First 100 Years

In Hampton Roads - the 17th Century 

This is the history of Hampton Roads, primarily centered on Lynnhaven Parish which became part of Princess Anne County in 1691.

Before the 17th Century. From Siberia the First Americans started a journey 35,000 years ago following the kelp-bed ecosystem teeming with fish and marine mammals into the Bering Straits. With the Pacific Ocean being as much as 400 feet lower, this land mass, known as Beringa, now a waterway into the Arctic Ocean, not only provided a land bridge to North America but formed a huge solid ice barrier called the Wisconsin glaciation. There the First Americans lived for 19,000 years until 16,000 years ago. Even though ice still extended down to present day Denver, the first Americans were able to navigate the glaciers in boats by moving south down the Pacific rim and then spreading out across North America, finally arriving in Cape Henry 15,000 years ago.  This scenario is the most accepted theory today with the following proofs. DNA of modern Native Americans has been proven by geneticists to have an Asian ancestry. Maritime people in Japan were using sea worthy boats 30,000 (or more) years ago. In 2011 Archaeologist Michael Waters of Texas A&M University announced that he and his team found 15,000 year old artifacts in Texas that resemble artifacts found in waters off Cape Charles and Cape Henry.
“The First Americans,” Jan 2015, National Geographic

1510 - 1572. The first Europeans to see the Chesapeake Bay were early 16th century Spanish explorers in search of the fabled Northwest Passage to India. Finally in 1570, the Spanish established a mission in the vicinity of the Paspahegh tribe, near Kecoughtan (today’s Hampton, Virginia). Relationships with the natives soon became unfriendly over the Spaniards demands for food during a time of draught and their unwelcome proselytizing methods. In 1572 a Spanish supply ship returned and found that most of the missionaries had been killed by the Paspahegh. Bloodshed followed, but in the end the Spanish effectively abandoned plans for any further colonization in the region.
Ajacán Mission,” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ajac%C3%A1n_Mission

1575 - Chief Powhatan and His Algonquin Confederation. Life would take a sudden turn in about 1575 by powerful Powhatan (Wahunsunacock) (1542-1618), Chief of the Virginia Algonquin Confederacy, whose tribe was situated at Werowocomoco on today’s Purtan Bay in the York River. He put together an Algonquian Confederation of 30 tribes, a powerful organization of affiliated tributary peoples, whose territory, called Tsenacommacah or "Densely Inhabited Land," stretched from south of the James River to the Potomac, and from the fall line to the Eastern Shore of Virginia with a population of about 14,000–21,000. Each of the tribes within this organization had its own weroance (chief), but all paid tribute to Chief Powhatan.  Descendants of those people are members today of the Pamunkey, Mattaponi, Chickahominy, Nansemond, Nanticoke, and Rappahannock tribes. Another group of First Americans were the Chesepians (known as the Chesapeake Native Americans). They were eastern-Algonquian speaking like the thousands of members of the Algonquian Confederacy, but they belonged to another group, the Carolina Algonquian, and were not well aligned to Powhatan's confederation. The Carolina Algonquian called themselves Weapemeoc, "People at the Nice Ocean," inhabiting the present counties of Camden, Currituck, Perquimans, and Pasquotank, North Carolina; and into the southern parts of Virginia Beach. They were a confederacy of independent tribes; Secotan, Croatan, Yeopim, Poteskeet, Perquimans, and Pasquotank. The Weapemeoc were peaceful people and were always under threat of attack from 
Powhatan.
The Chesepians known as the Chesapeake” - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chesapeake_people
The Powhatan known as Virginia Algonquians” -  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Powhatan
"The Weapemeoc Confederacy” - http://www.lost-colony.com/Yeopim.html 
"History of Virginia Beach, Wikipedia"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Virginia_Beach
"History of the Naticoke Indian Tribe"
http://www.nanticokeindians.org/history.cfm



Sir Walter Raleigh (1554 – 1618)

1584-1607 - The Lost Colony of Roanoke Island, North Carolina
In 1584 Queen Elizabeth I granted Sir Walter Raleigh a charter for the colonization of North America. The first expedition to Roanoke Island in 1584 led by Sir Richard Grenville provided information for future colonization. There they met young Manteo, a friendly chief of a local Croatan tribe. He traveled back to England with the English learning their language and sharing his native culture. On returning the next year along with Manteo, the expedition arrived too late to plant crops and harvest food. Manteo helped the colonists make it through the harsh winter. Again Manteo returned to England with the English to be part of the third expedition in 1587, led by John White with 118 people, including his daughter and her husband, in a final attempt to settle Roanoke Island. There Manteo played a large part in the colonization efforts.  On Aug 13, 1587, Manteo was christened making him the first Native American to be baptized into the Church of England and five days later on Aug 18, Ananias Dare and Eleanor White (John White’s daughter) had their first child, Virginia Dare, making her the first English child born in the New World.

