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 COLLEGE OF ARCHITECTURE 
 LIBRARY 
 
Cornell University Library 
 F 234.J2Y58 
 
 The site of old "James Towne", 1607-1698 
 
 3 1924 020 688 424 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of tiiis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924020688424 
 
The Colonial Dames of America cofitemplate erecting a memorial 
 building, to enclose the foundations of the ancient churches, after the 
 general design of ''ye brick church of j6-ig." The project does not 
 involve any alteration of the tower rudn. 
 
ill 
 
 
The Site of Old "JamesTowne," 
 . 1607-1698. 
 
 A Brief Historical and Topographical Sketch 
 
 OF THE 
 
 First American Metropolis, 
 
 Illustrated with Original Maps, Drawings and 
 Photographs, 
 
 Samuel H. Yonge. 
 
 ' Redivivum est ex vetusto renovaium." — Fesius. 
 
 Published bv the 
 
 Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities. 
 
 Richmond, Va., 1904. 
 
 L6. .m... 
 
WM. ELL18 JONES, 
 
 FBINTEB, 
 
 MICHMOND, VA. 
 
 Copyright, 1903, 
 
 by 
 
 Samuel H. Yonge. 
 
 All rights reserved. 
 
IN publishing this edition of ' ' The Site of ' Olde James . 
 Towne, ' ' ' the Association for the Preservation of Virginia 
 Antiquities desires to gratefully acknowledge its indebtedness to 
 the author. 
 
 Mr. Yonge's many services — as engineer, in preserving the 
 island from the inroads of the river, and as an antiquary in 
 bringing to light the buried remains of the old town, in giving 
 its public buildings and homes, again, a local habitation and a 
 name, and in writing its history — will ever connect his name 
 with Jamestown. 
 
 The Association tenders its grateful thanks to Mr. Yonge for 
 his generous gift of all rights to this edition of his exceedingly 
 
 valuable book. 
 
 Mrs. Joseph Bryan, 
 
 President A. P. V. A. 
 
ERRATA. 
 
 Page 6, lines 25 and 26, "Sir Francis Wyatt's first administration" 
 should read " Sir Thomas Gates' term.'' 
 
 Map of "James Citty," on John White plat, " 1643" should be " 1644." 
 
 Index to map of "Jairies Citty,'' reference 7, insert at beginning of 
 line the words "Site of." 
 
 Ditto, reference 12, change " 1643 " at end of line to " 1644." 
 
 Page 15, line 7, change " erosion " to "rate." 
 
 Page 16, line 6, change " 1643 " to " 1644." 
 
 Page 18, line 10, change the comma after "vessels" to an apostrophe. 
 
 Page 18, lines 28 and 29, bracket the phrase "during Sir Thomas 
 Smith's administration." 
 
 Page 42, line i, change "is" to "in." 
 
 Page 70, line 24, change "petition" to "partition." 
 
The Site of Old "James Towne," 1607-1698, 
 
 By SAMUEL H. YONGE. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 IT was the author's privilege to have charge, under the direc- 
 tion of the United States Engineer Department in 1900 and 
 1901, of the work of protecting Jamestown Island from the en- 
 croachments of James River. 
 
 Before proceeding with the above work an attempt was made 
 to learn the cause and extent of the encroachments. The for- 
 mer was soon discovered to be abrasion by wave action, while 
 the latter, on account of the available evidence being meager 
 and uncertain, could not be satisfactorily determined. 
 
 The abraded area at first appeared to be upwards of fifty acres, 
 having its greatest width, about three-eighths of a mile, at the 
 northweste:rn extremity of the island. 
 
 While the protection work was under construction new evi- 
 dence offered, in the light of which the above area appeared too 
 large. This led to making personal researches among all avail- 
 able sources of information, which have occupied the leisure 
 moments of a period of two years. 
 
 The results of the above investigation, with regard to the site 
 of the former town, presented in the accompanying monograph, 
 are at variance with the statements of other modern writers. 
 
 There are but two descriptions available of the island and 
 town after the latter had passed beyond the transitional stage of 
 a military post, by writers of the time having a personal knowl- 
 edge of the localities; one by an anonymous writer in about 
 1676, the other ten years later by the Rev. John Clayton. Both 
 descriptions are quite incomplete. Supplemented by informa- 
 tion from other sources, however, they have considerable value, 
 especially that by Mr. Clayton. 
 
4 THE SITE OF OLD JAMES TOWNE. 
 
 In the description of the town by Mr. Richard Randolph, the 
 antiquarian, published in 1849, in the Virginia Historical Reg- 
 ister, Vol. II, pages 138 and 139, occurs the following: 
 
 " I will only add that the great body of the town, which, how- 
 ever, was never very large, was certainly west of the Old Steeple 
 still visible, and is now entirely, or very nearly, submerged in 
 the river. This is clearly proved by the old deeds for lots in the 
 town recorded in the office of James City County Court, which 
 call for bounds that are now under water, and more palpably, by 
 vast numbers of broken bricks and other relics of building that 
 may still be seen in the western bank at low tide. ' ' 
 
 It is evident from the above quotation that Mr. Randolph was 
 not aware of the fact now disclosed that after about 1623 the 
 greater part of the village was east of the tower ruin. The 
 reasons for his belief that almost the entire town was west of the 
 ruin were probably the following: During about the last three 
 and a half decades of the town's existence the public buildings, 
 as will be shown in the following pages, were west of the tower, 
 on which fact, no doubt, the tradition was founded that the 
 whole town was in that neighborhood; and, as only the western 
 bank of the island was subsequently attacked by the waves, and 
 consequently the foundations of former buildings of that quarter 
 alone were exposed to view by abrasion of the bank, the above 
 tradition was apparently confirmed; further, after the last state 
 house and other buildings were burned in 1698, the standing 
 parts of buildings in the entire town were, in the course of time, 
 obliterated by the town site being put under cultivation and the 
 brick formerly composing the buildings being removed; and 
 
 finally, on account of the long interval — a century and a half 
 
 between the town's abandonment as the seat of government, by 
 A-nich its few inhabitants, composed principally of resident state 
 Dfficialsand tavern keepers, were compelled to remove, and that 
 of a revival of any very great interest in the town, the traditions 
 depended on for fixing its position had become dim and defective. 
 
 From what follows it appears that writers of later date than 
 Mr. Randolph accepted and reflected his views, without proper 
 investigation. 
 
 According to Bishop Meade, in his Old Churches and Families 
 
THE SITE OF OLD JAMES TOWNE. O 
 
 of Virginia, Vol. I, page iii, the town was situated betweea 
 the existing tower ruin and the upper extremity of the island, 
 its eastern end being a short distance (one hundred and fifty 
 yards) above the ruin, which he places at about a mile below the 
 northern end of the isthmus. He also states in effect that the 
 part of the island above alluded to had been encroached on by 
 the river, thereby implying that the greater part of the town site 
 had been washed away, and that traces of the town were visible 
 at low tide in front of the island bank, i. e., the western bank, 
 which was the part abraded. 
 
 From the brief description of the town by the late Edward 
 Duffield Neill, D. D., contained on page 203, Virginia Carolo- 
 rum, published in 1886, it would appear that he, too, believed 
 it to have been at the western extremity of the island. He also 
 states that the quarter called " the New Towne" had been de- 
 stroyed by the encroachments of the river. 
 
 Dr. John Fiske informs us in Virginia and Her Neighbors, 
 Vol. II, page 120, published in 1896, that more than half of the 
 town has been destroyed. 
 
 Dr. Lyon Gardner Tyler, President of William and Mary 
 College, in The Cradle of the Republic, pages 19 and 40, places 
 the town at the western end of the island, with the Back Street 
 on a ridge which is referred to in the description of the island in 
 the following pages as the third ridge. Since, as will be shown, 
 Back Street was in the "New Towne," that part of the settle- 
 ment, according to the above writer, must also have been on the 
 third ridge. 
 
 With the above array of testimony, emanating from such well- 
 known authorities, it was natural to begin the investigation of 
 the subject with the preconceived idea that the town had stood 
 west of or above the old tower, and that the. greater part of it 
 had been engulfed by the river. 
 
 As information regarding the extent and shape of the abrasion 
 could not be obtained from historical works, recourse was had to 
 the old records of patents for land at "James Citty " issued 
 during the seventeenth century, from which principally it was 
 learned that the town bordered not only the western shore of the 
 island near its upper extremity, but also the adjacent southern 
 shore below for about an equal distance and had a total length 
 
6 THE SITE OF OLD " JAMES TOWNE. 
 
 along the river of about three-fourths of a mile. The patents 
 also show that the quarter of the town referred to in them as the 
 " New Towne " was of a permanent and not of an ephemeral 
 character, and that for many years after its establishment, about 
 1623, was the most important part of the corporation. The 
 most notable events and incidents of the first two and last three 
 decades of the town's history, however, occurred at and west of 
 the church still marked by the tower ruin. 
 
 It seems proper to call attention to the following most notice- 
 able errors of statement made by recent writers: 
 
 In The Cradle of the Republic, pages 53 and 54, a one-acre 
 lot patented by William Sherwood in 1681, whereon had stood 
 " the Country House," is located north of the lands owned by 
 William Edwards, Robert Beverley and Nathaniel Bacon, Sr., 
 which were above the church, and a lot whiph, in i688, was 
 owned by Henry Hartwell, is placed above Sherwood's lot. 
 The Back Street, Sherwood's acre with the " Country House," 
 and the Hartwell tract, all above referred to, are now found to 
 have been situated east, instead of west of the church tower, 
 and near the eastern end of the town, while the properties of 
 Edwards, Beverley and Bacon were near its western end. The 
 Hartwell tract was on the southern shore of the island, about 
 five hundred yards below the tower, and formed part of the 
 southern boundary of the Sherwood acre. 
 
 In the description of the town about the time of Sir Francis 
 Wyatt's first administration, given in Vol. II, page 529, Eco- 
 nomic History of Virginia iji the Seventeenth Century, by Philip 
 Alexander Bruce, it is stated that a bridge was built to connect 
 the island with the.mainland. This clearly is a misapprehension, 
 for there does not appear to be any record of such structure 
 being built during the existence of "James Towne," nor until 
 some time before the middle of the nineteenth century. Ac- 
 cording to Bishop Meade the island was connected with the 
 mainland by a causeway on the site of the former isthmus about 
 the middle of the eighteenth century. 
 
 In constructing the chart of the town and its environs, the 
 localities where a number of historic scenes were enacted, were 
 fixed, also the locations, with greater or less exactness, of the 
 grounds or dwellings of a number of the former residents, the 
 
THE SITE OF OLD " JAMES TOWNE. 7 
 
 sites of two of the town's three forts and of several of its public 
 buildings. 
 
 There being no definite information available for determining 
 the positions of the western bank of the head of the island dur- 
 ing the Jamestown period, of the original paled town, also of 
 the first fort and early graveyard, it was necessary to depend on 
 reasonable conjecture. On account of not being based on data 
 of a definite character, as are most of the other localities treated 
 of, this part of the investigation is offered with a measure of dif» 
 fidence, although the deductions made seem to be justified by 
 circumstantial evidence. Unfortunately, there is nothing to 
 show who owned the land around the church tower anterior to 
 1683, where, according to this investigation, before the "New 
 Towne" was established, the earliest town was situated. 
 
 The positions of the third and fourth state houses, and the 
 grounds of several persons conspicuous in the affairs of the 
 colony towards the close of the town's career are, however, 
 fixed in and near this older quarter of the town. 
 
 A description of the town would be incomplete without some 
 reference to its most interesting feature, the first Anglican church 
 in America. Brief descriptions of the several church structures 
 of "James Citty " parish, erected at "James Citty," are there- 
 fore included. 
 
 As the page of the Virginia Land Patent Records containing 
 transcripts of two of the earliest patents, viz: to Sir George 
 Yeardley, Knight, and Captain Roger Smith, are missing, it 
 was necessary, for locating the tracts they represented, to depend 
 on the meager information contained in the Patent Record In- 
 dex, and the renditions of the missing transcripts as contained 
 in the writings of other investigators, which are not very satis- 
 factory. 
 
 An appendix comprises the details, in as comprehensive form 
 as possible, of the method. of establishing the position of "the 
 New Towne." The plats of several grants which have been 
 located in "the New Towne" are omitted from the "Map of 
 lames Citty," as by introducing them those of greater antiquity 
 and interest would be covered, and confusion created in the dif- 
 ferent lines. The parts of some of the plats which extend be- 
 yond the limits of the town are also omitted. 
 
8 THE SITE OF OLD " JAMES TOWJiJE." 
 
 All dates are given according to Old Style. 
 
 The author's effort has been ably seconded by Mr. Frank D. 
 Beckham, of Prince William County, Va., who has devoted his 
 leisure to the work, and rendered invaluable assistance. 
 
 The artistically drawn map of "lames Citty," Va., is the 
 work of Mr. Otto Sonne, civil engineer, of Boston, Mass., 
 whose attainments as a landscape engineer are well known. 
 
 The occasion seems opportune for informing the reader that 
 the credit of rescuing from oblivion and preserving some of the 
 most important ancient landmarks of Virginia, including James- 
 town, is entirely due to the Association for the Preservation of 
 Virginia Antiquities. Organized and administered by ladies of 
 the "Old Dominion," the association is not only arousing an 
 ever-increasing interest in events of colonial days, which en- 
 genders a spirit of true patriotism, but in spite of a slender ex- 
 chequer, is achieving remarkable results in preserving historic 
 landmarks. 
 
 After exhausting all available sources of information about the 
 town, it is found that a great deal is lacking to make a knowl- 
 edge of the subject complete and satisfactory. This much, how- 
 ever, is learned, that the town, even though measured by what 
 would appear to be a standard of its time, was small, poor and 
 insignificant. This fact invests the place with the deepest inter- 
 est, when it is remembered that from such a small beginning in 
 the wilderness has sprung what bids fair to become, if not so 
 already, the greatest nation of the earth. 
 
 The passing of a few years will complete the third century 
 since the laying of the cornerstone of the nation's foundation. 
 How striking the contrast between then and now, in the mode 
 of living, in the knowledge of the sciences and the liberal arts, 
 and in the supersedure of intolerance and blind superstition by 
 freedom of conscience and enlightenment! 
 

 MAP OF lAMES ClTTY, VA. fl 
 
 1607 - lOgb. ^w"l. ^... 
 
 __ Compiled Frorrl "W# / S^^^ 
 
 "^ ANCIENT RECORDS _^^ ^^^,^S^ii 
 ^ Saml. H.Yonge, Civil 1i:ngineer. M^ 
 
 
 ^^a^^^iS^"^^^ ^-^^■" 
 
 Richard James 
 65A 
 
 TT^ff vy/Ve of O/d 'i/ames Towr/e. /607-/69S. 
 
 Copyn/fffyt, /90J,.6v SamueJ H. Yonge^ 
 
THE SITE OF OLD " JAMES TOWNE. 
 
 INDEX TO "MAP OF lAMES CITTY, VA., 1607-1698." 
 
 A — First ridge, " Block House Hill," belonging to John Bauld- 
 
 win in 1656. 
 B — Second ridge, containing tracts of James, Bauldwin, Hamp- 
 ton, et al. 
 C — Third ridge, on which stood the third and fourth state houses. 
 D — Fourth ridge, on which the town was principally situated, 
 a, a, a, a — Jetties constructed in 1895-96 to protect island bank. 
 
 I — Probable western shore line of island, 1600-1700. 
 
 2 — Present shore line of mainland. 
 
 3 — Bridge across Back River on road to Williamsburg. 
 
 4 — Lot of Philip Ludwell, Esq., in 1694, containing the ruins 
 of three brick houses. 
 
 5 — Third and fourth state houses, 1666 to 1698. 
 
 6 — "Country House," in 1694. 
 
 7 — Building reputed to have been a powder magazine. 
 
 8 — Site of brick fort constructed between 1670 and 1676. 
 
 9 — The lone cypress. 
 10 — Approximate position of northerly line between Richard 
 
 James and John Bauldwin in 1657. 
 II — Approximate site of tract of Richard Saunders, 1644. 
 12 — Approximate site of tract of Edward Challis, 1643. 
 13 — Approximate site of tract of Radulph Spraggon,, 1643. 
 14 — Approximate site of tract of Geo. Gilbert, 1643., 
 15 — Suggested outline of original paled four-acre town. 
 16 — Tract of Edward Chilton, Attorney- General, 1683. 
 17 — Tract of Wm. Edwards, Sr., 1690. 
 
 18 — Piles of former bridge between island and mainland, con- 
 structed during first half of nineteenth century. 
 19— Tract of John Howard, 1694. 
 20 — Tract of Nathaniel Bacon, Sr., 1694. Contains foundation 
 
 of chimney. 
 21 — Confederate fort constructed in 1861. 
 22 — Ancient tower ruin, inclosed part of old graveyard, and 
 
 foundations of third, fourth and fifth churches. 
 23 — Probable site of triangular fort constructed 1607. 
 24 — Probable site of "bridge" (wharf), constructed in 1611. 
 
10 THE SITE OF OLD "JAMES TOWNE." 
 
 25— Probable landing place of first settlers, May 14, 1607. 
 26— ApRroximate site of blockhouse, built by Captain Richard 
 
 Stephens in 1624. 
 27 — Confederate redoubt commanding Back River, constructed 
 
 1861. 
 28 — Ditch draining " Pitch and Tarr Swamp." 
 29 — Boundary lines of tract belonging to the Association for the 
 
 Preservation of Virginia Antiquities. 
 30— "The old state house" (approximate), used from about 
 
 1630 to 1-656, on one-acre tract, of which part was sold 
 
 to Ludwell and Stegg in 1667. 
 31 — Ruins of building on site of Ambler-Jacquelin messuage. 
 32 — Tract of John Chew, 1624. 
 33 — Tract of Captain Richard Stephens, 1623. 
 34 — Tract of Captam Ralph Hamor, 1624, Secretary of State 
 
 and chronicler. 
 35 — Site of the turf fort. 
 36 — Cross streets connecting "the way along the Maine River" 
 
 and the Back Street. 
 37 — Tract of George Menefy, 1624, member of the Council of 
 
 State. 
 38 — The " way along the Create river," or " Maine river." 
 39 — Cart track "leading to Island House," in 1665. 
 40 — Causeway over swamp formerly connecting part of island 
 
 containing "the new towne" with the rest of the island. 
 41 — One-acre tract bought by William Sherwood in 1681, " on 
 
 which fprmerly stood the brick house formerly called the 
 
 Country House," and later, probably Sherwood's resi- 
 dence. 
 42 — Jamestown island wharf 
 
 43 — Probable site of tract of Richard Clarke, 1646. 
 44 — The " main cart path." 
 45 — "The old Create Road," in 1694. 
 46 —Ancient graveyard. 
 
 47 — Point where skeletons were exposed by bank caving in 1896. 
 48 — Shore line of 1903. 
 49 — Traces of house foundations. Probable site of Richard 
 
 Lawrence's dwelling about 1676. 
 
 N. B. Broken lines on map indicate approximate boundaries, etc. 
 
THE SITE OF OLD "JAMES TOWNE." 11 
 
 DESCRIPTION OF JAMESTQWN ISLAND. 
 
 JAMESTOWN Island, Virginia, is situated in James River, 
 sixty-eight and three-fourths miles below the head of tide- 
 water, at the foot of the Richmond rapids, and fifty-eight miles 
 above the Virginia capes. 
 
 No ancient charts of the island and town of the Jamestown 
 period (1607-1698), have been discovered. "The Draughte 
 by Roberte Tindall, of Virginia, Anno 1608," and "Chart of 
 Virginia," sent to Philip III of Spain in the same year by Zu- 
 niga to accompany the report of Francisco Maguel,* " the Irish- 
 man," a spy in the service of Spain, and published in The 
 Genesis of the United States, although possessing some merit as 
 reconnoisance sketches, prove to be inaccurate on comparison 
 with modern maps, and furnish information of but little value as 
 to the shape of the island and the site of the town. 
 
 The island, thus invariably designated in the old land patents,' 
 and so referred to in Ralph Hamor's Discourse, and other an- 
 cient writings, is two and three-fourths miles long, with a width 
 varying from about three hundred yards at its head to about one 
 and one-fourth miles near its lower extremity. It was formerly 
 connected at its upper extremity with the mainland by a narrow 
 neck, which being at a much lower elevation than the island, 
 constituted an isthmus only at ordinary tides. What appear to 
 be traces of the isthmus are found at one to two feet below low 
 tide, just west of the piling of an old trestle bridge, which for- 
 merly connected the island with the mainland. ■ The bridge was 
 destroyed by a storm over fifty years ago. As compared with 
 the neighboring mainland, the general elevation of the island is 
 low.. 
 
 Adjoining the head of the island is a marsh, which is referred 
 to in the old land patents as " belonging to the Back river." 
 
 The head of the island is composed of three ridges and part 
 of a fourth, marked on accompanying map A, B, C, D, having 
 an easterly trend, and rising from about twelve to sixteen feet 
 
 * His name was probably either Francis McGill or Michael. 
 
12 THE SITE OF OLD "JAMES TOWNE." 
 
 above low tide. Between the three uppermost ridges are narrow 
 marshes or slashes. The slash between the first and second 
 formerly connected with Back River only, but by the abrasion of 
 the western shore of the island it would now connect James River 
 with the Back River were it not for the recently constructed sea 
 wall. Between the second and third ridges is a slash or branch 
 of a large swamp situated near the middle of the island and ex- 
 tending easterly to the Back River. It drains into Spratley's 
 Bay, and was anciently referred to as "the Pitch and Tarr 
 Swamp." About two hundred yards inland from the western 
 shore of the island the above slash becomes the boundary be- 
 tween the second and fourth ridges. 
 
 The boundary between the third and fourth ridges is a little 
 valley, which, near the river bank is two to three feet above 
 high tide. This valley, as will apptar later, contained near its 
 former river end a brick fort constructed towards the close ol 
 the seventeenth century. At the head of the fourth ridge the 
 ground rises quite rapidly to an elevation of about ten feet, and 
 for two small areas to fourteen feet above low tide, forming two 
 knolls, one at the tower ruin and the other in the Confederate 
 fort of i86t. The two knolls were probably " the two Mount- 
 aines, ' ' on which Percy informs us, in his Discourse, ' ' was sowne 
 most of our Corne." The western extremities of the above 
 ridges, as is shown below, prior to the last two centuries extended 
 four or five hundred feet beyond the present island bank. 
 
