second moon of
cohonks when John Smith and his captors arrived at the village of the
Nominies, near the Potomac. It was so cold that Smith marveled at how
some of the scantily clad warriors could endure it. He felt thankful
that his own "gowne," which he had lost when he was captured, had been
returned to him.
The village must have appeared bleak and primitive, with its fifteen or
twenty arbor-like dwellings scattered among the sparse trees, its barren
garden plots, its cornfields, marked by last season's dead stalks and
some burned-out tree stumps.
As the procession approached there is little doubt that the scene came
to life. The dogs were probably the first to join their howls with the
death and victory yells of the warriors. These Indian dogs resembled a
cross between a male wolf and an ordinary female dog. There were no
other domestic animals, no beasts of burden, and no way to travel except
by foot or canoe.
The women and children who emerged from the mat-covered doors of their
houses were dressed in garments made of the skins of wild beasts with
the hair left on for winter. Some wore long cloaks, made of skins
embroidered with beads, others wore beautiful mantles of turkey
feathers. Some wore feathered headgear, and jewelry fashioned of shells,
beads and copper.
Smith wrote that the Indians gazed upon him "as he had beene a monster."
He was probably deposited in one of the houses, with a guard of six or
eight warriors. These houses were built of flexible boughs, set in two
parallel rows with floor space between, and lashed together at the top
to form an arch-shaped roof. The entire framework was covered with bark
or woven grass mats. "He who knoweth one such house," wrote Smith,
"knoweth them all."
Inside the houses were "drie, warme, smokie." There was no chimney to
conduct the smoke from the fire on the dirt floor to the vent in or near
the roof. If the fire ever went out it was hard to start a new
one--"their fire they kindle by chafing a dry pointed stike in a hole
of a little peece of wood, that firing itselfe will so fire mosse,
leaves, or anie such like drie thing that will quickly burne."
John Smith was no doubt glad to have a "warme," "drie" place to rest,
even though "smokie." He could stretch out on one of the platforms
running down each side of the building. There were no partitions in
these houses. The platforms, about a foot high, served as beds, and were
spread with "fyne white mattes" and skins. Whole families, from six to
twenty persons, slept in these one-room dwellings, some on the
platforms, some on the ground.
Captain Smith could probably hear the celebration going on outside. The
Indians had a large plot which they used for feasts and a place where
they made merry when the feasts were over.
With the abundance of wildfowl and game and the harvest of corn stored
away, this was an ideal time for feasting. Oysters from the Potomac were
probably included in the menu for the Indians were fond of roasted
oysters.
Smith was not forgotten. He noted that they "fedde" him "bountifully,"
but would not eat with him. We can imagine him there at his solitary
meal, supping on corn pone, "fish, fowle, and wild beastes, exceeding
fat," by the light of "candells of the fattest splinters of the pine."
_THE DISCOVERERS_
When Captain John Smith was in the Northern Neck he saw the Potomac and
heard tales from the "Salvages" of a place where there was a mine of
"glistering mettal." He made up his mind that if he got out of this
predicament he would explore the river "Patowmeke," find the gold mine,
and perhaps a passage "strait through to the South Sea."
When he finally did get back to Jamestown the colony was in a bad way.
During the extreme cold of the winter of 1607-8, the heavy fires
necessary for warmth had caused the thatch-roofed town to burn. This
included the granary with all their provisions, and the "palisadoes."
By the time the town had been rebuilt, and other difficulties adjusted,
it was summer. John Smith was impatient to begin his next adventure but
he waited until the corn crop had been "laid by."
[Illustration: _John Smith in the shallop exploring the waters of
Northern Neck, Virginia._]
He left the fort on the second of June, 1608, in an open barge of "less
than three tons burthen." His only instrument was a compass. His
companions were--a physician, six gentlemen and seven soldiers.
They crossed the Chesapeake Bay to the eastern shore, proceeding along
the coast, "searching every inlet and bay fit for harbours and
habitations." The Bay was easy to navigate, the greatest menace were the
sudden thunder squalls.
Smith soon became disgusted with his crew. He wrote that they had not "a
marriner or any that had skill to trim their sayles, use their oares, or
any business belonging to the Barge, but 2 or 3, the rest being
Gentlemen, or as ignorant in such toyle and labour."
For provisions they had "nothing but a little meale or oatmeale and
water to feed them; and scarse halfe sufficient of that for halfe that
time, but by the Savages and by the plentie of fish they found in all
places, they made themselves provision as opportunitie served."
A thunder-storm took mast and sails and they were so "over-racked" by
such "mightie waves," that it was with great difficulty that they kept
the barge from sinking. They repaired the sails with their shirts. The
crew begged to turn back to Jamestown but Captain Smith spoke to them in
this manner:
"Gentlemen--
"You cannot say but I have shared with you of the worst that is past;
and for what is to come, of lodging, diet, or whatsoever, I am contented
you allot the worst part to my selfe. As for your feares, that I will
lose my selfe in these unknowne large waters, or be swallowed up in some
stormie gust: abandon those childish fears, for worse then is past
cannot happen, and there is as much danger to returne, as to proceed
forward. Regaine therefore your old spirits: for returne I will not (if
God assist me) til I have--found Patawomeck, or the head of this great
water you conceit to be endlesse."
It was now the thirteenth of June.
_THE RIVER OF SWANS_
Captain John Smith headed the barge toward the western shore of the Bay.
On the sixteenth of June "we fel with the river Patawomeck."
When John Smith had last seen this River of Swans, as the Indians had
named it, water and sky were darkened by hordes of wildfowl. There had
been the sound of the whirring of many wings and great clamour. Now all
was quiet. There was nothing to remind him of that amazing congregation
of fowl that he had seen during "cohonks" except the marshes, lying here
and there along shore.
"Feare being gone and our men recovered, wee were all contented" as the
barge sailed into the mouth "of this 9 myle broad river." On the south
lay the Northern Neck, indented by numerous inlets that promised
harbours, its eastern end extending into Chesapeake Bay. Its virgin
forest was now decked out with leaf and flower which sent fragrance to
the sea-weary voyagers.
For thirty miles they sailed without adventure. Then two
Indians appeared and conducted them up a little creek towards
Onawmanient--"where all the woods were laid with Ambuscadoes to the
number of 3 or 400 Salvages; but so strangely painted, grimed, and
disguised, shouting, yelling, and crying, as we rather supposed them so
many divels."
Captain Smith thought it best to scare them a little, so he trained his
guns so that the bullets would graze the water. This and the "eccho of
the woods so amazed them, that down went their bowes and arrowes." Peace
was made, hostages were exchanged and James Watkins, one of the company,
was sent with them "6 myles up the woods to their king's habitation. Wee
were kindly used by these Salvages: of whom we understand they were
commanded to betray us by Powhatan."
Powhatan had his forces well organized. As they progressed up the river
they found the Indians ready for them: "The like incounters were found
at Patawomeck, Cecocawone, (Coan) and divers other places."
The only tribes that received them with friendliness were the Moyaones,
Nacotchtants and Toags. There seems to be no further record of these
tribes.
They went as far up the river as they could go in the barge, "140
myles"; this was above the site of the present city of Washington, and
about ten miles above Georgetown. Captain Smith was stopped here by
impassable falls. His disappointment must have been great that his
search here did not yield an outlet to the "South Sea."
On the return trip they had the good fortune to meet a number of Indians
in canoes loaded with slaughtered game--bears, deer and other "beasts."
Smith and his party were given liberal portions of the fresh meat, which
must have cheered them some.
In this part of the river there were great rocks on the shores towering
above the trees, and the high banks gleamed in places like "a tinctured
spangled skurfe, that made many places seeme as guilded." Dreams of gold
were always in the minds of men at that time. Perhaps here was to be
found the "glistering mettal" that John Smith had heard about from the
Indians the winter before.
Most of the company clambered up the banks and burrowed in the earth
among the cliffs. The ground was so sprinkled with gleaming spangles as
to seem "halfe pin dust." Smith refrained from this made scramble and
proceeded in a more organized way.
With Japazaws, King of Patowmeke, as guide, he ascended one of the
tributaries of the river, called Quiyough, as far as the depth of water
would allow. Here Captain Smith left the barge, taking with him six men.
He was surrounded by Indians. Some of these he decorated with chains and
told them that if they conducted him safely to the mine they could keep
the ornaments.
When they arrived at the place of the treasure, nine or ten miles
inland, the Englishmen saw that the Indians had been digging there with
their shells and hatchets for a long time.
To their great disappointment the mine was not gold but antimony. The
Indians, who had been in the habit of digging there, washed the element
of its dross "in a fayre brooke of christel-like water" which "runneth
hard by it" and put it in little bags and sold it all over the country.
It was used to paint their idols and themselves. Smith noted that it
made them look like "blackmoores dusted over with silver."
No minerals were discovered in this search either. They were rewarded in
a slight degree by some furs of mink, beaver, otter, bear and marten,
which they obtained mostly from the Indians of Cascarawaoke. This was a
merchant tribe that did much of the manufacturing and trading of this
country. The Potomac must have been used as a highway for trade as the
word Patowmeke is said to mean "to bring again," or, in a freer
rendering, "traveling traders, or pedlars."
Smith's party found "plentie" of fish, "lying so thicke, with their
heads above the water, as for want of nets (our barge driving amongst
them) we attempted to catch them with a frying pan; but we found it a
bad instrument to catch fish with."
Smith now continued toward the mouth of the Potomac and the Chesapeake.
He had little of tangible value to show for the trip up the river but he
had added greatly to his store of knowledge and could now add the
Potomac to his map of the Chesapeake and surrounding country.
He notes that the Potomac was "inhabited on both sides. First on the
South side at the very entrance is Wighcocomoco (Little Wicomico) and
hath some 130 men, beyond them Sekacawone (Coan) with 30. The
Onawmanient with 100. And the Patawomekes more than 200."
