In 2002, archaeologists were excavating outside the western palisade of the former Fort James at Historic Jamestowne. They found a circular brick well which plunged 14 feet below the modern ground level. This well, built during the first decade or two of the Jamestown colony, had become a trash pit and so was rife with examples of the colony's material culture.The discovered objects provide some details about the colonists and their lives. A pewter flagon bearing the letters P, R, and E might have belonged to settlers Richard and Elizabeth Pierce, who arrived in 1618. Three feet below the surface, archaeologists uncovered a breastplate and other pieces of armor. The iron breastplate had been modified to add a rest for the butt of a gun. A military billhook in the well adds to the evidence of the violence in Jamestown between colonists and Powhatan Indians during these years. Even further into the well were farm tools such as heavy hoes, indicative of the importance of growing tobacco in this period. The artifacts are held in the Nathalie P. &amp; Alan M. Voorhees Archaearium at Historic Jamestowne.There are theories regarding why the well became a trash pit, which happened around 1624. It is possible that after the Virginia Company lost its charter, or after Virginia became a royal colony, swift changes in leadership may have led to settlers disposing of goods quickly.

Curator Michael Lavin excavates Smithfield Well, ca. 2002-2004. Image courtesy of Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities (reproduced under Fair Use) 

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Built around 1617, this well was only in use until the 1620s, at which point it became a trash receptacle. Governor Samuel Argall probably built the well, which was not among the first two wells built in the settlement. In 2002, Archaeologists at Jamestown working outside the Fort James site found a trove of well-preserved colonial artifacts in this well, including pewter objects and the breastplate from a suit of armor.

Smithfield Well

This tour includes nearly a dozen historical markers, landmark buildings, and sites related to the establishment of Jamestown in 1607.

Tour of  Historic Jamestown, Virginia 

In August 1619, the English ship White Lion stopped at Point Comfort to trade over 20 Africans for food. These Africans had been stolen from a Portuguese ship, the São João Bautista, sailing for Spanish America. These Africans were most likely from west central Africa, what is now Angola, and would have probably been Kimbundu-speaking with some familiarity with Catholicism. Several days later, another English ship, the Treasurer, stopped to sell several more people as slaves. The captains of both ships carried letters of marque, which allowed them carry out what were essentially acts of piracy. This was not the beginning of slavery in the New World, of course. Thousands of enslaved people had already been transported to Spanish America and the Caribbean before 1619; this date marks the earliest Africans transported to the English colonies on the mainland of North America. Virginia did not codify its slavery law until the late 1600s, culminating in "An act concerning Servants and Slaves" in 1705. Because of this, it is not clear what slavery in these early years looked like. The 1705 act made clear distinctions about the Christianity of imported servants or enslaved workers; if these people were not Christian at the time of their import (with the exception of some groups from countries allied with the Crown), then they were to be considered slaves. Jamestown once had landing markers declared that the first Africans in English America had come ashore there, but these were removed in 2011 after lobbying from the group Project 1619 (unrelated to the New York Times' later 1619 Project). President Barack Obama declared Point Comfort, now Fort Monroe in Hampton, Virginia, a National Monument as the real place where the first Africans in the colonies disembarked. The Virginia Department of Historic Resources placed this marker in Jamestown, which qualifies the significance of the Jamestown settlement in the narrative of Africans in English America, in 2015.

The first Africans to arrive in the English American colonies were enslaved people captured from a Portuguese slave ship who disembarked at Point Comfort. It was late August 1619; colonial officials traded food for the "20 and odd" enslaved individuals. A few of these individuals were transported to Jamestown; by 1625 at least nine African men and women were enslaved there. Some free individuals in the community eventually gained their freedom. In the late 1600s Virginia would lay the legal foundations for the system of hereditary slavery which would persist for 250 years.

