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Queen's Creek
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Queen's Creek
Queen's Creek is located in York County in the Virginia Peninsula area of the Hampton Roads region of southeastern Virginia in the United States. From a point of origin near the Waller Mill Reservoir in western York County, it flows northeasterly across the northern half of the Peninsula as a tributary of the York River.
As Jamestown in the Colony of Virginia was first settled by English colonists beginning in 1607 along the James River, the colonists had frequent and violent confrontations with the Powhatan people who had long lived there. The two cultures had differing ideas of land use and the Powhatan hunting grounds and territory were encroached on by the increasing number of colonists. In addition, after 1612 they began to clear land and cultivate it for tobacco production, exacerbated by their cultivation of land-hungry tobacco as a cash crop to export after 1612.
Queen's Creek became important to the colony and was fortified in the 1630s. Colonists had discussed the idea of a palisade or fortification across the peninsula as early as 1611. But, colonist John Rolfe married Pocahontas, daughter of the chief Powhatan in 1614 and colonists enjoyed a period of relative peace with the Natives.
Following the uprising of the Powhatan and their Indian massacre of 1622, colonists revived the cross-peninsula palisade idea. In 1623, 73 settlers were slain in Martin's Hundred at Wolstenholme Towne, situated on the James about 6 miles (9.7 km) below Jamestown; the survivors temporarily abandoned the settlement. Governor Francis Wyatt and his Council wrote to the Earl of Southampton that they had under consideration a plan of "winning the forest" by running a pale between the James and York rivers.
Dr. John Potts blazed the way by obtaining on July 12, 1632, a patent for 1,200 acres (4.9 km2) at the head of Archer's Hope Creek (later renamed College Creek), midway between the James River at Archer's Hope and the former Native American village of Chiskiack near the York River. On September 4, 1632, the General Assembly expanded the program of granting land to settlers of Chiskiack, and offered headrights land to all persons settling between Queen's Creek and Archer's Hope Creek.
In February 1633, the assembly voted to have men in "the compasse of the forest" east of Archer's Hope and Queen's Creek to Chesapeake Bay (essentially all of the lower peninsula) to go "before the first day of March next" to Dr. John Potts' plantation, "newlie built," to erect houses and secure the land in that quarter. Work on the palisade commenced by March 1, 1633.
With this labor, palisades, six miles (9.7 km) in length, were run from creek to creek. Queen's Creek drained the northern half of the nearby section of the Peninsula, with a watershed leading to the York River. The two creeks and the palisade in between created a barrier from river to river. At the high ridge at the midpoint, a settlement to be called Middle Plantation was made, later to be known as Williamsburg.
By 1634, the palisade (or stockade) was completed, providing some security from attacks by the Powhatan tribes for colonists farming and fishing lower on the Peninsula. The palisade was anchored at its center by Middle Plantation. It was described in the following extract from a letter written in 1634, from Jamestown, by Captain Thomas Yonge:
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Queen's Creek
Queen's Creek is located in York County in the Virginia Peninsula area of the Hampton Roads region of southeastern Virginia in the United States. From a point of origin near the Waller Mill Reservoir in western York County, it flows northeasterly across the northern half of the Peninsula as a tributary of the York River.
As Jamestown in the Colony of Virginia was first settled by English colonists beginning in 1607 along the James River, the colonists had frequent and violent confrontations with the Powhatan people who had long lived there. The two cultures had differing ideas of land use and the Powhatan hunting grounds and territory were encroached on by the increasing number of colonists. In addition, after 1612 they began to clear land and cultivate it for tobacco production, exacerbated by their cultivation of land-hungry tobacco as a cash crop to export after 1612.
Queen's Creek became important to the colony and was fortified in the 1630s. Colonists had discussed the idea of a palisade or fortification across the peninsula as early as 1611. But, colonist John Rolfe married Pocahontas, daughter of the chief Powhatan in 1614 and colonists enjoyed a period of relative peace with the Natives.
Following the uprising of the Powhatan and their Indian massacre of 1622, colonists revived the cross-peninsula palisade idea. In 1623, 73 settlers were slain in Martin's Hundred at Wolstenholme Towne, situated on the James about 6 miles (9.7 km) below Jamestown; the survivors temporarily abandoned the settlement. Governor Francis Wyatt and his Council wrote to the Earl of Southampton that they had under consideration a plan of "winning the forest" by running a pale between the James and York rivers.
Dr. John Potts blazed the way by obtaining on July 12, 1632, a patent for 1,200 acres (4.9 km2) at the head of Archer's Hope Creek (later renamed College Creek), midway between the James River at Archer's Hope and the former Native American village of Chiskiack near the York River. On September 4, 1632, the General Assembly expanded the program of granting land to settlers of Chiskiack, and offered headrights land to all persons settling between Queen's Creek and Archer's Hope Creek.
In February 1633, the assembly voted to have men in "the compasse of the forest" east of Archer's Hope and Queen's Creek to Chesapeake Bay (essentially all of the lower peninsula) to go "before the first day of March next" to Dr. John Potts' plantation, "newlie built," to erect houses and secure the land in that quarter. Work on the palisade commenced by March 1, 1633.
With this labor, palisades, six miles (9.7 km) in length, were run from creek to creek. Queen's Creek drained the northern half of the nearby section of the Peninsula, with a watershed leading to the York River. The two creeks and the palisade in between created a barrier from river to river. At the high ridge at the midpoint, a settlement to be called Middle Plantation was made, later to be known as Williamsburg.
By 1634, the palisade (or stockade) was completed, providing some security from attacks by the Powhatan tribes for colonists farming and fishing lower on the Peninsula. The palisade was anchored at its center by Middle Plantation. It was described in the following extract from a letter written in 1634, from Jamestown, by Captain Thomas Yonge: