Jamestown and Bermuda Remained Primarily Anglican and the Largest Vessel, the Sea Venture, Wrecked Off Throughout the Colonial Period

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VIRGINIA COMPANY COLONIES

Exploring the shared history and links between England’s first two permanent colonies in the New World

our English. The Virginia hundred Company then eagerly years ago, English created its second New merchantsF and World colony. politicians created England’s the Virginia Virginia Company Company to organize colonies hold much and fund an English in common. Both colony in America. were founded on In 1607 Jamestown the same principles was established in of government and the new colony of religion. Both were Virginia. Over the settled by people who next several years, Map of Bermuda, Willem Blaeu, 1633, Jamestown-Yorktown shared a common the Company raised Foundation collection. cultural heritage. funds, obtained Today Virginia is no supplies and recruited new settlers. When longer a British colony, and Bermuda has become the largest of these early supply voyages was a British Overseas Territory. However, both dispatched to Virginia in 1609, the islands of the continue to share benefits from the visitors to their Bermudas were accidentally “discovered” by the historic sites and beautiful geographic landscapes.

SPECIAL EXHIBITION AT JAMESTOWN SETTLEMENT March 1 through October 15, 2009 Bermuda’s Beginnings When the Sea Venture wrecked on the reefs of Bermuda, the passengers and crew were able to salvage some materials and get ashore. They learned to survive tapping the native plants, birds and fish, as well as the hogs that had swum ashore from earlier Spanish shipwrecks. After ten months the settlers sailed to Virginia, anxious to spread the word about the resources they found available on the Bermuda islands. In 1612 King James I granted the Virginia “Historic Voyage, Sea Venture and Consorts at Sea 1609,” Company a new charter that included Bermuda, Deryck Foster, 1984, The Bank of Bermuda Foundation, laying claim to its resources. The Company sent Hamilton. the first group of 60 settlers there under Governor The Sea Venture Wreck and The Tempest Richard Moore. The colonists built small forts for defense against the Spanish, just as at Jamestown. In June 1609 the English sent a fleet of nine They established their settlement at St. George’s and supply ships to Virginia carrying new settlers and founded the first Anglican church, St. Peter’s. Both cargo. The fleet got caught in an Atlantic hurricane, Jamestown and Bermuda remained primarily Anglican and the largest vessel, the Sea Venture, wrecked off throughout the colonial period. the coast of Bermuda. Virginia’s new lieutenant governor and 150 stranded passengers spent the next A “General Assemblie in Manner a Parliament” ten months on the islands. They scavenged from the wreckage of their ship and built two new vessels to In 1615 the Bermuda Company received its own carry them to Virginia. Two mutinous charter and sent Governor Daniel Tucker. settlers remained behind, justifying Under Governor Nathaniel Butler in England’s claim to Bermuda. 1620, Bermudians held their first General Tales of the shipwreck reached Assembly, preceded a year earlier by one Virginia Company officials as ships in Jamestown. Within the first decades, returned to England from supplying members of both colonies established Virginia. These stories found their courts and surveyed the land, dividing it way into literary works such as William into parcels for settlement. In Bermuda Shakespeare’s The Tempest, written in 1611. the land was divided according to “tribes,” Bermuda held a special place in the minds while Virginia’s first settlements were of the English after they learned of the called “particular plantations.” miraculous way in which the passengers of Although King James I dissolved the Sea Venture were saved on the islands’ reefs. Virginia Company in 1624, the Bermuda Company existed until 1684 when it was replaced by royal government. Virginia’s capital at Jamestown continued until 1699 when government moved to Williamsburg. St. George’s remained the capital Speaker’s Chair, circa 1735, Virginia House of Bermuda until 1815 when it moved to of Delegates and Colonial Williamsburg Hamilton. Today Bermuda is governed Foundation. This ceremonial chair was used by the Speaker of the House of Burgesses by a premier and a governor, the Queen’s (House of Delegates after 1776) during representative. Laws are passed by legislative sessions in Williamsburg and in Bermuda’s bicameral Parliament and Richmond after the state capital was moved interpreted by its Supreme Court. there in 1780. In the 18th and 19th centuries, Bermudians developed shipbuilding and furniture-making using their native cedar. Both industries flourished, and the Bermuda sloop became famous for its speed and maneuverability. Late-19th-century visits of artists, writers and celebrities launched a popular tourism industry. Tourism and 20th-century international business and finance bolstered the economy.

