dead as well as considerable destruction to the works. The dead included
John Berkeley, a mason, two wives, three children and "Joseph Fitch
Apothecary to Doctor Pots." This was the end of the project although the
Company demonstrated, for a time, its intention to resume this work
which was considered basic for the Colony's welfare. The Virginia
Governor and Council would have reinforced the survivors, they reported,
if "soe many of the principall worke men had not beene slaine." It was
the opinion of Maurice Berkeley, who succeeded his father in command,
that "it was utterlie impossible to proceede in that Worke...." Even
though, in 1623, it is recorded that the Company sent 9 more men there
is nothing to indicate that production was resumed on the 100 acres
along Falling Creek that John Blower had "Surrendred for the use of the
Iron Works." Another industrial scheme had failed and the Company had
taken yet another loss.
SHEFFIELD'S PLANTATION (16)
It appears that sometime prior to March, 1622, Thomas Sheffield obtained
a patent for 150 acres located "some three miles from Falling Creeke"
and about two miles above "Henrico Iland." He proceeded to establish a
settlement here in the Corporation of Henrico. Seemingly all went well
until the massacre when the Indians wiped out this advance post on the
James. "Master Thomas Sheffeild and Rachel his wife" along with eleven
others, including two boys, were slain. There is no mention of further
activity at this date.
PROCTOR'S PLANTATION (17)
John Proctor was among those who came to Virginia under a Company
Charter in the 1609-15 period. It would appear that he located a
plantation well up the James River, on its south side, but below Falling
Creek. The land list of 1625 specified that he had a 200 acre grant in
this vicinity. Perhaps, he was established here well before the
massacre. When the Indians descended on his place, he must have been
away, for his wife stood her ground as she did later when the Colony
officials sought to force her to vacate the now isolated post. It is
reported that "Mistress Proctor, a proper, civill, modest gentlewoman
... ["fortified and lived in despite of the enemy"] till perforce the
English officers forced her and all them with her to goe with them, or
they would fire her house themselves, as the salvages did when they were
gone...."
In 1624 Proctor and his wife were living "Over the River" from Jamestown
and a year later he, his wife Alice and three servants were at Paces
Paines. It is not known whether he returned to his plantation upriver
from which he had been uprooted in 1622. He had, in 1623, received a
patent to transport fifty persons to Virginia together with sufficient
necessities and provisions for cultivating the land. The latter
seemingly included "a wherry or small boate." There is evidence, too,
that he could punish his servants if the occasion warranted even to the
extent of using a "line or whip corde."
COXENDALE (18)
Sir Thomas Dale had a good eye for land and security. Consequently he
viewed the ground across the James from, and to the west of, Henrico
with considerable interest which he translated into action soon after
getting his principal settlement underway in 1611. Here, for the
enlargement of the town, some 12 acres were impaled "especially for our
hoggs to feed in." He named this locality "Hope in faith, Coxen-dale"
and proceeded to secure it with a series of forts which he named
Charity, Elizabeth, Patience and Mount Malado. There was "a retreat or
guest house" for sick people which was declared to be on "a high seat"
with "wholesome air." It was in this area that the Rev. Alexander
Whitaker chose his "Parsonage, or church land." This was "som[e] hundred
acres impaled, and a faire framed parsonage house built thereupon,
called Rocke Hall of this Towne." Capt. James Davis was made commander
of the forts.
Coxendale continued to exist and grow, perhaps, despite the inadequacy
of the records that relate the story. Rolfe, in 1616, did not list it,
yet possibly he considered it to be a part of Henrico. It was listed as
one of 9 forts, plantations and towns found in Virginia when Yeardley
reached the colony in April, 1619. There is no special reference to it
in the list of burgesses named in 1619. Here again it may have been
included with Henrico in matters of representation. In matters of land
grants, however, it had a separate identity. In the spring of 1619 a
grant of 100 acres "Scituate in Coxendale over against the Iland of
Henricus" was made to Thomas Read "under the Collonies seale." This was
in reward for eight years of "good service in that country." Three years
later Read made over this tract, a part of it called "Mount my Lady" to
Edward Hurd, a "London cittizen and iron monger."
