Wolstenholme Towne

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Townsite in Virginia, United States of America

Wolstenholme Towne

Townsite

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Coordinates: 37°10′43″N 76°36′41″W﻿ / ﻿37.1785°N 76.6115°W﻿ / 37.1785; -76.6115
Present Country| United States of America
State| Virginia
County| James City County
Community| Grove
Established| 1618
Abandoned| 1622
Founded by| Virginia Company of London
Named for| Sir John Wolstenholme

Wolstenholme Towne was an English settlement in the Colony of Virginia, 7 miles (11 km) east of the colonial capital, Jamestown. One of the earliest English settlements in the New World, the town existed for roughly four years until its destruction in the Indian massacre of 1622. The Wolstenholme Towne site was later built upon by the Carter's Grove plantation in 1750 and is located within the present-day community of Grove, Virginia, United States.

## Establishment

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Wolstenholme Towne was established around 1618 in Martin's Hundred, a plantation organized into a hundred, beginning with a population of about 40 settlers of the Virginia Company of London. The settlement was named for Sir John Wolstenholme (1562-1639), one of its investors, and housing consisted of rough cabins of wattle and daub woven on wooden posts thrust into the clay subsoil. William Harwood was governor of Wolstenholme Towne.

## Destruction

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On March 22 1622 [O.S. 01 April 1622], the Native American Powhatans launched what became known as the Indian massacre of 1622. Modern scholarship has questioned this framing and suggested that the campaign was in retaliation for previous violent acts committed by the English.[1] The Powhatan attacked settlements from the fall line of the James River to Hampton Roads, surprising the colonists in their homes and fields, burning and looting the settlements. This resulted in the killing of 347 of an estimated total of 1,200 colonists, a quarter of the population of Virginia. Martin's Hundred was the plantation hardest hit with more than 50 residents recorded as dead, with perhaps as many as 70 dying within the hundred. Wolstenholme Towne's death toll was not separated in the death rolls. Surviving settlers in Virginia were largely evacuated by governor's order to Jamestown, which had been spared due to a last-minute warning. Wolstenholme Towne, like almost all English settlements in the region, was permanently abandoned.

## Modern status

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In the 20th century, separate groups of archaeologists uncovered the sites of both Wolstenholme Towne and Henricus, another settlement founded by Sir Thomas Dale in 1611 also destroyed in the Indian massacre. Wolstenholme Towne is located on the grounds of the Carter's Grove plantation in the Grove community of southeastern James City County, and the findings were chronicled by author and historian Ivor Noel Hume.

In December 2007, Carter's Grove was acquired from the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation by CNET founder Halsey Minor for $15.3 million. Minor planned to use the mansion as a private residence and use the site as a center for a thoroughbred horse breeding program. However, Minor who never lived in the mansion and made no changes or repairs to Carter's Grove, stopped making payments in 2010 announcing that he owed $12 million in debts. His Carter's Grove LLC went into bankruptcy resulting in a federal judge turning the property over to a trustee to run. The property was assessed by trustees in October 2011 to determine the actual extent of damage present. Repairs have been made to the HVAC system, which has stabilized the temperature within the building and eliminated the damaging mold previously noted. Repairs to the structure are ongoing with the goal of returning Carter's Grove to the condition when it had been sold to Minor.[2]

## See also

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* List of former counties, cities, and towns of Virginia

## Further reading

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* Hume, Ivor Noël (June 1979). "First Look at a Lost Virginia Settlement". National Geographic. Vol. 155, no. 6\. pp. 735–767. ISSN 0027-9358. OCLC 643483454.
* Hume, Ivor Noël (January 1982). "New Clues to an Old Mystery". National Geographic. Vol. 161, no. 1\. pp. 53–77. ISSN 0027-9358. OCLC 643483454.

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Fausz, J. Frederick. "The 'Barbarous Massacre' Reconsidered: The Powhatan Uprising of 1622 and the Historians," Explorations in Ethnic Studies, vol 1 (Jan. 1978), 16–36.
2. ^ Elizabeth Lesly Stevens (2012-05-31). "The sorry fate of a tech pioneer Halsey Minor and historic Virginia estate Carter's Grove". The Washington Post. Washington, D.C. ISSN 0190-8286. OCLC 1330888409.

