The Shaping of Kecoughtan, 1607-1624: "A Delicate and Necessary Seat for a City Or Chief Fortification"
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W&M ScholarWorks Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects Theses, Dissertations, & Master Projects 2002 The Shaping of Kecoughtan, 1607-1624: "A Delicate and Necessary Seat for a City or Chief Fortification" John Michael Cobb College of William & Mary - Arts & Sciences Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wm.edu/etd Part of the American Studies Commons, and the United States History Commons Recommended Citation Cobb, John Michael, "The Shaping of Kecoughtan, 1607-1624: "A Delicate and Necessary Seat for a City or Chief Fortification"" (2002). Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects. Paper 1539626346. https://dx.doi.org/doi:10.21220/s2-rr76-ma79 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses, Dissertations, & Master Projects at W&M ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects by an authorized administrator of W&M ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE SHAPING OF KECOUGHTAN, 1607 - 1624: “A DELICATE AND NECESSARY SEAT FOR A CITY OR CHIEF FORTIFICATION” A Thesis Presented to The Faculty of American Studies Department The College of William and Mary in Virginia In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts by John Michael Cobb 2002 APPROVAL SHEET This thesis is submitted in partial fulfillment of The requirements for the degree of Master of Arts J v L v l . (L y o ii-L r" John Michael Cobb Approved, July 18, 2002 Dr. James P. Whittenburg History Department Barbara Carson American Studies Department Dr. Marley^R. Brown, III Anthropology Department TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE LIST OF TABLES ...... iv LIST OF FIGURES.............................. .........v ABSTRACT..............................................................................................................vi HALF TITLE................ ....................1 INTRODUCTION.................................. 3 CHAPTER 1 KECOUGHTAN: “AN AMPLE AND FAIR COUNTRY INDEED,” 1607-1610 .......................................................................................... ..........6 ■ VIRGINIA COMPANY OF LONDON............................................................. 7 ■ KECOUGHTAN, THE INDIAN TOWN............................................................8 ■ VIRGINIA COMPANY ARRIVES TO THE TIDEWATER..............................11 ■ KECOUGHTAN, A BREADBASKET OF THE VIRGINIA COMPANY COLONY .................................................................................. 16 ■ KECOUGHTAN (POINT COMFORT), A SENTINEL OF THE VIRGINIA COMPANY COLONY...................................................................................20 ■ KECOUGHTAN, A REFUGE OF THE VIRGINIA COMPANY COLONY......32 ■ REMOVAL OF THE KECOUGHTAN INDIANS.............................. 33 CHAPTER 2 KECOUGHTAN: THE VIRGINIA COMPANY SETTLEMENT, 1610-1624 ......37 ■ KECOUGHTAN FORTIFICATIONS, CHARLES AND HENRY.....................38 ■ SIR THOMAS DALE’S MARTIAL REGIME................................................ 40 ■ KECOUGHTAN, A CENTER OF COMMERCE AND POPULATION.......... 45 ■ GOVERNOR GEORGE YEARDLEY AND THE REFORMS....................... 49 ■ KECOUGHTAN’S TOBACCO CULTURE .............................................53 ■ POWHATAN ATTACK OF 1622 ..................................................................57 ■ KECOUGHTAN, THE POST-VIRGINIA COMPANY PERIOD..................... 63 THESIS SUMMARY........................................................................................... 69 SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY............................................. 75 * VITA.....................................................................................................................79 LIST OF TABLES TABLE PAGE 1 POPULATION OF THE VIRGINIA COMPANY COLONY IN 1616 .................................................................................................. 47 2 NUMBER OF ORDNANCE IN THE VIRGINIA COMPANY COLONY IN 1622 ...... .............60 3 POPULATION OF KECOUGHTAN IN 1623 ........................................62 APPENDIX A AGE DATA FOR KECOUGHTAN IN 1625 ........................................ 72 APPENDIX B MATERIAL INVENTORY OF KECOUGHTAN IN 1625 ............ 73 APPENDIX C IMMIGRATION FROM ENGLAND TO KECOUGHTAN 1 6 0 6 -1 6 2 4 ........................................................................................... 74 LIST OF FIGURES FIGURE PAGE 1 ENGLISH SETTLEMENTS IN 1613 ......................... ......2 2 PRINCIPAL POWHATAN AND NEIGHBORING DISTRICTS............ 10 3 VIRGINIA: DISCOVERED AND DESCRIBED BY CAPT. JOHN SMITH IN 1608 .......................................................... 