Jamestown and Our Family Tree


It is fascinating putting together the pieces of the history of one family with roots so firmly planted within this country. I got interested in putting together the puzzle pieces of the individuals in our family tree who lived at this time in the Jamestown area and thought I would share it with you.
Jamestown areaOn Good Friday, March 22, 1622 Opechancanough (10th great grandfather), then chief Powhatan (his brother Wahunsonacock, 11th great grandfather, father of Opechancanough's wife, Cleopatra, 10th great grandmother, had died two years earlier), attacked Jamestown in what is known as a massacre at Jamestown. He died in 1644 at around 100 years old, killed by a guard after having been captured after another attack on Jamestown where 500 were killed.
Ironically, a another 10th great grandfather Samuel Jordan survived the first Indian massacre of Jamestown where one third of the colony was killed, including his son Robert. It was the journal he kept when he was shipwrecked on the island of Bermuda on his journey to Jamestown aboard the Sea Venture. His notes inspired Shakespeare's The Tempest. He died in 1623.
 8th great grandfather, Colonel Thomas Pettus (aka Councilor) came to America for the Virginia Company in 1638-1641 after serving on the Continent in the Thirty Years War. He commanded forty men to assist the colonists in their struggles with the Powhatan Indians at Jamestowne. Colonel Thomas Pettus probably was entitled to some Jamestown property through investments made by his uncle, Sir John Pettus, who had purchased stock in the company holding the third charter to Virginia, The Third Virginia Charter Company.
Sir Francis Wyatt (ca. 1588–1644), governor, November 18, 1621–May 24, 1624; rallied the defense of Jamestown during the massacre. Sir Francis' brother, Hawte Wyatt, my husband's 10th great grandfather, and his wife Barbara had accompanied Wyatt to Jamestown. Their first son was born shortly after the massacre. Hawte Wyatt served as rector of the church at Jamestown. Hawte and his brother Sir Francis returned to England but when Sir Francis came back to serve a second term as Governor, Rev. Haute’s three sons, including John, my husband's ancestor, and a daughter back to America with him and became the ancestors of many of the Wyatts in America. (Interesting website for Wyatts: http://mickisuzanne.wordpress.com/201...)
So many stories! So much history to know! The more I learn the more I realize I do not know.
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Published on August 28, 2012 18:59
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