The First Seventeen Years: Virginia 1607-1624 Part 9

This was in a sense the most isolated of all Virginia plantations being separated from the main body of the settlement by the wide waters of the Chesapeake. It enjoyed, however, a healthful climate, fruitful land and waters, and a continuing friendly Indian population.

As early as June, 1608, an exploring group under John Smith had made a landing on the Eastern Sh.o.r.e and visited the Indian "King of Accawmacke." They learned much of the area including the observation that the natives fished "with long poles like javelings, headed with bone." This was the beginning of a lasting friends.h.i.+p with "Laughing King," a friends.h.i.+p which was strengthened by Thomas Savage, the young boy exchanged with Powhatan in 1608, who later went to dwell across the Bay.

In 1613 Samuel Argall, seeking fish for the James River settlements as well as trade, visited the Eastern Sh.o.r.e. He found people "who seemed very desirous of our love." He traded successfully for corn, found great store of fish and then explored along the outer islands observing that "salt might easily be made there, if there were any ponds digged, for that I found salt kerned where the water had overflowne in certain places."

Argall's thoughts about salt manufacture were followed up in June, 1614 when a group of some twenty men under Lieutenant Craddock was dispatched to the area to set up a salt works and to catch fish. This was the first settlement "across the Bay" and it was known as "Dale's Gift" after Sir Thomas Dale then deputy governor in Virginia. The site selected for the work was on Smith's Island along the outer edge of the point of the peninsula. The quarters for the workmen may have been built on the mainland just above the point of the peninsula long known as Cape Charles.

Dale's Gift endured for a time although it appears to have been abandoned during Argall's administration. It was one of only six points of settlement as listed for Virginia in 1616. John Rolfe's description of it at this time shows its garrison-like quality: "At Dales Gifte (lieng upon the sea neere unto Cape Charles, about thirty miles from Kequoughtan) are seventeen [men] under the command of one Leiftenaunte Cradock; all these are fed and maintained by the Colony. Their labor is to make salte; and to catch fishe at the two seasons aforemencioned [spring and fall]." The work was allowed to lapse and in 1620 the "salt works" were described as "wholly gone to rack and let fall" with serious consequences. It led, it appears, to some "distemper" in Virginia caused by the colonists "eating pork and other meats fresh and unseasoned." In any case measures were taken in 1620-21 to re-establish the works and Pory reported that he had found a suitable spot not far from "where was our salt-house."

Permanent colonization of the Eastern Sh.o.r.e dates, it seems, from about 1619 when Thomas Savage went there to live on a large tract of land lying between Cheriton and King's Creek (Savage's Neck) given him by "Laughing King" (Debedeavon). Savage, as reported by John Martin who visited there in April, 1619, was already well established in Indian councils. Both Savage and Martin recognized the value of trade with the Indians here as did John Pory who visited the Eastern Sh.o.r.e in 1621.

Pory, Secretary of the Colony, had been authorized the year before to lay out 500 acres and to place 20 men on them for the support of his office. This he did sending 10 men in 1620 and 10 more in 1621. In 1621, too, John Willc.o.x planted across the bay. In this same year Sir George Yeardley obtained a large acreage from Debedeavon. When Yeardley, in June, 1622, crossed the bay to inspect his property he was so pleased with what he saw that he stayed six weeks. There had been no ma.s.sacre here for "Laughing King" had refused to join in the Indian plot. He had, in fact, warned the Governor of the impending catastrophe. The area across the Bay had also escaped the "foull distemper" that swept along the James plantations about this time. Mortality had been high from the epidemic that probably came from the newly arriving immigrants to Virginia.

The Eastern Sh.o.r.e was now well established. In 1624 its first representatives, Captain John Willc.o.x and Henry Watkins, were sent to the a.s.sembly which met at Jamestown in March. It appears that a minister, the Rev. Francis Bolton, served here for a time. Others moved over from the western sh.o.r.e including Lady Elizabeth, widow of Sir Thomas Dale. Few, it seems, came directly from Europe to Virginia's Eastern Sh.o.r.e. Most came after a sojourn in one, or more, of the settlements along the James.

