The Jones Journal: Jamestown, Virginia

On Sunday, June 17th we drove to Jamestown, Virginia. This was really the site of alot of Roger's family history so we were both really excited to see it. The girls -- not so much. To put some of this in context, here's a short timeline of America and Jamestown's settlement - and specific references to Roger's nine-times Great Grandfather Reverend Haute Wyatt, and his older brother Frances Wyatt.

1492 Columbus “discovers” America

1587 Lost colony of Roanoke established

1594 The Rev. Haute Wyatt was born ** this is Roger's 9-times Great Grandfather

1607 The first settlers arrive at Jamestown on May 14, led by Captain John Smith. It is a joint venture of the Virginia Company. The first buildings they built are a three-sided fort and church.

1608 The Church burns to the ground in January 1608; they build a new church

1609 The “Starving Time” – only 60 of the original 214 settlers survive a famine.

1614 Marriage of Pocahontas and John Rolfe in the church

1617 Settlers build a new church on the site of the original church.

1619 The first Representative Legislative Assembly convened in the church building

1621 Reverend Haute Wyatt came to Virginia with his wife and young son Edward and his brother Sir Francis Wyatt.

- August 1 -- They sailed for America on board the George

- October - arrived in Jamestown

- November - Frances becomes Governor of the Jamestown Colony

1622 The Algonquins attack the out-plantations (private plantations built along the James River) on Good Friday

1622 Haute’s second son, George, was born in Jamestown shortly after the Indian massacre

1624 King revokes the charter of the Virginia Company Charter, making it a Crown Colony

- Francis Wyatt becomes the first royal colonial governor of Jamestown. The two brothers remained in Jamestown, living with seventeen servants.

1625 Upon the death of their father, both Rev. Haute and Sir Francis asked to be relieved of their posts in Jamestown, and they returned to England with their families. September 18,1625

1638 Rev. Haute Wyatt later became vicar of Boxley where he remained until his death 31 July 1638

1639 Sir Francis returned to Virginia and served a second term as Governor beginning in November 1639. He served from November 1639 until February 1641 and was then succeeded by Sir William Berkeley.

1641 Frances Wyatt leaves office in February 1641 and buys a house (designed S44 by the National Park Service) from William Kemp (the previous governor) to use as the first designated “state house” of the colony.

1643? Sir Francis Wyatt built the “Country House” (S38) on a half-acre lot to the west of S44.

1644? Returned to England and died in August, 1644

One thing that I didn't realize until we began researching this trip is that there are actually two "Jamestowns". There is a sort of hokey recreation of Jamestown, called Jamestown Settlement, that is run by the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation, and then there is the actual, original site of the Jamestown settlement - which is an active archaeological dig run by the National Park Service. Much to the girls' delight (NOT) - we went to both.

We went first to the hokey Jamestown Settlement. Here is Roger and Mary Clare on one of the replicas of the three boats that the Jamestown settlers came to America on. The ships were called the Susan Constant, Godspeed and Discovery.

The replicas are actually quite accurate reproductions. Between the three ships they carried 109 passengers and 39 crew. The trip took four months and the expedition was sponsored by the Virginia Company of London, a business venture that had been organized to form a colony in Virginia. The ﬂeet reached the Virginia coast in late April and, after two weeks of inland waterway exploration, arrived at the Jamestown site. It was shocking to see how small the ships were. The longest was 116 feet and the shortest (used mostly to carry supplies) was only 66 feet long. This picture shows the route that they took - in order to take advantage of the tradewinds the ships sailed very far south, stopping along the way in the Caribbean, before making their way to Jamestown.

Here is Roger and the girls in front of the fake church in the fake settlement.

Inside of the fake church.

This shows what a typical house in Jamestown might have looked like.

Okay, enough of the fake Jamestown. We got in the car and drove about 4 miles to the real Jamestown. At the entrance to the archaeological site we were greeted by this large statue of Pocahontas. According to legend, you will get good luck if you shake her hand, so the girls were sure to shake them BOTH!

Here is Roger standing in front of the last standing church at Jamestown. His 9-times great-grandfather Haute would not have preached in this building, but it stands on the site of the original church and you can see the foundation under plexiglass.

This says, "In Memory of the Colonial Governors and Presidents of the Council officially resident at Jamestown 1607-1698." Francis Wyatt is listed in the left-hand column, third from the bottom.

Here you can see some of the excavating going on.

This is a replica showing the original church footings.

After viewing this we walked a few hundred yards along the banks of the beautiful James River. As Jamestown turned from a subsistence-based colony to a thriving community, a small town grew up along the River north of the little town. Haute Wyatt and Francis Wyatt would have lived here -- and the foundation of their house still exists.

"From the 1630s to the end of the 17th Century, this area along Backstreete boasted some of the finest dwellings in Jamestown. . . . . Instructions from King James I in 1639 directed Governor Francis Wyatt to build a "convenient house for the meeting of the council." This structure, called "The Country House" was used for both official business and as a residence."

From what we can tell, Haute Wyatt's son John returned to England with his uncle Francis and likely lived with his uncle in this house.