 Below the fourth ridge is a narrow slash, now partly filled 
 with sand, another branch of the main swamp, in which there is 
 a run anciently known as " Orchard Run," draining the swamp 
 into the river (see map of "James Citty Island"). East of the 
 last mentioned slash is a ridge, also having an easterly trend. 
 East of the above ridge and extending to James River is a branch 
 of a great marsh, referred to below. Next follows a series of 
 seven low ridges, forming collectively what was anciently known 
 as Goose Hill. The Goose Hill ridges are separated by slashes 
 of the extensive marsh above referred to, lying north and east 
 of them, named Goose Hill marsh. It is drained into James 
 river by Passmore's or Paschmore's Creek. 
 
 Goose Hill is a hill only in the same relative sense that the 
 
JH££IJE OF OtD "JATVIES TOWNE." 13 
 
 two knolls where the English wheat was planted were mountains. 
 The fourth ridge has a larger area of good soil above extreme 
 high tide than the other ridges at the head of the island. The 
 Back river, which is referred to in many of the old patents, 
 forms the northern boundary of the island. Although its chan- 
 nel is from seven to twenty-three feet deep, the depth on the bar 
 in Spratley's Bay, into which it empties, is but four feet; ample, 
 however, for the crossing of the ' ' friggett, ' ' from which the 
 landing in Back River near the head of the island was named, 
 and of whose coming the town's people were apprised by a 
 musical note, as the vessel passed " Pypirig Point."* 
 
 Above the Back River was situated "Sandy Bay," having the 
 isthmus for its western and " Powhatan Swamp " for its eastern 
 boundary, and receiving on the north the flow of Powhatan 
 Creek. Near the northwest shore of the bay, about a mile from 
 "James Towne," was situated what is believed to have been 
 the first American glass works, in which beads were manufac- 
 tured for trading with the Indians. 
 
 As will appear later on, the two branches of " Pitch and Tarr 
 Swamp" above mentioned, were the upper and lower limits of 
 the principal part of "James Citty." A line of stumps, visible 
 at low tide, extending shoreward from a solitary cypress stand- 
 ing two hundred and seventy feet from the recently constructed 
 Sea wall, probably indicates the former position of the head of 
 the upper branch of the swamp, where, as will be shown further 
 on, a tract of land was granted in 1696 to Lieutenant Edward 
 Ross. 
 
 The mean tidal range at Jamestown Island is but twenty-two 
 inches. Great tides, however, rising to seven or eight feet 
 above low water, are occasionally caused by gales from between 
 south and east. Whenever the tide rose slightly above its nor- 
 mal level, the isthmus was submerged. During great tides there 
 is a flow from the river through the depression between the third 
 and fourth ridges into the upper branch of the swamp. 
 
 * The point was located by platting a patent to Richard James (Virginia 
 Land Patent Records, Book III, p. -368). 
 
14 THE SITE OF OLD " JAMES TOWNE. 
 
 ABRASION OF THE ISLAND. 
 
 UNTIL 1901, thelength of the western ba,nk exposed to abras- 
 ■ ion was about a Jialf mile. In the above year about half of the 
 exposed bank was protected by the sea wall before mentioned. 
 The shore of the mainland from a short distance above the island 
 to the Chickahominy River, a distance of about six miles, is be- 
 ing abraded, and there are unmistakable signs of this action 
 being operative for a very long period in the past. There is 
 very good evidence that this bank was being abraded by the 
 waves as early as 1686. The above protecting shore originally 
 formed a natural protection for the island headland, and by its 
 recession the latter became exposed to wave action. 
 
 It would hardly seem possible that the abrasion of the island 
 was in progress as early as 1686, or even in 1696, as in the latter 
 year a grant of land, situated on its western bank, contiguous 
 to and below the upper branch of " Pitch and Tarr Swamp" 
 was made to Lieutenant Edward Ross,* before alluded to. It 
 seems probable that the island was not attacked by the river be- 
 fore 1700. Under this assumption, therefore, the whole period 
 of the island's abrasion to the time of its protection in 1901, 
 would be two hundred and one years. Observation of the bank 
 in recent years shows that its annual rate of recession has been 
 about four feet. Prior to the extensive use of side wheel steamers 
 on James River, probably about i860, and when occasional strong 
 winds between west and north were the sole destroying agents, 
 the rate probably did not exceed two feet. Applying the above 
 rates for forty years and one hundred and sixty-one years 
 respectively, the total width of the prism of abrasion would 
 amount to about 482 feet. 
 
 From the data contained in the following quotation from 
 Amoenitates Graphicae, a magazine edited by Professor Louis 
 Hue Girardin, in 1803,! "many yards of the palisades erected 
 bv the first settlers are yet to be seen at a low tide standing at 
 
 * Virginia Land Patent Records, Book IX, p. 49. 
 
 t Foot note, page 8, Report of the Proceedings of the Late Jubilee at 
 James Town (in 1807). 
 

 a PI 
 S t/5 
 
 i > 
 
 
THE SITE OF OLD "JAMES TOWNE." 15 
 
 least 150 to 200 paces from the present shore," it would appear 
 that the annual rate of abrasion, assuming the pace at thirty 
 inches, was about twice that given above. . Professor Girardin's 
 description, however, shows that he was not accustomed to esti- 
 mating distances, and his figures, therefore, do not appear to 
 have any value. 
 
 As the time when the abrasion began and its erosion from 
 time to time are unknown, no reliable deduction can be made as 
 to the exact position of the western shore of the island in the 
 seventeenth century. 
 
 From the Edward Ross patent, the direction of the shore for 
 two hundred and fifteen feet, immediately below the head of the 
 upper branch of " Pitch and Tarr Swamp," is learned to have 
 then been about S. 3° W. (corrected for declination) or about 
 the same as that of the present western shore at the sea wall. 
 
 In 1 89 1, there still remained, about sixty yards above the 
 Confederate fort, the lower part of the ancient headland, pro- 
 jecting about thirty yards from the general line of the shore and 
 forming a sharp point. The lower side of the point in the above 
 year furnishes the general direction of the southern shore of the 
 headland. 
 
 In the account of the bi-centennary celebration at Jamestown 
 Island in 1807, it is stated that the " Lady Washington," one 
 of the visiting vessels, anchored " in a beautiful cove in the form 
 of a crescent, which stretching on either side afforded a safe and 
 expanded bason."* 
 
 The point above mentioned, then projecting several hundred 
 feet further westward than the present shore, undoubtedly formed 
 the head of the, cove. Its foot was about five-eighths of a mile 
 below its head, and is marked by an old abandoned wharf which 
 was in use in i86r. The part of the cove below the new wharf 
 remains as it was in 1803. 
 
 The description of a course in the survey notes of a patent to 
 William Sherwood f "and by the same [Back River] to Sandy 
 Bay, to a persimmon tree under Block House Hill, thence under 
 
 * Report of the Proceedings of the Late Jubilee at James- Town, p. 7. 
 t Va. Land Pat. Records, Book VII, p. 384, et seg. 
 
16 THE SITE OF OLD " JAMES TOWNE. 
 
 the said hill six chains to James River'' shows that the head of 
 the island at the southern end of the isthmus was about 200 feet 
 wide. 
 
 From patents issued to Alexander Stonar in 1637, and to 
 Richard Sanders in 1644, for land situated on the first ridge; to 
 Edward Challis in 1643, to Radulph Spraggon in 1644, and to 
 John Bauldwin in 1656,* on the second ridge, it would appear 
 that the general direction of the western bank of the island at 
 its upper extremity was approximately the same as it is to-day. 
 On account of incomplete descriptions the true positions of the 
 above tracts cannot be deterniined. As even their approximate 
 locations give them some value, they are shown on the map. 
 The Spraggon tract indicates approximately the position of part 
 of "the way leading towards the mayne," near the head of the 
 island. 
 
 From the preceding data the shape of the headland during 
 the "James Citty" period, as exhibited on the map, was deter- 
 mined. 
 
 Since the first settlement of the island by the English, prob- 
 ably twenty acres at its western extremity have been lost by 
 abrasion. The abraded area comprises principally parts of the 
 uppermost three ridges, and a very small proportion of the 
 fourth ridge. The tidal currents at Jamestown are too light to 
 erode the clay of which the banks at the head of the island are 
 formed. Wave action developed in the long reach of wide 
 water extending in a northwesterly direction has been the de- 
 stroying agent, the waves of every passing steam vessel contrib- 
 uting to the work of destruction. 
 
 From the observation of the height of storm waves at James- 
 town Island, it seems evident that their abrading effect does not 
 reach to greater depths than three or four feet below low water. 
 The one fathom curve on the map, therefore, is considerably 
 west of the extreme outer limits of the western shore line during 
 the "James Citty" period. 
 
 * Va. Land Pat. Records, Book I, p. 466; Book II, pp. 11, 12; Book 
 IV, p. 88. 
 
THE SITE OF OLD " JAMES TOWNE." 17 
 
 LANDING PLACE OF THE FIRST SETTLERS. 
 
 THE trough of the channel off the head of the island has steep 
 sides, and is from fifty to ninety feet deep. As it lies in a bed 
 of dense, tough clay, the scouring effect of the light currents of 
 the locality, continuing even for centuries, should be very slight. 
 From the deposition of material worn from the island and the 
 shore above, there has probably been a slight diminution of depth 
 •during the past three hundred years in the thalweg or deepest 
 part of the channel, but litde or none on its sides. The above 
 remark is intended to apply particularly to the vicinity of James- 
 town Island. At other localities on James River extensive bat- 
 tures have formed under projecting points between the trough 
 ■of the channel and the shores. 
 
 The hydrographic contours off the western shore of the island 
 show the channel gradually nearing that shore from above until 
 it approaches to within about one hundred and seventy-five yards 
 of it, about three hundred yards above the tower ruin (see con- 
 tours on map). Below the ruin it gradually leaves the island 
 and opposite the former site of the turf fort, hereinafter referred 
 to, is about three hundred and fifty yards from the shore. The 
 contours also exhibit a stretch of channel upwards of two hun- 
 dred and fifty feet long at the point of divergence above the 
 tower ruin, having its north side steeper than elsewhere in the 
 above reach of river. 
 
 According to the rate of abrasion above determined, the island 
 extended to the part of the channel having the steep sides dur- 
 ing the seventeenth century. 
 
 According to Master George Percy's Discourse, the ships, at 
 the first landing place of the settlers, were moored to trees 
 .standing on the river bank, contiguous to which the water depth 
 was six fathoms. The modern contours of the channel, as has 
 been pointed out, could not differ materially from those existing 
 when the first settlement was made. The part of the side of the 
 -channel, therefore, which is steepc'^t, and to which the i.sland 
 bank formerly extended, is manifestly the spot where the settUrs 
 •debarked May 14, 1607, and of which Percy wrote, " where our 
 
18 THE SITE OF OLD " JAMES TOWNE." 
 
 shippes doe lie so neere the shoare that they are moored to the 
 Trees in six fathom water." 
 
 The landing was well selected for convenience of discharging 
 the ships' cargoes and very few similarly as well-conditioned 
 exist on James River. As Archer's Hope, on the mainland op- 
 posite the lower end of the island, was regarded as a very desir- 
 able location for the first settlement, and was rejected only on 
 account of its shore being made inaccessible to Newport's vessels 
 by shallow water the day before the island was selected, it is 
 apparent that the ease of discharging the vessels, cargoes directly 
 on the river bank outweighed many other far rnore important 
 considerations in deciding on the abiding place of the settlers. 
 
 LOCATION OF FIRST FORT AND TOWN. 
 
 THE first fort, "which was triangle wise, haying three Bul- 
 warkes at every corner like a halfe Moone and foure or five 
 pieces of Artillerie mounted in them," was completed June 15 — 
 the 31st day after the first settlers disembarked.* As there is 
 no information extant as to the site of the first fort, that detail 
 will have to be arrived at inductively. It was not at the original 
 landing place, for, from the letter of Sir Thomas Dale, of May 
 25, 161 1, t " to the President and Counsell of the Companie of 
 Adventurers and Planters in Virginia," it is learned that imme- 
 diately after his arrival at James Towne to succeed Lord La 
 Warre as deputy governor, "a bridge to land our goods safe 
 and dry upon," i. e., a wharf, was constructed by Captain New- 
 port and "his Mariners." The construction of this wharf is 
 alluded to in the " Breife Declaration," J as follows: 
 
 "A framed Bridge was alsoe then erected, during Sir Thomas 
 Smith's administration, which utterly decayed before the end of 
 Sir Thomas Smith's government, that being the only bridge 
 (any way soe to be called) that was ever in the country." 
 
 From the above it is obvious that the water was too shallow 
 
 * Percy's Discourse. 
 
 t The Genesis of the United States, p. 488. 
 
 J A Breife Declaraiion of the Plantation of Virginia, &c., McDonald 
 Papers, Vol. I, pp. 103-142. 
 
THE SITE OF OLD " JAMES TOWNE." 19 
 
 for vessels to lie against the shore in front of the fort, which, 
 therefore, as above stated, was not at the original landing-place. 
 It was, however, probably not far distant, for if otherwise, the 
 settlers, with their limited means of carriage, would have been 
 at great labor in moving their equipment, stores and ordnance. 
 A natural site for the fort would have been just east of the valley 
 at the upper extremity of the fourth ridge. Thus situated, the 
 guns of its north bastion would have swept the branch of the 
 swamp below and of the vale above, while those of its east and 
 west bastions would have commanded the river front and the 
 channel approaching from below, as did the guns of its succes- 
 sor, the Confederate fort of 1861. In the above described posi- 
 tion the branch of the swamp between the second and fourth 
 ridges would have afforded additional protection against the 
 Indians. The third ridge was possibly strategically as favorable 
 as the fourth, but its crest is two feet lower and its area above 
 the level of great tides much smaller. It was, therefore, not as 
 well adapted to the needs of the first settlers. 
 
 In excavating earth in 1861, at the head of the fourth ridge 
 near the Confederate fort for its' construction, pieces of armor 
 and weapons of the early "James Towne " period were found, 
 a good indication that the fort of 1607 was located about as above 
 described. From the shore in front of it a wharf only about 
 two hundred feet long would have been required to reach water 
 twelve feet deep. 
 
 The parade ground where " the whole Company every Satur- 
 day exercised, in the plaine by the west Bulwarke, prepared for 
 that purpose " * * * " where sometimes more than an 
 hundred Salvages would stand in an amazement to behold, how 
 a fyle would batter a tree, where he [Captain John Smith] would 
 make them a marke to shoot at,"* was on the plateau at the 
 head of the fourth ridge between the western curtain of the tri- 
 angular fort and the little valley. As shown on the map, it was 
 three hundred feet long and upwards of one hundred feet wide. 
 From the " Breife Declaration," it is learned that "After this 
 first supplie" [January, r6o8], "there were some few poore 
 howses built, & entrance made in cleeringe of grounde to the 
 
 * Works, Captain John Smith, p. 433. 
 
20 THE SITE OF OLD "JAMES TOWNE." 
 
 quantitye of foure acres for the whole Collony, hunger & sick- 
 ness not permittinge any great matters to be donne that yeare." 
 It does not seem probable that the clearing, on account of its 
 small area, was made for agricultural purposes, for while Captain 
 John Smith was president, probably in the spring of. 1609, or 
 about a year after the clearing of the four acres was begun, thirty 
 or forty acres of ground were worked and planted.* Whatever 
 may have been the purpose for which the four acre tract was in- 
 tended, it is evident from what follows that it, or some other 
 tract of the same area, was subsequently surrounded by a stock- 
 ade and formed the town. 
 
 Further on in the same narrative by the ancient planters ap- 
 pears the following: ' ' Fortification against a foreign enemy there 
 was none, only two or three peeces of ordinance mounted, & 
 against a domestic [enemy] noe other but a pale inclosinge the 
 Towne, to the quantitye of foure acres within which those build- 
 ings that weare erected, could not in any man's judgement, 
 neither did stand above five yeares & that not without continuall 
 reparations." 
 
 The part of the " Declaration " from which the above' is ex- 
 tracted is ambiguous and obscure, Henrico and James Towne 
 being described, as it were, in the same breath. It would appear, 
 however, from the context that the four acres were at the latter 
 place, and this view is indirectly confirmed by Ralph Hamor, 
 who, as appears from the following, gives the area of Henrico 
 as seven acres; "and in the beginning of September, 161 1, he 
 [Dale] set from lamestown, and in a day & a halfe, landed at a 
 place where he purposed to seate & builde, where he had not 
 bin ten daies before he had very strongly impaled seuen English 
 Acres of ground for a towne. "t 
 
 There are no data available giving the slightest clue as to the 
 situation of the four acres. It is believed that they included the 
 area of one acre covered by the first fort, because the second 
 paragraph above quoted from the " Declaration " states that the 
 paled town covered four acres. 
 
 Shortly after Captain John Smith became president of the 
 colony (September, 1608) the plan of the fort was reduced to 
 
 * Ibid, pp. 154,471- 
 
 t A True Discourse of the prrsent estate of Virginia, p. 29. 
 
THE SITE OF OLD " JAMES TOWNE." 21 
 
 "a five-square form."* This is construed to apply to the form 
 of the town, after it was enlarged as noted above. 
 
 The safest, and, therefore, .the most natural position for the 
 three-acre addition, would have been adjoining the eastern bul- 
 wark of the triangular fort. From its southern end the minia- 
 ture town, fronting the river, probably extended east about one 
 hundred yards, thence in a northerly direction to and along the 
 eastern wall of the present cemetery, thence northwesterly by 
 "the old Create Roade " given as the eastern boundary of a 
 tract granted John Howard in i694,t and thence westerly by a 
 line which subsequently formed the southern boundary of Rich- 
 ard Lawrence's tract, and in the line of its prolongation about 
 at the level of great tides — eight feet above low water — to the 
 north bastion of the triangular fort, whose western and southern 
 bulwarks completed the inclosure. These lines would make the 
 fort "a five-square form" or pentagon. "The old Create 
 Road," judging from its name, was of great antiquity. It was 
 probably one of the first roads opened by the settlers, and passed 
 along one of the paled sides of the early town, as above de- 
 scribed. 
 
 The original triangular fort must have been maintained for 
 several years, as an inner stronghold of the paled town. Dur- 
 ing Strachey's sojourn in the colony, from May, 1610, to the 
 fall of 161 1, the principal buildings were situated within it. The 
 stockade around the part of the town outside of the fort proper 
 was probably kept up for some time after the massacre of i6i!2, 
 until the settlement gained a sufficient foothold to make it un- 
 necessary as a defence against the Indians. 
 
 LOCATIONS OF BLOCK HOUSES. 
 
 FOR preventing incursions of the Indians across the isthmus, 
 Captain John Smith, in the Spring of 1609, "built a Block- 
 house in the neck of our Isle." This was replaced by a similar 
 structure about 1624. The latter is referred to in a patent to John 
 Bauldwin in 1656, which locates it approximately. It appears, 
 
 * Works, Captain John Smith, p. 433. 
 
 t Va. Land Patent Records, Book VIH, p. 82. 
 
22 THE SITE Ot OLD " JAMES TOWNE." 
 
 from the patent, that the later block house was near the earlier 
 one. The ridge on which the block houses were placed, the 
 first ridge, is referred to in the patents as Block House Hill. 
 A "bank of earth not a- flight shot long cast up thwart the neck 
 of the peninsula " by Sir William Berkeley, in September, 1676, 
 to oppose the entrance of Bacon's men to ' ' James Citty "* must 
 have been situated on the north side of Block House Hill at the 
 southern end of the isthmus. 
 
 There were also, according to Ralph Hamor, two block 
 houses "to observe and watch least the Indians at anytime 
 should swim over the back river and come into the Island." He 
 does not, however, give their locations. 
 
 DESCRIPTION OF THE TOWN. 
 
 THE cluster of huts constituting the habitations of the first 
 hundred settlers, enfolded in its chrysalis-like stockade, was 
 hardly entitled to the appellation of town. The term city, given 
 the collection of unpretentious brick buildings of a later day, 
 was equally a misnomer. 
 
 For the details of the first structures erected, as of most 
 other matters pertaining to the early settlement. Captain John 
 Smith is the principal authority. 
 
 As the time of Newport's colony, immediately after its arrival 
 in Virginia was occupied in exploring the country, building the 
 stockade, and preparing a cargo for the return voyage of the 
 ships, the building of quarters was neglected, and those erected 
 were inadequate in number and afforded but imperfect shelter. 
 The best of them were built of rails and roofed with marsh grass 
 thatch covered with earth. f According to the "Breife Decla- 
 ration," some of the settlers lived in holes in the ground, as is 
 sometimes done on the western plains, where they are called 
 " dug-outs." 
 
 * The Beginning, Progress and Conclusion of Bacon's Rebellion in 
 Virginia in the years 1675 and 1676, by T. U.— Force's Historical Tracts, 
 Vol. I, p. 21. 
 
 t Works, Captain John Smith, p. 957. (The references in this mono- 
 graph to " Works, Captain yohn Smith," are from Prof. Edward Arber's 
 edition.) 
 
THE SITE OF OLD " JAMES TOWNE." 23 
 
 After Newport's departure, hot weather and general illness of 
 the party supervening, the completing of the huts was prevented 
 until the fall of 1607.* 
 
 The first huts were destroyed by fire in January, 1608, and 
 were not fully replaced until after Newport's departure for Eng- 
 land, in April of that year,t about which time the clearing of 
 the four acres was begun. 
 
 The huts which replaced those that were burned were more 
 comfortable thart the latter. Their sides were lined ivith Indian 
 mats, and the roofs made of boards. J They were apparently 
 without floors. Improvements were gradually made in hut 
 construction by roofing with the bark of trees so as to shed 
 water, probably in the same manner as half cylinder roofing 
 tiles are used, and erecting " wide and large country chimnips," 
 of wattles plastered with clay.§ About a year later twenty ad- 
 ditional houses were added, || and, when Captain Smith left the 
 settlement in 1609, it had, according to his account, within the 
 fort, then equipped with twenty-four guns of different calibers, 
 of which, however, probably not over six were mounted in the 
 bastions, besides the church and store house, forty or fifty of the 
 above huts.° Dr. Simmonds states that there were fifty or sixty 
 houses within the stockade,^ where also was situated the well, 
 prior to digging which the settlers drank the slimy, brackish 
 water of the river, thus bringing on serious enteric troubles. 
 The well water, naturally enough, was filled with organic matter 
 and was sometimes brackish. It was found in an unsanitary 
 condition by Dale in 161 1, resulting probably from its proximity 
 to the huts. Dale proposed, among other improvements to be 
 made in the town, the digging of a new well. In 1617 the new 
 well was found to be polluted." 
 
