| Virginia (James City County), Jamestown — Bowl, Pot, and Pipe |
| | By 1640, Jamestown potters were making thick-walled jugs, bowls, and pots for everyday use. Symmetrical design and an occasional slip-coat of color show that skilled artisans were at work. The local ware fired red, due to the iron-rich Tidewater clay. Jamestown kilns produced earthenware objects of unglazed clay, as well as of lead-glazed clay. The colonists also made hand-modeled tobacco pipes. These home-made red pipes avoided the King’s duty on white pipes from England. — Map (db m17401) |
| Virginia (James City County), Jamestown — Early Medical Discoveries |
| | Death and disease stalked the colony year-round. Over the first 18 years, six of seven residents of Jamestown perished – over 6,000 deaths. Dr. Lawrence Bohun arrived at Jamestown in June of 1610, and stayed until the spring of 1611. Colonists spoke of a “seasoning time” in which newcomers passed through successive epidemics, such as typhoid, dysentery, and influenza. Bohun experimented with native plants, herbs, extracts, and minerals, seeking remedies for distresses of the Old World and the New. — Map (db m17400) |
| Virginia (James City County), Jamestown — Excellent Good Timber |
| | Colonists marvelled at the deep, tall forests of Virginia – then set to clearing them away. The “goodly tall Trees” became firewood, fort walls, house frames, boat planks, barrel staves, industrial fuel, and lumber exports. Jamestown’s ruins yielded many tools of woodcutters, sawyers, and carpenters. Coopers were especially busy. Barrels and casks bore shipments for England, and stored colonial supplies. A two-man crosscut saw was recovered almost intact, from an abandoned . . . — Map (db m17391) |
| Virginia (James City County), Jamestown — Harvesting Ice |
| | Among the ruins of New Towne was a seven-foot pit, dug in colonial times. Not deep enough for a well, the hole tapered from 14 feet wide at the rim to 6 feet wide at the sandy bottom. In Britain in the 1600s, perishables were often stored in huts built over pits filled with layers of fresh-water ice and straw. The trapped frigid air could keep meat and dairy products fresh until autumn. The colonists brought with them their Old World patterns of subsistence: milling, baking, brewing, and . . . — Map (db m17398) |
| Virginia (James City County), Jamestown — Homes to Last |
| | The colonists at Jamestown produced most of their own brick and tile locally at each building site. Bricks were used for houses, wells, and walkways; tiles for floors and roofs. Three kilns have been excavated at Jamestown, each producing bricks of a unique size and shape. Bricks also varied in hardness and color with the clay used and the length of time they were “fired.” Such differences can help date archaeological remains to the time a kiln was active. — Map (db m17403) |
| Virginia (James City County), Jamestown — Iron for Corn |
| | For the first years at Jamestown, the English needed food from the natives in order to survive. The Powhatans for their part sought the colonists’ commercial goods: iron tools and pots, hatchets and knives, bells and glass beads. Exchanges could be forceful or friendly. The Powhatans sometimes offered corn and other staples as a gift; at other times, they refused contact, or attacked those who had come to trade. The English wrote home of successful trading, yet on occasion they stole or raided at gunpoint. — Map (db m17395) |
| Virginia (James City County), Jamestown — Jamestown Island |
| | Jamestown island formed many thousands of years ago from a series of shoals along the James River. When colonists arrived in 1607, an isthmus connected the island to the mainland, and a “paradise” of virgin hardwoods covered the land. By 1800, the isthmus had eroded, and the forest had been cleared for farming. In the 1800s, the Ambler and Travis families ran large plantations here. From the island’s rim, Confederate forts guarded the river channel during the Civil War. Today, the . . . — Map (db m17404) |
| Virginia (James City County), Jamestown — On Roads of Water |
| | Within three days of reaching the New World, the first Jamestown colonists had assembled a small boat to go exploring in the roadless wilderness. Once settled, they gathered raw materials of boat building for export as well as for their own use: hardwoods for masts, staves, and planks; pine trees for pitch, resin, and tar. From their shallow boats, or “shallops,” the colonists harvested the teeming waters and traded along the shores of coastal Virginia. — Map (db m17396) |
| Virginia (James City County), Jamestown — Silk Worn and Silk Spun |
| | England – and Jamestown – imported silk from the Mediterranean and the Orient. In 1619 the Colony Secretary bragged that the cow keeper and the collier’s wife had suits of “fresh flaming silk.” Spinning fibers from the silkworm cocoon was a lengthy, smelly chore. Despite orders from the Virginia Company to produce silk as a staple commodity, the colonists preferred to raise tobacco. Jamestown silk, like Jamestown wine, was not the hoped-for New World treasure. — Map (db m17393) |