ELIZABETH CITY (KECOUGHTAN) (40)

Early in 1625 the community of Elizabeth City, or rather the communities that made up Elizabeth City, could count some 359 persons. This included those "Beyond Hampton River" earlier referred to as "At Bucke Row." In the year before, 1624, this area had counted some 349 (thirty at "Bucke Roe") and in that year a total of 101 had died. These figures indicate both a high mortality as well as a high rate of immigration into this section. Elizabeth City, in 1625, was the largest community in Virginia, much larger than James City and its Island with its 175 persons (218 in 1624), which held second place in population.

In 1625 it was an established community including 279 males and eighty females. Four were negroes. More than twenty-five per cent were living beyond Hampton River. It had the large total of eighty-nine houses besides twenty stores, all beyond Hampton River, and twenty-four palisadoes. Its supplies of corn and fish were large and ample compared with other settlements although it was weak in livestock and poultry when viewed in comparison with Jamestown and some of the upriver communities. Although strong in small arms, it had a major allotment of ordnance. It did boast of six boats. Excepting Jamestown, this was the largest fleet in the Colony although the Eastern Sh.o.r.e was close with its five.

There were fifty-four separate musters or groups in Elizabeth City with the largest of them being that of Capt. William Tucker including his wife and daughter, "borne in Virginia in August," and eighteen others.

Among these were three negroes, Antoney, Isabell and "William theire Child Baptised." There was, too, the muster of the ancient planters John and Anne Laydon and their four girls, all Virginia "borne." The oldest of them was the first child born in the Colony. Nicolas Martiau was listed here, as was Ensign Thomas Willoby and Edward Waters. In addition to the fifty-four musters, or groups, in Elizabeth City proper there were sixteen resident beyond Hampton River. These embraced Captain Francis West and Sergeant William Barry. The latter had fifteen servants which was a larger number than most musters enumerated. It appears that in excess of 4,000 acres of land had been patented and the greater part of it had been planted. Patents, too, had been issued for land across the Hampton Roads on the south side of the James River, yet none is listed as having been planted at this date.

Elizabeth City began on the site of an Indian village on the west side of Hampton Creek and was known by its Indian name of Kecoughtan for a decade. The English first saw this spot on May 1, 1607 when the three s.h.i.+ps moved over from Cape Henry. The friendly Indians welcomed the sh.o.r.e party and took them to their village of some 18 houses of twigs and bark and twenty fighting men where there was food, a friendly smoke, and entertainment.

After this visit the settlers moved on up the James and it was fall before the English were here again. John Smith then traded successfully with them for corn. Smith was here again in the summer of 1608 and in the following winter always being well received and refreshed before leaving. There is clear evidence that the first post established by the Colonists for trade with the Indians was here where Indians and whites lived together in some number. When, however, Humphry Blunt out of Fort Algernourne, that is Old Point Comfort, was killed by Indians at Nansemond, Sir Thomas Gates used the opportunity to punish the Indians by driving the Kecoughtans away from their cornfields and fis.h.i.+ng grounds. It was in the summer of 1610 that he "posseseinge himselfe of the Towne and the fertill ground there unto adjacentt haveinge well ordered all things he lefte his Lieftenantt Earley to comawnd his company and retourned to James Towne."

In October, 1609, after Smith's departure for England, President George Percy had sent Captain John Ratcliffe down to the mouth of the river to erect a fort due to "the plenty of the place for fisheinge" and "for the comodious discovery of any s.h.i.+ppeinge which sholde come uppon the co[a]ste." He chose Point Comfort, so named in 1607, and designated it "Algernowns Foarte" after Lord De La Warr's "name and howse." When Ratcliffe was killed by the Indians while on an expedition up the York, Captain James Davis was named to command in his stead.

Those at Point Comfort in the winter of 1609-10 apparently fared much better than those at Jamestown. When Percy visited here he found them, he reports, "in good case and well lykeinge haveinge concealed their plenty from us above att James Towne beinge so well stored thatt the crabb fishes where with they fede their hoggs wold have bene a greate relefe unto us and saved many of our lykes."

