Part 3

In 1613, Pocahontas was well received at Jamestown, where she had not been for some time; and when her father refused to pay the price asked for her ransom, she was detained. Later, she preferred life with the English and did not wish to return to her native village. She was placed under the tutelage of Rev. Alexander Whitaker who instructed her in the Christian faith. Eventually Pocahontas was baptized. In April 1614, in the church at Jamestown, she married John Rolfe, one of the settlers. This was a celebrated marriage that did much to improve relations with the Indians. About 1616, the couple went to England where Pocahontas was entertained at court. She died there as she was about to return to Virginia, in 1617, and her body rests at Gravesend. She had one son, Thomas Rolfe, who later came to Virginia. Through him many today can trace their ancestry to Pocahontas.

TOBACCO.

After the death of Pocahontas, John Rolfe came back to Virginia alone to resume the work which he had begun there as early as 1610. Perhaps he continued his work with tobacco which had already resulted in a plant that could compete in taste and quality with that which had given the Spanish a monopoly of the tobacco market.

In the first years of the settlement every effort had been made to find products in the New World that would assure financial success for the settlers and the company. Pitch, tar, timber, sassafras, cedar, and other natural products were sent in the returning ships. Attempts to produce glass on a paying scale proved futile, as did early efforts to make silk, using the native mulberry trees growing in abundance. The glass furnaces fell into disuse, and rats ate the silkworms. The native tobacco plant, found growing wild was “... not of the best kind ... [but was] poore and weake, and of a byting tast ...” and held little promise.

About 1610-11, the seed of a different species of the plant was imported from Trinidad, then famous for the quality of its tobacco. Later some came from Venezuela. These were planted and a process of selection and crossbreeding began which resulted in the commercially valuable Virginia leaf. John Rolfe, a smoker himself, has been credited as the pioneer English colonist in this experimentation.

In addition to the improvement of the plant, Rolfe was one of the first regularly to grow tobacco for export and as such was the father of the Virginia tobacco trade and industry. The first experimental shipment of the newly developed Virginia leaf came about 1613, and because of its pleasant taste it was well received in some quarters. Production was slow for several years. Dale restricted its cultivation until basic commodities, such as corn, were well advanced. In the 1615-16 period only 2,300 pounds reached London from Virginia. Capt. George Yeardley, the next to govern, gave the new crop his whole-hearted support, with the result that in 1617 exports reached the 20,000 pound total, and by 1619 this had been more than doubled. Thus, a new trade and industry were born in the colony, which proved to be the economic salvation of Virginia, and provided a means for making slavery profitable. Tobacco and slavery together led to the development of important characteristics of the whole social, political, and economic structure of the Old South. One of the immediate effects of tobacco culture in Virginia was the impetus it gave to the expansion of the area of settlement and to the number of settlers coming to Virginia.

THE SPREAD OF SETTLEMENT.

Jamestown was planned as the first permanent English settlement in Virginia. The fixed intention was to establish other seats as soon as possible. As the limitations of Jamestown became obvious, the desire for other townsites was intensified. Soon after the settlement was made at Jamestown, temporary garrisons were placed at outlying points for protective and administrative reasons—at Kecoughtan (Hampton-Newport News), Cape Henry, and at the falls of the James. The first efforts in this direction, except at Kecoughtan, ended in the autumn of 1609 under pressure from the Indians. With the arrival of Delaware, Kecoughtan (renamed Elizabeth City in 1619) was established as a permanent settlement. Dale and Gates went on to establish the city of Henricus (Henrico) well up the James near the falls. Then came Charles City (the earlier Bermuda Nether Hundred) which developed into the last of the four settlements established by the company, each of which had the designation “city.” These four settlements were the only towns specifically set up by the company and consequently under its complete control. These later came to be mentioned in the records as the “Four Ancient Boroughs” or “four ancient Incorporations.” As one of these, Jamestown became the center of the political subdivision that developed into one of the original Virginia shires in 1634. Within the next decade the term county replaced that of shire, and today, although Jamestown has ceased to exist as a corporate organization, James City County continues to function as the oldest governing unit in English America.

Although the four “cities” constituted the first settlements in Virginia and were the only ones established directly under company control, they were but the beginning. About 1616, a new plan gave rise to the creation of settlements known as “particular plantations,” sometimes called “hundreds” as a result of the practice of awarding land on the basis of 100 acres or of sending settlers in groups of the same number. These were established with company permission, which included a grant of land made to individual groups of stockholders organized for the purpose of setting up a specific settlement. The first of these was Martin’s Hundred, in 1617, and others followed rapidly. By the summer of 1619, there were seven particular plantations already functioning, in addition to the original “cities,” a term sometimes thought to derive from the form of government being used by the “City of Geneva” in Switzerland which was held in high esteem by some of the company officials, particularly by Sir Edwin Sandys who became Treasurer of the Virginia Company in 1618.

