1620 - The "Mayflower Pilgrims"

March 27, 1620 - George Thorpe leaves London for Jamestown having been appointed by the Virginia Company of London to build a middle school in a 11 000-acre land located on the north bank of the James, upstream to Henrico.

The farming activities of the settlers should ensure the running of the school the purpose of which was to Christianize the Indian children and introduce them to the English culture.

George Thorpe (? - Henrico (VA) 1622) was among the gentlemen of the Berkeley Company who came to invest a tidy sum in Virginia. He replaced from his arrival captain John Woodleefe at the head of the Berkeley Hundred plantation (now in Charles City's County) and set up a first distillery. He was pleased to get soon a fermented corn alcohol which he considered of better quality than English beer.

Beer was in the time a very wide-spread drink in England where it was preferred to water which very often polluted, was accused of favoring the spread of epidemic diseases as typhoid or cholera. Even children drank rather beer

Thorpe was a brilliant gentleman led by an impetuous missionary spirit. He was persuaded to achieve to wipe out the Indian culture which he regarded as wild and primitive by educating their children in the Christian faith from an early age. But what he saw as a step towards the civilization proved fast to be unbearable in the eyes of Indians. He crystallized finally, around him, the hatred of Powhatan and was to be be killed during the uprising of 1622.

May 17, 1620 - In London, Sir Edwin Sandys describes the dilapidation of Jamestown and its facilities to members of the Virginia Company. He notes the expansion of private plantations at the expense of the lands of the Company and worries about the excessive place granted to tobacco compared to other crops.

May 31, 1620 - The leaders of the Virginia Company report, during their meeting, that Virginia and Bermuda serve as bases for piracy against the Spaniards, for what Sir Edwin Sandys has been criticized in the Court of king James. Sandys admits that the colonists devote to the piracy because of the easy benefits expected.

[06/30/1620]

June 20, 1620 - Sir Edwin Sandys is replaced by his friend Henry Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton, as treasurer of the Virginia Company. He keeps however exerting a considerable power over the Company.

[07/22/1620] [07/1621]

July 22, 1620 - the Virginia Company publishes a booklet entitled " Declaration on the State of Virginia " summarizing the achievements of the previous year. All in all, on 1260 persons who went to Virginia, 80 became tenants of the governor, 100 other tenants to Middle Plantation and 150 were hired as servants or apprentices. 90 women arrived in Virginia. It is planned that the next trips include orphans sent by the Mayor of London, poor people and ex-convict.

The Company planned to dispatch 800 new settlers to Virginia in prospect of a fast economic development. Their traveling costs were supported by the company and they all received supplies needed for their installation.

They were to be distributed as follows : 200 tenants at Elizabeth Citie, 100 at Henrico, 100 at Charles Citie, 100 in Jamestown and 100 others in the service of the officials. Hereto were added 100 women for marrying tenants and 100 young apprentices assigned to plantations.

It was expected that tenants receive half the profits from harvests of the plantations where they worked.

[05/31/1620]

August 1620 - left London in April with 153 passengers, the Bona Nova arrives at Jamestown.

Among its passengers was Elizabeth Baynham.

August 15, 1620 - the Mayflower sets sail from Southampton with 102 settlers on board. These will later be commonly known as the Pilgrims

The Mayflower was a 180-ton trade vessel 90 ft. long and 26 ft. wide. Built in 1612, it had been initially assigned to wine shipping.

It was of rather modest ship and the pilgrims had of to fit out makeshift shelters on the deck. For provisions, they left with some salted horse salted, smoked bacon, smoked or dried fish, biscuits, vegetables roots, dried peas, seeds and beer. [09/06/1620]

September 6, 1620 - 102 pilgrims leave Plymouth aboard the Mayflower to the New World.

Among the passengers were 35 very pious Separatists, fleeing James I's persecutions in search of a place to practice freely their religion and 67 "Strangers" recruited to provide additional workforce. Coming from modest backgrounds (small farmers, craftsmen, soldiers...), most of them subscribed to the puritan principles.

Led by John Carver, the Pilgrims had for three years chosen to emigrate to the New World and had for it managed to get a patent from the London Company of Virginia.
Having left London, their boat met in Southampton a second ship, the Speedwell, coming from Holland. This one carried 35 passengers, led by William Bradford and William Brewster. After a layover in Dartmouth on August 12 , due to bad weather, the Speedwell succeeded to reach Plymouth but had suffered too much damage to pursue the trip. The Pilgrims then decided to perform the Atlantic crossing with a single boat. The Mayflower thus left Plymouth on September 6, having taken on board the passengers of the Speedwell.

