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JAMES1_180603_006.JPG: The Isthmus
This modern road crosses to Jamestown about on line with a natural isthmus which existed in Colonial times. The sandy strip that made Jamestown "a semi-island" was washed away in the 1700's.
JAMES1_180603_020.JPG: Colonial Parkway
In 1930, Congress established Colonial National Monument (designated Colonial National Historical Park in 1936) to preserve and interpret the beginning and end of the British colonial experience in North America. The park included Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement and Yorktown, the last major battle of the American Revolution. The Colonial Parkway connects the two sites and Williamsburg.
JAMES1_180603_032.JPG: Governor Yeardley's Lot 1620's
George Yeardley arrived in Jamestown in 1610, was appointed captain of the guard, and eventually lieutenant governor. Later knighted and appointed governor of Virginia in 1618, he issued the Great Charter in 1619, establishing the first representative government in Virginia.
In 1620, Yeardley acquired a seven-and-a-quarter-acre lot extending east from this location. A 1625 muster roll listed the members of Yeardley's large household: Yeardley; his wife Lady Temperance Yeardley; their three children; and 24 servants, including three African men and five African women (eight of the first nine Africans documented at Jamestown). The muster also lists 50 cattle, 40 swine, and 11 goats and kids on Yeardley's lot. In addition to three dwellings, Yeardley owned three boats –- a barque, four-ton shallop, and skiff.
At this location, archaeologists excavated the brick foundations of a structure that may have been Yeardley's. Scattered building materials along Black River suggest that two additional dwellings, perhaps for servants, may have been located at the eastern end of his lot.
" . . . for his conveniency and the more Commodity of his houses & dwellings"
- Yeardley's Land Patent
JAMES1_180603_064.JPG: Virginia Company of London
Chartered April 10, 1606
Founded Jamestown and Sustained Virginia
1607-1824
JAMES1_180603_078.JPG: This monument was erected by the United States
AD 1907
to commemorate the three hundredth anniversary of the settlement here
JAMES1_180603_081.JPG: "Lastly and chiefly the way to prosper and achieve good success is to make yourselves all of one mind for the good of your country and your own, and to serve and fear god the giver of all goodness for every plantation which our heavenly father hath not planted shall be rooted out."
-- Advice of London Council for Virginia to the Colony -- 1606
JAMES1_180603_083.JPG: Jamestown
The first permanent colony of the English people
The birthplace of Virginia and of the United States
May 13, 1607
JAMES1_180603_088.JPG: Representative government in America began in the First House of Burgesses assembled here
July 30, 1619
JAMES1_180603_099.JPG: In lasting gratitude to Mr. and Mrs. Edward E. Barney for the gift of this historic ground
May 3, 1893
Placed by the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities
1912
JAMES1_180603_102.JPG: Rediscover Jamestown
JAMES1_180603_105.JPG: National Historic Site
Jamestown
This part of old "James Towne" has been owned and preserved since 1893 by the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities. Founded May 13, 1607, "James Towne" was the first permanent English settlement in America. It saw the beginning of many of the nation's institutions, including representative government. It was the Capital of Virginia until 1699. The APVA grounds and the Jamestown section of Colonial National Historical Park embrace all of Jamestown Island.
National Park Service
United States Department of the Interior
JAMES1_180603_115.JPG: Pocahontas
Erected in 1922, this statue by William Ordway Partridge, honors Pocahontas, the favorite daughter of Paramount Chief Wahunsenacawh (better known as Powhatan), ruler of the Powhatan Paramount Chiefdom.
Pocahontas was born around 1595, probably at Werowocomoco, 15 miles from Jamestown. In 1608, she made frequent and welcome visits to Jamestown, often bringing gifts of food from her father. Captain John Smith believed she saved his life twice during the colony's first years.
In April of 1613, Captain Argall kidnapped Pocahontas and brought her to Jamestown. While a hostage, she received lessons in Christianity, converted, and was baptized.
Her marriage to John Rolfe in April 1614 helped establish peaceful relations between the Powhatan and colonists. In 1616, she visited England with Rolfe and their infant son Thomas, and was presented to the Royal Court. She died on March 21, 1617, and was buried in St. George's Church in Gravesend, England.
Today, many Americans claim descent from her son and granddaughter.
