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Timeline of Jamestown, Virginia

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This is a timeline of events related to the settlement of Jamestown, in what today is the U.S. state of Virginia. Dates use the Old Style calendar (e.g., the settlement naming occurred 4 May 1607 [O.S. 14 May 1607]).[1]

Before 1606[edit]

See also: Timeline of the European colonization of North America

1606[edit]

See also: List of Jamestown colonists

1607[edit]

Map of Chesapeake Bay and Jamestown, 1607
Sketch of James Fort, known as the "Zuniga chart"
  • June 15, 1607 (1607-06-15): Initial construction of James Fort concludes
  • c. June 1607 (1607-06): Sometime before setting sail, Christopher Newport convinces leaders to free John Smith and appoint Smith to the council[10]
  • June 22, 1607 (1607-06-22): Newport sails for England in the Susan Constant (with cargo of fool's gold and dirt[11]), leaving the Discovery and reassembled shallops (or barges) for the colonists to use in the rivers and bays
  • c. June 22, 1607 (1607-06-22): Jamestown colonists begin to succumb to disease due to non-potable water and mosquito-borne illnesses
  • c. June 22, 1607 (1607-06-22): Chief Powhatan sends corn and venison to the malnourished Jamestown settlers
  • August 12, 1607 (1607-08-12): The Susan Constant (with Newport) arrives back in London, England
  • August 22, 1607 (1607-08-22): Bartholomew Gosnold dies
  • September 10, 1607 (1607-09-10): Council President Edward Maria Wingfield is deposed/impeached and arrested for allegedly hoarding food. John Ratcliffe becomes president. George Kendall is imprisoned for mutiny, and held on the Discovery.[11]
  • 1607-12-10 John Smith takes nine men on a shallop to explore and find food up the Chickahominy River. George Cassen is captured and tortured to death
  • December 1607 (1607-12): John Smith is taken by Opechancanough to Werowocomoco, either to be inducted as a ceremonial tribe member or to be executed. Pocahantas participates.

1608[edit]

See also: Jamestown supply missions
Illustration of Powhatans, Pocahontas, and John Smith
  • c. January 1608: only 38 to 40 colonists are alive. Ratcliffe and the Council planned to return to England on Discovery.
  • c. 1608-01-05: John Smith uses a compass to confound Opecanchanough and his hunting party, avoiding death
  • c. January 1608: John Smith returns to Jamestown from his encounter with Powhatan
  • c. January 1608: President John Ratcliffe holds John Smith responsible for the deaths of two English explorers, and is sentenced to death by hanging[citation needed]
  • January 2, 1608 (1608-01-02): Newport and the "first supply" mission ships (the John and Francis and Phoenix) arrive in Jamestown, adding 60 to 100 settlers to the colony. Newport overturns Smith's death sentence.
  • January 7, 1608: At James Fort, a major fire occurs through carelessness, burning down most wattle shelters and the food storehouse.[11] Colonists must live in the ruins to overwinter.[12]
  • Feb 1608: Newport and Smith trade with Powhatan. Thomas Savage (a teenaged boy) is sent to live with natives; Namontack is sent to live with English.[11]
  • April 10, 1608 (1608-04-10): Newport sails for England again
  • May 21, 1608 (1608-05-21): Newport and supply ships arrive back in England
  • June 2, 1608 (1608-06-02) – July 22, 1608 (1608-07-22): John Smith explores Chesapeake Bay and rivers to find food and passage to the Pacific Ocean
  • c. 1608 Printing of John Smith's True Relation of Virginia in London, England.
  • June 8-10 1608: At Roaring Point, natives attempt to repel Smith and English explorers with archers waiting on the shore. The next evening, Smith comes ashore and leaves a basket of trade goods. Eventually, four Nanticoke men unaware of the situation meet with Smith and spread the word that he does not wish to attack. Hundreds of native people come to talk and trade.
  • June 17 1608: At Nomini Bay, two native men invite Smith's shallop crew to go up the creek. They are led into an ambush. However, gunfire disarms the native, and ceasing fire, they exchange hostages. The weroance explains that paramount chief Powhatan had ordered the ambush.
  • c. June 18 to July 16 1608: Smith's exploration in the shallop continues, with charting of the Potomac River and towns along the way. The explorers meet a Wicocomico man named "Mosco". Smith guesses that he is partly of European descent due to facial hair. Mosco guides the English along a portion of the Potomac.
  • July 17 1608: Smith is wounded by stingray near the mouth of the Rappahannock River. He is treated by a doctor and survives. The area is named Stingray Point.
  • July 18-21 1608: Smith's shallop returns to Jamestown
  • July 1608: John Ratcliffe leaves office (either by resignation or deposition) in July 1608, two months before the end of his term
  • Sept 10, 1608: John Smith is elected to serve a one-year term as president of the council. His term was to end September 10, 1609.[12]
  • July 24, 1608 (1608-07-24) – September 27, 1608 (1608-09-27): Smith's second exploration of Chesapeake Bay and rivers to find food and passage to the Pacific Ocean. Matthew Scrivener is in command in Jamestown while Smith is gone.
  • c. October 1, 1608 (1608-10-01): Newport and the "second supply" mission ship (the Mary and Margaret) arrive in Jamestown, adding about 70 settlers to the colony. Included are Jamestown Polish craftsmen, "Dutch" (German) carpenters and glassmakers,[13] and two English women: Mistress Margaret Fox Forrest and Anne Burras.
  • c. October 1608 (1608-10): Captain Newport, John Smith, and armed men meet with Powhatan (Wahunsenacawh) to bestow gifts such as a feather mattress. Included is a coronation ceremony (using a metal crown with fake jewels[14]), which attempted to make Wahunsenacawh a vassal of King James I.[15]
  • c. 1608: Hog Island contains a drove of 60 pigs, which go unused by colonists[8]
  • c. autumn 1608: Jamestown Glasshouse is built by German glassmakers[16]
  • November 1608: Jamestown's first wedding (of two English): Anne Burras marries John Laydon, a carpenter[11]
  • December 1, 1608 (1608-12-01): George Kendall is executed for treason