With the spread of settlement east and west along the James and outward along its rivers and creeks as well, Jamestown lay approximately in the center of an expanding and growing colony. It was the capital town and the principal center of the colony’s social and political life. In size it remained small, yet it was intimately and directly related to all of the significant developments of the 17th century. Its physical aspects changed with the evolution of 17th century architectural patterns and designs. Life in the town was varied and perhaps representative of the best in the colony for almost a century. As wealth accumulated, the manner of living broadened and improved. There is strong evidence that Jamestown was the first to feel the impact of the advantages and efforts that this produced, particularly in the first half century of its existence. Material progress is evident as early as 1619 in the letter of John Pory, secretary of the colony, written from Virginia late in that year:

Nowe that your lordship may knowe, that we are not the variest beggars in the worlde, our cowekeeper here of James citty on Sunday goes accowtered all in freshe flaming silke; and a wife of one that in England had professed the black arte, not of a schollar, but of a collier of Croydon, weares her rough bever hatt with a faire perle hatband, and a silken suite thereto correspondent.

THE BEGINNING OF REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT.

In 1618, there were internal changes in the Virginia Company that led to the resignation of Sir Thomas Smith as treasurer, and to the election of Sir Edwin Sandys as his successor. This roughly corresponded to changes in company policy toward the administration of the colony and to intensified efforts to develop Virginia. It led to the abolition of martial law, to the establishment of individual property ownership, and greater freedom and participation in matters of government. Virginia already enjoyed a high degree of religious freedom due, perhaps, to the fact that a number of company officers were strongly under the influence of the puritan element within the Church of England. This, together with the fact that Virginia was not settled purely for religious reasons, caused less stress to be put on absolute uniformity in church matters. Sir George Yeardley, recently knighted, returned to Virginia as governor in April 1619, and was the first spokesman in the colony for the new policy toward Virginia. In England it had been ably advanced on behalf of the colony by Sir Edwin Sandys, the Earl of Southampton, and John and Nicholas Ferrar.

Soon after his arrival, Yeardley issued a call for a representative legislative assembly which convened at Jamestown on July 30, 1619, and remained in session until August 4. This was the earliest example of our present system of representative government in America. The full intentions behind the moves that led to this historic meeting may never be known. It seems to have been an attempt to give to the Englishmen in America those rights and privileges of Englishmen that had been guaranteed to them in the original company charter, rather than a planned attempt to establish self-government in the New World on a scale that might have been in violation of English law and custom at the time. Whatever the motive, the significance of this meeting in the church at Jamestown remains the same. This body of duly chosen representatives of the people has continued in existence and its evolution leads directly to our State legislatures and to the Congress of the United States.

DEVELOPMENTS, 1619-24.

Another significant development of 1619 was the sending by the company of maidens to Virginia to be wives of the settlers. Although many women were already established with their families in the Jamestown colony, the company recognized that homes and children for all the men would be conducive to established family life and permanent residence. Under this new project, the first maidens arrived in May and June 1620. Others followed, as ships brought more and more young women seeking their fortunes in Virginia.

The third momentous event in 1619 was the arrival of Negroes in a Dutch warship. They remained in Virginia, some finding homes, and some as indentured servants even as some white men were at that time. Nevertheless, this first arrival of Negroes was to lead to the introduction of slavery into the colony. It was more than a generation before the institution of slavery began to be entrenched as the backbone of the economic life in Virginia, yet this event of 1619 was the first move in that direction.

Under Dale, the emphasis on colonization was away from Jamestown, yet later governors found the original seat desirable. Capt. Samuel Argall, who succeeded Yeardley as deputy governor in 1617, wrote that he advanced physical improvements prior to his hasty withdrawal from Virginia in the spring of 1619 to avoid arrest under charges of mismanagement of company affairs. Argall had been the first to prescribe limits for Jamestown. Yeardley followed him as governor, and for the next few years Jamestown, at this time most often called “James City,” witnessed considerable growth and activity. The town, long before, had expanded outside of the fort and spread along the shore on the extreme west end of the island. The borough or incorporation, of which it was the center, extended west to the Chickahominy River and downriver beyond Hog Island. Its territory was along the north side of the river and included the south side as well—the area that later became Surry County. West toward the Chickahominy the area adjacent to Jamestown Island became rather heavily developed and was referred to as the “Suburbs of James City.”