## External links

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* PreservationNation Blog

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Jamestown, Virginia Colony (1607–1624)

Timeline of Jamestown, Virginia • History (1607–1699)

Events|

* Anglo-Spanish War (1585–1604)
* First Virginia Charter
* Second Virginia Charter
* Virginia Company/London Company
* Jamestown supply missions
* Starving Time
* Anglo-Powhatan Wars
* 1619 Jamestown craftsmen strike
* Indian massacre of 1622

Geography|

* Belle Isle
* Cape Charles
* College Creek
* Glass House Point
* Hog Island
* James River
* Jamestown Island
* Mulberry Island
* Stingray Point
* Tsenacommacah
* Werowocomoco
* Powhatan's Chimney

Associated places
(list)|

* Blunt Poynt
* Kecoughtan
* Cape Henry
* First Landing State Park
* St. John's Episcopal Church
* Farrar's Island
* Henricus
* Beggars Bush (Jordan Point)
* Moysonec
* Old Point Comfort
* Fort Algernon
* Passapatanzy
* Wolstenholme Towne

| 1619 incorporations|

* James City
* Charles City
* Elizabeth City
* City of Henrico

|

Colonists
(list)|

| Original Virginia Governor's Council members|

* Edward Maria Wingfield (president)
* Bartholomew Gosnold
* Christopher Newport
* John Martin
* John Ratcliffe
* George Kendall
* John Smith

|

Other notable original colonists|

* Gabriel Archer
* Robert Beheathland
* Samuel Collier
* Robert Hunt
* George Percy
* Thomas Wotton

|

Notable colonists from
supply missions|

* First Supply
* Jonas Profit
* Thomas Savage
* Matthew Scrivener
* Michael Sicklemore
* William Spence
* Second Supply
* Anne Burras
* Raleigh Croshaw
* Thomas Dowse
* Mistress Forrest
* Thomas Forrest
* Thomas Graves
* Hugh Gwyn
* Ralph Hamor
* Daniel Tucker
* Francis West
* Jamestown Polish craftsmen
* Third Supply
* Richard Buck
* William Capps
* James Davis
* Temperance Flowerdew
* Thomas Gates
* Stephen Hopkins
* Samuel Jordan
* Silvester Jourdain
* William Peirce
* William Powell
* Robert Rich
* John Rolfe
* Samuel Sharpe
* William Sharpe
* George Somers
* Henry Spelman
* William Strachey
* George Yeardley
* Fourth Supply
* Samuel Argall
* Lawrence Bohun
* Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr
* Fifth Supply
* Thomas Dale
* Cecily Jordan Farrar
* William Spencer
* Joan Wright

|

Notable colonists
1611–1624|

* "Angela"
* William Berkeley
* William Claiborne
* William Farrar
* Richard Pace
* John Pollington
* John Pott
* George Sandys
* Walter Shelley
* Richard Stephens
* George Thorpe
* William Tucker
* John West
* Alexander Whitaker
* Francis Wyatt

Natives and
native groups|

* Accomac people
* Appomattoc
* Opossunoquonuske
* "Chanco"
* Chickahominy people
* Pamunkey (tribe)
* Opechancanough
* Patawomeck
* Powhatan (people)
* Powhatan (leader)
* Pocahontas
* Tackonekintaco
* Tomocomo
* Nemattanew
* Rappahannock people

Other notables|

* Ancient planter
* Women of Colonial Virginia
* Tobacco brides
* John Ferrar
* Nicholas Ferrar
* Virginia Laydon
* John Pory
* Nathaniel Rich
* Robert Rich, 2nd Earl of Warwick
* Edwin Sandys
* Thomas Smythe
* Robert Tyndall
* Pedro de Zúñiga y de la Cueva

Written accounts|

* "Dale's Code" (1612)
* A Description of New England (1616)
* The Historie of Travaile Into Virginia Britannia (1619)
* The Generall Historie of Virginia, New-England, and the Summer Isles (1619)
* True Reportory (1625)
* Pamiętnik handlowca (1625)

Cultural depictions|

* Po-ca-hon-tas, or The Gentle Savage (1855)
* Pocahontas (1910 film)
* The Wives of Jamestown (1913)
* Johnny Smith and Poker-Huntas (1938)
* Captain John Smith and Pocahontas (1953)
* Argall: The True Story of Pocahontas and Captain John Smith (2001)
* The New World (2005 film)
* Jamestown: Legend of the Lost Colony (2011)
* Jamestown (2017)

Associated ships|

* Susan Constant
* Godspeed
* Discovery
* Mary and John
* Sea Venture
* Virginia
* White Lion

Related|

* Jamestown Rediscovery
* General Court of Virginia (colonial)
* House of Burgesses
* Virginia General Assembly
* Virginia Governor's Council
* "He who does not work, neither shall he eat"
* List of James River plantations
* Preservation Virginia
* Roanoke Colony

Park: Historic Jamestowne • Museum: Jamestown Settlement (Jamestown Glasshouse) • Trail: Captain John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail

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Municipalities and communities of James City County, Virginia, United States

County seat: Williamsburg

Unincorporated
communities|

* Croaker
* Grove
* Jamestown
* Lanexa
* Lightfoot
* Norge
* Toano

Map of Virginia highlighting James City County

Ghost town|

* Wolstenholme Towne

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* United States portal

Authority control databases: National |

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