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ISLE OF WIGHT COUNTY
1608 - 1907 by Col. E. M. Morrison
A Brief History of Isle of Wight
County, Virginia
Compiled for Distribution at the Jamestown
Tercentenary Exposition.
IN THE early spring of 1608, Captain John Smith, driven by the necessity of obtaining food for the famishing colonists at Jamestown, crossed the river (James), and obtained from a tribe of Indians called Worrosquoyackes fourteen bushels of corn. This transaction was the dawn of the history of Isle of Wight county, as well, almost, as that of America. Again, in December of this same year, Captain Smith, while on his way to visit Powhatan, who was then on the York River, spent his first night with this same tribe of Indians. And in the spring of 1611, after that terrible winter, in which five hundred of the colonists died of starvation and disease, that sad-hearted remnant of sixty emaciated, half-famished men, who had determined to abandon the colony, also spent their first night with this same tribe.
This tribe of Indians occupied a village near what is now known as Fergusson's Wharf, in this county, and their hunting grounds extended along the James River about five miles and inland about twenty, and had a fighting strength of forty of fifty warriors.
Captain Smith records that the king of this tribe furnished him with two guides, with whom he sent a valiant soldier, named Sicklemore, to explore the country around Roanoke Island for traces of the "lost colony" of Sir Walter Raleigh, with no successful result; and that he, the king of this tribe, warned him against the treachery of Powhatan; and yet this same savage, in a very few years, tried, and nearly succeeded, in killing every colonist on the south side of James River.
[p4] In the western part of the county, now Southampton county, there was another tribe, called the Nottoways, who were identified with our earliest history. They were intimately connected with the white settlers, and for more than one hundred years lived on their own lands, bartered the products of their hunting and fishing with the white people for guns, blankets, etc., sold to them their lands, and, except for their fondness for rum, seem to have been a peaceful and well disposed people, more sinned against than sinning. For in 1752 the General Assembly of Virginia passed an act declaring "that if any person or persons shall hereafter, under any pretense whatever, take from the Indians any of their guns, blankets or other apparel,such persons so offending shall pay to the Indian or Indians so injured the sum of twenty shillings for every such offense; and if the offender be a slave, he shall receive, for such offense, on his or her naked back, twenty-five lashes, well laid on." But generally the Indians were treated with the greatest kindness until the time of the great Indian massacre, in 1622, for the colonists were thoroughly imbued with idea of converting them to Christianity.
The first English settlement in Isle of Wight county was made by Captain Christopher Lawne and Sir Richard Worsley, knight baronet, and their associates, viz.: Nathaniel Basse, gentleman; John Hobson, gentleman; Anthony Olevan, Richard Wiseman, Robert Newland, Robert Gyner, and William Willis.
On April 27, 1619, they arrived at Jamestown, with one hundred settlers, in a ship commanded by Captain Evans. They immediately settled near the mouth of a creek on the south side of the James River, still known as Lawne's Creek (sometimes improperly written Lyon's Creek), which was, in 1642, made the dividing line between this county and Surry County.
Captain Lawne and Ensign Washer represented the settlement known as Lawne's Plantations in the first House of Burgesses, which met at Jamestown on the 30th day of July 1619.
[p5] It seems to be a fact that all new settlements are unhealthy, and this proved to be remarkably so; for within about a year Captain Lawne died, and the London Company, November 30, 1620, ordered that: "In regard of the late mortality of the persons transported heretofore by the late Captain Lawne, his associates be granted till midsummer, 1625, to make up the number of persons they were disposed to bring." It also declared that the plantation was to be henceforth called Isle of Wight Plantation, for which change of name we are very thankful, on account of the difficulty of spelling and pronouncing its former name , which it took from the tribe of Warrosquoyacke Indians. We find this name spelled in every conceivable way, some of them being Warrosquyoke, Warrosqueak, Warrasquoyke; nevertheless, it was several years before the new name of Isle of Wight was in general use among the colonists. This name was given it, very probably because the famous "Isle of Wight" off the coast of England had been the home of some of the principal patentees; at least, one of them was certainly from Isle of Wight-Sir Richard Worsley, who came over in 1608.