JAMES1_180603_137.JPG: James Fort Site 1607 – 1624
You are about to enter the site of 1607 James Fort, the heart of the first, permanent English settlement in North America. The sections of log walls stand above archaeological remains of the original palisades. The walls enclosed about one acre, in a triangular-shaped fortification. Right here, on May 13, 1607, Englishmen planted the roots of what became the United States of America.
JAMES1_180603_147.JPG: The Quarter
JAMES1_180603_153.JPG: Blacksmith Shop, Bakery
JAMES1_180603_158.JPG: 1611 Well
JAMES1_180603_171.JPG: 1607 Burials
JAMES1_180603_178.JPG: Scale model of James Fort, ca. 1607-1611, based on archaeological remains and historical accounts.
JAMES1_180603_187.JPG: "Lost" James Fort
JAMES1_180603_189.JPG: Jamestown Rediscovery
JAMES1_180603_193.JPG: Storehouse & First Well
"We digged a faire Well of fresh water in the Fort of excellent, sweet water which till then was wanting."
-- John Smith
Here, at the center of the triangular James Fort, archaeologists found remains of a storehouse and the fort's first well. A rectangular pattern of large structural postholes marked the storehouse site and indicated that it was a substantial building supported by upright timbers firmly seated in the ground. An adjacent cellar structure with a barrel-lined well in the floor served concurrently, as a storage space and water supply. Sometime before 1611 the well and cellar were abandoned and then backfilled with rubbish containing several hundred thousand artifacts.
The storehouse continued to be used for many years, serving as a temporary place of worship in 1617 while a new church was constructed. Remnants of the 1617 church foundations are exhibited under the glass in the nearby 1907 Memorial Church.
JAMES1_180603_214.JPG: Captain John Smith
John Smith was born about 1580 the son of a yeoman farmer of modest means. As a young man he traveled throughout Europe and fought as a soldier in the Netherlands and in Hungary. There he was captured, taken to Turkey and sold into slavery in Russia. He murdered his master, escaped and journeyed back to Hungary to collect a promised reward of money and a coat-of-arms. He returned to England in time to participate in the settlement of Virginia.
He was an arrogant and boastful man, often tactless and sometimes brutal. Physically strong and worldly wise, he made an excellent settler. However, his personality, his obvious qualifications and his low social position infuriated many of the colony's leaders and settlers. Despite this, he was named to the first Council in May, 1607. He learned the Indians' language and became the colony's principal Indian trader. During the summer of 1608 he led a 3,000 mile expedition in an open boat to explore and map Chesapeake Bay and its principal rivers. On September 10, 1608 the Council elected him Governor of Virginia for a one-year term. He was an able leader who understood both the Indians and the settlers' needs and the colony prospered.
Captain Smith returned to England in October, 1609 following an accidental gunpowder burn and became Virginia's most effective propagandist and historian. His True Relation of Virginia (1608), Map of Virginia (1612) and General History of Virginia (1624) presented the colony as Smith understood it. In 1614 he made a short voyage to New England where he explored and mapped the coast from Cape Cod to Maine. Smith returned to England and never visited Virginia again, never married and never received the recognition he thought he deserved. He died June 21, 1631 and was buried in St. Sepulchre's Church in London.
The statue by William Couper was erected in 1909.
JAMES1_180603_222.JPG: Palisades
"our extreme toil in bearing and planting palisades so strained and bruised us, and our continual labor in the extremity of heat had so weakened us"
–- John Smith
These replicated sections of James Fort's palisades are set directly above the original fort wall remains. Archaeologists identified the clay-filled original trenches dug for setting the posts and the dark soil stains of the timber posts.
In the spring of 1607, the colonists, then under attack from the Virginia Indians, constructed the triangular fort enclosure in just 19 days. The projected measurements of each of these walls precisely match a 1610 description by Secretary of the Colony William Strachey who wrote that the east and west palisade walls were each 100 yards long, while the south palisade was 140 yards. Half of the south palisade along the edge of the river was lost to shoreline erosion.
JAMES1_180603_228.JPG: Burial
JR102C
Burial site of a European man, aged about 19, a gunshot victim, interred sometime during the years 1607-1620.
JAMES1_180603_234.JPG: The Barracks
"a homely thing, like a barn"
-- John Smith
Like this experimental frame structure before you, most buildings found at James Fort were of earthfast or post-in-ground construction.