 The fort undoubtedly stood above the level of great tides, as 
 otherwise, Captain John Smith or others would have referred in 
 their writings to the discomforts arising from tidal inundations. 
 Judging from the contours of the ground, at or adjoining the 
 
 * Ibid, pp. 10, 96, 392. \ Ibid, pp. 105, 409. 
 
 } Ibid, pp. 502, 503. \Purchas His Vilgrimes, Lib. IX, p. 1752. 
 
 II Works, Captain John Smith, pp. 154, 47). 
 
 ° Ibid, p. 612. Tf Ibid, p. 486. 
 
 '•'' Works, Captain John Smith, p. 535. 
 
24 THE. SITE OF OLD " JAMES TOWNE. " 
 
 site of the fort, its elevation was not less than seven or eight 
 feet above low water.* 
 
 According to Strachey, whose writings show that he was well 
 grounded in the humanities, although not so well versed in the 
 science of numbers, the ground enclosed by the first fort had an 
 area of a half-acre. The fort was a stockade about fourteen feet 
 high, formed of trees set about four feet in the ground. Its 
 south curtain or bulwark was one hundred and forty yards long 
 and the other two sides one hundred yards each. It is inferred 
 from each of the pales forming a load for two or three men, that 
 they were eight to ten inches in diameter, f 
 
 It is very improbable that the fort had any earthworks. It 
 had three entrances or ports, one through each curtain or bul- 
 wark, the principal one being through the south curtain. Within 
 the stockade, facing each port, was a fieldpiece. 
 
 The huts were arranged in rows parallel to the curtains with 
 a street thirty to thirty-six feet wide intervening. Within the 
 hollow triangle formed by the lines of huts, and having probably 
 an area of about a half acre, were the guard house, the market 
 place and the chapel "in length three score foote in breadth 
 twenty-foure.";|: 
 
 Dr. Simmonds gives the width of the streets between the lines 
 of huts and the palisades at eight to ten yards. § 
 
 In 1611, Sir Thomas Dale erected a " munition-house," a 
 powder-house, a fish-house, a shelter-shed for cattle and a stable, || 
 and a few months later Sir Thomas Gates added a storehouse, 
 covering a space of one hundred and twenty by forty feet and a 
 number (not given) of log houses arranged in two rows, some 
 
 *The depth of the well in the fort is given by Strachey in Purchas 
 His Pilgrimes at six or seven fathoms. This, evidently, is a misprint, 
 and should read six or seven feet. The level of water in wells on the 
 island follows that of the tides. The bottom of an ancient well on the 
 third ridge is about i Js feet below low tide. A proper depth for a well 
 in the fort would probably have been 7 to 9)^ feet, depending on the 
 elevation of the ground. 
 
 t Works, Captain John Smith, p. 612. 
 
 X Purchas His Pilgrimes, Liber IX, pp. 1752, 1753. 
 
 ^ Works, Captain John Smith, p. 407. 
 
 II The Genesis of the United States, p. 492. 
 
THE SITE OF OLD " JAMES TOWNE." 25 
 
 of which were two stones and a garret high. About this time 
 also the stockade was repaired and a new gun platform placed at 
 its western end, presumably at the point of the triangular fort 
 known ,as the west bastion.* It is apparent that if all of the 
 different structures above enumerated were situated within the 
 triangular fort, whose area was a small fraction more than one 
 acre, there would have remained little or no room for the three 
 or four hundred people who sometimes constituted the popula- 
 tion. Some of the buildings, therefore, were outside of the 
 triangle and in other parts of the paled town. The place must 
 now have presented an appearance similar to that of some of our 
 earlier frontier posts. 
 
 On account of unseasoned or sappy timber being used for the 
 log houses, but five or six remained serviceable in iSiy.f No 
 improvements, however, appear to have been made after Gates' 
 second administration in 1614, or new buildings added except 
 the wooden church last referred to, whose dimensions were fifty 
 by twenty feet, until Sir George Yeardley's arrival in 1619. 
 
 In 1623 there were but twenty-two dwellings at "James Citty," 
 a seemingly insufficient number to accommodate the new set- 
 tlers who, on their way to the interior, for several years, had 
 been arriving in large numbers. The massacre of 1622 and un- 
 favorable reports of the colony published by several unprincipled 
 partisans of Sir Thomas Smythe, treasurer or governor of the 
 London Company, to create prejudice against and destroy con- 
 fidence in the Virginia enterprise under the administrations of 
 Sir Edwin Sandys, Smythe' s successor, and of the Earl of South- 
 ampton, who succeeded Sandys, checked the growth of the 
 colony and, to some extent, therefore, that of the town. 
 
 For many years the place apparently made little or no progress. 
 On February 20, 1636, a law was enacted by the Grand Assem- 
 bly X providing for a grant of a house lot and garden plot to 
 every settler that would build thereon within six months. A 
 similar law was made in 1638, and, as a result, twelve dwellings 
 and stores, including the first brick house of the colony, sixteen 
 
 * Hamor's Trtie Discourse, p. 33. 
 
 t Works, Captain John Smith, p. 535. 
 
 t Virginia Land Patent Records, Book I, p. 689. 
 
26 THE SITE OF OLD " JAMES TOWNE. " 
 
 by twenty-four feet in plan, were erected. Within the year fol- 
 lowing all the lots along the town's water front were patented.* 
 
 The patent records contain eight land grants made within the 
 town precincts between 1636 and 1642. f In the latter year Sir 
 William Berkeley, the new governor, arrived bearing instruc- 
 tions from the Royal government to rebuild the town with brick 
 houses. According to the instructions every person who, "within 
 a convenient time," should erect in any town of the colony a 
 brick dwelling sixteen by twenty-four feet with a cellar would be 
 granted five hundred acres of land. The colonial government 
 was also empowered, in view of the existing town having proved 
 unhealthy, to build a new one elsewhere, which, however, should 
 bear the original name of "James Towne.";|: In March, 1643, 
 the Grand Assembly framed a statute, according to which builders 
 of houses on deserted lots in "James Citty " would acquire a 
 title to the lot built on, provided the back quit rents were paid.§ 
 
 The patent transcripts contain twelve issues for town lots be- 
 tween 1642 and 1662. At the close of the interregnum 4n 1661, 
 during Sir William Berkeley's second term as governor of Vir- 
 ginia, he was again urged by the King to take steps to enlarge 
 the town by erecting more houses, the monarch assuring him 
 that " Wee will take it very well at their hands if they [the mem- 
 bers of the colonial council] will each of them build one or more 
 houses there." II 
 
 In deference to the King's wish, an act was passed at the next 
 ensuing session of the Assembly, inhibiting the building of any 
 more wooden houses, and prescribing that there should be 
 erected at "James Citty" thirty-two brick houses, forty by 
 twenty feet in plan inside, apparently two stories high, and 
 
 * McDonald Papers, Vol. I, pp. 247-249. Governor Harvey and 
 Council to Privy Council, January, 1639. 
 
 t Virginia Land Patent Records, Book I, pp. 466, 587, 588, 595, rgS, 
 689, 730. Reference is made hereinafter to the incompleteness of the 
 records. 
 
 t Instructions to Governor Berkeley and Council, August, 1641.— 
 McDonald Papers, Vol. I, p. 383. 
 
 \ Hening's Statutes, Vol. I, p. 252. 
 
 II Instructions to Governor Berkeley, McDonald Papers, Vol. r, p. 414. 
 
THE SITE OF OLD " JAMES TOWNE." 27 
 
 roofed with slate or tile.* Each of the seventeen counties was 
 required to build, at its expense, one of the houses. The above 
 attempt to force the town's growth was a failure, for in 1676, at 
 the outbreak of Bacon's Rebellion, the community held but six- 
 teen or eighteen dwellings, most "as is the church built of brick, 
 faire and large; and in them a dozen families (for all the houses 
 are not inhabited) getting their liveings by keeping of ordinaries 
 at extreordinary rates, "t The unoccupied houses were some 
 of those which had been ordered built by statute of pecember, 
 1662, but had never been completed, if most probably on account 
 of the poverty of their builders. 
 
 In 167G the entire town was destroyed by Bacon as a strategic 
 measure. 
 
 In 1682, Lord Culpeper, the governor, received instructions 
 from England to rebuild, the royal good will being again tend- 
 ered, a§ in the message to Berkeley of 1661, to the members of 
 the council and prominent citizens of the town who should initi- 
 ate the work. Two good houses had at that time been erected 
 by Colonel Bacon the elder, and others were either under con- 
 struction or proposed. Lord Culpeper's reply to the King's mes- 
 sage contains a reason for the town's lack of recuperative power. 
 " I have given all encouragement possible for the rebuilding of 
 James Citty, The Generall Courts, publick offices, and meetings 
 of Assemblies having been alwayes kept there. And Greenspring 
 (the nearest convenient habitation) My place of Residence. But 
 there being an Apprehension in many persons that there are 
 other places in the Country more proper for a Metropolis, And 
 that the aforesaid Act for Building Townes, would make one in 
 the most naturall place, there hath not till now of late been Any 
 Great Advance therein. As to the proposall of Building Houses 
 by those of the Councell and the cheefe Inhabitants, It hath 
 been once attempted in vaine, nothing but profitt and advantage 
 can doe it, and then there will be noe need of Anything else."§ 
 
 In 1697 the number of houses in the town was reported to be 
 twenty or thirty. 
 
 * Hening's Statutes, Vol. II, p. 172. 
 
 t Burwell MS., Force's Historical-Tracts, Vol. I, Bacons Proseedings. ^ 
 
 X British State Papers, Colonial, No. 62. 
 
 I McDonald Papers, Vol. .VI, p. 165. 
 
* 
 
 28 THE SITE OF OLD "JAMES TOWNE. ' 
 
 In 1698, the royal mandate to build up the town was reiterated 
 to Governor Nicholson, but before any steps could be taken to 
 act on it, a fire occurred, by which the statehouse and prison, 
 and probably all other buildings on the third ridge, were de- 
 stroyed. 
 
 At a session of the General Assembly held in April, 1699, acts 
 were passed for establishing the city of Williamsburg (about 
 eight miles north-east of "James Towne "), for erecting a State- 
 house there and providing for raising funds to defray its cost 
 by imposing an import tax on slaves, also on servants not born 
 in England or Wales, brought to the colony. t 
 
 After the fire of 1698, "James Citty " waned. One patent 
 for a small tract in the town, issued in October, 1699, J is of re- 
 cord, but no new houses are known to have been erected. 
 Twenty-three years later, the place comprised nothing but 
 "Abundance of Brick Rubbish, and three or four good inhabited 
 Houses, tho' the Parish is of pretty large Extent, but less than 
 others. "§ In 1807, there were two dwellings on the island, the 
 Jacquelin-Ambler and Travis mansions, and in 1861, but one, 
 the former, which was burned during the ensuing war. The 
 above house was afterwards rebuilt, and again burned in 1896. 
 The ground on which it formerly stood was probably owned by 
 Sir Francis Wyatt in 1623. At some time prior to 1690 it be- 
 longed to John Page, clerk of the Assembly, from whom it was 
 purchased by William Sherwood. || 
 
 POPULATION OF THE TOWN AND COLONY. 
 
 DURING the first eighteen years of the settling of Virginia 
 there were great fluctuations in the population of the colony, 
 and also of "James Forte" and "James Towne." Each influx 
 of new life was followed by a more or less rapid ebbing of the 
 human tide, resulting from the ravages of disease and the toma- 
 hawk. During the first eight months the fort's population 
 
 * The Present State of Virginia, by Hugh Jones, A. M., p. 25. 
 
 ■\Hening's Statutes, Vol. Ill, pp. 193 and 197. 
 
 J Va. Land Pat. Records, Book IX, p. 232. 
 
 ? The Present State of Virginia, by Hugh Jones, A. M., p. 25. 
 
 II Va. Land Pat. Records, Book VIII, p. 384. 
 
THE SITE OK OLD " JAMES TOWNE." 29 
 
 dwindled from one hundred and five to a little band of thirty- 
 eight persons, the smallest number that the colony ever held. 
 By the arrival of several reinforcements during the twenty-one 
 months following (January, 1608, to October, 1609"), its popu- 
 lation was increased to upwards of 490.* Within eight months 
 the above number was reduced by death from starvation, cli- 
 matic illness, and pestilence, to about sixty persons. Fresh 
 accessions under Gates a,nd La Warre in June, 16 10, brought 
 the number up to about 350, most of whom were quartered in 
 the town. In a few months this number was diminished by death 
 to about 200. Thus far about 900 persons had been sent from 
 England .to Virginia, of whom about 700 had perished. 
 
 Between December, 1606, and November, 1619, it is estimated 
 that 2,540 persons emigrated to Virginia, of whom 1,640 died.f 
 Between the latter date and February, 1625, 4,749 colonists 
 came to Virginia and 4,400 died, thus making a total mortality 
 in about nineteen years of 6,040, out of 7,289.! 
 
 According to John Wroth, a member of the Warwick faction, 
 up to 1623, 3,570 out of 5,270 colonists died in the four j^ears 
 ending with 1622. § Captain Nathaniel Butler represented that 
 up to the winter of 1622, the mortality was 8,000 out of 10,000, || 
 while the resident colonists declared that up to the winter of 
 1622 not over 6,000 were sent to Virginia, of whom 2,500 were 
 living.^ Captain John Smith says: " neere 7,000 people " out 
 of 8,500 had died to 1627.° 
 
 As pointed out above, there were in June, 1610, about 350 
 people at "James Towne." In 1616, there were on the entire 
 island fifty persons, under Lieutenant Sharpe. It is stated that 
 in the following year there were 400 persons at ' ' James Towne, 
 of whom, on account of sickness, only one-half were effective." 
 
 * Works, Captain John Smith, p. 486. The numbers reported brought 
 by diflferent vessels indicate a less number. 
 
 t The First Republic in America, pp. 285, 329. 
 
 Xlbid, p. 612. 
 
 \ The Genesis of the United States, p. 1064. 
 
 II The Unmasked Face. 
 
 '{The Denial of Nathaniel Butler's "The Unmasked Face," Neill's 
 History of the Va. Company, p. 405. 
 
 "Works, Captain John Smith, p. 884. "-"-Ibid, p. 536. 
 
30 THE SITE OF OLD "JAMES TOWNE. " 
 
 A census taken in 1623 gives the population of the town at 
 183. It also shows that during the preceding year, eighty-nine 
 had died in the town.* 
 
 Although "James Citty " had now assumed more of the pro- 
 portions of a town, it possessed none of the attractions or allure- 
 ments which would demand expenditures of money, and probably 
 but kw opportunities for making it by trade. The simple, prim- 
 itive tastes of the settlers, coupled with their general poverty, 
 made shops superfluous. In 1625 the town had one merchant's 
 store. t An attempt was made in 1649 to hold a bi-weekly mar- 
 ket. This was a complete failure and, six years later, the act 
 providing for the market was repealed. X 
 
 Nearly all who came to the colony, except the officials, had 
 all to make and little to spend. The population of the town, 
 therefore, did not keep pace with that of the colony, in which, 
 after about the first twenty-five years, it slowly but steadily in- 
 creased. In 1634 it amounted to5,ii9;§ in 1649, to i5,ooo;|| 
 in 1665, to 40,000; If in 1681, to 70,000 or 80,000;° and in 1715 
 to 95,000." The function of the town was that of furnishing a 
 place for the assembling of the legislature and for holding courts. 
 Its permanent population, after about 1623, comprised only a 
 part of the bureaucracy of the colony, and .tavern keepers, with 
 their respective families, amounting possibly to one hundred 
 persons, which approximate number was periodically doubled by 
 the meetings of the assembly and court. 
 
 * McDonald Papers, Vol. I. 
 
 t The First Republic in America, p. 623. 
 
 X Hening's Statutes, Vol. I, pp. 362, 397. , 
 
 I State Papers, Colonial, Vol, 8, No. 65, 1634, De Jarnette Papers. 
 
 II Force's Historical Tracts, Vol. II. A Perfect Description of Vir- 
 ginia, p. I. 
 
 If Winder Papers, Vol. I, p. 187. ^ 
 
 "Sainsbury Abstracts, Vol. 1681-1685, par. 275. Of this number 76 
 per cent, were freemen. 
 
 '•^Chalmer's American Colonies, Vol. II, p. 7. 
 
THE SITE OF OLD "jAMES TOWNE." 31 
 
 SUFFERINGS OF THE EARLY COLONISTS. 
 
 THE settlement near the head of Jamestown Island was at 
 first called "James Forte" and "James Towne," usually the 
 latter. After the fort was enlarged in 1608, and until about 
 1620, or shortly after the close of Sir Thomas Smythe's admin- 
 istration as governor of the London Company, it was almost 
 invariably referred to by the latter appellation. 
 
 The sufferings of the colonists during the above period have 
 probably never been surpassed or even equalled in measure or 
 degree in any other pioneer colony. Under the Smythe regime 
 the colonists' greatest sufferings resulted from hunger. Hand 
 in hand with faminestalked pestilence, yellow fever communicated 
 by vessels bound for "James Towne" which had touched at 
 the West Indies, and bubonic plague and cholera brought from 
 London. Fevers and dysentery resulting from exposure, nox- 
 ious exhalations from the surrounding marshes and from forest 
 mould for the first time exposed to the heat of the summer sun, 
 and impure water, did their share in decimating the colony. 
 The remedies then in use doubtless increased the mortality, 
 bringing fatal results to many who, without them, would have 
 recovered. That the leaders did not succumb was no doubt 
 largely due to nearly all being in the prime of manhood and inured 
 to hardship through the campaigns against the Spaniards in the 
 Netherlands, by which experience they had learned how to avert 
 some of the bad effects of camp life. 
 
 As the colonists were but meagerly supplied with provisions 
 from England and raised but few food products, their labor be- 
 ing principally employed in producing tobacco and other articles 
 for export, for the benefit of the London Company, their sub- 
 sistence during the first four or five years was derived principally 
 from the Indian, either by force or barter. They were not per- 
 mitted to engage in planting on their own account, except, 
 on condition of contributing a part of their crops and one 
 month's services annually to the London Company. Their let- 
 ters to and from England were intercepted and proffers of assist- 
 ance to the company in behalf of individual colonists from their 
 friends were declined, with the assurance that they were well 
 provided for. None was allowed to leave Virginia, except by 
 
32 THE SITE OF OLD " JAMES TOWNE." 
 
 special permission, and it is narrated that a passport from the 
 King for the return of a colonist to England was sewed in a 
 garter to. insure its delivery.* 
 
 The settlers were, to all purposes, in a state of servitude, from 
 which, as a special favor, some were offered release on condition 
 of working three years on Fort Charles. The abhorrence with 
 which life in the colony was regarded is exemplified by a state- 
 ment in a letter from the Spanish Ambassador in London to 
 Philip III. of Spain, in December, 1616, that while two of three 
 thieves under sentence of death availed themselves of the alter- 
 native of going to Virginia, the third preferred hanging, f 
 
 The climax of suffering was reached when on June 7, 1610, 
 the sixty survivors of four hundred and ninety settlers of but 
 eight months before, broken in health and crushed in spirit, 
 turned their backs on the odious town where tragedy had been 
 almost continually enacted for three years. So deeply impressed 
 by the abject misery of this remnant had been the members of 
 the lately arrived party of Sir Thomas Gates that they had readily 
 joined in the flight from suffering and horrors which they be- 
 lieved would be their lot if they tarried at the ill-favored spot. 
 This, the climax of the critical period of the colony, was safely 
 passed when the astute La Warre, newly apppinted governor of 
 Virginia, being apprised on his arrival from England at Point 
 Comfort of the intended abandonment of the colony, thwarted 
 the plan by despatching Captain Brewster ahead of his fleet to 
 meet the forlorn party, and turned it back to the deserted post, 
 where the tragedy was renewed for another and longer term of 
 years. 
 
 An amelioration of the colonists' condition was brought about 
 by the election in 1619, of Sir Edwin Sandys, as successor to 
 Sir Thomas Smythe, to the office of treasurer or governor of 
 the London Company. Even before the new administration was 
 elected, the former policy of the company, which had been act- 
 uated by commercial avarice, was abandoned, through the in- 
 fluence of the Sandys party, which inaugurated in its stead one 
 inspired by broad and liberal views. The ' ' most severe and 
 
 *A Briefe Declaration, etc., McDonald Papers, Vol. I, pp. 103-142. 
 t The Genesis of the United States, p. 900. 
 
THE SITE OF OLD "jAMES TOWNE. " 33 
 
 cruel" "Lavves, Diuine, Morall and Martiall," were repealed, 
 and courts of justice established after the manner of those of 
 the mother country; the "ancient planters" who had arrived 
 before the time of Dale were released from further service to the 
 colony, land titles were confirmed and the individual ownership 
 of land introduced by patent. The colony was also allowed to 
 elect its own legislative body. The last mentioned privilege, 
 however, although enjoyed in 1619, does not appear to have 
 been officially promulgated until the publication of the written 
 constitution in 1621,* under the. administration of Sir Henry 
 Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton, who had succeeded Sir 
 Edwin Sandys in 1620. These reforms and privileges stimulated 
 the colony to renewed efforts and led to the development of its 
 principal town. 
 
 "THE NEW TOWNE." 
 
 THE new policy of the company was carried out by Sir George 
 Yeardley, whose methods were in striking contrast with 
 those of his predecessor, the unprincipled Argall. This ma^rked 
 the beginning of a new era in the colony, of which a feature was 
 "the New Towne," as it was styled in the patents to its resi- 
 dents, with new and better constructed habitations. 
 
 One of the thoroughfares of "the New Towne" is referred 
 to in the patents as " the Back Street." As will appear below, 
 " the New Towne " at first comprised the most important part 
 of the corporation, and, as a matter of fact, seems to have been 
 the first substantially built town. Prior to its establishment, 
 land appears not to have been perfectly vested in the settlers. 
 With the beginning of this era and ever after, the place is re- 
 ferred to in the surviving patent transcripts, with the single ex- 
 ception of one of 1664, in which it is called "James Towne," 
 as "James Citty." It is also invariably so referred to in the 
 reports of the meetings of the General or Grand Assembly. The 
 island and containing county were named from the town, the 
 county still bearing the name of James City. 
 