1609[edit]

Second Virginia Charter
Pamphlet, A Discovery of the Barmudas, otherwise called the Ile of Divels by Silvester Jourdain
  • c. July 1609: In the Chesapeake Bay, Spanish reconnaissance ship, La Asunción de Cristo, is driven off by the timely arrival of Mary and John (captained by Samuel Argall), preventing the Spanish Empire from discovering a weakened Jamestown. Pedro de Zúñiga y de la Cueva [es], the Spanish ambassador to England, was desperately seeking the location in order to authorize an attack by Philip III of Spain.
  • July 24, 1609 (1609-07-24): A tropical storm (likely a hurricane) hits the supply mission flotilla separating ships and delaying the resupply
  • July 28, 1609 (1609-07-28): The Sea Venture is shipwrecked near Gates' Bay, St. George's Island, Bermuda. The 150 Virginia-bound people become castaways on the uncolonized island, dubbed "Virginiola".[17]
  • c. summer 1609 Stephen Hopkins is accused of mutiny for wanting to remain in Bermuda, arguing the Virginia Company contract voided by shipwreck
  • c. fall 1609 Fort Algernon is built nearby Jamestown
  • c. Oct 1609: John Smith is severely wounded by a gunpowder accident, and must return to England for proper treatment.
  • c. Oct 1609: Captain George Percy takes over as president[12]
  • Oct 4 1609: Seven of the nine ships of the "third supply" mission arrive, delivering approximately 350 colonists but little supply. Four of the ships had sufferers of yellow fever,[18] while the Diamond and Unity also brought bubonic plague to the colony, killing at least 30 emigrants on the journey, and more over the following months.[19]
  • c. November 1609 (1609-11): Henry Spelman of Jamestown, a teenage boy, is sent to live with Powhatan as a translator and ambassador
  • c. November 1609 (1609-11): After trading for corn with Powhatan confederacy natives, John Ratcliffe is stripped naked, flayed, and burned at the stake
  • c. November 1609 (1609-11): Powhatan natives attack and kill several settlers, and destroy the stock of pigs on Hog Island.
  • c. November 1609 (1609-11): Captain and Councillor Francis West takes the Swallow to trade with Patawomeck people. West kills several natives and steals food, but sets sail for England to avoid mutiny.
  • c. November 1609 (1609-11) – June 1610 (1610-06): Starving Time begins in the winter, killing many
  • circa winter 1609-10 Gabriel Archer dies

1610[edit]

