Werowocomoco - Situation of the Place; Wm. and Mary College Quarterly, Vol. 10, No. 1 ************************************************************************ USGENWEB ARCHIVES NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. http://www.usgwarchives.net *********************************************************************** WILLIAM AND MARY COLLEGE QUARTERLY HISTORICAL MAGAZINE VOL. X. JULY, 1901 NO. 1. WEROWOCOMOCO. SITUATION OF THE PLACE. In the early days of the Colony of Virginia, Werowocomoco, the scene of the romatic incident of the rescue of John Smith by Pocahontas, was, of course, as well known as Jamestown. But, in a few years, the Indians deserted the place, and when Strachey wrote about 1614, the Indian head-war-chief, Powhatan, had retired to a town called Orapaks at the head of Chickahominy river. The early historians were not over critical as to localities, and after the removal to Orapaks there were no great ruins to preserve the memory of the place where the frail wigwams of Powhatan once stood. So as time went on the ancient site of Werowocomoco on York River fell subject to the sport of tradition and guess work. The first person to display a critical spirit in reference to the matter was Mr. Henry Howe, who, in 1843, commenced traveling over the State collecting materials and taking sketches for illustration. He fixed the ancient settlement at "Shelly," the seat of Mrs. Mann Page at the mouth of Carter's Creek, and his reasons for doing so appear to have been two-fold: First, "Shelly" is about twenty-five miles from West Point, and John Smith had so described Werowocomoco. Secondly, the place is marked by immense deposits along the shore of oyster shells, which betoken the existence once of Indian habitations. Mr. Charles Campbell, the historian, after having adopted the above opinion, renounced it in favor of another place only two or three miles further down. On paying a visit to "Shelly" ---------- 2 WILLIAM AND MARY COLLEGE QUARTERLY. and neighborhood, he became satisfied that Timber Neck Bay in Gloucester, the ancient seat of the Manns, was the famous spot. Besides conforming sufficiently in distance from West Point and abundance of oyster deposits, it had the additional recommendation of an old chimney standing at the east and thereof -- a chimney whose massive dimensions suggested royalty, and which, it is said, was known from very early times as "Powhatan's Chimney." Mr. Campbell supposed this to be the chimney to the house made for Powhatan by some Dutchmen in 1609. If there is really any "popular belief" as to the ancient location of Werowocomoco, it seems to be traceable to the authority of Mr. Howe or Mr. Campbell. Dr. Alexander Brown was the first to substitute fact for tradition and guess work, and in his great work The Genesis of the United States, he locates Werowocomoco further up the river, at Portan Bay, quoting as his authority the chart of Robert Tindall drawn in 1608. On this chart "Poetan," situated on Portan Bay, about eleven miles from West Point, appears as the capital town.* No town called Werowocomoco appears. As Dr. Brown does not go into details, the purpose of this article is to enquire into all the facts of the case and to conclusively settle the location once and for all. I am of opinion that Dr. Brown is undoubtedly right in his statement, and that in this he is not only supported by Tindall's map, but by many other facts which he probably had not space to mention in his book. Poetan, another spelling for Powhatan, was doubtless the real name of Werowocomoco, which in the Indian meant the "town of the Werowance," or the capital -- a descriptive name. The ending, "comoco," meant a "meeting" or "assembly," as is shown in the word matchacomoco -- a term applied to a grand council or conference. The town was called "Powhatan" because Powhatan lived htere, and under the various spellings of that word, Poetan, Portan, Porton, Purtan, Purton, the place has come down to us, and still abides with us. Tindall calls it Poetan (1608), Hermann Porton (1673), Fry and Jefferson Portan (1751), Dr. Madison Portan (1807), and the present coast sur- ______________________________________________________ *It is marked on the chart by four wigwams. The other Indian towns by one only. ---------- WEROWOCOMOCO. 3 vey "Purtan." In the York county records (1661) it is called Purton, and in Henning's Statutes (1663) it has the same spelling. At the latter date it was the home of another John Smith, called John Smith of Purton, to distinguish him from other Smiths of that name in Gloucester county.