 Although the official name of the place was "James Citty," 
 it was generally referred to in official correspondence as "James 
 Towne." 
 
 ''' Hening's Siaiules, Vol. I, pp. no, iir, 112. 
 
34 THE SITE OF OLD "JAMES TOWNE. 
 
 As it is the general opinion that the greater part of the ancient 
 town site has been washed away, it will be a pleasant surprise 
 to many to learn that this view is erroneous. The proof of the 
 error is furnished by the old ' ' James Citty ' ' patent records, 
 which, when properly interpreted, show that but a small propor- 
 tion of the town site has been destroyed, and that the quarter 
 called "the New Towne" has not been encroached on to any 
 appreciable extent by the river. References in some of the 
 patents to branches of " Pitch and Tarr Swamp," and to other 
 topographical features which are probably almost as clearly de- 
 fined as they were two or three centuries ago, have made it pos- 
 sible to locate the site of "the New Towne," and the greater 
 part of the west end, or old town quarter. Former students of 
 the records have either abandoned them with the conviction 
 that they were too indefinite or obscure for solution, or miscon- 
 struing them, evolved incoherent conclusions which have misled 
 and confused the reader. The transcripts pertaining to ' ' James 
 Citty," which are valued principally as old curios, form a laby- 
 rinth, in treading which for a long time, a step in any direction 
 led seemingly to hopeless perplexities, and only after repeated 
 and long continued efforts to interpret them, was the "open 
 sesame " found, and a sufficient number linked together to fur- 
 nish a chart of the ancient town. The period they cover ex- 
 tends from 1619 to 1699. The pages of the record containing 
 two of the earliest and most interesting grants, viz : to Governor 
 Sir George Yeardley, Knt., and Captain Roger Smith, as stated 
 in the introduction, are missing. This will be generally re- 
 gretted, as possibly on account of their not having been correctly 
 deciphered, the renditions contained in historical publications 
 are not clear. 
 
 The method employed in evolving the chart from the patents, 
 although apparently not complicated, was slow, tedious, and re- 
 plete with failures. Briefly stated, it consisted of finding and 
 uniting plats of different tracts found to have common bound- 
 aries. The topography and objects referred to in the patents 
 were platted simultaneously with the boundaries of the land 
 they described. 
 
 The incompleteness of the existing records is made apparent 
 by the references in several transcripts to patents which are not 
 
THE SITE OF OLD " JAMES TOWNE." 35 
 
 of record. Those missing were no doubt improperly entered 
 "in books labelled Bonds, Commissions, Depositions," &c.,* 
 which no longer exist. Although the records are incomplete, 
 and the descriptions in some of those available contain inaccu- 
 racies which required considerable study to correct, while those 
 in others are too meagre or vague to aiford any clue to the land's 
 position, they, in many cases, not only furnish the metes and 
 bounds of the area patented, but also a variety of other inform- 
 ation, e. g:, the ancient names of different localities of the town 
 and island, the positions and directions of the river-bank and 
 highways, the sites of the second fort, called "the turf fort," 
 "the Back Street," in "the New Towne," "the Country 
 House," burned, probably, about 1660, the several statehouse 
 buildings, dwellings of some of the later residents, and other 
 objects now of great interest. A few of the earlier patents re- 
 cord the vocation and social position of the patentee and even 
 the name of the ship in which he came to Virginia, and the year 
 of arrival. 
 
 The majority of the plats based on the patents, and repre- 
 sented on the map by solid lines, probably possess about the 
 same degree of accuracy as the work of the average class of 
 compass surveys of to-day. Between 1623 and 1644 only the 
 general directions of land lines are given in the descriptions. 
 About the latter year the surveyors were apparently less inexact 
 and recorded azimuths to the nearest quarter point, or about 
 2^ degrees. In a patent of 1656 the azimuths of several sides 
 are given to }i point. 
 
 The direction of the Back Street in the Pott patent of 1624 is 
 recorded as " eastward." The azimuth of the street is definitely 
 learned from the Phips patent, which included the Pott patent, 
 and was issued thirty-two years later, to have been E. S. E. ^ S. 
 
 Until about 1667 the azimuths of lines were expressed in the 
 same terms as are employed by mariners in boxing the com- 
 pass. Beginning with the above year, azimuths are given in 
 degrees. By 1683, more careful work appears to have been the 
 rule, and azimuths are recorded to one-fourth of a degree. It 
 would appear from the foregoing that prior to about 1667 some 
 
 *Hening's Statutes, Vo\. II, p. 509. 
 
36 THE SITE OF OLD " JAMES TOWNE." 
 
 form of the mariner's compass was used in making land surveys, 
 and that about that year the circumferentor came into use. 
 
 The consideration on account of which land was granted was 
 always specified in the patent. During the first twenty years it 
 was usually, a reimbursement to the patentee of the cost of his 
 own transportation and that of others to the colony, which he 
 had defrayed. The portions of land are styled devidends * and 
 dividents, and were for fifty acres per capita. The grant was 
 conditioned by the annual payment of a nominal sum of money 
 (one shilling per 50 acres) or quantity of tobacco (two to five 
 pounds), designated a fee rent. The fee was made payable in 
 money or tobacco to the " Cape Merchant," as the treasurer 
 was called, either at the feast of St. Michael, the Archangel, or 
 at that of St. Thomas, the Apostle. In at least two of the 
 "James Citty " patents the specified fee is a capon, "to his 
 Majestic' s use," payable "at the feast of St. Thomas the Apos- 
 tle."! A condition named in some patents between 1636 and 
 1640 is that the patentee should erect a house within six months. J 
 
 The "James Citty " patents usually describe the grant as be- 
 ing a part of a dividend of fifty acres, or more, situated outside 
 the liberties of the town. 
 
 Several patents issued under Cromwell were subsequently con- 
 firmed by being re-issued under Charles II. 
 
 The transcripts of the patents are the sole remaining evidence 
 authoritatively fixing the initial spot of the nation's history, as 
 alrpost all other records, including those of the early convey- 
 ances, were burned during the War between the States. 
 
 The patents relating to "James Citty " are scattered through 
 nine ponderous volumes of MSS. Book I, on account of its an- 
 tiquity, is the most interesting of the series. As shown by his 
 indorsement at the end of the book, the transcript was made by 
 Edward Harrison in 1683, or nearly a century before the United 
 States attained its independence. The handwriting is clear and 
 uniform and to one familiar with the characters then employed, 
 is readily deciphered. 
 
 * This orthography is given in some of the earlier patents. 
 
 t Virginia Land Patent Records, Book I, p. 689, and Book IV, p. 475. 
 
 t Virginia Land Patent Records, Book I, p.. 689, and Book IV, p. 475. 
 
THE SITE OF OLD " JAMES TOWNE." 37 
 
 The abbreviation " y " for M in the and that does not appear 
 in this book, which includes the issues up to and during a part 
 of the year 1643. I''' fi''st occurrence is in Book VII, in the 
 patent to Edward Chilton, of 1683. The lower case ancient 
 script letter " p " frequently appears as an abbreviation for per 
 ox par in the patents of the entire "James Citty " period. 
 
 The second volume is indorsed "Beverly," probably Peter 
 Beverly, who from 1692 to 1700 was clerk of the House of Bur- 
 gesses, and in the latter year became its speaker. The book 
 was written in 1694. There are no indorsements in the other 
 books to show when they were written or the names of the 
 scriveners. 
 
 The first two books were undoubtedly written at "James 
 Citty," and, after escaping the State house fire of 1698, and that 
 of the Capitol at Williamsburg about 1747, were probably moved 
 to Richmond in 1780, when that city became the capital. They 
 have thus passed through two ordeals of fire and two wars and, 
 after silently witnessing many vicissitudes of fortune, rest in the 
 historic Capitol at Richmond. 
 
 There does not appear to be any record of legislative enact- 
 ment defining the limits of "James Citty" except one of 
 " Bacon's Laws," passed in 1676, by which those then existing 
 were extended to include the entire island.* The above act, 
 unfortunately, does not recite the previous limits. Shortly after 
 the Bacon uprising was suppressed and the Berkeley govern- 
 ment re-instated, the above law was repealed. 
 
 Beverly wrote in 1705, that in 1620, the corporations, as they 
 were then styled, were bounded, and that one of the new record 
 books of transcripts contained a statement of Governor Argall 
 to the effect that he had a knowledge of the boundaries of 
 "James Citty," He, however, adds that "there was not to be 
 found one word of the charter or patent itself of the corpora- 
 tion, "f The patent to Captain John Harvey in 1624 shows that 
 the lower branch of " Pitch and Tarr Swamp " was the town's 
 eastern boundary. 
 
 The patents indicate that the town included nearly all of the 
 
 * Hening Statutes, Vol. II, p. 362. 
 
 t History of the Present State of Virginia, p. 37. 
 
38 THE SITE OF OLD "JAMES TOWNE. 
 
 island above the "Head of Swamp," between James River and 
 the Back River (see map), and that the first and second ridges 
 formed, as it were, outlying districts. They show clearly that 
 after 1623, the most thickly settled part of the town was the 
 "New Towne," on the south shore of the island, below the 
 church. 
 
 About the time of Bacon's Rebellion, according to " Bacon's 
 Proseedings," of unknown authorship, in the Burwell MSS. 
 collection,* the town was situated "much about the midle of 
 the Sowth line, close upon the River, extending east and west, 
 about 3 quarters of a mile." This description accords with its 
 location as determined from the patents and shown on the map 
 between the initial letters F and G. The church tower, there- 
 fore, stood near the western end of the town. 
 
 "The New Towne " was situated on the southern slope of the 
 same ridge as the tower ruins (the fourth) and extended east 
 from the first town of four acres, about three-eighths of a mile, 
 to the lower branch of ' ' Pitch and Tarr Swamp. ' ' This area is 
 now mostly covered with orchards, in which considerable por- 
 tions of the ground are filled with particles of brick and mortar 
 of former buildings, scattered by the plow. 
 
 Back Street was east of the church and at distances from the 
 south .shore of the island varying from two hundred to six hun- 
 dred feet. The parts of it located were about sixty feet wide,t 
 and had the same general direction, east and west, as the high- 
 way referred to in the patents as the " way along the Create 
 River," or "Maine River," which constituted the front street 
 of the "New Towne." The two thoroughfares were connected 
 by cross lanes, referred to as highways. The Back Street lay 
 immediately in front of what is believed to have been the site 
 of the Jacquelin-Ambler mansion. It could not have been a 
 street in the modern signification of the word, with sidewalks 
 and pavements, for paving before the doors of houses, even in 
 " London Towne," was not introduced until 1614. It seems to 
 have merged into the "old Create Road," which led to the. 
 
 * Force's Historical Tracts, Vol. I. 
 
 t Obtained by platting independently the tracts on opposite sides of 
 the street. 
 
THE SITE OF OLD " JAMES TOWNE." 39 
 
 head of the island and passed near the northeast corner of the 
 old churchyard, a few rods from the same corner of the present 
 one, near which there appear to be traces of a road. 
 
 Traces of the highway along the river-bank, bordered by its 
 gnarled and riven mulberries, lineal descendants, no doubt, of 
 some cited in several patents as reference trees, are still to be 
 seen. The planting of mulberry trees for feeding silkworms was 
 initiated in 1621, and made compulsory by statute. Silk culture 
 received attention as early as 1614, but the enterprise was never 
 a commercial success. Foreign workmen were imported to 
 teach silk making, and a present of silk was sent Charles II by 
 Sir William Berkeley in 1668.* 
 
 Among the earlier residents of " the New Towne " were some 
 "people of qualitye" and note, including four governors. Sir 
 George Yeardley, Knight; Sir Francis Wyatt, Knight; Sir John 
 Harvey, Knight, "Mister, Governor and Doctor Pott," " Doc- 
 tor of Physick " and " Physician General to the Colony; " also 
 Captain Ralph Hamor, secretary of state and chronicler; 
 George Sandys, who, while there and residing at William 
 Pierce's (see map), achieved a part of his work of turning into 
 English Ovid's Metamorphoses; Captain Roger Smith, Captain 
 Richard Stevens, who wounded George Harrison in a duel near 
 "James Citty," and George Menify, merchant and member of 
 the council, who married the relict of John Rolfe, whose second 
 wife was Pocahontas. The grounds of the above persons are 
 shown more or less accurately on the map. 
 
 Sir George Yeardley's grounds had an area of seven acres, 
 one rood, and appear to have extended from the branch of the 
 swamp to the Back River. The area of Governor Wyatt's tract 
 is not known. It included the ground, where, at a later day, 
 
 *The present of silk, it is stated, was woven into a coronation robe 
 for King Charles. As soon as the King graciously signified his accept- 
 ance of the above douceur, Sir William presented a petition asking, as a 
 special allowance, the customs duties on a ship's cargo of tobacco. 
 The King adroitly parried this request by sending a warrant for the al- 
 lowance requested, but payable when Sir William should send to Eng- 
 land from Virginia a 300-ton ship laden with silk, hemp, flax, and 
 potatoes. (Sainsbury's Abstracts, June 12, 1669.) It does not appear 
 that the governor ever sent the above shipload of commodities and re- 
 ceived the reward. 
 
40 THE SITE OF OLD " JAMES TOWNE." 
 
 Stood the Jacquelin-Ambler mansion. Dr. Pott first patented 
 three acres and a few years later added nine acres. Captain 
 Roger Smith's lot was four acres. 
 
 In 1665, there was a bridge across the branch of swamp near 
 the northwest corner of the former twelve acre tract of Governor 
 Pott,* connecting the fourth and secDnd ridge.s. There is a 
 causeway at the above point which may have been the bridge. 
 This probably was the same bridge referred to in the rendition 
 of the Yeardley patent contained on page 68 of Neill's Virginia 
 Carolorum. 
 
 Among the later residents of "the New Towne " were Cap- 
 tain George Marable, John Barber, Robert Castle, John Phips, 
 Thos. Woodhouse, John Fitchett, John Knowles and Rev. Wil- 
 liam Mays. A list of the last residents after Bacon's Rebellion 
 would include the names of Henry Hartwell, Clerk of the Court, 
 John Howard, Richard Holder, Lieutenant-Colonel Chiles, John 
 Page, and although last, not least, Wm. Sherwood, the epitaph 
 on whose tombstone in the little churchyard tells that he was 
 "Born In the Parish Of White Chappell Near London. A 
 Great Sinner Waiting For A loyfull Resurrection." ^Sherwood, 
 during Bacon's Rebellion, was an adherent of Sir William Berke- 
 ley. He was attorney-general, 1678-1680. In 1694 he was the 
 proprietor of upwards of three hundred acres of land at the 
 head of the island, including the outlying extreme western part 
 of the town above the upper branch of ' ' Pitch and Tarr Swamp, ' ' 
 and a small part of the " New Towne " adjacent to Back Street. 
 
 The elevated position of the part of the fourth ridge north of 
 the Back Street, between the site of the Jacquelin-Ambler mes- 
 suage and the grounds of the Association for the Preservation 
 of Virginia Antiquities, should have made it much sought after 
 for residential purposes. There are some indications of there 
 being house foundations along the line of the Back Street. The 
 names of their occupants can probably never be ascertained, as 
 there are apparendy no documents containing that information. 
 
 In the address of ex-president Tyler, delivered at Jamestown 
 in 1857 at the celebration of the 250th anniversary of the first 
 landing of the English, he remarked in referring to the destruc- 
 
 * Va. Land Pat. Records, Book V, p. 63. 
 
THE SITE OF OLD " JAMES TOWNE. " 41 
 
 tion of the town by Bacon in 1676: "The town was partially- 
 rebuilt, and many of its houses remained during my early novi- 
 tiate at William and Mary College" (i 802-1807). "They stood 
 in a connected street running east and west from near the present 
 dwelling-house (The Jacquelin-Ambler mansion) to the ruins of 
 the church." 
 
 The foundations just mentioned probably belonged to the 
 buildings alluded to by President Tyler. ' ' The connected street 
 running east and west ' ' undoubtedly was the Back Street. 
 
 ' ' The New Towne ' ' was always inhabited until ' ' James Citty ' ' 
 ceased to exist, the names of various owners of land in that 
 quarter, belonging to different generations, being shown by the 
 patents. Individuals bearing the surnames of many of the for- 
 mer townspeople are still to be found within one hundred miles 
 of the site of "Tames Citty." 
 
 WEST END OF THE TOWN. 
 
 THE positions of land grants east of the church tower ruin be- 
 ing determined and the " New Towne" accurately located, 
 investigation was made for the area west of the above ancient 
 landmark. This resulted in placing approximately several early 
 grants, previously referred to, near the head of the island on its 
 western shore and in establishing quite satisfactorily the situation 
 of the Bauldwin grant of 1656, which locates Block House Hill, 
 also in showing the positions of the grants of Johii Howard, 
 Robert Beverly, the historian, Richard LawTence, the compatriot 
 of Nathaniel Bacon, Jr., Edward Chilton, attorney -general, 
 Colonel Nathaniel Bacon the elder, Lieutenant Edward Ross, 
 Colonel Philip Ludwell the first,* and Philip Ludwell, Esq. (the 
 second), of 1694. The last named grant fixes the position of 
 the last state house. 
 
 * Philip I was member of the Virginia Council for many years; was 
 expelled therefrom in 1679, reinstated in 1683 and again expelled in 1687 
 and disqualified for holding office; governor of Carolina i689-'92; sub- 
 sequently resided in London and died in England after 1716. Philip II, 
 born 1666, died 1720. Speaker of House and .member of Council. 
 Buried at Jamestown. 
 
42 THE SITE OF OLD "JAMES TOWNE. " 
 
 The tract described is an undated patent to John Howard of 
 about 1690,* which Governor Sir Francis Nicholson failed to 
 sign, but which was signed by Governor Sir Edmund Andros in 
 1694, is approximately located by the present churchyard in- 
 closure (see map). 
 
 From the above patent it is learned that the direction of the 
 " old Greate Road" near and north of the churchyard was N. 
 2"]%° W. What would seem to be marks of this road are visi- 
 ble at the above locality, as before mentioned. Its objective 
 point was probably the isthmus. The parts of the road shown 
 on the map not fixed by the patents are tentative. 
 
 From the Howard patent it is learned that Colonel Nathaniel 
 Bacon, Senior, the second cousin of the patriot of the same 
 name, owned a lot adjoining' the Howard tract on the west. It 
 would also appear from agreeing in bearing, that its northern 
 boundary was part of one of the southern boundaries of part of 
 a lot that once belonged to the scholarly Lawrence, sequestered 
 on account of its owner's participation in Bacon's Rebellion, 
 and bought by Colonel Bacon, Senior, in 1683— possibly because 
 it adjoined his tract. Lawrence's house, according to T. M.'s 
 account of Bacon's Rebellion, f was one of the finest in the 
 town. The remainder of the Lawrence tract probably extended 
 east of that bought by Bacon. On using the common boundary 
 line of the Howard and Lawrence plats, and placing the former 
 in what appears to be its proper position near the graveyard, the 
 latter is found to have for its northern boundary the branch of 
 " Pitch and Tarr Swamp," which accords with the description 
 in the patent. 
 
 The patent of the Lawrence tract J fixes the position, as its 
 western boundary, of a grant to Robert Beverly in 1694, which- 
 in turn furnishes the position of "The Maine Cart road," prob- 
 ably another name for "the old Greate Road," leading, most 
 probably, past the well about one rod east of the state house 
 building on the third ridge, towards the isthmus and Block 
 House Hill. 
 
 * Virginia Land Patent Records, Book VIII, p. 82. 
 
 t Force's Historical Tracts, Vol. I. 
 
 t Virginia Land Patent Records, Book VII, p-^300. 
 
THE SITE OK OLD " JAMES TOWNE." 43 
 
 A correspondence of the course of the western line of a tract 
 granted to William Edwards* in 1690 with that of the eastern 
 line of the Chilton tract locates the Edwards tract, and through 
 it the western line of a lot of Nathaniel Bacon, Senior. The 
 eastern boundary of the Bacon tract, as has been pointed out, 
 was the Howard tract. Bacon's lot, therefore, occupied the 
 greater part of the eastern half of the space on which stands the 
 Confederate fort of 1861. 
 
 The locating of the tracts immediately following led to locat- 
 ing the foundations of the third and fourth state houses, the dis- 
 covery of which, therefore, resulted from a study of the patent 
 transcripts, followed by probing and excavation. 
 
 The tract of Philip Ludwell, of 1694, being platted, its most 
 probable location, after correcting for declination "the bearings 
 of its lines as given in the patent, was found to be on the third 
 ridge, near the southern end of the seawall. This was decided 
 upon after considerable study and reflection, taking into account 
 the distance from " Pitch and Tarr Swamp " of the crest of the 
 third ridge, which appeared to be a good site for the three 
 houses shown by the patent to have been on the tract. Although 
 the above location seemed to be the only one which would meet 
 the requirements of the patent, it was not finally accepted until, 
 as shown later, it was confirmed by further investigation. 
 
 The tract of Edward Chilton, patented in 1683, was next 
 platted. A clue to its location was furnished by one of its 
 boundary lines terminating " neer ye brick fort," which fort, in 
 1688, was described by the Rev. John Clayton as being situated 
 in "a vale," above the town, and consequently, above the 
 church tower. A probable position for the brick fort, fulfilling 
 the conditions imposed by the above description, seemed to be 
 in the extension westward from the river bank of the swale be- 
 tween the third and fourth ridges. This view was confirmed by 
 the discovery, by sounding, of piles of masonry in the shallow 
 water at the locality named. The Chilton tract thus being approxi- 
 mately located with reference to the brick fort, valuable inform- 
 
 * Ibid, Book VIII, p. 42. 
 
44 THE SITE OF OLD " JAMES TOWNE. " 
 
 ation was furnished as to the character and position of the 
 adjacent shorehne, a bluff bank, lying about east and west. A 
 most important and interesting feature, however, is yet to be 
 noted, viz., that when the Chilton tract (1683) was given its 
 most probable location on the map, it was found to connect with 
 the assumed location of Philip Ludwell's (1694) tract. More- 
 over, the northern boundary of the Chilton tract which passed 
 "partly along his Hon'rs line" (Hon. Philip Ludwell) is shown 
 by the patents to have the same magnetic bearing as the south- 
 ern boundary of the Philip Ludwell tract of 1694. The grantee 
 of the 1694 tract, entitled Philip Ludwell, Esq., was undoubt- 
 edly the son of the Hon. Philip Ludwell referred to in the Chil- 
 ton patent. It seems probable that Philip Ludwell the second 
 received part of his grant of 1694, the southern, from his father, 
 who owned it in 1683, and possibly also the three brick houses, 
 for the patent implies that the houses belonged to the second 
 Ludwell before its date of issue in 1694. 
 
