USA > Virginia > City of Williamsburg > City of Williamsburg > Site of old "James Towne," 1607-1698 : a brief historical and topographical sketch of the first American metropolis > Part 4
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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.8
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.9
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 few opportunities for making it in trade. The simple, primitive tastes of the settlers, coupled with their general poverty, made shops superfluous. In 1625 the town had one merchant's store.10 An attempt was made in 1649 to hold a bi-weekly market. This was a complete failure and six years later, the act providing for the market was repealed.11
Nearly all who came to the colony, except the officials, had all to make and little to spend. The population of the town, there- fore, did not keep pace with that of the colony, in which, after about the first twenty-five years, it slowly but steadily in-
* The Genesis of the United States, p. 1064.
" The Unmasked Face.
" The Denial of Nathaniel Butler's "The Unmasked Face," Neill's History of the Va. Company, p. 405.
7 Works, Captain John Smith, p. 884. 8 Ibid, p. 536
₱ McDonald Papers, Vol. I.
10 The First Republic in America, p. 623.
11 Hening's Statutes, Vol. I, pp. 362, 397.
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creased. In 1634 it amounted to 5,119;12 in 1649, to 15,000;23 in 1665, to 40,000;14 in 1681, to 70,000 or 80,000;15 and in 1715 to 95,000.16 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.
12 State Papers, Colonial, Vol. 8, No. 65, 1634, De Jarnette Papers.
13 Force's Historical Tracts, Vol. II. A Perfect Description of Vir- ginia, p. 1.
" Winder Papers, Vol. I, p. 187.
15 Sainsbury Abstracts, Vol. 1681-1685, par. 275. Of this number 76 per cent. were freemen.
16 Chalmer's American Colonies, Vol. II, p. 7.
SUFFERINGS OF THE EARLY COLONISTS.
HE settlement near the head of Jamestown Island was at first called " James Forte " and " James Towne," usually the latter. After the town was enlarged in 1608, and until about 1620, or shortly after the close of Sir Thomas Smythe's administration 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 famine stalked pestilence, yellow fever communi- cated 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, impure drinking water and the mosquito all had their share in decimating the colony. The medical treatment then in vogue doubtless increased the mortality, bringing fatal results to many who, without it 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-
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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 letters to and from England were intercepted and proffers of assistance 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 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.1
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.2
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 believed 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 Warr, newly appointed 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,
1 A Briefe Declaration, etc., McDonald Papers, Vol. I, pp. 103-142
2 The Genesis of the United States, p. 900.
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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 actuated 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 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 1621,8 under the administration of Sir Henry Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton, who had succeeded Sir Edwin Sandys in 1620. These reforms and privileges stimu- lated the colony to renewed efforts and led to the development of its principal town.
As late as 1623, however, when the needs of the colonists should have been understood in England, their condition was often deplorable. Statements by members of the crew of one of the ships arriving in Virginia in that year attested to newly arrived emigrants dying in the streets of James Towne, and lying there until the dogs had eaten their bodies. A most for- lorn and mournful message from Virginia of this time is a letter of Richard Frethorne, of Martin's Hundred, about seven miles below Jamestown, to his parents in England, that " since he landed he had eaten nothing but pease and loblolly (water gruel). He had seen no venison and was not allowed to go