Returning to England White was not able to return to Roanoke Island for three years because of war with Spain. In his absence the group split up, some moving 79 miles east to an area around Salmon Creek in the Merry Hill community, just across the Albemarle Sound from Edenton, in Bertie County, North Carolina, because White had left the colonists in 1587 with instructions to move to a site inland because of Spanish hostilities. This location had been a mystery right up to 2012 until British researchers found overlooked symbols hidden for centuries under a patch on John White’s map showing the new site.
Another group went with Manteo to Croatan, now known as Buxton, on Hatteras Island. When another tribe tried to kill him, Manteo took his English party north through Currituck Sound to the Chesapeake Bay as this was their planned destination, not Roanoke Island. Not long after leading the party to the Chesapeake, Manteo left the English party and travelled on north to Massachusetts since Manteo’s ancestors were part of the Renape tribe that had migrated down the Atlantic coast. In his later years in the 1630’s he served as an interpreter and ambassador for the governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, John Winthrop (1588 – 1649). Manteo died in the 1640’s
White returned on August 18, 1590 to find the colony gone. All he found was the word “Croatoan” carved into a gate post. Weather prevented a search and the next day he and his party set sail returning to England, and the legend of the Lost Colony was born.
The Chesapeake Bay party that had been led by Manteo stayed and lived along the Lynnhaven River for almost 20 years at two friendly Chesepian Native American villages, Chesepiuc and Apasus. Chesepiuc was located at Great Neck Point (at the east side of the Lesner Bridge and Lynnhaven Inlet), and Apasus where the Adam Thoroughgood House stands today.
Not too long before a second English expedition arrived in 1607 to establish the Jamestown settlement, Powhatan’s priests foretold of a nation that would rise up from the east and destroy his empire. He took no chances and sent loyalists to eliminate the tribe nearest the Atlantic.  The entire Chesepian tribe was massacred including the English survivors of Roanoke Island, as revealed to Captain John Smith by Chief Powhatan.  To add validity to his claim, Powhatan showed Smith several iron products which must have been made in England.
Set Fair For Roanoke: Voyages and Colonies, 1584-1606,” 1985 by David B. Quinn - http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=3162964
James River Institute for Archaeology (JRIA) Oxford Dendrochronology Laboratory,” (results suggest the possibility that the Adam Thoroughgood House is with the Late Woodland village site of Apasus), Jan 2005. http://jriarchaeology.com/pages/ath.htm
 “North Carolina, British Researchers Find Clue to location of Lost Colony,” May 04, 2012 - http://able2know.org/topic/190073-1  
"First Landing State Park and the Last Trace of a Vanquished Nation," 1 April, 2013 by Ben Swenson http://www.abandonedcountry.com/2013/04/01/first-landing-state-park-and-the-last-trace-of-a-vanquished-nation  
“Virginia’s Connection to the Lost Colony,” by Richard Proescher, the Virginian Pilot, Sep 15, 2013 - http://hamptonroads.com/2013/09/virginia%E2%80%99s-connection-lost-colony
"Chesepians Village at Great Neck Point,"  Wikipedia, (last edited on 15 August 2014)
 Lost Colony of Roanoke 1584 -1587,” Freeman of North Carolina, 2015, (Chief Powhatan produced several English-made iron implements to back up his claim) –  http://freeman-nc.org/historical-events/roanoke-colony
Manteo (Native American leader),” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manteo_(Native_American_leader)
 “Researchers Work to Confirm that Native American Manteo Who Helped Lost Colony Later Moved to Massachusetts, Helped Governor There” by Jeff Hampton, Virginian-Pilot, Mar 31, 2017 http://pilotonline.com/news/local/history/researchers-work-to-confirm-that-native-american-manteo-who-helped/article_1295c3a5-92c5-5031-a425-0cec1370de18.html
 “The Roanoke ‘Lost’ Colony,” Wikipedia (last edited 2016) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roanoke_Colony
The Chesepians known as the Chesapeake,” Apasus and Chesepioc (last edited on 29 Oct 2016)  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chesapeake_people 
Virginia Dare,” from Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_Dare
Virginia Dare Statue Was Shipwrecked, Mocked and Nearly Lost in a Fire. Now, It's Revered,



John White’s detailed 425-year-old map showing the route taken by one group from the Lost Colony of Roanoke Island.  Author Paul Clancy wrote, “So when I came across this map for the first time, that’s got to be Virginia Beach, and that’s got to be the Lynnhaven.” December 16, 2012 - http://www.paulclancystories.com/2012/12/december-16-2012.html
 
Early Virginia Chesepian Native Americans


Bartholomew Gosnold (1572 – 1607)
Bartholomew Gosnold” from Wikipedia  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bartholomew_Gosnold


1606. Bartholomew Gosnold, explorer of Cape Cod in 1602, obtained from King James an exclusive charter for a Virginia Company of London to establish a settlement in the New World. On December 20th, 1606 three ships left England with 144 men and boys.


 

 Reproduction of Godspeed commanded by Bartholomew Gosnold


April 26, 1607. Gosnold, Captain of the Godspeed; Christopher Newport, Captain of the Susan Constant (largest of the three ships); and John Ratcliffe, Captain of the Discovery (smallest of three ships -) made landfall at Cape Henry at what is now First Landing State Park.
Christopher Newport,” from Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Newport#First_landing
John Ratcliffe,” from Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Ratcliffe_(governor)
  

Reinactment of the first landing at Cape Henry on April 26, 1607. 