The Pilgrims came to get supplies from fishermen in Newfoundland when a storm hindered the progress of their expedition. The bad weather pushed the vessel to Cape Cod in Massachusetts and not in Virginia, initial purpose of the journey. The Pilgrims were finally put ashore on November 21. It seems that about twenty persons had died of smallpox during the crossing.

[11/11/1620]

John Carver (1576-1621) - leader of the Pilgrims and first governor of the Plymouth Colony.

He was probably born in Nottinghamshire. Carver was a rich merchant settled in London when he fled from England and moved to Leiden in the Netherlands owing to religious persecutions. He became in 1617 the agent of pilgrims eager to get a Charter and a financial support to base a colony in America. He chartered the Mayflower and left Plymouth September 6, 1620 with 101 settlers.

William Bradford (May 19, 1590 - May 9, 1657) Separatist leader of the Plymouth Colony, he was the second signatory and the first writer of the Mayflower Compact in Provincetown Harbor.

Born near Doncaster, Yorkshire, he had been attracted as a teenager by the Scrooby Congregation of which he had become a member. They were called Separatists since they decided to leave the Church of England, unlike the Puritans who wanted to purify it. James 1 began to persecute the Separatists in 1609 and William Bradford had to run away to the Netherlands, like most members of the congregation. Yet, fearing to go to war against Catholic Spain, the Dutch government chose to conclude an alliance with England and Separatist immigrants in the Netherlands regarded it as a true threat. This is why Bradford pondered leaving for America.

William Brewster (c. 1566 - April 10, 1644)
Settler and preacher born in Scrooby, Nottinghamshire. He studied briefly at Peterhouse College in Cambridge before entering the service of William Davidson, assistant Secretary of State Sir Francis Walsingham and cousin of Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots. He accompanied the latter in the Netherlands to negotiate an alliance with the States General before he lost favor with the Queen.

Cambridge was then a center of religious reformism and Brewster could, during his stay in Holland, hear and learn about Protestantism. Back to Scrooby where he resumed a while his father's business, he entered the local religious quarrels and formed, from 1602, a group of dissident Puritans.

Restrictions and pressures which the authorities exerted on his congregation convinced him to leave the country for the more hospitable Dutch lands. He lived there from 1609 till 1619 publishing books intended to England where they were banned. He was lucky enough to get from the London Company of Virginia a license allowing him to organize the group which was to sail on the Mayflower. His wife Mary and his sons Coils and Wrestling were part of the journey.

November 3, 1620 - the Great Patent is granted by King James 1 to the Plymouth Company which changes its name to become The Council for New England.

This new charter made the company absolute owner of the lands located between 40th and 48th parallels extending from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean.

November 9, 1620 - the Pilgrims of the Mayflower see for the first time the American coast off Cape Cod.

November 11, 1620 - 41 Pilgrim Fathers sign the Mayflower Compact once their ship anchored along the coast of Massachusetts (near Provincetown Harbor). John Carver is elected first governor for one year.

The Mayflower Compact is a document consisted of several commitments drafted and signed by the Pilgrims Fathers on November 11, 1620 during their route between England and Massachusetts.

This pact is an agreement set up between the settlers for the management of the future colony.

The Pilgrims Fathers were more than 500 miles northeast of their original destination, Virginia. Their license in the New World, granted by the Virginia Company of London, having thus lost its contractual nature, some passengers wished to become completely independent from their travelling companions. To solve this problem, forty one heads of family met during the crossing in the cabin of the ship to draft and sign the declaration of principles of the new colony, called Mayflower Compact. All adult men had to sign.

The Mayflower Compact was the first written constitution in America, establishing a form of government based more on the willingness of the settlers rather than that of the English Crown. All the passengers met to form a " civil politic body" asked to develop and to apply the laws required for the well-being of the future colony. All the settlers were to obey the enacted orders. It was mostly a social contract of which the colonists agreed to observe the rules and regulations for their survival.

This statement established a majoritarianist concept which remained one of the fundamental principles of government of the Plymouth colony until its absorption by Massachusetts in 1691. The Mayflower Compact is often regarded as the base of the constitution of the United States.

[11/19/1620] [April, 1621]

November 20, 1620 - Susanna White gives birth to a little boy named Peregrin. Born in Provincetown Harbor before the Mayflower passengers have still precisely chosen where to settle, he is the first English child to be born on the soil of New England.