 The patent of 1694 states that Philip Ludwell, Esq., had land 
 due him for the transportation of one person to Virginia, and he 
 naturally selected a new piece adjacent to that which he then 
 held, probably north of the houses, receiving a grant for the 
 new aiid old tract? combined. Instances are found in the old 
 patent records of a patent being issued covering earlier grants 
 that were contiguous to that acquired at the time of issuing the 
 later patent. 
 
 The proximity of the first Philip Ludwell's property to the 
 state house may account, to some extent, for the interest which 
 he had in rebuilding the state house destroyed by Bacon, for 
 which work he was, in fact, the contractor. 
 
 The plat of Chilton (1683) and Ludwell (1694) being thus 
 united, trial was made to ascertain if their combined plats could 
 be better located than when platted separately. It was found, 
 however, that no change could be made that would improve the 
 first location, and the author concluded that the time had ar- 
 rived to verify his work by examining the ground. An oppor- 
 tunity for doing this occurred in January, 1903, when, to his 
 great satisfaction, and that of a co-worker, the steel probe used 
 for exploring the ground, struck a number of buried foundation 
 walls. The subsequent work of the Association for the Preser- 
 
THE SITE O:^ OLD " JAMES TOWNE." 45 
 
 vation of Virginia Antiquities, under his direction, has confirmed 
 his views, the foundations discovered being within less than 25 
 feet of their position as indicated by the Ludwell patent, and 
 having the same width collectively as given for the Ludwell 
 tract. Moreover, after correcting for variation of the needle, 
 the different walls were found to have about the same azimuths 
 as the boundaries of the Ludwell tract, given in the patent. 
 
 Adjoining the Ludwell house foundations on the east are others 
 agreeing in a general way with the meagre descriptions extant 
 of the state house, and to the west others, which are, of course, 
 the remains of the " Country House" of 1694. 
 
 Further references to the above state housS' and brick fort are 
 made under their respective captions. 
 
 Near the lower extremity of the seawall, and just outside of it, 
 formerly stood a brick building, which Richard Randolph stated 
 in 1837 was reputed to have been a powder magazine.* This 
 building was referred to in ex-President Tyler's address at James- 
 town in 1857, t previously quoted from, as the prison house of 
 Opechancanough. He also stated that its cellar had been for- 
 merly used for the storage of powder. If used as a magazine, 
 uncommonly bad judgment was displayed in placing it where it 
 would have been such a good target for a hostile fleet and where 
 also in event of an explosion, it would have damaged or de- 
 stroyed the buildings on the third ridge. The allusion to it as 
 the prison of Opechancanough is suggestive of its being used as 
 a jail, although probably not for the Indian chief who died a 
 captive at Jamestown shortly after the massacre of 1644. 
 
 In 1891 the eastern foundation wall was all that remained of 
 the reputed " magazine." It was then located and found to be 
 about thirty-two feet long. If it was a prison, it probably was 
 not built until after 1685, in which year the subject of building a 
 prison was brought up in the Assembly; if a magazine, it was 
 probably erected at an earlier date, possibly about the time that 
 the brick fort, hereinafter described, was constructed. 
 
 Incidentally, it may be stated that the third ridge was used as 
 a camp ground for Confederate soldiers in 1861. 
 
 * Southern Literary Messenger, Vol. Ill, p. 303. 
 
 t Celebration of the 250th anniversary of the English settlement at 
 Jamestown, May 13, 1857. 
 
46 THE SITE OF OLD "JAMES TOWNE." 
 
 CHURCH BUILDINGS AND ORIGINAL 
 GRAVEYARD. 
 
 ONE of the vexed questions concerning the first settlement is 
 the position of the iSrst churchyard or graveyard. It is learned 
 from several old chrpnifcles that the first two churches were 
 within the first fort. The map of the Virginia settlement, pro- 
 cured by Zuhiga, for -Philip III of Spain, in September, 1608, 
 p'feviously referred to, shows a church thus inclosed. 
 -'The first church, a rude hut '' covered' with rafts, sedge and 
 eairth," was burned within eight months of its erection. The 
 second, erected ii^^oS, to replace the first, must also have been 
 a- flimsy makeshii^for it is referred to by Sir Thomas Gates, 
 two years after its construction, as being in an unserviceable 
 condition, shortly after which it was reconstructed by La Warre. 
 Its' dimensions in plan were sixty feet long by twenty-four feet 
 wide, with a steeple at the west end. 
 
 -When, in 1617, Captain Argall arrived at "James Towne," 
 he discovered the church which La 'Warre had renovated seven 
 years before in ruins, a storehouse being in use for divine service. 
 During his administration, i. e., from May, 1617, to April, 1619, 
 the third church, whose dimensions were " 50 by 20 foote," was 
 erected. 
 
 In 1639 Governor Sir John Harvey wrote to the Privy Coun- 
 cil: "Such hath bene our Indeavour herein, that out of our 
 owne purses wee have largely contributed to the building of a 
 brick church, and both Masters of Shipps and others of the 
 ablest Planters have liberally by our persuation ' underwritt to 
 this worke."* 
 
 No information is available as to when the building was begun 
 or completed, but the latter is supposed to have been accom- 
 plished by about 1647. It was burned in 1676. 
 
 The fifth structure was in all probability erected during the 
 partial rebuilding of the town between 1676 and 1686. There 
 is not apparently available any information on the subject. It 
 is not unlikely that only the woodwork of the fourth church was 
 burned in 1676, and that the last church was the former struc- 
 
 * Letter from Governor and Council in 'Virginia to Privy Council 
 McDonald Papers, 'Vol. II, pp. 233-260. 
 
Loop-hul«a ^1 
 
 
 
 rig.3 
 
 Explanation: 
 
 Fig-. 1= Foundation Flan of 
 Fourth Church Structure 
 Inclosing- Fragments of 
 Foundations of Third. 
 Broken Lines Show Cor- 
 rect Positions of But- 
 tresses. 
 
 Fig. 2 Front of Tower. 
 
 Fig. 3 Section on Line A-B. 
 
 Fig. 4 " " " C-D. 
 
 rig. 4 
 
 
 J 
 
 1 
 * 
 
 1 
 
 r-aia-- 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 i 
 
 u;iuim<^ 
 
 K , 
 
 ;:■:: :-vSy 
 
 RUINS OF 
 
 TigA 
 
 CHURCH STRUCTURES 
 
 ERECTED AT 
 
 lAMES CITTY,VA. 
 ABOUT 1617 AND 1639. 
 
 The SiU or Old 'James Toim4Je07-J693. 
 
 Ccfryri^/ii, J903,bySianue2H'rtpT^c 
 
THE SITE OF OLD " JAMES TOWNE." 47 
 
 ture with the woodwork renewed. This would, in a measure./^^ 
 account for the church walls not having stood longer than they 
 did, on account of being injured by the fire. Circumstances 
 indicate that it was used until about the end of the eighteenth 
 century, when its walls fell, and the bricks composing them 
 were used by Mr. William Lee, of Green Spring, and Mr. John 
 Ambler, of Jamestown, to inclose a part of the old burial 
 ground. 
 
 In his Old Churches and Families of Virginia, Bishop Meade 
 states, with reference to the foundations of the last brick church, 
 which he measured during a visit to Jamestown Island shortly 
 before 1856, that the ground plan of the church had the form 
 of an oblong square, whose accurately measured dimensions 
 were twenty-eight by fifty-six feet.* 
 
 In the summer of 1901, the above foundations which adjoin 
 the eastern wall of the tower ruins, were uncovered by Mr. John 
 Tyler, Jr., under the auspices of the Association for the Pres- 
 ervation of Virginia Antiquities, to which society the surround- 
 ing tract of twenty-three acres belongs.f The average length 
 and width within the walls are fifty and six-tenths feet and twen- 
 ty-two and seven-tenths feet, respectively. 
 
 In clearing away from around the foundations the mould of 
 more than a century, parts of the foundations of the side walls 
 of a narrower building, whose inside width was about twenty 
 feet, were uncovered. They consist of a footing of cobble-stones 
 one foot thick, capped by a one-brick wall. The slenderness of 
 the foundations indicates that their superstructure was of timber, 
 as in the days of substantial building to which they belonged, 
 they would have been regarded as too light for one of brick. 
 It will be observed that the width of a building matching the 
 foundations would be the same as given for the church built 
 during Argall's term as deputy -governor. As only the western 
 ends of the foundations of the two side walls remain, the length 
 of the building they supported cannot be learned. 
 
 In making the before-mentioned excavations three distinct 
 
 * Meade's Old Churches and Families of Virginia, Vol. I, p. in. 
 
 t Donated to the above association by Mr. and Mrs. Edward E. Bar- 
 ney, in 1896. 
 
48 THE SITE OF OLD " JAMES TOWNE. ' 
 
 £_sets of floor tiles were found lying at slightly different levels 
 across the east end of the building, formerly belonging to a 
 chancel five and one-half feet by twenty-two feet, indicating that 
 there were three church, structures on the same site. The low- 
 est layer of tiles probably belonged to the third church and, in 
 that case, if its end walls were inclosed in the same manner as its 
 side walls, which seems quite likely, the length of the third 
 church would have been about fifty feet. 
 
 As the same site was used for the three church buildings 
 erected after 1617, the churchyard, which was by custom the 
 principal burial ground, most probably was never changed, and 
 was probably used even before that year. The finding of a 
 human skeleton, while excavating the foundations, crossed by 
 a wall of the church near its southeastern corner, shows that there 
 was a burial ground at its site before, the first brick church was 
 built ( 1 639-1 647), and possibly even before the building of the 
 -timber church in 1618, which covered almost all of the ground 
 occupied by its successor. 
 
 From what has preceded there should be no room for doubt 
 as to the lighter foundations being those of the third church 
 structure, that built under Argall, and in use when Yeardley 
 came to the colony in 1619. The inclosure of one structure by 
 the other suggests that, while the later church of brick was 
 being constructed around the earlier one of timber, the latter 
 was used for service. 
 
 As the marriage of John Rolfe to Pocahontas occurred in 
 1614, it would appear that the ceremony could not have been 
 performed in the third church, whose site, as shown above, w-as 
 subsequently occupied by the brick churches, but in the second 
 structure, 60 by 24 feet in plan, which was reconstructed by La 
 Warre, and situated within the triangular fort a short distance, 
 probably one hundred, and thirty yards, above the church tower. 
 The third church, however, was undoubtedly the one used for 
 the convening of the first American legislature by Governor 
 Yeardley, on July 30, 1619.* 
 
 Although the first and second churches were within the tri- 
 
 * Colonial Records of Virginia, Extra Senate (State) Document of 
 1874. 
 
a ;? 
 
 a. 
 
 n 
 
 §.§•0 
 
 S 
 
 'S' 
 
 to 
 I" 
 
THE SITE OF OLD "jAMES TOWNE." 49 
 
 angular fort, it is not probable that the graveyard was. To have 
 lived continually in such close proximity to their probable, ulti- 
 mate resting place would have been as distasteful to the settlers 
 as to most people of this day. Moreover, the available area of 
 the acre inclosure, as already demonstrated, would have been 
 fully occupied by the buildings and streets mentioned by Stra- 
 chey. Interments would have been made near, but outside of 
 the triangular fort. By the time the third church was erected, 
 about 1618, the burial ground, in consequence of the frightful 
 mortality, must have grown to considerable proportions, and no 
 site could have seemed more appropriate for it than the ground' 
 contiguous to that which had been consecrated as "God's 
 Acre." 
 
 On the occasion of the celebration at Jamestown of the bi- 
 centennary of the advent of the English,* " as it were by general 
 consent the discovery of the oldest stone became an object of 
 general emulation." * * * "beyond 1682, nothing legible 
 could be traced, but from the freshness of the marble bearing 
 this date contrasted with the surrounding masses of mutilated 
 and mouldering decay, it was the general impression that this 
 stone was comparatively young." As, ordinarily, gravestones 
 do not become illegible in less than one hundred and fifty to 
 two hundred years, the assumption is not unreasonable that some 
 of those seen at Jamestown in 1807 belonged to the same period 
 as the third church, although the earliest known date on any 
 tombstone in Virginia is i637.t There is very good evidence 
 that until about the i8th century many of the tombstones used 
 in Virginia were shipped from across seas. 
 
 It is stated by some who were present at Sunday services held 
 for the island garrison in the old churchyard in 1861 that there 
 was then a sufficient number of tombstones to serve as seats for 
 the command of two hundred men. Only a few complete stones 
 remain, and the fragments of others show what has been the 
 common fate of nearly all. 
 
 ''' Report on the Proceedings of the Late Jubilee at Jamestown, Va., 
 page 9. 
 
 t Colonel Wm. Perry's at Westover. Colonel Perry was member of 
 House of Burgesses and subsequently member of the Council. 
 
50 THE SITE OF OLD " JAMES TOWNE." 
 
 Reference is now made to two grants to Thomas Hampton, 
 Gierke, in 1639 and 1644.* Both tracts are described as being 
 on a ridge of land behind the church, the earlier and smaller 
 between two swamps and the later " containing from the East- 
 ermost bounds Westerly one hundred and twelve paces five foot 
 to the pace and running the same Breadth Northerly to the back 
 river." The later grant may have been made to include the, 
 earUer, a practice which, as previously noted, was common to 
 the period. In any event, both grants were most probably upon 
 the same ridge. 
 
 Several patents are employed to locate Hampton's two tracts, 
 as follows: to John Bauldwin in 1656 for 15 acres 69 poles, 5 
 acres 69 poles of which were "at the old block house" and 
 ten acres bounded " Easterly upon Mr. James' land Northerly 
 upon the back river" [marsh?], and the smaller tract," West 
 upon the Main river and South upon the slash which lyeth 
 between the State house and the said Mr. James." James' 
 western boundary was a meridian passing "by Friggett land- 
 ing, "t The approximate position of "Friggett Landing" is 
 learned from the probable position of a grant to Richard Clarke 
 in 1646. 1 As shown on the map the Bauldwin tract agrees 
 with its description. 
 
 In 1644 Richard Sanders patented an acre " bounded west 
 upon the river East upon ye marsh North upon the block house 
 land and South upon the Land of Edward Challos." In the 
 same year Edward Challis received a grant of an acre bounded 
 ' ' West upon the river East upon the marsh North upon the 
 blockhouse Land and South towards the land of Radulph Sprag- 
 gon. ' ' The word ' ' upon ' ' in the phrase ' ' upon the blockhouse 
 land" in the Challos patent should be towards, for Challos is 
 given as the southern boundary of Sanders in the latter' s patent. 
 Spraggon's land, an acre, patented in 1644, was bounded 
 " South upon the land of Geo. Gilbert North towards the Way 
 leading towards the Mayne West upon the river and East to- 
 wards the land of Mr. Hampton." Bauldwin' s patent shows 
 
 * Virginia Land Patent Records, Book I, p. 689, and Book II, p. 105. 
 t Virginia Land Patent Records, Book IV, p. 196. 
 X Ibid, Book II, p. 47. 
 
THE SITE OF OLD " JAMES TOWNE." 51 
 
 approximately the former site of Block House Hill, below which 
 was the land of Sanders, adjoining whom on the south was 
 Challos. Next below came a space, probably unoccupied ex- 
 cept by part of the highway, below which, but not adjoining, 
 was Spraggon, all about as shown on the "Map of James 
 Citty." 
 
 Arguments have been presented for the sites of the churches 
 used after 1617 and of the graveyard pertaining to them before 
 that year, as being adjacent to the tower ruin at the eastern side 
 of the four-acre paled town. 
 
 The description of an acre granted to John White in 1644 
 reads, "bounded West upon the Church Yard East upon the 
 land apprtaining to the State House North towards the land 
 of Mr. Thomas Hampton and South upon James River the 
 Length being twenty three poles and breadth Seaven poles 
 almost." 
 
 The word "towards" in the White patent and also in the 
 Spraggon patent with reference to Hampton's land, shows that 
 the last named was situated north of the first and east of the 
 second, but in each case at some indefinite, but not remote dis- 
 tance, the intervening land not being patented. By projecting 
 series of lines east from Spraggon and north from White they 
 will intersect on the second ridge about where the Hampton 
 land is indicated on the map. 
 
 On account of the peculiar wording of the parts of the Hamp- 
 ton patents, describing the relative positions of the tracts on a 
 ridge, and the church, viz. ; "behind the church," it is not clear 
 at first glance whether the church and the tracts were on the 
 same, or different ridges. If on the same, the second, the 
 church would have been mentioned in Spraggon' s patent, whose 
 land was west of Hampton's. No allusion to the church, how- 
 ever, occurs in that or any other patent on or near the western 
 shore of the island. The particle ' ' behind ' ' is not understood 
 as meaning in the rear of the church's back wall, but signifying 
 on the opposite side from where the writer stood or imagined 
 he was standing, or possibly as 'having reference to some other 
 object understood but not mentioned, e. g. , the churchyard or 
 river bank. The above is a sample of the vague and inaccurate 
 
52 THE SITE OF OLD "JAMES TOWN/ " 
 
 expressions appearing in some of the patents and too often used 
 at the present day. 
 
 As, according to its description, the White tract was on the 
 southern bank of the island and the churchyard adjoined it on 
 the west, the latter was also on the river bank. Finally, until 
 1644 the first ridge belonged to the block house, and the land 
 at the western end of the second ridge has been accounted for 
 in that year; the third ridge was occupied by buildings from an 
 early day (1666), and, therefore, most probably never contained 
 the church or graveyard ; all of which also goes to show that the 
 church and graveyard were not on the' western bank of the 
 island. All of the available evidence pertaining to the church, 
 therefore, proves that it and the graveyard were on the fourth 
 ridge and on the southern water front at the old tower ruin. 
 
 Bishop Meade states in effect that the graves near the tower 
 ruin inclosed by a brick wall, before referred to, near the close 
 of the eighteenth century, cover but a third of the original 
 graveyard, which had an area of a half acre. Although the 
 graves are in very close order, each one apparently occupying, 
 on an average, about thirty-two square feet, it is evident that a 
 half-acre would have sufficed but for a small fraction of those 
 who died at "James Citty."* 
 
 In 1896, as before described, the remnant of the original head- 
 land, which still shielded the adjacent river bank below it from 
 abrasion, was removed to bring the shore to a fair line for re- 
 ceiving protection work, constructed in that year. It is credibly 
 stated that when the bank thus exposed was undermined bj^the 
 waves, several human skeletons lying in regular order, east and 
 west, about two hundred feet west of the tower ruin were un- 
 covered. On account of their nearness to the tower it seems 
 quite probable that the skeletons were in the original church- 
 yard. One of the skulls had been perforated by a musket ball 
 and several buckshot, which it still held, suggesting a military 
 execution. Soon after being exposed to the air the skeletons 
 crumbled. 
 
 From the evidence of the White patent and the positions of 
 
 * Meade's Otd Churches and Families of Virginia, Vol. I, p. iii. 
 
THE TOWER RUIN. 
 Viewed from eastern parapet of Confederate fort of 1861. 
 
THE SITE OF OLD "JAMES TOWNE." 53 
 
 the skeletons, it would appear that the churchyard extended 
 from the junction of the Back Street with the "old Create 
 Road," northeast of the church, to near the water side and up 
 the latter, including a part of the ground subsequently covered 
 by the Confederate fort. Thus situated, it would have had an 
 area of about one and one-half acres. 
 
 Judging from the brick bond of the church tower it belonged 
 originally to the fourth of the five churches, all of which, except 
 the latest one, are more or less briefly referred to in the availa- 
 ble annals of the colonists. 
 
 The first brick church and its successor would to-day be re- 
 garded as very plain and unpretentious chapels. They were 
 rectangular in plan, having the customary high pitched roofs on 
 the church and probably also on the tower, and the aisle paved 
 with brick and the chancel with tiles. The tower, situated at 
 the western end, on account of being disproportionately large 
 in comparision with the rest of the structure, was the prominent 
 feature. On account of its solidity, it was not materially injured 
 by the conflagration of 1676. Arched doorways through the 
 front and back walls of the first story formed the main entrance. 
 The second story openings were most probably a window in the 
 west wall and a door in the east wall, the latter opening into a 
 gallery across ihe western end of the nave, as in the ' ' old Brick 
 Church" at Smithfield, Va. The third story was probably 
 lighted only by six loop holes, two in the front and two in each 
 side wall. The loop holes indicate that the intention of the 
 builders of the tower was to make it defensible against Indian 
 attack. As, with the defeat and death of Opechancanough in 
 1644, the fear of such attacks occurring at Jamestown should 
 have almost entirely disappeared, it seems likely that the tower 
 ■was designed and probably built before or about that time. The 
 brick work formerly separating the openings of the first and 
 second stories having broken away, the front and back walls 
 now have high portals extending to about twenty and nineteen 
 feet, respectively, above the ground. 
 
 The brick work of the tower, in so-called English bond, is 
 quaintly embellished, after the fashion of the period, with glazed 
 headers. The walls of the ruin were recently strengthened by 
 tie rods, with ornamental washers of cruciform shape. It is a 
 
54 THE SITE OF OLD " JAMES TOWNE,' 
 
 dignified old pile, of sombre detail, and originally had a height 
 of'about forty-six feet, to the peak of the spire that surmounted 
 it. It is approximately eighteen feet square in plan, with walls 
 three feet thick at the base, diminishing by offsets in the mner 
 faces at each story to about seventeen inches at the belfry. 
 
 Within nave and chancel are interred many unknown dead, 
 and, lying with its head to the north, is an ironstone tablet, 
 probably formerly a cenotaph, from which are missing inlaid 
 brasses with which it was embossed. In its present position it 
 does not appear to mark a tomb, for it would thus show a viola- 
 tion of the time-revered custom, formerly universally observed 
 in Christian burials, to place the feet towards the rising sun. 
 Whose "death in life " it commemorated will probably ever re- 
 main one of the mysteries of this mysterious island. 
 