Many of the early settlers were of cavalier origin, and came from the city of Bristol, England, and its vicinity, and for many years, as shown by the old records, the "Bristol ships" made frequent trading voyages to this county, bringing with them, at every trip, batches of emigrants.
On November 21, 1621, Edward Bennett, a rich merchant of London, was granted a patent for a plantation upon the condition of settling two hundred emigrants. Associated with him in that patent were his brother, Robert Bennett, and his nephew, Richard Bennett, Thomas Ayres, Thomas Wiseman and Richard Wiseman; and in February, 1622, the "Sea Flower" arrived with one hundred and twenty settlers, under command of Captain Ralph Hamor, one of theCouncil. Among them were Rev. William Bennett and George Harrison, kinsmen of Edward Bennett. Their place of settlement was called Warrosquoyacke, or sometimes "Edward Bennett's Plan-
[p6] tation," and was located at the place on James River known as the "Rocks," the estate of the late Dr. John W. Lawson, who for many years represented this county in the General Assembly of the State, the Second Congressional District in Congress, and this county in the late Constitutional Convention.
On the day the patent last mentioned was granted, Arthur Swaine, Captain Nathaniel Basse and others, undertook to establish another plantation in the same neighborhood. Captain Basse came over in person and his plantation was known as "Basse's Choice," and was situated on Warrosquoyacke (now Pagan) River.
The houses of Captain Basse's Plantation were building when a great calamity happened to the infant colony. At midday on Good Friday, March 22, 1622, there were twelve hundred and forty inhabitants in the State of Virginia. Of these, three hundred and forty-seven, in a few hours, were killed by the Indians in the eighty settlements on the north and south sides of the James River, of which number fifty-three were residents of this county.
After the death of Powhatan, his brother, Opecancanough, who always hated the whites, joined all the tribes in Eastern Virginia into an oath-bound conspiracy to kill the whites, and we are astonished with what concert of action and secrecy this great plot was arranged when we reflect that the savages were not living together as on nation, but were dispersed in little hamlets, containing from thirty to two hundred in a company. "Yet they all had warning given them, one from another, in all their habitations, though far asunder, to meet at this day and hour for the destruction of the English."
So well was the dread secret kept that the English boats were borrowed to transport the Indians over the river to consult on the "devilish murder that ensued"; and even on the day itself, as well as on the evening before, they came as usual, unarmed, into their settlements, with their turkeys and other provisions to sell; and in some places sat down with the English on the very morning to breakfast.
[p7] (picture) County Courthouse
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[p9] They spared no age, sex or condition; and were so sudden in their indiscriminate slaughter that few could discern the blow or the weapon that killed them.
Those who had treated them with especial kindness and conferred many benefits upon them fared no better than the rest. The ties of love and gratitude the sacred rights of hospitality and reciprocal friendship, oath, pledges and promises were broken or forgotten in obedience to the commands of their chief for the execution of a great, but diabolical, stroke of State policy.
With one, and only one, of all who had been cherished by thewhites did gratitude for their kindness and fidelity to his new religion prevail over his allegiance to his king and affection for his people. A converted Indian, who resided with a Mr. Pace, and who was treated by him as a son, revealed the plot to him in the night of the 21st. Mr. Pace immediately secured his house and rowed himself up to Jamestown, where he disclosed the inhuman plot to the Governor, by which means that place and all the neighboring plantations, to which intelligence could be conveyed, were saved from destruction; for the cowardly indians, wherever they saw the whites upon their guard, immediately retreated. Some other places were also preserved by the undaunted courage of the occupants, who never failed to beat off their assailants, if they were not slain before their suspicions were excited. By these means the larger portion of the colony was saved from total annihilation in a single hour by this well conceived, well concealed and well executed plot of those inhuman, but weak and simple, adversaries.