Main structural posts were seated directly in the ground without the use of footings. Once the building disappeared, rotted posts and postholes remained. Based on the tell-tale patterns of these postholes, it is likely that the early structures were constructed in a style know as "Mud and Stud," a way of building well recorded in 17th-century documentary sources and in centuries-old standing buildings in Lincolnshire.
This building had a cellar, which was the first major archaeological feature from the fort period to be identified by the Jamestown Rediscovery project. The cellar became a trash pit once the building above it fell into disrepair. Through careful excavation and water screening of the cellar fill, many thousands of late 16th- and early 17th-century artifacts were retrieved.
JAMES1_180603_253.JPG: Refining the Land of promise
JAMES1_180603_257.JPG: Jamestown's Churches
The First and Second Churches
Captain John Smith reported that the first church services were held outdoors "under an awning (which was an old sail)" fastened to three or four trees. Shortly thereafter the colonists built the first church inside James Fort. Smith said it was "a homely thing like a barn set on cratchetts, covered with rafts, sedge and earth." This church burned in January 1608, and was replaced by a second church, similar to the first.
The Third Church
In 1617-1619, Governor Samuel Argall had the inhabitants of Jamestown built a new church "50 foot long and twenty foot broad." This wooden church stood atop a foundation of cobblestones one foot wide capped by a wall one brick thick. You can see this foundation preserved under glass on the floor of the Memorial Church. The first assembly met in Jamestown's third church.
The Fourth Church
In January 1639, Governor John Harvey reported that he, the Council, the ablest planters, and some sea captains "had contributed to the building of a brick church" at Jamestown. Built around the third church, the fourth church remained incomplete until sometime after November 1647.
The Fifth Church and Tower
The fourth church burned on September 19, 1676, during Bacon's Rebellion. By 1686, a new church was built using the walls and foundations of the older charred church. The tower of this church is the only 17th-century structure still standing at Jamestown. Abandoned in the 1750s, the fifth church fell into ruin by the 1790s. Although the tower remained intact, bricks from other portions of the church were reused to build the present graveyard wall.
During the 19th century, the tower became a silent symbol to many Americans of their early heritage. In the 1890s, the APVA Preservation Virginia acquired, strengthened, and preserved the tower as well as the foundations of earlier churches on the site.
JAMES1_180603_284.JPG: In memory of
Chanco
An Indian youth converted to Christianity who resided in the household of Richard Pace across the river from Jamestown and who, on the eve of the Indian massacre of March 22, 1622, warned Pace of the murderous plot, thus enabling Pace to cross the river in a canoe to alert and save the Jamestown settlement from impended disaster.
Erected by the Society of Colonial Dames of America in the State of Virginia
JAMES1_180603_294.JPG: Church Excavations
JAMES1_180603_311.JPG: The Common Law
JAMES1_180603_314.JPG: The stone commemorates Princess Pocahontas or Matoaka ...
JAMES1_180603_318.JPG: To the living memory of his deceased friend
Captaine John Smith ...
JAMES1_180603_320.JPG: Captain Edward Maria Wingfield
JAMES1_180603_341.JPG: Cellar Kitchen
JAMES1_180603_344.JPG: 1608 Church
JAMES1_180603_348.JPG: Chancel Burials
JAMES1_180603_373.JPG: Fort Pocahontas
JAMES1_180603_376.JPG: Burial
JR1046B
Burial of a European man, estimated age mid-thirties, interred with a captain's leading staff. This is likely the grave of Captain Bartholomew Gosnold, the "prime moving" force behind the "plantation" here at Jamestown.
JAMES1_180603_379.JPG: Well
This well was in use in the first quarter of the 17th century, dating to the early years of Jamestown. When no longer useable, wells were used as a place to put garbage. This added many unwanted items, mixing with the few items that had been unintentionally dropped into the well while it was in use.
JAMES1_180603_385.JPG: The Hunt Shrine
This shrine is dedicated to the memory of the Reverend Robert Hunt (1568-1608), the first Anglican minister of the colony.
JAMES1_180603_404.JPG: Eating and Drinking at Jamestown
JAMES1_180603_408.JPG: Join the Adventure
Explore the places Englishman John Smith traveled in the early 1600s. Learn about the thriving American Indian communities he encountered and imagine the bountiful Chesapeake he observed. Experience the natural and cultural richness that exists in the region today.