 Natives look on as the three ships anchor.

John Smith (1580 – 1631)

Upon landing the party opened orders from the Virginia Company and found instructions to move fifty miles up the James River, and also designate John Smith to be one of the leaders of the new colony. Since Captain Christopher Newport had charged Smith with mutiny during the voyage from England, this was indeed a surprising turn of events for all. 
John Smith,” from Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Smith_(explorer) 

Before heading up to what is now Jamestown, the party lingered at Cape Henry for four days exploring the area. 

 (First Landing at Cape Henry). The following events of the next four days are excerpts from Master George Percy, 1608 http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/pds/amerbegin/settlement/text1/JamestownPercyObservations.pdf
April 26th, 1607. About four o’clock in the morning [after almost 4 months at sea], we entered into the Bay of Chesupioc [Chesapeake]. There we landed [Cape Henry] and discovered [explored] a little way, but we could find nothing worth the speaking of, but fair meadows and goodly tall Trees, with such Fresh-waters running through the woods, as I was almost ravished at the first sight thereof.  At night, when we were going aboard, there came the Savages creeping upon all fours, from the Hills, like Bears, with their Bows in their mouths, [who] charged us very desperately in the faces, hurt Captain Gabriel Archer in both his hands, and a sailor in two places of the body very dangerous. After they had spent their Arrows, and felt the sharpness of our shot, they retired into the Woods with a great noise, and so left us.
April 27th, 1607. We began to build up our Shallop [small boat]. The Gentle- men and Soldiers marched eight miles up into the land. We could not see a Savage in all that march. We came to a place where they had made a great fire, and had been newly roasting Oysters. When they perceived our coming, they fled away to the mountains, and left many of the Oysters in the fire. We eat some of the Oysters, which were very large and delicate in taste.
April 28th, 1607.  We launched our Shallop [light sailboat]. The Captain [Christopher Newport] and some Gentlemen went in her, and discovered [explored] up the Bay [Chesapeake Bay]. We went further into the Bay, and saw a plain plot of ground where we went on land. Upon this plot of ground we got good store of Mussels and Oysters. We marched some three or four miles further into the woods, where we saw great smokes of fire. We marched to those smokes and found that the Savages had been there burning down the grass. When it grew to be towards night, we stood back to our Ships. We rowed over to a point of Land, where we found a channel which put us in good comfort. Therefore we named that point of Land Cape Comfort [Fort Monroe, Hampton].
April 29th, 1607. We set up a Cross at Chesupioc Bay, and named that place Cape Henry [after Henry Frederick Stuart, Prince of Wales, (1594 – 1612), the elder son of King James I & VI (1566 – 1625) and Anne of Denmark (1574 – 1619)]. [on that same day, under orders from the Virginia Company of London to find a more sheltered area up one of the rivers]…we came with our ships to Cape Comfort; and on to Kecoughtan “great town,” commanded by a son of Powhatan. http://www.fmauthority.com/about/fort-monroe/history

Great living oyster mounds

On their trip up the James, they sailed across the James River to Cape Comfort as their April 28 expedition found the south side of the river not navigable for their ships with great living oyster mounds which would impede ships in later years.  At high tide they were hidden just below the water line. They remained a threat to navigation until they disappeared under three centuries of harvesting. There they found a friendly “Kecoughtan” Indian village. The Jamestown Settlers were treated to a feast and dancing. After exchanging presents they sailed on up the James River. In two weeks they reached their final destination on May 14, 1607, an island with water immediately adjacent to the land deep enough to permit the anchorage of their ships. 

"Jamestown Island, Virginia. Here the first permanent English settlement in America was founded, May 13, 1607. Here the first Legislative Assembly in America convened, July 30, 1691. Here was the first capital of the Colony of Virginia, 1607-1698."


May 13, 1607.  Arriving at Jamestown Island, Gosnold opposed the location as being unhealthy, but was overruled, and, to his dismay, the low swampy area infested with malaria carrying mosquitoes and brackish water caused many deaths as well as his own only four months after he had landed.


December 1607. Seven months after arriving at Jamestown John Smith set out with a party to explore upriver.  He was captured by Opechancanough (1546-1646), younger brother of Chief Powhatan. By showing Opechancanough the wonders of his compass, Opechancanough spared his life and took him to Werowocomoco, the village of Chief Powhatan on the York River. There he persuaded Powhatan that he had only good intentions toward the native people.  Remaining at Werowocomoco for several days Smith enjoying several large feasts. Eleven-year old Pocahontas, daughter of Chief Powhatan, may or may not have severed him at these meals, but she certainly did not save his life as Smith wrote, but only after Pocahontas died in 1617. Smith had told a similar story of having been rescued by the intervention of a young girl after having been captured in 1602 by Turks in Hungary. In his stories Smith always presented himself as the hero, certainly not someone who would allow two men in his party to be tortured and killed on this December exploratory trip.

