New Discoveries at Jamestown / Site of the First Successful English Settlement in America

Many earthenware jars, pots, bowls, and jugs excavated at Jamestown were used for the storage of foods. Wooden and wicker containers were also used, although because of their perishable nature none was unearthed. Seventeenth-century inventories list many of these perishable storage items, including casks, barrels, hogsheads, tubs, bins, and baskets. Leather bottles are also mentioned in a few early records.

The Jamestown settlers of the middle class were usually dressed in hard wearing, rough clothes made of homespun material, with a slightly better (and perhaps more colorful) costume for Sunday and holiday wear. In 1622 each Englishman who planned to emigrate to Jamestown was advised to supply himself with the following wearing apparel:

• “One Monmouth cap [a flat, round cap].
• Three falling bands [a neckband or collar of a shirt which turned down over the shoulders].
• Three shirts.
• One waste-coate.
• One suite of Canvase [a suit made of coarse cloth, such as cotton, hemp, tow, or jute].
• One suite of Frize [a woolen fabric with a nap].
• One suite of Cloth.
• Three paire of Irish stockins.
• Foure paire of shooes.
• One paire of garters.
• One doozen of points [a point was a tie or string ending with an anglet and used to join parts of a costume as doublet and hose].”

The women wore plain frocks and petticoats, although a few of the wealthy ladies owned silk, satin, and velvet dresses. Bodices, as a rule, were long pointed, and skirts were full and long.

Perhaps the most unique items of wearing apparel recovered at Jamestown were several leather shoe soles and two almost-complete shoes, found in a dirtlined well in association with artifacts of the 1625-50 period.

Numerous objects recovered at Jamestown are extremely important as they reveal the kinds of craftsmen and artisans who worked in Virginia’s first capital, the nature of their tools and equipment, and examples of their handiwork.

Scores of tools used by the men who helped build the Jamestown houses have been unearthed, including chisels, augers, gouges, hammers, reamers, saw fragments, bits, axes and hatchets, plane blades, gimlets, files, calipers, compasses, scribers, nail pulls, and a saw wrest. A grindstone was found in a refuse pit not far from the historic church tower.

Some tools used by the cooper, including draw shaves, adzes, plane irons, and race knives, have been excavated. Several barrel staves—probably made at Jamestown—were found in a few wells. Because of the great demand for barrels, casks, and hogsheads (both in Virginia and England) the Jamestown cooper was a busy artisan. His products were needed at all times, especially after 1620 when the Virginia settlers began shipping large quantities of tobacco to England in wooden hogsheads.

Numerous tools found on Jamestown Island relate to timbering, including felling axes, hewing axes, hatchets, saws, and wedges. An early 17th-century two-man crosscut saw has been recovered almost intact. Records indicate that pit saws were used, although none has been excavated.

A small, primitive hearth or furnace, where small amounts of iron may have been smelted during the early part of the 17th century, was uncovered during archeological explorations in 1955. A few miles upriver from Jamestown, at Falling Creek, the English built their first iron furnace in America in 1620-21. Iron was smelted in the furnace, and a few tools were forged—the first iron objects made in the New World by the English. In 1622 the Indians massacred the ironworkers and their families, and destroyed the furnace. Although it was never rebuilt, its importance cannot be overstressed, for the Falling Creek site can rightfully claim the honor of being the birthplace of the American iron industry.

In 1955, archeologists discovered the remnants of an early 17th-century forge. At the site, blacksmith’s tools, bar iron, sword guards, unfinished iron objects, and slag were found. This gave evidence that a blacksmith once plied his trade only a few yards west of the ancient brick church. Many blacksmiths worked at Jamestown (there was one among the first group of settlers). In the Jamestown collection are many tools which they left behind, including pliers, pincers, chisels, punches, hammers, and a small anvil.

Many small boats were built at Jamestown. They were built by English shipwrights and carpenters, who came from a long line of efficient craftsmen. These small vessels afforded the principal means of transportation through the uncharted wilderness tidewaters of Virginia. They were used for fishing, trade, and discovery. A few small handwrought iron tools used by Jamestown boatbuilders have been excavated on the historic island.

In 1955 a pottery kiln site was discovered at Jamestown. Nearby were found many utilitarian earthenware vessels of the 1625-40 period—definite evidence that pottery was made in Virginia over 300 years ago. Although made for everyday use, many of the pieces unearthed are symmetrical and not entirely lacking in beauty. The unknown Jamestown potters were artisans, trained in the mysteries of an ancient craft, who first transplanted their skills to the Virginia wilderness.

Glassblowers were working at Jamestown in 1608-09, and again in 1621-24. The trial glass they made in 1608 was sent to England—the first glass manufactured by Englishmen in the New World. The small glass fragments excavated at the furnace sites do not reveal what was produced, but probably nothing more complicated than window glass, bottles and vials, and plain drinking glasses. It is believed that the small glass factory at Jamestown was the first English “factory” in America.