  • Feb 1610: In the Somers Isles, Bermuda Rolfe (baby girl) is born to John Rolfe and Mistress Sarah Hacker Rolfe, but soon perishes
  • Feb 1610: In the Somers Isles, Bermudas Eason (baby boy) is born to Edward Eason and wife
  • March: 60 out of 500-600 colonists remain alive. Francis West and 36 men aren't counted as they had absconded to England.
  • May 10 1610: In the Somers Isles, Thomas Gates, Newport, Somers, and other castaway-colonists (totaling 137) board the Deliverance and Patience to sail to Jamestown. Two sailors (Christopher Carter and Edward-Robert Waters) remain behind on Bermuda.
  • May 23, 1610 (1610-05-23): Deliverance and Patience with castaway-colonists arrive from Bermuda in Virginia expecting 500-600 settlers, but finding only 60 colonists remaining[20][21]
  • May 24 1610: Thomas Gates and Thomas Dale issue Lawes Divine, Morall and Martiall [sic], also known as Dale's Code, a martial law/authoritarian system of government
  • June 7: Thomas Gates and leaders decide to abandon Jamestown. Colonists plan to head north to Newfoundland fishing settlements for food and evacuation.
  • June 8: Jamestown refugees meet the supply ships of Thomas West, Lord De La Warr at Mulberry Island. Thomas West convinces the colonists to return to Jamestown with fresh supplies and healthy men.
  • July 9: St. John's Episcopal Church (Hampton, Virginia) is founded on Cape Henry
  • August 9, 1610 De la Warr sends Percy with 70 colonists to attack the Paspahegh and Chickahominy villages, burning buildings, destroying crops, and killing up to 75 natives. This ignited the first of the Anglo-Powhatan Wars.
  • June 19 1610: George Somers and Samuel Argall sail for Bermuda to gather wild hogs for Jamestown.[10]
  • July 20, 1610: Christopher Newport and Thomas Gates leave Virginia (on the Blessinge and Hercules[22]) for England, where he will use his story of the Sea Venture wreck to advocate for the colony and to spur further investment. Aboard with him are two Virginia Indians recently taken prisoner: weroance Sasenticum and his son Kainta.
  • c. 9 November 1610 George Somers dies at Bermuda from exhaustion
  • c. 1610: Captained by Nathaniel West, the Mary Ann carries widow Mistress Francis West to Virginia[23]
  • c. 1610: The Mary and James carries William Tucker to Virginia [24]

1611[edit]

See also: Timeline of Richmond, Virginia
  • c. 1611: Henricus is founded on Farrar's Island
  • c. January 4, 1611: Henry Spelman is returned to Samuel Argall, in trade for copper ore to Jopassus (brother to paramount chief)[25]
  • c. winter 1611: Colonists suffer from scurvy, including "Kemps" a native.[25] Dr. Lawrence Bohun experiments in treating the disease with local vegetables, such as Ipomoea purga and sassafras.
  • c. 1611: Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr contracts an illness. He boards a ship bound for Nevis, West Indies, (captained by Samual Argall), but is blown off course and forced to sail to England.[26]
  • March 1611: When the Thomas West returns to England, he appoints George Percy to lead the colony in his absence.
  • August 1611: Sir Thomas Gates returns to Virginia at the head of an expedition that includes three ships, 280 men, 20 women, 200 heads of cattle, 200 swine, and various other supplies and equipment
  • c. 1611: Puritan Reverend Alexander Whitaker arrives in Jamestown.[11]
  • c. 1611: John Rolfe cultivates Nicotiana tabacum as a viable cash crop (marketed as "Orinoco tobacco")

1612[edit]

  • c. 1612 (1612): Area drought ends after six years
  • c. 1612: The town of "New London" (later named St. George's) is founded, becoming the oldest continuously inhabited British town in the New World

1613[edit]

Depiction of Samuel Argall making peace with the Chickahominy people in 1614

1614[edit]

Depiction of the marriage of John Rolfe and "Rebecca" (Pocahontas)

1615[edit]

1616[edit]

  • 1616: John Rolfe, "Rebecca Rolfe" (Pocahontas), son Thomas Rolfe, a company of about 12 Powhatans, Stephen Hopkins, Thomas Dale, and others leave for England. George Yeardley leads the settlement.[12][27]
  • April 1616: George Yeardley is appointed deputy-governour while Thomas Dale returns to England.[28] Yeardley relaxes laws and punishments set by Dale's Code, and the colony prospers.