January 1608. Upon returning to Jamestown, Smith was tried for allowing the two men in his party to be killed, and for that was sentenced to be hanged. Coincidentally Christopher Newport’s return from England with the first supply ship on January 2, 1608 saved Smith’s life - just in time. Carrying 60 new settlers, Newport found 38 survivors (from the original 105) in a desperate situation.
A History of Jamestown, Virginia,” by History Net, 1996
 “The Jamestown Colony,” by Charles E Pederson, 2009
Pocahontas, Powhatan, Opechancanough,” by Helen C. Rountree, 2005 http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/scu/summary/v012/12.2green.html  


1608-1610. In October 1608 a second supply ship brought more settlers, and in July 1609 the third supply arrived, eight of nine ships that had left London with more colonists, including women and children. John Smith, injured in gunpowder accident, was sent back to London in September 1609, never to return. In October 1609 Chief Powhatan placed the colony completely under siege and attempted to end the English settlement through starvation.  This started the “Starving Time,” a winter which took the life of all but 60 of the 500 colonists who had come on three previous supply ship fleets plus the original 1607 colonists.  In the spring of 1610 John Rolfe arrived on the ship Sea Venture along with 150 more colonists, or rather two log boats made up from cedar trees and parts of the Sea Venture that had been shipwrecked in Bermuda on its way with the third nine ship supply fleet. They were all saved from further starvation by Atlantic sturgeon returning up the James River to spawn, fish that became known as “foundation fish” for making possible this settlement to be the first to endure in the New World, just barely. But this feast would be short-lived, and on June 7, 1610, the colonists (including Rolfe), all sick and starving, boarded ships, abandoned the colony site and sailed toward London where another supply convoy with new supplies intercepted them at the mouth of the Chesapeake and returned them to Jamestown. The convoy was headed by Thomas West, baron De La Warr (1576–1618), the first appointed governor of Virginia by the Virginia Company of London.
Thomas West, twelfth baron De La Warr,” from Encyclopedia Virginia http://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/West_Thomas_twelfth_baron_De_La_Warr_1577-1618
Jamestown Settlement,” from Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamestown_Settlement
History of the Jamestown Settlement (1607–99)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jamestown_Settlement_(1607%E2%80%931699)
The Last, Rocky Refuge of the Dinosaur Fish that Saved Americahttp://cbf.typepad.com/bay_daily/2010/12/i-was-in-a-boat-in-virginias-james-river-recently-cruising-past-plantation-houses-and-feeling-the-currents-of-history-i.html


John Rolfe (1585–1622) with his wife Pocahontas (1596-1617),
daughter of Chief Powhatan (1542-1618).

1610 - 1612John Rolfe became the first Jamestown man to successfully raise and export tobacco.  Rolfe was a businessman who saw the opportunity to undercut Spanish imports by growing tobacco in Jamestown. Rolfe obtained seeds from a special popular strain grown in South America. He mixed it with the harsh type grown by Powhatan's people, but he still needed to learn secret tobacco curing techniques from the Powhatans. In exchange for an arranged marriage to Chief Powhatan’s daughter Pocahontas, Powhatan told Rolfe how they cured their tobacco. Soon afterwards, Rolfe’s tobacco was a sensation in England. Within two years almost all of the colonists had followed suit as tobacco caught hold in England and became a sensation. Tobacco profits brought others to the colony ensuring its economic survival.
 John Rolfe,” from Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Rolfe


1613 – 1617. Pocahontas (1598-1617) was kidnapped by ship’s captain Samuel Argall and taken to Jamestown in April 1613. There her warm-hearted twenty-eight year old teacher John Rolfe fell in love with this seventeen year old daughter of Powhatan. After their marriage the two sailed to London for a seven-day world wind tour. On the return voyage Pocahontas became ill and died at the young age of 19.

1617. There were labor shortages due to the new tobacco industry. To solve the problem the Virginia Company devised the system of Headrights, grants of 50 acres of land to settlers for every paid passage. This system led to the development of indentured servitude where poor individuals would become workers for three to seven years to repay the landowners who had sponsored their transportation to Virginia.
Headright,” from Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Headright

1617 - 1622. Returning to Jamestown in 1617 Rolfe became a councilor and sat as a member of the House of Burgesses. He married Jane Pierce, daughter of a colonist, and continued his efforts to improve the quality and quantity of Virginia tobacco. By the end of the year tobacco exports to England totaled 20,000 pounds. The next year shipments more than doubled. Twelve years later, one and a half million pounds were exported. The first great American enterprise had been established. Rolfe died sometime in 1622, possibly by the Native American uprising of that year.
Jamestown Rediscovery, John Rolfe,http://apva.org/rediscovery/page.php?page_id=27



Seen in the picture above, Sir George Yeardley, 
Virginia Governor (1619-1621), in 1619 bought 20 blacks he called
indentured servants for work on his 1,000 acre tobacco plantation.


1619Sir George Yeardley (1587–1627) was the father of Colonel Francis Yeardley, Sarah Thoroughgood’s third husband.  Sir George Yeardley was not only the founding father of representative government in America (the Virginia General Assembly House of Burgesses) but also the founding father in Virginia of  the cruel system of African slavery that would eventually strip Africa of fifty million natives, the largest genocide of a people, ever.  In 1619 Yeardley bought 20 Africans he called indentured servants for work on his 1,000 acre tobacco plantation. Yeardley was so successful in using these Africans to work his tobacco plantations that soon he bought more blacks, this time as chattel slaves.


