Posted on 11/18/2011 11:39:32 AM PST by Pharmboy
Researchers at Jamestown, Va., may have found the site where the first Protestant church in North America was built.
Dr. William Kelso, head of the research team at Jamestown, which was founded as a settlement established by the Virginia Company of London in the 17th century, explained in an interview with The Christian Post that the group began excavating at the site where they may have found the church in the summer of 2010.
Kelso, an American archaeologist specializing in Virginia’s colonial period, believes the ruins found are the church because of a “Record of construction in Spring of 1608, burials in the east or chancel end” and that it “matches dimensions recorded in 1610.”
He discovered the site along with three field supervisors: archeologists Danny Schmidt, Dave Givens and Jamie May.
In addition to being the site of the oldest known Protestant church in the United States, the building would have also likely been the location for the wedding of Pocahontas and John Rolfe, a marriage that temporarily brought peace between settlers and Native Americans.
The church, which was 64 feet by 24 feet, also runs contrary to the common narrative on religion linked to Jamestown colony.
“[The] standard story is that Jamestown was all about secular pursuits and making money with the spread of religion far down the priority list,” said Kelso.
“The sheer size and early construction makes a dramatic statement that the establishment of the Church of England in the ‘new world’ was far more in the forefront of the colonists thinking than has previously been recognized by many historians.”
Historians at Virginia universities echo the sentiment of Kelso regarding the accuracy of the popular narrative of Jamestown.
Crandall Shifflet, professor emeritus at Virginia Tech, told CP that he believed the church ruins “could be an opportunity to re-examine the role of religion at Jamestown in particular and in seventeenth-century Virginia in general.”
“British colonists considered the spread of Christianity a central part of their mission,” said Shifflet, who oversees an online learning project called “Virtual Jamestown.”
“Popular culture tends to stereotype Jamestown as a group of adventure capitalists motivated by greed and materialistic gain without regard to the souls of colonists or Indians.”
Early American historian Dr. Jane Merritt of Old Dominion University said that the find was valuable for understanding life in the English colonies.
“The church will certainly help historians better map out the community spaces of the early settlement,” said Merritt.
“Archaeological work at Jamestown has been underway for decades and has uncovered wonderful evidence of the material life and culture of early colonists.”
Merritt explained that many misconceptions about life in Jamestown exist in modern society, noting that although often considered “a seedbed for democracy” Jamestown was a strictly structured and hierarchical society.
“Religion was an important part of this equation,” said Merritt, who added that “colonists were required to go to church (at times daily services) by threat of punishment.”
Merritt also noted the strong misconception commonly found with English settlers arriving to North America is that they were there for “religious freedom.”
“While religion was central to many of the settlements … the religious freedom they sought rarely included religious tolerance,” said Merritt.
And any attempts to do so will be met by a force that will send each of those interlopers to the hereafter, where they will each be given over to 72 Virginians.
I live right across the York in Gloucester County and love it here. I was born and raised in California, but consider Virginia my home.
The drive along Rt 17 up to the JRB is a nice option, too... once you get through Portsmouth. ;-)
SE wound = SE Virginia would
I love it there. It was my first experience with living with 4 seasons. Texas has summer, more summer and a beautiful spring. Also the colors of the leaves in Virginia in the fall, fabulous!
GGG ping
That wouldn't be the same people who are now accorded Persecuted Victim status by the Federal Government of the United States, would it?
Wait...if they were busy massacring my Huguenot relatives, how could they be victims themselves? When you retaliate against your oppressors, and win, is that "victimization"?
It is of course to America hating liberals.
I didn’t realize there was a spanish settlement - learn something every day :-)
The English began moving in almost immediately imagining that the King of Spain had said it was OK ~ the Eastern Seaboard had clearly been reserved for European Protestants ~ King Philippe' II/III s idea of how to resolve the problem of Catholic/Protestant conflict in Europe.
If you've ever got the chance visit almost any Virginia county library to visit "The Virginia Room". You'll find copies of all the historic documents with relevance to Virginia. Look for the names of the earliest Jamestown Settlers (in the Booke of the Livinge and the Deade). They are a broad selection of not just English and Scottish names, they come from all over Europe.