1617[edit]

  • c. 1617: Samuel Argall returns to Virginia to replace George Yeardley as governour,[12] finding the town in a deteriorated state
  • c. In March 1617, John Rolfe and "Rebecca" (Pocahontas) board a ship to return to Virginia, but they had sail only as far as Gravesend on the River Thames when Pocahontas becomes gravely ill
  • c. March 1617: Rebecca/Pocahontas dies from unknown causes (perhaps a respiratory disease), aged 20 or 21 years.
  • c. 1617 Alexander Whitaker drowns in the James River

1618[edit]

1619[edit]

  • c. May 1619: Ship George arrives with Doctor John Pott, Mistress Pott, and others
  • May c. 1619 a craftsmen strike begins because of a lack of voting rights[31]
  • July 21: Jamestown craftsmen strike ends
  • July 30, 1619: the first Virginia General Assembly convenes at the Jamestown Church. Dale's Code is no longer law.[32]
  • c. late August 1619: First Africans in Virginia are purchased from The White Lion and Treasurer as "indentured servants" for tobacco farming.[33] This includes "Angela".
  • 1619 December 4: Captain John Woodlief (Woodleefe) and the Margaret (of Bristol) arrive at Berkeley Hundred with 36 settlers and 19 crewman (all males).[34][35] By written order of the Virginia Company of London, the passengers held a Thanksgiving, and celebrated the same holiday in 1620 and 1621.

1620[edit]

1621[edit]

  • October, 1621: the George arrives with Francis Wyatt (appointed to be Virginia governour) and George Sandys
  • c. November 1621: Nemattanew (known derisively as "Jack-of-a-Feather") is slain by settlers

1622[edit]

  • c. March 1622: Ship Seaflower containing relief supplies for Virginia, is accidentally sunk in Bermuda[36]
  • March 22, 1622 (1622-03-22): Indian massacre of 1622 occurs, killing over 350 people in surrounding plantations and Henricus
  • Dec 20: Ship Abigail arrives with hungry, diseased passengers.[11] The colony is reduced to 500 settlers over the winter.

1623[edit]

  • 1623: Captain William Norton arrives at the colony with skilled Italian glass workers[37]
  • 1623: Conspiring with William Tucker, Dr John Pott feed poisoned wine to 200 natives, killing them in retaliation to the previous year's massacre

1624[edit]

1626[edit]

1631[edit]

  • June 21 1631: John Smith died in London, England

1639[edit]

  • 1639 The King formally approves the restoration of the General Assembly.
  • c. November 1639: Richard Lee I arrives in Virginia

1644[edit]

  • April 1644: Opechancanough planned another coordinated attack, which resulted in the deaths of another 350 to 500 of the 8,000 settlers in outlying plantations.[5]

1646[edit]

  • 1646: Opechancanough was captured, taken to Jamestown, and shot in the back by a guard--against orders--and killed[39]

1649[edit]

  • 1649: Population estimates for Virginia is 15,000[40]

1676[edit]

Torching of Jamestown in 1676

1693[edit]

1697[edit]

  • 1697: Population estimate for the Virginia colony is 70,000[40]

1698[edit]

  • 1698: Another fire is started by a prisoner awaiting execution.[41] The conflagration destroys the prison and the statehouse. The legislature temporarily relocates to Middle Plantation and was able to meet in the new facilities of the College of William & Mary

1699[edit]

  • 1699: Colony capital permanently moves to Middle Plantation, which is renamed Williamsburg

1750[edit]

