Notable Events from 1607-1609

The following list of events occurred between 14 May 1607 through December 1609: The individual name links  are connected to their pages at Wikitree for genealogical purposes and for more historical information. Once connected to Wikitree on this page, the individual's name will not bear a link again on this page.

Christopher Newport

14 May 1607: Captain Christopher Newport and his English passengers aboard the Susan Constant, Godspeed, and a small ship called Discovery, arrived at Powhatan River, which they renamed the James River after King James I. They had departed England on 20 December 1606. One hundred and five men formed the first settlement on an island (today, a peninsula) in the James River, initially called "James Fort," then "James Towne" and "James Citie." The site offered a harbor that was deep enough for the colonists' ships and secluded from the view of any Spanish ships that might be offshore. However, it was also swampy, infested with mosquitoes, and lacked sufficient fresh water sources. After eight months, only thirty-eight people remained alive.

John Smith

John Smith was aboard, and he spent part of the voyage imprisoned for charges of mutiny.

After they arrived in Virginia, Newport opened the sealed instructions from the Virginia Company of London that James I provided upon their departure. Those instructions specified a thirteen-man council, "among whose members are John Smith (this appointment saved his life, as he was to be executed for mutiny); Newport (who returned to England); John Ratcliffe; George Kendall, a cousin of Sir Edwin Sandys; Edward Maria Wingfield; Anthony Gosnold; Richard Hunt, a minister; John Martin (Marten) and his father, Sir Richard Martin (Marten), both related to Julius Caesar, England's Master of the Rolls. Julius married Sir Richard's daughter, Dorcas. This Council elected a president, Edward Maria Wingfield. Among the passengers are carpenters, a blacksmith, a mason, a tailor, a barber, and two surgeons."

Powhatan

The instructions and two incomplete lists of the expeditions' passengers survive in John Smith's Works, Virginia Records Selected Bibliography [The Complete Works of Captain John Smith. Ed. Philip L. Barbour. 3 vols. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1986. LC Call Number: F229 .S59 1986]  | Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance Administerd [Records of the Virginia Company, 1606-26, Volume III: Miscellaneous Records] | See the Library of Congress for more information.

May 1607: A week after arriving, Captain Christopher Newport led a small group of men on an exploratory journey up the James River. During this expedition, they encountered the Powhatan Indians, including the tribal leader Opechancanough. The Powhatans were a confederation of tribes whose territory stretches from present-day coastal North Carolina to Richmond. Jamestown was located within the land of the Paspahegh, led by their "weroance," Wowinchopunck. Other nearby tribes include the Kecoughtans at the river’s mouth, as well as the Quiyoughcohanocks, Weanocs, Appomattocs, and Chiskiacks, who live further inland. All these tribes, part of Virginia’s tidewater region, belong to the Algonquian language group. It didn't take long for hostilities to arise between the colonists and Indian tribes. On 26 May 1607, fighting led to the death of approximately two hundred Indians and several colonists.

Three Initial Ships

June 1607: The Paspaheghs, along with other tribal recruits, attacked James Fort on the 8th of this month. Yet, despite these hostilities, Powhatan tribes continue to supply food to the colonists sporadically over the next few years. The Council wrote a letter "to their masters at the Virginia Company of London" concerning the conditions upon their establishment on 22 June. The letter was signed by Wingfeild, Gosnold, Smith, Ratcliffe, Marten, and Kendall.

22 July 1607: The Susan Constant and the Godspeed leave Jamestown with a supply of minerals and land in London a mere 7 days later on 29 July 1607. The minerals are discovered to be nothing but base metals, when gold was expected. By 17 August of this year, the Virginia Company met in London to consider Newport's report and other news regarding this first Virginia expedition.

Jamestown Notables

28 August 1607:Jamestown leaders find George Kendall guilty of sowing discord amongst the colonists. The colony imprisons and eventually executes him by musket firing squad on 1 Dec 1608.

September 1607: John Ratcliffe replace Wingfield as president of the Council of Jamestown.

December 1607: It was in the first part of this month that John Smith led a party to search for Native Americans willing to trade or to outright supply food for the colonists. Warriors captured Smith and his men on the Chickahominy River and took him to Werowocomoco on the York River to be judged by Powhatan. According to Smith's writings, Powhatan's daughter, Pocahontas (Matoaka), who was about age 11, interceded and saved Smith.

