Jordan Point | |
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Coordinates: 37°18′26″N77°13′14″W / 37.30722°N 77.22056°W | |
Country | United States |
State | Virginia |
County | Prince George |
Elevation | 20 ft (6 m) |
Time zone | UTC−5 (Eastern (EST)) |
• Summer (DST) | UTC−4 (EDT) |
GNIS feature ID | 1739904 [1] |
Jordan Point (or Jordan's Point) is a small unincorporated community on the south bank of the James River in the northern portion of Prince George County, Virginia, United States. It is about 20 miles from Richmond and 30 miles upstream from Jamestown on the James River. It was the location of extensive archeological research between 1987 and 1993. This research provided substantial information about human existence in the area from the prehistoric to the late colonial eras. In particular, the research extensively studied the Jordan's Journey settlement that existed between 1620 and 1640 during early years of the Virginia colony. [2]
Though the area around Jordan Point had been occupied by native Americans for millennia, archeologists have found evidence of settled agricultural settlements that date from the late Woodland and English-Native American Contact periods, dating between 1150 and the early 1600s. [2] The archaeological findings suggest that during the Contact period, the area had become a village occupied by the lower orders of the Powhatan chiefdom with the structures conforming to Robert Beverley's description of bark covered buildings, [3] the smaller being shaped like beehives and larger having an oblong form. [2] John Smith and William Hole's copper plate engraved map of Virginia shows that the village at Jordan's Point was still extant in 1607, [4] [5] when the first English settlers arrived at Jamestown.
The English colonists began creating settlements upstream along the James River around 1611. [6] : 13–14 By the end of the First Anglo-Powhatan War, the colonists under the command of Thomas Dale had removed the Native American presence in the area surrounding Jamestown. [7] Sometime soon afterwards, the colonist Samuel Jordan, [8] who was also an ancient planter, [9] began cultivating the land, and in 1620 patented a 450-acre plantation, [9] The main residence was named "Beggars Bush", [note 1] a common place name in England with over 120 known instances [11] a play upon the then common reference that alludes to both a temporary shelter for the indigent and a path to ruin. [12] [note 2] . The plantation, which was named Jordan's Journey was established within Charles Cittie, [9] an incorporation of the Virginia Company of London, the early proprietor of the Virginia Colony. As with other plantations in Virginia at this time, the plantation focused on tobacco production with labor primarily supplied by the colonists themselves and English indentured servants. [13] : 47
In March of 1622, the Native Americans of the Powhatan Confederacy launched a surprise attack, known as the Jamestown Massacre, that killed nearly a third of the English colonists in Virginia. The plantation was besieged, but it was not overrun. [14] : 584 Not a single colonist at the plantation was listed as killed. [15] : 565–572 After the attack, Jordan's Journey remained a refuge for the colonists. Outlying areas were ordered abandoned, [15] : 612 but Jordan's Journey was one of only eight locations, including Jamestown, that was allowed to remain occupied. [2] : 262
Samuel Jordan died in early 1623. [8] Official colony records of this time refer to the entire settlement as Jordan's Journey. [note 3] [note 4] After Samuel Jordan's death, his widow Cecily managed the household with the help of a fellow settler, William Farrar, who was bonded to her after Jordan's death. [18] : 8 Farrar had sought refuge at Jordan's Journey when his own plantation was overrun in the 1622 Powhatan surprise attack. [2] In the Virginia muster of 1624/25, both Farrar and Cecily Jordan were listed as heads of the Jordan's Journey household; [17] by 1625, they were married. [18] : 8, 57 During this time, Jordan's Journey grew: In February 1624, 42 people were living there; [16] : 171 by January 1624, it had grown to 56 people. [17] : 209–213
Schematic layout of Jordan-Farrar site, c. 1620-1635 [19] [20]
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Following the massacre, the original residence gradually expanded into the complex at the Jordan-Farrar site, a palisaded fortification structured around five English longhouses. [20] : 9 This type of complex is similar to the fortified bawn [19] : 6 used by the English to occupy and colonize Ulster during the same time period. [22] : 762 The complex had two foci, the original two longhouses of the Jordan household and the three additional longhouses that were built after Farrar arrived; this unusual dual ground plan respected the social reality that Jordan's Journey at this time had two initially unmarried heads of household, William Farrar and Cecily Jordan, [17] while still providing a systematic defensive arrangement based on the principles of then-current fortification theory. [21] : 480–482
During this time, Jordan's Journey grew in both population and prosperity. [6] : 67–68 By the time of Virginia Muster of 1624/1625, Jordan's Journey was the fourth highest ranked settlement [note 5] in Virginia in terms of combined material wealth, population, and military strength. [23] During the colonial assemblies of 1624 and 1625, Jordan's Journey was substantial enough to be represented by Nathaniel Causey, [6] : 46–47 who had escaped from his plantation at Causey's Care during the 1622 Powhatan attack. [14] : 575 When Farrar became commissioner in 1626, it became the seat of the "Upper Partes"[sic], which included all settlements upstream from Jordan's Journey from the James River. [24] However, the complex was abandoned sometime between 1635 and 1640. [19] : 63 This was about the time that the Farrar family was in the process of acquiring its 2000-acre patent for Farrar's Island, [25] which was approximately 19 miles upriver from Jordan's Journey.