| Virginia (James City County), Jamestown — The “Island House” |
| | To the right, just beyond this narrow marsh, lay the 80-acre “Island House” tract which was “planted and seated” prior to 1619 by Richard Kingsmill, “ancient planter,” burgess, and man of property and affairs. His daughter, Elizabeth, and her husband, Nathaniel Bacon, later sold it to Nicholas Meriwether, and ancestor of Meriwether Lewis, one of our great western explorers. — Map (db m17363) |
| Virginia (James City County), Jamestown — The Golden Weed |
| | King James called smoking “a filthy novelty,” but tobacco proved the salvation of his
Virginia colony. Seeds from South America and the West Indies, grown in Virginia’s soil and climate, produced a pleasing leaf. From 1615 to 1619, tobacco exports increased twentyfold. In 1617, a captain found “the marketplace, and streets, and all other spare places planted with Tobacco.” After four more years, a report confessed, “there is no Commodity but Tobacco.” — Map (db m17394) |
| Virginia (James City County), Jamestown — The Hardwood Harvest |
| | By the 1600s, hardwood lumber was scarce in England. Early exports of the colony were potash, used in the manufacture of glass, and soap ash, which yields liquid soap. The ashes of hardwood logs were mixed with water, strained, and heated to a syrup-like consistency. Cooled and hardened in pots, the mixture could be shipped to England. In time the settlers cleared all of the hardwood forests from Jamestown Island. Today’s forest is regrowth, mostly of pine. — Map (db m17399) |
| Virginia (James City County), Jamestown — Virginia’s Vintage |
| | The plentiful grape vines in the New World raised hopes of a profitable wine making industry. Native and imported varieties produced a drinkable vintage, but the wine often spoiled during shipment to England. The venture failed. A local market did exist, especially since drinking water was brackish. Large finds of wine bottle fragments, as well as several cooling pits or cellars, mark the sites of Jamestown stores or taverns. Wealthier colonists also consumed wine from Europe, their stock marketed with personalized seals. — Map (db m17402) |
| Virginia (James City County), Toano — W 33 — Burnt Ordinary |
| | First called John Lewis's Ordinary and then Fox's, Burnt Ordinary received its name in Jan. 1780 when, according to the Virginia Gazette, Fox's Ordinary burned to the ground. Later, in Oct. 1781, when the French army's wagon train passed by, Alexander Berthier wrote that "two old chimneys" stood here in the fork of the road. Also in 1781, Samuel DeWitt, George Washington's cartographer, noted the site of the "Burnt Brick Ordinary" on one of his maps. Elements of Lafayette's army camped two . . . — Map (db m16846) |
| Virginia (James City County), Toano — W 32 — Chickahominy Church |
| | Two miles south is the site of the colonial Chickahominy Church, now destroyed. Lafayette's forces camped there, July 6-8, 1781. The church was used as a hospital after the battle of Green Spring, July 6, 1781. — Map (db m23599) |
| Virginia (James City County), Toano — W 30 — Hickory Neck Church |
| | Hickory Neck Church was built about 1740. Militia opposing the British camped here on April 21, 1781. A few miles north is the foundation of an ancient stone house, dating possibly from about 1650. — Map (db m16848) |
| Virginia (James City County), Toano — W 26 — New Kent Road |
| | By the 1720s, several taverns stood on New Kent Road (also called the Old Stage Road) between Williamsburg and New Kent Court House. During two wars, the road served opposing armies as well as travelers. In June 1781, near the end of the Revolution, British commander Gen. Charles Cornwallis marched his army from Richmond to Williamsburg on the road, with the Marquis de Lafayette and his army in cautious pursuit. During the Civil War, Gen. Joseph E. Johnston's Confederate army withdrew west on . . . — Map (db m23596) |
| Virginia (James City County), Toano — W 31 — State Shipyard |
| | On this road five miles west was the State shipyard on Chickahominy River, burned by the British General Phillips on April 21-22, 1781. — Map (db m16844) |
| Virginia (James City County), Toano — W 27 — White Hall Tavern |
| | This was a station on the Old Stage Road between Williamsburg and Richmond, before 1860. — Map (db m23597) |
| Virginia (James City County), Williamsburg — 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 . . . — Map (db m17269) |
| Virginia (James City County), Williamsburg — 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 . . . — Map (db m17356) |
| Virginia (James City County), Williamsburg — 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 . . . — Map (db m17203) |