It was on the Kecoughtan site that an English settlement (Hampton) began to evolve. For two or three years it was little more than a military outpost and a plantation where corn was grown to help fill the larder at Jamestown. To supplement the fort at Point Comfort, De La Warr had two more built on either side of a small stream, Fort Henry and Fort Charles. This river De La Warr called the Southampton (Hampton), the name that came to be applied, too, to the wide waters into which it flowed, Hampton Roads. The forts were intended both as strongholds against the Indians and as a rest stop, or acclimation point, for incoming settlers "that the weariness of the sea may be refreshed in this pleasing part of the countree."

The forts were abandoned in the fall, but when Sir Thomas Dale reached Point Comfort on May 22, 1611, he reoccupied them. He left James Davis in command of Fort Algernourne and proceeded to restore Fort Charles on the east side of, and Fort Henry on the west side of, Hampton River before going on to Jamestown.

It was in 1611 that a Spanish caravel appeared at Point Comfort, picked up an English pilot and sailed away leaving three of its crew. One of them was the spy Diego de Molina who later reported that Fort Algernourne had a garrison of twenty-five and four iron pieces. A fire destroyed the fort, except for Captain Davis' house and storehouse. He, however, rebuilt it with "expedition." In 1614 "Point Comfort Fort" as Fort Algernourne was called after Percy left in April, 1612, was described as a stockade "without brick or stone" containing fifty persons (men, women and boys), protected by seven iron pieces. Soon after this the fort evidently fell into disuse.

In 1613 each of the forts on Hampton River had fifteen soldiers but no ordnance and in 1614 Capt. George Webb was the princ.i.p.al commander of both. Ralph Hamor at this time described them as "goodly seats and much corne ground about them, abounding with the commodities of fish, fowle, deere and fruits, whereby the men live there, with halfe that maintenaunce out of the store, which in other places was allowed." He thought it an excellent spot except "we cannot secure it, if a forraigne enemy, as we have just caus to expect daily should attempt it."

The settlement grew slowly as the report of John Rolfe in 1616 shows: "At Keqoughtan, being not farr from the mouth of the river, thirty-seven miles below James Towne on the same side, are twenty [persons] whereof eleven are Farmors. All these also mayntayne themselves as the former.

Captain George Webb Commander, Mr. William Mays Mynister there."

At this time it ranked fifth in size of the then existing six Virginia settlements. Only Dale's Gift on Eastern Sh.o.r.e was smaller. The largest at the time was Bermuda Hundred with its 119 persons. Jamestown was second with fifty. Although small it can be a.s.sumed that since 1611, although much a military post, it was changing. Rolfe relates that there were women and children "in every place some" and where there are women and children there is family life.

In 1619 the settlement of Kecoughtan was captained by William Tucker and he and William Capps represented the settlement in the first House of Burgesses. It was evidently on their pet.i.tion that the a.s.sembly was asked "to change the savage name of Kiccowtan, and to give that Incorporation a new name." It was so ordered, and the new name was Elizabeth City after the daughter of King James.

The next five years saw extensive growth in this area including the a.s.signment of 3,000 acres of Company land, 1,500 acres for common use and 100 acres for a glebe. In 1620 some Frenchmen were sent to the Buck Roe section to instruct the colonists in planting mulberries and vines and in sericulture and viniculture. In 1621 Captain Thomas Newce came as manager of the Company lands and obtained a grant of 600 acres for himself. The resident minister at the time was Reverend James Stockton who took a rather dim view of Indian character.

The ma.s.sacre of 1622 did not leave any dead at Elizabeth City. This appears to have been due in part to the good work of Captain Newce who took defensive measures and made plans to alleviate the suffering resulting from the Indian devastation. The ma.s.sacre stimulated the growth of population in Elizabeth City which still, however, was not immune from Indian attack as witnessed by the four who were killed in September, 1622.

William Tucker of Elizabeth City was one of those whom Wyatt called on to lead punitive attacks on the Indians. Following these the Indian threat to Elizabeth City was essentially removed and the area came to enjoy peace and freedom for development as was reflected in the census of 1624 and that of 1625. In 1623 it was called in one doc.u.ment "the first plantation." The Elizabeth City community embraced the sites of Point Comfort, Fort Charles, Fort Henry, and Kecoughtan, west of Hampton Creek, as well as the areas of Buck Roe, "Strawberry Banks," east of Hampton Creek, and "Indian Thickett."