Some miraculous escapes are reported in the Worrosquoyacke settlement. The Indians came to one Baldwin's house, wounded his wife; but Baldwin, by repeated firing of his gun, so frightened them as to "save both her, his house, himself and divers others." About the same time they appeared at the house of Mr. Harrison, half a mile from Baldwin's, where was staying Thomas Hamor, a brother of Captain
[p10] Ralph Hamor, who also live nearby. The Indians sent a message to Captain Hamor that their king was hunting in the neighborhood, and had invited him to join them. The captain, not coming as they expected him to do, they set fire to a tobacco warehouse and murdered the whites as they rushed out of Harrison's house to quench the fire. Many were killed, but Thomas Hamor was saved by a chance delay. He remained to finish a letter which he was engaged in writing. When he went out he saw the commotion, and although he received an arrow in his back, with twenty-two others he fought his way back to the house, which, being set on fire by the Indians, he left to burn, and fled to Baldwin's. In the meantime Captain Ralph Hamor was in utmost peril. Going out to meet the king, he saw some of the wretches murdering the unarmed whites. He returned to his new house, where, armed with only spades, axes and brickbats, he and his company defended themselves till the Indians gave up the siege and departed. At the house of Captain Basse, in the same neighborhood, everybody was slain. Basse, who was in England at the time, of course, escaped. The consternation produced by this horrid massacre caused the adoption of a ruinous policy. Instead of marching at once bold to meet and drive the Indians from the settlement, or reduce them to subjection by a bloody retaliation, the colonists were huddled together from their eighty plantations into eight. Works of great public utility were abandoned and cultivation confined to a space too limited merely for subsistence. These crowded quarters produced sickness, and some were so disheartened that they sailed for England. All Worrosquoyacke, from Hog Island down the river for fourteen miles, was abandoned.
But it was not the nature of the Anglo-Saxon man to be for long intimidated by fear of these weak, cowardly wretches, who had inflicted upon them such a dastardly outrage; for, in July of the same year, they commenced to move against them, and in the early fall Sir George Yeardley commanded an expe-
[p11] dition against the savages down the river. He drove out the Worrosquoyackes and Nansemonds, burned their houses and took their corn. On May 21, 1623, Captain Roger Smith was ordered to build a fort on the Worrosquoyacke shore, opposite to Tindall Shoals, where Captain Samuel Each had a blockhouse in building.
In the summer of 1623 Captain William Tucker, of Kecaughton (Hampton), commanded an expedition against the Worrosquoyackes. He killed many, cut down their corn, and burnt their houses. And this state of fierce warfare continued to rage, with uninterrupted fury, until a peace was concluded in 1632, under the administration of Governor Harvey.
In the course of this warfare the Indians were not treated with the same tenderness which they had generally been before the massacre; but their habitations, cleared lands, pleasant sites, when once taken possession of, were generally retained by the victors, and the vanquished forced to take refuge in the woods ar marshes. Truly, the founding of our nation was no mere holiday amusement.
The proprietors of the abandoned settlements took heart, and were allowed to return.
The census of 1623-24 (February) showed as then living at "Worwicke-Squeak" and "Basse's Choice" fifty-three persons, "twenty-six having died since April last."
Among those who had died were Mr. Robert Bennett, the brother of Edward Bennett, the rich London merchant, and first minister, Mr. William Bennett, doubtless one of the same family.
At the census taken 1624-25, it is recorded that three hundred and forty-seven out of a population of twelve hundred and forty were murdered by the Indians in the massacre of 1622.
From the beginning of 1626 the colony entered upon a more prosperous era, and from then on a continuous stream of emigrants were granted patents.
[p12] During the first hundred years a grant of fifty acres was given for the importation of every emigrant. The names of the "Head-rights" were given in the patents. From the records in the Land Office, the following are subscribed: "Land Grants: Martha Key, wife of Thomas Key, planter (as his personal dividend, being an ancient planter), one hundred and fifty acres lying on the easterly side of Worrosquoyacke River, opposite the land of Captain Nathaniel Basse";***John Moon, planter, two hundred acres in Worrosquoyacke, on the Worrosquoyacke Creek***for the transportation of four persons, viz.: himself, George Martin, Julian Hollier, Clement Thrush, who came in the Catherine, of London, 1623. Granted March, 1623."
