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William Moss Capps, Sr. (occasionally spelled Caps, Capp, or Cappes) was born in Norfolk, England in or around 1575. [1] [2] William married Catherine Jernagin (also spelt Katheryn Jermingham) in Norwich, Norfolk, England, 11-Dec-1596, at St. Michael at Plea [ dead link ]. [3] He and his wife had five children together: Henry, Frances, Willoughby, Anne, and William.[ citation needed ]
Capps traveled to the Colony of Virginia on the third supply mission c. 1609-1610. [2] It is unclear whether he arrived at Jamestown safely with seven ships of the Third Supply flotilla (with John Ratcliffe and John Martin), or was marooned with Christopher Newport, George Somers, Thomas Gates, and the Sea Venture passengers. [4]
William Capps settled at Kecoughtan on the west side of the Hampton River. This site is in present-day Hampton, Virginia, and is opposite of the grounds of Hampton Institute. There is a street called "Capps Quarters" [5] in this area that is almost certainly part of William Capps' original tract of land. A Virginia historical marker is posted in this area. This point, patented by William Capps about 1634, was known for a century as Capps Point. [6] [7] The area was later renamed Little England.
Kecoughtan had originally been the site of an Indian village which on May 1, 1607 had some 18 houses of twigs and bark and 20 fighting men. Indians and whites had lived together at this site for the first years of the Colony, but in summer 1610 Sir Thomas Gates drove the Kecoughtan Indians from the area in retaliation of the killing of a settler at Fort Algernourne (Old Point Comfort). The settlement grew slowly as a report of John Rolfe in 1616 shows: "At Keqoughtan, being not farr from the mouth of the river, thirty-seven miles below James Towne on the same side, are twenty [persons] whereof eleven are Farmors." [8]
In May-1616 only 350 of all persons who had come to Virginia remained there--the rest having died or given up and returned to England. Three years later in 1619 the first general division of land in Virginia occurred. Those settlers having arrived before 1616 and having three years residence, termed "ancient planters," were entitled to 100 acres (0.40 km2). [9] John Rolfe described the situation in Jan-1620 in glowing terms: "All the ancient planters being sett free have chosen places for their dividendes according to the commission, Which giveth all greate content, for knowing their owne landes, they strive and are prepared to build houses & cleere their groundes ready to plant, which giveth ... [them] greate incouragement, and the greatest hope to make the Colony florrish that ever yet happened to them." [10]
That same year as the land division, the Colony's Governor issued a call for the first representative legislative assembly in America which convened at Jamestown on July 30, 1619 and remained in session until August 4, 1619. [11] Twenty-two Burgesses met representing the 11 major settlements in Virginia. The Kecoughtan settlement was represented by Capt William Tucker and William Capps. A memorial church built on the foundations of the church in which the House of Burgesses met exists at the Historic Jamestowne National Park Service site on Jamestown Island, Virginia. A monument bearing the names of the Burgesses is located near within the confines of the newly rediscovered original Jamestown fort.
It was apparently at their urging that the first House of Burgesses was asked "to change the savage name of Kiccowtan, and to give that Incorporation a new name." [8] The new name selected was Elizabeth City after the daughter of King James. In Dec-1619 the population of Virginia was about 900 out of a total immigration of 1440.
In 1627, William Capps was appointed a member of the Council by the Crown upon the recommendation of the Governor. The Councilors were the Governor's advisers in executive matters and constituted the supreme court of the Virginia. They also held legislative functions as members of the upper house of the Virginia Assembly, corresponding somewhat to our senate. [12] Two years later William Capps asked leave of the Governor to depart the colony on the King's affairs, and when permission was refused, departed any way. In 1630 he returned with the King's letter of instructions to the Council. The date of his death was →1637 which was 8 years after the passing of his Wife Catherine.
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 the center of modern Williamsburg. It was established by the Virginia Company of London as "James Fort" on May 4, 1607 O.S., and was considered permanent after a brief abandonment in 1610. It followed several failed attempts, including the Lost Colony of Roanoke, established in 1585 on Roanoke Island, later part of North Carolina. Jamestown served as the colonial capital from 1616 until 1699. Despite the dispatch of more settlers and supplies, more than 80 percent of the colonists died in 1609–1610, mostly from starvation and disease. In mid-1610, the survivors abandoned Jamestown, though they returned after meeting a resupply convoy in the James River.
The Colony of Virginia was an English, later British, colonial settlement in North America between 1606 and 1776.
The House of Burgesses was the elected representative element of the Virginia General Assembly, the legislative body of the Colony of Virginia.
The Virginia Company was an English trading company chartered by King James I on 10 April 1606 with the objective of colonizing the eastern coast of America. The coast was named Virginia, after Elizabeth I, and it stretched from present-day Maine to the Carolinas. The company's shareholders were Londoners, and it was distinguished from the Plymouth Company, which was chartered at the same time and composed largely of gentlemen from Plymouth, England.
John Rolfe was an English explorer, farmer and merchant. He is best known for being the husband of Pocahontas and the first settler in the colony of Virginia to successfully cultivate a tobacco crop for export.
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 Third Supply Mission, whose flagship, the Sea Venture, was shipwrecked on Bermuda for ten months from 1609 to 1610, 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. It has met continuously since, and is known in modern times as the Virginia General Assembly. Yeardley died in 1627.
"Ancient planter" was a term applied to early colonists who migrated to the Colony of Virginia when the settlement was managed privately by the Virginia Company of London. A colonist received a land grant if they remained in Virginia for at least three years. Under the terms of the "Instructions to Governor Yeardley", these colonists received the first land grants in the New World.
Elizabeth City Shire was one of eight shires created in colonial Virginia in 1634. The shire and the Elizabeth River were named for Elizabeth of Bohemia, daughter of King James I.
Elizabeth City was one of four incorporations established in the Virginia Colony in 1619 by the proprietor, the Virginia Company of London, acting in accordance with instructions issued by Sir George Yeardley, Governor. This allowed the crown to benefit from the offerings of the new land, including its natural resources, new markets for English goods, and the leverage it provided against the Spanish.
Charles City was one of four incorporations established in the Virginia Colony in 1619 by the proprietor, the Virginia Company. In 1613, Bermuda City was founded, which was later renamed after Prince Charles. In 1634, under Royal authority, a portion became Charles City Shire, later Charles City County.
Lt. Col. Samuel Mathews (1630–1660), Commonwealth Governor of Virginia, of Warwick County in the English Colony of Virginia, was a member of the House of Burgesses, the Governor's Council, and served as Commonwealth Governor of Virginia from 1656 until he died in office in January 1660. There was no Royal Governorship at the time of the "Protectorate", and the Governor technically answered to the Cromwellian Parliament, although Royalist sentiment was prevalent in the colony of Virginia at this time. The former Royalist governor Berkeley arrived to replace him on March 13, 1660.
The history of Hampton Roads dates to 1607, when Jamestown was founded. Two wars have taken place in addition to many other historical events.
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.
Reverend Richard Buck was a minister to the Colony of Virginia at Jamestown, Virginia from 1610 to 1624. He was chaplain of the first session of the Virginia General Assembly, which was composed of the House of Burgesses and the Virginia Governor's Council. This assembly met in the church at Jamestown on July 30, 1619, as the first elected assembly and law making body in colonial America.
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.
William Peirce, emigrated with his family to the new Colony of Virginia, where he became a valued soldier, as well as a planter, merchant and politician. Although Peirce fought in several skirmishes with Native Americans and served in both houses of the Virginia General Assembly as well as helped topple governor John Harvey, today he may best be known as one of the first slave owners in the colony.
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