1622

 A European artist's depiction of the Native American Massacre of 1622

A 1585 painting of Opechancanough (1546-1646) by John White


1622. Beginning with the Native American massacre of 1622, Virginia Algonquin Confederacy Chief Opechancanough (1546-1646), brother of deceased Chief Powhatan (1542-1618), abandoned diplomacy with the English settlers of the Virginia Colony as a means of settling conflicts and tried to force them to abandon the region. On Friday, 22 March 1622, he and his Algonquin warriors slaughtered 26% of Virginia’s entire white population. Investigation reveals that 320 colonists were killed (not 347 as published by the Virginia Company in August 1622)  including 255 men (80% of the total), 35 women (11%), and 30 children (9%)or 26 percent of the colonial population.
Jamestown at 400: Caught Between a Rock and a Slippery Slope,” History News Network, April 2007  http://hnn.us/article/38375
Indian Massacre of 1622,” from Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Massacre_of_1622
Opchanacanough,” from Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opchanacanough


1622-1625. In 1622, the Virginia Company declared bankruptcy. With the Native American massacre in the same year and with even more colonists dying that winter, the Virginia Company had to throw in the towel.  King James I revoked their charter in May 1624, and after James’ death on March 27, 1625, King Charles I declared Virginia a Royal Colony May 13, 1625, lands specified in the second 1609 crown charter that extended 200 miles north and south of Old Point Comfort from the Atlantic to the Pacific (not realizing the Pacific was 2,700 miles west).

1624. Jamestown had a population of 1,200 as a result of 6,000 settlers being sent by the Virginia Company, with almost 5 in 6 succumbing to disease, Native American attacks, draught and other mishaps. The Virginia Company told those signing up to go a much different story than the hardships they would incounter. Indentured servants made up 60% of all immigrants, and along with these volunteers British convicts were sent as involuntary indentured servants, some causing trouble and some running away to join with the Native Americans. The biggest blunder made by the colonists was their lack of respect for the Native Americans, the people whose lands they were taking. With a different approach they could have learned from the native people how to survive better in this foreign land and circumvented hostilities.  
Number of people settled in Jamestown in 1607 – 1720http://www.shmoop.com/jamestown/statistics.html


1621 – 1640. Captain Adam Thoroughgood (1604-1640) was only eighteen when he came to Kecoughtan (pronounced like kick a tan) (today’s Hampton) in 1621 as an indentured servant aboard the ship Charles in return for his passage. Adam worked off his indenture and returned to London in 1624.  Adam began carrying out an ambitious plan of sponsoring immigrants to Virginia in exchange for land under Virginia Company’s headright terms still used by the King. But being the the seventh son of a preacher, he would need funds which he found in the daughter of a rich merchant, 18 year old Sarah Offley.  Adam returned to Kecoughtan in 1628 with his new bride Sarah and the first indentured servants that by 1635 would number 105. They came in 17 different ships. For paying passage for those 105, he was awarded headrights to 5,350 acres of undeveloped lands (today’s northern Virginia Beach).  In the fall of 1634 Adam moved across the James River and quickly constructed a crude wooden house on his estate on the shore of the Chesopean River (renamed Lynnhaven by Adam) in what is now a location near Lake Joyce in Baylake Pines.  History does not record the indentured servants he took with him to Lynnhaven Parish, but most of them probably came to work on his new estate. The names of those 105, in alphabetical order, are as follows:
Allerson, Ann
Alporte, Jon
Atkins. Wm. Jr
Atmore, Thomas
Belly, James
Bernard, Stephen
Bernards, John
Bilbie, Margaret
Blacock, Patrick
Boulton, Ann
Boulton, Thomas
Boyer Thomas
Boyer, Andrew
Bramly Franceis
Brewton, Jon
Brooks, Thomas
Burroughs, Ann
Burroughs, Wm
Chandler, Tho
Chant, Andrew
Colson, Susan
Cowes, John
Creaser, Eliza
Creaser, Tho
Curtisse, Eliza
Dyer John
Edwards, Wm
Eggleston, Arthur
Enies, John
Fawne, Wm
Fraford, Victo
Franklin, Henry
Gainie, Robert
Gastrock,Wm
Gosmore Eliz
Gye, Gilbert
Halley, Merciful
Harris, John
Heasell, Robert
Heyward, Humphrey
Hill, Henry
Hill, Jon
Hill, Mary
Hines, William
Holton, Jon
Holton, Wm
Hookes, Wm
Howell, Cob
Hutton, Daniel
Jenerie, Rich
Johnson, Richard
Jones, Edward
Keeling Thomas