 The "James Citty " brick church resembled, the "old Brick 
 Church " about five miles from Smithfield, Isle of Wight County, 
 Virginia, modernly known as St. Luke's. The latter, however, 
 is a larger building than was the former. The points in common 
 between the two churches are a tower at the western end, facing 
 almost the same point of the compass, and a chancel door on the 
 south side, near the eastern end of the nave. The brick work 
 of St. Luke's church, however, is laid in so-called Flemish bond, 
 and its tower has articulated pilasters at the western corners, 
 broad friezes at each story and under the eaves and its exterior 
 faces broken by offsets at each story. 
 
 THE COLONIAL LEGISLATURE. 
 
 WHEN Capt. Smith became president of the colony, in 1608, 
 he styled the meeting of the colonists which he called to an- 
 nounce that thereafter those who would not work must starve a 
 " generall assembly."* 
 
 A peculiar feature of the first colonial legislature, and appar- 
 ently of those of many ensuing years, was that both of its 
 branches, the governor's Council and the House of Burgesses, 
 met in joint session, after the fashion of the Scotch Parliament. 
 
 According to Beverly, this custom obtained until 1680, when 
 Governor Culpeper, " taking advantage of som^ disputes among 
 
 * Works, Captain John Smith, p. 149. 
 
THE MYSTERIOUS TABLET. 
 
 The tablet is 5 feet- j}^ inches long by 31% inches wide. The black sur- 
 faces show the chanuelingt'tnthe stone formerly filled with metal. The 
 inscription plate was about ig by 10% inches, and the height of the draped 
 figure 24yi inches. 
 
 The Site 0/ Old '^ James Tmone;'kmi-16»». 
 
 Copyrighi, 190S, by Samuel H. Yonge. 
 
THE SITE OF OLD " JAMES TOWNE." 55 
 
 them," caused the two bodies to hold their sessions in separate 
 apartments,* the Council being presided over by the governor 
 and the House of Burgesses by a speaker of its own election. 
 
 It was resolved at a session of the House of Burgesses in 
 March, 1658, that "they" — "ail propositions and lawes" — 
 " shall be first discussed among the Burgesses only " * * * "in 
 private" * * * "and not in presence of the Governour and 
 Councill."t The above action of the Burgesses, evincing a 
 desire to assert the independence of their body, was a precursor 
 of the discontinuance of joint sessions, above noted by Beverly. 
 
 From what follows, the custom of holding joint sessions 
 apparently had been discontinued before 1680, although it had 
 been customary for two of the members of the Council to attend 
 the sessions of the Burgesses, as shown in " T. M.'s "J account 
 of Bacon's Rebellion. 
 
 The ostensible purpose of the presence of the councillors was 
 to assist the burgesses in conducting their proceedings in a par- 
 liamentary manner. The real object, obviously, was to keep the 
 governor fully apprised of all that occurred in this democratic 
 and often intractable body. This was fully understood by the 
 burgesses, some of whom, on the occasion referred to by " T. 
 M.," manifested their unwillingness to have the councillors 
 present. 
 
 Prior to its session in September, 1632, the colonial legislature 
 of Virginia was styled " The General Assembly." Beginning 
 with the above session, it was called "The Grand Assembly," 
 
 * History of the Present State of Virginia, by Robert Beverly, p. 187. 
 
 t Meninges Statutes, Vol. I, p. 497. 
 
 X The Beginning, Progress and Conclusion of Bacon's Rebellion in 
 Virginia, in the Years 167^-16^6, p. 13. — Force's Historical Tracts, 
 Vol. I. — "T. M." is supposed by Campbell and Fiske to have been 
 Thomas Mathews, son of Samuel Mathews, governor of Virginia, 1657- 
 1659. (Campbell's History of Virginia, p. 284, and Fiske's Old Vir- 
 ginia and her Neighbours, Vol. II, p. 66.) The available evidence is 
 quite conclusive that "T. M. " was Thomas Mathew, and not Thomas 
 Mathews, a son of the governor. See Notes and Queries, by W. G. 
 Standard, Virginia Historical Magazine, Vol. I. (1893-1894), pp. 201 and 
 202. He was a timid, cautious man, who unwillingly became the rep- 
 resentative' of Stafford county in the first Assembly after the " Long 
 Assetftbly." 
 
56 THE SITE OF OLD " JAJHES TOWNE." 
 
 which title it bore until the session of June, 1680, when the 
 former appellation was revived. 
 
 "JAMES CITTY" STATE HOUSES. 
 
 THE first General Assembly, as previously stated, was convened 
 in the third church, referred to in the last chapter as hav- 
 ing its foundations inclosed by those of its successor, the first 
 brick church, erected between 1639 and 1647. 
 
 The available information concerning the various buildings 
 used for subsequent meetings of the legislature and for holding 
 courts is too incomplete, meagre and obscure to be reduced to a 
 succinct and entirely satisfactory statement. Following are 
 deductions from the available data pertinent to the subject, which 
 are given in subsequent pages: 
 
 During about the first two decades after 1619 there were at 
 least twelve sessions of the legislature. They were probably 
 held either in the third church or at the governor's house. 
 There were also held during the above period sessions of the 
 court and meetings of the governor and Council. From the 
 latter the proclamations of the governor that were intended to 
 take the place of legislative enactments, were probably promul- 
 gated.* 
 
 During the next six decades, while "James Citty" remained 
 the seat of government, there were apparently four different 
 state house buildings, all of which were burned. The time they 
 were occupied collectively amounted to about forty-three years. 
 During the intervals between the burning of the several state- 
 houses and the acquiring of new ones, amounting in the aggre- 
 gate approximately to seventeen years, taverns were used for 
 the meetings of the Assembly and the sessions of the courts. 
 
 As in April, 1641, the colonial government purchased from 
 ex- Governor Harvey, who about a year before was adjudged a 
 bankrupt, one of his houses, known as the courthouse, the 
 courts and meetings of the governor and Council were no doubt 
 held there, and probably also the meetings of the whole legis- 
 lature. The above building, therefore, most probably consti- 
 tuted the first state house. 
 
 * Hening's Statutes, Vol. I, p. 120. 
 
THE SITE OF OLD "JAMES TOWNE. " 57 
 
 In June, 1642, the Grand Assembly presented Governor 
 Berkeley with two houses and a tract of land adjacent to them, 
 at "James Citty." Between the above year and 1655, Gov- 
 ernor Berkeley erected a house adjoining on the west the first 
 state house, which thus became the middlemost of three houses, 
 all having the same dimensions in plan, viz., forty by twenty 
 feet, and forming a block with a frontage on the river of sixty 
 feet and a depth of forty feet. The block was sixty-seven feet 
 from the southern bank of the island and about forty-five yards 
 below the present wharf The bank probably having receded 
 slightly, its site would now be somewhat nearer the present bank 
 line. 
 
 The middle house of the block was used as a state house for 
 about thirteen years longer, or until some time between March, 
 1655, and June, 1656, when it would seem to have been burned. 
 After the burning of the above building two courts were held in 
 a tavern kept by Thomas Woodhouse. 
 
 The available information about the second state house is scant 
 and indirect. The building appears to have been acquired some 
 time before October, 1656. All that is known of it is learned 
 from a reference to it in a patent of the above year from which 
 it appears to have been situated on the fourth ridge. It appar- 
 ently was used for but three or four years, and then burned. 
 
 During the ensuing five years, or until about 1665, the colo- 
 ny's affairs seem to have been transacted in part, if not entirely, 
 in taverns belonging to Thomas Woodhouse and Thomas Hunt, 
 situated on the river bank about one hundred and three hun- 
 dred yards, respectively, east of the first state house. About the 
 above year a house was purchased or built by the colonial gov- 
 ernment on the third ridge about two hundred and forty yards 
 northeast of the brick church, and this served as the state house 
 until burned by Nathaniel Bacon, Jr., in September, 1676. 
 
 During the ten years following, or until about 1686, the expe- 
 dient of using taverns for meetings of the legislature was again 
 resorted to. In the above year the re-building of the statehouse 
 was completed. As it was on the site of its predecessor, it most 
 probably had the same proportions, which in plan were about 
 seventy-four feet long and twenty feet wide, within the walls. 
 This was the last state house building erected at "James Citty.' 
 
58 THE SITE OF OLD "JAMES TOWNE." 
 
 It was occupied for about twelve years, and was burned in the 
 fall of 1698. The Assembly held its last session at "James 
 Citty," in April, 1699, when it was decreed to move the capital 
 to Williamsburg. 
 
 Subjoined are the data on which the foregoing is based. 
 
 The earliest available evidence of the colony's intention to 
 build a state house appears in a letter from its governor, Sir 
 John Harvey, Knight, and his council to the Privy Council, 
 dated January 18, 1639, in which it is stated that by the King's 
 command a levy had been raised for the above purpose.* One 
 year later, during the session of the Grand Assembly beginning 
 January 6, 1639-40, f an act was passed providing for defraying 
 the cost of building a state house by a poll assessment of two 
 pounds of tobacco. 
 
 On April 7, 1641, about fifteen months after the passage of 
 the above act, Sir John Harvey conveyed to the colonial gov- 
 ernment, for 15,700 pounds of tobacco, to be paid the following 
 January, J "all that capital messuage or tenement now used for 
 a court house late in the tenure of Sir John Harvey, Knt. , situ- 
 ate and being within James City Island in Virginia with the old 
 house and granary, garden and orchard as also one piece or 
 plot of ground lying and being on*the west side of the said cap- 
 ital and messuage as the same is now inclosed. ' ' § The above 
 conveyance shows that the court had been holding its sessions 
 in a house owned by Sir John Harvey, and it seems quite likely 
 that the assessment of January, 1639-40, was expended in buying 
 Harvey's houses and lot, one of the former being the court 
 house. It is more than possible that the Grand Assembly had 
 
 * McDonald Papers, Vol . I, p. 249. 
 
 ^ Hening's Statutes, Vol. I, p. 226.— The acts of several of the Assem- 
 blies between 1619 and 1642 are not known to be in existence. They 
 are only known to have been framed by allusions to them in acts passed 
 at other sessions, contained in Hening's Statutes, and from being men- 
 tioned in the land patents, in official correspondence, and in the min- 
 utes of the London Company. 
 
 JThe poll assessment of January, 1640, would have become due Jan- 
 uary, 1641. 
 
 ? Transcripts of Miscellaneous MSS., by Conway Robinson, p. 188. 
 
THE SITE OF OLD " JAMES TOWNE." 59 
 
 also been meeting in the same house. It seems most probable 
 that the above building was the one mentioned in patents re- 
 ferred to below as "the old state house," whose location is 
 given further on. 
 
 In a letter of instructions from the King to Governor Berkeley 
 and the colonial Council in August, 1641, the building of a state 
 house is ordered. 
 
 By an act of Assembly passed in Jurie, 1642, two houses and 
 an orchard ' ' belonging to the colony ' ' were presented to Gov- 
 ernor Berkeley. This act was confirmed by another passed at 
 the session of March, 1642.* 
 
 In February, 1643, a patent was issued to Captain Robert 
 Hutchinson, Burgess from "James Citty," for one and one-half 
 acres situated on the south shore of the island and bounded 
 west in part '•'towards'" the state house. f It appears from the 
 Hutchinson patent that by 1643 the previous acts of Assembly 
 for procuring a state house had gone into effect, and that the 
 building was on the south shore of the island. 
 
 In August, 1644, a patent previously quoted from was issued 
 to John White for one acre of land lying ^long the south shore 
 of the island, between the churchyard on the west and the state 
 house land on the east. % This locates the state house with ref- 
 erence to the churchyard in 1644, whose position has already 
 been determined, and places the western boundary of the state 
 house grounds about twelve yards below the pr.esent wharf, or 
 about seventy yards below the eastern boundary of the land now 
 owned by the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Anti- 
 quities. 
 
 * Hening's Statutes, Vol. I, p. 267. 
 
 t Va. Land Pat. Records, Book I, p. 944. 
 
 Hutchinson's patent reads " bounded South upon the river North to- 
 wards Pasby Hayes, West upon the land of John Osborne & towards 
 the State House." As the tract could not have been situated on the 
 southern bank of the island and at the same time been in a southerly 
 direction from Paspahegh town, which was on the main land above the 
 island, either some other locality named Pasby Hayes was referred to 
 or an error made in describing the tract or transcribing the patent. 
 
 X Va. Land Pat. Records, P,ook 11, p. 10. 
 
60 THE SITE OF OLD " JAMES TOWNE. " 
 
 On March 30, 1655, Sir William Berkeley sold to Richard 
 Bennett, who had succeeded him as governor in 1652, his house, 
 "the westernmost of the three brick houses," which the deed 
 recites the grantor had built.* The deed, however, does not 
 show that the ground on which the house stood and that adjacent 
 to it was sold with the house. The above mentioned land was 
 granted to Thomas Ludwell pnd Thomas Stegg, January i, 1667. 
 Its area was a half acre. It was situated oh the southern shore 
 of the island ' ' adjoyning to the westermost of those three 
 houses all of which joyntly were formerly called by the name of 
 the old state house," sixty-seven feet from high-water mark.f 
 From what follows the patent apparently did not include the 
 house, or, more correctly, its ruins. 
 
 Henry Randolph, clerk of the court, sold the ruins of the 
 three houses and the grounds they respectively covered, April 
 7, 1671,1 as follows: The eastern house ruins and ground to 
 Thomas Swann, of the county of Surry; the middle, or "old 
 state house" proper, to Nathaniel Bacon [Sr.], executor of the 
 estate of Colonel Myles Cary,§ and the western to Thomas 
 Ludwell. By his will, proved May 15, 1671, Thomas Stegge 
 left to Thomas Ludwell his interest in a house bought jointly 
 with Ludwell of Henry Randolph. || Ludwell subsequently 
 secured a patent for a half acre of land adjoining the house ruins 
 and sold the property to Sir William Berkeley for one hundred 
 and fifty pounds sterling, March 17, 1672.^ 
 
 It seems most probable that the building erected by Governor 
 Berkeley between 1642 and 1655 and sold by him to Richard 
 Bennett in the latter year, the one referred to in the patent to 
 Ludwell and Stegg of 1667, that sold by Randolph to Thomas 
 
 * Hejiing's Statutes, Vol. I, p. 407. 
 t Virginia Land Patent Records, Book VI, p. 223. 
 i Conway Robinson's Transcripts of Miscellaneous Manuscripts, p. 
 258, from General Court Rule Book No. 2, pp. 155, 617. 
 
 I Colonel Gary came to Virginia in 1645, constructed the first fort on 
 site of Fort Monroe, and was killed there in an engagement with the 
 Dutch, in 1667. 
 
 II Genealogical Gleanings in England, p. 102. 
 If Robinson's Transcripts, p. 258. 
 
THE SITE OF OLD " JAMES TOWNE. " 61 
 
 Ludwell in 1671, and by Ludwell to Berkeley in 1672, were one 
 and the same. 
 
 The foregoing proves conclusively that the first state house 
 was near the southern bank of the island and eastward of the 
 old tower ruin. 
 
 It also seems probable that the orchard land and two houses 
 donated to Governor Berkeley in March, 1642-43, were the same 
 bought by the Grand Assembly from Sir John Harvey in April, 
 164 1, and paid for in January following, and that the building 
 previously referred to as being built by Berkeley was an addition 
 made by him on the western side of the Harvey buildings. The 
 westernmost of the two buildings previously owned by Harvey, 
 therefore, became the middlemost of the block. It had been 
 used as a courthouse in his time, as stated above, and constituted 
 the state house during Berkeley's first term. 
 
 In the description of a tract of land patented to John Bauld- 
 win in October, 1656, as previously noted, the land of Richard 
 James is given as its eastern boundary, and ' ' the slash which 
 lyeth between the State House [land] and the said Mr. James ' ' 
 as its southern.* Richard James' land, of which patent was re- 
 corded June 5, 1657, included one hundred and fifty acres of the 
 second ridge east of a " northerly ' ' line passing " by " the 
 " Friggett Landing," to the rharsh below " Pyping Point, "f 
 including forty acres granted in 1654. J The slash, forming 
 Bauldwin's southern boundary, was the upper branch of " Pitch 
 and Tarr Swamp," which is the northern boundary of the third 
 and fourth ridges. The state house referred to in the patent, 
 or probably more precisely the state house land, would seem to 
 have been on the fourth ridge, as the part of the third ridge 
 east of James' western line prolonged is very low ground. 
 
 During the session of the Assembly in October, 1666, an act 
 was passed confirming the ownership of land held under unre- 
 corded patents, on the grounds that their being unrecorded re- 
 sulted from the neglect of the clerks and the destruction of the 
 
 * Va. Land Pat. Records, Book IV, p. 88. 
 
 ^Tbid, Book IV, p. 196. %3id. Book III, p. 368. 
 
62 THE SITE OF OLD " JAMES TOWNE." 
 
 records by "two severall fires."* The above indicates that the 
 repositories of the records — two state houses — had been burned. 
 The "two severall fires," therefore, were doubtless those of the 
 "old state house " — the first state house, on the southern island 
 bank — and its successor, referred to in the Bauldwin patent, on 
 the' fourth ridge. 
 
 As Governor Berkeley sold his house in the "old state house " 
 block to Governor Bennett, March 30, 1655, and as the Assem- 
 bly passed an act during the session beginning December i, 
 1656, providing for the payment of 2,500 pounds of tobacco to 
 Thomas Woodhouse for house rent for the accommodation of 
 the committee and for two sittings of the quarter courts, f held, 
 probably in June and September, 1656, preceding, it would 
 appear that the first state house was burned between March, 1655, 
 and June, 1656. 
 
 The second state house was pc&bably improvised out of a pri- 
 vate dwelling, for in those days of great inertia the four to seven 
 months interval between the burning of the first state house and 
 the issuing of the Bauldwin patent which contains the allusion to 
 the second state house seems hardly long enough for erecting a 
 building. 
 
 The second state house was probably burned shortly before 
 1660, for during the session of the Assembly in October of that 
 year, house rent incurred for Assembly meetings amounting to 
 3,500 pounds of tobacco, and for meetings of the governor and 
 Council amounting to 4,000 pounds of the same medium of ex- 
 change were appropriated and ordered paid to Thomas Hunt 
 and Thomas Woodhouse, respectively. J 
 
 During the above session Governor Berkeley was requested 
 by the Assembly to take charge of the building of a state house 
 and authorized to pay- liabilities incurred therefor out of the 
 public funds and those to be thereafter raised by act of Assem- 
 bly. He was also authorized to impress ten men to work on the 
 building. § 
 
 In 1654 a grant of an acre lot on the southern water front of 
 
 * Hening's Statutes, Vol. II, p. 245. 
 "{Ibid, Vol. I, p. 425. 
 XHening's Statutes, Vol. II, p. 12. 
 ilbid, Vol. II, p. 13- 
 
THE SITE OF OLD " JAMES TOWNE." 63 
 
 the town was made to Thomas Woodhouse.* Judging from the 
 agreement of direction of the lot's southern boundary, as given 
 in the patent, with the part of the river bank one hundred yards 
 east of the first state house, or just west of the turf fort, the lot 
 was near that locality. A grant of one acre on the same shore 
 about two hundred yards further east, was also made to Thomas 
 Hunt in 1655.! It is possible that the above tracts were those 
 on which were situated the taverns, in which rooms were rented 
 for meetings of the Assembly and for holding court. Their de- 
 scriptions in the patents, however, are insufficient to definitely 
 locate them. Thomas Woodhouse in 1694 owned a tract on 
 the crest of the fourth ridge, just west of the Ambler mansion, 
 on which, possibly, his tavern was situated. 
 
 During a session of the Assembly in March, 1660-1661, the • 
 expense of renting halls for holding its meetings and those of 
 the court was urged as a cogent reason for acquiring a state 
 house, and, with a view to making the necessary taxation for the 
 purpose as light as possible, it was resolved to solicit subscrip- 
 tions, t The governor, councillors, and burgesses headed the 
 list of subscribers, donating considerable sums of money and 
 tobacco, to be paid out of the next crop. After a lapse of over 
 two years the matter was again brought up in the Assembly, on 
 September 16, 1663. J The question as then submitted was, 
 ' ' Since the charge the country is yearly at for houses for the quar- 
 ter courts and assemblys to sit in would in two or 3 years defray the 
 purchase of a state house. Whether it were not more profitable 
 to purchase for that purppse then continue for ever at the ex- 
 pence, accompanied with the dishonour of all our laws being 
 made and our judgments given in alehouses." 
 
 On the day following a committee of six burgesses was ap- 
 pointed to confer with the governor about a state house. || 
 
 * Va. Land Pat. Records, Book III, p. 380. 
 t Hening's Statutes, Vol. II, p. 38. 
 X Ibid, Vol. II, p. 204. 
 II Ibid, Vol. II, p. 205. 
 
64 THE SITE OF OLD " JAMES TOWNE." 
 
 Under date of April lo, 1665, Thomas Ludwell, colonial sec- 
 retary of state, wrote Lord Arlington that the rebuilding of the 
 town in brick was sufficiently advanced to furnish the necessary 
 buildings in which to transact the business of the colony. The 
 buildings referred to by Ludwell were probably some of those 
 erected in furtherance of the act of Assembly of December, 1662, 
 for rebuilding the town with brick houses,* and it is probable 
 that the meaning of the letter was that the state house building 
 was completed. 
 
 There does not appear to be extant any description of the 
 third state house or any data of record definitely fixing its loca- 
 tion. The following extract from a message addressed to the 
 House by the governor during the session of the Assembly of 
 1685 t shows that the third and fourth state house buildings oc- 
 cupied the same site and probably were of the same shape and 
 proportions : ' ' This day an addresse and some orders of yr. 
 House have been presented to me & ye Council by some of yr. 
 members, and doe much wonder, you should propose soe un- 
 reasonably, as to desire our concurrence, in ye memorial [re- 
 moval ?] of ye secretaries office, wch. ever since ye state House 
 was first built, until burnt, has been continued in ye place you 
 allot for an office for ye Clerk, soe that Mr. Secretary justly 
 claims it by prescription, and you yrselves have soe consented 
 and alsoe desired, that it be enlarged as by ye agreement made 
 ye last Gen'l Assembly with Col. Ludwell." The spot, there- 
 fore, is established where, in June, 1676, Bacon, at the head of 
 his little army, demanded a commission to proceed against and 
 chastise the Indians, and where the testy old governor, while 
 baring his breast, reiterated the words, "here! shoot me, 'fore 
 God, fair mark, shoot." 
 