A Social Melting Pot Initially, English and other Europeans settled Jamestown and Bermuda. In Virginia they interacted “Unidentified Blockade Runner Being Pursued,” circle of Alexander Charles Stuart, oil on canvas, The Mariners’ with the native Powhatan Indians. Investors brought Museum, Newport News, Virginia. the first Africans to Bermuda in 1616 to dive for pearls. Three years later, 20-some Africans arrived in Virginia. The “Gibraltar of the West” Most Africans became enslaved in both colonies, but Bermuda abolished slavery in 1834, much earlier than Because of its location, Bermuda has always played Virginia. In the 19th century, Bermuda attracted West a key role in military activities on both sides of the Indians and Portuguese settlers from Madeira and the Atlantic. Since early settlers at both Jamestown and Azores. Bermuda feared Spanish attacks, those at Jamestown The people of Bermuda established two towns, constructed a wooden palisade while those in Bermuda St. George’s (1612) and Hamilton (1793). When the built fortifications from the native limestone. Over capital moved to Hamilton in 1815, so did much of time, both colonies added forts and raised militias for the population and most of the developing commerce, defense. In 1809 the British constructed the Royal transportation and other services. While some Naval Dockyard in Bermuda to defend the western Bermudians were drawn to the mainland colonies, Atlantic shipping lanes. the Bermudian way of life attracted vacationing During the American Civil War, Bermuda was the artists, writers and celebrities such as Princess Louise, home to blockade runners, small fast ships that broke daughter of Queen Victoria. through the Union blockade to supply the Confederacy with arms and ammunition. In World War II the United States established navy and army bases and an airstrip St. George Tucker, an 18th-century on Bermuda to assist England in defending the North Virginia judge and legal scholar Atlantic. The U.S. and British army bases were officially born in Bermuda, promoted trade between Virginia and Bermuda. closed in 1995. Joseph H. Rainey was born in From Tobacco to Tourists – Atlantic Economies South Carolina to enslaved parents and escaped to Bermuda in 1862. As in Virginia, Bermuda investors hoped to profit He returned to South Carolina in from local products. In the islands those included 1866 and later served in the state pearls, whales, and a large supply of ambergris located senate and U.S. Congress. by the first settlers. Investors also had hopes for exotic Georgia O’Keeffe, one of many plants and tobacco, but in Bermuda none were very artists inspired by Bermuda’s “Banyan Tree successful. The insufficient amount of land made beauty, lived in Williamsburg, Trunk,” Georgia Virginia, for part of her youth, O’Keeffe, graphite agriculture difficult. In the 1670s some Bermudians on paper, 1934, completed high school at went south to the Turks Islands in the West Indies the Masterworks Chatham Hall near Danville, and to harvest salt for export to the mainland colonies. Foundation and briefly studied and taught art Salt production, maritime trade and privateering Masterworks at the University of Virginia in Museum of strengthened Bermuda’s economy. Charlottesville. Bermuda Art. “Virginia and Bermuda: Virginia Company Colonies” Lecture Series An exhibition lecture series, sponsored by the Dominion Foundation, features guest speakers on four Saturdays at 7 p.m. in Jamestown Settlement’s Robins Foundation Theater: April 25 – “The Lion and the Mouse … the Story of America and Bermuda” – Lucinda Spurling, Afflare Films, Bermuda. June 13 – “The Shipwreck That Saved Jamestown: The Sea Venture Castaways and the Fate of America” – Lorri Glover, University of Tennessee Professor of History and author. July 11 – “Sister Colonies: Virginia, Bermuda, and the Beginnings of English America” – Michael Jarvis, University of Rochester Associate Professor of History and author. August 8 – “Somewhere Beyond the Sea: Art, Artists, and Bermuda” – Tom Butterfield, Founder and Creative Director of the Masterworks Foundation and Masterworks Museum of Bermuda Art. Admission to the lectures is free, and advance reservations are required by contacting (757) 253-4415 or [email protected].

Jamestown Settlement and Yorktown Victory Victory Center tells the story of the American Center living-history museums are administered by Revolution and the development of the new nation. the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation, an educational “Jamestown and Bermuda: Virginia Company institution of the Commonwealth of Virginia, Colonies,” at Jamestown Settlement March 1 accredited by the American Association of Museums, through October 15, 2009, is funded by grants of that fosters awareness and understanding of the early $25,000 or more from James City County, the Bank history of the United States and the enduring legacies of Bermuda Foundation and the Jamestown 400th bequeathed to the nation. Commemoration Commission, and other donations. Jamestown Settlement interprets the founding Twenty-four lenders in Bermuda, Virginia, Canada of Jamestown, America’s first permanent English and the United Kingdom provided objects for settlement, and the diverse cultures, including exhibit. The St. George’s Foundation worked with the Powhatan Indian, African and European, that Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation to facilitate artifact converged in 17th-century Virginia. The Yorktown loans from Bermuda institutions.

Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation P.O. Box 1607 Williamsburg, Virginia 23187-1607 (757) 253-4838 toll-free (888) 593-4682