12 4 DUTCH MAP SHOWING JAMESTOWN ISLAND, CHARLES FORT AT POINT COMFORT, AND THE JAMES RIVER ca. 1617 .................14 5 VIRGINIA DISCOVERED AND DESCRIBED BY CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH IN 1608 ............................................................................. 18 6 VIRGINIA IN 1607 .....................................................................................23 7 VIRGINIA IN 1607 (detail) ........................................................................ 28 8 THE JAMES RIVER IN 1616 ....................................................................39 9 ENGLAND IN AMERICA: THE CHESAPEAKE BAY FROM JAMESTOWN TO ST. MARYS CITY 1607 - 1634 (detail) ................. 50 10 LOWER NORFOLK COUNTY IN THE MID-SEVENTEENTH CENTURY................................................................................................. 53 11 ENGLISH SETTLEMENTS AND LOCATIONS ATTACKED BY THE POWHATAN ON MARCH 22, 1622 ...............................................58 12 AREAS OF ENGLISH SETTLEMENTS IN 1634 ................................... 65 13 TOWN OF HAMPTON AND POINT COMFORT, ca. 1782 (detail) .........................................................................................68 v ABSTRACT During the first quarter of the seventeenth century, Kecoughtan, a Virginia Company of London settlement, situated in Virginia near the entrance of the Chesapeake Bay and positioned at the tip of the peninsula formed by the James and York Rivers, was a crucial outpost in the Company’s attempt to establish a colony in the James River estuary. Kecoughtan’s natural resources rendered it as one of the colony’s most habitable sites, serving as a breadbasket and a place of refuge during times of peril, as the Company attempted to establish its foothold in Virginia. In addition, Kecoughtan’s strategic location served as the Company’s sentinel, to “win time,” while warning the up-river settlements of a Spanish attack from the sea. Moreover, Kecoughtan’s convenient harbor on the Hampton River positioned it as an important gateway for tobacco trade and commerce in the colony. (See Fig. 1.) By the end of the Virginia Company period (1607-1624), however, Kecoughtan was a tenuous settlement, facing starvation along with the other Company enclaves. Because of its important position in the colony as a refuge during times of peril, Kecoughtan’s survival was jeopardized at that time as its population dramatically increased with the influx of refugees seeking protection after the Powhatan offensive of 1622. Kecoughtan’s food supply was inadequate to sustain this population surge, and much of its corn crop was destroyed or inaccessible because of Indian hostilities. In conclusion, Kecoughtan’s natural attributes were a critical foundation that supported the Company’s attempt to colonize Virginia. And by 1624, although the settlement had deteriorated because of the Powhatan attack of 1622, Kecoughtan had the highest concentration of English men, women, and children in Virginia, and would be the only Virginia Company settlement to endure to the present day as a substantial center of population and commerce, the City of Hampton. vi THE SHAPING OF KECOUGHTAN, 1607 - 1624: “A DELICATE AND NECESSARY SEAT FOR A CITY OR CHIEF FORTIFICATION” Fig. 1: E n g l is h S e t t l e m e n t s in 1 6 1 3 1 Kecoughtan and Point Comfort 1 Frederic W. Gleach, Powhatan’s World and Colonial Virginia: A Conflict of Cultures. (Lincoln, The University of Nebraska Press, 1997), 134. 3 INTRODUCTION______________________________________________________ Kecoughtan, a Virginia Company of London settlement during the first quarter of the seventeenth century, has been relatively neglected in scholarly analysis as juxtaposed to the comparatively extensive archaeological and documentary research of other settlements such as Flowerdew Hundred, Governor’s Land, Jamestown, Jordan’s Journey, and Martin’s Hundred. An understanding of the Virginia Company period (1607-1624) and its seminal role in the formation of American government and culture is incomplete without an in- depth analysis of Kecoughtan’s intrinsic role in the Company’s attempt to establish England’s presence in Virginia. Research and interpretation of Kecoughtan’s significance has been mainly within the framework of general histories of the town of Hampton (built on the site of Kecoughtan) and Virginia, and in several archeological reports. Historian Alexander Brown’s The First Republic in America (1898) analyzes the Virginia Company period, emphasizing the use of the first chronicles. In addition, Lyon G. Tyler’s History of Hampton and Elizabeth City County (1921) presents a chronological history of the region during the Company period through 1910. Historian Martha McCartney’s “The Environs of the Hampton River” (1983) provides further chronological treatment of the area up to the nineteenth century. Historians Frank W. Craven (1932), Richard