3 Hening's Statutes, Vol. I, pp. 110, 111, 112.
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after waterfowl, but had to work both early and late for a mess of water gruel and a mouthful of bread and beef. The people cried out ' Oh ! that they were in England without their limbs * though they begged from door to door.' There was noth- ing to be got but sickness and death, except that one had money to lay out in some things for profit but (I) have nothing at all, no not a shirt to (my) back, but two rags, nor no clothes but one poor suit, nor but one pair of shoes, but one pair of stock- ings, but one cap, but two bands." His cloak had been stolen by one of his fellows. He had not a penny to help him to " spice " or sugar, or strong waters, without which it was impos- sible to live. He had grown weak, for he had often eaten more in a day at home tha i was now allowed him for a week, and his parents had often given more than his present day's allowance to a beggar at the door. Goodman + Jackson had been very kind to him, and marvelled much that he had been sent (as) "a servant to the company " and said he " had been better knocked on the head." He entreated his father to redeem him, or at any rate to send provisions which might be sold at a profit, especially cheese, etc. * * Unless the " Sea-Flower " came in with provisions, his master's men would have but a half-penny loaf for each day's food and might be "turned up to the land and eat bark of trees or moulds of the ground. Therefore, Oh ! that you did see my daily and hourly sighs, groans and tears and thumps that I afford my breast and rue and curse the time of my birth with holy Job. I thought no head had been able to hold so much water as hath and doth daily flow from mine eyes."
The " Sea Flower " was destroyed by an explosion of gun- powder, so that Frethorne's worst misgivings may have been realized.5
+ Goodman and Goodwife, forms of address then used in England instead of Mr. and Mrs.
" Duke of Manchester's MSS. in 8th Report of Royal Commission on Historical MSS.
4-J. T.
"THE NEW TOWNE."
HE new policy of the company was carried out by Sir George Yeardley, whose methods were in striking con- trast with those of his predecessor, the unprincipled Argall. This marked 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 residents, with new and better con- structed habitations. The term " The New Towne " was applied to about fifty acres on the fourth ridge adjoining on the east the original stockade town of four acres.
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."
As it is the general opinion that the greater part of the an- cient town site has been washed away, it will be a sur- prise 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 proportion of the town site has been destroyed, and that the quarter called " the New Towne " has not been encroached
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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 defined as they were two or three centuries ago, have made it possible 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 misconstru- ing 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 cor- rectly deciphered, the renditions contained in historical publi- cations 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 of record. Those missing were no doubt improperly entered "in books labelled Bonds, Commissions, Depositions," &c.,1
1 Hening's Statutes, Vol. II, p. 509.
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which were destroyed in the burning of the office of the General Court during the evacuation of Richmond in 1865. Although the records are incomplete, and the descriptions in some of those available contain inaccuracies which required considerable study to correct, while those in others are too meagre or vague to afford 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 information, 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 record 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 23/4 degrees. In a patent of 1656 the azimuths of several sides are given to 1/8 point.
The direction of the Back Street in the Pott patent of 1624 is recorded as "eastward." The azimuth of the street is more definitely stated in the Phips patent, which included the Pott patent, and was issued thirty-two years later, as E. S. E. 1/4 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
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form of the mariner's compass was used in making land sur- veys, 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 2 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 City " patents the specified fee is a capon, "to his Majestie's use," payable "at the feast of St. Thomas the Apos- tle."3 A condition named in some patents between 1636 and 1640 is that the patentee should erect a house within six months."
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 almost 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
2 This orthography is given in some of the earlier patents.
3 Virginia Land Patent Records, Book I, p. 689, and Book IV, p. 475.
" Virginia Land Patent Records, Book I, p. 689, and Book IV, p. 475.
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uniform ana to one familiar with the characters then employed, is readily deciphered.
The abbreviation "y " for th in the and that does not appear in this book, which includes the issues up to and during a part of the year 1643. Its first 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 or 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-
" Hening's Statutes, Vol. II, p. 362.
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tion." 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 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 ruin (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,8 and had the same general direction, east and west, as the high- way referred to in the patents as the "way along the Greate River," or "Maine River," which constituted the front street of the "New Towne." The two thoroughfares were connected
6 History of the Present State of Virginia, p. 37.
7 Force's Historical Tracts, Vol. I.
8 Obtained by platting independently the tracts on opposite sides of the street.
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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 Jaquelin-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 Greate Road," which led to the 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 1668.9
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
" The present of silk, it is stated, was woven into a coronation robe for King Charles. As soon as the king graciously signified his acceptance 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 allowance requested, but payable when Sir William should send to England 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 received the reward.
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