The massacre struck here, too, as it did elsewhere. The statistics would
indicate that the slaughter in this general area was light compared with
many other points. Perhaps the water barrier in the "curls" of the river
plus the palisades and forts gave greater security. Despite this, when
the massacre was over, these points were isolated and removal was
ordered. Capt. Roger Smith, on April 20, 1622, was given "absolute power
and command in matters of warr, over all the people both in Henerico
Ileand and Coxendale ... uppon paine of death." He was "to use all care
and vigilancie" in "the safe bringeing away of all the said people, and
cattell, and goodes...."
This was but a temporary delay in settlement as the urge for land and
property became greater. Just how soon there was a return here is
unclear. In May, 1625, however, 8 patents were listed for Coxendale in
the Corporation of Henrico. This was for a total of 802 acres ranging
from a twelve acre grant to Lt. Edward Berkeley, to 200 acres to John
Laydon. It may be significant that none were marked as "planted."
"BERMUDA CITTY" (CHARLES CITY) INCORPORATION (19)
In 1612 Marshal Thomas Dale drove the Indians from their habitation
about the "curls" of the James and the Appomattox, the river that bears
their name. Seeing it to be good ground, he determined to possess it and
to establish a settlement here. As Ralph Hamor relates: "I proceed to
our next and most hopefull habitation, whether we respect commodity, or
security (which we principally aime at) against forraigne designes, and
invasions, I meane the Bermuda Citty, begun about Christmas last
[1613]...." The initial settlement was near the Appomattox, on its west
side, some five miles from Henrico but 14 by the circuitous river route.
Dale was very hopeful of the "new Bermudas" and proceeded to annex "to
the freedom, and corporation ... many miles of champion, and woodland,
in several Hundreds" on both sides of the James. These Hamor enumerated
as the "[1] Upper and [2] Nether Hundreds, [3] Rochdale Hundred [4]
Wests Sherley Hundred, and [5] Diggs his Hundred." Evidently a
settlement was begun in each of these areas all of which kept active
till the massacre.
BERMUDA HUNDRED (19A)
It was in the Nether Hundred, which became Bermuda Hundred and later the
"Neck-of-Land" in Charles City, that settlement was first initiated
"for there [according to Hamor in 1614] lyeth the most convenient
quantity of corne ground." With a "pale" from river to river but two
miles in length it was possible to secure some eight miles of "exceeding
good corne ground." Houses were built one-half mile from each other on
"the verge of the river." In 1614 these were described as "faire houses,
already builded." There were others as well totaling "not so few as
fifty." Gates' lieutenant, George Yeardley, was then in charge.
ROCHDALE HUNDRED (19B)
This plantation, just west of Nether (Bermuda) Hundred, was gotten
underway about the same time. A "crosse pale," about four miles long,
was, in 1614, already built "with bordering houses along the pale." It
was in this Hundred that the "hogges, and other cattell" had a 20 mile
circuit in which to graze securely.
BERMUDA CITY (19C)
The "chiefe Citty," when Hamor left, was not yet ready. Its
construction, at a point across the Appomattox from Bermuda Hundred,
while begun, was not pushed until the fall of 1614. Here Bermuda City
was fashioned to be "an impregnable retreat, against any forraign
invasion, how powerfull so ever." This became the fourth and last of the
public, or general, corporations taking its place with James City,
Kecoughtan, and Henrico. Within a few years its name would change from
Bermuda to Charles City to honor Prince Charles as Henrico had been
named for Prince Henry his brother, both being royal sons. Hamor, in
1614, spoke of "Bermuda Citty," evidently meaning to include Bermuda
Hundred as well, as "a business of greatest hope, ever begunne in our
territories their." At the same time he mentions the special "pattent,"
or agreement, made between Dale and the people there, "termes and
conditions they voluntarily have undertaken."
When Dale assigned small parcels of ground to planters for their own
use prior to, or in, 1613, he did much for the Colony. It stopped some
of the drain on the common "magazine" and allowed room for individual
profit and enterprise. It also freed the colonists from Company service
except in emergencies and for one month a year. In making this
arrangement, however, he excepted the Bermuda Incorporation people with
whom he made a special contract. They were bound to three years of
almost continuous public service in the Bermuda City project "before
they have their freedom." At the end of their term, however, they
claimed their rights of freedom and the Governor, then Samuel Argall,
could not deny their claim. On November 30, 1617, he reported in reply
to the "citizens of Bermuda hund[red]" that he would "not infringe their
rights being a member of that City himself" but begged that the Colony
servants "may stay their this year." Evidently these Bermuda people
began to enjoy the rights and freedoms that did not become general until
the Company division and "Greate Charter" which evolved in 1618 and
1619.