A point of land at the mouth of the Potomac, on the south side, he named
for himself, Smith's Point.[2]
[Footnote 2: Smith's Point is also called Smith Point.]
_MOTHER OF WATERS_
When Captain John Smith and his bargeload of adventurers left the
Potomac they passed the tip of Smith's Point and headed south. They were
now on the Chesapeake Bay.
Indians had long used this great inland sea as their waterway. Their
word, Chesapeake, has been translated in a number of ways, among
them--country on a great river and great salt bay.
The Spaniards, who visited the Bay in the sixteenth century, had
documented it as Bahia de Santa Maria (St. Mary's Bay). Later, they
called it Bahia del Xacan (Axacan Bay), and a very old Spanish map calls
it, Madre de Aguas, meaning Mother of Waters.
Captain Smith describes it simply as "a goodly bay." He wrote: "This Bay
lyeth North and South, in which the water floweth neare 200-myles, and
hath a channell for 140 myles, of depth betwixt 6 and 15 fadome, holding
in breadth for the most part 10 or 14 myles."
Two of Smith's company recorded the fact that "Neither better fish, more
plenty or variety, had any of us seene in any place, swimming in the
water, then in the bay of Chesapeake."
The Indians well knew the riches of their great Bay. They caught the fat
fish in weirs, with nets and lines for their angles made by their women
from thread spun from "the barkes of trees, Deeres Sinews, or a Kind of
Grass." They ate the sea-crabs that were said to be so large that four
Englishmen could feast on one of them. They roasted the oysters reported
to have been thirteen inches long at the time of the coming of the white
man. The shells were not wasted by the Indians--they were used for
medicine, ornaments, and wampum was made from the purple edges of the
clams. Even the lowly periwinkle was eaten.
As the first English ships entered Chesapeake Bay the crews were
startled to see whales and schools of tumbling porpoises. The early
colonists were soon to learn that there were so many porpoises in the
Bay that canoes were sometimes overturned by them.
When the Jamestown colony was starving they lived on the bounties of the
Bay--they caught the sea-crabs and sturgeons and sheepshead; the latter
they likened to the broth of their English mutton. And these same
strangers "groped in the deep for oysters which lay in places thick as
stones," according to an early writer.
There were many oddities in the Bay which intrigued the Europeans--a
small fish that resembled St. George's Dragon, with legs and wings
omitted, the stinging nettle, and "the Todefish which will swell till it
be like to brust, when it commeth into the aire."
As Captain John Smith and his crew proceeded down the Bay in the barge
they passed the end of the Northern Neck and came to the mouth of the
Rappahannock River. It was the intention of Smith to explore this river
and visit the acquaintances he had made "upon the river of Toppahannock"
during his captivity the preceding winter. But they were stopped by the
ebb-tide. The following account of what happened at the mouth of the
Rappahannock was written by members of the company, Dr. Walter Russell
and Anas Todkill.
"But our boate (by reason of the ebbe) chansing to ground upon many
shoules lying in the entrance, we spied many fishes lurking amongst the
weedes on the sands. Our captaine sporting himselfe to catch them by
nailing them to the ground with his sword, set us all a fishing in that
manner. By this devise, we tooke more in an houre then we all could eat.
"But it chanced, the captaine taking a fish from his sword (not knowing
her condition) being much of the fashion of a Thornebacke with a long
taile whereon is a most poysoned sting of 2 or 3 inches long, which shee
strooke an inch and (a) halfe into the wrist of his arme. The which, in
4 houres, had so extremely swolne his hand, arme, shoulder and part of
his body, as we al with much sorrow concluded (anticipated) his
funerall, and prepared his grave in an Ile hard by (as himselfe
appointed); which then wee called Stingeray Ile, after the name of the
fish. Yet by the helpe of a precious oile, Doctor Russell applyed, ere
night his tormenting paine was so wel asswaged that he eate the fish to
his supper: which gave no lesse joy and content to us, then ease to
himselfe.
"Having neither Surgeon nor surgerie but that preservative oile, we
presently set saile for James Towne."
_QUICK-RISING-WATER_
It was not until August of 1608 that Captain John Smith had the
opportunity to explore the Rappahannock River. With him in the barge
were twelve men--"nearly the same persons as before"--and an Indian
guide named Mosco, "a lusty Salvage of Wighcocomoco."
Unlike the other Indians, Mosco had a fine black bushy beard, of which
he was proud. Because of this peculiarity he ranked himself with the
Englishmen. Smith believed him to have been the son of a Frenchman.
It was probably due to Mosco's influence that Smith's party was kindly
received and entertained by the Moraughtacunds. Mosco hurried about,
bringing wood and water, and guiding them throughout the neighborhood.
When Smith decided that it was time to push on Mosco warned him not to
visit the Rappahannock Indians. He described them as hostile to the
Moraughtacunds, and would be to the English too, because of their
friendly visit.
Captain Smith believed that Mosco was using this argument to keep all
their trade for his friends. He headed the barge across the river toward
the forbidden territory.
All seemed well as they neared the shore. A dozen or more Indians were
on hand to direct them to a good landing in a creek, where three or four
canoes filled with corn and other commodities for barter, were already
lined up.
When in doubt Smith's custom was to exchange hostages. He made this
known but the Indians were reluctant to comply. After consultation among
themselves four or five of them ran out in the creek bringing with them
their hostage.
Still distrustful, Smith sent one of his men, Anas Todkill, ashore to
look around. Within a stone's throw of the landing Anas discovered two
or three hundred Indians in ambush among the trees. Todkill attempted to
return to the barge but was intercepted by the Rappahannocks. At the
same time the Indian hostage jumped from the barge but was instantly
killed in the water by the English. A volley of shot from the barge
scattered the Indians and Todkill managed to escape. Several Indians
were wounded and killed but the English were unharmed.
In this short while many arrows were shot but the barge was protected by
Indian shields, or targets, woven so firmly of sticks and grass that no
arrow could penetrate them. These Smith had gotten from the Massawomeks.
Captain Smith and his comrades carried the captured canoes and arrows
across the river as gifts to Mosco and his friends. The return of the
English "was hailed with a trumpet."
When the barge started up the river the next day Mosco was one of the
company. As they passed through a narrow place in the river, arrows that
seemed to fly from unseen hands began to hit the shields around the
boat. At the first arrow Mosco fell flat, hiding his head against the
bottom of the barge, but he directed his friends where to look in the
marsh, at the little bushes growing amongst the grass. The guns were
trained accordingly and at the first volley the bushes fell down and the
ambush disappeared. After the barge had moved about half a mile away the
Englishmen looked back and saw the thirty or forty Rappahannocks of the
ambuscade "dancing and singing very merrily."
As the barge progressed up the river the explorers were kindly treated
by the several tribes that they encountered. But the company was
saddened, and lessened, by the death of Richard Featherstone, whose body
had weakened under the excessive heat and humidity of this unaccustomed
climate.
The body of the young Englishman was laid to rest on the shores of a
little bay. His comrades honored him as best they could by firing a
volley of shot, and naming the bay for him--Featherstone Bay. Smith
marked it on his map and it is believed by some to have been near the
site of the present city of Fredericksburg.[3]
[Footnote 3: The exact place of burial seems to be a controversial
subject.]
The next day they sailed as high up the river as the barge would float.
Smith went ashore and set up crosses of wood and brass and cut their
names upon trees to signify that possession had been taken of the
country by English authority.
While Smith was thus occupied the sentinel was surprised by an arrow
that fell beside him. The white men found that they were surrounded by
Indians who were hiding behind trees. After a half-hour skirmish the
Indians disappeared as suddenly as they had appeared. Mosco was the hero
of the battle--he emptied his quiver, ran to the barge for fresh
supplies and pursued the fugitives. Coming upon a wounded enemy Mosco
would have beaten his brains out except for the English.
After the physician, Anthony Bagnalle, had dressed the prisoner's
wounds, he recovered enough to answer Smith's questions. He belonged,
he told them, to the nation of the Mannahocks and was the brother of a
chief. He had heard that the English were a people come from under the
world to take their world from them. When asked what was beyond the
mountains, he answered, "The sun." This Indian's name was Amoroleck.
Mosco was not in sympathy with these proceedings. He told the English
that the Mannahocks were a "naughty" race, as bad as the Rappahannocks,
and that they had better be on their way.
Smith did not take Mosco's advice. It was night when the party finally
embarked and started back down the river. Before long the arrows started
rattling against the shields and dropping into the barge. The stream was
narrow here, with high banks on one side. Amoroleck called to his
people, but in vain; he could not be heard above the shrieks of the
warriors. Every now and then Smith discharged a musket in the direction
of the most noise. The Indians were persistent and followed the barge
for about twelve miles. The darkness was probably all that saved the
Englishmen.
At daybreak the barge emerged into a wide place, where the weary
adventurers dropped anchor out of arrow-shot, and ate breakfast. They
were so tired and hungry that they paid no attention to the four or five
hundred warriors crowded along the banks, until after breakfast. Then
they took down the shields and showed themselves, with Amoroleck in
plain view amongst them. After a consultation the Indians hung their
bows and arrows upon trees and two Indians, with bows and quivers on
their heads, swam out to the barge and presented these in token of
friendship.
Captain Smith now went ashore and told the Indians to send for their
kings. Four kings, or chiefs, soon appeared. Smith gave them back
Amoroleck. The Indians were happy over this and gave the English bows,
arrows, pipes and pouches, but in return they asked for the pistols
which the English carried. Smith satisfied them with less dangerous
trinkets, and left them dancing and singing and making merry.
The barge continued its journey downstream until the neighborhood of the
Moraughtacunds was reached. They stopped here to tell these friends of
Mosco of their victory over the Mannahocks. The Moraughtacunds were a
feeble race, and small in stature. They begged Smith to subdue the
Rappahannocks also.
