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1617 village is near Jamestown
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| Volunteers and students dig at the Argall Towne site. |
Named for official who kidnapped Pocahontas
By Rusty Carter
JAMES CITY — Local archaeologists have discovered Argall Towne, a short-lived village that was the first suburb of nearby Jamestown.
The village was started in 1617 by Capt. Samuel Argall, then a colorful lieutenant governor of the colony. It thrived for three years, but his impetuous behavior led many of the settlers to move away to Martin’s Hundred near Carter’s Grove Plantation.
Alain Outlaw of Williamsburg-based Archaeological & Cultural Solutions has been searching for the site since 1975.
“It’s been a slow process,” said Outlaw, who is also an adjunct professor at Christopher Newport University. For two years, since he got access to the land, his students and volunteers have researched the site.
Outlaw won’t pinpoint the locale for fear of relic hunters.
The find is important because it represents the first major settlement in James City outside Jamestown, and it provides a key link to how settlers expanded outward from Jamestown. Argall Towne was built on strategically high land that was easily defended, and from that point small farmsteads spread inland.
The investigation began to produce artifacts right away. Those initial digs, what Outlaw termed “regulatory,” allowed deeper excavation of the site and more finds. Among the artifacts recovered so far are smoking pipes, Bartmann jug shards and fragments of a pikeman’s armor. Cultural features include post molds, pits and ditches.
Samuel Argall was sent to Jamestown to restore the colony after it had fallen into disrepair for the second time in a decade. Argall rebuilt the palisades and the church and had a new well dug to replace one that had fouled.
His establishment of Argall Towne may have been more self-serving than civic-minded. Argall had been granted land, and the 200 settlers placed there should have been sent to Martin’s Hundred.
“He commanded them to clear ‘15 skore’ or 300 acres of land,” Outlaw said. Essentially Argall diverted the settlers to clear his own land.
They didn’t like the arrangement, notes Martha McCartney in “Keystone of the Commonwealth,” her 1992 history of James City County.
“At the Aug. 4, 1619 session of the [General] assembly, some ‘inhabitants of Paspaheigh, alias Argall’s Towne’... asked to be released from their debts to Argall.”
That turned out to be a fatal mistake. The settlers were taken to Martin’s Hundred (also known as Wolstenhome Towne) around 1620. Two years later 73 people from Martin’s Hundred were killed in an Indian uprising.
“Had they stayed in Argall Towne, they probably would have lived,” Outlaw noted. “That was one of the areas close to the fort that was not attacked.”
Argall had a reputation for outlandish behavior. He kidnapped Pocahontas in 1613, and a year later destroyed a French Jesuit settlement in Maine. In 1618 he sent the ship Treasurer on a privateering expedition to the Spanish Caribbean.
For all of his faults, Argall did manage to revitalize James Fort. He also expanded the colony and struck a temporary truce with the Chickahominy Indians to end five years of fighting. In 1616 he took John Rolfe and his new wife, Rebecca (Argall’s former hostage when called Pocahontas) to England.
Outlaw said research will continue at Argall Towne for some time, but he called it “fitting” to announce the discovery of Argall Towne during the 375th anniversary year of the establishment of James City County in 1634.
“And while a highway marker near Jamestown is correct on its location of Argall Towne,” Outlaw added, “it took 32 years to prove the point.”
The village was started in 1617 by Capt. Samuel Argall, then a colorful lieutenant governor of the colony. It thrived for three years, but his impetuous behavior led many of the settlers to move away to Martin’s Hundred near Carter’s Grove Plantation.
Alain Outlaw of Williamsburg-based Archaeological & Cultural Solutions has been searching for the site since 1975.
“It’s been a slow process,” said Outlaw, who is also an adjunct professor at Christopher Newport University. For two years, since he got access to the land, his students and volunteers have researched the site.
Outlaw won’t pinpoint the locale for fear of relic hunters.
The find is important because it represents the first major settlement in James City outside Jamestown, and it provides a key link to how settlers expanded outward from Jamestown. Argall Towne was built on strategically high land that was easily defended, and from that point small farmsteads spread inland.
The investigation began to produce artifacts right away. Those initial digs, what Outlaw termed “regulatory,” allowed deeper excavation of the site and more finds. Among the artifacts recovered so far are smoking pipes, Bartmann jug shards and fragments of a pikeman’s armor. Cultural features include post molds, pits and ditches.
Samuel Argall was sent to Jamestown to restore the colony after it had fallen into disrepair for the second time in a decade. Argall rebuilt the palisades and the church and had a new well dug to replace one that had fouled.
His establishment of Argall Towne may have been more self-serving than civic-minded. Argall had been granted land, and the 200 settlers placed there should have been sent to Martin’s Hundred.
“He commanded them to clear ‘15 skore’ or 300 acres of land,” Outlaw said. Essentially Argall diverted the settlers to clear his own land.
They didn’t like the arrangement, notes Martha McCartney in “Keystone of the Commonwealth,” her 1992 history of James City County.
“At the Aug. 4, 1619 session of the [General] assembly, some ‘inhabitants of Paspaheigh, alias Argall’s Towne’... asked to be released from their debts to Argall.”
That turned out to be a fatal mistake. The settlers were taken to Martin’s Hundred (also known as Wolstenhome Towne) around 1620. Two years later 73 people from Martin’s Hundred were killed in an Indian uprising.
“Had they stayed in Argall Towne, they probably would have lived,” Outlaw noted. “That was one of the areas close to the fort that was not attacked.”
Argall had a reputation for outlandish behavior. He kidnapped Pocahontas in 1613, and a year later destroyed a French Jesuit settlement in Maine. In 1618 he sent the ship Treasurer on a privateering expedition to the Spanish Caribbean.
For all of his faults, Argall did manage to revitalize James Fort. He also expanded the colony and struck a temporary truce with the Chickahominy Indians to end five years of fighting. In 1616 he took John Rolfe and his new wife, Rebecca (Argall’s former hostage when called Pocahontas) to England.
Outlaw said research will continue at Argall Towne for some time, but he called it “fitting” to announce the discovery of Argall Towne during the 375th anniversary year of the establishment of James City County in 1634.
“And while a highway marker near Jamestown is correct on its location of Argall Towne,” Outlaw added, “it took 32 years to prove the point.”
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