Sometime after the abandonment of the Jordan-Farrar site, the land around Jordan Point came into the possession of Benjamin and Mary Sidway, [26] who surrendered the land in 1657 to the joint ownership of John Bland, a merchant of London, and his brother Theodorick Bland as payment for their debts. [27]
Up to the 1670s, there is no evidence that the Blands actively used the land. [2] : 5 However, Giles Bland, the son of merchant John Bland, [28] became involved as Nathaniel Bacon's lieutenant during Bacon's Rebellion in 1676, [29] for which he was hanged a year later. [30] Charles Andrews states that the rebellion started on Jordan's Point when Nathaniel Bacon took leadership over a group of insurgents there, who wanted to attack Native American settlements against the wishes of the colonial government. [31]
Around 1687, Theodorick's son Richard Bland I acquired unencumbered title to the land. and established Jordan's Point Plantation, which was a more typical Virginia Plantation of the later colonial era with its economy still focused on tobacco, but maintained through black slave labor. [32] : 105 The archeological record revealed that the residence of Bland was located about 1000 feet west of the Jordan-Farrar site. It consisted of the main building, three outbuildings, a pond, and one of the largest colonial gardens of the era; it was actively used from the mid 1680s to the 1740s. [2] : 140–145
When Richard Bland I died in 1720, his son, Richard Bland II, who became both a prominent member of Virginia gentry and a delegate to the Continental Congress, inherited the plantation. He expanded the property by adding a tobacco warehouse and a tobacco inspection station. [20] : 83 As evidence of this ongoing expansion, archaeologists also found the remains of a large, elaborate brickwork building "consistent with a Georgian sense of proportion" that had been started around 1760, but its construction appears to have come to a halt with the death of Richard Bland II in 1776 and it was in ruins after 1781, the year that the Virginia tidewater region was invaded by Benedict Arnold. [20] : 80
When his father died, Richard Bland III inherited the property and moved inland, building a new residence about 1.5 miles south of the original plantation. [32] : 118 Jordan Point itself remained with the Bland family until the end of the 19th century. It was then sold to the Leavenworth family, who sold it to the City of Hopewell in 1929. In 1945, it was acquired by Hummel Aviation. [2] : 6 Bland family cemetery, which include the graves of both Richard Bland I and II, is still present at Jordan Point. [33]
Jordan Point has a Light Station was established in 1855 to help guide ships up the James River.
In, addition, Jordan Point was long served as a crossing point for the James River. It was once the southern terminus of a ferry system across the river connecting Prince George County with Charles City County on the north shore. In 1966, the Benjamin Harrison Memorial Bridge lift span bridge replaced the ferry system. Jordan Point Road now carries State Routes 106 and 156 between State Route 10 and the bridge.
In 1977 the tanker ship S.S. Marine Floridian steaming downstream in the early morning hours collided with the Benjamin Harrison Bridge, when its steering gear malfunctioned. The collision destroyed two spans and seriously damaged the drawbridge. As a result, the bridge was out of service for 20 months and ferry service was temporarily reinstated.
Jordan Point had a small airport built by Hummel Aviation in the 1940s known as the Hopewell Airport, which was located on the site of Jordan's Journey. [34] In 1987, the airport property was sold and a residential development, "Jordan on the James" now occupies its former site. [32] : 133–134 It was also the site of the Jordan Point Golf Course, which closed in 2015. [35] Today Jordan Point has a marina, [36] which is just north of the south footing of the Benjamin Harrison Bridge on the James River. Jordan Point Marina was devastated by the storm surge from Hurricane Isabel in 2003 and over 100 boats and yachts were seriously damaged or destroyed. The marina has since been rebuilt.