The period from 1619 to 1624 was one of considerable activity for Virginia in general and Jamestown in particular. The reorganized Virginia Company, following its political changes, renewed its efforts to expand the colony and to stimulate profitable employment. Heavy emphasis was placed on new industries, particularly iron and glass, the latter evidently attempted a second time on Glasshouse Point. The planting of mulberry trees and the growing of silkworms were advanced by the dispatch of treatises on silk culture and silkworm eggs in a project in which King James I himself had a personal interest. Immigration to the colony was increased, and measures were taken to meet the religious and educational needs of the settlers. This was the period that saw the attempt to establish a college at Henrico.

The industrial and manufacturing efforts of these years, however, were not destined to succeed. This condition was not due to any laxity on the part of George Sandys, resident treasurer in Virginia, who was something of an economic on-the-spot supervisor for the company. Virginia could not yet support these projects profitably, and interest was lacking on the part of the planters who found in tobacco a source of wealth superior to anything else that had been tried. Tobacco was profitable, and it was grown, at times, even in the streets of Jamestown. It was the profit from tobacco that supported the improved living conditions that came throughout the colony.

These Englishmen who came to settle in the wilderness retained their desire for the advantages of life in England. Books, for example, were highly valued, and with the passage of the years were no uncommon commodity in Virginia. As early as 1608, Rev. Robert Hunt had a library at Jamestown, which was consumed by fire in January of that year. Each new group of colonists seemingly added to the store on hand—Bibles, Books of Common Prayer, other religious works, medical and scientific treatises, legal publications, accounts of gardening, and such. In 1621, the company wrote to the colonial officials regarding works for a new minister being sent to the colony that: “As for bookes we doubt not but you wilbe able to supplie him out of the lybraries of so many that have died.” By this date there was local literary effort, too, such as that by Treasurer George Sandys who continued his celebrated translation of Ovid’s _Metamorphoses_ in the house of William Pierce at Jamestown. Then, too, in March 1623, a gentleman of the colony sent from “_Iames_ his Towne” the ballad “Good Newes from Virginia” in which, among other things, he describes the arrival of the governor’s wife at Jamestown and uses this to prod others to support the colony and to settle in Virginia.

_But last of all that Lady faire, that woman worth renoune: That left her Country and her friends, to grace braue_ Iames _his towne_.

_The wife unto our Gouernour, did safely here ariue: With many gallants following her, whom God preserue aliue. What man would stay when Ladies gay, both liues and fortunes leaues: To taste what we haue truely sowne, truth never man deceaues._

(From _The William and Mary Quarterly_, 3rd Ser., V, 357-8)

“NEW TOWNE.”

It is in the 1619 to 1624 period that the first clear picture of Jamestown emerges, for this period corresponds with the earliest known property records that exist. The town had outgrown the original fort in some years past and now appeared as a fairly flourishing settlement. The records reveal that many of the property owners were yeomen, merchants, carpenters, hog-raisers, farmers, joiners, shopkeepers, and ordinary “fellows,” as well as governors and colonial officials. The “New Towne” section of James City developed in this period as the old section proved too small and the residents began to build more substantial houses, principally frame on brick foundations. The Indian massacre of 1622, that wrought such heavy devastation in the colony, did not reach Jamestown which was warned through the efforts of the Indian, Chanco. It did temporarily cause congestion in the Jamestown area, however, as the survivors from the more distant settlements fell back for safety and to regroup. The punitive Indian campaigns that followed were directed from Jamestown by the governor, who resided there.

The population figures taken in these years give a good idea of the size of Jamestown in this period. In February 1624, it is recorded that 183 persons were living in Jamestown and 35 others on the island outside of the town. These are listed by name, as are the 87 who died between April 1623 and the following February. The death toll suggests that the mortality rate was continuing high and that it was still difficult for newcomers to adapt themselves to the Virginia environment. In the “census” of January 1625, a total of 124 residents are listed for “James Citty” and an additional 51 for the island. In the over-all total of 173, 122 were males and 53, females. At that time, Governor Sir Francis Wyatt and former Governor Yeardley had two of the largest musters for the town, which included women, children, indentured servants, and Negroes. Nine Negroes were listed for Jamestown and the island, evidently some of those brought there in 1619.