* It was at Poplar Spring, near Purton, that some servants, who had been soldiers of Oliver Cromwell, concerted a rendevous for rebellion in 1663. But they were informed upon by Berkenhead, one of their number, and the conspiracy was nipped in the bud by Sir William Berkeley, the Governor. Not much importance is to be given to the points on which Mr. Howe and Mr. Campbell rest their cases. The distance, which Smith in one place assigns to Werowocomoco from the parting of the river at West Point, was a mere guess; for in another place he states the distance to be twenty miles, and in still another he says that Werowocomoco was twelve miles from Chiskiack. In this last statement William Strachey, the secretary of Lord Delaware, agrees. Now Chiskiack was a region above Yorktown, whose locality is definitely fixed. It was the name of an Indian town, and the parish subsequently established embracing the site thereof, called first Chiskiack Parish and afterwards Hampton Parish, extended, as the York records show, from Yorktown Creek to Queen's Creek. The Indian town of Chiskiack being nearly opposite to Carter's Creek and Timberneck Bay, could not, by any possible calculation, have been twelve miles away from Werowocomoco, if the latter had been located at Shelly or Timberneck Bay. But Purton is just about twelve miles distant, and meets the requirement. That Smith hit the truth in his last statement is shown not only by his agreement with Strachey, but by his own map, which gives the distance between the places, Werowocomoco and Chiskiack, as about twelve miles. ____________________________________________________ *In 1661 Anna Bernard, "now of Purton, in Petsoe Parish, in the county of Gloster, in Virginia, widdow," makes a deed. She was the wife of Richard Bernard, of Petsoe, Bucks. Her maiden name was Corderoy. Her daughter Anne married John Smith, who came into possession of the place. (See Bernard Family, Quarterly, V., p. 62.) In 1849, there was a renewal grant of Portan (Purton) to William John Clarke, in which it was said to consist of 1,665 acres, and to be bounded by Broad Creek, York River, and Tanks Poropotank Creek, or Adams Creek. ---------- 4 WILLIAM AND MARY COLLEGE QUARTERLY. Another chart given by Dr. Brown, found in the Spanish archives, and supposed to have been the one sent to England in 1608, with Smith's "News from Virginia," tells the same tale. At about eleven miles from West Point and twelve miles from Chiskiack, appears on a bay "Werowocomoco." Below Werowocomoco, on the same side of the river are two towns, Cappahowsack and Cantaunteck. There is at this day a wharf on the north side of York river called Cappahosick (Cappahowsack), evidently marking the old Indian district of that name; and this district, as shown on the charts, lay between Werowocomoco and Timberneck Creek. The wharf is at least seven miles above Timberneck Creek. It was this country of Cappahosic that Powhatan offered to give Smith "for two great guns and a grindstone." Werowocomoco was above it. As to the deposit of oyster shells at Shelly and Timberneck, that proves only that Indians lived in the neighborhood, but it does not prove that the particular town called "Werowocomoco" was situated there. On the chart last mentioned appears, just above Tindall's Point (now Gloucester Point), an Indian town called Cantaunteck. As to the sandstone chimney, there is absolutely nothing but its name connecting it with "Powhatan," and in regard to this name there is nothing to show when it began to attach to the chimney. This stone, which is full of fossil remains, is undoubtedly of vast age, but it does not follow that structures composed of it are ancient. The church at Yorktown, built in 1697, is composed of the same kind of sandstone, and, as the church stood after the fire of 1814, with all the woodwork destroyed, it must have looked a thousand years old. The records show that from a very early date stone houses and stone chimneys were not uncommon in Virginia.* Nothing then remains of Mr. Howe's and Mr. Campbell's surmises as to the location of Werwocomoco. That location is fixed by the charts and contemporary authority indisputably at Portan Bay, on the north side of York River. _______________________________________________________ * When I last visited the stone chimney, I found it prostrate and in ruins. Its vast fireplace used to serve the purposes of a modern outhouse, which was built on to it.