Peregrine White (November 20, 1620 - July 20, 1704) - 
Son of William and Susanna White, both pilgrims of the Mayflower. His father died shortly after landing and his mother remarried Edward Winslow who adopted him and made his heir.

Virginia Dare was on the other hand the first English child born in America. She was born in 1587 in the Roanoke colony founded by Sir Walter Raleigh. What she became remained a mystery because all the settlers disappeared without leaving any trace.

December 6, 1620 - While they left exploring Plymouth Bay, the group of colonists led by William Bradford is suddenly caught in a storm that threatens to sink their boat. Washed away by the waves, they manage however to land on the small Clark's Island.

This island was named after Richard Clarke, the first mate of the Mayflower expedition.

It was the third time when English had gone recognize lands along Plymouth Bay to select a suitable place for their settlement. The first one had moreover experienced an incident fortunately not serious when William Bradford had been caught in a deer-trap set by Indians.

December 7, 1620 - William Bradford's wife Dorothy Bradford dies drowned after falling from the Mayflower while still anchored in Provincetown Harbor. Late assumptions will refer to suicide.

December 8, 1620 - A party of Nauset Indians attacks the Mayflower passengers left ashore seeking for foods.The latter repel the aggression but prefer to embark for another destination. They reach at night the port of Patuxet.

Formerly so welcoming to the European visitors, the Nausets had hating these unscrupulous people who turned into slave traders.

The party landed from the Mayflower ended up certainly by chance near a place where had been buried the last victims of the plague. The men discovered there corn and thinking that crops had been put underground, they began to dig, stirring up the Nausets anger who saw it as a true desecration.

This first contact did not failed to spread confusion among the Pilgrims, already exhausted by the journey and suffering from hunge. It seemed to them that they landed in a hostile environment, announcing painful aftermath.

Miles Standish and a dozen men decided to respond by provoking  without delay the Indians in their village but discovered, upon their arrival, that it was abandoned. Then, they realized that they were constantly watched.

[12/19/1620]

December 19, 1620 - the Pilgrims settle down near the former village of Patuxet they rename Plymouth.

The Pact signed during the trip states that every man has to build his own house and take part in the building of the "Town Hall" which will serve to store equipment and provisions.

The area, yet so crowded when captain John Smith had drawn up the map some six years earlier, had been devastated by an epidemic that killed the major part of the population. The townsite of Plymouth itself, previously occupied by the Wampanoag village of Patuxet, was now totally abandoned.

In mid-January, the Town Hall was completed and the small village began to take shape. But disease had begun to hit the colony, sparing no family.

When Verazzano and Champlain had explored the coast of New England, they had found a region lived by an important warlike population. Many villages of wigwams occupied the landscape covered with cornfields and gardens where grew beans and squash whereas small Indian fishing boats were lined up in tight rows on the shores. But barely a generation later, the English colonists in search of a livable site, discovered a deserted coast.

An epidemic more fatal to the Indian tribes than their infighting had just swept the country. Wigwams were gone. Wasteland had replaced the crops and the decimated tribes had hidden out in the forests where they had become so weak that they could not offer resistance

 [03/16/1621]

1620 - Captain Cornelius Jacobsen Mey explores the Delaware Bay aboard the Blijde Boodschap, in view of a possible Dutch colonization. He gives his name to Cape Mey (now Cape May) which marks the southern end of current New Jersey.

He took advantage of it to barter with the neighboring Indians and could leave with a cargo of precious furs.

1619 - First African slaves landed at Jamestown

Spring 1619 - While he sails up the Mauritius River (Hudson) to Fort Nassau, captain Hendrick Christiaensen is attacked by Indians aboard the Swarte Beer. He is killed as well as most of the crew. Five sailors manage however to repel the Indians with gunshots. They are rescued 3 weeks later by captain Adriaen Joris Thienpont of Vlissingen (Zeeland) whose small boat cruises in the area.

The Indians who had welcomed the newcomers with concern had become for at least two years increasingly suspicious toward the commercial war in which were engaged the Dutch. Relationship was severely degraded to the point that exchanges were not any more made on the ground but on boats. Deeply hurt by a behavior they regard as contempt, these did not any more hesitate to show hostility. It is in this context that Christiaensen suffered reprisals.