Aside from the population statistics, the musters of January 1625 give much more information. Jamestown had a church, a court-of-guard (guardhouse), 3 stores, a merchant’s store, and 33 houses. Ten of the colony’s 40 boats were here, including a skiff, a “shallop” of 4 tons, and a “barque” of 40 tons. There were stores of fish (24,880 pounds to be exact), corn, peas, and meal. There were four pieces of ordnance, supplies of powder, shot and lead, and, for individual use, “fixt peeces,” snaphances, pistols, swords (to the number of 70), coats of mail, quilted coats, and suits of armor (35 of them complete). The bulk of the colony’s livestock seems to have been localized in the Jamestown area—about half (183) of the cattle, a little more than half (265) of the hogs, and well over half (126) of the goats. The one horse listed for the colony was at Jamestown.

The “census” clearly indicates that the population of Jamestown was not keeping pace with that of the colony. The needs of tobacco culture—open fields and new soil—and the abundance of navigable waters in the rivers, bays, and creeks of tidewater Virginia led to a scattered population, based on the plantation system. These factors prevented the rise of trade centers and large towns for almost a century, despite the best efforts of both home and colonial officials. The idea was to make Jamestown the center of social, political, and economic life and to develop it into a city of some proportions. In size, it never attained that of a city and it failed to dominate trade and commerce. It was, however, the hub of political and social life for as long as it was the capital of Virginia—92 years. Hence, its story is vital to an understanding of American beginnings. Its citizens, in their daily life and work, developed the origins of many of our institutions, styles, and customs in speech, in architecture, in dress, and in government organization.

VIRGINIA MADE A ROYAL COLONY.

The Virginia Company established the first permanent English settlement in America, but did not reap the profits that it had expected. Despite reorganization and large expenditures, it never achieved its full objective and was increasingly subject to criticism. Matters reached a head in 1624 when James I dissolved the company, thereby removing the hand that had guided Virginia affairs for 17 years. With this act Virginia became a royal colony and continued as such until the American Revolution made it free and independent. From the point of view of operations in the colony the change was almost painless although there was concern over land titles and a continuance of the assembly which had already voiced its feeling on taxation without representation. The company governor gave way to the royal appointee, but most institutions were left intact.

Sir Francis Wyatt was the last company governor, and he continued in office for a while as royal governor. When he left for England, in 1626, Yeardley again became governor and served until he died at Jamestown the next year. Capt. Francis West was named to the post as deputy. Another deputy, Dr. John Pott, followed next in turn, and he was replaced by the royal appointee, Sir John Harvey.

GOVERNOR HARVEY DEPOSED.

Sir John Harvey first came to Virginia in 1624 as a member of a committee to report on conditions in the colony. It was in 1630 that he returned as royal governor and settled himself at “James cittie, the seate of the Governor.” In 1632, he had a commodious house here and was complaining of the expense of the entertainment that he had to finance in “the Governors owne house.” Whether because of his personal nature, his own view or interpretation of government, or because of the severe opposition that confronted him, he managed to become thoroughly disliked throughout the colony. His high-handed and autocratic methods arrayed even his council against him.

In the end, his council, in meetings at Jamestown, moved to depose him, naming another to act in his stead—a bold measure, indeed. The assembly, in May 1635, approved this action, and Harvey was returned to England to answer the charges placed against him there. The King, it is true, returned Harvey to his post as royal governor in 1637, but undoubtedly both he and Harvey were impressed by the action that the colonists had taken to redress their grievances—they had deposed a royal governor.

BRICK ARCHITECTURE.

When Governor Harvey reached Jamestown in January 1637 he made a special effort to promote the growth of the town. The assembly passed an act offering a “portion of land for a house and garden” to every person who would undertake to build on it within 2 years. This was the beginning of considerable activity at Jamestown. A number of new patents were issued, and, in January 1639, the governor and his council could report that 12 houses and stores had been constructed and others had been begun. One of those already built was the house of Richard Kemp, secretary of the colony. His house was described as “one of brick” and “the fairest ever known in this country for substance and uniformity.” Kemp’s house is the earliest all-brick house in Virginia that it has been possible to date conclusively up to the present time. It was in 1639, too, that the first brick church was begun, and a levy was collected for the acquisition of a statehouse. Among the new land holders at Jamestown in this period of activity were Capt. Thomas Hill, Rev. Thomas Hampton, and Alexander Stoner, a “brickmaker.” As the area along the river was occupied, additional patentees obtained holdings just outside of the town proper and others settled in the few lots that were not in use. Sir William Berkeley, who became governor in 1641, continued the emphasis on the construction of substantial houses. In that same year, the colony acquired its first statehouse, formerly the property of Harvey and a building in which public business had been transacted for, perhaps, as much as 10 years.