The 3,000-mile Captain John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail traces the exploratory voyages Smith conducted from 1607 to 1609 on the Chesapeake Bay and along several major rivers. The trail includes parks, museum sites, driving tours, and water trails that align with Smith's historic voyage routes and offer opportunities for recreation and discovery.
Experience the Trail
* Explore rivers, coves, and open water by kayak, sailboat, or motor craft.
* Bicycle or hike along woodland trails and shoreline paths.
* Follow winding back roads through rural landscapes and historic villages.
* Visit places that celebrate American Indian heritage.
* See birds and other wildlife foraging in marshes, waterways, and forests.
* Attend festivals and demonstrations, or join a guided tour.
To learn more about the trail and to plan your adventure, visit www.smithtrail.net
JAMES1_180603_412.JPG: John Smith Explores the Chesapeake
Captain John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail
Captain John Smith explored the Chesapeake Bay in the early 1600s seeking metals and a passage to Asia. He traveled the James, Chickahominy, and York rivers in 1607, and led two major expeditions from Jamestown in 1608. Smith and his crew sailed and rowed a primitive 30-foot boat nearly 3,000 miles, reaching as far north as the Susquehanna River. Although Smith did not discover gold, or a river passage to the Pacific, his precise map and detailed observations of American Indian societies and the abundant natural resources guided future explorers and settlers.
Native Inhabitants
At the time of Smith's explorations an estimated 50,000 American Indians dwelled in the Chesapeake region -- as their ancestors had for thousands of years. Their sophisticated societies included arts and architecture, systems of government, extensive trade and communication networks, and shared spiritual beliefs. The native peoples hunted, fished, grew crops, and gathered food and raw materials from the land and waterways.
An Abundance of Life
Smith discovered a treasure trove of natural wonders in the Chesapeake region: thick forests of giant pines, oaks, and hickories; vast marshlands; huge turtles, 800-pound sturgeon, and great schools of shad and striped bass. Massive flocks of ducks geese, and swans darkened the sky; and enormous oyster reefs rose above the water's surface.
JAMES1_180603_423.JPG: Confederate Earthworks
These earthworks were erected by Confederate troops in 1861 as part of the defense system to block Union penetration of the James River.
JAMES1_180603_438.JPG: The Site of the First Landing
The site of the first landing is directly ahead of you in the river. During the years since 1607, the river has eroded about 25 acres of this part of Jamestown Island. The original shoreline was close to the present edge of the river channel, somewhat more than 100 yards offshore from the seawall.
"The thirteenth day {of May 1607} we came to our seating place … where our shippes doe lie so neere the shoare that they are moored to the Trees in six fathom{s of} water. The fourteenth day we landed our men ..."
-- George Percy, Relations, 1608.
JAMES1_180603_442.JPG: The Archaearium
In front of you is the "Archaearium," an archaeological museum of early Jamestown history. Its exhibits explore both the James Fort excavations and those of the site above which it sits – the Statehouse, the first building built specifically for government in English North America.
This site was selected for its proximity to James Fort, with great views toward the fort that enhance visitors' understanding of the links between the site and its artifacts. It also allows some of the archaeology of the Statehouse to be directly interpreted under visitors' feet.
The building itself is technically advanced. It is situated in a "clean zone," meaning archaeological investigations were conducted so that its pile foundations do not bear on historic resources. Special piles and structural cantilevers allow the building to appear to hover lightly over a small base.
The copper cladding will weather over time, in harmony with the landscape. It also reflects the importance of copper to Virginia Indian society and to the English colonists, who traded it for food. Many "green" building technologies were also incorporated, including geothermal heating and cooling, low water consumption, and maximized use of daylight.
JAMES1_180603_445.JPG: Statehouse Foundations
The Virginia General Assembly is the oldest representative legislature in the Western Hemisphere. Meeting for the first time in July 1619, it gathered in the "most convenient place we could finde to sitt in … the Quire of the churche." Thereafter the assembly and their meeting house both continued to grow until the Statehouse Complex burned in 1698.
In 1643, the assembly divided into two bodies, the Council of State, appointed by the King, and the House of Burgesses, with members elected by voters from Jamestown and counties across the colony. This bicameral form of government grew to its zenith by the 1660s and 1670s. Following Bacon's Rebellion in 1676, the assembly lost much of its independence. By then, however, generations of colonists had gained valuable experience in self-government.