Smith decided to help this weak tribe, as he would be at the same time
helping the English. He summoned the kings of the Rappahannocks to a
conference. When they had assembled Captain Smith threatened to burn
their villages, destroy their canoes and corn and prove himself a bad
enemy. Among the things that Smith demanded was the son of a "king,"
named Rappahannock, as a hostage. The chief objected to this--he had
only one son and he could not live without him--but he would give up
certain of his women who had been stolen by the Moraughtacunds. Smith
found that this was the cause of the recent wars.
Captain Smith returned to the Moraughtacunds[4] and had the three women
brought before him. He had a chain of beads put around the neck of each.
He then sent for the King Rappahannock to come, and bade him choose the
one he most desired. The second choice was given to the "king" of the
Moraughtacunds. Then Smith generously presented Mosco with the third
woman. All parties seemed to be satisfied with this distribution.
[Footnote 4: The name "Moraughtacund" was corrupted to the present
"Morattico."]
The next day six or seven hundred Indians of both tribes assembled to
celebrate the peace that had been thus established. No weapons were to
be seen, friendship was pledged with the English, and the Indians
volunteered to plant corn for them. In return John Smith promised
hatchets, beads and copper.
Mosco was so pleased that at the height of the celebration he renounced
his name in favor of one meaning "stranger" and voluntarily became a
subject of the English King, James the First.
After the celebration Captain Smith sailed again into the Chesapeake,
leaving behind this river that the Indians called Quick-Rising-Water.
_HENRY AND POCAHONTAS_
In 1609 an English boy landed at Jamestown. He was probably about
fourteen years old at that time since records show that he had been
baptized in England in 1595.
In a short while Henry Spelman was to find himself in a virgin forest
among painted savages and wild beasts. What a change for this young son
of a British nobleman!
Harry had no doubt been accustomed to a quiet and bookish atmosphere at
his home at Congham, Norfolk. His father, Sir Henry, was interested in
history and antiques, and in fact was noted for his studies along those
lines.
[Illustration: _Henry Spelman living amongst the Indians._]
And why did Sir Henry permit a boy so young to set out upon such a
dangerous expedition? Was it because Harry was a third son and could
therefore expect little in the way of lands and riches? Since Sir Henry
was one of the Council for New England, and treasurer of the Guiana
Company, he may have had his eyes on broader horizons.
It was August when Henry arrived in Virginia. It was the hot, muggy
season when mosquitoes were plentiful. Shortly after his arrival Captain
John Smith took him on a little journey to visit Powhatan. How excited
Henry must have been at the prospect of seeing the great chieftain! How
little did he suspect what Captain Smith had planned to do with him.
Henry later wrote the following account:
"I was carried by Capt. Smith, our President, to ye litell Powhatan
where unknowne to me he sould (sold) me to him for a towne called
Powhatan (site of present Richmond city) and leavinge me with him, he
made knowne to Capt. Weste, (Francis, brother of Lord Delaware) how he
had bought a towne for them to dwell in...."
Soon after Captain Smith left Henry with the Indians a massacre ensued
in the Indian village. According to early writers of Jamestown, Henry's
life was saved by Powhatan's daughter Pocahontas.
At this time the King of Patowmeke was visiting his emperor, probably to
pay his tribute, and to save the white boy from the "furie of Powhatan"
he took him home with him when he returned to the land between the
Rappahannock and the Potomac.
This arrangement was probably made by Pocahontas. Before very long she
too would be hiding out in the Northern Neck as a guest of the King and
Queen of Patowmeke. It is believed by some that Pocahontas and Henry
fled with the King of Patowmeke to his village on the Potomac at the
same time.
_HENRY AND KING PATOWMEKE_
Henry probably adjusted himself quickly to the way of life in the
village of the Potomac Indian tribe. He was probably soon wearing a skin
belt and a cord as a breechclout like the Indian boys of his age.
Henry doubtless played a game with them that was like football for he
later described this game and indicated that it was played by both boys
and women but with different rules: "They use football play which wemen
and young boyes doe much play at. The men never. They make their gooles
as ours only they never fight nor pull one another doune.
"The men play with a litel balle lettinge it fall out of ther hand and
striketh it with the tope of his foot, and he that can strike the ball
furthest winns that they play for."
We can visualize Henry learning to shoot the bow and arrow, and learning
to follow a trail through the forest. The Indian boys probably taught
him to snare beaver, otter and other small animals, and to fish with
hooks of bone or stone, and to catch crabs with dip-nets made of silk
grass.
We know that Henry watched the women gather corn in hand baskets and
dump it into larger baskets for he later recorded these facts. He no
doubt learned quickly to like the Indian food--the corn pones that came
brown-crusted and smoking from the ashes, the fish and meat broiled on
hurdles over the fire or turned on a spit. He doubtless tasted the broth
and bread made from chestnuts and chinquapins and reserved for the chief
men at the greatest feasts, and opossum and beaver, stews of fish and
vegetables, and doves and partridges baked in wet clay, and dined on
venison, turkey and oysters.
Henry had chores to do too. He wrote that one of his duties was
"stilling the king's young child, for none could quiet him so well as
myselfe." This undoubtedly makes Henry Spelman the Neck's first white
baby-sitter.
He perhaps had his turn with the Indian boys to sit in a little hut on a
platform in the field and scare crows away from the newly planted corn.
We can be certain that Henry avoided the hideous priests and their
temples and the houses where the bodies of the dead kings and statues of
their god Okee were kept. These places were considered too holy for
ordinary people to enter. Indians passed these houses quickly, and even
when going up or down the river they would throw "some peece of copper,
white beads or pocones into the river for feare their Okee should be
offended and revenged of them."
Henry attended funerals of the common people where he saw the body
wrapped in mats and placed on a scaffold ten or twelve feet high. The
relatives mourned greatly and threw beads among the poor. After the
funeral the relatives entertained with feasting, music and dancing.
The corpse stayed on the scaffold until the flesh had disappeared and
then it was wrapped in a new mat and later buried.
In the Potomac country punishment for crime was swift and often final.
Henry was an eye-witness to such punishment: "Then cam the officer to
thos that should dye, and with a shell cutt off ther long locke, which
they weare on the left side of ther heade, and hangeth that on a bowe
before the kings house. Then thos for murther weare beaten with staves
till ther bonns weare broken and beinge alive weare flounge into the
fier, the other for robbinge was knockt on the heade and beinge deade
his bodye was burnt."
The white boy saw many moons come and go there in the wilderness--the
moon of stags, the corn moon, the first and second moon of cohonks. He
was there at the budding of the spring, the earing of the corn, the
highest sun, the fall of the leaf, and then again--cohonks.
He witnessed the solemn celebrations of the plentiful coming of the wild
fowl to the river, the return of the hunting season and the ripening of
certain fruits. He saw the greatest annual festival at the time of the
corn gathering with its war dances, heroic songs, the music rattles and
drums, and then the feasting.
One day news came to the village of a boat with sails that was moving up
the river and stopping at the Indian settlements in quest of corn. The
white men sent from Jamestown by Lord De la Ware were ready to barter
copper, beads and other "trucke" for corn. While Henry had been dining
so well with the Indians his own people at Jamestown were starving.
As the boat neared the village of the Potomac Indians a messenger came
to the chief with word from the captain. Captain Samuel Argall had heard
that in the village there was an "English boy named Harry" and he
desired to "hear further of him."
King Patowmeke sent the boy to the ship where he conversed with Captain
Argall and then returned to the village with an invitation to the chief
to visit the ship. The chief accompanied the boy back to the ship.
The visit was pleasant and a deal was made between the chief and the
captain--the vessel was "fraughted with corne" and Henry was exchanged
for some copper.
Henry had lived with the Indians for "a year and more." Captain Argall
found him healthy and apparently contented. He returned to Jamestown and
stayed there until the following spring at which time he sailed for
England in company with Lord De la Ware.
How different Henry must have seemed to his family! And he was different
for he had become almost more like an Indian than a white boy.
_HENRY'S RELATION_
While on his return visit to England Henry Spelman wrote a manuscript,
entitled "Relation of Virginia," in which he described the country
between the Rappahannock and the Potomac. It is probably the first
recorded specific description of the Northern Neck:
"The cuntry is full of wood in sum partes, and water they have
plentifull, they have marish (marsh) ground and smale fields, for corn,
and other grounds wher on their Deare, goates, and stages feadeth, ther
be in this cuntry Lions, Beares, Wolves, foxes, muske catts, Hares, a
fleinge squirel, and other squirls beinge all graye like conyes, a great
store of foule, only Peacockes and common hens wanting: fish in
aboundance wher on they (Indians) live most part of the Summer time.
They have a kind of wheat cald locataunce and Pease and Beanes, Great
store of walnuts growing in every place. They have no orchard frutes,
only tow kind of plumbes, the one a sweet and lussius plumbe, long and
thicke in forme and liknes of A Nutt Palme, the other resemblinge a
medler." (Persimmon)
_BETRAYED_
IN 1616 Henry Spelman returned to Virginia and was employed as
interpreter to the colony. In 1618 he was again in England but returned
to Virginia on board the _Treasurer_ in that same year. By now he "knew
most of the kings of Virginia and spake their languages very
understandingly."
In August, 1619, Spelman was tried by the House of Burgesses for
speaking disparagingly of Governor Yeardley to Opechancanough. These
charges were preferred by Robert Poole, interpreter. Poole said that he
had been present at the court of Opechancanough when Spelman had talked
"unreverently and maliciously" against the colony government.
Spelman denied most of the charges but admitted that he "hade informed
Opechancanough that within a yeare there would come a governor greater
then this that nowe is in place."
For this misdemeanor Spelman lost his title of Captain and was sentenced
to serve the colony seven years in the nature of interpreter to the
Governor. Many thought that he had been "badly rewarded for much good
service" that he had done.
When the sentence was read to Spelman it was reported that he showed no
signs of remorse for his offenses and muttered to himself and acted more
like a "Savage than a Christian."
