Wolstenholme Towne: Lost Virginia Settlement – Destroyed, Abandoned And Forgotten

A. Sutherland - AncientPages.com - Usually, when a site was occupied for a short time before it was attacked and destroyed, it can act as a "time capsule," which provides archaeologists with several important pieces of evidence in the form of artifacts related only to this particular place.

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Wolstenholme Towne is one such place near Williamsburg, Virginia, United States.

The town was wiped out by the Indians in 1622 and left forgotten for almost four centuries.

In the 1970s, Ivor Noël Hume, a British-born archaeologist in the United States and one of the founders of historical archaeology in North America, searched for signs of another, later 18th-century plantation of Carter Grove.

He unexpectedly discovered a face-covering helmet from a suit of armor and other remnants of a fortified town, Wolstenholme, built about 1620.

The discovery resulted in many excavations at the site and gave insights into the daily life of people in this short-lived settlement. Wolstenholme Towne was only occupied for a few years before it was attacked, destroyed, and abandoned.

It was the central town of Martin's Hundred, a plantation occupying more than 20,000 acres and one of many private British plantations established in the early 17^th century.

The colony was established in 1619 on the James River by about 200 settlers, who called themselves "Martin's Hundred." They settled 10 miles down the river and named their settlement - Wolstenholme Towne.

Unfortunately, the Towne and its people did not survive. On March 22, 1622, over half of the settlers were massacred in a significant Indian uprising.

A few survivors and some new settlers attempted to rebuild the site, but the disease took its toll, and the place was abandoned and long forgotten. Part of it has probably been washed away by the James River. Some surviving historical documents shed some light on the settlement and its inhabitants.

According to records, excavations of the site that began in 1977 revealed information about storehouses, dwellings, and a timber fort. Many British and European artifacts of the 17^th century were unearthed at the site and later brought to America.

They include pottery, armor, weapons (iron helmets), and many domestic and agricultural items. The excavations have revealed the graves of forty-eight settlers, some of them hastily buried after the massacre; others were buried in coffins with gabled lids, similar to English coffins dated to the same period.

The findings confirm the tragedy that happened there at Wolstenholme Towne.

Updated on December 9, 2021

Written by – A. Sutherland AncientPages.com Staff Writer

Updated on December 7, 2022

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