The Swarte Beer having only undergone a few damage, Thienpont took her in tow and just kept his track sailing up the river. He took advantage of it to exchange a part of the shipcargo for skins, shared a part of the supplies with his men and sold the rest to a crew coming back from East Indies. 
He returned then aboard the Swarte Beer to Vlissingen where he fell within the scope of proceedings at the request of Lambert Van Tweenhuysen and the owners of the ship, claiming to have been harmed in this case.

Born in Kleve, Hendrick Christiaensen had been during a few years the second of Adriaen Block and it is with him that he had founded Fort Nassau, intending to develop pelts trade with Indians. He had made at least 11 trips between the Holland and North America.

April 9, 1619 - Further to Samuel Argall's dismissal, Nathaniel Powell is appointed Acting Governor meanwhile George Yardley's coming. 

April 18, 1619 - , George Yardley is back in Virginia to take his new duties as governor. He is commissioned to reorganize the activities of the colony, draw up a settlement and land reform, build a middle school at Henrico and to hold a first "General assembly". These instructions are often called the "Great Charter".

He traveled aboard the George together with several young couples and their children. Few families had still made the decision to emigrate to Virginia. The first settlers had often come alone, preferring to let their wife and children in England, the time to provide for proper installation. Others were young people of good family but penniless, pushed to the adventure for lack of being at the right place in the birth order. There were finally many poor emigrants, mostly single, who had signed a multi-year contract of indentured service with the Virginia Company or a private plantation.

[July 30, 1619] [October, 1621]

April 22, 1619 - The Sampson arrives at Jamestown with 50 new settlers on board, among whom captain John Ward.

April 27, 1619 - The Marygold commanded by captain Evans arrives at Jamestown. It has aboard Christopher Lawne and his associates baronet Richard Wolsey, gentlemen Nathaniel Basse, John Hobson, Anthony Olevan, Richard Wisemen, Rober Newland, Robert Guner, William Willis and a hundred new settlers who have to move to Lawne Creek's plantation founded the previous year on the Island of Wight, on the south bank of the James River.

April 28, 1619 - After evaluating the results of a decade without any profit for his investors, Sir Edwin Sandys organizes the sling of the shareholders and takes Thomas Smythe's place at the head of the Virginia Company.

This coup was the start of several internal dissension years.

[May 17,1620]

July 30, 1619 - the House of Burgesses, met in the choir of the church of Jamestown, is the first elected assembly in America. Its first decision is to set the price of tobacco to 3 shillings at least a pound.

After getting the recall of the deputy governor Samuel Argall, accused of tyranny, the parliamentary leader Sir Edwin Sandys had acquired the control of the Virginia Company and, therefore, decided to organize the first representative assembly of the colony. This one took the name of House of Burgesses and consisted at the origin of governor George Yardley and 22 delegates representing each settlement (two representatives by settlement). The governor was now directly approved by the colonial owner, namely the Virginia Company.

It is in this time that Virginia was divided into 4 "cities": Henricus City (now Henrico County), Charles City, James City and Elizabeth City (now Newport News and Hampton counties).

The first meeting lasted only 6 days, interrupted by the sudden appearance of a malaria epidemic.

August 1, 1619 - a Dutch ship carrying African slaves arrives in Jamestown.

Dutch sailors were in this time many to attend Chesapeake Bay in order to collect tobacco but it was the first time that one of them brought slaves. These came from Angola and had been provided to the Dutch by a Spanish ship. They included 17 men and 3 women who had been raped by the crew members during the trip. The Dutch exchanged them against tobacco.

The Spaniards, settled in Florida, practiced from their part slavery since at least 1581
.

August 20, 1619 - the first African slaves are bought by settlers in Jamestown.

John Rolfe writes in his newspaper " at the end of August came a Dutch warship that sold us twenty Negroes ".

The slaves were immediately put to work in tobacco plantations but benefited from the status of indentured and were freed once settled their debt.

November, 1619 - captain Thomas Dermer lands at Cape Cod. He brings with him Squanto, the member of the Nauset tribe captured five years earlier by captain Thomas Hunt and sold as slave on the market of Malaga.

Fearing to be attacked again by Europeans, the Nausets reserved Dermer a particularly hostile welcome before they realize that Squanto was with him.

Squanto

Thomas Dermer (Plymouth c.1590 - Virginia 1621) had joined, for the first time, John Smith in 1614 when he went to draw a coastal map of New England. He was also a friend of the governor of Newfoundland John Mason and was involved with him in fishing and exploration of the island's resources. It is during a trip to Newfoundland that he met Squanto and asked him to become his interpreter. He convinced Sir Ferdinando Gorges of the interest to develop an effective cooperation with the Indians and making use the talents of Squanto. The proposal strongly interested Gorges who offered Dermer the responsibility for a new expedition. This one suitably carried out his prospecting work but chose to stay in America and settled down in Long Island from where he continued to send regularly to Gorges rock samples for analysis. He died in Virginia from the many wounds inflicted by Indians.

