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New interest in
Jamestown
By Susan Olling
The recent news stories about four sets of remains found on the site of
a church that dates to 1608 will probably bring even more visitors to
one of the most interesting parks in the National Park Service System:
Historic Jamestowne.
None of the American History courses I took, back in the mists of time,
mentioned Jamestown, Virginia, the first permanent English settlement
in North America founded in 1607. American history started with
those hardy Pilgrims thirteen years later. Maybe the omission of
Jamestown was because it was not founded by families seeking religious
freedom. It was a business venture backed by the Virginia
Company of London. Jamestown struggled for the first several
years of its existence. In 1610, the survivors packed up, boarded
a ship, and started down the James River. They were turned back
by Governor De La Warr (sorry folks, go back up the river—or whatever
the 17th century vernacular was) who arrived with more settlers and
supplies. After finding that tobacco, the “devil’s weed” (a term
coined by Sir Walter Raleigh), would provide a cash crop, conditions
started to improve. Jamestown didn’t ever have a large population
as people started moving inland and across the rivers to the
north. The settlement survived two attacks by the Powhatan
Confederacy in twenty years. The Virginia Company’s charter was
revoked, and Virginia became a royal colony in 1624. In 1698, the
fourth fire in Jamestown’s history resulted in the royal governor,
Francis Nicholson, moving the capital up the James to Middle
Plantation. Governor Nicholson designed the new capital there and
named it Williamsburg, for King William. After 1699, Jamestown
died. (Governor Nicholson had already set precedent as a city
planner. As royal governor of the Maryland colony, he moved its
capital from St. Mary’s City to Annapolis. Williamsburg and
Annapolis are laid out very differently.)
When I first visited Jamestown (pre-Mr. History), the only other signs
of life were five white-tailed deer. Obviously
locals.
How things have changed. The white-tailed deer are nowhere to be
seen. No doubt scared off by the large number of visitors who
have been drawn to the finds that the archeological digs have
uncovered. Prevailing thought was that Jamestown had long ago
disappeared into the James River. When the archeologists started
finding the shadows of decayed wooden posts, they realized that
prevailing thought was incorrect. They were able to reconstruct
the fort walls. They found at least one cemetery. Some
skeletal remains showed signs of cannibalism. Not
surprising. If food supplies ran short and you’d eaten your shoes
(if you had them), the dogs, and the rats; what was next? The
history of cannibalism pre-dates Jamestown and has happened
since.
A couple of years ago, they found the outline of the church built the
year after Jamestown was founded. One of the sets of remains
recently identified were those of the Reverend Mr. Robert Hunt, an
Anglican clergyman who founded the first Anglican church in North
America. He died in 1608. (There’s a statue of him at the
Washington National Cathedral perched above a brick from the 1617
church tower that still stands at Jamestown.) Finding what may be
a Roman Catholic artifact with the remains of Captain Gabriel Archer
isn’t too surprising. The archeologists had already found
rosaries and crucifixes among the artifacts. England was a Roman
Catholic country until Henry VIII wanted to divorce the first wife for
another (and another and another to number eight). Henry died
just sixty years before the founding of Jamestown. Yes, he pretty
thoroughly dissolved the monasteries and other religious houses, and
Roman Catholics weren’t popular in England; but they were still living
there. While the idea of a Roman Catholic plot to help the
Spanish is interesting, it’s just that. Until someone can show
such a plot existed, it will remain a tantalizing theory.
This dig was supposed to last for ten years. It’s been twenty-one
years with no apparent end in sight.
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