It was not long before Henry was again in good standing in the colony.
He was put in command of a small bark called _Elizabeth_, and was
trading with the Indians along the Potomac at the time of the massacre
in March, 1622. At Chicacoan (Coan) an Indian stole aboard his boat and
told of the massacre and that Opechancanough had "plotted with his King
and countrey to betray them also, which they refused; but them of
Wighcocomoco (Little Wicomico) at the mouth of the river, had undertaken
it." When Spelman heard this he went to Wicomico but the Indians seeing
his men were so well armed appeared friendly and loaded his boat with
corn.
In March, 1623, an expedition of twenty-six men, in the _Tiger_ under
the command of Captain Spelman, went to trade for beaver and corn with
the Anacostan and other Indian tribes between Potomac Creek and the
falls of the Potomac (probably near the present site of Washington, D.
C.).
Captain Spelman, Henry Fleet and twenty of their companions went ashore,
believing the Indians to be their friends. Spelman was "a warie man,
well acquainted with the savage nature" but evidently he was not aware
how bitterly these Indians had been antagonized a short time before by a
party under the command of Captain Isaac Matthews.
While Spelman and his men were ashore the pinnace with only five men
left on board was surrounded by Indians in canoes, some of whom climbed
up on the deck. The sailors were thus surprised and one of them fired a
cannon at random. The savages were so frightened that they jumped
overboard and swam ashore leaving their canoes drifting.
The sailors then heard an uproar on shore. It sounded as if a fight was
in progress. Suddenly they saw a man's head thrown down the bank. They
recognized it as the head of Henry Spelman.
The Anacostan Indians had proved themselves to be too "subtile" for
Henry Spelman. But "how he was surprised or slaine is uncertaine." The
sailors hastily weighed anchor and set sail for Jamestown.
This ends the true story of the "English boy named Harry" who was
betrayed twice in the wilds of Virginia--first by his own people and
then by his adopted people.
[Illustration: _Pocahontas is traded for a copper kettle and becomes an
hostage to Captain Argall._]
Henry Spelman was about twenty-eight years old when he was killed. He
had contributed in many ways to the building of a new country. He left
to posterity his valuable recorded observations so that others could
profit by his courage and industry.
_KIDNAPPED_
In the autumn of 1609, Captain John Smith was disabled when his
powder-bag was accidentally fired. He sailed for England and never
returned to Virginia.
After Captain Smith left, Pocahontas came no more to Jamestown. But she
did visit elsewhere. In the spring of 1613 she was visiting in the
Northern Neck with her relatives and friends along the Potomac.
The sympathy which Pocahontas had shown for the colonists had caused an
estrangement between her and her father, Powhatan. She lived with him no
longer and was staying in some secrecy with her relations, the King and
Queen of Patowmeke.
For the trip Pocahontas probably wore her robe of deer skins, which was
lined with pigeons' down, and her royal jewels of shell, and the white
feather in her hair which signified that she was a princess. Though
slight of stature, she was doubtless impressive when dressed in her
regalia.
In April, Captain Samuel Argall was sent to the Potomac to trade for
corn. There, he became acquainted with Chief Japazaws, an old friend of
Captain Smith, and learned from him that Pocahontas was his guest.
This knowledge gave Captain Argall an idea. Since Captain Smith had left
the colony at Jamestown the Indians had again become troublesome. If,
thought Captain Argall, Powhatan's favorite daughter could be captured
and held as a hostage peace might be made. The idea grew, and he plotted
to steal the little Indian princess.
Captain Argall bargained with Japazaws--a copper kettle in exchange for
his guest. The chief agreed, but how could he get Pocahontas aboard the
English ship?
Japazaws turned the details of the plot over to his wife. It was up to
her to lure the princess into the hands of Captain Argall.
The chief's wife told Pocahontas that she had a great desire to see an
English ship and that her husband had promised to take her aboard if
the princess would go with her. Although she had no idea that her
identity was known to Captain Argall, Pocahontas refused to go. She had
seen "great canoes" before and did not care to see this one.
Japazaws threatened to beat his wife unless she could persuade
Pocahontas to go aboard the ship. In tears the chief's wife again begged
Pocahontas to go with her. The kind-hearted girl finally consented.
Captain Argall welcomed his three guests and ushered them into the
ship's cabin where a feast had been spread for them. While the banquet
was in progress, Japazaws stepped often on the Captain's foot, under the
table, to remind him that his part had been done.
At an opportune time the Captain persuaded Pocahontas to go into the
gun-room, pretending to have something to talk over in private with
Japazaws. Presently, he sent for her and told her, before her friends,
that she must go with him and "compound peace betwixt her countrie" and
the English before she should ever see her father again.
Pocahontas began to weep and Japazaws and his wife joined in, howling
and crying louder than the girl they had betrayed. Soon the chief and
his wife, with the copper kettle, went "merrily on shore."
A messenger was sent to Powhatan by Captain Argall, to tell him that he
must ransom his beloved daughter with the "men, swords, peeces, tools,
&c. hee trecherously had stolne."
Powhatan did not respond to these demands as Captain Argall had planned.
His stand against the invaders was more important to him than his own
daughter.
In the meantime, fate took a hand--at Jamestown, Pocahontas and "Master
John Rolfe, an honest gentleman," fell in love and were married. In this
way peace was established, for a time, between the Indians and the
colonists.
As "Lady Rebecca," wife of John Rolfe, Pocahontas traveled to England
and had other adventures, but her last happy days as a free Indian
maiden were spent in the land between the Rappahannock and the Potomac,
later known as the Northern Neck. An Indian village called "Petomek,"
near the mouth of Potomac Creek, was the scene of her kidnapping.
Potomac Creek is located in Stafford County, three miles north of
Falmouth. Some believe that Captain Argall found Henry Spelman and
Pocahontas at the village of the Potomacs at the same time.
_THE INDIAN TRADER_
Henry Fleet was one of the expedition of twenty-six men aboard the
_Tiger_ who under Captain Spelman in March, 1623, went to trade for
beaver skins and corn with the Anacostan and other Indian tribes near
the head of the Potomac.
Fleet was with Spelman when he went ashore. After Spelman was killed and
his head tossed over the river bank, Fleet was taken prisoner and
carried to the village of the Anacostans. This is believed to have been
located not far from the present monument of Washington, in Washington,
D. C.
Fleet was about twenty-five years old and had but recently arrived in
Virginia. His father was William Fleet of the London Virginia Company,
which may have been the reason that Henry came to the New World. Henry
was adventurous, quick-witted and intelligent. He made good use of his
stay in the wilderness of the Northern Neck by studying his new
environment. Later he wrote down some of these observations:
"It aboundeth in all manner of fish. The Indians in one night will
commonly catch thirty sturgeons in a place where the river is not above
three fathom broad. And as for deer, buffaloes, bears, turkeys, the
woods do swarm with them, and the soil is exceedingly fertile." He also
wrote that he had seen "plenty of black fox, which of all others is the
richest fur." This animal was a large marten, so fierce that it was the
match for any forest animal up to the size of a deer.
Henry was kept in captivity for four years, when his friends managed to
ransom him. Small vessels were then trading with the Indians of the
Potomac and news of him was probably carried to Jamestown in this way.
During the year 1627 the London Merchants were surprised by the arrival
of Henry Fleet from Virginia. Startling tales of his adventures spread
abroad. It was said that he had lived with the Indians so long that he
had forgotten his own language, that he had often seen the South Sea;
that he had seen Indians "besprinkle their paintings with powder of
gold."
These stories impressed William Cloberry, a merchant adventurer, and
chief man in the Guinea trade. Cloberry believed that Fleet could be
useful to him as a trader among the Indians.
On September 6, 1627, the ship _Paramour_ of London, one hundred tons
burden, was licensed to clear with Henry Fleet as master. William
Cloberry and Company were the owners.
Captain Fleet was well suited by nature and experience to be
an Indian trader. For years he traded with the Indians along the
Potomac--bartering "beads, bells, hatchets, knives, coats, shirts,
Scottish stockings and broadcloth" and other "trucke," for beaver fur,
tobacco and corn. Some of the Indian tribes traveled "seven, 8 and 10
days journey" to trade with him. He was the most regular and dependable
trader the Indians knew.
By 1632 Captain Fleet was operating several boats in the Indian trade,
and in that year he built a shallop and a "Barque" of sixteen tons for
his own use. He also opened a trade between the Massachusetts settlement
and the Potomac River. Sometimes he carried as much as eight hundred
bushels of corn at one time from the Potomac to New England.
One day, while trading for beaver with the Anacostans, Captain Fleet ran
into trouble. He met the pinnace of a rival trader, and on board was
John Utie of the Virginia Council. The latter arrested him by order of
the Council for trading with the Indians without license. Fleet had to
stop his activities and set sail for Jamestown, where he was tried, but
soon given his liberty.
Captain Fleet became a powerful man in Indian affairs. After the
massacre of 1644 he was commissioned to negotiate a peace, at his own
expense should he fail. He was successful in arranging a treaty with
Necotowance, successor of Opechancanough, "in terms that showed a marked
advance of civilization; Necotowance must do homage for his land to the
King of England, in token whereof he was fined 20 beaver skins at the
going away of the Geese yearly."
When bargaining with Necotowance Captain Fleet had been authorized to
build a fort on the Rappahannock, "an important station."
Fleet remained in the region of the Potomac long enough to see the first
settlers come to the Northern Neck. He was their friend and interpreter
and helped them with their Indian troubles.
_A PETITION_
In July, 1639, owing to the increase of population in Bermuda, the
Proprietors of the Island, in London, petitioned for the region
"scituate betwixt the two Rivers of Rapahanock, and Patowmack wch by
good Informacon your petit'iors finde to be both healthful and
otherwise--not yet Inhabited." (Lefroy's _Bermudas_, Vol. I, p. 558.)