NEWPORT NEWS (41)

The English first saw the site of Newport News on May 2, 1607 as they ascended the James River en route to Jamestown. There is, however, no reference to an Indian site here or to any specific use of the area, which Smith listed as "Point Hope" on his map of Virginia, until more than a decade later, November, 1621 when Daniel Gookin settled here. It is reported that "at _Nupor[t]s-newes_: the cotton trees in a yeere grew so thicke as ones arme, and so high as a man: here; any thing that is planted doth prosper so well as in no other place better."

A brief account penned by David Pietersz de Vries, a Dutch s.h.i.+pmaster, who visited Virginia in March, 1633 implies that Newport News then was an established watering point for incoming, and even outgoing, vessels.

His description tends to provoke the thought that such had been the case for years, perhaps from the early days of Virginia. "The 10th, we sailed up the river [James]. When we came to the before-mentioned point of Newport-Snuw, we landed and took in water. A fine spring lies inside the sh.o.r.e of the river, convenient for taking water from. All the s.h.i.+ps come here to take in water on their way home. After we had procured some water, we sailed on...." On March 20, when leaving Virginia, De Vries observed again "anch.o.r.ed at evening before the point of Newport-Snuw, where we took in water."

The earliest known reference to the name Newport News is in a letter written from Jamestown on November 11, 1619 when the inhabitants of Kecoughtan were a.s.sured the opportunity "to choose ther divident alonge the banke of the great river betweene Kequohtan and Newportes Newes."

The origin of its name is obscure yet it is not unlikely that Captain Christopher Newport is honored here. A second reference, one in January, 1620 lists "Newports Newes." Later references, in the Virginia Company records (1621-24), show varying forms: "Newportnewes," "Nuports Newes,"

"New ports-newes" and "Newport newes." The name seems established before Gookin and his friends, the Newces, entered the scene; hence it is improbable that Newce or Newcetown, Ireland, is responsible for the name. The name "Newportes Poynte" is shown on Robert Tindall's map of 1608 but it refers to a point on the York River rather than to the Newport News site.

Daniel Gookin was a friend and a.s.sociate of Sir William Newce and Captain Thomas Newce, both prominent in Virginia affairs, yet not of long time in the Colony, and like them was from Newcetown in Ireland.

All had plans to establish a strong settlement in Virginia. As early as November, 1620, the Company had agreed to pay Gookin to transport some livestock to Virginia. He was promised a patent in Virginia for a "particular" plantation. His arrival and establishment, late in 1621, is recorded in a letter of the governor and council in January, 1622:

There arived heere about the 22th of November a s.h.i.+pp from mr Gookine out of Ireland wholy uppon his owne adventure, withoute any relatione at all to his contract with you in England which was soe well furnished with all sortes of provisione, as well as with cattle, as wee could wishe all men would follow theire example, hee hath also brought with him aboute fifty more uppon the adventure besides some thirty other pa.s.sengers, wee have accordinge to their desire seated them at Newportes news, and we doe conceave great hope (if the Irish plantacone prosper) that frome Ireland greate mult.i.tudes of people wilbe like to come hither....

His plantation did, it seems, prosper, yet not without loss in men and effort. In the spring of 1623 when forty new men reported to the settlement things were not good. "Of all Mr. Gookins men which he sent out the last year we found but seven, the rest being all killed by the Indians, and his plantation ready to fall to decay." At the time of the Indian ma.s.sacre he refused to take refuge in a stronger place deeming his settlement strong enough to withstand attack. With thirty-five men he succeeded in this and, it seems, was the first to reach England with news of the ma.s.sacre. His son Daniel Gookin, Jr., evidently took over the management of the settlement when he left.

The census of 1625 from "Newportes newes" lists only the muster of Daniel Gookin and would indicate that neither he, nor his son, was in residence at the time. The listing shows only a total of twenty servants, eight of whom came in the _Flyinge Hart_ in 1621 and twelve of the forty who had come in the _Providence_ in 1623. The entire population was male and evidently they lived in four houses; at least only four were reported. At the time corn supplies stood at thirty barrels and cattle numbered fifteen head. For arms, the plantation had sixteen fixed pieces, twenty swords, and three pieces of ordnance. It would seem that the area of the plantation embraced 1,300 patented acres all of which were "planted."

