The First Seventeen Years Quotes

“Dissolution 29 The Spread of Settlement—1607 to 1624 34 Towns, Plantations, Settlements, and Communities in Virginia: 1607-1624 (numbers are keyed to text and to illustrating map) 32, 33 1. Pasbehegh Country—1617 35 A. Argall Town—1617 36 B. Pasbehegh—c.1617 37 C. "the Maine"—1608 37 2. Smith's (Southampton) Hundred—1617 38 3. "Tanks Weyanoke"—c.1618 41 4. Swinhows—before 1622 43 5. Westover—c.1619 43 6. Berkeley Town and Hundred—1619 44 7. Causey's Care (or "Cleare")—c.1620 46 8. West and Shirley Hundred—c.1613 47 9. Upper Hundred-"Curls"—c.1613”
― Charles E. Hatch, The First Seventeen Years: Virginia, 1607-1624

“Jordan himself died in 1623 and his widow was soon seeking marriage again. When she became betrothed to two men at the same time, Capt. William Ferrar and Rev. Greville Pooley, and became embroiled in controversy, the Council took note of it. A proclamation followed which prohibited any woman from contracting herself to "two several men at the same time.”
― Charles E. Hatch, The First Seventeen Years: Virginia, 1607-1624

“The massacre of 1622 appeared to have been devastating in the Bermuda area and led to its temporary abandonment. The list of those killed is, however, rather light in comparison with settlements such as Martin's Hundred. There were twenty-seven at four specified points. It leads one to doubt that a full list of names was submitted.”
― Charles E. Hatch, The First Seventeen Years: Virginia, 1607-1624

“Bermuda City was fashioned to be "an impregnable retreat, against any forraign invasion, how powerfull so ever." This became the fourth and last of the public, or general, corporations taking its place with James City, Kecoughtan, and Henrico. Within a few years its name would change from Bermuda to Charles City to honor Prince Charles as Henrico had been named for Prince Henry his brother, both being royal sons. Hamor, in 1614, spoke of "Bermuda Citty," evidently meaning to include Bermuda Hundred as well, as "a business of greatest hope, ever begunne in our territories their." At the same time he mentions the special "pattent," or agreement, made between Dale and the people there, "termes and conditions they voluntarily have undertaken.”
― Charles E. Hatch, The First Seventeen Years: Virginia, 1607-1624

“he could punish his servants if the occasion warranted even to the extent of using a "line or whip corde.”
― Charles E. Hatch, The First Seventeen Years: Virginia, 1607-1624

“He had, in 1623, received a patent to transport fifty persons to Virginia together with sufficient necessities and provisions for cultivating the land.”
― Charles E. Hatch, The First Seventeen Years: Virginia, 1607-1624

“The land list of 1625 specified that he had a 200 acre grant in this vicinity. Perhaps, he was established here well before the massacre. When the Indians descended on his place, he must have been away, for his wife stood her ground as she did later when the Colony officials sought to force her to vacate the now isolated post. It is reported that "Mistress Proctor, a proper, civill, modest gentlewoman ... ["fortified and lived in despite of the enemy"] till perforce the English officers forced her and all them with her to goe with them, or they would fire her house themselves, as the salvages did when they were gone....”
― Charles E. Hatch, The First Seventeen Years: Virginia, 1607-1624

“Seemingly all went well until the massacre when the Indians wiped out this advance post on the James.”
― Charles E. Hatch, The First Seventeen Years: Virginia, 1607-1624

“The Indians swept down on the ironworks community and left twenty-seven dead as well as considerable destruction to the works. The dead included John Berkeley, a mason, two wives, three children and "Joseph Fitch Apothecary to Doctor Pots." This was the end of the project although the Company demonstrated, for a time, its intention to resume this work which was considered basic for the Colony's welfare.”
― Charles E. Hatch, The First Seventeen Years: Virginia, 1607-1624

“He would get £30 toward furnishing his personal group, plus their transportation, and £20 to cover the assembly of the workmen. The twenty workmen, to be bound for seven years of service to the Company, would be transported and "victualled as other tenantes for one whole yeare at the Companies charge.”
― Charles E. Hatch, The First Seventeen Years: Virginia, 1607-1624