_FROM NORTH OF THE POTOMAC_
The first settlers did not come to the Northern Neck from the direction
of Jamestown, which would have been the natural direction. Nor did they
come for the natural reason--new lands.
Instead, they came from north of the Potomac. In order to understand the
reason for the migration of these pioneers from the north side of the
Potomac to its south side, it is necessary to go back a few years and
study the situation in the upper Chesapeake Bay region.
Before 1640 the activity of white men in the Chesapeake Bay centered
about a trading post at Kent Island, situated far up the Bay. The trade
there was with the Indian tribes in "fur, skins and Indian baskets."
Captain Henry Fleet, William Claiborne, a Virginian, and Lord Baltimore
and his brother were chief among those who were making history in this
region at that time.
Claiborne and a number of Virginians had established a colony on Kent
Island under a charter secured before Lord Baltimore had settled his
colony on the north side of the Potomac in a region that he called
Maryland.
When Lord Baltimore was granted a charter to settle in this area, his
charter included Kent Island. The charter, however, had said that he
should have authority only over uninhabited lands.
Claiborne considered that Kent Island was inhabited and was not,
therefore, a part of Maryland.
In 1634, the second Lord Baltimore sent about one hundred settlers,
under the leadership of his brother, Leonard Calvert, to a point of land
across the Potomac from the Northern Neck, and a settlement was
established there, known as the "Citie of St. Mary's."
A year after this colony had been planted the settlers were instructed
by their Governor, Leonard Calvert, to seize Kent Island.
Claiborne appealed to the Crown but the decision was in favor of Lord
Baltimore's claim.
[Illustration: _First settlers at Coan._]
Claiborne did not give up so easily. With the help of Puritan rebels he
seized Kent Island, captured the "Citie of St. Mary's" and drove Calvert
from the colony.
But Calvert was also tenacious. He returned a year later, regained
control of his Maryland possessions and forced Claiborne to give up Kent
Island. Later, the English government decided, once and for all, in
favor of Lord Baltimore's claim.
At this time there was much religious dissension in England and in
Virginia. Lord Baltimore, a Catholic himself, had hoped to establish a
colony where religious freedom could be had by all. Many Puritans left
the lower Tidewater Virginia and joined the Maryland settlers.
But Lord Baltimore's plan for a harmonious mingling of all religions did
not work out. The Puritans seized the reins of government and there
followed years of intolerance and persecution in the "Citie of St.
Mary's."
Many Protestants and Royalists in the Maryland colony decided to look
for a new home where they could live as they pleased.
Across the Potomac there was a long peninsula inhabited only by Indians.
What better place was there to find peace?
It was in this way that the first settlers came to the Northern Neck
from north of the Potomac.
_THE FIRST SETTLER_
IT WAS probably about the year 1640 when the Indians of Chicacoan[5] saw
a white man's boat turning from the Potomac into their inlet,
Sekacawone.
[Footnote 5: Indian words had various spellings. Chicacoan, for example,
was spelled Chickawane, Chickcoun, Chuckahann, Chickhan, Chiccoun,
Accoan, Sekacawane, Secone, Chickoun, Chickacoon, Sekacawone,
Chickacoan, Chicokolne, Chicokolue, Chicacoun, etc.]
The boat was of the type called a shallop, built and used by Indian
traders. This one may have been of fifteen or twenty tons burden, with
two masts, and square sails that were higher than they were wide. The
wood may have been turpentined, or painted in a gay combination of
colors, such as red, blue, green or yellow. If oars were used as well as
sails they were probably painted red.
The white men on board the shallop were doubtless dressed in the manner
of seamen of their day--loose breeches and jerkins of canvas, hose of
coarse wool and boots of leather. They may have worn woolen stocking
caps or felt hats, depending upon the season.
The owner of the vessel was an Englishman, not over thirty years of age.
His clothes were probably of a finer weave and cut than those of his
men. Unless he was different from other men of his time and station, he
wore his natural hair long and flowing about his shoulders. He may have
worn a sword at his side. This young gentleman's name was John Mottrom,
formerly of Maryland, but more recently from the vicinity of the York
River.
If the inhabitants of Chicacoan thought that the shallop held "trucke"
to barter for their corn, they were mistaken. Far better for them had
this been so.
John Mottrom was not looking for trade but for a new home, and he liked
what he saw here--a wilderness peninsula, shut-away from the government
at Jamestown by miles of water and forest, protected from Maryland by
the Potomac, but close enough to keep in touch with his friends in the
"Citie of St. Mary's."
He could see, too, that this wilderness held promises of future riches.
He had done well as a merchant, trading with Maryland, around the
Potomac and up the Bay at Kent Island, but now the fur trade was on the
wane and tobacco was taking the place of beaver skins as currency.
Here, in this peninsula of northern Virginia, new lands could be had for
the taking--fields for tobacco. This inlet of the Potomac that the
Indians called Sekacawone was a sheltered harbor but deep enough for big
ships to come in and take the tobacco away to foreign markets. The
adjacent lands had been cleared by the natives; the forest would furnish
materials for homes and boats.
There are no records to tell what kind of bargain Mottrom made with the
Chicacoans for their land, but apparently the relations between the
white men and the Indians were friendly. Marshvwap, King of the
Chicacoan and Wicocomoco Indians, became a friend of his new neighbor,
John Mottrom.
_COAN HALL_
When John Mottrom came to the Indian district of Chicacoan to live, it
must have been like the Garden of Eden. The river was there; the trees
that were pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the beast of the
field and the fowl of the air. Except for the Indian clearings along
the margin of the river it was new, untouched and as it was in the
beginning.
Mottrom chose a site for his house on the east bank of the Coan, and
like all early Virginia settlers he knew how to select the spot. Springs
were numerous in this region so that it was not necessary to dig a well.
And how did he go about building a house in this wilderness, so far from
any place where skilled labor, tools and bricks, glass and nails could
be obtained? No records to answer this question have been uncovered to
this date. Perhaps, he brought indentured servants and a few crude tools
with him in the shallop.
What kind of a house did he build? It is fairly certain that he did not
build a log cabin, even for a temporary shelter.
In the seventeenth century the English settlers in Virginia built log
forts, log prisons and log garrison houses but they were of "logs hewn
square," and they were built in the traditional Old World manner.
These early settlers mentioned living in cottages, huts and frame cabins
but, so far as is known, they never said that they lived in log cabins.
The American-type log cabin is believed to have developed later and in
another part of the country.
Mottrom and his men may have erected temporary shelters of saplings,
boughs and bark, similar to the Indian houses.
If wood was cut from the forest for his permanent home, time was needed.
Locust for sills, oak for framing, heart pine and cedar were at hand,
but green lumber had to be seasoned.
Mottrom may have made several trips to Jamestown or Maryland for
artisans and building supplies before his new home was completed.
Meanwhile, he may have brought his family to live in one of the
temporary shelters.
There are no buildings surviving in Virginia that were known to have
been built before 1650, therefore, no true picture of the Mottrom home
can be presented.
However, there are enough facts known of the period to enable one to
reconstruct a reasonably accurate picture of the first house on the
Coan.
First of all--the house had to be strong, for life itself might depend
upon the house. Its style was, no doubt, patterned after the
architecture of England but modified by circumstances in the New World.
A framed building, one storey and a half high, with brick underpinning,
and brick chimneys at either end, was the typical dwelling of Virginia
about the middle of the seventeenth century. Its size would have been
about forty by twenty feet, with downstairs ceilings about nine feet
high.
We can visualize those workmen at Coan "riving" out the weather boards
for the first known house in the Northern Neck. One of the men would be
holding a rough-squared length of timber on a "frow" horse, while
another would be pounding, with a wooden mallet, a wedge-shaped knife
into the wood. Presently a board would fall off. With the same tools
shingles for the roof would be split from cedar.
John Mottrom may have bought English bricks from some ship bound
homeward with a load of tobacco and eager to get rid of the ballast of
bricks at any price. It is more likely that his bricks were burned in a
kiln at Coan, made with clay dug from the riverbank.
Nails were so hard to get that settlers when they were leaving to settle
elsewhere burned their homes in order to get the nails to start a new
house. Mottrom probably brought some nails from his former home and
supplemented them with wooden pegs.
Rarely before 1720 were "windows sasht with crystal glass." Casements
were used. Glassmaking had ended at Jamestown in 1624. Mottrom's windows
may have been diamond-shaped panes of oiled paper with solid wooden
shutters, or merely sliding panels of wood. But it was possible to get
imported glass and he may have had some glass, drawn lead and solder
from England. The window openings were a structural part of the framing,
not just holes cut in the sheathing. Sometimes the windows did not open,
as they were mainly intended to let in light. In this case the leaded
glass was permanently set in the frames in diamond-shaped panes.
Mottrom's front door may have had hinges made in the shapes of the
letters H and L, to stand for Holy Lord, for it was believed then that
such hinges would drive ghosts away from the door. The door may have had
panels in the form of a cross to keep out the witches. Or, the door may
have been made of oak battens, heavy enough to keep out wolves, Indians
and "hurry-canes." In either case, it was fastened with a latch and
string, with possibly an oaken bar inside for added strength.
The chimneys of Virginia houses were much larger than those in England,
and the fireplaces were at least seven feet across, for the hearth was
the heart of the home.
From these various facts of the time, we assume that the first house in
the Northern Neck which John Mottrom named Coan Hall was strong, simple,
functional, and its character was medieval.
_NEIGHBORS_
In spite of its isolation Coan Hall was probably not a lonely place.
Besides John Mottrom and his wife there were two children, and probably
several indentured servants. There were at least a few domestic animals.
The Indians were near, the forest was alive and rustling and "nimble"
with wild beasts, the sky was darkened and animated by the various birds
in their season. The shallop lay at anchor not far away and was a
reminder that it was possible to reach some civilization beyond the
woods and water.