In January, 1624 it had been sufficiently strong to be included in the Governor's instructions to Captain William Tucker, of Elizabeth City.

These called for the meeting of "all the free men inhabiting in those plantacons under your comand at Keycotan & Nuport Newes [for the purpose of] by pluralitie of voices to make election of twoe men" to attend the General a.s.sembly called for February. Of the four who were chosen from the "Incorporation of Elizabeth City," however, two were from Elizabeth City proper and two from "Elizabeth City beyond Hampton River." None was from Newport News.

BLUNT POINT (42)

The extent of settlement in this area on the north side of the James above Newport News in 1625 is difficult to determine. There had been a number of land patents issued prior to this date. One for 100 acres, on August 14, 1624, was to Edward Waters at "Blunt point" and several others were issued four months later in the area between the point and Newport News. Some were to old residents of Newport News and Kecoughtan and several were issued to new arrivals. One grant for 150 acres to Maurice Thompson had been made as early as March 4, 1621. Patented acreage at "Blunt Pointe" and "belowe Blunt Point" in 1625 embraced some 2,200 acres and 1,390 acres respectively.

The ma.s.sacre of 1622 forced the withdrawal of any who may have been located in the area at that date. Included in the list of those killed at the time was Edward Walters, his wife, child, maid and boy all at "Master Edward Walters his house" which may have been in the Blunt Point vicinity. If this were really Edward Waters who received the patent at Blunt Point in 1624, it would mean that he had already established himself here. Such is conceivable since, at the time of the ma.s.sacre, he and his wife were made prisoners by the Nansemond Indians and possibly could have been listed as dead. He was fortunate in being able to manage an escape and took refuge at Elizabeth City (Kecoughtan).

Waters was an ancient planter who had come to Virginia with Gates, reaching the Colony in 1610. He was one of a party who returned to Bermuda for hogs for Virginia. Circ.u.mstances intervened and he remained there about seven years. It was not until about 1617 that he returned to Virginia where he was married and settled down. In 1625 he was listed as living at Elizabeth City with his wife, son and daughter, "borne in Virginia." His muster then included six servants and five others.

In a statement made by a number of Virginia planters on April 30, 1623, there is mention of the plantation at "Blunt point" which would imply an established settlement here at that time. It was enumerated along with a number of others, including Newport News, which were described "as verie fruitfull and pleasant seates." This was ten months after Captain Samuel Each's offer to "erect before the end of March [1623] uppon the oyster bankes, a block-house, that should forbid the pa.s.sage of any s.h.i.+pp" up the James. Each felt that he could lay his vessel near "Blunt point" and do this with dispatch with his mariners and twelve carpenters. The Governor and Council embraced his offer to build this "Block house about Blunt Point." Company officials in England, too, liked the idea very much. Seemingly, however, it never materialized. Instead, talk turned to the fort which was undertaken at Warrascoyack on the opposite sh.o.r.e of the James.

MULBERRY ISLAND (43)

On the north side of the James River some ten miles below Jamestown, this "island" embraces some ten square miles of ground. Its name evidently was derived from a heavy growth of the native Virginia mulberry trees (_Morus rubra_). This must have been the case since "Mulberry Island" and "Mulberry Point" were in use as place designations as early as July, 1610. It was so named even before it was settled.

When Gates was proceeding down river, having abandoned Jamestown, in June, 1610, it was just off Mulberry Island that he encountered Lord De La Warr's "long boat" which gave word of reinforcements and supplies.

This saved the Colony and Gates reversed his course and returned to Jamestown. In this way Mulberry Island is linked with this decisive meeting which greatly affected the survival of the Colony.

It is not clear when actual settlement of the Island began. Seemingly it was not before 1617 or 1618. In any event, about this time, settlers did begin to drift in to this section of the James River basin. In 1619 it appears that Captain William Pierce patented 650 acres in this quarter.

Pierce had been in Virginia since 1610 and in 1617 was well established being Captain of the Guard at Jamestown where he had "the fairest [house] in all Virginia." Now, however, he removed to his new holding where, before March, 1622, he built another home and established his residence.