First Trip to Jamestown Virginia in November 2025 During the Government and National Park Service (NPS) Shutdown

Understanding Jamestown changes profoundly when viewed through the lives of one’s documented ancestors and their connection with the network of the colony’s leading families. It is interesting how one trip brings up questions begging for answers that only a return trip can provide. Popular accounts often simplify the history of early America. Original sources contemporary with the times provide a more accurate picture. Too often integral facts are left out and the true tenor of the times is altered.

Background – A First Trip to Jamestown

Jamestown, Virginia, is a historic settlement on the East Coast of the United States, first settled in 1607. That is more than a decade before its sister colony was settled at Plymouth, Massachusetts. Jamestown was part of the extensive area of the East Coast, the area between 34 and 45 degrees latitude and 100 miles inland, designated for settlement by the original charter granted to the London Company by the King of England.^[1] [2] That is the area roughly from Carolina Beach, North Carolina up to Perry, Maine.          

I recall a visit to Jamestown when I was a boy and seeing the ruins of an old brick church with gravestones outside it. The old church is still there, a silent sentinel standing guard over a host of burials in the area, most of them unmarked. Inside the church are plaques memorializing some significant founders, at least one of whom we now know is our documented ancestor.^[3] Little did I imagine then that one of the people mentioned on those plaques, Richard Pace an  Ancient Planter would fit into our family’s history.          

Jamestown has three separate entities showcasing its history, all charging admission. All three of the Jamestown entities, Jamestown Settlement, Jamestown Rediscovery and the National Park Service’s (NPS) Historic Jamestowne site are distinct and informative. A visit to all three gives the visitor a well-rounded introduction to this early Virginia settlement.

We visited the nearby Jamestown Settlement where replicas of the three ships that brought the first settlers float at dock. They also have an extensive museum with many historical artifacts and exhibits. Adjacent to the dock and museum there is an outstanding replica of the Jamestown settlement and fort. The Settlement has guides that describe the various occupations of the settlers and who demonstrate how those occupations were performed.          

Historic Jamestowne is connected by bridge to the NPS Museum. The NPS Historic Jamestowne museum is set on what was once the property of Jamestown’s Governor Yeardley. The visitor can walk from there across a long bridge spanning a marsh to what was once called New Town. New Town was a section of Jamestown where early leaders of the colony had homes and where one of the first government buildings in Virginia was constructed.

Our first visit NPS’ Historic Jamestowne museum was closed due to the “government shutdown”. The parking lots of the NPS areas were overgrown and buried in autumn leaves but the glass making building was operating and open to visitors. Several days into our visit the U.S. government “reopened” and we could enter the NPS museum building and view the museum exhibits.          

Adjacent to New Town is a section called Jamestown Rediscovery, the site of the original fort. Requiring its own admission fee it includes the ruin of the first church and cemetery, a replica of the Jamestown palisade, and a museum. Among notable items in the museum is a tribute to Captain Bartholomew Gosnold, an explorer, and one of the founders of Jamestown, who also gave Cape Cod its name.^[4] [5]

He was one of the early deaths in the extremely high mortality associated with early Jamestown settlement. In the first decades of the settlement roughly 75% of the settlers would die from disease (typhoid, dysentery, salt poisoning) and Indian attacks.^[6]

We also visited the Jamestown Historic Society located a few miles away. We noted prior to our visit the possibility of Jamestown ancestors and sought guidance on how to pursue that possibility. Their genealogists later validated our family descent from Richard and Isabella Pace. The full story of proving that genealogical descent can be read at our earlier article.^[8]

The Second Trip to Jamestown – A New Perspective

Our next trip to Jamestown in April 2026 was informed with the understanding that some of our documented ancestors were among the first settlers at Jamestown. Our intent on our second trip to Jamestown was to explore the lives of those ancestors from the perspective of a descendant.

