The First Seventeen Years: Virginia 1607-1624 Part 4

This was but one of Yeardley's developed properties. He, it seems, put men to work here and sought to open it up and make it profitable.

Presumably this was after 1619 yet before 1622. It was mentioned in April, 1619 as a plantation begun in the period beginning in 1617. It seems significant, however, that it had no representation in the a.s.sembly of 1619 unless it be a.s.sumed that the Smith's Hundred representatives spoke for it or unless it was grouped with Yeardley's Flowerdieu Hundred across the river.

At the time of the ma.s.sacre "At Weynoack of Sir George Yeardly his people" some 21, one of whom was Margery Blewet a woman, were slain.

With this, the plantation was abandoned and there seems no record of its immediate reoccupation. There is no reason to think that it was ever declared to be a part of Smith's Hundred to the east although Yeardley was fearful of it at one point due princ.i.p.ally to the activity of Samuel Argall. The only entry in the land grants list of 1625 is "Tancks Wayonoke over against Perceys Hundred, 2,000 acres." By this date Yeardley had disposed of it through sale to Capt. Abraham Piercey who, also, had purchased Flowerdieu (Piercey's) Hundred.

SWINHOWS (4)

George Swinhow was an "Adventurer to Virginia" about 1618 to the extent of 37 10s. By 1620 this had increased to 62 10s, and included provisions to the extent of 2 hogsheads and a half ton. He, himself, came to Virginia in the _Diana_ and seems to have settled a plantation on the north side of the James in the vicinity of Weyanoke and Westover.

This was prior to 1622. When the ma.s.sacre came on March 22 it left 7 dead "at Mr. Swinhowe his house," Mrs. Swinhow, 2 sons, and 4 others.

There is no record that he returned to his 300 acres in the Corporation of Charles City. In 1625 he was a resident of "the Maine" near Jamestown where he had but one servant with him. Evidently he was a tobacco planter, for when he died, a year later, he left "a hundred gilders which was ten pounde sterlinge for to make the most of his tobacco."

WESTOVER (5)

It appears to have been in the summer of 1619 that Captain Francis West laid out the site of Westover plantation. This was done on the strength of fixing the grant of land in Virginia due Henry, the fourth Lord De La Warr--son and heir of Governor De La Warr who served the Colony for many years. There was some delay, however, in getting a duly authorized patent. On January 10, 1620, when Yeardley wrote of seating the Berkeley Hundred people, he appeared to be concerned lest he be accused of infringing on the West claim. He pointed out that the new settlement was more up river--"more towardes West and Sherley Hundred, and towardes Charles Citty." He went further and stated that West, before his departure for England, did not obtain "any grante" from him as Governor and consequently the bounds of what he did lay out were not known precisely.

There is scanty information relative to the development of Westover. At the time of the Indian ma.s.sacre, however, it is clear that three Wests, Captain Francis, Captain Nathaniel, and Mr. John, all brothers and each at one time governor of Virginia, were established here. Two persons were killed at each of their plantations, "at Westover, about a mile from Berkley Hundred." In the a.s.sembly of 1624 Westover sent its representative to the a.s.sembly at Jamestown in the person of Samuel Sharpe. This being the case, it is difficult to explain the absence of the plantation from the list of 1624 and the muster of 1625. In the May, 1625 land tabulation, there is a single entry which reads "Att Westover 500 acres claymed by Captaine Francis West." From later events it would appear that the plantation had a continuous history with, perhaps, a small break caused by the ma.s.sacre.

BERKELEY TOWN AND HUNDRED (6)

In February, 1619, the Virginia Company granted the authority to establish a "particular plantation" in Virginia to a group composed of Richard Berkeley, Sir William Throckmorton, Sir George Yeardley, George Thorpe and John Smyth of Nibley. The initial move toward settlement appears to have been made in the following summer when a s.h.i.+p, the _Margaret_, was fitted out and dispatched with emigrants and supplies.

The 35, whose names are known, reached Virginia and on November 30, Ferdinando Yate, one of the group who chronicled the voyage, reported that "in the evening G.o.d bethanked we came to anker at Necketan [Kecoughtan] in a good harbore."

It was a little later that the site of the settlement was selected on the north side of the James. Reputed to contain 8,000 acres and 12-1/2 square miles, it was above Westover and "more towards West and Sherley Hundred, and towards Charles Citty." Yeardley elected to describe it thus to emphasize that it did not conflict with any claims of the Wests at Westover. Yate concluded his journal relating "we are well settled in good land by the means of the Governor of this c.u.n.trie." He noted, too, that "our house is built with a stoore convenient." "The people were then following daiely husbantrie, sum to clering ground for corn and tobacko, sum to building houses, sum to plant vines and mulberie trees."

A number of the papers concerned with the initial establishment of Berkeley Hundred survive and at least give an insight into what was intended. The undertaking was expected to reflect "to the honor of allmighty G.o.d, the inlargeinge of Christian religion and to the augmentation and renowne of the generall plantation in that c.u.n.try, and the particular good and profit of ourselves, men and servants, as wee hope." There was a very special instruction, perhaps, of some unusual note: "wee ordaine that the day of our s.h.i.+ps arrivall at the place a.s.signed for plantation in the land of Virginia shall be yearly and perputualy keept holy as a day of thanksgiving to Almighty G.o.d." Was this the first specific Thanksgiving Day in America?

Capt. John Woodleefe was named, and sent, as governor or commander of the new plantation. He, a man of some years of experience in Virginia affairs, was cautioned to keep his and Berkeley Hundred affairs separate and not to seat his own people "unles full ten English miles from ..."

Berkeley. Specific orders were given him relative to building houses which should be "homelike" and "covered with boardes," some "framed" and to enclosing 400 acres "with a strong pale of seaven foote and halfe highe." Religious conformity and practice was stressed. All was to be "observed and kept, according as it is used in the Church of England."

There was soon a change in direction as a new charter placed the management of affairs in Virginia directly in the hands of George Thorpe and of William Tracy who was a.s.signed Throckmorton's interest in the project. Thorpe left for the Colony in the spring of 1620 and with him went 3 men and "six kyne." A larger reinforcement accompanied Tracy. It included 50 persons who left England in the fall of 1620 reaching Virginia on January 29, 1621. Tracy wrote in September that he had in his Company "4 maid servants 3 maried wives & 2 young children my wife and daughter & son." The full list of supplies that came at this time is preserved (_Records of the Virginia Company of London_, III, 385-393) and tells much of life and conditions in Virginia. It included 2 grindstones, 2 mill stones, garden seeds: parsnips, carrot, cabbage, turnip, lettuce, onion, mustard and garlic; books on "husbandry & huswifry;" 22,500 "nayles of severall sorts;" and "sives to make gunpowder in Virginia." (_See the Appendix._)

Things were well advanced when the ma.s.sacre hit Berkeley Hundred. Eleven were killed here including Capt. George Thorpe "one of his Majesties pensioners." Then came abandonment from which no clearcut survival seems to have been achieved. In the spring of 1622 those who "remayneth" must have been relocated. Four persons sent from England "before the news of the ma.s.sacre was heard" arrived in June and there is mention of others going for Berkeley in August. In July, 1623 John Smith promised to supply "my servants now living in Virginia in Berckley Hundreth" and others at least to the extent of 100. Two months later the _Bonny Bess_ is reported to have brought people and supplies for Berkeley in its cargo.

In January, 1624, it was reported that 16 men, all of whom are named, were "planted at Sherley Hundred for Barkley Hundred Company." This indicates that the settlement at Berkeley had not yet been reactivated.

Further indication is found in the a.s.signment of Richard Milton of "s.h.i.+rley Hundred" to look after the "Barkley Hundred" cattle for which he would get 50 pounds of tobacco and "the milke of the said Kyne."

Perhaps these are the same cattle which had been taken to Jordan's Journey, by overseer Kemish, just after the ma.s.sacre. There is no mention of Berkeley in the list of 1624, or in the muster of 1625.

CAUSEY'S CARE (OR "CLEARE") (7)

Nathaniel Causey was an old soldier who came to Virginia in the First Supply early in 1608. It was on December 10, 1620 that he obtained a grant that he began to develop as a private plantation. This appears to have been located just to the east of West and s.h.i.+rley Hundred on the north side of the James. If we accept the entry in the land list of May, 1625 this was for some 200 acres. Presumably he and his wife, Thomasine, also an "old planter" who had come to the Colony in 1609, lived here, at least for a time, perhaps, with servants which numbered 5 in 1625.

In the ma.s.sacre Causey "being cruelly wounded, and the salvages about him, with an axe did cleave one of their heads, whereby the rest fled and he escaped." In 1624 Causey, who sat in the a.s.sembly, is thought to have represented Jordan's Journey where he is listed as in residence that same year and again in 1625. He was among the 31 who signed the a.s.sembly's reply to the declaration of charges against the Smith administration of the Colony made by Alderman Johnson and others. His plantation, Causey's Care, across the river from Jordan's Journey, continued, it seems, and for years was a landmark of the vicinity.

Causey appears occasionally in the court records as when on May 23, 1625, he a.s.sumed a debt and obligation to "Doctor Pott" which required the delivery of "one barrel of Indian corne" to "James Cittie at the first cominge downe of the next boate."

WEST AND s.h.i.+RLEY HUNDRED (8)

This plantation, or hundred, on the north side of the James across from the mouth of the Appomattox River first comes into view as one of the areas in the Bermuda Incorporation established by Dale. Settlement is thought to date from 1613. As time pa.s.sed it appears to have developed with less restrictive ties to Bermuda City than the hundreds adjoining it on the south side of the river. There is little to indicate that Bermuda Hundreds' claim on it in 1617 was ever seriously considered.

There is a glimpse of life here in Ralph Hamor's, _A True Discourse of the Present Estate of Virginia_: "At West and Sherley Hundred, (seated on the North side the river lower then the Bermuda 3 or 4 myles) are 25 commaunded by Captaine [Isaac] Maddeson who are imployed only in planting and curing tobacco, with the profitt thereof to cloth themselves, and all those who labor about the generall busynes." As such it was one of 6 settlements in Virginia, fourth in point of population.

It continued to develop as a rather important community. Even though not listed as sending representatives to Jamestown in 1619, it probably shared the services of the Burgesses entered from Charles City. It was listed as an established settlement when Argall left the Colony in April, 1619. Its name in the first decade fluctuated considerably first appearing as "Wests Sherly Hundred" then becoming "West and Sherly" and then Sherley (or s.h.i.+rley).

The list of those killed in the ma.s.sacre has no entry specifically labeled for this plantation indicating, perhaps, that the effect here was light. This may explain why it was one of the few points designated to be held after March 22, 1622, much the most interior, or westward point on the north side of the James. In 1624 "West and Sherlow Hundred"

had its own Burgesses in the a.s.sembly in the persons of Isaac Madison and Richard Biggs. In 1623 a special appointment had been made to Grivell Pooley, to make a special levy at "Sherley Hundred" and adjacent plantations. This, being 10 pounds of tobacco and 1 bushel of corn "for every planter and tradesman above the age of sixteene yeares alive at the cropp" time, was to meet the Corporation's yearly minister's salary and to aid in "publique charges."

In 1624 a total of 69 inhabitants were listed for s.h.i.+rley Hundred, 45 in the Hundred and 24 "at West and Sherlow hundred Island." Perhaps this included the 16 persons who had been "planted at Sherley Hundred for Barkley Hundred Company." A year later the population stood at 61 with the decrease evidently all registered at the "Island." At this time there were 17 houses, 2 boats and ample corn and fish and some peas.

There were 21 head of cattle, 24 hogs and 263 items of poultry. Small arms (47) and armor (31) seemed adequate although Indians still infested the place and occasionally a man was killed. Land grants listed in May, 1625 totaled 36 (4,410 acres) but of these only 8 (1,150 acres) were given as "planted." The majority of the holdings were 100 acres or less and there were 3,000 acres of Company land below "Sherley Hundred Island."

UPPER HUNDRED--"CURLS" (9)

This area, on the north side of the James below Henrico and across from Bermuda (Nether) Hundred, was one of the several hundreds annexed to, or included in, the corporation of Bermuda City. Settlement seems to have begun in 1613 although little is known of events in the early years.

"Curls" evidently was a name suggested by the course of the river here.

The reported patent for 400 acres to Edward Gurgany in October, 1617 has been a.s.sumed to have been in this area. In 1619 Gurgany's widow bequeathed the tract to Capt. Thomas Harris. Progress in the occupation and use of the ground was severely checked by the ma.s.sacre.

"DIGGS HIS HUNDRED" (10)

This was a plantation, one of several, that Dale annexed to the new Bermuda City incorporation in 1613. In this it was similar to Bermuda Upper Hundred being on the north side of the river and adjoining it, perhaps, on the west. Neither of these hundreds seems to have had the closely integrated relations.h.i.+p with Bermuda City that the Bermuda Nether and Rochdale hundreds had. Settlement, however, seems to date from this early period even though little is known of it. An a.s.signment of 100 acres of land to Samuel Jordan in July, 1622 clearly establishes that there was continuing activity at Diggs. This tract in "Diggs His Hundred" had earlier been owned by one Mary Tue. This transaction, shortly after the ma.s.sacre certainly demonstrates that, although the Indian slaughter caused evacuation here, interest in reoccupation quickly revived.

THE "CITTY OF HENRICUS" (HENRICO) (11)

In the late summer of 1611 Sir Thomas Dale departed Jamestown with a strong force of 300 men to proceed up river to establish a new settlement. It was expected that it would become the chief seat in the Colony. It would be further removed from the Spanish fear and threat, it would be more healthful, and it could be made more defensible against the Indians.

The Company and many of the settlers were dissatisfied with the Jamestown location. Dale had begun to push this project soon after his arrival in the Colony in May, 1611. He was acting on conviction and on Company instructions. Seemingly the name of the new town had already been chosen. It was to be Henrico in honor of Henry, Prince of Wales, known too as the protector and patron of Virginia. He had explored and found the site he liked, "a convenient strong, healthie and sweete seate to plant a new Towne in." Already at Jamestown he had prepared "pales, posts and railes to impaile his proposed new Towne."

Marshal Dale, leaving Governor Gates at Jamestown, proceeded upstream by boat while the larger part of his party went overland led by Capt.

Edward Brewster. The latter encountered resistance from the Indians particularly at the hand of "Munetute" ("called amongste us Jacke of the feathers"). Dale and Brewster rendezvoused at the appointed place and "after divers encounter and skirmishes with the salvages gained a convenientt place for fortification where presently they did begin to builde a foarte." The Indians continued to protest this invasion of their territory with the most effective means at hand. The site selected was a peninsula that jutted into the James from the north side some few miles below the Arrahatock village.

Within 15 days Dale had impaled 7 acres of ground and then set to work to build at each of the 5 corners of the town "very strong and high commanders or watchtowers, a faire and handsome Church, and storehouses." It was not until then that he turned to the matter of houses and lodgings for "himself and men." Two miles inland he built a strong pale some 2 miles in length which ran from river to river making an island of the neck on which Henrico stood. Presumably this palisade faced a ditch hence the term--"trench and pallizado." Hamor related in 1614 that in 4 months he had made Henrico "much better and of more worth then all the work ever since the Colonie began."

His achievements were not come by easily. It was costly in life and in loss of personal freedoms. It was achieved with the full enforcement of the now famous "Dale laws." He moved quickly to punish deserters and law breakers. George Percy related the results in graphic terms. Some "in a moste severe manner [he] cawsed to be executed. Some he appointed to be hanged, some burned, some to be broken upon wheles, others to be staked and some to be shott to deathe; all theis extreme and crewell tortures he used and inflicted upon them to terrefy the reste for attemptinge the like...." These were stern measures that produced results and few of his contemporary a.s.sociates took issue including John Rolfe, Ralph Hamor, Reverend Alexander Whitaker and even Sir Edwin Sandys. To them, motivated by the spirit of the time, hard conditions required stern handling.

Robert Johnson, in 1612, evaluated the new settlement as he saw it: "the colony is removed up the river forescore miles further beyond Jamestown to a place of high ground, strong and defensible by nature, a good air, wholesome and clear, unlike the marshy seat at Jamestown, with fresh and plenty of water springs, much fair and open grounds freed from woods, and wood enough at hand." In 1614 Hamor described the town here as having "3 streets of well framed howses, a hansom Church, and the foundations of a more stately one laid, of brick, in length one hundred foote, and fifty foot wide, beside store houses, watch houses, and such like." Near it, and behind the pale, was a great quant.i.ty of corn ground--enough to support the whole Colony and easy for "manuring and husbandry."

Two years later it seems evident that the "citty of Henricus" had retrogressed, perhaps, out of emphasis on Bermuda City just down river.

At this time there were only 38 men and boys "at _Henrico_ and in the precints." Of these 22 were "Farmors," the rest were "Officers and others." Although it was "our furthest habitacion into the land" it was listed as self sufficient in "food and apparell." Captain Smalley, in the absence of James Davis, was in command and the minister was William Wickham. Wickham "in his life and doctrine gives good examples, and G.o.dlie instructions to the people."

Even though the "citty" continued its decline, the Incorporation, of which it was the center, carried on its name. In 1619 Henrico was reported to have had but a few "old" houses, and a "ruinated" Church with some other buildings "in the Island." It continued, however, as a fixed community until destroyed by the Indians during, and after, the ma.s.sacre. On March 22, 1622 only 5 were killed at "Henrico Iland." It was represented in the a.s.sembly of 1619 by John Polentine and Thomas Dowse. The latter may have been actually living on the College land, above the "citty," where he had earlier received a patent from the hand of Argall. There is no mention of Henrico town in 1624 and 1625. As a matter of fact, the only settlement in the entire Incorporation of Henrico listed in the census of 1625 was the College Land. This had been the only community, too, to send representatives to the a.s.sembly in 1624. The effects of the ma.s.sacre in this area had been great.