  • c. 1750: Jamestown ownership consolidated into two families via land sales: Travis and Ambler.[5]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: General Chronology". www.newadvent.org.
  2. ^ Wolfe, Brendan. "Don Luís de Velasco / Paquiquineo (fl. 1561–1571)". Encyclopedia Virginia.
  3. ^ "Virtual Jamestown--Timeline". www.virtualjamestown.org.
  4. ^ Shannon, Dr Christopher. "The story of Father Baptista de Segura and the Virginia martyrs". www.catholicworldreport.com.
  5. ^ a b c d e Yorktown, Mailing Address: P. O. Box 210; Us, VA 23690 Phone: 757 898-2410 Contact. "Chronology of Jamestown Events - Historic Jamestowne Part of Colonial National Historical Park (U.S. National Park Service)". www.nps.gov.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  6. ^ a b c d "History Timeline | Historic Jamestowne".
  7. ^ Blanton, Dennis B. "Drought as a Factor in the Jamestown Colony, 1607-1612." Historical Archaeology 34, no. 4 (2000): 74-81. JSTOR 25616853.
  8. ^ a b "Hog Island Wildlife Management Area | TCLF". www.tclf.org.
  9. ^ "The History of Hog Island". dwr.virginia.gov.
  10. ^ a b "Virginia and Bermuda". www.virginiaplaces.org.
  11. ^ a b c d e f g "A Brief History of Jamestown, Virginia". October 17, 2007. Archived from the original on 2007-10-17.
  12. ^ a b c d e f "Chronology 1606-1700". Jamestowne Society.
  13. ^ "German American Corner: First Germans at Jamestown 1". February 10, 2007. Archived from the original on 2007-02-10.
  14. ^ Rountree, Helen C. (2006). Pocahontas, Powhatan, Opechancanough: Three Indian Lives Changed by Jamestown. ISBN 9780813933405.
  15. ^ Horn, James (2008). A Land As God Made It: Jamestown and the Birth of America. p. 107. ISBN 9780786721986.
  16. ^ "German American Corner: First Germans at Jamestown 2". February 20, 2007. Archived from the original on 2007-02-20.
  17. ^ a b Brown, Alexander (1898). The First Republic in America: An Account of the Origin of this Nation, Written from the Records Then (1624) Concealed by the Council, Rather Than from the Histories Then Licensed by the Crown. p. 163. ISBN 9780722265451.
  18. ^ Brown, Alexander (1898). The First Republic in America: An Account of the Origin of this Nation, Written from the Records Then (1624) Concealed by the Council, Rather Than from the Histories Then Licensed by the Crown. p. 97. ISBN 9780722265451.
  19. ^ Glover, Lori. The Shipwreck That Saved Jamestown: The Sea Venture Castaways and the Fate of America. ISBN 9780805086546.
  20. ^ Chan, Amy (December 6, 2019). "The Hurricane that Saved Jamestown". HistoryNet.
  21. ^ "A Timeline of Events and References". November 22, 2005. Archived from the original on 2005-11-22.
  22. ^ Brown, Alexander (1898). The First Republic in America: An Account of the Origin of this Nation, Written from the Records Then (1624) Concealed by the Council, Rather Than from the Histories Then Licensed by the Crown. Houghton. p. 134. ISBN 9780722265451.
  23. ^ "The Mary Ann 1610". packrat-pro.com.
  24. ^ "Mary & James". packrat-pro.com.
  25. ^ a b Brown, Alexander (1898). The First Republic in America: An Account of the Origin of this Nation, Written from the Records Then (1624) Concealed by the Council, Rather Than from the Histories Then Licensed by the Crown. Houghton. p. 137. ISBN 9780722265451.
  26. ^ Billings, Warren M. "Thomas West twelfth baron De La Warr (1576–1618)". Encyclopedia Virginia.
  27. ^ Johnson, Caleb (2007). Here Shall I Die Ashore: Stephen Hopkins--Bermuda Castaway, Jamestown Survior, and Mayflower Pilgrim. Xlibris. ISBN 9781425796389.
  28. ^ "Yeardley, George" . Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900 – via Wikisource.
  29. ^ "Temperance Flowerdew Yeardley · Virginia Changemakers". edu.lva.virginia.gov.
  30. ^ "The Project Gutenburg ebook of The Three Charters of the Virginia Company of London, by Samuel M. Bemiss". www.gutenberg.org.
  31. ^ "Polish artisans strike for the right to vote, Jamestown, Virginia, 1619 | Global Nonviolent Action Database". nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu.
  32. ^ "House History". history.house.virginia.gov.
  33. ^ "Enslaved Africans first arrived in colonial Virginia 400 years ago". National Geographic Society. December 21, 2019. Archived from the original on 2019-12-21.
  34. ^ Harrison, Don (June 4, 2019). "1619: When America Became America".
  35. ^ "The First Thanksgiving Took Place in Virginia, not Massachusetts - Washingtonian". November 18, 2015.
  36. ^ Lefroy, Sir John Henry (1877). Memorials of the discovery and early settlement of the Bermudas or Somers Islands, 1515-1685. pp. XXXV, 119, 264, 287, 326.
  37. ^ Wertenbaker, Thomas Jefferson (1922). The Planters of Colonial Virginia. Princeton University Press. p. 19. ISBN 9780598424662.
  38. ^ "Witchcraft and gossip: Jamestown Settlement explores English women's interactions with the law in colonial era". September 10, 2019.
  39. ^ Shefveland, Kristalyn Marie (2016). Anglo-Native Virginia Trade, Conversion, and Indian Slavery in the Old Dominion, 1646-1722. University of Georgia Press. p. 8. ISBN 9780820350257.
  40. ^ a b Wertenbaker, Thomas Jefferson (1922). The Planters of Colonial Virginia. Princeton University Press. p. 43. ISBN 9780598424662.
  41. ^ Yorktown, Mailing Address: P. O. Box 210; Us, VA 23690 Phone: 757 898-2410 Contact. "A Short History of Jamestown - Historic Jamestowne Part of Colonial National Historical Park (U.S. National Park Service)". www.nps.gov.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
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