The center of gravity in the Colony in the 1611-16 period was upriver in
the Henrico and Bermuda City area. In Rolfe's report of 1616 "Bermuda
Nether Hundred" was by far the most active and most heavily populated
area. Its 119 people was much in excess of the 50 at Jamestown which
stood second among the 6 populated points. Bermuda's population then
embraced chiefly the members of the Corporation although there were 17
"farmers" and a few "who labor generally for the Colony, amongst whom,
some make pitch and Tarr, Pott-ashes, Chark-coale, and other workes, and
are maintayned by the magazin, but are not of the Corporation." Capt.
George Yeardley, who was deputy governor and deputy marshal, "for the
most part" lived here as did Alexander Whitaker who had the "ministerall
chardge."
The "Cities of Henrico & Charles [Bermuda]" were the best fortified
points in the Colony standing "upon high ground the cliffes beinge
steepe but of a claye mould the ayre good and wholesome." Also "about
those places [there were] good quantities of cleared groundes."
Fortifications were by "trench and pallizado" with "great timber"
blockhouses athwart "passages and for scouring the pallizadoes." There,
too, was "access to shipping."
Much official business was transacted here where the Governor was in
residence much of the time. Courts, on occasion, convened here and
official proclamations and documents were issued from the hand of
various governors and from the pen of the Colony's secretary. Such was
the commission to William Cradock made "provost marshall of Bermuda City
and of all the Hundred thereto belonging" from Samuel Argall "Admirall
and for the time present principal Governor of Virginia" issued at
"Bermuda City" on February 20, 1618 over John Rolfe's signature as
"Secretary and Recorder."
It appears to have been Argall that did much to return the emphasis to
Jamestown and away from Bermuda. In 1617 he wrote that he preferred
Jamestown and proposed to strengthen it as a good healthy site. Charles
City remained active, however, and the largest seat in the Colony. In
1619 Samuel Sharpe and Samuel Jordan represented the Bermuda area in the
Assembly. It is not known whether they voted for the measure that
required all persons from Charles City and other points who were going
down river below the Capital to touch "first here at James Citty to
knowe whether the Governor will command him any service." By this time
Bermuda Hundred and Bermuda City were most often designated "Charles
City and Hundred."
It was in 1621 that the Company undertook to establish and build the
East India School and to locate this "free schoole in Virginia" at
Charles City. A grant of 1,000 acres was set aside and a few workmen
were sent to the Colony. For a time it looked as if this center to
encourage the "rudiments of learning" and "principles of Religion,
civility of life, and humane learning" would materialize. It did not,
however, survive the massacre. When the workmen reached Virginia, they
were placed among the College tenants and later transferred to Martin's
Hundred.
The massacre of 1622 appeared to have been devastating in the Bermuda
area and led to its temporary abandonment. The list of those killed is,
however, rather light in comparison with settlements such as Martin's
Hundred. There were twenty-seven at four specified points. It leads one
to doubt that a full list of names was submitted.
Thought soon turned to a repair of the damages. It was judged "very
necessarie to raise new workes especiallie at Henrico & Charles Citty"
which according to one report were "utterlie demolished by the Indians."
This destruction, at least some of it, followed the abandonment of the
posts. Houses were burned and "poultry, hoggs, cowes, goates, and
horses" were killed in number "to the greate griefe as well as ruine of
the olde inhabitants...."
There was a return to the land in some large measure after the massacre.
In 1624 a list of 41 residents was given for "the Neck of Land" in
Charles City Corporation and the census of 1625 showed 44 in this old
Bermuda Hundred area. In 1624 Luke Boys and Thomas Harris sat in the
Assembly at Jamestown and may have helped to enact the measure that
required "courtes [to be] kept once a moneth in the Corporations of
Charles Cittie & Elizabeth Cittie" to handle cases involving petty
offenses and sums up to 100 pounds of tobacco. The muster of January 24,
1625 shows the "Neck-of-Land" to have been very well established. Its 44
people had 16 houses and good supplies of corn, fish, livestock, poultry
and arms. In May, 1625, ten individual grants (ranging from 50 to 1,150
acres and totaling 2,900) were listed as located here in addition to the
corporation and common land.
PIERCEY'S PLANTATION (20)
At the time of the massacre Abraham Piercey had a plantation adjacent to
the Appomattox River and, perhaps, somewhat upstream from the James.