Kempe, Wm
Lane Rachel
Leading, James
Leake, Jos
Lock, John
Long, Ann
Marshall Thomas
Mee, George
Melton, Thomas
Moise, Jon
Newarke, Joh
Newgent, Christ
Newton, Franceis
Palmer, Edward
Parish, Edward
Penton, Jon
Persie, John
Pitts, Edward
Poole, Richard
Proseer, Jane
Reynolds Jon
Reynolds, Edward
Russell, Dennis
Sedgewick, Joseph
Smith, Thomas
Spark, Ann
Speed, Wm
Spring Robert
Stanfield, Symond
Swaine, Stephen
Thorowgood, Thomas (Adam Thorowgood’s brother)
Underwood, Casandra
Wakefield, Jon
Wallis, Edward
Ward, Roger
Warner, Augustine *(George Washington's 2d great grandfather)
Was, Wm
Waters, Jon
Westerfield, Jane
Westwell Robert
Wheeler, Dorothy
Whitehead, George
Whitthorne, Ann
Wilson, James
Windham, Edward
Withers, Jon
Withers, Stephen
Wood Henry
Writt, John
(2 unaccounted)

And these are dates and arrival ships:
1628 - 4 people in "True Love" - John Lock, Andrew Boyer, and Thomas Boyer
1628 - 2 people in the "Hopewell" - Thomas Keeling and Rachel Lane
1629 - 32 people "Hopewell" -  himself, wife Sarah, and Thomas Thorowgood, Franceis Newton, James Leading, Stephen Bernard, Joh. Newarke, Edward Pitts, Rich. Jenerie, Wm. Edwards, Dennis Russell, John Bernards, Jon. Waters, Jos. Leake, Thomas Brooks, Jon. Moise, Jon. Penton, Edward Parish, Thomas Melton, AUGUSTINE WARNER (George Washington's 2d great grandfather), Tho. Chandler, Andrew Chant, John Persie, Edward Wallis, Thomas Boulton, Robert Heasell, Richard Johnson, Margaret Bilbie, Jane Proseer, Jane Westerfield, Ann Spark, and Susan Colson.
1629 - 6 people in a french ship - William Hines, Edward Reynolds, Wm. Hookes, Edward Palmer, Edward Jones, John Dyer
1633- 6 people in the “Africa” - Victo Fraford, Casandra Underwood, Merciful Halley, Ann Long, Dorothy Wheeler, Ann Allerson, in the "Africa";
1633 - 1 person in the "Christpopher & Mary" Eliz. Gosmore
1633 - 1 person in the “Ark” - Franceis Bramly
1633 - 11 people in the "Hopewell"  - John Writt, Wm. Fawne, Wm. Was, George Mee, Gilbert Gye, John Enies, James Wilson, Daniel Hutton, Wm. Gastrock,Wm. Speed, Jon. Reynolds 
1634 - 6 people in the "Bona Adventure" Jon. Wakefield, James Belly, Patrick Blacock, Stephen Swaine, John Cowes, and Ann Boulton
1634 – 1 person in the "Middleton" - Wm. Fletcher
1634 - 1 peson in the "Merchants Hope" - Robert Westwell
1634 - 1 person in the "John & Dorothy" - Robert Spring
1634 - 26 people in the "John & Dorothy" - Thomas Thorowgood (Adam Thorowgood’s brother) , Edward Windham, Cob. Howell, Tho. Creaser, Henry Hill, Roger Ward, Jon. Withers, Wm. Holton, Wm. Kempe, Humphrey Heyward, Jon. Alporte, Symond Stanfield, Robert Gainie, Thomas Smith, George Whitehead, Henry Franklin, Jon. Hill, Joseph Sedgewick, Arthur Eggleston, Richard Poole, Jon. Holton, Stephen Withers, Christ. Newgent, Jon. Brewton, Thomas Atmore, Mary Hill, Henry Wood
1635 - 7 people transportation on a Thorowgood ship - Wm. Burroughs, Ann Burroughs, Ann Whitthorne, Eliza. Creaser, Eliza Curtisse, Mary Hill, Jr. Wm. Atkins, Thomas Marshall.
Captain Adam Thoroughgood (Immigrant), Rootsweb, the Scott/Dines/Duncan/Dickson Website, 2011-11-15” - http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=jimscott&id=I15074    

Augustine Warner (1610 - 1674)

1635. Adam persuaded Augustus Warner (1610 - 1674) to come from England to settle in the colony as an indentured servant. After he had worked off his indenture in 1635 he followed Adam’s example by bringing twelve new settlers to Virginia and for that was given headrights to 600 acres in the Northern Neck’s Gloucester County, an area still sparsely populated.  Three people trace their lineage back to Augustus Warner. His daughter married Lawrence Townley, ancestors of General Robert E. Lee (1610 - 1674). His son, Augustine Warner, Jr.(1642-1681) had three daughters. One of them, Mildred Warner (1671 – 1701) married Lawrence Washington (1659–1698) in 1690, grandparents of George Washington (1732 - 1799); and another, Elizabeth Warner (1672-1720) married Colonel John Lewis in 1691, great-grand parents of Meriwether Lewis (1774 – 1809), leader of the Lewis and Clark Expedition to the Pacific Northwest. 