 After the burning of the third state house in September, 1 676, 
 it was proposed to rebuild at Tindall's Point,J now known as 
 Gloucester Point, on York river. "James Towne," however, 
 was not yet to be abandoned, and in about eight years the re- 
 building of the state house on the old site was begun. 
 
 * Ibid, Vol. II, pp. 172, 173. 
 
 t McDonald Papers. Vol, VII, pp. 379, 380. 
 
 t Hening's Statutes, \o\. II, p. 405. 
 
THE SITE OF OLD " JAMES TOWNE. " 65 
 
 In the interim between the burning of the third state house 
 and its rebuilding, the expedient of using taverns for holding 
 the sessions of the Grand Assembly, as had been twice done 
 when the colony had lost its capitol by fire, was again resorted 
 to, allowances of tobacco being made to Mr. Henry Gauler for 
 several meetings of the court and Assembly held at his tavern.* 
 In the 1685 session of the General Assembly an agreement was 
 entered into with Mr. William Sherwood for the use of ' ' his 
 great Hall, and ye back room on ye same floor and ye cellar 
 under ye said room," for courthouse purposes, during the en- 
 suing year, including " fire, candle and attendance," at twenty- 
 five pounds sterling per annum. f Sherwood's house was un- 
 doubtedly on the site of the acre lot bought by him in i68r, on 
 which stood the country house. 
 
 The approximate site of the fourth state house is learned from 
 the following quotation from a patent to William Sherwood, re- 
 corded April 20, 1694: J "grant unto William Sherwood of 
 James City Gent, 308 acres of land Scituate lying and being in 
 James City and James City Island, beginning on James River at 
 the head of Pitch and tarr swamp next above the state house 
 and running along the North side thereof" [branch of swamp]. 
 A study of the above patent leaves no room for doubting that 
 the branch of swamp referred to was the upper branch, from 
 which it follows that the building stood on the third ridge. 
 
 The site of the fourth state house was unknown until early in 
 1903, when, as before stated, it was located by the author. A 
 few references to its predecessor occur in "T. Mi's" account 
 of Bacon's Rebellion. This narrative, written thirty years after 
 the above revolution, shows that the state house of 1666-1676 
 was a two-story building. At the easterh end of the first story 
 was an apartment used as the council chamber and for court 
 house purposes. In the second story was the Assembly room of 
 the House of Burgesses, "a long room." From the manner in 
 which the " end of the state house " is referred to by " T. M.," 
 it might appear that the building had but one free end. This 
 
 * McDonald Papers, Vol. VII, pp. 372, 376. 
 
 "^Ibid, pp. 385, 388. 
 
 X Va. Land Pat. Records, Book VIII, p. 384. 
 
66 THE SITK OF OLD " JAMES TOWNE." 
 
 accords with the plan of the fourth state house, the western end 
 of which, as discovered by excavating its foundations, adjoined 
 the easternmost of PhiHp Ludwell's three houses referred to 
 below.* The Ludwell tract had an area of one and one-half 
 acres, in the shape of an oblong rectangle, with its northern 
 boundary "near the Pitch and Tarr Swamp." The patent 
 shows that the northern and southern fronts of three houses, of 
 which the tract contained the ruins, had collectively the same 
 length, viz., three and three-fourths chains, f or one hundred and 
 twenty-three and three-fourths feet, and about the. same azimuth 
 as the north and south boundary lines of the tract. 
 
 In February, 1903, the earth overlying the walls found during 
 the preceding month by probing on the crest of the third ridge 
 where it seemed probable the ruins of the three houses men- 
 tioned in the Ludwell patent of 1694 had stood, was removed by 
 the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities to 
 depths of one to five feet, when the brick foundations of a for- 
 mer row of buildings about two hundred and forty feet long by 
 about twenty-four to forty-six feet wide, were disclosed. The 
 foundations are on the highest part of the ridge where its eleva- 
 tion is about two and one-half to three and one-half feet above 
 great tides. The ground falls gently from the foundations to- 
 wards the east, and the shapes of the contours indicate that the 
 part of the ridge abraded by the waves sloped towards the 
 western shore. 
 
 The foundations are divided by heavy cross-walls intc five 
 principal divisions. The main walls are about two feet thick, 
 the cross-walls from fourteen inches to two feet. 
 
 As above explained, the westernmost foundations belonged to 
 the "Country House," those of the next three buildings to the 
 ruins of Philip Ludwell's houses and the easternmost to the 
 state house. All of the buildings except the state house were 
 about forty feet square within the walls. A small proportion of 
 the underpinning of the northernmost wall of the middle and 
 eastern Ludwell houses is granite rubble. With the above ex- 
 
 * Force's Historical Tracts, Vol. I, p. 16.— Bacon's Rebellion. 
 
 tThe chain used in the "James Citty " surveys was two poles or 
 thirty-three feet long. 
 
THE SITE OF OLD "JAMES TOWNE. " 67 
 
 ception the walls rest on a bed of mortar about two inches 
 thick. On account of the base of the foundations being of 
 different material, as above noted, and of the cross walls north 
 of the middle main wall being- out of line with those south of it, 
 it is surmised that the northern halves of the two houses alluded 
 to were constructed at a different period from the southern 
 halves, possibly a later one. The inside dimensions of the ear- 
 Her houses would, therefore, have been twenty by forty feet, 
 thus according with the specifications contained in the statute of 
 December, 1662, for rebuilding the town. 
 
 The remains of several immense fire places are found in all of 
 the buildings excepting the state house. The fire places are gen- 
 erally about eight feet long between the jambs. One, in the 
 southern half of the " Country House," is eight and a half feet 
 long: The jambs project about three feet from the walls. 
 
 The buildings appear to have been divided into apartments 
 about twenty feet square by the fire places and heavy partition 
 walls. 
 
 The foundations of two of the partitions are T-shaped. It is 
 conjectured that the spaces between the heads of the T's and the 
 southern porches were approximately square halls, with a room 
 at either end. The spaces between the T-heads and the middle 
 main wall of either side of the stem of the T were probably uti- 
 lized as lockers or closets. The obliquity of the T partition and 
 also of the porch of the middle Ludwell house with reference to 
 the main walls cannot be satisfactorily explained. It may have 
 been the result of careless work of the builder, or it may indi- 
 cate that the main walls belonged to buildings erected at different 
 periods from the other parts referred to. The floors of several 
 of the rooms were paved with brick, parts of the paving still 
 remaining. 
 
 Brick foundations of several porches projecting from the south- 
 ern main wall indicate that the buildings faced the south. One 
 of the porches adjoins the middle of the state house, two others 
 the easternmost and middle Ludwell houses. They were about 
 ten feet square inside. Their foundation walls are eighteen to 
 twenty-two inches thick. At the eastern end of the middle I.,ud- 
 well house are what appear to have been the foundations of an- 
 other and smaller porch eight and one-half feet square inside 
 
68 THE SITE OF OLD "JAMES TOWNE.' 
 
 the walls.. It may have belonged to a house erected prior to 
 
 1665. 
 
 Under the northern half of the westernmost Ludwell house 
 was found a cellar, twenty by forty feet by about six feet deep, 
 filled with the brick of fallen walls. The cellar is paved with 
 brick. In the floor is a pit three and one half feet square by 
 •three feet deep, with brick-lined sides. Leading from the pit to 
 what was apparently formerly a hole about a foot in diameter is 
 a shallow drain. It is possible that the pit was for draining the 
 cellar, but it is far more probable that it was a well. On the floor 
 of the cellar were several sheets of melted lead, and among the 
 brick debris were a ' ' sacar ' ' shot, also two bombshells — one of 
 the calibre of a demi-culverin, the other of a sacar — and frag- 
 ments of exploded shells. The above warlike relics may have 
 been fired in 1676 from Bacon's trench near the north end of the 
 isthmus. The cellar is entered by a flight of steps on its north- 
 ern side. A pipe, scissors, steel sewing-thimble, copper candle- 
 stick, ladies' riding-stirrup, and an old bottle, all of quaint and 
 antique shapes, were found in the cellar. 
 
 The bond of the brick work of the cellar walls is the same as 
 that of the foundations and tower ruin of the brick church of 
 1639-47 — viz., the so-called English bond. This bond is found 
 in Flanders, Holland, and Rhenish Germany, from which coun- 
 tries it appears to have been introduced into Great Britain.* Its 
 employment at "James Towne" is probably to be accounted 
 for by several of the residents of the town during its fourth de- 
 cade being German or Dutch brickmakers and bricklayers. 
 
 The " Country House " is separated from tlie Ludwell build- 
 ings by an eighteen-inch party wall. Under its northern half 
 was an unpaved cellar entered by a flight of steps on the north 
 side similar to those of the Ludwell cellar. 
 
 The foundations of the state house show that it was about sev- 
 enty-four feet by twenty feet within the walls. It was divided by 
 a fourteen-inch cross wall into two parts, one about forty-two, 
 the other about thirty-one feet long. Projecting from the mid- 
 dle of the north wall are foundations of a wing about fifteen 
 feet square within the walls, referred to below. On each side ot 
 
 * Encyclopedia Britannica, Vol. IV, page 461. 
 
THE SITE OF OLD " JAMES TOWNE. " 69 
 
 the wing is a projection which may have belonged to bay win- 
 dows or fireplaces. If not to the latter, the state house prob- 
 ably was not heated, as there are no other indications of fire- 
 places in the building. 
 
 The general plan of the state house, with its north wing and 
 south porch, is symmetrical. 
 
 From the original transcript of the Journal of the General As- 
 sembly, held at Jamestown in May, 1684 * it is learned that 
 •during that session a committee consisting of " Coll" Kendall — 
 Capt: Fra: Page — Capt: Robinson— Coll" George Mason — Mr. 
 Hen: Hartwell — Major Allen and Mr. Sherwood," was appointed 
 to consider the rebuilding of the state house and to ascertain its 
 cost. The committee was also instructed to submit with its re- 
 port the proposals of any persons willing to perform the work. 
 The committee acted promptly and its report f was as promptly 
 approved by the House. The report was then submitted to the 
 governor, who appointed Mr. Sherwood to draw up a contract 
 "between his Exlncy & the Speaker in behalfe of the Generall 
 Assembly and the Hon"" Coll" Phillip Ludwell for the Rebuild- 
 ing the state house." 
 
 The only available data pertaining to the arrangement of the 
 interior of the building are the allusions to it in " T. M.'s" 
 account of Bacon's Rebellion, and the Journal of the General 
 Assembly held at "James Citty " in November and December, 
 1685,1 quoted from above. 
 
 During the above session the rebuilding of the state house 
 was probably nearly completed, and it was ordered by the House 
 ' ' That Mr. Auditor Bacon pay to Col. Philip Ludwell fower 
 hundred pounds sterling out of ye Moneys accruing from ye 
 duty of three pence pr. gallon upon liquors, for and in consid- ' 
 eration of rebuilding ye State House, upon payment of wch 
 
 * Colonial Record Book, Vol. 85, pp. 168-207, P. R. O., London, Eng- 
 land. 
 
 t Miss Ethel B. Sainsbury; of London, England, who examined and 
 made transcripts of portions of the above documents for the author 
 states that the committee's report does not appear in the files of the 
 London P. R. O. 
 
 J McDonald Papers, Vol. VII, p. 312, et seq. 
 
70 THE SITE OF OLD " JAMES TOWNE." 
 
 money, Mr. Auditor is desired to take bond from Col. Ludwell 
 for ye full compleating of ye House, in such manner as shall be 
 fully satisfactory to his Excellency ye Council & ye House of 
 Burgesses answerably good and equivalent to the condition of 
 ye same."* 
 
 From the same Journal of the Assembly it is learned that the 
 Assembly room wherein the Burgesses met most probably occu- 
 pied the entire second floor of the main building, and that ad- 
 joining the Assembly room was a smaller apartment referred to as 
 the porch room or porch chamber, which in the third state house 
 had been used as the Secretary's office and as a repository of 
 the colonial records. This room, as shown by the extracts from 
 the Assembly Jourpial, was a bone of contention between the 
 governor (Effingham) and the House, and no doubt had much 
 to do with the subsequent persecution of Robert Beverley, 
 Clerk of the Assembly. It is conjectured that the porch room 
 was over the south porch. 
 
 The chamber used for the double purpose of holding sessions 
 of the Court and meetings of the Council was on the first floor — 
 probably represented by the larger of the two divisions, the 
 eastern, formed by the fourteen-inch cross wall. The smaller, 
 or western, was used as a waiting-room for those having business 
 at court. A part of the latter, at its western end, was cut off by 
 a wooden petition in 1685 or 1686 for an office for the Secretary 
 of State. It is likely that there was a wide hall in the first story 
 connecting the south porch and the north wing, and as " T. M. " 
 states that he saw the Council in session through the open door- 
 way while on his way up to the Assembly, it seems likely that 
 the hall contained the staircase. This position of the staircase, 
 however, is purely conjectural. 
 
 As the foundations of the north wing are but fourteen inches 
 thick, they probably carried walls but one story high, which 
 prior to 1686 may have belonged to the office of the clerk of the 
 Assembly. 
 
 Subjoined are extracts from the Journal of the Assembly in 
 December, 1685, the authority for some of the foregoing deduc- 
 tions: 
 
 * Ibid, p. 366. 
 
THE SITE OF OLD " JAMES TOWNE." 71 
 
 Resolvfed by ye House, that ye room in ye state House, 
 called ye Porch Chamber be kept and appropriated an office for 
 ye Clk of ye Assbly and yt Robert Beverley* ye present Clerk 
 take possession thereof and therein Lodge and place all Re- 
 cords, Books and Papers, belonging to ye Assembly, wch either 
 now are or for ye time to come shall be committed to his charge 
 keeping or Custody. 
 
 Ordered that this resolve of ye House be sent to his Excel- 
 lency and ye Councel, with ye requests of this House for their 
 concurrence therein. 
 
 Proposed by ye House, yt ye lower room in the state House 
 opposite to ye Court House room be with all possible expidition 
 fitted for ye Secretaries Office, And this House doe pray his 
 Excellency will please to command and direct ye doing thereof, 
 and yt the Honble Col Ludwell be treated with about it 
 
 Xber 4th 1685 
 • Signed by Order of ye House of Burgesses 
 
 RoBT Beverley, Clk Assbly" 
 "Xber 8th 1685. 
 
 By ye House of Bui-gesses 
 To his Excellency and ye Council. 
 
 This House having read and considered yr Exclies late answer 
 to ye resolve of this House, appointing ye room called ye Porch 
 room in ye State House for an office for their Clerk, and that ye 
 lower room under ye Assembly room may be fitted, soe much 
 thereof, as is necessary, for an office for Mr. Secretary, doe now 
 again supplicate yr Excellency and ye Council, will please to 
 concur with them therein, for although they doe acknowledge 
 yt ye sd porch room att ye first building of ye State House was 
 made use of for an office for ye Secretary, yet ye House of Bur- 
 gesses whilst it soe remained, all along observed it, both incon- 
 venient and incommodious to them whilst sitting; there being 
 nothing spoken or proposed in ye House, that was not equally 
 to be heard there, as wel as in ye Assembly room itselfe, besides 
 ye same gave continuall opportunity to all sorts of psons to 
 
 * Although this name is now spelled both with and without an e in the 
 last syllable, the former style appears to have been that used by the 
 above-mentioned person. 
 
72 THE SITE OF OLD " JAMES TOWNE." 
 
 crowd before the Assembly room, under pretence of coming to 
 ye Office. 
 
 And this House doe again propose to your Excelcy & Honrs 
 such part of ye room, under ye Assembly rooms, as is necessary 
 for ye Secretaries office, wch by seeling ye Walls and raising ye 
 floor will become as safe & commodious for preservation of ye 
 Records, as its possible any other place can be made, wch they 
 doubt not will soe appear to yr Excellency and ye Councel, to 
 whom they submit ye manner of doing and directions thereof, 
 and againe request ye acceptance thereof, to that purpose. 
 
 Test Robert Beverley Clk Assbly. 
 
 The following answer was ordered to be returned. 
 By His Excellency & Council. 
 
 Your reasons given for ye Porch room to remainean office for 
 your Clerk, have been considered and agreed to, upon condition 
 his Majestys Secretary upon ye first notice given him, be content 
 that his office shall be in ye lower room you propose wch is not 
 in ye least to be doubted, and that you will provide, that a strong 
 partition be made under ye second girder, att ye West end of ye 
 said room, ye floor raised two foot from ye ground, ye walls 
 ceeled, with sawen boards smoothd and battened, and ye Win- 
 dows iron barred, and shutters or Window leaves, of half inch 
 board with a crosse barr to' each, with shelves, table & benches 
 to be well done and compleatly finishd before ye next general 
 court, att ye charge of ye Country, to be paid for ye next Gene- 
 ral Assembly, and that you agree with some workman accord- 
 ingly." 
 
 It is interesting to note that Robert Beverley, who was the 
 clerk of the Assembly in 1685, probably never occupied the 
 porch chamber as an office, for by a letter from King James U, 
 dated August i, 1686, he was forever disqualified for holding 
 office, the reason assigned for which in the letter being that he 
 had " chiefly occasioned and promoted those disputes and con- 
 tests " of the Assembly, in the stormy session of 1685. The 
 King's letter also deprived the House of the privilege of electing 
 its clerk, transferring to the governor authority to fill the posi- 
 tion by appointment, and ordered Beverley's prosecution for 
 
THE SITE OF OLD " JAMES TOWNE." 73 
 
 altering the records.* Beverley died shortly before April, 1687. 
 
 By an order of the General Assembly there was to be placed 
 a ' ' railing with rails and banisters of Locust or Cedar wood laid 
 double in Oyle & and as close as may be ye forepart of ye State 
 House, of convenient height & att convenient distance from ye 
 House, "t The above is taken to mean that the railing was to 
 be placed across the Assembly room to exclude spectators from 
 the part of the hall appointed for sessions of the Burgesses. 
 
 In uncovering the foundations it was discovered that nearly 
 all of the brick of which the walls were composed and parts of 
 those belonging to the foundations had been removed, also some 
 of the brick paving. 
 
 It is inferred from finding fragments of slate and tiles around 
 the foundations that the roofs of the buildings were covered 
 with those materials. They were specified in the statute of De- 
 cember, 1662. 
 
 The row of buildings was probably completed about 1666, 
 burned in 1676, and partly rebuilt in 1685 and 1686. The re- 
 mainder of the row was possibly rebuilt between 1694 and 1698. 
 The buildings comprising it were destroyed in the fire of Octo- 
 ber 31, 1698. 
 
 The foregoing views as to the arrangement of rooms in the 
 fourth state house are exhibited on the accompanying plate. 
 
 During the fall and early winter of 1903 the association built 
 up the foundations to the level of the ground with concrete and 
 the walls of the cellars with the original brick. On account of 
 the brick being very fragile the cellar walls were protected with 
 cement plaster. 
 
 From what has preceded it is evident that the "James Citty " 
 state houses, although substantial, were not imposing structures. 
 In the case of the first, third and fourth, they formed part of a 
 row or block of buildings. 
 
 It is not surprising that the colony, which a few years before 
 the building of the fourth state house had a population of but 
 50,000 to 60,000 free holders, J could not afford out of its pov- 
 
 * Hening's Statutes, Vol. Ill, page 41. 
 t McDonald Papers, Vol. VII, p. 397. 
 X Sainsbury's Calendar of State Papers, Vol. 1681-1685. 
 
74 THE SITE OF OLD " JAMES TOWNE." 
 
 erty and under its heavy burden of taxation, to have any better 
 public buildings. The annual allowances of Culpeper as gover- 
 nor in 1681, alone, drained the colony of 2,150 pounds sterl- 
 ing,* which, with the perquisite of five hundred pounds sterling 
 for house rent, reduced to present values, aggregated about 
 $50,000. 
 
 Recurring to the Journal of the General Assembly of 1685, 
 it contains a resolution of the House of Burgesses providing for 
 building a prison, not concurred in by the governor and Coun- 
 cil, t A prison was probably erected after the completion of 
 the fourth state house, for one was burned in the fire of Octo- 
 ber, 1698. I 
 
 The last meeting of the Assembly at " James Citty" was held 
 in April, 1699, in some building unknown. At the above ses- 
 sion an act was passed for removing the seat of government to 
 Williamsburg. In the four succeeding years the college of Wil- 
 liam and Mary was used as the state house. In 1705 the capitol 
 building at Williamsburg was completed. It was occupied un- 
 til burned about 1747. The college was again used as a state 
 house until the capitol was rebuilt in 1755. By 1779, the centre 
 of population having moved westward, Williamsburg was no 
 longer well adapted as a point for assembling the legislature. 
 For the above reason principally, and also on account of its be- 
 ing thought that the place was rendered unsafe by the then ex- 
 isting state of war, it was decided by an act of assembly passed 
 in the above year to transfer the seat of government to Rich- 
 mond, which statute went into effect in 1780. 
 
 THE TURF AND BRICK FORTS. 
 
 THE earliest fort of the settlers, called by them "James 
 Forte," as'previously shown, was probably situated on the 
 river bank, at the upper extremity of the fourth ridge. 
 
 From the description of "James Citty," previously alluded to, 
 written by the Rev. John Clayton in 1688, || about two years 
 after his return to England, it appears that during his residence 
 
 * The Present State of Virginia, p. 31, Hartwell, Chilton and Blair. 
 
 t McDonald Papers, Vol. VII, p. 356. ' 
 
 J Present State of Virginia, p. 25, Hugh Jones, A. M. 
 
 II Force's Historical Tracts, Vol. III. 
 
THE SITE OF OLD " JAMES TOWNE. " 75 
 
 at "James Citty," from 1684 to 1686, there was in the town an 
 old dismantled earth work, quadrangular in plan, "with some- 
 thing like Bastions at the four corners." In a grant to Henry 
 Hartwell in 1689,* the western line of his tract is described as 
 
 passing along by ye angular points of ye trench which faceth 
 two of ye Eastern Bastions of an old ruined turf fort." The 
 above quotations undoubtedly refer to the same fort. 
 
 The Hartwell tract being accurately located, the approximate 
 position of the fort was ascertained. According to Mr. Clay- 
 ton's letter, the fort was dismantled before 1684. No mark or 
 vestige of it remains above ground. There is apparently no in- 
 formation available as to when it was constructed. As the land 
 on which it was situated was patented to Captain Ralph Hamor 
 in 1624, the time of its construction must have been subsequent 
 to that year, or to that of his death, 1626, on the nth of Octo- 
 ber of which year his will was probated and his widow, Eliza- 
 beth, qualified as administratrix, f 
 
 It is possible that the turf fort was the one referred to by Bev- 
 erley, as follows: "The news of this plot (the Birkenhead con-' 
 spiracy in September, 1663,) being transmitted to King Charles 
 the second, his Majesty sent his royal commands to build a fort 
 at James town, for security of the governor, and to be a curb 
 upon all such traitorous attempts for the future. But the coun- 
 try, thinking all danger over, only raised a battery of some small 
 pieces of cannon."! 
 
 In the account of the town by Mr. Richard Randolph in 
 1837,11 it is stated in substance that some of the walls and mounds 
 of the ancient fort still remained, that a few hundred yards to 
 the right of the fort stood the building reputed to have been a 
 powder magazine, and that a part of the fort had been destroyed 
 by the encroachments of the river. 
 
 It appears from what follows that the fort referred to by Ran- 
 dolph was the last erected at "James Citty." The site of the 
 former "magazine" is shown on the map. 
 
 *Va. Land Pat. Records, Book VII, p. 701. 
 
 t Transcripts Robinson, MSS., p. 159. 
 
 t History of the Present State of Virginia, p. 56. 
 
 II Southern Literary Messenger, Vol. Ill, pp. 303, 304 , 
 
76 .^ THE SITE OF OLD " JAMES TOWNE." 
 
 It is assumed that, in making his observations, Mr. Randolph 
 faced the river, the fort being down stream from, or below the 
 magazme. If the distance between the two structures had been 
 several hundred yards, as given by him, the site of the fort 
 would now be in the deep water opposite the Confederate fort of 
 1861. This would involve an extensive change of position oi 
 the deep channel since 1837, which palpably would be impossi- 
 ble, for, as has been pointed out, the channel of James river at 
 Jamestown Island is very stable, and no marked changes of its 
 position or depth occur, even in centuries. It is, therefore, be- 
 lieved that Mr. Randolph meant feet, and not yards,* or it is 
 possible that the word yards is a typographic error. 
 
 The distance between the shore lines of 1837 and 1891, near 
 the uppermost of the four jetties marked "a" on map, three 
 hundred and twenty feet below the reputed magazine, is found 
 approximately by using the average annual rates of abrasion of 
 two and four feet, previously determined, to have been one hun- 
 dred and ninety feet. The shore of 1891 was accurately located 
 in that year. In 1896 it was cut back about seventy feet to bring 
 it to a fair line for receiving protection work. Since 1896 the 
 recession of the bank has been very slight at the locality referred 
 to. When viewed by Mr. Randolph, therefore, the shore was 
 about two hundred and sixty feet further west than at present, 
 and some of the mounds of the fort were then standing. At 
 from two hundred to three hundred and fifty feet off shore, 
 where, according to the above deductions, the fort would have 
 «tood, are what appear to be masses of masonry submerged 
 from one and one-half to two and one-half feet below low water. 
 The debris hes in what would be the extension of the ' • little 
 vale" between the third and fourth ridges, from three hundred 
 and fifty to four hundred and fifty feet to the left of the reputed 
 magazine, with the observer facing the river, thus agreeing fairly 
 well with Mr. Randolph's estimate of distance, amended as 
 above suggested. 
 
 From Mr. Clayton's description of "James Citty," before re- 
 ferred to, it is learned that the brick fort was crescent shaped, 
 that a brick wall formed a part of it, probably one of its faces to 
 retain encompassing earthworks, or mounds, as Mr. Randolph 
 styles them, and that it was situated at the beginning of the 
 
THE SITE OF OLD "JAMES TOWNE." 77 
 
 swamp, above the town, where the channel was very near the 
 shore. 
 
 According to Mr. Clayton also, on account of being in a vale 
 and having its guns pointed down stream, its shot intended for 
 an enemy's fleet would have lodged in the bank below, which 
 was at a higher elevation than the fort, and from ten to forty 
 yards distant. The bank which would have received the shot 
 from the fort's guns was the former head of the fourth ridge, 
 which formed the eastern boundary of the " little vale." 
 
 In September, 1667, an act of Assembly was passed * for build- 
 ing five forts, one of which was to beat " James Citty." Its 
 walls were to be of brick, ten feet high, and the part facing the 
 river ten feet thick. The fort, according to the above act, was 
 to have an armament of eight great guns; according to another 
 authority, it was to mount fourteen guns, t The above act un- 
 doubtedly refers to the brick fort. The contractors for building 
 the fort were Major Theophilus Hone, Colonel William Drum- 
 mond, and Colonel Matthew Page. The funds for its construc- 
 tion do not appear to have been raised as late as September, 
 1672. J Between 1672 and 1676 a peremptory order was issued 
 by the court requiring the surviving contractors for the fort, 
 Hone and Drummond, to forthwith complete its construction, 
 and providing that no further payment should be made until the. 
 work was completed. § 
 
 As has been shown, the channel opposite the site of the for- 
 mer turf fort is about twice as far from the shore as it is three 
 hundred yards above the tower ruin, or about where the brick 
 fort stood. This coincides with Mr. Clayton's statement that 
 opposite the turf fort the channel was nearer the middle of the 
 river than off the brick fort. || 
 
 From what has preceded it is evident that the fort referred to 
 by Mr. Randolph was the brick fort described by Mr. Clayton, 
 that it was situated in the extension of the depression between 
 
 * Hening's Statutes, Vol. II, pp. 255-257. 
 
 t McDonald Papers, Vol. V, p. 4. 
 
 X Hening's Statutes, Vol. II, pp. 293, 294. 
 
 \ Robinson's Transcripts, General Court Records, 1670-1676, p. 149. 
 
 II Force's Historical Tracts, Vol. III. 
 
78 THE SITE OF OLD " JAMES TOWNE." 
 
 the third and fourth ridges, and that the masonry debris now 
 lying under water off the uppermost of the four jetties now 
 marked "a" on chart are most probably parts of its wall, 
 which it was proposed to make ten feet high and ten feet thick. 
 
 From Mr. Clayton's allusion to the relative positions of the 
 brick and turf forts, with reference to that of the town, ' ' but it 
 is the same as if a Fort were built at Chelsea to secure London 
 from being taken by shipping," and " There was indeed an old 
 Fort of Earth in the town," it is apparent that in 1684 and 1686 
 the town, or at least the greater part of it, was below the brick 
 fort. This agrees v/ith available information, for in 1694 the 
 only buildings known to have been standing on the third ridge 
 were the "Country House" and the state house. It is probable 
 that the building reputed to have been a magazine was also 
 standing and possibly one or two dwelling houses. There are 
 no signs of house foundations on the ridges above the third 
 ridge. 
 
 TAMES Citty," in its best days, was little more than a strag- 
 I gling hamlet, holding besides a church and a few unostenta- 
 tious public buildings, hardly ever more than a score of 
 dwellings, and a larger permanent population than one hundred 
 souls. It was the foreshore on which the inrolling waves of im- 
 migration, on their way up the ' ' Create River," first broke. Its 
 life, a feverish one, whose term was less than a century, terminated 
 two centuries ago. Attempts to encourage the growth of the 
 town by offering land bounties to those who should erect brick 
 dwellings, as well as enactments and re-enactments making it 
 the sole port of entry for the colony, failed signally to raise it to 
 a place of any proportions, and after being twice lifted from its 
 ashes, it succumbed under a third conflagration and was left 
 prone. The town must have been held in disfavor, and avoided 
 as a place of residence by many of the early colonists, on ac- 
 count of a well-earned reputation of being " insalubritious " in 
 summer. The period of its life was not propitious for town 
 building, as the principal efforts of the colonists were then de- 
 voted to agriculture, particularly tobacco raising. 
 
THE SITE OF OLD " JAMES TOWNE." 79 
 
 Few relics of the old town mark its site, but its name is im- 
 perishable. Its requiem is unceasing sung in the rhythmic 
 surgings of the "King's River." 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 AN ABRIDGED DESCRIPTION OF THE METHOD EMPLOYED IN 
 LOCATING "the NEW TOWNE," FROM THE VIRGINIA LAND 
 PATENT RECORDS. 
 
 The following patents were used for locating "the New 
 Towne: " 
 
 (i) John Pott, "Doctr. of Physicke," for three acres "in the 
 new Towne," dated August ii, 1624. 
 
 (2) Same grantee, for 12 acres, including the above three 
 acres, dated September 20, 1628. 
 
 (3) John Phips, for 120 acres, "part thereof in James Citye's 
 liberties," dated February 23, 1656. This patent includes 12- 
 acres "formerly granted by patent unto Dr. John Pott." 
 
 (4) John Knowles, for 133 acres, 35 9-10 chains, " part within 
 and part without the liberties of the said city," dated May 6, 
 1665. 
 
 The tract covered by this patent includes the above 120 acres 
 purchased from John Phips; 3 acres 44 37-100 chains, also pur- 
 chased from said Phips; and 9 acres 71 53-100 chains, "due for 
 transportation for one person." 
 
 (5) William Sherwood, for 308 acres in James City and James 
 City Island, dated April 20,. 1694. 
 
 The Sherwood tract included 3^ acres "purchased by him 
 the said Wm. Sherwood of John Page Esqr; " i acre (see (9) be- 
 low); 133 acres 35 9-10 chains "being heretofore granted by 
 patent dated the 6th day of May 1665 to one. John Knowles; " 
 2%% acres ' ' granted by patent dated the 4th day of October, 
 1656, to one John Bauldwin;" and the remainder, "being for- 
 merly granted to Richard James by patent dated the 5th day of 
 June, 1657." 
 
 (6) Henry Hartwell, for 2 acres, i rood, 24 i-io poles, dated 
 April 20, 1689. 
 
 (7) Richard Holder, in ' ' James Citty, " for 8 acres, i rood, 
 5 poles, dated January 28, 1672. 
 
80 THE SITE OF OLD " JAMES TOWNE." 
 
 (8) Wm. Edwards, Jr., for 127 poles in James City, dated 
 October 15, 1698. 
 
 (9) William Sherwood, for one acre of land * * * "in 
 James Citty on which formerly stood the brick house formerly 
 called the Country house," etc., dated April 23, 1681. 
 
 The tracts represented by the patents are shown on the ac- 
 companying " Plat of the Tracts." They were connected by 
 means of their common boundaries, as follows : 
 
 f i) The northern boundary of the Pott tract, (2) line 31-32, 
 is also one of the lines of the Phips (3) survey. 
 
 (2) The line 31-32 is also common to Phips (3) and Knowles 
 (4), and the line 31-33 of Knowles is a part of the line 31-27, 
 of Pott. 
 
 (3) The lines 4-1 1, ii-ioand 10-9 are common to Knowles 
 (4) and Sherwood (5). 
 
 (4) The lines 4-1 1, ii-io and 10-9 are also common to Sher- 
 wood (5) and Sherwood (9). 
 
 (5) Lines ii-ioand 10-9 of Hartwell are common to Sher- 
 wood (5), Sherwood (9) and Knowles (4), and Hartwell 36-11 
 forms part of line 4-1 1 of each of the above tracts, (5) and (9). 
 
 (6) Line 19-20 Hartwell (6) differs ij{° in azimuth from the 
 line 19-26 of Holder (7). The length of the line 19-20, how- 
 ever, being but 5i}4 feet, the above difference of azimuth would 
 change the position of the point 20 but one foot, a too insignifi- 
 cant difference to be considered in a compass survey. Hart- 
 well's patent reads for the course 17-19, " buts on the land now 
 or late of holder." It also reads for line 19-20, " thence along 
 holder," showing that the above line is a part of Holder's wes- 
 tern boundary. 
 
 (7) The azimuth of the line 19-26 of Holder (6) is the same 
 as line 2i-a6 of Edwards (8). The length of the above line for 
 the Edwards tract, however, is shorter. The south end of the 
 above eastern boundary of the Edwards tract (8) is described as 
 being "at ye mouth of ye Orchard Run on James River," and 
 the same end of the line for the Holder tract is described as be- 
 ing ' ' at high water mark on James River side at the mouth of a 
 small run entering thereinto. ' ' The runs are undoubtedly one 
 and the same. 
 
 The patents show that Orchard Run was on the south bank of 
 
91 n 
 jijtr^dylt-gi. 
 
 Us- fi 
 
 H 
 I 
 n 
 
 S? 
 
 > 
 
 B pi 
 
 0) 
 
 c 
 u 
 
 (B I 
 
 Q. > 
 
 1 O 
 
 o -n 
 
 _i g O oq n 
 
 ft f* m i" 
 
 ■< ? 
 
THE SITE OF OLD " JAMES TOWNE. " 81 
 
 the island. As there is but one stream entering the river on that 
 bank that could be designated a run, it was readily identified 
 
 The descriptions in the patents furnish some other data as to 
 the nallies of owners of adjacent land, which further confirm 
 several of the above determinations. 
 
 Several errors were discovered in the survey notes of the 
 transcripts of the patents above referred to and, until they were 
 located and corrected, it was found to be impracticable to plat 
 the tr&cts. The errors were those of the surveyor and of the 
 scrivfiner who transcribed the patents. They comprise princi- 
 pally the reading of the south end of the needle by the sur- 
 veyot, and in transcribing, misplacing the decimal point in 
 the length of a course given in figures, and entering azimuths 
 incoJrectly. 
 
 In one of the patents, (Sherwood 9), the azimuth of every 
 course of the survey is reversed. The last named tract might 
 be Omitted from the plat, as it only serves the purpose of con- 
 firming the junction of three other .tracts, Knowles (4), Sher- 
 wood (5) and Hartwell (6), which is well established. 
 
 All of the foregoing tracts being platted, the point 26 was su- 
 perposed on the mouth of Orchard Run, previously identified 
 and located on a modern map, and the map as made up from 
 ancient patents rotated around point 26 until its magnetic merid- 
 ian had a western declination of 6J^ degrees.* It was then 
 foUnd that point i of Sherwood (5) fell on the south side ox the 
 branch of "Pitch and Tarr Swamp," thus agreeing with the 
 description in the patent record for Sherwood (5). Another 
 point of Sherwood (5) near its eastern end, omitted from the ac- 
 companying plat — as by including it the map would have been 
 made too large — falls within thirty-five feet of where the de- 
 scription places it, viz. , on the edge of a great marsh on Back 
 River. 
 
 A causeway across the swamp before referred to, being prob- 
 
 *The magnetic declination at "James Citty" about the middle of the 
 seventeenth century was probably six or seven degrees west. There 
 are no data prior to 1694 for any better than a rough approximation. 
 Six and a half degrees appears to be close enough for the class of sur- 
 veys to which it is here applied. 
 
82 THE SITE OF OLD " JAMES TOWNE." 
 
 ably the bridge given as a witness mark in the Knowles patent 
 (4) being found very near the point indicated by that patent also 
 confirms the location of ' ' the New Towne ' ' as exhibited on the 
 map. 
 
 The south line of the Pott tract 27-28, (i) and that of Phips 
 (3) fix the position and direction of Back Street. The southern 
 boundaries of tracts of Hartwell (6), Holder (7) and Edwards 
 (8), fix the positions of parts of the southern bank of the island 
 for the seventeenth century, which is thereby found to conform 
 closely to that of to-day, thus showing that it has not been 
 abraded to any extent by the waves. This is as it should be, 
 for the part of the island shore immediately below the present 
 wharf has not been greatly exposed to wave action. The an- 
 cient south shore of the island and the positions of the Pott 
 tracts and the Back Street being established, the Ralph Hamor 
 tract was platted by its dimensions given in the patent records.* 
 Its position was then approximately arrived at by finding by 
 trial the place on the chart where the length of the tract would 
 fit in between the Back Street and the "highway along the 
 banke of the Main River." 
 
 « The area of the plat of John Harvey f being given, also its 
 northern boundary, Back Street, its eastern boundary "the 
 Swamp lying on the East side of the said New Towne," its 
 southern boundary, ' ' upon the highway close to the banke of 
 the Main river,," the approximate position of the tract was ascer- 
 tained after several trials. 
 
 From the descriptions qf the Harvey and Hamor tracts the 
 position of those of George Menefy J and Richard Stephens, § 
 and also those of the two cross streets, all 0^ which are men- 
 tioned in the descriptions of the two first named, were readily 
 found, and finally the tract of John Chew,|| all as shown on the 
 " Map of lames Citty, Va., 1607-1698." 
 
 N. B. — Lines indicated on the "Plat of the Tracts " by num- 
 bers I, 2, 3, 4, II, 10, 9, are part of Sherwood (5) survey. 
 
 * Va. Land Pat. Record, Book I, p. 3. 
 
 t Ibid, Book I, p. 5. } Ibid, Book I, p. 4. 
 
 ? Ibid, Book I, p. i. || Ibid, Book I, p. 7. 
 
THE SITE OF OLD " JAMES TOWNE." 83 
 
 Lines indicated by numbers 9, 10, 11, 4, 5, 37, 33, 31, 32, are 
 part of Knowles (4) survey. 
 
 Lines indicated by numbers 28, 34, 35, are part of Phips 
 (3) survey. 
 
 The dwellings of Knowles, later Sherwood's, of Col. White, 
 later Henry Hartwell's, also that of John Phips, although having 
 no connection with the matter of, locating the "New Towne," 
 are shown on the plate, on account of being interesting features. 
 Their positions were determined from references to them in the 
 patents. 
 
 By comparing the ' ' Plat ' ' with the ' ' Map of ' lames Citty' , ' ' 
 especially the Pott and Holder tracts, the relation of the two 
 plates will be apparent. 
 
 " Back Street " appears to have lost its name before 1656. as 
 Phips' patent of that year, although following its lines, does not 
 refer to it by name. Charlestown's (Boston) "Back Street," 
 dating from very early colonial times, survives under its original 
 
84 THE SITE OF OLD " JAMES TOWNE. 
 
 NOTE. 
 
 The Ambler MSS. and ' ' The Site of Old ^ James Tow?!e, ' i6o^- 
 
 1698." 
 
 By the publication in April, 1904, of the report of the Libra- 
 rian of the Congressional Library, for the fiscal year of 1903, 
 the author of "The Site of Old 'James Towne' " was apprised of 
 the acquisition by the library of a collection of MSS. of which 
 he had no previous knowledge, showing the former possessions 
 oi the Ambler family situated principally at Jamestown or in its 
 vicinage. An examination of the papers was made by him to- 
 wards the end of April. 
 
 The collection comprises upwards of 140 MSS. and charts, 
 consisting of original patents, deeds and leases, also copies of 
 other similar documents, certified and uncertified, and copies of 
 three wills, all showing the chain of title of the lands as vested 
 in different owners up to 1809, and, in one instance, dating back 
 to 1649. There is no reference in the papers, however, to grants 
 of the tracts which formed the "New Towne" in 1623. A com- 
 parison of some ofvthe original patents in the collection with 
 their transcripts in the land register's office at Richmond shows 
 that the latter, in the main, are correct, and have been properly 
 interpreted, thus proving the accuracy of the "Map of 'lames 
 Citty,' 1607-1698." As, however, there is no plat of James- 
 town among the papers, they would not have saved the labor 
 and study expended in preparing the above map, and the "Plat 
 of the Tracts," had they been available when the above-men- 
 tioned charts were constructed. 
 
 The papers comprising the collection contain evidence con- 
 firming the position of the turf fort, and show that it was still 
 standing in 1721. They also confirm other important features 
 of the map. 
 
 Among the collection are several skeleton charts of surveys, 
 two of which relate to Jamestown. One, made in 1680, shows 
 that the western shore line of the island in th# 17th century 
 above the "Pitch and Tarr Swamp" was about as shown on the 
 
THE SITE OF OLD " JAMES TOWNE." 85 
 
 author's map. The agreement of the above chart with the 
 "Map of 'lames Citty,' " in this respect, indirectly comiirms the 
 position given on the map of the part of the western shore of the 
 island below the upper branch of the swamp. This evidence 
 greatly strengthens the view expressed in the monograph as to 
 the site of the landing-place at Jamestown of the first band of 
 settlers. It is evident from the other skeleton chart that the 
 Sherwood tracts of 1681 and 1694 were situated with regard to 
 each other and the branch of Pitch and Tar Swamp, as drawn on 
 the "Map of ' lames Citty,' Va., 1607- 1698," and the " Plat of 
 Tracts." These coincidences corroborate the position of the 
 Pott tract as given in the map, and indirectly show the general 
 correctness of the part of the map for the east end of the town. 
 
 A reference in a lease for land on the second ridge in 1693 con- 
 firms the location of the third and fourth state houses on the 
 third ridge, as established from other data. No light, however, 
 is thrown on the location of the church by the Ambler papers. 
 
 It is learned from William Sherwood's will that the epitaph on 
 his tombstone is worded in accordance with his instructions to 
 his principal legatee. Sir Jeffrey JefTreys, Knt., of London. 
 
 Interesting information is supplied by the Ambler papers re- 
 garding the 3j^-acre tract of "Col. Jno. Page of 1681," shown 
 on the "Plat of the Tracts." The site of. this tract on the "Map 
 of 'lames Citty' " is covered by Sir Francis Wyatt's lot, and 
 the lot attributed to Captain Roger Smith. 
 
 The Page tract included the original grant from Harvey to 
 Richard Kemp, Esq., in 1639, who conveyed it to Wyatt. 
 Wyalt, through his agent, Wm. Pierce, sold to Sir Wm. Berk- 
 eley, who sold it to Walter Chiles, whose widow — afterwards 
 Mrs. Susan Waddinge — sold to Colonel John Page, who con- 
 veyed it to Wm. Sherwood in 1681. The concluding sentence 
 in the description of the survey of the tract made for Sherwood 
 in 1682 reads: "Including ye Ruins Sq'' Kemps Old BVick 
 House." The above house was the first brick house built at 
 Jamestown. It was 16 by 24 feet in plan and was referred to by 
 Gov. Harvey in 1639, with considerable pride, as being the fair- 
 est that ever was known to the country for substance and impor- 
 tance. By the locating of the Page tract, therefore, the site of 
 the first brick dwelling house in Virginia becomes approximately 
 
86 THE SITE OF OLD " JAMES fOWNE." 
 
 known. The evidence, though slight, shows that the house was 
 near the southwest corner of the Page tract. 
 
 Ralph Wormley, while secretary of state, resided on the Page 
 tract, on or very near the Kemp grant. 
 
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