November 17, 1619 - the Virginia Company approves the project to send to Jamestown a hundred young women to marry planters, in exchange for 120 pounds of tobacco corresponding to the travel cost.

The Company officials thought that Plantations could never flourish without real families including women and children, only able to contribute to their development and rooting. The recruitment criteria required young women to be rather attractive and have some education. Each of them also received a letter of recommendation from an employer or a clergyman, proving her virtue and honesty. Such a provision was for the Company a guarantee of respectability towards the planter she would choose to marry.

All in all, not less than 1261 new settlers will have landed in Virginia this year, including a hundred apprentices.

1619 - Nanapashemet, Great Sachem of the Massachusetts Federation is killed by Tarratines in his Rock Hill (today Medford) stronghold.

Who benefited this crime? This asks questions considering the geopolitical situation in a region clearly dominated in the mid-1610s by the rising power of the Massachusetts Federation over people used to intercine rivalries. History made Nanapashemet the unfortunate victim of terrible Tarratines but what could hide behind what was eventually a manhunt. We are indeed struck by the fact that he had become the target of some personal enemies nebula, envious of his power to the point of making alliances, including the most unlikely, to achieve their purposes. Based further north,  Tarratines, so dreaded although considered very civilized referring to their friendly relationship with the French, could actually seeking revenge from him after he actively supported the Penobscot  against them but such a tough resentment could seem almost outsized. They lost their best warriors, their wives were taken captive, regrettable but frequent in tribal conflicts. They were not farmers but their lands were a haven for fishermen and hunters, they benefited moreover lucrative trade agreements while pelts war had not yet begun. 
Who could blame this point Nanapashemet? One can easily imagine that it was a kind of settling of scores although nothing, under Nanapashemet’s ruling would have implied, at face value, a radical opposition. As a clear-sighted Sachem, he was at the head of a powerful federation, enemies of which were as many as scattered. Forced to leave hurriedly his coastal residence, he had to take refuge in Rock Hill where he protected himself behind a wall, feeling an impending threat despite a force about 3000 warriors. It looks strange however that he seemed to have been alone to face Tarratines whose anger knew in contrast no respite. These had however no interest in establishing their dominance over the federation and once committed their crime, disappeared as quickly as they had come, as if their mission had been accomplished. Passaconaway, posthumously his son-in-law and initially a secondary leader was undoubtedly the one who got a good part in the deal once become Sachem of the Pennacook, a first order contact after the Massachusetts federation failure. Nanapashemet’s widow Squaw Sachem didn't lack guts and tried to maintain the unity of her people but the dismantling of the federation was already underway. Local leaders like Chickataubet in Wessaguset or Obatinua in Boston would not recognize her authority, preferring for the second to swear allegiance to the Wampanoag while her three sons saw more interest to come to terms with the English than to persist in a cause they knew losing.

December 4, 1619 - according to tradition, the settlers celebrate "Thanksgiving Day" for the first time in Virginia.

Taking place on 4th Thursday of November and in Canada on second Monday of October, this holiday is the opportunity to thank God by prayers and celebrations for the blessings he had given during the year.

Several versions have been raised about the origin of this American holiday and, in particular, its first celebration. Thanksgivings were at first harvest feasts or occasions to thank God for bountiful crops. For that reason, Thanksgiving takes always place in late fall, after the harvests storing.

December 4, 1619 - Having left Bristol on September 15, the Margaret arrives in Jamestown with on board 35 newcomers recruited by a group of investors with the aim of settling them down in a new 8000-acre plantation named Berkeley Hundred.

These investors were all shareholders of the Virginia Company hailing from Gloucestershire, including Sir William Trockmorton of Clowerwell, Sir George Yardley, the new governor of Virginia, Richard Berkeley of Stoke, George Thorpe of Wanswelle Court and John Smythe of North Nibley. The Berkeleys owned vast estates in Gloucestershire and had a long family tradition in navigation. They were moreover owners of several merchant ships docked in Bristol.

