Bermuda Hundred, VA

My ancestors came from western Europe and more specifically England.

My ancestors arrived in the American colonies in different areas.
The Swaseys were in New England, so that is my grandmother Ada Phillips Swasey Rogers tree.
The Rogers came through Virginia, my father, George Rogers tree.
And the Booths came through New England, following Eugenia Booth's tree to my mother's family.

A few days ago I posted a photo called Bermuda Hundred, HERE, with a marker talking about John Rolfe and Pocahontas, and it also referred to my ancestors, the Bollings, Worshams, and the Kennons.

Here's a pretty good article describing what it is.

Bermuda Hundred during the Colonial Period

Contributed by Emily Jones Salmon

 

Bermuda Hundred was established by Sir Thomas Dale in 1613 at the confluence of the James and Appomattox rivers..[as a plantation] The term "hundred" comes from the English practice of locating ten towns, or tithings (groups of ten families), at a settlement. One of Bermuda Hundred's most famous residents was John Rolfe, who may have grown his first marketable tobacco there—Nicotiana tabacum, a West Indian plant with which he had been experimenting since 1612. Rolfe may have lived there with his wife Pocahontas, the daughter of the Powhatan Indians' paramount chief, Powhatan. The population of Bermuda Hundred, like that of other early English settlements in Virginia, was nearly wiped out by a massive assault orchestrated by one of Powhatan's successors, Opechancanough.

Time Line

• 1611 - Sir Thomas Dale recommends establishing a fortified site on the James River near Henricus.
• September 1611 - Sir Thomas Dale marches against Indians farther up the James River from Jamestown and establishes a settlement on a bluff that he calls the City of Henrico, or Henricus, in honor of his patron Prince Henry.
• December 1611 - Sir Thomas Dale and his forces attack the Appamattuck towns near the City of Henrico on the James River and later found on the Indians' land the settlement known as Bermuda Hundred.
• July 1612 - By this date, John Rolfe is growing the Spanish tobacco Nicotiana tabacum, either at a farm at Jamestown or at Bermuda Hundred.
• 1613 - After enclosing the peninsula at Bermuda Hundred in palisades, Sir Thomas Dale begins construction of a fort there.
• 1616 - The population of Bermuda Hundred stands at 119 people, 17 of whom are farmers. The rest are laborers for the Virginia Company of London.
• ca. 1617 - Johannes Vingboons, a mapmaker for the Dutch West Indies Company, creates a navigation chart of the James River. Among the sites listed on the map is Bermuda Hundred.
• 1619 - Bermuda Hundred's palisades have fallen into ruin.
• March 1620 - The population at Bermuda Hundred increases to 184 when survivors of the summer illness at Captain Christopher Lawne's plantation relocate to the site.
• March 22, 1622 - Indians under Opechancanough unleash a series of attacks that start the Second Anglo-Powhatan War. The assault was originally planned for the fall of 1621, to coincide with the redisposition of Powhatan's bones, suggesting that the attack was to be part of the final mortuary celebration for the former chief.
• 1624 - The population of Bermuda Hundred stands at 41 people—a result of the March 1622 attacks organized by Opechancanough. Bermuda Hundred sends two men to the General Assembly to serve as burgesses.
• 1640 - The area including Bermuda Hundred becomes part of Henrico County.
• 1688 - Francis Eppes and William Randolph lay out the town of Bermuda Hundred.

 For more detailed information, see the article that is quoted above:
.https://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/Bermuda_Hundred_During_the_Colonial_Period#start_entry

Unfortunately, many of the early documents of Virginia were lost through the years.  But there are some land and court documents, and wills, which give genealogists something to follow that provides sketchy information about our ancestors.

I admit to being an amateur genealogist, and defer to those who have spent many years tracing documents and know the difference between what is posted frequently on Ancestry or in Wikepdeia, just on the whim of some descendant.  That misinformation (fake news!) is then passed along with the free ability to copy from each other on line.

So saying that, I have made every effort that my ancestry has something behind each person's information...but I'm sure I've fallen into the ease at times of just assuming some of it is true, and it may not be in fact.

I hope that in honoring these real people who lived, had children, and died, I can share with others who also have their blood flowing in their veins.

These Virginia ancestors represent those in George Rogers' tree, my father.

Today's Quote:

We are not permitted to choose the frame of our destiny, but what we put into it is ours. DAG HAMMARSKJÖLD