First Africans in Jamestown Historical Marker

John Coke purchased this tract of land in 1840 and in 1852 built the Amblers House in the Peninsula of Picturesque style, which is often associated with landscape architect Andrew Jackson Downing. The original house was two stories, T-shaped with irregular massing. A two-story porch on the west side of the house was original to the structure but has been significantly rebuilt and is now enclosed. The house stands under trees and overlooks the James River. The land changed hands many times over nearly 100 years, until Jesse Dimmick updated the plumbing, electrical, and heating systems in the 1930s. Additionally, he rebuilt the framing of the roof and replaced the floor joists and floorboards, gutting much of the house. He left much of the ground floor unchanged but converted two unheated second-floor rooms into a bathrooms; some of the tile and plumbing from this period is still extant in the house. In 1941, Robert Brumley Watts and his wife Estelle C. Watts purchased Amblers and over the next two decades enlarged the house, more than doubling the footprint. A new wing, executed in a style imitating the original house, creates the H shape the house exhibits today. They also added a kitchen, a garage, and formal boxwood gardens. Even after all of the expansions and renovations to the house, the 1852 wing still includes some original woodwork. Two antebellum outbuildings also stand on the property: a brick smokehouse and another building which may have served as quarters for enslaved individuals or servants. The Wattses also restored these buildings and they are considered contributing structures to the historic significance of the site. Other names for this building are the Coke-Watts House and the Vermillion House. This is a different structure from the Ambler Mansion Ruins, which are about two miles east of this building. The National Register of Historic Places recognized the house in 2015. James City County now owns and maintains the property. In 2018 the Jamestown Board of Supervisors approved a contract for just under $500,000 to repair the slate roof, chimneys, and windows; to removed asbestos; to add handrails to entry ways; and other repairs, mainly to the exterior. After the completion of the project, the property may be used as an events venue in a public-private partnership.

John Coke built a T-shaped farmstead in 1852; this building was T-shaped and the only surviving example of the Peninsula of Picturesque style. Over the next century, agricultural production decreased on the farm and the land was subdivided. When auto dealer Robert Brumley Watts and his wife Estelle C. Watts purchased the property, they added another wing to the house, more than doubling its size. Between the 1940s and 1950s, they created the H-shaped building that stands today and repaired two outbuildings on the property. The addition has similar massing and brickwork to the original structure and is a late example of the Colonial Revival style.

Ambler House

For over forty years, there was a series of on-and-off warfare between the English colonists of Virginia and their indigenous neighbors. The Anglo-Powhatan Wars, also known as the Tidewater Wars, were the most serious of these conflicts. The first war occurred in 1609, with two more occurring in 1622 and 1644. All of them resulted in English victories and allowed the colonists to continue their expansion as Native American power declined. The Anglo-Powhatan Wars were a relentless struggle between the early English settlers and Native Americans in the tidewater section of Virginia and Southern Maryland. In 1607, English settlers arrived in the area and established Jamestown, the first permanent English colony in the Americas. At the time, the area was known to natives as Tsenacomoco. It was comprised of around thirty separate tribes, led together under the Chief Powhatan, also known as Wahunsonacock. Wahunsonacock at first attempted to make peace by engaging in trade with the English colonists, who were unable to provide for themselves and were in desperate need of food. Tensions began to grow however as the colonists continued pressuring the natives. Acts of violence began to occur between the English and the natives, resulting in the First Anglo-Powhatan War in 1609. Wahunsonacock and his forces began a months-long siege against Jamestown, in which all but sixty of the colonists died of starvation and disease. English reinforcements arrived in May 1610, allowing the colonists to launch a counterattack. Fighting continued over the next four years. A peace was concluded in 1614 when Wahunsonacock’s daughter Pocahontas, who had been captured the previous year, converted to Christianity and agreed to marry Englishman John Rolfe. Pocahontas died while visiting England in 1617 and her father died the following year. The peace proved to be temporary and tensions again rose as the English began claiming more and more land up the James River. The Second Anglo-Powhatan War began in 1622, when the Powhatan confederacy's new chief, Opechancanough, led his people in a surprise attack against colonists throughout the area. Opechancanough, hoping to batter the English into submission, inflicted significant damage on the settlements, killing as much as one-third of the colonial population. The English counterattacked, reaching a climax in 1624 with the only full-scale battle of the war. It would still continue until 1632, when an unspecified peace was agreed between the two sides. By this point it had become clear that the balance of power was now skewed in the English colonists’ favor. The third and final Anglo-Powhatan War started in 1644, when Opechancanough launched another uprising against the English. Although many colonists were killed, the attacks were limited to the outskirts of the settlements and failed to threaten the existence of the Virginia colony as a whole. The war came to an end in 1646 when the English captured and killed Opechancanough. Afterwards a treaty was signed restricting the indigenous population to the north side of the York River. At the beginning of the Anglo-Powhatan Wars the colonists’ militia was disorganized, but it recovered enough to have an effective defense and carry out several campaigns against Powhatan villages. The militia adopted tactics from the indigenous peoples, attacking Powhatan villages, burning them to the ground, and seizing food stocks. The Anglo-Powhatan Wars signaled the dominance of English power over the indigenous population, resulting in further colonial expansion.