And Coan Hall was hardly established before guests began to arrive. They
came by boat, and perhaps after dark. These Protestant friends and
refugees were from Lord Baltimore's "Citie of St. Mary's."
It was whispered in that unhappy "citie" north of the Potomac that
treason was being plotted at Coan Hall.
John Mottrom's new home must have been filled to capacity in those days.
Although the rooms were few we can be sure that there was no lack of
beds or chairs. Rooms then, with the exception of the kitchen, had no
distinct character. Beds were in every room, even in the hall where
meals were taken.
On a winter's night we can imagine John Mottrom dispensing hospitality
at Coan Hall--food, drink and roaring fires. Great plotting and planning
must have gone on before the hearths, while the passing tankards of
metheglin cheered and warmed the indignant gentlemen from Maryland.
Perhaps John Mottrom's guests were charmed with his new home and decided
that it was easier just to settle at Chicacoan. At any rate we hear no
more of treason. Instead, settlers begin to arrive in the Northern Neck.
William Presley and his English wife were among the first to arrive at
Chicacoan. They built at the head of a creek not far from Coan Hall.
Richard Thompson and his family probably arrived early too. Richard was
a young man, about twenty-seven, when he came to live at Chicacoan. He
was a native of Norwich, Norfolk County, England. As a boy he had come
to Virginia as an indentured servant and had served William Claiborne on
Kent Island for three years.
When at twenty-one Richard became a free man, he went into business for
himself, trading with the Indians for beaver. He must have been a good
trader for he acquired a considerable estate. He also worked as an agent
for William Claiborne, which in the end brought about his downfall. When
Claiborne was proclaimed an enemy by the Maryland Council, Thompson was
denounced also. He was in this way forced to flee to Chicacoan.
Before long a settlement had sprung up along the Coan. John Mottrom
became the unofficial leader of this first white settlement in the
Northern Neck. Although he did not know it, there was one among them who
was to play an important part in his life--her name was Ursula, wife of
Richard Thompson.
_THE "KIDS"_
As soon as their homes were built the settlers at Chicacoan began to
remove the forest and clear the ground for tobacco fields.
The sound of axes was no doubt heard from sunrise until sunset. Then the
stumps had to be dug up, and the soil had to be broken up with hoes.
This hard labor was probably done by white indentured servants.
These British servants were commercially known as "kids," probably
because most of them were young, their ages ranging from thirteen to
thirty as a rule.
An early English writer described the manner in which these "kids" were
obtained to send to Virginia--"very many children ... were violently
taken away or cheatingly duckoyed without the consent or knowledge of
their Parents by ... persons ... called Spirits ... into private places
or ships, and there sold to be transported, and then resold there to be
servants to those that will give most for them."
A letter written in England in 1610 says that--"there are many ships
going to Virginia with them 14 or 15 hundred children w'ch they have
gathered up in divers places."
The shipmaster who brought the children over could sell the indentures
for whatever he could get for them. If he could not find a purchaser, he
could sell the children to persons known as "soul drivers" who would
"buy a parcel of servants" to fill his wagon and drive through the
country until he could sell them at a cash profit.
Other indentured servants were brought over by planters as
"head-rights," which meant that the planter paid for their
transportation and received fifty acres of land as a reward for
transporting an immigrant to Virginia.
The indenture was a simple bargain between master and servant with
protection by law for each. The treatment of the servant depended upon
the nature of his master.
The boys who had long terms to serve became restless and often ran away
across the Potomac to Maryland or to an Indian village. They were
usually caught and punished and put back to work. In Virginia the
punishment was sometimes thirty lashes and the letter R branded on the
cheek, forehead or shoulder. The hair was sometimes cropped, and the leg
shackled with irons, even during working hours. There is no evidence
that the settlers of the Northern Neck did anything more severe than to
whip their "kids."
Food, clothing and shelter was provided by the master. The shelter was
usually in "a house set apart for him." The list of clothing might
include a coat of frieze, a pair of leather breeches, a black hat, or
cap of fur, a pair of "wooden heel shoes," and underclothes of dowlas
and lockram.
The indentured girl servants did not work in the fields unless they were
slattern and offensive. Their work was to bake and brew, clean, milk,
churn, wash and sew.
Due to the scarcity of women in Virginia the girl servants usually
married within the first three months. If their reputation was good,
they often married into a higher station.
_INDIAN SERVANTS_
The settlers at Chicacoan may have had some Indian servants. Tradition
says that William Presley of Coan employed Indians to care for his
"roaming stock."
It was customary in Virginia to take Indian children as apprentices to
learn a trade, and to learn to read and write. This was with the consent
of the parents that the child should be instructed in the Christian
religion.
The children were usually taken at thirteen or fourteen years of age and
the apprenticeships lasted until they were twenty-one.
The value of the Indian servant was about the same as that of the
English indentured servant. The relationship between the Indian boy and
his master was the same as that between the master and the English
servant. Food, clothing and shelter was furnished by the master.
Records of the clothing lists included leather breeches, cotton
waistcoats, shoes and stockings.
_MONEY_
The indian word wampum meant "shells." Wampum and copper were the
Indians' substitute for gold and silver. The early settlers also used
the Indian wampum as a medium of exchange.
Wampum, in Virginia, was usually made from the oyster shell. The dark
wampum, which was made from the black or purple part of the shell, had
twice the value of the white. For instance, three of the dark beads or
six of the white beads equalled one English penny.
The beads were cylindrical in shape about an eighth of an inch in
diameter and one-fourth of an inch long. They were rubbed against stones
until they were polished smooth. A hole was bored through the center of
each bead with a flint instrument so that it could be strung on thread.
Much of this wampum was made by tribes who manufactured and carried on
commerce.
The most common wampum, made of white shell, was called rhoanoke. In old
records wampum was sometimes referred to as "a chain of pearl." In a
Northumberland County record there is listed among the items in the
estate of "James Claughton, dec'd: Mr. Richard Thompson per order 20
arms length of Rhoanoke." Another early settler of the Northern Neck,
Moore Fauntleroy, paid the Indians for his land "ten fathoms of peake"
and "thirty arms length of Rhoanoke."
The English went so far as to import imitation wampum of white porcelain
for sale to the Indians.
The early settlers also used beaver skins as currency. Northern Neck
records about 1656 show that Colonel Nathaniel Pope offered to go
security for John Washington "in beaver skins." Even hens were used for
currency.
Tobacco soon became the most important currency in the colony. The words
of the old song--"Where money grows on white oak trees," was almost true
in Virginia for there tobacco was money and tobacco grew everywhere.
Instead of gold and silver the colonial had his "tobacco note." The
chief reason that metallic coin was scarce throughout the whole
colonial period in Virginia was the fact that tobacco was currency.
It seems that there was always a small stock of coin in the colony, but
it was either used in trade with other countries or it was hoarded by
the colonists. A Virginia county record of 1700 says that: "Spanish
money may not be exported out of this colony, but that it may pass
currently from man to man and that all pieces of eight pass for five
shillings specie."
The most convenient metallic money in Virginia (1722-1835) was a
Portuguese gold coin called a johannes. A full johannes was called a
"half-joe," and a double johannes was called a "joe."
As banking institutions were non-existent in the colony in the early
days, and as robbers sometimes lay in wait in the woods for a lone
horseman, travelers used to carry gold coins sewed under the lining of
their waistcoats or quilted into their coats.
_A PARADISE DISCOVERED_
For several years the settlers at Chicacoan lived in a dream-like
paradise--ungoverned and untaxed.
But this state of freedom could not last. News of the thriving young
settlement in the Northern Neck was probably carried to Jamestown by the
stream of travellers who plied back and forth along the waterways
between that city and St. Mary's in Maryland.
How great the consternation must have been at Chicacoan when one day a
boat arrived from Jamestown. There may have been soldiers on board or
other representatives of the government. They brought a startling
message.
The message was in the form of an Act passed by the House of Burgesses
at an Assembly in 1644. It said:
"Whereas, the inhabitants of Chicawane, alias Northumberland, being
members of this colony, have not hitherto contributed toward the charges
of the war (with the Indians) it is now thought fit that the said
inhabitants do make payment of the levy according to such rates as are
by this present Assembly assessed."
The rates were "for every 100 acres of land, 15 pounds tobacco; for
every cow above 3 years old, 15 pounds tobacco."
But the real shock came at the end of the message: "And in case the said
inhabitants shall refuse or deny payment of the said levy, as above
expressed, that upon report thereof to the next Assembly, speedy course
shall be adopted to call them off the said Plantation."
The settlers were no doubt infuriated at this command. They ignored it,
and continued to live in their independent way.
John Mottrom, however, must have thought it high time to look into the
situation. In the fall of 1645 he sailed for Jamestown.
_A VISIT TO JAMESTOWN_
Although a trip to Jamestown would have been an exciting change after
years of wilderness living, there is reason to believe that Mrs. Mottrom
did not accompany her husband to the capital city. She probably
supervised the preparation of food for the voyage, and packed his
clothes.
John Mottrom's clothes were no doubt as fashionable as the English
tailors could furnish. Rich fabrics and bright colors were worn by
Virginia gentlemen of the seventeenth century, and they never seemed to
think that their "citified" garments looked out of place in the
primitive setting of the New World.
Among the clothes that Mrs. Mottrom may have packed, there might have
been "a sea-green scarf edged with gold lace," a scarlet coat with
silver buttons, a camlet coat with sleeves ending in lace ruffles, a
pair of red slippers, a Turkey-worked waistcoat, a whole suit of
olive-color plush, silk stockings, a beaver hat, neckcloths of finest
holland and muslin, shoes with shining silver buckles, delicately
scented handkerchiefs of silk and lace, and a gold belt for her
husband's sword.
The Mottrom household was probably on the bank of the Coan to wave
good-byes when the anchor was weighed and the sails of the shallop were
hoisted.