Jamestown's church served as the first informal statehouse into the 1630s, easily accommodating the small number of representatives. From the 1630s until the 1660s, government met in the private homes of several governors.
Finally, the assembly commissioned "at the public charge … [to support] a public house to be built where [the royal governor-general] and the council may sitt for dispatching of public affairs and hearing causes." In 1665, the General Assemble convened in the first building specifically for the growing government. The foundations of that statehouse rest here below the Archaearium.
"The most convenient place ..."
-– John Pory, 1619
JAMES1_180603_449.JPG: Presented by
The English Inns of Court
to commemorate
the 400th Anniversary of
the founding of
the Colony at Jamestown in 1607
April 2007
JAMES1_180603_452.JPG: The Statehouse
Just below the ground's surface lie the original foundations of the first purpose-built statehouse at Jamestown. From the very beginning, the efforts at Jamestown were influenced by the laws and legal institutions of England.
American representative government is the legacy that had its start in England. The people of early Jamestown brought not only cargo and supplies, but ideals of the rule of law, which were successfully planted in this new place.
JAMES2_180603_001.JPG: Yeardley House
1907
Garden Open to Public
JAMES2_180603_019.JPG: 1907 Horse Trough and Drinking Fountain
JAMES2_180603_027.JPG: Lots of rain this year!
JAMES2_180603_048.JPG: The Greate Road – An Early Highway pre-1607-1700s
A few days after he arrived at Jamestown in May 1607, George Percy wrote that he and his party "espied a pathway" and were "desirous to knowe whither it would bring us." Most likely they discovered a trail used by Paspahegh Indians in whose territory Jamestown was located. To the English, the trail became known as the Grate Road, a route that led from James Fort, across the isthmus to the west past Glasshouse Point on the mainland, and eventually to Green Spring and Middle Plantation (Williamsburg).
As New Towne developed, the Greate Road began at the junction of Backstreet and the highway by the river. Over time the trail widened to more than 30 feet as wagons drawn by horses and oxen packed down the top soil and created deep ruts.
Archaeologists found sections of the Greate Road, including a portion north of the church. Stretches are still visible today at Glasshouse Point and along the route to Green Spring.
JAMES2_180603_058.JPG: Backstreet – Jamestown's Main Street 1620-1699
As Jamestown expanded beyond the fort, the Virginia Company sent William Claiborne to survey lots in New Towne. There Ralph Hamor patented an acre and a half lot in 1624. Hamor's deed made it clear that at least three streets already existed – "Backstreete," "the highway along the river," and a connecting street. His neighbors along Backstreete included William Peirce, Dr. John Pott, Governor Sir Francis Wyatt, and future governor John Harvey.
Backstreete served as Jamestown's main street throughout the 17th century. The church anchored the street to the west, and a cluster of homes owned by Virginia's ruling gentry to the east. Building incentives encouraged prominent citizens like Richard Kemp, William Sherwood, Henry Hartwell, and William May to build fine brick homes along Backstreete.
Even when Williamsburg became Virginia's new capital, Backstreete remained the best location in Jamestown. In the 1750s, Richard Ambler built a mansion, now in ruins nearby, as a centerpiece of his plantation.
JAMES2_180603_075.JPG: Remembering Ancestors
JAMES2_180603_085.JPG: A Jamestown Warehouse 1630s-1699
"That at last Christmas we had trading here ten ships from London, two from Bristoll, twelve Hollanders, and seven from New-England."
-- A Perfect Description of Virginia, 1649
Jamestown's waterfront property was prime real estate. Governor Harvey wrote "that there was not one foote of ground for half a mile together by the Rivers side in James Towne but was taken up and undertaken to be built …." As the colony's official port of entry, Jamestown needed warehouses for imported cargoes.
After 1633, when the Virginia General Assembly made Jamestown one of five inspection points for examining and grading tobacco, warehouses also served planters ready to ship their crop to English markets.
Historic records suggest that, around 1638, merchant William Parry built a warehouse on this lot. By the 1660s, John Bland II operated a warehouse at this location.