Four brick kilns have been excavated. In two of them roofing tile and bricks were found. An iron spade, probably used in preparing the clay for brickmaking, was found in one of the kilns. The oldest kiln unearthed is believed to have been in use as early as 1625. Many brickmakers emigrated to Jamestown during the 1600’s.

Four lime kilns were unearthed on the historic island, where oyster shells from the James River were burned and converted into lime by the limeburner. As early as 1610 “lymeburners” emigrated to Virginia, and thereafter many such workers came to the colony from England.

Contemporary records, confirmed by certain objects found at Jamestown (especially small tools), reveal that pewterers, silversmiths colliers, wheelwrights, calkers, bricklayers, millwrights, shoemakers, masons, cordage makers, tanners, tobacco pipemakers, armorers, gunmakers, braziers, and others worked in the capital city at various periods between 1607 and 1699.

During archeological explorations many artifacts relating to household and town industries were recovered. It is believed that many of these small industries were home activities carried on in the houses at Jamestown. A few of these activities, and the products of them are mentioned briefly.

A few metal parts from spinning wheels and looms have been excavated—reminders that the pioneer housewife who spun the thread and yarn, and wove the cloth for her large family, was seldom idle.

One Jamestown building or house (whose brick foundations were discovered in 1955) appears to have been used for malting and brewing beer and ale, or carrying out some activity requiring distillation. A few pieces of lead were found which may have been part of a lead cistern for holding barley. The three brick ovens that were uncovered may have been used as drying kilns. A handle from a copper kettle was found near one of the ovens, and pieces of copper and lead pipes were unearthed not far from the building. The structure itself appears to have been used between 1625 and 1660.

Earthenware milk pans, bowls and pots, iron hoops (from wooden vessels), an earthenware funnel, and parts of skimmers, sieves, and ladles have been excavated. All these are evidence that dairying was an important household industry. This activity was usually carried on in a brick-paved room (with slatted windows) located on the northwest side of the house. Cheese, as well as butter, was probably made in the same room.

One of the largest objects that has been found is an earthenware baking oven, which was unearthed in an old ditch near the site of the May-Hartwell House. Restored from over 200 fragments, the oven was probably used between 1650 and 1690. It may have been made at Jamestown, molded of native clay and fired in a pottery kiln. In use, heated stones were placed inside the oven and left until the walls were hot enough for baking. Sometimes, however, the oven may have been placed directly on the embers of the fire. It undoubtedly was used out of doors, near a small house.

A few artifacts that have been recovered are associated with millers, drapers, basketmakers, cutlers, tailors, barbers, netmakers, and glovers. These tradesmen usually worked in or near their homes.

The vast assemblage of military equipment that has been unearthed (probably the largest collection of late 16th-and 17th-century English weapons used in America) emphasizes the important part which firearms and other weapons played during the early years of the settlement. They helped the colonists to protect themselves from the ever-menacing Indian and from the Spaniards who might at anytime have sailed up the James River to attack the small colony. They were also the means of providing the settlers with much of their food.

During the early years of the colony each Englishman who planned to emigrate to Virginia was advised to supply himself with the following “Armes”:

• “One Armour compleat, light.
• One long Peece, five foot or five and a halfe, neere Musket bore.
• One sword.
• One bandaleere [a bandoleer was a belt worn to carry the cases which held the powder charges].
• Twenty pound of powder.
• Sixty pound of shot or lead, Pistoll and Goose shot.”

Most of the kinds of arms listed have been found at Jamestown and will be described briefly along with other types of weapons which were unearthed.

Parts from several polearms, including bills, pikes, and a halberd, have been excavated. The recovered halberd (a polearm with sharp cutting edges and a spearlike point) is typical of the late 16th century, and may have been made as early as 1575. A few bills were unearthed, all dating around 1600. (A bill is a polearm, having a long staff terminating in a hook-shaped blade, usually with spikes at the back and top.) Two pike butts were also unearthed.

This small item unearthed at Jamestown is an instrument with 4 iron points, so arranged that no matter how it lands, 1 point always projects upward, to impede the progress of an enemy’s cavalry and to prevent surprise attacks.

Types of swords that have been found include broadswords, cutlasses or back swords, and rapiers. Three examples are complete, or nearly so—a cutlass, a broadsword, and a swept-hilt rapier. Many basket hilts were unearthed together with guards from other type swords, pommels, and blade fragments. A number of these edged weapons were made between 1600 and 1625. Several basket-hilted guards and blade fragments were found at the site of an early 17th-century forge, which may have been an armorer’s workshop.