Jamestown was the first successful foothold for English settlement in North America. From Jamestown they followed the rivers out into what would become the southern United States. Because it is the place of first successful settlement of the English, it is a very special place.

We were mostly interested in exploring the lives of Richard Pace and his wife Isabella, nee Isabella Smythe, and their son. Isabella outlived her husband Richard Pace. She, her offspring and subsequent husbands are documented in the historical record more than many of the very early Jamestown settlers.

The Plantations – Paces Paines

Isabella Smythe married her husband Richard Pace in 1608 in London (Stepney section) England. In 1622 Richard Pace warned Jamestown of the coming Indian massacre after being forewarned by a young Indian convert to Christianity living in his household. He alerted the town of the impending massacre in time for the town to prepare for its defense.^[9] 

Isabella and Richard were both early residents of Jamestown arriving sometime before 1616, earning them the rare designation of Ancient Planters. After Richard Pace died she married in 1628 her neighbor William Perry who died a decade later in 1637. She took as her third husband after William Perry’s death George Menefie.

Isabella and Richard Pace’s plantation was known as Paces Paines. After Richard Pace died Isabella and her next husband William Perry owned Paces Paines plantation and Buckland plantation as well as a house in the New Town section of Jamestown. We located the site of Paces Paines but the property is fenced off and was not allowing visitors entrance.          

Macock Plantation

We also located Macock Plantation. Much of it is now a very extensive tree farm area. The section close to the river was closed to visitors.

Westover Plantation

On the old maps Westover Plantation is adjacent to Buckland Plantation. We were hoping to locate Buckland Plantation and also the site of the old Westover Church.

William Perry, George Menefie and probably Isabella are buried in the cemetery of the original Westover Church. Fortunately for our visit, the Westover plantation was open to visitors for an annual garden week event. We spoke at the entrance with three local women that were collecting entrance fees to the event.          

Two of the younger women were not familiar with the very early history of the area but an older lady with them was. She directed us to the location of what was the Buckland plantation. They also directed us to the cemetery of the old Westover Church. The cemetery is adjacent to Westover Plantation and is a short walk from the plantation entrance.

We located the grave markers for William Perry and George Menifee, Isabella’s husbands. Isabella is probably buried nearby but there is no marker for her. After paying our respects at the cemetery we drove in the direction we were told we would see Buckland.

Buckland Plantation

Not having much luck locating the plantation we stopped at a roadside garden eatery that we noticed had the name Buckland and spoke to the owner. Fortune smiled on our endeavor that day once again. After we explained our connection to the early planters at the property she said Buckland was the name of her farm and offered to show us the property.

She and her daughter graciously took us on a tour of the property. Touring Buckland showed us a portion of what was an even larger plantation in the early 1600’s. Buckland today is a lovely, extensive and historic location. Visiting the property where ancestors lived and worked hundreds of years ago was a gift, and a wonderful insight into the life of Isabella and her family.          

Jamestown’s New Town Section – Home to Jamestown’s Leaders

In the 1620s the governing elite of Jamestown consisted of a small group of people and families: the Council, leading merchants, military officers, and large plantation owners. Isabella and William Perry owned a house in the New Town section of Jamestown living among this group. Isabella also owned 200 acres in the corporation of James City.^[11]

Isabella Perry, appears on a map that shows the layout of the early New Town. The lot, owned earlier by Captain Roger Smith, is shown on the map slightly above the foundations of an early Virginia State House foundation site, outlined at center bottom of the map. The foundations of the State House are well marked for visitors at NPS Historic Jamestown, making locating Isabella’s lot easy.

We walked around this area on our first trip and it was intriguing to see the first successful American settlement. On this second trip, knowing that Isabella and other Jamestown settlers are our ancestors, being here was stirring and we spent much more time absorbing the place.

What was it like to have been an early settler here, harassed by Powhatan warriors, with a horrendous death rate from starvation, Indian attacks and disease. Certainly life was short and uncertain for most of the settlers.          