| Virginia (James City County), Williamsburg — A Place of Work |
| | This small structure played a part in the industrial activity along the Pitch and Tar Swamp, but the exact use of its three furnaces is unknown. Chemical analysis of the soil ruled out high-temperature industry, such as a forge. Perhaps the best clue came from Captain John Smith, who noted two “brew-houses” in Jamestown in 1629. Artifacts from the site dated from about 1620 to 1650, and included pieces of copper kettle, pipes, and a cistern. Perhaps this was the source of some . . . — Map (db m17217) |
| Virginia (James City County), Williamsburg — 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 . . . — Map (db m17311) |
| Virginia (James City County), Williamsburg — 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. Richard Kemp, an ardent supporter of Governor Harvey, secretary to the colony, and councilman, built Virginia’s first all-brick house here in 1638-39. Walter Chiles, a merchant and burgess, purchased the “Brick house formerly Mr Secry Kemps” in 1649 and lived here with his . . . — Map (db m17357) |
| Virginia (James City County), Williamsburg — At Jamestown Began: — 1607 – 1957 |
| | At Jamestown began: the Expansion overseas of the English speaking peoples; the Commonwealth of Virginia; the United States of America; the British Commonwealth of Nations — Map (db m17006) |
| Virginia (James City County), Williamsburg — 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 . . . — Map (db m17115) |
| Virginia (James City County), Williamsburg — V-39 — Battle Of Green Spring |
| | Nearby, late in the afternoon of 6 Julyl 1781, Gen. Charles Cornwallis and cavalry commander Col. Banastre Tarleton with 5,000 British and Hessian troops clashed with 800 American troops commanded by Brig. Gen. “Mad” Anthony Wayne and the Marquis de Lafayette. Believing that the main British force was across the James River, and that he was attacking Cornwallis’s rear guard. Wayne soon realized that he was facing far superior numbers. He startled the advancing British forces by . . . — Map (db m2440) |
| Virginia (James City County), Williamsburg — W 43 — Battle of Williamsburg |
| | To the east of the road here, centering at Fort Magruder, was fought the Battle of Williamsburg on May 5, 1862. The Union General McClellan was pursuing General Johnston’s retiring army, the rearguard of which was commanded by General Longstreet. Johnston ordered Longstreet to hold off McClellan’s attacking forces until the Confederate wagon trains, bogged down in mud, were out of danger. This mission was accomplished and Johnston continued his retirement. — Map (db m10120) |
| Virginia (James City County), Williamsburg — 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 . . . — Map (db m11367) |
| Virginia (James City County), Williamsburg — Captain John Smith |
| | Captain John Smith Governor of Virginia 1608 Back of Monument: Erected by The Association of the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities 1907 Lower Plaque: The gift of Mr. & Mrs. Joseph Bryan — Map (db m11368) |
| Virginia (James City County), Williamsburg — W 50 — Carter's Grove |
| | During the 17th century Carter's Grove was part of the Martin's Hundred Plantation. In the early 1720's, Robert "King" Carter purchased it and later named the tract Carter's Grove. Between 1730 and 1735 Carter Burwell, grandson of Robert "King" Carter, built the Carter's Grove mansion, a famous example of colonial Virginia plantation architecture. Burwell hired brickmason David Minitree to make and lay brick; he brought Richard Bayliss, and English joiner, to Virginia to execute the interior . . . — Map (db m9503) |
| Virginia (James City County), Williamsburg — V-46 — Church on the Main |
| | Less than one mile to the east is the site of the Church on the Main, a brick Anglican church built by the 1750s to serve James City Parish as replacement for the church on Jamestown Island, which had become difficult for communicants to reach. The Rev. James Madison(1749–1812) was its best-known rector, serving the church from about 1777 until it fell into disuse after the American Revolution and the disestablishment of the Anglican Church. Madison became president of the College of . . . — Map (db m2442) |
| Virginia (James City County), Williamsburg — Colonial Highway |
| | The James River was a lifeline. Ships from England brought tools, seeds, cloth, food, more settlers – and hope. The colonists sent back timber, tobacco, pitch, potash, furs, iron ore – and stories. By 1650, wharves reached out to the river channel. An iron weight of 1300 pounds, capable of driving piles for a pier, was found not far from here. — Map (db m17119) |
| Virginia (James City County), Williamsburg — 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. — Map (db m17052) |