A portion of this patent in "Red Point" still bears the name of "Moonfield," and one of the descendants of this John Moon,himself named John Moon, became a very rich man, owning a large portion of the land in "Red Point." The name is now extinct in this county, and it is astonishing how few of the names of the very first settlers have come down to us in their descendants.
It would be remarkably interesting to continue to enumerate these old land grants, but time and space will not allow it. Only three others will be mentioned, because the original patentees and their descendants have been prominent in the political and military history of our county and State, and the United States.
Benjamin Harrison was granted "two hundred and fifty acres in Worrosquoyacke, on the main creek which runneth from the Great River * * *."
John Upton was granted sixteen hundred and fifty acres in this county about three miles up Pagan Creek, due for the importation of thirty-three person. Granted July 7th, 1635.
Captain John Upton represented this county in the House of Burgessess for many years.
George Hardy, three hundred acres on Lawnes Creek, "bordering on Alice Bennett's land * * *."
[p13] He was probably the first to erect a grist-mill, which became quite famous, locally; and is still in operation and known as "Wrenn's Old Mill."
From this family of Hardy was descended the Honorable Samuel Hardy, the first representative in the Continental Congress from this District. He was one of the most able men in the earliest sessions of National Congress. He died in Philadelphia, while a member of Congress, on the 17th day of October, 1785.
On hearing of Hardy's death, Judge Tyler wrote the following beautiful tribute to his memory:
"Ah, why, my soul, indulge this pensive mood?
Hardy is dead, the brave, the just, the good.
Careless of censure, on his youthful bier
The muse shall drop a tributary tear.
His patriot bosom glowed with warmth divine,
And Oh, humanity! his heart was thine.
No party interest led his heart astray;
He chose a nobler, though a beaten way.
Nor shall his virtues there remain unsung-
Pride of the Senate, and their guide and tongue.
That tongue, no more, can make even truth to please-
Polite with art, and elegant with ease.
Fain would the muse augment the plaintive strain,
Tho' the most flattering panegyric vain,
When the brief sentence, youthful Hardy's dead,
Speaks more than poet ever thought or said!"
His remains were laid to rest in Philadelphia where those of Tazewell, Innes, Mason, Read and other gallant and patriotic Virginians still sleep.
Mr. Hardy was considered, by his associates in Congress, and other able men who had the pleasure of his acquaintance, as beingone of the most brilliant men of his age. He, on occasions, displayed great poetic inclinations.
His memory has been preserved in this county by a most fitting and gracious act - the naming of one of the magisterial districts for him - Hardy District.
In the year 1634 the colony was divided into eight shires or counties, one of which was named Worrosquoyacke, afterwards Isle of Wight.
[p14] The government of these shires or counties was modeled upon that in England. Lieutenant Colonels were appointed and commanded the troops in the wars with the Indians. Sheriffs, sergeants and bailiffs were elected; and, until 1691, every freeman was entitled to a vote, and indentured servants, at the expiration of their term of service, were allowed to do the same. In 1628-29 commissioners were appointed and required to hold monthly meetings in the different shires or counties; hence, the origin of the county courts.
The original boundaries of the county of Worrosquoyacke, or Isle of Wight, were: Northerly, by Lawnes Creek; Easterly, by James River as far as the plantation of Richard Hayes, formerly John Howard's; the southern boundary by certain creeks to the head of Colonel Pitt's Creek (this proved somewhat uncertain); and westerly into the woods indefinitely. In 1656, upon the petition of the inhabitants of Ragged Island and Terascoe Neck, then in Nansemond county, they were put into Isle of Wight.