January 1608: John Smith returned to Jamestown to see most of the colony boarding the ship Discovery on 2 January 1608. As those colonists were abandoning Jamestown, the John and Francis, one of Newport's two supply ships, arrived in port. Newport set sail from Jamestown to London on 8 October 1607 to gather supplies and 100 new colonists and had just returned. The second ship, the Phoenix, was lost. Just five days after Newport's return, on 7 January 1608, many buildings within Jamestown Fort burned in a fire, including the colony's first church. Most of the provisions Newport brought from London were destroyed. Powhatan provided food for the colony, until, on 20 April 1608, the Phoenix arrived via Captain Francis Nelson with more supplies and colonists.

February 1608: John Smith, Christopher Newport, Thomas Savage, and others sail up the York River to meet with Powhatan. After they exchanged hostages, Savage remained behind to live among the Powhatan.* In exchange, Namontack, from the Powhatan tribe, returned with the colonists to reside in Jamestown. Namontack was taken to England and, returning to Virginia, he was on the ship Sea Venture when it foundered. While all survivors made it to shore in what is now Bermuda, Namontack never left Bermuda to return to Jamestown. His fate remains unknown.

Savage Neck Dunes

The Indian Chief Debedeavon (Esmy Shichans), though he is more famously known by the nickname, "The Laughing King," made a gift of a large tract of land, approximately 300 acres, to Savage, now known as Savage Neck, Northampton County, Virginia, a preserve. By 1625, Thomas was probably living there with his wife, Hannah, and his infant son, John.

April 1608: As mentioned above, the Phoenix arrived with supplies and more colonists on the 20th of this month, while Newport sailed for England on the John and Francis ten days earlier on the 10th. The Phoenix returned to England in June with a load of cedarwood.

August 1608: Newport arrived at Jamestown from England in the third expedition, bringing 70 more colonists to Virginia.

September 1608: The Jamestown Council elected John Smith as president, and he immediately wrote a letter to the Company treasurer in London to defend the colony against criticism that they had not kept London very well informed.

John Smith's Map of Virginia

October 1608: Newport returned to Jamestown with the Company's second expedition of supplies and more colonists. Among the arrivals were two women, one the wife of Thomas Forest/Forrest, Margaret Foxe Forrest, and her maid, Anne (Ann) Buras. Dutch and Polish artisans also arrived. These manufacturers established glassworks, but they didn't last. Other tradesmen arrived who were experienced in the production of pitch, tar, and other naval supplies.

October 1608-May 1610: The first winter through to the spring of 1610 was the "starving", when Jamestown colonists died from diseases, starvation, complications from starvation. and lack of medication. Reports circulated in London that included incidents of cannibalism. The Virginia Company publicly denied the gossip, but archaeology since proved those denials false. The first winter was a struggle, but things became far worse as 1609 progressed. Despite this decimation of the colony, The Virginia Company kept working to gloss over bad news and to continue new deliveries to the colony to please their investors.

James I of England

23 May 1609: King James I issued the Second Virginia Charter, also known as the Charter of 1609, which granted the Virginia Company more land and a new governing structure. The charter extended the colony's land from Cape Comfort north and south by 200 miles and replaced the president and council with a governor who had absolute power. The charter also allowed English merchants and individuals to invest in the colony and included a list of about 650 investors. Many of the investors were also adventurers.

18 June 1609: Captain Newport commanded the Sea Venture in another trip from London to Virginia. Follow this link, to learn about some other men who were aboard this ship, including John Lightfoot, William Pierce, and Thomas Wittingham. The Sea Venture, which served as the flagship, was part of a flotilla of nine ships commanded by Admiral Sir George Somers. A storm arose and scattered the vessels before they arrived in Virginia. One vessel reportedly sank and seven ships straggled into Jamestown, weeks overdue. The Sea Venture and all 150 passengers arrived safely in what is now known as Bermuda after encountering a second storm, a hurricane on 25 June; however, the colonists in Jamestown assumed the ship was lost.

Sea Venture wreck on
Bermuda Coat of Arms

Many Sea Venture survivors used portions of the Sea Venture and Bermuda cedar as well as remnants of other wrecks to build two smaller ships, the Patience and the Deliverer. Both boats set sail May 10, 1610, and arrived in Jamestown ten days later, after supposedly executing several passengers for mutiny, probably losing a survivor or two to possible murder, and definitely leaving a few passengers behind.* Eventually, Admiral Somers also returned to Bermuda and, in 1615, helped to create the Somers Isles Company to operate the English colony of Somers Isles as a commercial venture.