| Virginia (James City County), Williamsburg — Ditch and Mound |
| | Dozens of open ditches crisscrossed Jamestown. A ditch and its mound could mark a property boundary, line the edge of a road, or drain swampy soil. Ditches also served as handy trash dumps. Two major ditches, several feet wide and hundreds of feet long, intersected at this point. — Map (db m17316) |
| Virginia (James City County), Williamsburg — 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 . . . — Map (db m17204) |
| Virginia (James City County), Williamsburg — 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. This row rouse was standing by September 1668 when the justices of James City County asked permission to use “one of the Countrie Brick houses” as a prison. A man’s pelvis and left leg excavated from an abandoned well just north of “that house where the goale kept,” may be gruesome evidence of a . . . — Map (db m17320) |
| Virginia (James City County), Williamsburg — Fences and Livestock |
| | Jamestown had a large number of four-footed and feathered residents. A chronicler wrote of “two hundred … cattle, as many goats, infinite hogs in herds all over the woods.” The government required fences to keep the free-roaming livestock out of the edible harvest. — Map (db m17200) |
| Virginia (James City County), Williamsburg — WT-1 — First Africans in English America |
| | The first documented Africans in English America arrived at Jamestown in August 1619. A dutch man-of-war captured them from the Spanish, who had enslaved them, and sold them to the Virginia colonists. The “twenty and odd” Africans, some of whom had been given Spanish names, may have been treated like indentured servants and later freed after their periods of servitude expired. From this beginning the institution of slavery evolved during the 17th century as the Virginia colonists . . . — Map (db m2444) |
| Virginia (James City County), Williamsburg — WT-2 — First Germans at Jamestown |
| | The first Germans to land in Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in Virginia, arrived aboard the vessel Mary and Margaret about 1 October 1608. These Germans were glassmakers and carpenters. In 1620, German mineral specialists and saw-millwrights followed, to work and settle in the Virginia Colony. These pioneers and skilled craftsmen were the forerunners of the many millions of Germans who settled in America and became the single largest national group to populate the United States. — Map (db m2445) |
| Virginia (James City County), Williamsburg — Foundations at Jamestown |
| | The remains of Jamestown now lie buried beneath the ground. Archeologists have unearthed some of the known town site, but the original foundations of structures would erode quickly if left exposed to wind, weather, and acid rain. The foundations have been reburied. The bricks you see here today are modern reproductions of the original foundations underneath. — Map (db m17220) |
| Virginia (James City County), Williamsburg — Gardens and Crops |
| | Tobacco, sassafras – the Jamestown gardener was distracted by quick-money crops for export to Europe. Tobacco was even grown in the streets. In 1624 the General Assembly tried to aid the struggling silk and wine industries by ordering each plot owner to plant four mulberry trees for silk, and 20 vines for wine. — Map (db m17317) |
| Virginia (James City County), Williamsburg — 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 . . . — Map (db m17215) |
| Virginia (James City County), Williamsburg — 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 . . . — Map (db m17027) |
| Virginia (James City County), Williamsburg — V-41 — Governor’s Land |
| | Situated near Jamestown, Governor’s Land originally was a 3,000-acre tract encompassing open fields between the James River and Powhatan Creek. The Virginia Company of London set the parcel aside in 1618 to seat tenants who worked the land, giving half the profits to maintain the office of the governor. Deputy Governor Samuel Argall had already established the private settlement of Argall’s Town in these environs in 1617. Virginia governors also leased the property to others. Colonial leaders . . . — Map (db m2438) |
| Virginia (James City County), Williamsburg — W 36 — Green Spring |
| | On this road, five miles south, is Green Spring, home of Governor Sir William Berkeley. Bacon the Rebel occupied it in 1676. Cornwallis, after moving from Williamsburg by this road on July 4, 1781, was attacked by Lafayette near Green Spring on July 6, 1781. Anthony Wayne was the hero of this fight. — Map (db m20810) |
| Virginia (James City County), Williamsburg — V-42 — Green Spring Road |
| | The 17th century road to Green Spring, home of Governor Sir William Berkeley, was the eastern part of the Great Road, the earliest-developed English thoroughfare in Virginia. The Great Road ran from Jamestown Island toward the falls of the James River. The road was an important thoroughfare used to transport goods and forward communitcations between settlements. Originally, the Green Spring Road followed close to the James River, linking Jamestown to Green Spring. On 6 July 1781, the . . . — Map (db m2441) |