One small cannon barrel fragment, possibly from a light cannon known as a robinet, has been unearthed (the bore at the end of the barrel is only 1¼ inches across). A varied assortment of 17th-century cannon balls have also been found, appropriate sizes for such ordnance as demiculverines, sakers, minions, and falcons.

An excellent assemblage of 17th-century musket barrels and gun parts have been recovered from the Jamestown soil, reminiscent of times when Indians attempted to wipe out the small settlement.

Among the gunlocks found are matchlocks, wheel-locks, snaphaunces, “doglocks,” and flintlocks. The first settlers were equipped with both wheel-lock and matchlock muskets. Some of the muskets were so heavy, they required a forked ground-rest to shoot (parts of two forked ground-rests have been excavated). Other muskets, like the caliver, were light, and could be fired without the use of a support.

The standard musket during the early years of the settlement was the matchlock. By 1625, however, the picture had changed, for the wheel-lock, snaphaunce, and “doglock,” were being used in large numbers, and the matchlock had become obsolete.

Only a few pistol barrels and parts have been unearthed. One pistol barrel is attractively ornamented with silver bands.

A breastplate and backpiece from a light suit of armor (probably a pikeman’s suit) were found in a refuse pit. These interesting specimens were probably made in England during the 1600-20 period.

In 1953, Sgt. Floyd E. Painter found an English siege helmet (1600-40 period) 4 miles down the river from Jamestown Island.

The first settlers brought seeds from England, and planted wheat 2 weeks after landing at Jamestown.

The early Virginians successfully grew many kinds of crops: grains (wheat, Indian corn, barley, oats, and rye), vegetables (peas, beans, turnips, parsley, onions, potatoes, cabbage, cauliflower, carrots, parsnips, lettuce, and others), and fruits (apples, peaches, apricots, quince, figs, grapes, and melons).

The colonists planted Indian corn as early as 1609, and cultivated many other Indian foods, including pumpkins, beans, and squash. They cultivated tobacco (an Indian plant) as early as 1612, and during the remainder of the century it was the most profitable crop grown. For many years it was the economic salvation of the struggling colony.

Attempts were made by the early colonists to grow other crops which, for various reasons, did not thrive at Jamestown. Some plants, like bananas, pineapple, citrus fruits, and pomegranates, could not withstand the cold Virginia winters. Other plants, including rice, cotton, indigo, sugarcane, flax, hemp, and olives, did not grow vigorously for one reason or another, and repeated efforts to cultivate them usually resulted in failure. Mulberry trees grew well at Jamestown (the leaves were used to feed silk worms), but attempts to make silk were not successful commercially.

When the first settlers planted their small colony at Jamestown, the tidewater rivers and bays and the Atlantic Ocean bordering the Virginia coast teemed with many kinds of fish and shellfish which were both edible and palatable. Varieties which the colonists soon learned to eat included sheepshead, shad, sturgeon, herring, sole, white salmon, bass, flounder, pike, bream, perch, rock, and drum, as well as oysters, crabs, and mussels. Seafood was an important source of food for the colonists, and at times, especially during the early years of the settlement, it was the main source.

Those in England who planned to go to Virginia were always advised to provide themselves (among other items) with nets, fishhooks, and lines.

During archeological explorations, fishhooks, lead net weights, fish-gigs, and small anchors were uncovered. These are reminders of a day when fish and shellfish were abundant in every tidewater Virginia creek, river, and bay.

Keeping well and healthy, even managing to stay alive in the unfamiliar Virginia wilderness during the first two decades of the Jamestown settlement, was no easy matter. In the group of 105 original settlers, 67 died during the first 8 months. During the hard winter of 1609-10 (known as the “starving time”), the population dwindled from 500 to about 60 as a result of sickness, Indian attacks, and famine.

One of the members of the first colony was a surgeon, William Wilkinson by name. As the colony grew, other surgeons, physicians, and apothecaries, emigrated to Virginia. Their lot was not easy, for it appears that they were seldom idle in an island community having more than its share of “cruell diseases, Swellings, Flixes, Burning Fevers, warres and meere famine.”

During archeological explorations, drug jars, ointment pots, bleeding bowls, mortars and pestles, small bottles and vials, and parts of surgical instruments were recovered. These, undoubtedly, were used countless times at Jamestown by unknown “chirurgions,” doctors of “physickes,” and apothecaries—men who tried to keep the colonists well with their limited medical equipment and scant supply of drugs.

The difficult and time-consuming job of conquering the Virginia wilderness (clearing the land, building homes, planting and harvesting crops, and warding off Indian attacks) left few hours for leisure and amusements. There were times, however (especially after the first few hard years had passed), when a colonist could enjoy himself by smoking his pipe, playing a game, practicing archery, bowling, playing a musical instrument, singing a ballad, or taking part in a lively dance. Excavated artifacts reveal that the settlers enjoyed at least these few amusements and pastimes.