Out of the Coan sailed the shallop, and into the Potomac. Out of the
Potomac into the Chesapeake. Then it was straight sailing down the Bay,
past the mouths of the Rappahannock and York, and finally, into the
James. It usually took four average sailing days to travel from the
Northern Neck to Jamestown.
As the boat neared Jamestown Island John Mottrom could doubtless see the
orange-tiled roofs and tall red chimneys of the "citie," which had long
ago burst from its palisades and was now stretched for half a mile along
the river front, as well as backward into the swamps and meadows.
He could no doubt see the tower of the new brick church, and east of it
the State House, which looked so "London-like" with its three steep
gable ends facing the river.
Captain John Smith had written that the water here was deep "so neare
the shoare that they moored to the trees in six fathom water," but the
Mottrom boat may have tied up at Friggett Landing in the rear of the
Island. There were probably other vessels already tied up there, and
others still arriving for the Assembly.
Mottrom may have seen a barge coming down from the upper James, loaded
with gaily dressed men and women--a Burgess or Councillor and his family
and retinue, perhaps.
Once ashore John Mottrom probably took a walk to stretch his legs and
see what changes had taken place since he had last visited "James
Citie." He may have passed the new church, which was still unfinished,
and strolled along some of the narrow lanes. Outside the town there were
some "cart paths," and over some of the swamps there were bridges. Back
of the Island lay the forested Indian district of the "Passbyhaes."
"New Towne" was the most thickly settled part of "James Citie." Most of
the houses were a story-and-a-half of "framed timber" with
steeply-pointed roofs of tile, and a few of slate. Each had its garden
and was enclosed with palings. The road along the river bank was edged
with mulberry trees.
The State House, situated near the river and down stream from the
church, was probably the most imposing building in the town. It was
really three brick houses joined together in a row to form a block, like
the medieval gabled houses in London. Its windows were casements with
lattices of lead and diamond-shaped panes of greenish colored glass. The
place had a garden, fruit trees and vines, all enclosed by palings.
This State House was the focal point of the government and the center of
social life at Jamestown. John Mottrom probably stayed there during his
visit for the governor, Sir William Berkeley, who lived in the building
on the western end, acted as host to all important visitors.
The Assemblies, courts and councils were held in the "middlemost" of the
three houses. The Assembly would soon convene and the visitor from the
Northern Neck had come a long way to be present at that meeting of
November 20, 1645.
We can imagine him there on that important day, sitting with that
dignified group of men, dressed in their rich bright garments, all with
their hats on in imitation of the House of Commons in far away England.
Little is known of what took place in that meeting that concerned
Chicacoan except that John Mottrom was accepted and recognized in this
Assembly as a Burgess from the "Plantation of Northumberland." It seems
that an English name was preferred instead of the Indian name for that
land between the Rappahannock and the Potomac.
_FRANCES_
Mrs. Mottrom probably did not accompany her husband to Jamestown because
in that same year a baby was born at Coan Hall.
What a time that must have been in the wilderness household--the little
indentured English maids scurrying about with wooden pails of steaming
water, perhaps, and the curtains all drawn about the great bed, and John
Mottrom pacing the floor no doubt like any modern father-to-be!
Frances Mottrom, for thus she was christened, may have been the first
white baby to have been born in the Northern Neck.
The neighbors doubtless came to Coan Hall for a christening for it is a
matter of record that Colonel William Presley's wife was named as the
child's godmother. There must have been great cheer at the manor on that
occasion, and many toasts drunk from the same tankard. Maybe a whole
horn of metheglin was passed around in true medieval fashion to "speed
the parting guests."
Frances probably lay in a wooden cradle with high paneled sides to keep
out draughts. Its logical place was near the fireplace where she would
be warm. She was doubtless clothed in white linen exquisitely
embroidered and made. Perhaps her six-year-old sister Anne rocked the
cradle now and then as she played around the floor, and little John
Mottrom may have peered into its shadows to look at her face.
Among the first sounds that Frances knew were no doubt the ringing of
the axes in the forest from sunrise until sunset in winter, and at night
the howling of the wolves in the forest. The first light that she
remembered was probably the firelight and the light from pine-knot or
candle, or daylight filtered through diamond-paned windows of greenish
glass or oiled paper.
One of the first familiar faces may have been that of her father's
friend, Marshvwap, King of Chickacoan.
Frances must have been a sturdy baby to have survived the cold, heat,
fevers, and all the other hazards to child-life in the seventeenth
century.
When Frances was old enough to toddle about, Anne and John may have
played a game with her called "honey-pots," in which they carried her
about in a "chair" made by crossing hands, while they chanted:
"Carry your honey-pot safe and sound
Or it will fall upon the ground."
A little later they may have jumped a hop-scotch, but if so, they called
it "scotch-hoppers." They probably played tag, ball, prisoner's base,
asked riddles and blew soap-bubbles, as these simple amusements dated
from medieval days.
Children of the seventeenth century played games but had few toys. There
may have been a top to spin, and John probably played Indian with bow
and arrow and club. Anne, who had been born in England, may have brought
with her to the New World a stiff little puppet-like doll with a wooden
face and painted hair. Frances may have had a doll made of corn-shucks,
rags, corn-cobs or nuts. Or she may have had a doll like those of the
Indian children, made of rawhide, feathers and wood.
The Mottrom children may have had wild animals for pets--a deer, a
squirrel, or a raccoon, perhaps. The children could not venture far into
the forest to play because of the dangers that lurked in its depths, but
they could stand at its edge and look down the aisles between the trees,
some of them "twenty feet round and Ninety high." In spring and summer
the forest floor was "bespred with divers flowers" and wild
strawberries. In winter they might glimpse a snowshoe rabbit flying over
the snow, or a herd of deer. We can imagine them there--three little
figures dressed in long clothes, exactly like those of their parents,
looking into the forest and pondering upon its mysteries.
When Frances was nine years old, Colonel William Presley presented her
with "one cow calfe ... she being my wife's God daughter." This was
great potential wealth for a little girl! A cow over three years old was
at that time worth exactly the same as one hundred acres of land.
Frances probably thought of the "cow calfe" only in terms of milk and
butter and future cakes that might be baked. She may have named the calf
Pansy, Daisy, Cinnamon or Nutmeg, as such names were then popular for
cows.
As Frances grew older there was little time for play. The Mottrom
household was doubtless astir by daybreak. We can picture the sleepy
child pushing aside the heavy red or green curtains of linsey-woolsey
that surrounded her bed, or if it was summer, the hangings of "muskitoe"
net.
Her toilet equipment was no doubt simple--a basin and ewer, and a "pot
de chambre," all of pewter. She may have owned a gilded hand
looking-glass and a comb of ivory or horn. She washed her face with
home-made soap which may have been soft or, more likely, a hard green
soap made from the berries of "sweet myrtle."
Frances' clothes were probably kept in a "case of drawers." Her everyday
dress was perhaps of blue holland, but for special occasions she wore
silk or brocade. In either case the skirt was full and long. Over this
she wore a white linen apron with bib, and on her head a close-fitting
cap of white linen. The latter was always worn by little children at
that time, and sometimes the cap was beautifully embroidered. When
Frances went out-of-doors she probably wore a loose silken hood over the
cap.
Her hair, if she was fashionable, was cut in bangs across her forehead
with long flowing locks in front dropping forward on her chest. Her back
hair was stuffed out of sight in the cap.
After she had dressed Frances probably ate a simple breakfast of
porridge from a wooden bowl with a pewter spoon. Anne and John probably
ate their breakfasts from the same bowl with their pewter spoons.
Lessons may have come next. Education was simple then, especially for
girls--"bookes to bee learned of children" were "abcies" and primers,
then the Psalms in metre, then the Testament. Frances' teacher may have
been her mother or an indentured servant.
Little girls were taught to knit as soon as they could hold the needles.
Frances probably knitted stockings and mittens when she was four or five
years old. Children also made quilt-pieces. Girls did household chores
and learned early the duties of a housewife.
Anne was old enough now to embroider the family coat-of-arms, or to
paint it on glass in rich colors. Young girls in the families of
seventeenth century gentlefolk spent much time in the study of heraldry.
Frances may have been taught to play a musical instrument--the hand
lyre, hautboy or virginal. The latter was most commonly used by young
girls, from which its name was derived. It was a small rectangular
spinet without legs.
John may have played the flute. We can imagine him earnestly playing for
guests at Coan Hall, dressed in his best, which probably would have
been a dark suit with a white square collar, the pants ending in
light-colored ruffles that fell over his boottops. From under his
wide-brimmed hat, which he would wear indoors on such occasions, his
hair probably fell to his shoulders, with bangs on his forehead.
It is safe in assuming that the Mottrom children looked forward to
guests for they doubtless liked to listen to the talk around the
fireplace. Here the men discussed taxes, the colonial government, the
English King and his followers who were called Cavaliers. They talked of
witchcraft, ghosts, wolves, Indians and the Assembly at "James Citie."
Did all this talk make little Frances long to visit Jamestown and see
the fine ladies who came from their plantations with their husbands at
the time of the Assemblies? If so, her dream was one day to come true.
She would not only visit Jamestown and see the ladies in their silks and
satins but she would be one of them. For Frances Mottrom was destined to
leave her wilderness home some day and become the first lady not only of
Jamestown, but of the whole Colony of Virginia.
_FOREVER LOST_
Although John Mottrom was recognized at Jamestown in the Assembly of
November 20, 1645 as a Burgess from the "Plantation of Northumberland,"
Chicacoan was not established as a county and the order concerning taxes
was not changed. The settlers continued to ignore the order and went on
living as usual in their independent way.
In 1647, the Assembly passed another act for the "reducing of the
inhabitants of Chicacoan and the other parts of the Neck of Land between
the Rappahannock and the Potomack River."
This must have been an unhappy and unsettled time at Chicacoan, but in
some way a compromise was reached the following year. In 1648, the
Assembly repealed the act for "reducing the inhabitants of Chicacoan,"
and enacted instead that "the said tract of land be hereafter called and
knowne by the name of the Countie of Northumberland and from henceforth
they have power of electing Burgesses for the said county."
