William Harwood Plantation, Carter's Grove Site A (44JC116)
Period of significance is ca. 1625-1645.
Site History
In 1618 over 200 settlers boarded the ship Gift of God and set off from England as part of the Martin's Hundred enterprise, a subsidiary to the Virginia Company of merchant adventurers who had established a colonial foothold at Jamestown the previous decade. The shareholders were promised 20,000 acres in Virginia, and by 1620 they established their settlement, Wolstenholme Towne, about nine miles downstream from Jamestown on a desirable waterfront property along the James River that would later become Carter's Grove plantation.
While Martin's Hundred’s investors supposedly sent 280 recruits, by the winter of 1621/22 they apparently numbered only 140. In March 1622, they lost an additional 70 settlers to an attack by the Powhatan, who tried to expel the colonists under the leadership of Chief Opechancanough. The Powhatan burned dwellings and outbuildings and killed or captured about half of the occupants.
Despite the losses, the English later returned to Martin's Hundred to rebuild, albeit with a much lower population and few surviving buildings. Further complicating the fate of the Hundred, in 1624 James I withdrew the Virginia Company charter, declared Virginia a royal colony, and left subsidiary investors such as the individuals that had funded Martin's Hundred in a somewhat ambiguous position. Archaeologists found sites occupied into the 1640s. While the early years of settlement were likely marked by a desire to stick together and remain within fleeing distance of a fortified dwelling, by the 1640s the population of Martin's Hundred seems to have dispersed, presumably to spread out more and take advantage of the thousands of arable acres the Hundred offered.
Documents and archaeology suggest that William Harwood, the governor of Martin's Hundred, was the occupant of Site A (44JC116). Harwood arrived in Virginia in 1620 and served a short stint on the Virginia Company governing council. He survived the Powhatan attack and built a new plantation on the property by 1625. Documentary records indicate that he remained on this property through at least 1629.
Archaeological Investigations
Between 1976 and 1981 excavations undertaken at Carter's Grove plantation under the direction of Ivor Noël Hume targeted 17th-century sites that had been identified by an earlier survey. Piecing together historical and archaeological evidence, researchers identified the sites as belonging to Martin’s Hundred. The sites were named in the order in which they were found (Site A, Site B, etc.), and then later analysis and research led to a better chronological understanding of each site and the inhabitants who may have lived here. Subsequent excavations, such as those on the Locust Grove Tract of Carter's Grove, revealed additional sites believed to be affiliated with Martin’s Hundred (Moodey 1992).
The first site explored during the Martin’s Hundred excavations, Site A, was located in a field just northeast of the extant Carter's Grove mansion. Posthole patterns revealed a series of post-in-ground buildings, several fence lines, and a "cellar house." The cellar house consisted of a 19 × 20 ft. hole with posts set into the cellar floor along the walls. These posts supported a roof structure for what was essentially a partially subterranean dwelling. Other features included a number of slot fences, ditches, trash pits, and over 20 graves. Artifacts such as window leads dated 1625 indicate that Site A post-dates the Powhatan attack on Martin’s Hundred. An iron cannonball recovered at the site, along with luxury goods such as gold threads, have led to the interpretation that the site was built by William Harwood, the governor of the Martin's Hundred settlement, who was listed in a 1625 muster as having a "Peece of Ordnance."
Site A appears to have been abandoned by around 1645.
References
1992 Phase II Archaeological Investigation of the Locust Grove Tract, Carter's Grove Plantation. Colonial Williamsburg Archaeological Reports. Accessed online.
1983 Discoveries in Martin’s Hundred. Colonial Williamsburg Archaeological Series No. 10. The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, Williamsburg, Virginia.
1988 Martin's Hundred. Alfred A. Knopf, New York.
2001 The Archaeology of Martin's Hundred: Part I, Interpretive Studies; Part II, Artifact Catalog. University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia, PA, and The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, Williamsburg, Virginia.