Here "at Master Abraham Pierse his plantation some five miles off the
Colledge people" four persons, 3 men and a boy were killed. Piercey, a
prominent merchant, named to the Council in 1624, may have laid out his
acres here, "in lieu of his Long service done the Company," as early as
1620. The holding, in May, 1625, was defined as 1,150 acres obtained by
patent. A place name here "Peircies Toyle" Creek very likely is a result
of his activity in this area.
JORDAN'S JOURNEY (21)
This plantation took its name from its founder, Capt. Samuel Jordan and
appears to have embraced 450 acres. At least in 1625 Jordan was credited
with this amount as being "planted" by patent in "the territory of
greate Weyanoke." It has been said that he established Jordan's Journey,
also known as Beggar's Bush, in 1619 although in the Assembly of 1619 he
represented "Charles Citty." He was one of the Assembly Committee of
four appointed to examine "the first booke of the fower" of the "Greate
Charter." In 1622 Jordan received a share of Company stock from Mary Tue
as well as 100 acres in "Diggs his Hundred." At this time he was listed
as "Samuel Jordan of Charles Hundred gentleman."
Jordan himself died in 1623 and his widow was soon seeking marriage
again. When she became betrothed to two men at the same time, Capt.
William Ferrar and Rev. Greville Pooley, and became embroiled in
controversy, the Council took note of it. A proclamation followed which
prohibited any woman from contracting herself to "two several men at the
same time."
Jordan's Journey seems to have prospered. In 1624 Nathaniel Causey
represented the plantation in the Assembly. At the time there were
forty-two persons in residence and eight had died within the year. In
1625 the population stood at fifty-five persons (thirty-six males and
nineteen females). Corn and fish supplies were adequate and there were
some cattle and hogs as well as numerous poultry. In the matter of
houses, the total was quite large--being twenty-two. The plantation
boasted of three boats and substantial amounts of small arms
(thirty-eight) and armor of various types (thirty-six items).
WOODLEEFE'S PLANTATION (22)
Captain John Woodleefe, a member of the Virginia Company, came to
Virginia initially in 1609 and remained active and interested in the
Colony. He was commissioned, in 1619, to go as governor and commander of
Berkeley Hundred which he did late in the year. He had other interests,
however, and by April of the same year had brought four men, which he
had supplied with "apparell and armes," and his wife and children to
Virginia. It is intimated that he had other colonizing interests and
intentions. The Berkeley Hundred people had cautioned him about
attempting another plantation that might interfere with their holdings.
He was instructed not to establish it "unless full ten English miles
from them."
He was governor at Berkeley Hundred for about a year and it was sometime
shortly before, during, or just after this term of service, that he set
up his own plantation. He seems to have chosen a point on the south side
of the James a bit up river from Berkeley which he patented in 1620. It
lay along the river and west of Jordan's Journey. This could very well
have been the 350 acres listed in his name in May, 1625. His was one of
the tracts in "the territory of greate Weyanoke" and was later patented
again by his son.
CHAPLAIN'S CHOICE (23)
This plantation appears in a listing in 1624. In March of that year,
too, Isaac Chaplain represented it in the Assembly. This was another of
the number of particular, or private, plantations founded in Virginia in
the 1619-24 period. It is generally assumed to have been located in the
area to the east of Woodleefe's Plantation. It was noted in May, 1625
that Isaac Chaplain had 200 acres which were "planted" in the
"territory of great Weyonoke." He had as well, what may have been a
personal stake, 50 other acres in the Corporation of Charles City.
In 1624 a total of twenty-four persons were living "At Chaplains choice"
and a year later the head count stood at seventeen (thirteen males, four
females). This 1625 figure, as did the other muster statistics, included
the Truelove Company people and goods. This embraced two boats, but only
two houses, forty-one barrels of corn and some small amounts of peas,
meal and oatmeal plus three hogs and forty-eight fowl. There were
reasonable amounts of small arms and armor and six pieces of ordnance.
The latter, an unusually high figure for a private plantation, included
one falconet and five "murderers." Some tobacco was being produced, for
"John Trehern of Chaplins Choise" exported "one hogshead" in 1625. A
lawsuit ensued when the ship captain sold it, although it had been
consigned to Trehern's brother. As satisfaction he was to get "two
hundred & thirty waight of tobacco in leafe & smothed together with one
hogshead."