The settlers of the Northern Neck had now gained representation in the
colonial government but the price they were forced to pay for it was
dear--their tax-free paradise was forever lost.
_URSULA_
John Mottrom's wife may ever remain a mystery. There seems to be no clue
to her personality, no facts that would make her into a flesh and blood
woman. Even her name is unknown. She was John Mottrom's wife and the
mother of his three children, Anne, John and Frances. The records
disclose not even a crumb more.
Between the years 1645 and 1655 Mrs. Mottrom passed away. She may have
died in childbirth when Frances was born, or shortly thereafter. It was
after her death that Ursula came into the life of John Mottrom.
Ursula Bish Thompson had been among the refugees who fled to Coan from
the "Citie of St. Mary's." Her husband, Richard Thompson, was now dead.
A young widow's position in a frontier community was dangerous and
insecure and quick remarriages were a practical necessity. John Mottrom,
the widower, was in urgent need of someone to look after his children
and home. Ursula and John were married.
Ursula probably brought the Thompson children with her to live at Coan
Hall. Colonial households more often than not included several groups of
children by former marriages.
Ursula's name reveals the fact that she was British, named perhaps for
the martyred princess, St. Ursula. The facts of her later career assure
us that she was a healthy and attractive woman.
As the wife of a prominent man of the colony it was Ursula's duty to
hold to the high standard of living that had been transferred from
England to this wilderness, and to maintain this standard it was
necessary for all to work from morning until night.
Ursula doubtless loved the gay rich clothes that were so fashionable at
this period. Her wardrobe may have included a pair of scarlet sleeves, a
petticoat of flowered tabby and several pairs of green stockings.
We can imagine Ursula hustling about at Coan Hall, her clothes a blur of
brightness, as she supervised the servants, disciplined the children,
twirled the roast of venison on the spit in passing, or lowered her
candle or betty-lamp into the cooking pot to see if the stew was ready.
The rooms of Coan Hall were probably part "waynscot" and part "daubed
and whitelimed," the latter plaster being made from the plentiful
oyster shells. The woodwork may have been painted "deep blued olive
green" or "dragon's blood."
The rooms of seventeenth century houses were usually identified by
names, such as "the outward," "the lodging," "the chamber," and so on.
The kitchen and pantry were probably detached or in a wing. This was the
busiest and coziest spot in all early homes, and the hearth was its
glowing heart. There were the fire-dogs holding the big logs and the
little andirons used with them called "creepers." On pothooks and
trammels hung the brass and copper kettles, some with a fifteen gallon
capacity, and that most beloved pot of iron, which sometimes weighed as
much as forty pounds. In summer when a large part of the cooking was
done out-of-doors this iron kettle was the main utensil used.
A boiler of copper and brass may have been imbedded in brick and mortar
and heated from beneath for the purpose of brewing the ale that was so
necessary to a transplanted Englishman.
When the chimney was built there was usually a brick oven on one side.
This oven was as a rule heated once a week. Convenient to the oven was a
long-handled shovel called a peel, which was used for placing the dough
in the oven, or for tossing it on cabbage or oak leaves which were often
used instead of pans.
The simplest way of roasting a fowl or joint of meat was to suspend it
in front of the fire by a hempen string.
The laundry was allowed to accumulate into great monthly washings. This
seems to have been the custom for a hundred years after the colony was
first settled. Soft soap was made by the barrel from refuse grease and
wood ashes. This soap was used for the laundry but a toilet soap was
made from the bayberry, or "sweet myrtle," as it was called in Virginia.
Candles were also made from the myrtle berries, and from tallow. The
myrtle berry candles were prettier and more fragrant.
The brick-floored milkhouse at these early plantations was a separate
building. Besides the milk pails, bowls, skimmers and churn, this house
was a storage place for pewter that needed repairing, powdering tubs for
salting meat, rum casks, spinning-wheels, chamber pots, fish kettles,
stillyards, hides, tanned leather and so on.
Brooms were made at home, and turkey wings were saved for brushing the
hearth.
Perhaps another duty of Ursula and her indentured maids was the picking
of the tame geese. Their feathers were more valuable to the colonists
than their meat. Goose feathers were prized for beds and pillows, which
were handed down as heirlooms. The feathers were stripped from the live
geese three or four times a year, but the quills, which were used for
pens, were never pulled but once. Ursula probably dreaded goose-picking
because it was a hard and cruel work. Feathers from wildfowl were also
carefully saved for beds and pillows.
Probably the last chore on a winter's night was the warming of the beds.
The brass or copper warming pan with its long handle hung by the
fireplace where it reflected the firelight. At bedtime, which was early,
the pan was filled with hot coals and thrust within the beds and moved
rapidly back and forth so as to warm the bed but not burn the linen.
Sometimes a large chafing-dish was used in the bed-chambers for
"knocking the chill off" the ice-cold room.
And so at last, after the last chore had been attended to, Ursula could
crawl between the warm sheets, pull up her quilt, or leather coverlet,
and fall into a well-earned sleep.
_THE YARD_
The surroundings of a seventeenth century planter's house, such as Coan
Hall, were simple, lacking in ornament of any kind.
Near the back door was a garden in which vegetables and a few simple
flowers grew side by side. Real flower gardens were not developed until
the next century.
Some flax and hemp were probably included in the garden at Coan. And
herbs, such as thyme, rosemary and marjoram were considered almost a
necessity at that time.
There was usually an orchard, containing a few apple, pear, cherry and
peach trees.
There may have been a dovecote at Coan Hall. There must certainly have
been a tall pole in the yard with a bee-martin's house on top, for these
birds notified the settler and his household of the approach of hawks
and other enemies of the poultry. They were the watch-dogs of the yard.
There may have been a few birdhouses made Indian fashion of gourds.
The planter's dwelling, even though it was little and plain, sometimes
no larger than 24 x 24, was referred to as the "manor house," "great
house" or "mansion," in order to distinguish it from its dependencies,
the kitchen, milkhouse, smokehouse, henhouse, stable, barn and cabins
for servants.
According to an early order by the Assembly, all dwelling houses
throughout the Colony of Virginia must be palisaded. This order was
still in effect when Coan Hall was built, but as the Indians were
friendly in this region and there was no one at Chicacoan to enforce the
law, the yard may have been surrounded by a stout fence of locust
instead, or by palings to keep out hogs and cattle which wandered
without restraint.
Needless to say, a bubbling spring was somewhere close by the dwelling,
and perhaps a gourd dipper.
_KITTAMAQUND_
Pocahontas was not the only Indian girl of royal blood who once lived in
the Northern Neck. Kittamaqund, too, lived for awhile, died and, it is
believed, was buried in the land between the Rappahannock and the
Potomac.
Kittamaqund was the only child of the Tayac, or Emperor, of the
Piscataway Indians. Their village was located on Piscataway Creek on the
Maryland side of the Potomac. At this point the Potomac, which separated
the Province of Maryland from the Colony of Virginia, was less than a
mile wide.
In the winter of 1640 Father Andrew White, a Catholic missionary, came
to "Piscatoe" to baptize the Indians. Among those whom Father White
baptized were the Emperor and his wife.
Shortly after the missionary's visit, the Emperor brought his
seven-year-old daughter, Kittamaqund, to St. Mary's "Citie," Maryland,
and put her in the care of Father White. He loved his daughter very
dearly and he wanted her to be educated and "when she shall well
understand the Christian mysteries, to be washed in the sacred font of
baptism."
The "little Empress," as she was called by the settlers, was adopted by
Mistress Margaret Brent of St. Mary's. By 1642 Kittamaqund had become
"proficient in the English language" and she was baptized by Father
White at that time and given the Christian name Mary.
Before long romance took a hand in the situation. Mistress Margaret had
a brother, Giles Brent, who had left England with her on the ship
_Elizabeth_ in 1638, and they had arrived together at St. Mary's. Giles
had been born in Gloucestershire, England, about 1600.
Giles and the little Indian "Empress" were married when she was about
twelve years old. Giles had a home on Kent Island where they lived for
part of the year and the rest of the year they stayed with Margaret at
her home "in St. Maries, where he had certain goods &C"--"divers cattle
and other commodities ... linen, shoes, stockings, sugar ... and also a
little cabbonett containing Jewels &C."
About 1646 Giles took his Indian bride and crossed the Potomac to the
Northern Neck of Virginia. He settled on the north shore of Aquia Creek
and there built a house which he called Peace. This name seems to
indicate that he may have had troubles, probably religious persecution,
in Maryland. He had also failed in his attempt to claim Kittamaqund's
royal domain, which was most of Maryland.
The home of Giles and Kittamaqund in the Northern Neck was in the midst
of the wilderness. They were the northernmost English residents in
Virginia. When in 1651 settlers pushed northward to patent land above
the Brent home they all stopped at Peace for refreshments and
information. It was the point of departure into the unknown.
Giles built another home in the same region which he called Retirement.
Their second son, Giles, was born there.
Giles traded with the Indians and continued to keep open house for the
settlers from the southern region. He also patented thousands of acres
of land in Westmoreland and Northumberland.
Kittamaqund, the little wilderness flower, wilted and died before she
scarcely had time to blossom. She left three children, Richard, Giles
and Mary. Before she died Kittamaqund made a deed of gift to her
daughter of her inheritance in Maryland, since she herself had no
brother or sister to inherit it.
Giles again laid claim to most of Maryland in his daughter's name, but
the Indians opposed the claim as being contrary to their tribal customs.
They chose a king of their own instead.
Thus Kittamaqund lost her royal heritage. According to traditions she
was buried somewhere in the upper Northern Neck.
Giles Brent became a great landowner in his own right. He was largely
responsible for opening up the northern part of the "Chicakoun country"
to the white settlers. His homes at Peace and later at Retirement were
outposts of civilization.