The project had matured the previous year and all these gentlemen had agreed to found a plantation in Virginia on the model of a domain in Gloucestershire. They had, for it, received the blessing of the Virginia Company and hired captain John Woodleefe to complete the operation. This was better organized than the previous adventures. The members of the Berkeley Company had planned to make carry tools, livestock, seeds and all supplies needed for a good installation. Only cloud on the horizon, the planters were few. They were mostly indentured servants. But other trips were planned to increase staffing because a plantation of this kind would normally accomodate a hundred families.

The James River

1618 - The Start of the "Great Migration"

1618 remains as the starting year of the Great Migration. The population of Jamestown will go in five years from 400 to 4500 inhabitants

April, 1618 - After wreaking havoc in New England, smallpox introduced by European explorers, reaches Virginia, causing in particular the death of Chief Powhatan Wahunsunacock and many members of his tribe.

Powhatan's replacement returns to his two maternal half brothers Itoyatan and Opechancanough.

According to customs, Chief Powhatan's body was gutted, its flesh removed and the bones dried. The skeleton was then restored and replaced inside the skin, cavities were filled with valuables and the mummy was sutured so as to give the appearance of a living form. The body was then wrapped in a buckskin and exposed in a quicosin, a funeral building watched by the shamans.

May 1618 - The London Puritan merchant Christopher Lawne arrives at Jamestown aboard the Marygold.

He has left England to found with a fortnight of puritan settlers a plantation on the south bank of the James River to which is given the name of Lawne Creek, located in the current Island of Wight.

Like many religious dissidents, Christopher Lawne emigrated to Holland but he was quickly disappointed by the sectarian spirit which prevailed there. He returned then to London where he decided to plan with his puritan friends to leave for Virginia.

Back in London in August, Christopher Lawne organized a new trip with the Marygold that took place in May, 1619, carrying a hundred new settlers for his plantation in the Island of Wight.

He had to be a member of the first assembly of the House of Burgesses met in Jamestown on June 30, 1619. He fell however sick a few months later and died in November.

June, 1618 - Governor Samuel Argall complains to have been obliged to pay money owed to colonists by the Virginia Company.

Maybe he tried to make a diversion facing the mounting complaints against him. It remains that the Company hastened to question the validity of these debts without however completely deny them.

Argall was playing on two tables at once. He was the colony's governor and compensated as such but also owned a private 400- acre plantation. And he showed in time a more and more obvious interest to resolve conflicts only in favour of his personal interests, at the expense of the Company that he was supposed to represent.

June 7, 1618 - Thomas West, Baron De La Warr, first governor of Virginia dies at sea on the Neptune, heading to Jamestown. He has to investigate further to complaints raised against the tyrannical conduct of his deputy Samuel Argall.

It was for a long time believed that he had been buried in the Azores but recent research revealed that his body had been transported to Jamestown for burial.

[August, 1618]

August, 1618 -  the Virginia Company sends a letter to Samuel Argall, accusing him of embezzlement and breach of trust. His trial will be held upon his return in London.

Among the charges were the personal use of ships and crews of the Company, the ban on anyone to buy furs to Indians to keep the monopoly, the diversion of corn from the Company to the sole benefit of his own plantation, the apropriation of livestock belonging to the Company and various violations of the workers' rights.

August, 1618 - The Neptune arrives at Jamestown after a particularly dramatic trip.

This ship that had made build Lord De La Warr himself had left England in April with 160 would-be settlers on board. But headwinds would quickly turn the trip into a living hell. The passengers began to get sick, some even were suffering from dysentery. Lord DeLa Warr and 30 migrants died before reaching Virginia.

Among the survivors were William Farrar, Elizabeth Garnett (the wife of Thomas Garnett, in Jamestown since 1610), Thomas Powell and William Cole.

October, 1618 -  the New Netherlands Company whose patent has expired since January 1 requests to the States General the granting of a new  monopoly on the fur trade but is turned down. This decision opens subsequently the trade to all, while causing the dissolution of the company.

Former members such as Hendrick Eeelkens and Adriaen Jans Engel hastened to send to New Netherland the Schilpad, a ship commanded by the nephew of the first, captain Jacob Eelkens, whereas from their part Lambert van Tweenhuysen, Jonas Witens and Samuel Godijn dispatched the Swarte Beer (Black Bear) captained by Hendrick Christiaensen.

November 9, 1618 - Claiming the granting of a license from the States General and the Prince of Orange, Eelkens and Engel send out their notaries on board the Swarte Beer to warn captain Christiaensen not to medle in their trade affairs.

He disregarded their warning auguring a period of quarrel between the traders.