TRUELOVE'S PLANTATION (24)
On January 24, 1621, a share of land in Virginia was assigned "unto
Rowland Truelove of London, Clothworker." Three months later he received
a patent as a "new adventurer" and in November, this was defined to
cover the transportation of 100 persons. In this venture he had "divers
other patentees, adventurers" and associates.
He does not appear to have been discouraged by the massacre, for in
August, 1622, the Truelove Company sent supplies for their plantation.
The Company records relate that "mr Trulove and his associates intend to
proceed in their plantation beinge no whitt discouraged with this late
massacre of the English by the treacherous Indians...." They had
requested a Commission for the "shippe and voyadge" to Virginia of the
"barke called the _Trulove_ of London of about forty-six tunn."
A year later, in July, 1623, "Rowland Treawlove and Companie" pledged
anew to supply their plantation with "victuall apparrell and other
necessaries" to the extent of L400. Their patent had recently been
renewed, or passed again under the seal. This was one of seventy-two
that passed in June, 1623 giving good evidence of the private activity
afoot for, and in, the Colony at this time. Soon a ship was dispatched
with twenty-five new emigrants. In the cargo, too, were 100 "hogsheads"
of supplies valued at L536, a substantial sum, for the plantation of the
Truelove Society.
Despite this, all did not go well and the enterprise seems not to have
flourished. In January, 1624, Nathaniel Causey was directed by the Court
in Virginia to "take into his hands and safe custodie all such goods as
belonge to the Company and Societie of Trueloves Plantatione." This had
been requested by the Company overseer and Causey, after a "true
inventory" was to report to the Governor and Council. In the muster of
1625 Truelove's Plantation appears to be associated with Chaplain's
Choice.
"POWLE-BROOKE" OR MERCHANT'S HOPE (25)
Captain Nathaniel Powell, who came early to Virginia and served as
Acting Governor when Argall left in 1619, settled a plantation on the
south side of the James. It was located on Powell Creek at the head of
which was the site of Weyanoke Indian Town. The date of his
establishment appears to have been in 1619, or a little later, and his
enterprise embraced some 600 acres. It was known as "Powle Brook" and
was not until later to get the Merchant's Hope designation.
Matters went well until the Indian massacre which all but wiped out the
settlement and led to its abandonment. Captain Powell and his wife were
both slain along with ten others, three of them women. It is said that
the Indians were not content with killing. They proceeded to
"butcher-like hagle their bodies, and cut off his head...."
Powell's brothers and sisters in England petitioned the Company to get
an account of the estate. The Company in turn asked the Virginia Council
to take special care of "this buissnes, both because it is of great
consequence, as also for that Captain Nath: Powell was a man of
extraordinary merritt, and the petitioners poore men...." Thomas Powell
of Suffolk, England, came into the property. He, a brother of Nathaniel,
later disposed of it by sale.
MAYCOCK'S PLANTATION (26)
Samuel Maycock came to Virginia about 1618 and served as a Councilor
under both Yeardley and Wyatt. He located a plantation upriver from
Jamestown on the south side next above Flowerdieu Hundred sometime prior
to April, 1619. It took its name, Maycock's Hundred or Plantation, from
him, the original patentee, as was often the case in early Virginia. It
would seem that he, like others, then undertook to bring in men and
supplies. There is reference to Sara Maycock bringing over four servants
in the _Abigail_ in 1622 "uppon the accompt of Mr. Samuell Maycock." For
this she got 200 acres of her choice.
Maycock's was another of the early beginnings that was snuffed out by
the massacre. Four were killed on his "Divident" including himself.
Another was Edward Lister who came to Plymouth in the _Mayflower_ and
had signed the "compact." Maycock was one of six Councilors who perished
on March 22, 1622 at the hand of the Indians.
FLOWERDIEU HUNDRED--PIERCEY'S HUNDRED (27)
In 1618 Sir George Yeardley acquired 1,000 acres on the south side of
the James River above Martin's Brandon and across from his Tanks
Weyanoke holding. He proceeded to establish a plantation here which he
named in honor of his wife who had been Temperance Flowerdieu. In 1619
it was well enough along to merit the representation in the Assembly
which was performed by John Jefferson and Ensign Edward Rossingham, the
latter one of Yeardley's kinsmen. This, perhaps, suffered in the
massacre less than many other settlements. Only six persons were killed
here. Flowerdieu Hundred was one of the fewer than a dozen points that
the Colony decided to hold after the onslaught.