Existing comment:
Flowerdew Hundred
A "hundred" is an English term for a unit of land. It may originally have meant enough land to support a hundred fighting men, but by the 1600s it was simply an administrative unit.
In 1618, disregarding the land's Indian occupants, the Virginia Company "gave" George Yerdley, a 1,000-acre tract up the river from Jamestown. On a site already cleared by the local Weanock Indians, Yeardley established a tobacco plantation named for his wife, Temperance Flowerdew. Fifteen indentured servants and an overseer were the first English residents; by 1625 there were 57 settlers.
The river and the ocean were Flowerdew Hundred's lifelines, connecting it to other English settlements and to England. Additional laborers and craftsmen came to the plantation via the river, as did Africans brought by Dutch traders. But the river could also bring hostile Spanish or French ships, and the English at Flowerdew were well armed against such a threat. |