“Virginia "to set up three iron works" in view of the fact of "proofe having been made of the extraordinary goodnesse of that iron." This was further manifestation of the continuing interest in Virginia resources, particularly iron. This apparently led to the establishment at Falling Creek of the first regular ironworks within the Colony. These workmen, equipped "with all Materials and other provisions therunto belonging," were under the direction, care, and charge of a Captain Bluett (Blewet) with whom the Company had contracted. His death, along with that of the "principall officers and cheife men," created some confusion. Yeardley promised to do what he could with this company since he had found "an excellent water and good oare." The lack of "good understanding workers" was, however, serious.”
― Charles E. Hatch, The First Seventeen Years: Virginia, 1607-1624

“One of President Wingfield's first acts in May, 1607, after the construction of James Fort was underway, was the dispatch of a party to explore the river above Jamestown. Twenty-two men under Capt. Christopher Newport left on May 21 and proceeded inland to the falls of the James. in six dayes they arrived at a [Indian] Towne called Powhatan, consisting of some twelve houses, pleasantly seated on a hill; before it three fertile Iles, about it many of their cornefields, the place is very pleasant, and strong by nature ... To this place the river is navigable: but higher within a mile, by reason of the rockes and isles, there is not passage for a small boat, this they call the Falles.”
― Charles E. Hatch, The First Seventeen Years: Virginia, 1607-1624

“Then came the massacre which took George Thorpe and 17 of the "Colledge People" located about 2 miles above "Henrico-Citie." The college project did not survive this blow even though the Company urged it and the 60 surviving tenants were returned to the land in the spring of 1623 with the hope of building houses and planting orchards and gardens.”
― Charles E. Hatch, The First Seventeen Years: Virginia, 1607-1624

“In the meanwhile, much Company effort was diverted to the East India School. This free school, planned to have dependence on Henrico College, was projected for Charles City. Although emphasis was on the education of the Indian, it seems clear that the colonists' children were likewise a consideration. There is specific comment on this as it related to the East India School. Donations in money and kind such as books and communion service continued to be forthcoming in England. An audit of the Company books early in 1622 showed college receipts to the extent of £2,043 and expenditures of £1,477. In Virginia, George Thorpe continued to encourage peace and friendship with the Indians setting an excellent personal example in this. He did what he could, too, to develop the College lands even planting vines to the number of 10,000.”
― Charles E. Hatch, The First Seventeen Years: Virginia, 1607-1624

“When the bishop's collection for the college had reached £1,500, a decision was made. Rather than start construction with too little, it was resolved to send fifty "tenants-at-halves" to work on the land. Half of their income would go to the college project and half to themselves. Profits, it was expected, would augment the building and maintenance fund and help to support tutors and students. In the meanwhile, friendly relations with the Indians were important to make possible the willing education of their children.”
― Charles E. Hatch, The First Seventeen Years: Virginia, 1607-1624

“Concentrated attention on the proposed University and, particularly, the College began in 1619 although there is evidence that Argall, when Governor, did some work in this direction. Specific evidence of interest toward Christianizing the Indians and educating the "infidels children" in Virginia is easy to find in the literature and records of the period. Yeardley's instructions in 1618 carried the order to locate a suitable place for a university in the Henrico area. He was to make immediate preparation for building a college there. A generous contribution had already been made in England towards the "planting of a college" and 10,000 acres were to be set aside as an endowment.”
― Charles E. Hatch, The First Seventeen Years: Virginia, 1607-1624

“Universitie lands, 3000 Acres for the Companys lands, with other land belonging to the Colledge; the common land for the Corporation [of Henrico] 1500 acres." The University and College lands were a testimony to the interest, the efforts, and the work of the Company in behalf of the Christianization of the Indians and the advancement of education in Virginia. The enterprise did not materialize, yet there had been every expectation that it would.”
― Charles E. Hatch, The First Seventeen Years: Virginia, 1607-1624

“the Indians left, or were driven out of, their town site which was appropriated by the colonists.”
― Charles E. Hatch, The First Seventeen Years: Virginia, 1607-1624

“community until destroyed by the Indians during, and after, the massacre.”
― Charles E. Hatch, The First Seventeen Years: Virginia, 1607-1624

“the colony is removed up the river forescore miles further beyond Jamestown to a place of high ground, strong and defensible by nature, a good air, wholesome and clear, unlike the marshy seat at Jamestown, with fresh and plenty of water springs, much fair and open grounds freed from woods, and wood enough at hand.”
― Charles E. Hatch, The First Seventeen Years: Virginia, 1607-1624