Once the Patience and Deliverer arrived at Cape Comfort, they learned that of the 500 or so souls who should have been there, only 60 remained alive. All those colonists were starving. The fort also was in a desperate state. Additionally, the Powhatan had ceased feeding the settlers as that confederation also was scarce on food.

Mistress Forrest Arrives

* "That is probably the reason Sea Venture passenger William Strachey’s account of the shipwreck in Bermuda, called A True Repertory of the Wreck and Redemption of Sir Thomas Gates [partial history], was not published for some years after he wrote it. It contained descriptions of the mutinies Sir Thomas had to deal with in Bermuda, things the company would be anxious not to have publicised. On the other hand, two of Strachey’s fellow passengers also wrote accounts of the shipwreck that were published. They were shorter and less detailed than Strachey’s account and contained no references to the mutinies." See: The Wreck of the Sea Venture: The Untold Story at The Bermudian.

July 1609: The Mary and John is the first ship to use Jamestown as a port of call. This ship was unrelated to The Virginia Company.

Governor George Percy

September 1609: John Ratcliffe, who arrived at Jamestown in the initial 1607 voyage, attempted to bargain with the Powhatan nation for food at the Pamunkey River. Pamunkey tribal members killed him on orders from Powhatan. It's unclear whether he was accompanied by other settlers, or if he was skinned alive and burned or not. Newer, reliable citations would be helpful. This month saw the designation of George Percy as the colony's leader. He wrote A True Relation in 1624, partly to justify his leadership during the worst period of starvation in the colony. Once Gates arrived in 1610, he relieved Pearcy. Pearcy left the colony in 1612 to return to England and to never leave.

October 1609: James Smith returned to England, never to return to Virginia, after he experienced a gunpowder incident while sleeping in his boat. Again, this incident is thought to be either an accident or a purposeful attempt by Smith's enemies to dispose of him. Smith also wrote of the starving time in Jamestown.

December 1609: Anne Buras, one of the first two women to arrive in Jamestown as Margaret Foxe Forrest's maid, married John Layden in Jamestown's first wedding (note the marriage citations are a bit off). See: Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 1.djvu/51 (requires validation) re: "After the 'Second Supply' of men and provisions arrived, in October, 16608, there occurred two months later the first marriage of English people in America, that of John Laydon and Ann Buras."

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Illustrations:

• Christopher Newport statue located at Christopher Newport University in Newport News, Virginia, by Tony Alter from Newport News, USA - Christopher Newport, CC BY 2.0. Wikipedia.
• John Smith engraving from a book by Capt. John Smith, engraver uncertain, possibly drawn in 1624. Houghton Library, Public Domain. Wikipedia.
• Powhatan "Held this state and fashion when Capt' Smith was delivered to him prisoner 1607". Engraved by William Hole - Detail from a Virginia map (replaced by File:Virginia map 1606.jpg) . Virtual Jamestown. Wikipedia.
• Three Initial Ships, Susan Constant, Godspeed, and Discovery commemorated on the Virginia State Quarter, Public Domain. Wikipedia.
• Jamestown Notables, Virginia, ca. 1904. May 28. Photograph. Library of Congress. Note: The artwork is titled 1606, even though Jamestown wasn't discovered and created until 1607. The individuals shown from top left: John Smit, James I, Pocahontas, Cahpt. Newport, Bacon and Berkeley, Delaware, and Sandys. Bacon and Berkeley don't make their marks until later in the 17th century. Library of Congress.
• John Smith's Map of Virginia, Smith, John. Virginia. [London, . n.p., 19, 1900] Map. Library of Congress.
• Savage Neck Dunes, Public Domain. Wikipedia.
• James I of England after John de Critz (died 1641) - Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien, Public Domain. Wikipedia.
• Sea Venture wreck on Bermuda Coat of Arms by I, Cronholm144, CC BY-SA 3.0. Wikipedia.
• Mistress Forrest Arrives: Conjectural sketch of Mistress Forrest and Anne Burras Arriving in Jamestown, 1608, Internet Archive Book Images. Wikipedia.
• Governor George Percy by Pjolsenharbich - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0. Wikipedia.