This historical marker is located in a reconstructed Native American village within the Jamestown Settlement living history museum. The reconstruction is was based on primary sources left by colonists as well as archaeological evidence from settlements of the Paspahegh, the Powhatan tribe located the closest to Jamestown. The marker includes illustrations of the village and its inhabitants. 

Powhatan Indian Village Historical Marker 

Three Virginia Company ships sailed from London on December 20, 1606, carrying 105 passengers and 39 crew members. The largest of the ships, the Susan Constant or Sarah Constant (116'), carried 71 people; the Godspeed (88'), captained by Bartolomew Gosnold, carried 52; the pinnace Discovery (66'), captained by John Ratcliffe, carried 21. The Susan Constant had been built in London in 1605 and was leased Dapper, Wheatley, Colthurst and Partners. The ships sat in the English channel for weeks waiting for favorable winds. The leader of the voyage was Captain Christopher Newport, a British sea captain who "was elevated to the rank of principal master of the Royal Navy in 1606, the same year that he was chosen by the Virginia Company to lead a colonizing mission to the New World" (Albert, 2016). The fleet entered Virginia's Chesapeake Bay in April of 1607. Upon arrival, Newport was named one of the seven-person government of the settlement, named Jamestown for King James I and established on May 13, 1607. Between 1606 and 1611, Newport led a total of five voyages between Virginia and England, bringing supplies and additional settlers back to the fledgling colony (Albert, 2016). Once Newport led the colonists back to England to report to King James, those left behind suffered greatly from hunger and illness, as well as the constant threat of attack by members of local Algonquian tribes, most of which were organized under Chief Powhatan. "An understanding reached between Powhatan and John Smith led the settlers to establish much-needed trade with Powhatan’s tribe by early 1608" (History.com, 2012). Accused of mutiny during the settling of Jamestown, John Smith was imprisoned on the Susan Constant. According to sources, he was able to communicate with some of the ship's passengers along the voyages to Jamestown.  On June 10th, Smith was finally released from the first prison of Virginia aboard the Susan Constant. Soon after, Smith was part of the effort to overthrow colony president Edward Wingfield (biography.com, 2014). After a new group of settlers arrived in 1610, tobacco became Virginia’s first profitable export, and a period of peace followed the marriage of colonist John Rolfe to Pocahontas, the daughter of an Algonquian chief Powhatan. King James I dissolved the Virginia Company and made Virginia into an official crown colony, with Jamestown as its capital, in 1624 (History.com, 2010).  After the initial settlement, the Susan Constant and The Godspeed made several more trips between Jamestown and England in the service of the Virginia Company. Afterward, they made have returned to service as colliers, or ships for transporting coal. The Discovery was purchased by the Muscovy Company and continued to trade around Virginia, and the last mention of it was around 1611. The Commonwealth of Virginia financed $2.14 million for the creation of a replica of the Susan Constant. The production of the replica, completed in 1991, was led by Robert G.C. Fee, the Naval Architect for the Newport News Shipbuilding Company. Valuable information on the original Susan Constant's dimensions came from court documents detailed a minor collision between the ship and another on the River Thames. The Susan Constant replica sailed around Chesapeake Bay in 2007 as part of the Jamestown settlement's 400th anniversary celebrations. A replica of the Godspeed was built between 2004 and 2006, and a replica of the Discovery followed in 2007. The Virginia General Assembly declared the three replicas the "official fleet of the Commonwealth."

