Henricus Colledge Amanda Brown Alma Mater February 12, 2014 Henricus Colledge planted the seed for a lasting American heritage rooted in education, despite the settlers inability to follow through on the venture Henricus Colledge The College of William and Mary An Alternative Jamestown The “Citie of Henricus” was founded by Sir Thomas Dale in the colony of Virginia in 1611. Jamestown was considered by the British to be failing: “Disease, starvation, and Indian warfare had decimated the settlement; the leaders were perpetually bickering; no profits had been returned.” (1) By 1611, when the Citie of Henricus was founded, the majority of Jamestown’s settlers had passed away due to disease and the economy was beginning to fail due to depleted resources of the Virginia Company, which was funding the venture in North America Sir Thomas Dale As a man serving in the British military, he was stationed in the Netherlands when he was recruited by the Virginia Company of London to move to Virginia in 1611 • While in VA, he “served as deputy governor and lord marshal of the Virginia settlement (1611-1616) and in that capacity was twice acting governor of the colony”(1) • Dale was brought to VA to bring stability and military orderliness to the disorganized and failing colony • Dale believed that he would be able to find a better location for a capital for the colony, and decided to travel up the James River to search for that city, which was Henricus • While he was only in VA in the interim between failure and prosperity, he was an important figure in the success that came. Founding of the Citie of Henricus Due to Jamestown’s failing state, “Sir Thomas Dale, following instructions from the London Company to find a more suitable location for the colony's seat of government other than the Jamestown site, led 300 settlers in the building of Virginia’s second English settlement in the New World.” (1) The city was founded on what is known as Farrar’s Island, VA The Idea of an Original American College The original settlers of Henrico, Virginia, decided that they needed to create a college in the colonies for their colony to become a permanent fixture in Virginia, they proposed to aside 10,000 acres of land for the school, and an additional 1,000 acres for religious conversion of the native children. As the school was a whole was created as a school for the children of colonists as well as natives, which seems a somewhat progressive idea. 1618, a charter was obtained for the creation of a college in Henricus, and land was set aside in the hopes that a school would soon be built. 1622, the Indian Massacre killed the majority of colonists. 1623, King James overthrew the Virginia Company and made the colony into a royal one instead of one owned by a business. Legend Surrounding the Citie of Henricus This settlement was founded close to the location of the Appomattoc tribe, where Pocahontas grew up; she aided in the relations between the English and the Native Americans. The End of Henricus The Indian Massacre of 1622 brought an end to Dale’s idea of better prospects for Virginia. After Powhatan’s death, his brother planned a vicious attack on the English colonizers in order to revenge his brother’s and leader’s death. His brother planned and followed through with 31 attacks throughout the colony, killing two-thirds of the colonists at Henricus. The area of the Colledge was one of the areas attacked, thus bringing an end to any prospect of a college existing in the colony at that moment. A plaque on the College of William and Mary accredits its foundation date to “the college proposed at Henrico”, meaning that they took from the colonists’ proposition for an institution of higher learning.