The Jamestown settlement in the Colony of Virginia was the first permanent English settlement in the Americas. It was located on the northeast bank of the James River, about 2.5 mi (4 km) southwest of present-day Williamsburg. It was established by the London Company as "James Fort" on May 4, 1607 O.S., and considered permanent, after brief abandonment in 1610. It followed failed attempts, including the Roanoke Colony, established in 1585. Despite the dispatch of more supplies, only 60 of the original 214 settlers survived the 1609–1610 Starving Time. In mid-1610, the survivors abandoned Jamestown, though they returned after meeting a resupply convoy in the James River.
Sir George Yeardley was a planter and colonial governor of the colony of Virginia. He was also among the first slaveowners in Colonial America. A survivor of the Virginia Company of London's ill-fated 1609 Third Supply Mission, whose flagship, the Sea Venture, was shipwrecked on Bermuda for ten months, he is best remembered for presiding over the initial session of the first representative legislative body in Virginia in 1619. With representatives from throughout the settled portion of the colony, the group became known as the House of Burgesses. Burgesses have met continuously since, and is known in modern times as the Virginia General Assembly.
Samuel Jordan was an early settler and Ancient Planter of colonial Jamestown. He arrived in Virginia around 1610, and served as a Burgess in the first representative legislative session in North America. Jordan patented a plantation which he called "Beggar's Bush", which later became known as Jordan's Journey. It became a safe haven and stronghold for settlers during the Second Anglo-Powhatan War that ensued after the Powhatan surprise attack of 1622.
First Families of Virginia were families in the British colony of Virginia who were socially prominent and wealthy, but not necessarily the earliest settlers. They descend from European colonists who primarily settled at Jamestown, Williamsburg, the Northern Neck and along the James River and other navigable waters in Virginia during the 17th century. These elite families generally married within their social class for many generations and, as a result, most surnames of First Families date to the colonial period.
The "Citie of Henricus"—also known as Henricopolis, Henrico Town or Henrico—was a settlement in Virginia founded by Sir Thomas Dale in 1611 as an alternative to the swampy and dangerous area around the original English settlement at Jamestown, Virginia. It was named for Henry, Prince of Wales (1594–1612), the eldest son of King James I.
The Indian massacre of 1622 took place in the English colony of Virginia on 1 April [O.S. 22 March] 1622. English explorer John Smith, though he was not an eyewitness, wrote in his History of Virginia that warriors of the Powhatan "came unarmed into our houses with deer, turkeys, fish, fruits, and other provisions to sell us"; they then grabbed any tools or weapons available and killed all English settlers they found, including men, women, and children of all ages. Opechancanough, chief of the Powhatan Confederacy, led a coordinated series of surprise attacks that ended up killing a total of 347 people — a quarter of the population of the Colony of Virginia.
Werowocomoco was a village that served as the headquarters of Chief Powhatan, a Virginia Algonquian political and spiritual leader when the English founded Jamestown in 1607. The name Werowocomoco comes from the Powhatan werowans (weroance), meaning "leader" in English; and komakah (-comoco), "settlement". The town was documented by English settlers in 1608 as located near the north bank of the York River in what is now Gloucester County. It was separated by that river and the narrow Virginia Peninsula from the English settlement of Jamestown, located on the James River.
James City was one of four incorporations established in the Virginia Colony in 1619 by the proprietor, the Virginia Company. The plantations and developments were divided into four "incorporations" or "citties" [sic], as they were called. These were Charles City, Elizabeth City, Henrico City, and James City. James City included the seat of government for the colony at Jamestown. Each of the four "citties" [sic] extended across the James River, the main conduit of transportation of the era.
The City of Henrico is one of the oldest counties in the Colony of Virginia. It was one of four incorporations established in the colony by its proprietor, the Virginia Company. The City of Henrico, which included the settlement of Henricus, was the furthest incorporation upstream on the James River. In 1634, Henrico was reorganized under royal authority as the shire of Henrico, one of eight shires in the Crown Colony of Virginia, Later, it became known as Henrico County, Virginia.