A long dispute arose between the counties of Isle of Wight and Nansemond, continuing until 1674, when, by an Act of the General Assembly (then called the House of Burgesses), the boundaries were established as they now are, viz.: "That a southwest by south line be designed, runned and plainly marked from the river side of the plantation of Hayes, extending to the creek at or near the plantation called Nevill Oyster Bank; thence a line or lines up Col. Pitt's creek to the head of his lands; thence in a southwest half a point westerly line * * *"
The county is thirty seven miles in length and an average breadth of eleven miles, with an area of about three hundred and fifty square miles. It extends from 36° 38' to 37° 07' north latitude and from 0° 2' to 0° 36' longitude east from Washington. The land dips to the northeast from a plateau a little west of Bethel Church, and from that same plateau it dips to the northwest and west; the former,
[p15] by many swamps, ravines and creeks, conveys its water to James River; the latter, by the same means, conveys its water to the Blackwater (formerly Indian) River and the Nansemond River.
In 1732 a considerable portion of the northwestern part of the county was added to Brunswick county; and in 1748 the entire county of Southampton was carved out of it. This large county, from 1734, has been known as the Nottoway Parish of Isle of Wight.
In 1635 the population of this county was five hundred and twenty-two. In 1658 the population was about two thousand andnineteen.
County Courts were established in 1751 by the appointment of eight Justices of the Peace, and four of whom could act and compose a court, the oldest in commission presiding. They were required to meet monthly, and the day originally appointed for this county was the first Thursday in each month, but this was subsequently changed to the first Monday and continued to meet on this day till the County Courts were abolished by the Constitution of 1902, when all matters adjusted in the County Courts were transferred to the Circuit Court, which meets on the first Mondays of March, June, October and December. The County Courts have long been a distinctive feature of Virginia, and the meeting of the people on court days was, in a measure, an education for them, for, in the early days, with no newspapers and few postoffices, dissemination of news was meager and slow other than by intercourse with those better informed. Notwithstanding the fact that the Court only meets in this County four times a year, the citizens of the county still gather on the first Mondays, at which time the Board of Supervisors hold their monthly meetings, and the courtgreen presents about the same appearance as it did in the days of the County Courts.
Judges were appointed for the County Courts in 1870. There have been only two incumbents in that position in this county, the Honorable George R. Atkinson for thirty years, and the Honorable C. B. Crumpler for four years, the term of the latter be-
[p16] ginning in 1880 and ending in 1884, Judge Atkinson again taking the bench. Judge Atkinson bears the distinction of being reversed but three times by higher Courts and was the oldest presiding judge in the State at the time the County Courts were abolished in 1904.
The county early provided itself with a Glebe Farm in accordance with a very early law. This farm was situated about two miles west of Smithfield, and is referred to as producing a very indifferent grade of tobacco. It is not now known who of the early ministers lived on it, but the last of them, the Rev. Mr. Hubbard, who faithfully remained at his post for years, lived, died and was buried there in 1802. Shortly after that date it came into the control of the county, its name changed to the "Poor House," and was long used as a residence for the indigent poor under the maintenance of the Overseer of the Poor. In February, 1900, this location was sold by the Board of Supervisors of the county and a less expensive site, for the same purpose, purchased very near the courthouse.
The first courthouse was on the Glebe Farm, but its date of erection is unknown, although its site is well marked by heaps of brick-bats in the woods north of the farm.
In 1654 it was ordered, by the General Assembly, "That on account of the inconvenience occasioned by the partition of Isle of Wight county by Pagan Creek, there should be held a monthly Court in each of the two parishes, successively, and that the commissioners shall select the places." Where this Court was held for the lower parish is not known. This act was repealed in1659. In 1642 the county, heretofore one parish, was divided into two. Lawnes Creek was the northern and Pagan Creek was the southern boundary of the Upper Parish; Pagan Creek the northern and the NAnsemond county line the southern boundary of the Lower Parish. They both extended to the North Carolina line, about ninety miles.
Ferries were established over the branches of Pagan River in 1650 and were originally controlled
[p17] (picture) ONE OF SMITHFIELD'S BIG PEANUT CLEANING PLANTS
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[p19] by the County Commissioners; but were taken out of their control and managed directly by the whole body of the General Assembly, with much loss of time that should have been devoted to the business of the general public. After many years their control was restored to the County Court and so co |