The Susan Constant was the largest of the three Virginia Company of London's ships, measuring 116 feet long. With the Godspeed and Discovery, it was part of the 1606-1607 voyage led by Captain Christopher Newport to create a settlement in the colony of Virginia. The ship carried 71 people, one of them being historical figure, John Smith. This expedition founded the settlement of Jamestown. During the settlement's tumultuous beginnings, John Smith was held as a prisoner aboard the Susan Constant for challenging the leadership of the settlement. The replica of the Susan Constant was built in 1989 to commemorate the first English colonists to colonize the New World. 

Replica of The Susan Constant, Godspeed, and Discovery

Historic Jamestowne blends aspects of entertainment with education about the experience of settlers, slaves, and Native Americans at Jamestown. Established in 1607 as one of the first footholds of British colonization in North America, the site represents the hardships that were shared not only by the settlers but also Native Americans, indentured servants, and Africans held in slavery. Named after King James I of England, Jamestown as part of the larger settlement effort by English colonists that would later include the Pilgrims of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. King James hoped that this settlement would help supplement the natural resources that were not readily available on the original island nation. Using primary sources such as diaries and maps, scholars have advised park promoters in an attempt to reconstruct both the English fort and a recreated Powhatan Native American settlement. The park includes reconstructed models of colonial ships like those brought the original colonists to Jamestown. Visitors can also access gallery spaces which include an experiential exhibit on Bacon's Rebellion. As archaeologists work on uncovering and documenting the remains of James Fort, original to the settlement, visitors can observe the dig. More than one thousand artifacts from the site are on display in the Nathalie P. and Alan M. Voorhees Archaearium.

Founded in 1607, Jamestown was one of the first English attempts to create a colony in North America. The site of the original settlement is now a cultural heritage site and home to a living history museum featuring educational exhibits and programs, as well as reenactments and historic artifacts from the colonial period. Historic Jamestowne is operated by the National Park Service and Preservation Virginia. As a result, visitors to Colonial Williamsburg may find that a visit to Historic Jamestowne offers a better balance of education over entertainment and does more to challenge stereotypes and misconceptions about the colonial period. While both sites employ historians and others who strive to provide an authentic and historically accurate experience, Historic Jamestowne places a much greater emphasis on education and preservation. Through a variety of programs as well as tours, historians work to portray accurate depictions of the lives of settlers, enslaved workers, and Native Americans.

Historic Jamestowne 

This particular well is one of a dozen colonial wells still extant in the Jamestown settlement. Each of the wells has proven to be a rich source of archaeological finds; once they fell out of use for drawing water, they became trash receptacles, and had also collected accidental objects over the years. These archaeological finds contribute to better understanding of the colonists through their material culture. Artifacts found in the wells range from a breastplate from a suit of armor found in the Smithfield Well to farm tools to pewter objects. This well is near the Hunt Shrine, and is not named -- other notable colonial wells at the Jamestown settlement include the First Well, the square Second Well, and Smithfield Well.

This brick well in the "Old Towne" area of Jamestown dates back to the beginning of the 1600s, earliest years of the colony. After the well was no longer in use, it became a receptacle for garbage. Artifacts recovered from the well are in the collection of the nearby Archaearium.

Jamestown Well

In 2002, archaeologists were excavating outside the western palisade of the former Fort James at Historic Jamestowne. They found a circular brick well which plunged 14 feet below the modern ground level. This well, built during the first decade or two of the Jamestown colony, had become a trash pit and so was rife with examples of the colony's material culture. The discovered objects provide some details about the colonists and their lives. A pewter flagon bearing the letters P, R, and E might have belonged to settlers Richard and Elizabeth Pierce, who arrived in 1618. Three feet below the surface, archaeologists uncovered a breastplate and other pieces of armor. The iron breastplate had been modified to add a rest for the butt of a gun. A military billhook in the well adds to the evidence of the violence in Jamestown between colonists and Powhatan Indians during these years. Even further into the well were farm tools such as heavy hoes, indicative of the importance of growing tobacco in this period. The artifacts are held in the Nathalie P. &amp; Alan M. Voorhees Archaearium at Historic Jamestowne. There are theories regarding why the well became a trash pit, which happened around 1624. It is possible that after the Virginia Company lost its charter, or after Virginia became a royal colony, swift changes in leadership may have led to settlers disposing of goods quickly.