JAMES2_180603_091.JPG: "All Help [Hope] of Fishing Perished"
JAMES2_180603_106.JPG: Join the Adventure
JAMES2_180603_110.JPG: Interpreting Jamestown
In 1934, the National Park Service acquired 1,500 acres of Jamestown Island, including New Towne. Since then, the NPS has used different methods to tell visitors about the town. After archaeologists unearthed numerous structures with brick foundations and cellars, they left the excavations open for visitors to see. Because reconstruction might damage fragile archaeological evidence and no one could say for sure what the original buildings looked like, they were not re-built on site. When the exposed foundations suffered from the elements, they had to be reburied.
To prepare for the 350th anniversary in 1957, archaeologist J. C. Harrington suggested that "the present foundations, which have been excavated and covered back over, be capped with a layer of concrete and then built up to a point above ground level by old brick obtained during the Jamestown excavation." "The whole town site," he proposed, "should be landscaped to give the feeling of openness under trees."
Originally painted white to signify that they were replications of footings below ground, these reconstructed foundations caused confusion as the paint faded.
Today's landscape, like those in the past, will no doubt be replaced by new efforts to help visitors gain a greater understanding of 17th-century Jamestown.
JAMES2_180603_120.JPG: Efforts of a Virginia Tradesman 1670s
The early English settlers came to Virginia looking for gold, silver, and precious gems, but never found them. Some of the artifacts they left behind, however, are highly valuable to the archaeologists who excavated Jamestown centuries later.
One such artifact lay in the ruins of a structure built for Ann Talbott around 1660, and later owned by George Marable. The building had a floor paved with brick and a substantial seven by three foot hearth with connected oven. It may have been a dwelling or workshop used for light industry like commercial brewing or baking.
The unusual artifact that impressed archaeologists is a simple pewter spoon found in the yard. Although only the handle survived, its 1675 maker's mark identified it as the work of Joseph Copeland, a craftsman who worked 30 miles down river from Jamestown at Chuckatuck.
The spoon handle is the oldest, dated pewter artifact of North American origin in existence.
JAMES2_180603_135.JPG: A Campsite pre-1607
The human history of Jamestown Island begins much earlier than 1607. The first native inhabitants walked this site 10,000 years ago. At that time, the James River was nearly 100 feet lower, a fast moving stream at the bottom of a narrow ravine. Sea levels gradually rose, flooding the Jamestown site and creating a brackish marsh. Native hunting and fishing parties from nearby towns visited the island. Fire-cracked rock, native pottery sherds, oyster shell, stone tools, and projectile points found along the river's edge suggest this was a campsite during the Late Woodland period, 1,000-400 years ago.
Although Jamestown Island appeared to be uninhabited when the colonists arrived, the island lay within the territory of the Paspahegh tribe, part of the Powhatan Paramount Chiefdom. In 1610, Jamestown colonists attacked and destroyed the principal community of the Paspahegh located six miles up river. Surviving Paspahegh left their homes to live elsewhere, possibly with other tribes.
JAMES2_180603_155.JPG: The Jamestown Riverfront 1630-1690
Jamestown provided the colonists with a deep-water port in a defensible location. Because shoreline settlements and camps allowed for easier transportation and a ready source of food, the colonists and Virginia Indians both lived on or near major waterways.
The James River continued to be an important feature of the town even after Jamestown expanded beyond the confines of its small, palisaded fort. Throughout the 17th century, the waterfront bustled with activity. Ships with imported goods for the colonists docked at the numerous wharves, where stevedores waited to roll hogsheads of tobacco onto the waiting vessels.
More than once, laws were passed that made Jamestown the colony's exclusive port of entry. These acts required all ships to load and unload at the colony's governmental seat.
That every ship arivinge in this colony from England, or any other parts, shall, with the first wind and weather, sayle upp to the porte of James Citty, and not to unlade any goods or breake any bulke before she shall cast anchor there, upon payne that the captayne and mayster of the sayd ship shall forfeite the sayd goods or the value thereof, and shall have and suffer one mounthes imprisonment.
A Grand Assembly Holden at James Citty, Act XX, The First of March 1631-2
JAMES2_180603_161.JPG: Of, By and For the People?
JAMES2_180603_168.JPG: "Certainly It Must Be a Happy Climate"
JAMES2_180603_177.JPG: Jackson House
1620s
Protection was of the utmost importance in the early years of Virginia. Gunsmiths like Jamestown resident, assemblyman, and churchwarden John Jackson, were invaluable members of the community. Fine artifacts like window glass, and ivory cribbage board, and curtain rings discovered here, on the site of Jackson's house, indicate that he and his family enjoyed a high standard of living.