November 18, 1618 - In order to encourage immigration to the colony, the Virginia Company passes during its assembly, a series of bills called " Orders and Constitutions " since considered as Great Charter of the privileges, Orders and Laws granted to Virginia.

Among the clauses was one called "Headright" which offered an additional 100-acre land to all the planters settled before Thomas Dale's going in May, 1616, and a new 50-acre plot to anyone come to settle down in the colony from this date or having supported travel expenses of another immigrant. This practice had to last after the dissolution of the Company and be confirmed by the Privy Council of King on July 22, 1634.

The "Headright" was the assignment of  50 to 100-acre lands to all adventurers who agreed to cross the ocean and have a part in the settlement of the colonies. This granting also involved anyone who assumed the travel costs of planters or indentured servants. This system had the advantage to concern lands located in uninhabited areas but was mostly to rich owners the opportunity to expand their domains while refusing the poorest to have the chance to get one day their own plot. It had in fact to increase the gap between a more and more wealthy class and laborers condemned to remain destitute.

The "headright" was introduced in Jamestown to find a solution to the labor shortage at a time when the rising economy in Virginia was only based on tobacco growing, requiring large areas and many planters.

1617 - A fatal disease strikes Massachusetts Country

March 15, 1617 - Jamestown:  Captain Samuel Argall replaces George Yardley as governor of Virginia. [June, 1617]

Appointed Deputy Governor in 1616, Samuel Argall was to rule the colony until 1619. The enacted laws were merciless indeed but the settlers in Virginia were of those to supervise closely. To cope with the environmental mess, Argall showed strictness and added a hint of zeal that earned him many criticisms. Complaints then flocked to London, accusing him among other things of extortion, oppression, squandering the company's receipts and of tyrannical measures against persons. While Argall was in Virginia, the Earl of Warwick sent his ship the Treasurer, to make a discreet punitive tour in the West Indies under the command of another captain. Unwittingly, Warwick caused a deep confusion of roles which turned against Argall, now accused of piracy. And yet even in the eyes of the Spaniards, this charge did not hold.

The many references, depicting Samuel Argall as a tyrant and a villain, were based on charges brought in the statements of the colony by his most relentless enemy, Sir Edwin Sandys (1561-1629), one of the founder members of the Virginia Company and one of its main backers. These assertions omitted, however, some evidence which refuted them.

Sir Edwin Sandys (December 9, 1561 - October, 1629) -
Hailing from Worcestershire, this English statesman was the second son of Edwyn Sandys, archbishop of York and his wife Cecily Wilford. An Oxford graduate, he refused to take Holy Order despite the benefits he would have got out of it, due to his father's fame. He travelled abroad, went to Venice and chose, on his return in England, to devote himself to politics. Elected Member of Parliament from 1586, he helped James 1 to ascend the throne further to the death of Queen Elizabeth, what was worth to him being knighted in 1603.

He was among the founders of the Virginia Company of London which succeeded in founding in 1607 the first lasting English settlement in America. Edwin Sandys also played a key role in the creation in Jamestown of the first representative colonial assembly.

He wished the extension of the English territory in order to clear the overpopulated British Isles and searched new opportunities for the products of his country. Even though he never set foot in Virginia, he worked relentlessly to the English colonization effort. He supported the policy which allowed the colony to survive the disasters of its debut and remained one of the most influential investors of the Company until it was dissolved in 1624. Having no respite to attract new would be-settlers, he was for that reason a strong supporter of the indentured service and of the headright, a land allocation system to the settlers. He also decided to send women to the colonies in order to decide the men to marry and to work harder for a family.

The Virginia Company was since a few years divided into two factions. One, represented by its President Treasurer Sir Thomas Smyth was close to the Court. It considered the settlers only as employees in the service of the Company whose only role was to ensure its profits. Smyth wanted to be maintained absolute control over all the colony affairs and to apply coercive rules. He had working alongside him Samuel Argall, known for his harshness and greed.

Facing him had gathered more liberal members, convinced that the fact of granting more rights to the settlers and listening to their grievances, would occur in England more favorable feelings towards colonization. They felt that the tyranny of the agents of the Company had in fact greatly damaged its attractiveness and formed a barrier to migration.This party included in particular the Earl of Southampton, Sir Edwyn Sandys and Nicholas Farrar. George Yardley was their representative in Virginia.

Argall or Yardley were alternately governors of the colony according to the squabbles that undermined the backstage of the Virginia Company. These would shut down with Sir Thomas Smyth's retirement in 1619.