The Inn at Warner Hall

Today the Inn at Warner Hall in Gloucester County and adjacent famous cemetery recounts Warner’s rich history.
“Augustine Warner (1610 - 1674)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augustine_Warner
Warner Hall Graveshttp://home1.gte.net/mimieric/WHG.html
“Warner Hall Inn” (pictures)  http://warnerhall.com
“Warner Hall Graveshttp://home1.gte.net/mimieric/WHG.html

1628. Another noted person Adam persuaded to come from England to settle in the colony of Virginia as an indentured servant was Thomas Keeling (1608 - 1664). At the age of 20, Thomas arrived in the ship Hopewell. Seven years later around 1635 Thomas was granted one thousand acres of land on the eastern shore of the Lynnhaven River for the transportation of various persons to Virginia, and in 1636, he built his home which still stands today as the “Adam Keeling House” at today’s 3157 Adam Keeling Road. A December 1683 Lower Norfolk County Court record (book 4, page 155) titled Adam Keeling’s will (Thomas Keeling’s son) of 25 April, 1683 states, “To my wife Ann Keeling, that plantation I now live and inhabit upon.” Further, a Virginia Pilot article October 24, 1926 states, “The farm [known as the Keeling Tract] contains the famous old Keeling house, a brick structure that was built in 1636, and which is still in an admirable state of preservation.



1638. Francis Land II (1604 - February 15, 1657) arrived in the area and brought slaves to work the lucrative tobacco fields. By 1657 Francis had acquired 1,020 acres of land adjacent to Henry Woodhouse’s estate. He used flat bottom canoes to transport goods from Pine Tree Branch to the Chesapeake Bay. Today the Francis Land House stands at 3131 Virginia Beach Boulevard as built by one of Land’s descendants in the eighteenth century.

Captain Thoroughgood led 15 men against
the Nenticoke Native Americans in a harsh retaliation.

1638-1640. Most troubling were the Native American tribes who outnumbered the colonists by 4 to 1.  When several plantations in isolated areas were attacked and settlers massacred, Captain Adam Thoroughgood led 15 men against the Native Americans in a harsh retaliation.




The Adam Thoroughgood  House (built between 1639-1645)

1638 - 1645. In 1638 Adam Thoroughgood had a church, Lynnhaven Parish, started at today’s Church Point and a year later a more substantial house to replace his crude wooden one. Adam’s house lacked one brick wall when he died at the young age of 36 in 1640.  In 1645 Adam’s wife, Sarah, now widowed for a second time, completed the house and moved in with her four daughters and one son. Recently the city of Virginia Beach re-dated the Adam Thoroughgood House from the 1640’s to the 1740’s, but by using land grants and court records, a 10th generation Thoroughgood, Paul Treanor, wrote a book titled “The Thoroughgood House, Virginia Beach, Virginia,” 2011, documenting the true date.


What did Sarah Thoroughgood look like? No one knows, but from descriptions,
here is a portrait of a likeness showing a 1650 Virginia woman.

1640-1657. After Adam’s death, his wife Sarah Thoroughgood-Gookin-Yeardley (1609 – 1657) lived on for another 17 years, becoming a dominant force in Lynnhaven Parish. Before coming to Lynnhaven, while living in Kecoughtan (1628-1634) she gave birth to three girls Ann (1630-1703), Sarah (1631-1658), and Elizabeth (1633-1670), and later in Lynnhaven, Adam II (1638 - 1685); and finally at the age of 33 one daughter, Mary (1642 - ?), by her second husband Captain John Gookin.
Adam Thoroughgood Genealogyhttp://www.gjmesa.com/TNG/getperson.php?personID=P-108077169&tree=treeS1
http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=REG&db=mrmarsha&id=I36755
Captain Adam Thoroughgood (Immigrant),” Rootsweb, the Scott/Dines/Duncan/Dickson Website, 2011-11-15 - http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=jimscott&id=I15074
105 Indentured Servants” - http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=jimscott&id=I15074

1644 – 1646. With an English population in excess of 10,000 the Powhatans and other tribes, as they did in 1622, attacked the colonists killing almost 500. This time they had no prospect of forcing so many to leave. The attack was more in retaliation for the colonists taking their lands and making unkempt deals. A 1646 treaty settled any further conflicts, and the only two tribes remaining today, the Pamunkey and Mattaponi, maintain reservations that are stipulated in the 1646 treaty still in effect with Virginia.


1649. William Moseley I (1601-1655) came to Virginia from Rotterdam, Holland with his wife Suzanna, two sons, William II and Arthur, and a large quantity of family jewels. As a Cavalier opposed to Oliver Cromwell, the jewels were all he was able to get out of England when he fled to Holland. Trading jewels, primarily to Adam Thoroughgood’s widow Sarah Thoroughgood-Gookin-Yeardley (1609 – 1657), in exchange for livestock, William I slowly gained prominence. As Commissioner of Lower Norfolk County from 1649 to his death in 1655 he built a sprawling Dutch- roofed house, Greenwich Plantation, later called Rolleston Plantation by his descendants.


1650. Black involuntary indentured servants evolved into slavery, as blacks did not know the language or their rights in court. But the total number of slaves was estimated to be no more than 300 in Lynnhaven Parish. Coming from Barbados, Francis Land and Thomas Walke brought slaves with them to work the lucrative tobacco fields. There were also free blacks but their numbers were small and their freedom tenuous. There were also Native American slaves bought on the pretext of Christianizing them. Black freedom would slowly deteriorate during the 17th century. A Law of Virginia decreed that the conferring of baptism did not alter the condition of the person as to his bondage or freedom.