The Anglo–Powhatan Wars were three wars fought between settlers of the Colony of Virginia and the Powhatan People of Tsenacommacah in the early 17th century. The first war started in 1609 and ended in a peace settlement in 1614. The second war lasted from 1622 to 1632. The third war lasted from 1644 until 1646 and ended when Opechancanough was captured and killed. That war resulted in a defined boundary between the Indians and colonial lands that could only be crossed for official business with a special pass. This situation lasted until 1677 and the Treaty of Middle Plantation which established Indian reservations following Bacon's Rebellion.
Jamestown, also Jamestowne, was the first settlement of the Virginia Colony, founded in 1607, and served as the capital of Virginia until 1699, when the seat of government was moved to Williamsburg. This article covers the history of the fort and town at Jamestown proper, as well as colony-wide trends resulting from and affecting the town during the time period in which it was the colonial capital of Virginia.
Temperance Flowerdew, Lady Yeardley was an early settler of the Jamestown Colony and a key member of the Flowerdew family, significant participants in the history of Jamestown. Temperance Flowerdew was wife of two Governors of Virginia, sister of another early colonist, aunt to a representative at the first General Assembly and "cousin-german" to the Secretary to the Colony.
Debedeavon was the chief ruler of the Accawmack people who lived on the Eastern Shore of Virginia upon the first arrival of English colonists in 1608. His title was recorded as "Ye Emperor of Ye Easterne Shore and King of Ye Great Nussawattocks," and he was also known familiarly as "the Laughing King". He also seems to be the same figure who was known variously in English records as Esmy Shichans, Tobot Deabot, and Okiawampe.
William Powell, was an early Virginia colonist, landowner, militia officer and legislator. Considered an ancient planter for living in the Virginia colony during its first decade, he was one of two representatives from what became James City County, Virginia in the first Virginia House of Burgesses in 1619. His former plantation, now across the James River in Surry County, Virginia is now within Chippokes State Park.
The Cecily Jordan v. Greville Pooley dispute was the first known prosecution for breach of promise in colonial America and the first in which the defendant was a woman. This case was tried in the chambers of the Virginia Company, and never went to a civil court, for the plaintiff withdrew his complaint. The first successful case was Stretch v. Parker in 1639.
William Farrar was a landowner and politician in colonial Virginia. He was a subscriber to the third charter of the Virginia Company who immigrated to the colony from England in 1618. After surviving the Jamestown massacre of 1622, he moved to Jordan's Journey. In the following year, Farrar became involved in North America's first breach of promise suit when he proposed to Cecily Jordan.
Cecily Jordan Farrar was one of the earlier women settlers of colonial Jamestown, Virginia. She arrived in the colony as a child in 1610 and was established as one of the few female ancient planters by 1620. After her husband Samuel Jordan died in 1623, Cecily obtained oversight of his 450-acre plantation, Jordan's Journey. In the Jamestown Muster of 1624-1625, she is one of fewer than ten women mentioned as a head of household and the only woman listed as sharing the head of household with a man she was not married to. In the year of Samuel Jordan's death, she set off the first breach of promise lawsuit in English North America when she chose the marriage proposal of William Farrar, who was bonded to help settle her estate, over that of Greville Pooley, who claimed his proposal had already been accepted. In 1625, Cecily prevailed when Pooley withdrew his claim. Afterward, she married William Farrar.
Samuel Sharpe, sometimes referred to as Samuel Sharp or "Ssamuel" was an early Virginia colonist who settled in the area that became Charles City County, Virginia. He came to Virginia in 1610 with most of the passengers and crew of the Sea Venture as they made their way to the colony after 10 months in Bermuda. They had wrecked in a storm there and built two small boats to complete their journey to Jamestown. Along with Samuel Jordan, he represented Charles City as a burgess in the first general assembly of the Virginia House of Burgesses in Jamestown, Virginia in 1619. He was a representative for Westover, an incorporation of Charles City, in the 1623/24 assembly and signed a letter along with several burgesses at the time of that assembly.
William Spencer was an early Virginia colonist on Jamestown Island, who was an Ancient planter and a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses in Jamestown, Virginia for Mulberry Island in 1632/33.
William Tucker settled in Jamestown of the Colony of Virginia in the early 17th century. He was a military commander. In May 1623, he offered a toast in a meeting with members of the Powhatan tribe. The wine that they had been given was a poisonous cocktail prepared by Dr. John Potts. It killed 200 Native Americans and another 50 were slain. He owned land with his brothers-in-law and was a member of the House of Burgesses, a commission of the peace, and was appointed to the Council.