“His achievements were not come by easily. It was costly in life and in loss of personal freedoms. It was achieved with the full enforcement of the now famous "Dale laws." He moved quickly to punish deserters and law breakers. George Percy related the results in graphic terms. Some "in a moste severe manner [he] cawsed to be executed. Some he appointed to be hanged, some burned, some to be broken upon wheles, others to be staked and some to be shott to deathe; all theis extreme and crewell tortures he used and inflicted upon them to terrefy the reste for attemptinge the like...." These were stern measures that produced results and few of his contemporary associates took issue including John Rolfe, Ralph Hamor, Reverend Alexander Whitaker and even Sir Edwin Sandys. To them, motivated by the spirit of the time, hard conditions required stern handling.”
― Charles E. Hatch, The First Seventeen Years: Virginia, 1607-1624

“Within 15 days Dale had impaled 7 acres of ground and then set to work to build at each of the 5 corners of the town "very strong and high commanders or watchtowers, a faire and handsome Church, and storehouses." It was not until then that he turned to the matter of houses and lodgings for "himself and men." Two miles inland he built a strong pale some 2 miles in length which ran from river to river making an island of the neck on which Henrico stood. Presumably this palisade faced a ditch hence the term—"trench and pallizado." Hamor related in 1614 that in 4 months he had made Henrico "much better and of more worth then all the work ever since the Colonie began.”
― Charles E. Hatch, The First Seventeen Years: Virginia, 1607-1624

“proceeded upstream by boat while the larger part of his party went overland led by Capt. Edward Brewster. The latter encountered resistance from the Indians particularly at the hand of "Munetute" ("called amongste us Jacke of the feathers"). Dale and Brewster rendezvoused at the appointed place and "after divers encounter and skirmishes with the salvages gained a convenientt place for fortification where presently they did begin to builde a foarte." The Indians continued to protest this invasion of their territory with the most effective means at hand.”
― Charles E. Hatch, The First Seventeen Years: Virginia, 1607-1624

“He had explored and found the site he liked, "a convenient strong, healthie and sweete seate to plant a new Towne in." Already at Jamestown he had prepared "pales, posts and railes to impaile his proposed new Towne.”
― Charles E. Hatch, The First Seventeen Years: Virginia, 1607-1624

“Seemingly the name of the new town had already been chosen. It was to be Henrico in honor of Henry, Prince of Wales, known too as the protector and patron of Virginia.”
― Charles E. Hatch, The First Seventeen Years: Virginia, 1607-1624

“Small arms (47) and armor (31) seemed adequate although Indians still infested the place and occasionally a man was killed.”
― Charles E. Hatch, The First Seventeen Years: Virginia, 1607-1624

“10 pounds of tobacco and 1 bushel of corn "for every planter and tradesman above the age of sixteene yeares alive at the cropp" time, was to meet the Corporation's yearly minister's salary and to aid in "publique charges.”
― Charles E. Hatch, The First Seventeen Years: Virginia, 1607-1624

“court records as when on May 23, 1625, he assumed a debt and obligation to "Doctor Pott" which required the delivery of "one barrel of Indian corne" to "James Cittie at the first cominge downe of the next boate.”
― Charles E. Hatch, The First Seventeen Years: Virginia, 1607-1624

“Nathaniel Causey was an old soldier who came to Virginia in the First Supply early in 1608. It was on December 10, 1620 that he obtained a grant that he began to develop as a private plantation. This appears to have been located just to the east of West and Shirley Hundred on the north side of the James. If we accept the entry in the land list of May, 1625 this was for some 200 acres. Presumably he and his wife, Thomasine, also an "old planter" who had come to the Colony in 1609, lived here, at least for a time, perhaps, with servants which numbered 5 in 1625. In the massacre Causey "being cruelly wounded, and the salvages about him, with an axe did cleave one of their heads, whereby the rest fled and he escaped.”
― Charles E. Hatch, The First Seventeen Years: Virginia, 1607-1624

“Things were well advanced when the massacre hit Berkeley Hundred. Eleven were killed here including Capt. George Thorpe "one of his Majesties pensioners." Then came abandonment from which no clearcut survival seems to have been achieved. In the spring of 1622 those who "remayneth" must have been relocated. Four persons sent from England "before the news of the massacre was heard" arrived in June and there is mention of others going for Berkeley in August. In July, 1623 John Smith promised to supply "my servants now living in Virginia in Berckley Hundreth" and others at least to the extent of £100. Two months later the Bonny Bess is reported to have brought people and supplies for Berkeley in its cargo.”
― Charles E. Hatch, The First Seventeen Years: Virginia, 1607-1624