1655 - 1706. The English who settled in New England (Puritans) and Virginia brought with them their Anglican religion and with it the tradition of witch hunts, a gruesome church practice which saw about 50,000 executions of innocent women in Europe between 1480 and 1750. The earliest known accusation of witchcraft in America showed up in Lynnhaven Parish May 23, 1655 when the accuser, Ann Godby, was ordered to pay 300 pounds of tobacco for slander. Thirty-seven years later twelve-year-old Ann Putnam’s accusations sparked a mass hysteria in the small town of Salem, Massachusetts that would see 25 people executed and another 150 imprisoned for witchcraft. Another twelve years passed before witch hunting reared its ugly head again in the American Anglican Church. This time the charges were made again in Lynnhaven Parish (now the County of Princess Anne) when Grace Sherwood, the Witch of Pungo (1660 – 1740) was tried for witchcraft by the Lynnhaven Parish Anglican Church.  She was bound and cast into the waters of the Lynnhaven River on July 10, 1706. She survived the ordeal and was incarcerated for seven years in a jail next to the church. In 2006 the Governor of Virginia officially admitting Grace had been falsely accused and was not a witch but instead an incredible woman, a woman the state of Virginia and Lynnhaven Parish Church wronged.


1664. Colonel Thomas Walke I (1642-1694) was an immigrant from British-ruled Barbados. He married Mary Lawson in 1690. Four years after his marriage he died leaving three children who would become prominent citizens in Princess Anne County. Of three noted Walke historic homes (Fairfield Manor in the vicinity of Locke Lane and the Walke Manor House or the First Ferry Farm House at today’s 4136 Cheswick Lane) only one stands today, Upper Wolfsnare House on an important waterway in 1759.

1667. In August 1667 Adam Keeling, whose plantation was situated east of Captain Thoroughgood’s property just east of today’s Lesner Bridge, organized a group of people to dig a small pilot channel from the Lynnhaven River through a huge sandbar about a half-mile long to the Chesapeake Bay so boats would not have to make the long journey west to the mouth of the river which was at Little Creek. A month later, on September 6, 1667, the dreadful hurricane of 1667 struck, a storm considered one of the most severe hurricanes to ever strike Virginia. The hurricane devastated the Lynnhaven area as no other storm has ever done. The 1667 hurricane lasted about 24 hours and was accompanied by very violent winds and tides. Approximately 10,000 houses were blown over. Area crops (including corn and tobacco) were beat into the ground. Many livestock drowned in area rivers due to the twelve foot storm surge. The foundation of the fort at Point Comfort was swept into the river, and a graveyard of the First Lynnhaven Parish Church tumbled into the waters. Twelve days of rain followed this storm across Virginia. This system was blamed for enlarging the small pilot channel dug the month before to the size of an inlet and re-routing the river permanently. The new channel flow eventually eroded Church Point and undermined the church foundation. Five years later during the winter of 1672-73 another catastrophe hit the small Lynnhaven Parish when an unusually severe cold spell with hail and wind killed half the small herds of cattle left from the storm of 1667.
The Dreadful Hurricane of 1667http://www.hurricanescience.org/history/storms/pre1900s/1667

1670 - 1690. The settlers in Lynnhaven Parish suffered from attacks by French, Spanish and Dutch ships. Then there were the pirates. The pirate Capt. Kidd had his rendezvous on Pleasure House Creek, then part of the Lynnhaven River, and the English pirate Edward Teach (1680 –1718), better known as Blackbeard, buried his treasure in the huge sand banks near Cape Henry. In 1684 the English Government furnished a ketch for the protection of the Virginia coast. Lookouts were established along the shore for all suspicious vessels, and all ships coming to Virginia were provided with cannon and men trained to shoot them. 


Francis, Lord Howard of Effingham (1643 – 1694)

1683. On September 28, 1683, Francis, Lord Howard of Effingham, was sworn in as Governor of Virginia. Overbearing, high living, a man of flabby features, haughty expression and contemptuous of the colonists, he continued the unpopular policies of his predecessors, Lord William Berkeley and Lord Thomas Culpeper. During his five years in office Lord Effingham worked to weaken the power and influence of the General Assembly, and thereby increased the resistance of the colonists to his authority. 







1699. In spite of the many drawbacks of unworthy governors, Virginia continued to prosper. The people up to this time were almost wholly English. The 17th century was coming to a close on a note of material and cultural progress with the gubernatorial administration of Francis Nicholson. The College of William and Mary, the second institution of higher learning in America, was chartered in 1693, and Middle Plantation (renamed Williamsburg in 1722), the site of the college, became the seat of government when the capital was moved from Jamestown in 1699.




Virginia – History,” http://www.city-data.com/states/Virginia-History.html
Virginia,” from Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia#History
 The Lords Effingham and the American Colonies,” by Hilda Engbring Feldhake, 1976  http://www.archive.org/stream/lordseffinghamam00feld/lordseffinghamam00feld_djvu.txt
 History of the United States of America, Virginia,” http://www.usahistory.info/southern/Virginia.html



2013. After 406 years, the population of the Tidewater area reached about 1.7 million with around 4,000 new settlers arriving each year.