| Virginia (James City County), Williamsburg — History of Fort Magruder |
| | On May 4th, 1862 Union Division’s of Generals Hooker, Hancock, and “Baldy” Smith encountered units of the Southern Army east of Williamsburg. When the Confederate Army Commander General Joseph E. Johnston became aware of the engagement, he sent Colonel John B. Magruder’s command to occupy and defend a line of earthen fortifications which had been built during the spring of 1861. Fort Magruder, as it became known, dominated the center of a line of 14 smaller earthworks, known as . . . — Map (db m15716) |
| Virginia (James City County), Williamsburg — V 47 — Hot Water / Centerville |
| | Royal Governor William Berkeley, owner of nearby Green Spring Plantation, purchased the land here by 1652, then known as Hot Water. After Berkeley's death, the Hot Water tract passed to the Ludwell and Lee families. William Ludwell Lee inherited the property in 1796 and died in 1803. Lee's will specified that his slaves be freed when they reached the age of 18. They were allowed to live on the property for ten years at no charge and "comfortable houses" were to be built upon the tract for them. . . . — Map (db m23614) |
| Virginia (James City County), Williamsburg — In Memory of Early Settlers |
| | To the glory of God and in grateful memory of those early settlers, the founders of this Nation who died at Jamestown during the first perilous years of the colony. Their bodies lie along the ridge beyond this cross, in the earliest known burial ground of the English in America. “These are they which came out of great tribulation.” Revelation VII:VIV Erected by the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities. 1957 — Map (db m11377) |
| Virginia (James City County), Williamsburg — Inside a Home |
| | All that was left of this home was the foundation of a fireplace and two rows of stains in the soil. The house was built on wood posts sunk directly into the ground. Changes in the color of the soil show where the holes were dug to sink the posts. The placement of the posts indicated a house about 30 by 15 feet. Further shadows told the size of the posts – eight inches across – though the wood itself was gone. — Map (db m17358) |
| Virginia (James City County), Williamsburg — 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 . . . — Map (db m17211) |
| Virginia (James City County), Williamsburg — Iron and Industry |
| | The raw materials for the smelting of iron were all found here: lime from oyster shells, bog ore from the swamp, charcoal from burned trees. A circular kiln, 10 feet across and lined with baked clay, sat over a pit with an air vent to the surface. Metal objects and bits of worked iron suggest a forge nearby. — Map (db m17218) |
| Virginia (James City County), Williamsburg — Jackson Home 1620s |
| | Jackson the smith was at work in his shop . . . Minutes of the General Court, 1623 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, an 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. Jackson appears . . . — Map (db m17212) |
| Virginia (James City County), Williamsburg — 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. — Map (db m11470) |
| Virginia (James City County), Williamsburg — V-44 — Jamestown |
| | Nearby to the east is Jamestown, the original site of the first permanent English colony in North America. On 14 May 1607, a group of just over 100 men and boys recruited by the Virginia Company of London came ashore and estblished a settlement at Jamestown Island. They constructed a palisaded fort there within the territory of the Paspahegh Indians, who with other Virginia Indians had frequent contact with the English. In 1619 the first English representative legislative body in North America . . . — Map (db m2443) |
| Virginia (James City County), Williamsburg — Jamestown — National Historic Site |
| | 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 . . . — Map (db m10262) |
| Virginia (James City County), Williamsburg — W-38 — Jamestown Road |
| | The ancient road that linked Jamestown, the original colonial capital, with Middle Plantation(later Williamsburg) followed a meandering course. It departed from Jamestown Island and then turned northeast, crossing Powhatan and Mill Creeks. As it approached Middle Plantation, it traversed a branch of College Creek that by the mid-17th century was dammed to form Rick Neck plantation’s millpond, today’s Lake Matoaka. Improvements to Jamestown Road, completed in time for the Jamestown . . . — Map (db m2446) |
| Virginia (James City County), Williamsburg — Jamestown Tercentenary Monument |
| | East Side of Monument:
Virginia Company of London Chartered April 10, 1606 Founded Jamestown and sustained Virginia 1607 – 1624
North Side of Monument:
Jamestown The first permanent colony of the English people. The birthplace of Virginia and of the United States May 13, 1607
North Side Base:
“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 . . . — Map (db m11467) |
| Virginia (James City County), Williamsburg — 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 . . . — Map (db m17053) |
| Virginia (James City County), Williamsburg — W-48 — Littletown |
| | In the second quarter of the 17th-century, merchant George Menefie developed a 1,200-acre plantation just east of here he called Littletown. In March 1633, Dutch trader David DeVies observed that his two-acre garden was "full of Provence roses, apple, pear and cherry trees,... with different kinds of sweet-smelling herbs, such as rosemary, sage, marjoram, thyme." Richard Kemp later acquired the tract and called it Rich Neck. Rich Neck was home to three generations of the Ludwell family and . . . — Map (db m9505) |
| Virginia (James City County), Williamsburg — W 44 — Magruder’s Defenses |
| | Here is a redoubt in the line of Confederate defenses, built across the James-York Peninsula in 1861-62 by General John B. Magruder. — Map (db m10540) |
| Virginia (James City County), Williamsburg — W-51 — Martin's Hundred |
| | This plantation was allocated to the London-based Society of Martin's Hundred by 1618 and was later assigned 21,500 acres. It was initially settled in 1620 around Wolstenholme Town, its administrative center, located near the James River. Archaeologists discovered the town site in 1977. They also located the graves of several people who died during the 22 March 1622 Indian attacks on English settlements coordinated by Chief Opechancanough, when 78 colonists here - half the plantation's . . . — Map (db m9495) |
| Virginia (James City County), Williamsburg — W-52 — Martin's Hundred Church |
| | The first Martin's Hundred Parish church was probably built at Wolstenholme Town, an early 17th-century settlement that was located a mile southeast of here. None of the structures excavated there have been identified as a church; it may have been in a portion of the town that has been lost to erosion. A second parish church was built about 1630. Martin's Hundred Parish was incorporated into Yorkhampton Parish in York County in 1712, and the Martin's Hundred Church may have been abanodned then. . . . — Map (db m9497) |
| Virginia (James City County), Williamsburg — 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 . . . — Map (db m17310) |
| Virginia (James City County), Williamsburg — W 28 — Olive Branch Christian Church |
| | In 1833 the founders of Olive Branch Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) met for worship at Hill Pleasant Farm. By 1835, the congregation had built a brick church on land donated by Dr. Charles M. Hubbard and Mary Henley. During the Civil War, Union soldiers occupied the church; they reportedly slept in the gallery and stabled their horses in the sanctuary. The congregation worshiped in the Farthing house until 1866, when the church was restored to usable condition. With that exception, . . . — Map (db m23598) |
| Virginia (James City County), Williamsburg — Oyster Shells to Mortar |
| | Brick, lime, and pottery kilns operated throughout Jamestown. A small paved pit here, filled with oyster shells and moistened lime, marked a kiln where mortar or plaster was made. Different pits produced varying qualities of mortar and plaster. These different mortars in turn helped to identify structures built at the same time and from the same pit. — Map (db m17314) |
| Virginia (James City County), Williamsburg — W 37 — Peninsula Campaign |
| | During the Peninsula Campaign of 1862, both Confederate Gen. Joseph E. Johnston and Union Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan had their armies west toward Richmond on this road. Johnston evacuated Yorktown on 3-4 May and withdrew up the Peninsula, with McClellan in pursuit. On 5 May, two Federal divisions clashed with the Confederate rear guard east of Williamsburg in a bloody but indecisive battle. Johnston’s army continued its march west and on 6-7 May eluded McClellan’s forces at Etham’s Landing . . . — Map (db m10118) |
| Virginia (James City County), Williamsburg — Pitch and Tar Swamp |
| | To the north, Jamestown Island is ringed with slow moving water and a marsh of reeds, cypress, and pine. One of the first industries attempted at Jamestown was the extraction of pitch and tar from the pine trees in this swampy area. Pitch, tar, and the pine trees themselves were used for shipbuilding. — Map (db m17219) |
| Virginia (James City County), Williamsburg — V-45 — Pocahontas |