JAMES2_180603_197.JPG: A Remarkable Collection 1670-1700
Who discarded refuse into this ditch and why may never be known. The ditch was full or artifacts dating to about 1670-1700, including 10 "HH" wine bottle seals, over 1,000 clay pipe pieces, three window leads dated 1669, and the largest collection of English Sgraffito slipware pottery from North Devon ever discovered. There were nine intact dishes, complete pans and bowls. The most impressive find from this location was an entire earthenware baking oven shattered into over 220 fragments. The oven used heated stones to bake breads and meats.
Perhaps members of the Henry Hartwell household who lived nearby dumped a damaged shipment of pottery or unwanted household items here, at the edge of their property.
" . . . the ditch had served, apparently, as a dump for broken dishes and other refuse from a nearby house. It yielded enormous quantities of wine bottles, ceramic vessels, Delft tiles, and innumerable types of utensils and tools."
-- J. C. Harrington, ca. 1940
JAMES2_180603_203.JPG: May-Hartwell Site 1660-1699
Evidence from wills, deeds, land plats, patents, and court cases helps to identify structures excavated by archaeologists. When historians digitalized two 17th-century land plats and superimposed them on a modern map of Jamestown, they matched a framed structure that stood here, the home of William May in the 1660s and Henry Hartwell after 1688.
Land records also revealed a pattern of landownership common in Virginia. Many colonists, particularly government officials, invested in town lots and speculated in undeveloped land elsewhere in tidewater Virginia. William May, an attorney and vestryman, purchased other Jamestown lots in addition to this property. Similarly, Henry Hartwell, an attorney, clerk of the court, and burgess also owned tracts of land in Charles City County and Surry County.
JAMES2_180603_213.JPG: A Diverse Jamestown Household 1620-1640
By 1624, William Peirce, a "beloved friend" of governor Francis Wyatt, built a house – "one of the fairest in Virginia" – on this lot. Peirce, captain of the governor's guard and the colony's cape merchant, also served as lieutenant governor, commander of Jamestown Island, and a member of the council. He participated in the "thrusting out" of Governor John Harvey from office in 1635.
In addition to Peirce, the household included his wife Joan, praised by Captain John Smith as "an honest and industrious woman" who maintained a "garden at Jamestown containing 3 or 4 acres." Smith noted further that Mistress Peirce harvested 100 bushels of figs annually from the lot. Their daughter, also named Joan, married John Rolfe, the widower of Pocahontas, in 1617.
In the 1625 muster, the household had expanded to include an African woman, Angelo, identified as a servant. Along with eight Africans residing on Governor Yeardley's property, Angelo was one of the first recorded Africans at Jamestown. How long Angelo lived on this site is unknown. No one recorded her duties, but perhaps she helped harvest the figs.
JAMES2_180603_230.JPG: An Upper-Class Neighborhood
1630s-1699
From the 1630s to the end of the 17th century, this area along Backstreete boasted some of the finest dwellings in Jamestown. Governors, councilmen, burgesses, and lawyers all made this neighborhood home.
JAMES2_180603_232.JPG: First Africans
JAMES2_180603_237.JPG: Artist's depiction of Africans in Early Virginia
JAMES2_180603_239.JPG: The project area is no the Pierce property in New Towne, located just past the 18th-c. Ambler mansion ruins, about 325 yards east of the tercencentary obelisk monument.
JAMES2_180603_276.JPG: The Ambler House
The Amber House was built by the Ambler family in the 1750s as the centerpiece of a fine plantation estate. A refined Georgian-style home, it was comparable to the elegant George Wythe House in Williamsburg. The house was burned in two wars, and after a third fire in 1895, was abandoned.
JAMES2_180603_288.JPG: "Oysters... in Whole Banks and Beds"
JAMES2_180603_301.JPG: "An Honest and Industrious Woman"
JAMES2_180603_307.JPG: Not What They Seem
JAMES2_180603_313.JPG: "Use All Possible Diligence in Breeding Silkworms"
JAMES2_180603_332.JPG: Efforts to Build a Town 1660-1699
The foundations of the multi-dwelling structure that stood here match the dimensions called for in legislation passed by the General Assembly in September 1662.
JAMES2_180603_341.JPG: Tradesmen on Governor Harvey's Lot 1630s
Despite the success of tobacco, the crown instructed Virginia's governors to diversify and encourage trades in the colony. Governor Sir John Harvey supported this endeavor. During the 1630s, he employed a variety of tradesmen on this property including: potters; apothecaries; brewers; tanners; tile, lime, and brickmakers; and iron smelters. Harvey sent samples of rape seed (a source of oil), saltpeter, pot-ashes, and iron ore to England, proving that he took the instructions seriously.
JAMES2_180603_371.JPG: "So Let Gentlemen Fine Sit Down to Their Wine..."
JAMES2_180603_379.JPG: "Our Principal Wealth Consisteth in Servants"
JAMES2_180603_389.JPG: "Plenty of Materials for Shipping"
JAMES2_180603_398.JPG: Governor Harvey's House 1630s
John Harvey served as a member of a royal commission investigating conditions in Virginia in 1624. As a reward, he received land at the east end of New Towne. There he probably built a residence and a wharf.
A temperamental sea captain, Harvey was twice charged for beating others – a servant for demanding his freedom and Richard Stephens, a councilman and frequent Harvey opponent.
When newly knighted Sir John Harvey returned as the new governor of Virginia in 1630, he acquired additional property, the former Governor Sir George Yeardley's lot across Pitch and Tar Swamp and this prime New Towne lot. Here he built a fine house that often doubled as the statehouse during the 1630s.
Although the crown replaced Harvey as governor in 1639, his house continued in use as a statehouse through the 1640s and 1650s. When Sir William Berkley arrived in 1642, it again doubled as a town residence for the governor. After Bacon's rebels sacked and burned Jamestown in 1676, the house was rebuilt for a final time.
JAMES2_180603_407.JPG: Swann's Tavern 1670s
"... in ye sd Col Swanns Ordinary at James City."
-- Minutes of the General Court, 1677
Although councilman Colonel Thomas Swann resided across the James River at his Swann Point plantation, he also leased a Jamestown tavern that provided accommodations to colonists who attended the assembly and courts, or had business in town.
Documents and excavation of a large brick foundation identify this structure as possibly Col. Swann's tavern. The elongated four-room ground floor was typical of such establishments. An abundance of bottle glass and a brass spigot from casks of beer or cider stored in the cellar, provide additional evidence of such use.
Because Col. Swann, nicknamed "ye greate toad," advised the rebel Nathaniel Bacon, his Swann's Point plantation remained undamaged during Bacon's Rebellion. Charred timbers here, however, suggest that his tavern burned during the sack of Jamestown. Repaired by 1679, the tavern reopened to operate along with the dozen others in the town.
JAMES2_180603_413.JPG: When Nature Calls
JAMES2_180603_447.JPG: Note the circle of mushrooms around ... something!
JAMES_180531_04.JPG: Early Archaeology at Jamestown
JAMES_180531_15.JPG: The Greate Road
JAMES_180531_58.JPG: First Poles Arrive
JAMES_180531_66.JPG: Battle of Green Spring
July 6, 1781
AAA "Gem": AAA considers this location to be a "must see" point of interest. To see pictures of other areas that AAA considers to be Gems, click here.
Wikipedia Description: Historic Jamestown
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Historic Jamestown is the cultural heritage site that was the location of the 1607 James Fort and the later 17th-century town of Jamestown in America. It is located on Jamestown Island, on the James River at Jamestown, Virginia and operated as a partnership between Preservation Virginia (formerly known as the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities) and the U.S. National Park Service as part of Colonial National Historical Park.
The site was designated Jamestown National Historic Site on December 18, 1940, and listed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 15, 1966. It was also designated a National Historic Chemical Landmark in 2007 by the American Chemical Society. It is adjacent and complementary with Jamestown Settlement, a living history museum built run by the Commonwealth of Virginia to interpret the early colony.
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2018 photos: Equipment this year: I continued to use my Fuji XS-1 cameras but, depending on the event, I also used a Nikon D7000.
Overnight trips this year:
(February) Greenville, NC for a Civil War Trust conference,,
(May/June) Newport News, VA for another CWT conference,
(July) my 13th consecutive trip to San Diego Comic-Con (including sites in Reno, Sacramento, San Francisco, and Los Angeles),
(August twice, October) three trips to New York City (including New York Comic-Con), and
(September) Chicago, IL for my CWT swansong event..
Number of photos taken this year: about 535,000.
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