Pocahontas at the Court of King James 1

March 17, 1617 - Pocahontas dies at the age of 22 in the port of Gravesend, a few miles downstream from London. She had just boarded with her husband John Rolfe the ship George commanded by Samuel Argall to return to America when she was struck by a fatal disease.

Her body was buried in the St George's parish.

Pocahontas had arrived in London almost a year earlier. She had perfectly done what was expected of her by giving a positive image of the Indians. She had even been presented to king James 1. The only downside came from her abortive meeting with captain John Smith, who had related how she had saved his life as her people got ready to execute him. She had preferred not to speak to him and escape quickly, maybe not wishing to see reappearing painful stories of the past.

She tolerated however badly the unhealthy air of London and the winter mists. She was already sick when boarding with her husband the ship headed to Virginia and there was no doubt that she would never see again her country.

Urgently landed in Gravesend, she had time to comfort her husband by saying to him " everybody has to die, it is enough if our child lives ".

May 15, 1617 - Samuel Argall arrives in Virginia to assume the deputy-governor office during the absence of Lord De La Warr.

June, 1617 - the new governor of Virgina Samuel Argall sets the price of tobacco at 3 schillings a pound.

He decided to enforce this measure by implementing a whole series of punishments for the offenders. These were likely to be enslaved for a three-year-period, a sentence both valid for sellers as buyers.

His interest in tobacco quickly faded but Argall kept the one he showed for slavery. He devoted himself in particular, the next year, to urge the settlers on piety and threatened the families who did not go to church every Sunday, of a conviction of a week to slavery the first time, a month in case of recidivism and a year for a second offence. It was only a penalty and not a status, because for Samuel Argall, to be condemned to slavery meant making his job without pay.

[June, 1618]

1617 - Captain Thomas Graves is given by Thomas Smyth, President Treasurer of the Virginia Company, the foundation of an important plantation at Dance Point on the north bank of the James River. This territory belonged previously to the Paspaheghs.

It was a huge project. The area was around 80 000 acres and the investors in the Virginia Company had devoted considerable financial support. This plantation originally named Smyth's Hundred should be provided with a brickyard and a smithy, and not less than 300 new settlers were announced there to clear and farm this vast space.

Captain Thomas Graves (London 1584 - Accomack (VA) 1635) appeared among the shareholders of the Virginia Company of London. He had arrived in Jamestown during the fall, 1608 aboard the Margaret and Mary but it is possible that he went back to England before the great starvation of 1609 because some of his children were born in London during the years 1610-1612.

Thomas Smyth had to give up his shares in the plantation to the Earl of Southampton in 1620. It now took the name of Southampton Hundred.

1617 - A pestilence hits the Indian tribes of southern New England, already bruised by the violence of two war years against the Tarratines (Mic'maqs). Whole villages are wiped off the map. The population is in some places reduced by 95 %.

It was said that the Black Death which had struck Europe in the 14th century was only little compared to the epidemic which beat down that year on Wampanoags and Massachusetts. It was perhaps a bubonic plague but other opinions lean more logically for smallpox. The real cause of this disaster remains however, a mystery.

It is highly probable that this disease was the leptospirosis, an infection transmitted from animals to humans characterized by the onset of a severe jaundice. It can be spread in contact with the infected urine of a dog or a rat including water contamination.

The European sailors were accused but, for nearly a century, the area was frequented regularly by explorers and fishermen, as well as Spanish, Portuguese, French, Dutch or still English, without ever having caused a disaster of this magnitude. Let us remember however that, about a hundred years before, the Spaniards had used, despite them, this biological weapon to destroy the Aztec and Inca civilizations. Smallpox struck London repeatedly and it could not be excluded that a traveler passing through, carrying the disease, transmitted it to some Indian, causing a real chain reaction.

After their arrival in New England, some Puritans did not miss to read into this tragedy a God's blessing in their intention.

1617 - A French fishing ship attempting to cast anchor in Cape Cod, in the Nauset territory, is burnt down by the Natives and most of its crew killed.

These had been particularly shocked by captain Thomas Hunt's poor behavior who, on condition of beaver trade, had deceived them three years earlier by taking captive 24 of theirs to sell them as slaves. They had since adopted a particularly hostile attitude towards Europeans.

The French sailors who frequented in this time the New England coast were perhaps at the root of the great pestilence which decimated this year most of the tribes of the area. Some villages like Patuxet went totally to disappear making of a populated region a true desert. founded the previous year a settlement in South Carolina.