| | Matoaka, nicknamed Pocahontas (“mischievous one”), the daughter of Powhatan, was born about 1597. She served as an emissary for her father and came to Jamestown often in 1608. In 1613, Samuel Argall kidnapped Pocahontas while she visited the Patawomecks on the Potomac River. Argall hoped to exchange her for English prisoners and brought her to Jamestown. During lengthy negotiations, Pocahontas married John Rolfe in 1614, credited with developing Virginia’s first marketable tobacco . . . — Map (db m2448) |
| Virginia (James City County), Williamsburg — 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, . . . — Map (db m11371) |
| Virginia (James City County), Williamsburg — W 42 — Quarterpath Road |
| | James Bray owned land nearby in Middle Plantation by the 1650s, and Quarterpath Road probably began as a horse path to one of Bray’s quarters or farm units. Over the years, the road was improved; it extended to Col. Lewis Burwell’s landing on the James River by the early eighteenth century. As Williamsburg grew, Quarterpath Road became one of the principal routes by which travelers and trade goods were brought into the colonial capital. — Map (db m10542) |
| Virginia (James City County), Williamsburg — Robert Hunt — 1606 - 1907 |
| | To the glory of God and in memory of the Reverend Robert Hunt, Presbyter. appointed by the Church of England, minister of the colony which established the English Church and English civilization at Jamestown, Virginia in 1607, his people, members of the colony, left this testimony concerning him. He was an honest religious and courageous divine. He preferred the service of God in so good a voyage to every thought of ease at home. He endured every privation, yet none ever heard him repine. . . . — Map (db m17023) |
| Virginia (James City County), Williamsburg — Row Houses |
| | Several Jamestown families lived in row houses. This row of three houses was occupied at least from 1560 through 1720. Elaborate ironwork found here suggested that the row was handsomely furnished. Perhaps the row was home to the government officials and merchants who prospered in the colony’s capital. A great number of pipestems and wine bottle fragments suggest that in later years, the row might have housed its own tavern, or “ordinary.” A wit of the day recorded “about a . . . — Map (db m17114) |
| Virginia (James City County), Williamsburg — V 440 — Samuel H. Yonge, Civil Engineer (1843-1935) |
| | Near this location in 1901, Samuel H. Yongee, a civil engineer with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, spearheaded the design and construction of a seawall/revetment that halted the rapid erosion and loss into the James River of the most-historic part of Jamestown Island. His efforts saved large portions of the island including Jamestown Fort, making possible continued significant archaeological finds at Jamestown. Yonge located, unearthed, and published many of his findings on the island. . . . — Map (db m11445) |
| Virginia (James City County), Williamsburg — Sealing of the Magna Carta |
| | This live oak dedicated on June 15, 1965, commemorates the 750th Anniversary of the Sealing of Magna Carta on June 15, 1215. Out of these roots have sprung great liberties of man, great principles of law. The Magna Carta Commission of Virginia — Map (db m17051) |
| Virginia (James City County), Williamsburg — V 42-a — Sir William Berkeley |
| | Oxford-educated, Sir William Berkeley (1605-1677) was governor of Virginia from 1641 to 1652 and from 1660 to 1677, holding office longer than any other governor of Virginia, colonial or modern. Under his leadership, Virginia changed from a colonial outpost to a center of agriculture and commerce. His creation of the bicameral General Assembly helped establish the origins of American political self-rule. Nathaniel Bacon's Rebellion in 1676 threatened Berkeley's legacy. After Bacon suddenly died . . . — Map (db m23613) |
| Virginia (James City County), Williamsburg — W 34 — Six-Mile Ordinary |
| | Six-Mile Ordinary, a popular 18th-century tavern also known as Allen's for its proprietor Isham Allen, stood six miles from Williamsburg. On 1 July 1774, a group of free holders congregated there and drafted the James City Resolves not to import British goods. Two years later, they gathered again to declare their support for American Independence. On 21 April 1781, Col. James Innes notified the governor that 500 British infantrymen, 50 horses, and 4 pieces artillery had come ashore at Burwell's . . . — Map (db m20805) |
| Virginia (James City County), Williamsburg — W 35 — Spencer's Ordinary |
| | On this road, four miles south, the action of Spencer's Ordinary was fought, June 24, 1781, between detachments from Lafayette's and Cornwallis's armies. — Map (db m20807) |
| Virginia (James City County), Williamsburg — 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 . . . — Map (db m17042) |
| Virginia (James City County), Williamsburg — 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 . . . — Map (db m17213) |
