The late Virginia Lee Hutcheson Davis was one of our leading authorities on the earliest inhabitants of Jamestown and the entire Tidewater region of Virginia. Her most famous book on this area of research was the diminutive volume, Jamestowne Ancestors, 1607-1699, a list of approximately 1,200 persons who are known to have landed or resided there between 1607 and 1699. Mrs. Davis was a member of the Order of Descendants of Ancient Planters, Order of First Families of Virginia, The Jamestowne Society, and The James Cittie Company. Jamestowne Ancestors, meanwhile, recounts the establishment of England’s first successful colony in North America, as Mrs. Davis describes it in her Preface:
“King James I in 1606 issued a charter authorizing a group of investors to form the Virginia Company of London and settle colonists in North America. It was thus that his dream was fulfilled and James Towne was born. A council appointed by the king was to direct the enterprise from England, with management of day-to-day affairs in the colony entrusted to a second council of state. The charter provided that these English settlers would enjoy the same legal rights and privileges as those who remained at home.
“On Saturday the twentieth of December 1606 a fleet of three ships left England. After an arduous ocean voyage, 104 English colonists aboard the ‘Susan Constant,’ ‘Godspeed,’ and ‘Discovery’ reached the Virginia coast at Cape Henry. Sailing west up the river they named for their king, these men and boys stepped ashore on May 14, 1607, at the marshy peninsula now known as Jamestown Island. In time, ‘James Towne’ survived and prospered, but at first the triangular wooden palisade fort held only a tenuous foothold on the vast continent.“
Jamestowne Ancestors honors the island’s early settlers and their contributions, to Virginia and the future nation. The volume includes all inhabitants of Jamestown Island–both year-round residents and members of the House of Burgesses or other government officials–who dwelled at Jamestown between 1607 and 1699. The author identifies each individual by name, occupation (burgess, landowner, artisan, etc.), year(s) present in Jamestown, and, in the case of officials, a place of permanent residence. The author includes only those colonists whose presence at Jamestown has been fully documented. Her list can be used as a starting point for achieving membership in a number of hereditary societies that accept descent from Jamestown as a qualification. (A list of 16 such organizations is included in the book.)
Replete with facsimiles of early maps and diagrams and drawing upon recent archaeological research, Jamestowne Ancestors is a comprehensive list of our oldest ancestors. For more information about this book or its author, please click here.
Other Tidewater Books by Virginia Lee Hutcheson Davis:
Covering an incredible 375 years, this book sets forth the genealogical history of some 37 families who have their roots in Tidewater Virginia. Starting with the earliest colonial settler, the origins of the following Tidewater families are presented: Bell, Binford, Bonner, Butler, Campbell, Cheadle, Chiles, Clements, Cotton, Dejarnette(att), Dumas, Ellyson, Fishback, Fleming, Hamlin, Hampton, Harnison, Harris, Haynie, Hurt, Hutcheson, Lee, Mosby, Mundy, Nelson, Peatross, Pettyjohn, Ruffin, Short, Spencer, Tarleton, Tatum, Taylor, Terrill, Watkins, Winston, and Woodson. View Book Details
Tidewater Virginia Families: Generations Beyond
In this supplement, the author added 11 new families to the Tidewater Virginia families treated in the original volume described above: Alsobrook, Bibb, Edwards, Favor, Gray, Hux, Ironmonger, Laker, Southern, Taylor, and Woolfolk. In addition, this supplement includes vignettes and anecdotes of family life, descriptions and locations of family homes and burial sites, extensions of sibling lines, identification of neighbors, county maps, a place-name index, and, where necessary, corrections and updates to the original volume. View Book Details
The Albemarle Parish Vestry Book, 1742-1786
The Vestry Book of Albemarle Parish is one of the priceless original public records of the Old Dominion that survived the vicissitudes of time, wars, invasions, fire, and neglect. Now, for the first time, it is widely available to researchers owing to the transcription efforts of Virginia Lee Hutcheson Davis and Andrew Wilburn Hogwood. The Vestry Book–which includes the proceedings of the vestry as well as many records of the processioners’ returns–begins on November 16, 1742 (with some earlier pages missing), some four years after the parish’s formation, and runs to 1786. Roughly 6,500 Surry/Sussex county inhabitants are identified. View Book Details