Early Jamestown leader Captain John Smith claimed that Pocahontas "saved" him on more than one occasion. In reality, she may have been performing a Native American diplomatic ritual meant to demonstrate power by acting as the agent who convinced her father to spare Smith's life. If her role was one of diplomacy, it was a role that she played often and with great skill.  From 1608 to 1609, Pocahontas was a regular visitor to Jamestown, arriving with food sent from Powhatan. Relations between the natives and the colonists might have shifted after these years, as Pocahontas did not visit the settlement between 1609 and 1613. In April 1613, the English found her and forced her to go to Jamestown where she was kept as a prisoner. It was during this time she was baptized, a decision that may have reflected a genuine desire to convert to Christianity or a strategic decision to alleviate her condition. By marrying John Rolfe in April 1614, she once again worked to secure peace among the English and Native Americans. In 1616 she, Rolfe, and their baby, Thomas, went to England; it was on the trip back to Virginia that she passed away on March 21, 1617. She was laid to rest at St. George’s Church in Gravesend, England. Many Americans believe themselves to be her descendants through Thomas and her granddaughter. In 1906, the Pocahontas Memorial Association commissioned a statue of Pocahontas for Jamestown's 300th anniversary event in 1907. Sculptor William Ordway Partridge began work on the statue , but funding shortfalls delayed the project until the federal government contributed $5,000. Partridge envisioned Pocahontas as a peacemaker and depicted her at the moment she warns John Smith of her father's plans to kill him and other settlers. In 1913, the bronze statue was finished. A member of the Rappahannock tribe and the current and former presidents of the College of William and Mary attended the dedication ceremony in 1922. Originally the statue stood south of the 1907 Memorial Church, facing entering visitors disembarking the ferry. For Jamestown's 350th anniversary celebration in 1957, the statues was moved to a low base at the entrance, and moved again in 2014 -- though only a few feet -- to allow for archaeological digging. The Pocahontas of the statue is much older than the girl she would have been in 1607. Her garments are closer to what Plains Indian women would have worn, but with some Art Nouveau floral motifs. She stands as if mid-step, with her arms open in a welcoming gesture. The statue has been featured on many postcards, and its hands are rubbed smooth by visitors holding them for photos. The governor of Virginia donated a replica of the statue to England in 1958 to stand at Pocahontas's burial site at St. George's Church in Gravesend, Kent.

The statue by William Ordway Partridge was placed in Jamestown in 1922 to commemorate the life of Pocahontas, daughter of Chief Powhatan, who served as a diplomat between the English colonists and the Powhatan tribe. Pocahontas married colonial leader John Rolfe but perished during her "honeymoon" trip to England. One of the best-known if also least-understood Native Americans, Pocahontas was born around 1595 and died in 1617. The statue presents Pocahontas in dress that was typical for Native Americans on the Great Plains rather than those who lived in Virginia at the time of contact with colonists, something that reflects the view of many Americans who envision all Native Americans as identical. 

Pocahontas Statue in Historic Jamestowne

The Ambler family was a prominent force in the economy and community of Jamestown island in the early eighteenth century, even after the capital of the Virginia colony moved to Williamsburg. Richard Ambler emigrated from England to Yorktown, Virginia in 1716, and most likely inherited land from an uncle. He married Elizabeth Jaquelin in 1724, heiress to the combined land holdings of the Jaquelin and Sherwood families. These lands passed to the Amblers in 1739, beginning the family's ascendancy. Richard served as the Collector of the Port of York beginning in 1724, a powerful position which involved the inspection of all ships traveling on the river, the collecting of taxes from tobacco exporters, the enforcement of Parliament's Navigation Acts, and the reporting of trade violations. The position had significant benefits, including exemption from taxes, jury duty, and military service. Richard's three sons who survived to adulthood -- John, Edward, and Jaquelin -- all served as Collector of the Port of York as well. In Jamestown, Richard continued to acquire land and farm on his large estate. He built Ambler Mansion around the 1750s along Back Street in the New Towne area of east Jamestown. By this time the land in Jamestown had been consolidated into holdings owned by the Ambler and Travis families. As much of the island became farmland, earlier structures were destroyed. The mansion was a two-story structure in a typical Georgian style, consisting of a central hall with two rooms on each side. The mansion most likely included bricks from older structure near the site built by the Chiles and Sherwood families. The Ambler Mansion property also had significant garden walkways. The historical marker at the ruins compares the house's original structure to the <a href="https://www.theclio.com/entry/32241" target="_blank">George Wythe house</a> in Williamsburg. After Richard's death in 1766, his three sons inherited his property in Jamestown and Yorktown. Jaquelin served in the American Revolution. Richard's descendants married into other prominent Virginia families, such as the Carys and Burwells. Richard's granddaughter Polly Ambler married future U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall. During the American Revolution, the house burned, but Colonel John Ambler restored it. In 1831, David Bullock purchased the home along with other holdings of the Ambler and Travis families. In 1861, Confederate forces regraded the land in Jamestown the build a fort for a cannon battery. Union troops and individuals who had escaped slavery inhabited the island for the rest of the war after the Confederates abandoned it in 1862. A second fire destroyed the house during the Civil War. The second restoration succumbed to fire again in 1895, at which point the inhabitants abandoned the house. The National Parks Service now maintains the site. The Ambler Mansion Ruins is a different structure from the Amblers House which stands about two miles to the northwest in Jamestown.

Once a two-story Georgian homestead that its owners liked to call a "mansion," this house belonged to the prominent Ambler family in the eighteenth century. The Amblers had significant land holdings in Jamestown and were important to the local economy. Around 1750, the Amblers built the house near Back Street and the church in Jamestown. The house burned during the American Revolution but was restored by Colonel John Ambler. David Bullock purchased the land of the Ambler and Travis families in Jamestown in 1831, including this house. After a second fire during the Civil War, the house was restored again, but was abandoned after a third fire in 1895.

Ambler Mansion Ruins

This structure emerged from a time of prosperity in Jamestown, when it was the center of colonial government and an active port. Colonists invested in land both in town and out in more rural areas. William May purchased large tracts of land in and around Jamestown, including this one, which he bequeathed to Nicholas Meriwether, another attorney, in 1671. Henry Hartwell, who owned adjoining lots, acquired this land from Meriwether in 1688. Hartwell was also an attorney in addition to being a burgess, clerk of the court, and businessman. He also owned tracks of land in Charles City and Surry Counties. Hartwell most likely is the person who built the structure on this site. The building was a one-story framed clapboard structure over a full cellar, measuring 30' 5" x 20' 5". It is possible that it was a storehouse or other commercial structure rather than a residence. The Historic American Building Survey offers the possibility that the building had a sales room in the front with a counting-room and storage in the back and cellar. Richard Ambler acquired the property in 1745, shortly before he built <a href="https://www.theclio.com/entry/96372" target="_blank">Ambler Mansion</a> nearby. The Historic American Buildings Survey argues that Ambler's workmen disassembled the house, and notes that there is also evidence that the house burned. The house is no longer extant beyond a few remnants of the exterior walls. Archaeologists excavated the site in the 1930s. Few artifacts emerged from the site, but notably archaeologists did find some wine seals marked "HH," most likely belonging to Hartwell. The Historic American Buildings Survey documented the ruins in 1958. The digitization of two 17th-century plat maps led to the identification of this site as where the May-Hartwell house once stood. The plat maps were superimposed over a current map of Jamestown in order to make the identification.

Historical research in wills, deeds, and maps dating to the colonial period led to historians identifying the remains of this late-seventeenth-century house uncovered by archaeologists. This site in the "New Towne" section of Jamestown was owned by William May, an attorney and vestryman, beginning in 1661. Another Jamestown attorney and businessman, Henry Hartwell, acquired the property in 1688 and most likely built the structure that once stood here. A Colonel White later owned the building and land, Ultimately Richard Ambler, who built Ambler Mansion, purchased it around 1745. The house no longer stands beyond a few fragments, and was likely pulled down by Ambler.

Tour of Historic Jamestown, Virginia

Smithfield Well

Introduction

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Backstory and Context

Sources

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