Tell you what it's like ~ when you visit the Viet Nam Veterans Memorial and you see those names, that is what it was like FROM THE VERY BEGINNING.
This is a very special place. King Philippe II/III probably didn't imagine what it would come to, but he did attract the better sort willing to put their lives on the line to tame an unruly chunk of North America.
Thanks!
Being that my family in America can trace our roots back to 1607 and the Jamestown Colony, my great great great great etc. uncle probably attended this church.
My cousin in Tennessee has possession of our family Bible that was brought over at that time.
Imediately upon landing half the company bolted taking with them about 300 people, hundreds of horses, cattle and pigs. They just disappear from history, but so did everybody who went inland in North America. We are only now learning what happened.
The later De Soto expedition 1539/41 reached the Ohio Country and the Midwest. They visited places, did things, and may have set up some permanent camps for use by later visitors.
By that time the Spanish had already figured that North America was short on horses, cows, chickens and pigs ~ so they made sure every ship that came this way brought a bunch ~ which were promptly turned loose to forage.
They would be caught or hunted later!
Pizarro, a probable Spanish Protestant (certainly Carvajal was), worked for DeSoto. These fellows kept their Protestant proclivities to themselves but it's pretty obvious they wanted little to do with Catholic Spain once they got here.
Another item high on the Spanish list was GOLD.
They dug gold mines everywhere. A typical gold camp would have some houses, barns, a still (for alcohol to buy produce from the Indians), a grist mill (to grind Indian corn as well as gold ore bearing rocks).
We have two probable Spanish sites in Fairfax County along the Fall Line (where you can find gold). If any of you amateur archaeologists run across stone segments for a wheel in a grist mill out there in the dirt with no obvious explanation, bring in the professionals at the state university. Give 'em a chance to do some radio carbon dating. The site may be of historic interest and far older than you imagined.
Many of these places have been found located all over North America ~ most of them East of the Mississippi were abandoned before 1600. There was some gold ~ mostly glacial in origin, and easily worked out.
These guys moved on wealthy or not ~ in the 1600s the Iroquois managed to clear out all the Indians and Spaniards from South of the Ohio although they were unable to dislodge the tribes to the North. That may have been quite enough to convince the Spanish to simply abandon whatever it was they'd been doing there.
Of note, the first European cattle in Illinois, NORTH OF THE RIVERS, had long horns. The earliest European pig had long legbones and was clearly of the same breed commonly found in Spain.
Those animals probably didn't just walk across the Ohio or the Mississippi!
The half brother of Chief Powhatan was legendarily sired by a priest at that fort. He led the Massacre of 1622 against the settlers of Jamestowne, and while so engaged fathered a female ancestor of mine, purportedly via rape. Her name was Mary Sizemore.
Oh, and his name, a tough one to spell or pronounce. Opechancanough.
I guess there is a reason for a fifth visit, after all.
And a quick visit to the Pottery Factory.
One of my direct ancestors was a part of the founding of Jamestown and later went back to England and sailed as one of the Kings administrators on the Mayflower. He would have known Pocahontas and John Rolfe and some narratives say that he helped officiate at their marriage as a deacon.
One of my wife’s direct ancestors through the “Red” Bollings is John Rolfe, also a Jamestown founder and the man who married Pocahontas.
The boy pictured would be Thomas Rolfe, the only son of John and Pocahontas.
What sort of Protestant Church was it? Church of England?
Yep.. the Pottery is under a major renovation right now. Parts of it are open, though.
You wrote:
“Pizarro, a probable Spanish Protestant (certainly Carvajal was), worked for DeSoto.”
Pizarro was a life long Catholic. He never did anything that would indicate that he was a Protestant. He was baptized Catholic, worshipped ONLY in Catholic churches - might never have even seen a Protestant one - and helped build a number of Catholic churches himself. For crying out loud he laid the first stone of the CATHOLIC CATHEDRAL in Lima!!! Where do you get these bizarre ahistorical ideas of yours? Next you’ll be claiming there were Vikings in Russia in 1700! Oh, wait...you already did.
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