| Virginia (James City County), Williamsburg — 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. — Map (db m17308) |
| Virginia (James City County), Williamsburg — 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 . . . — Map (db m17044) |
| Virginia (James City County), Williamsburg — The English Inns of Court |
| | Presented by The English Inns of Court to commemorate the 400th Anniversary of the founding of the Colony at Jamestown in 1607 April 2007 — Map (db m17049) |
| Virginia (James City County), Williamsburg — The First General Assembly of Virginia |
| | In honour of The First General Assembly of Virginia, here on the thirtieth day of July A.D. 1916. Summoned by Sir George Yeardley, Governor General of Virginia, under authority from the London Company, pursuant to the charter granted by King James I, was convened in the church at Jamestown the First General Assembly of Virginia. This Assembly, composed of the Governor, the Council of State, and two Burgesses elected by the people from each of the eleven plantations was the beginning of . . . — Map (db m15727) |
| Virginia (James City County), Williamsburg — 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 . . . — Map (db m17117) |
| Virginia (James City County), Williamsburg — The Hunt Shrine |
| | This shrine is dedicated to the memory of the Reverend Robert Hunt (1568-1608), the first Anglican minister of the colony. — Map (db m17024) |
| Virginia (James City County), Williamsburg — 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 . . . — Map (db m17198) |
| Virginia (James City County), Williamsburg — 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 . . . — Map (db m11374) |
| Virginia (James City County), Williamsburg — 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. — Map (db m17046) |
| Virginia (James City County), Williamsburg — These Foundations — 1607 |
| | These foundations were discovered & identified in 1903 by Samuel H. Yonge, Designer of the sea-wall & author of “The Site of “Olde Jamestowne,” 1607-1698.” ----- • ----- Placed by the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities, 1907. — Map (db m17041) |
| Virginia (James City County), Williamsburg — 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. . . . — Map (db m17359) |
| Virginia (James City County), Williamsburg — W-49 — Trebell's Landing |
| | At Trebell's Landing on the James River a mile southwest of here, the artillery and stores of the American and French Armies were located in September 1781. They were then conveyed overland some six miles to the siege lines at Yorktown. The troops disembarked at landings near Williamsburg. During the next few weeks, the allied armies under Gen. George Washington and the comte de Rochambeau besieged the British army commanded by Gen. Charles Cornwallis until he surrendered on 19 Oct. 1781, effectively ending the Revolutionary War. — Map (db m9501) |
| Virginia (James City County), Williamsburg — Washington – Rochambeau Route |
| | Generals Washington and Rochambeau and their staffs arrived in Williamsburg on September 14, 1781. Here they gathered their troops and supplies prior to laying siege to Cornwallis at Yorktown 12 miles away on September 28, 1781. The marking of this route is a gift from the French government. Committee of the Bicentennial 1776-1976. (Original sign destroyed in 2000, replaced by Department of Historic Resources, 2004) — Map (db m10123) |
| Virginia (James City County), Williamsburg — Water and Well |
| | “ … not at all replenished with springs of fresh water … their wells brackish, ill-scented … and not grateful to the stomach.” If a well at Jamestown was sunk to the right depth, it could yield “sweet water.” Too deep a well would hit saltwater; too shallow a well would be contaminated with human waste. Fevers and “fluxes” were common. — Map (db m17202) |
| Virginia (James City County), Williamsburg — Williamsburg Confederate Monument |
| | 1861 – 1865 To the Confederate Soldiers and Sailors of Williamsburg and James City County. Right of Monument:“Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet, lest we forget – lest we forget!” Left of Monument:Erected by the Daughters of the Confederacy and the Citizens of Williamsburg and James City County. — Map (db m10563) |
| Virginia (James City County), Williamsburg — V 52 — Wowinchapuncke |
| | Wowinchapuncke was the chief of the Paspahegh
Indians when the English established Jamestown
in the tribe’s territory in 1607. He consistently
resisted the English intrusion, earning both
respect and hostility from Jamestown leaders.
Captured and imprisoned at Jamestown, he
escaped, and the English retaliated by killing
several Paspahegh men. After the English
destroyed a Paspahegh town in August 1610
and executed Wowinchapuncke’s wife and
children, he continued to harass the . . . — Map (db m26343) |
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