The view of the James River is beautiful and would have been so then. Many of the trees are tall, large and ancient and would have been even more so in early Jamestown. The town was bustling with tobacco trade then, and there must have been an atmosphere of excitement as the area expanded, trade grew, newcomers arrived and plantations along the river prospered with the tobacco trade.          

Isabella’s son George Pace married Sarah Maycock.^[12]  Together George and Sarah Pace owned Maycock’s Plantation right across the river from Buckland.^[13]  Their land was next to Pierce’s Hundred (probably Abraham Piercey’s land) and Flowerdew, as noted in a legal document in 1658.^[14]

 Sarah Maycock was the daughter of Samuel Maycock. She was only two years old when her father, a Jamestown minister and leader was killed in the Indian Massacre.^[16]  [17]  After the Indian massacre Sarah Maycock grew up in the home of her guardian Captain Roger Smith and his wife Joan Pierce. Captain Roger Smith ensured through the court that Sarah Maycock inherited 200 acres of land that was earned by, and due to be paid to, her father.

Joan Pierce’s father was Captain William Pierce. Before she married Captain Roger Smith, Joan Pierce was the third wife of John Rolfe, the father of early Virginia’s tobacco industry.^[18]  John Rolfe married Joan Pierce after the death of his wife Pocahontas, the famous daughter of chief Powhatan. Joan’s father Captain William Pierce was another Jamestown leader. As shown on the New Town map, he owned a lot in Jamestown contiguous to Isabella’s lot.          

Clearly there is a suggestion of a network here of family relations among the leadership of Jamestown. Taken together the records form a tapestry of associations among these Jamestown families through land ownership, guardianship, marriage, and close vicinity. While the records do not establish every relationship, a reasonable inference could be made that they may have belonged to the same kinship or patronage network.

Repopulating After the Massacre – New Settlers Recruited in England

For many years the settlers warred with the Powhatans and peace was intermittent. In the early colonies of North America this was not unusual for the natives. War was almost constant and land went to the most powerful tribe.

 “This dichotomy [of war and peace] is nearly irrelevant in Native American cultures,” the anthropologist Frederic W. Gleach has written, “where war and peace were often ongoing, simultaneous processes …”   ^[19]

Around a third of the Jamestown area settlers died in the Indian massacre of 1622 – “there fell under the bloody and barbarous hands of that perfidious and inhumane people, contrary to all laws of God and men, of Nature & Nations, three hundred forty seven men, women, and children, most by their own weapons; and not being content with taking away life alone, they fell after again upon the dead, making as well as they could, a-fresh murder, defacing, dragging, and mangling the dead carcasses into many pieces, and carrying some parts away in derision, with base and bruitish triumph.”^[20]   

After the massacre, vengeance and repopulation would become the English focus. The massacre was seen as tragic but also as a righteous cause to return war on the natives and seize whatever they wanted. A call was put out in England for retribution with profit as an added reward. Jamestown was called healthy, “Spatious and fruitful Country of Virgina, is (as is generally knowne to all) naturally rich, and exceedingly well watered, very temperate, and health-full to the Inhabitants…^[21]

The reference to Jamestown being healthful was misleading. Of the “3,570 people sent over in the three years before the massacre” most were already dead prior to the massacre. No doubt many of them were victims of the unhealthy environment.^[22]  [23]

 “Disease claimed considerably more colonists than 28% between 1618 and 1624. The overall contribution of disease to death is estimated from the overall censuses and immigration figures, …Between December 1618 and February 1624, about 5,145 persons resided in or immigrated to Virginia; 24.8% survived in 1624, 49.3% died from disease and 25.9% died from other causes or went back to England. Two of every three deaths resulted from typhoid, dysentery and salt poisoning.“  ^[24]

The recruitment of new settlers included notice that the best cultivated Indian lands would be taken as a right of war because of the massacre:

…wherein treachery and cruelty have done their worst to us, or rather to themselves; for whose understanding is so shallow, as not to perceive that this must needs be for the good of the Plantation after, and the loss of this blood to make the body more healthful, as by these reasons may be manifest… Because our hands which before were tied with gentleness and faire visage are now set at liberty by the treacherous violence of the Savages… not untying the Knot, but cutting it. So that we who hitherto have had possession of no more ground than their waste, and our purchase at a valuable consideration to their own contentment, gained; may now by right of Warre, and law of Nations, invade the Country, and destroy them who fought to destroy us whereby we shall-enjoy their cultivated places, turning the laborious Mattock into the victorious Sword (wherein there is more both ease, benefit, and glory) and possessing the fruits of others labors. Now their cleared grounds in all their villages (which are situate in the fruitfullest places of the land) shall be inhabited by us, whereas heretofore the grubbing of woods was the greatest labor.^[25]

The broadly published recruitment proposal advised a quick immigration in order to avenge the massacre and take advantage of the large opportunity that would open when the Indians were defeated:

“To conclude then, seeing that Virginia is most abundantly fruitful, and that this Massacre must rather be beneficial to the Plantation then impair it, let all men take courage, and put to their helping hands, since now the time is most seasonable and advantageous for the reaping of those benefits which the Plantation hath long promised: and for their own good let them do it speedily, that so by taking the priority of time, they may have also the priority of place, in choosing the best Seats of the Country, which now by vanquishing of the Indians, is like to offer a more ample and faire choice of fruitful habitations then hitherto our gentleness and faire comportment to the Savages could attain unto.”^[26]

Hundreds of miles away, Jamestown’s sister colony Plymouth, also fearing attack, was timely warned about what had happened by the captain of a passing fishing vessel:

“This boat which came from ye eastward brought them a letter from a stranger, of whose name they had never heard before, being a captaine of a ship come ther a fishing. This leter was as followeth. Being thus inscribed:

To all his good freinds at Plimoth, these, &c.

Freinds, cuntrimen, & neighbours: I salute you, and wish you all health and hapines in ye Lord. I make bould with these few lines to trouble you, because unless I were unhumane, I can doe no less. Bad news doth spread it selfe too farr; yet I will so farr informe you that my selfe, with many good freinds in ye south-collonie of Virginia, have received shuch a blow, that 400 persons large will not make good our losses. Therfore I doe intreat you (allthough not knowing you) that ye old rule which I learned when I went to schoole, may be sufflcente. That is, Hapie is he whom other mens harmes doth make to beware. And now againe and againe, wishing all those yet willingly would serve ye Lord, all health and haippines in this world, and everlasting peace in ye world to come. And so I rest,

Yours,

John Hudlston”^[27]

Conclusion

This was the world Isabella adventured to with Richard Pace. Beautiful, brutal, bountiful and dangerous. A place where one faced a struggle to survive. To die, or to survive and take possession of the place as traditionally done for thousands of years.

It was the world that Isabella and Richard Pace’s son George Pace and the orphaned Sarah Maycock who he married grew up in. We visited some of the plantations they founded and places they lived. It is difficult to comprehend the hardships they endured and their struggles for survival, but survive they did. Incredibly, and against the odds, they were among those who planted the first foothold for English settlement in North America.

For many visitors, Jamestown is just an archaeological site and one of the early English towns in America. For descendants of its settlers it is more personal. The names on placards and monuments are members of one’s own family. The crumbling walls and foundations of church and house ruins become places where their documented ancestors lived and worshiped. Court records, land patents, ancient maps and parish registers transform from historical documents into chapters of a family’s story. Genealogy here spans more than four centuries, allowing descendants to experience Jamestown not simply as history, but as inherited memory.

There is much more to the story of Jamestown and its early settlers. Much of this history is forgotten and receives little attention in popular accounts. We hope to return and explore the area again, and to follow the trail of our branch of the descendants of the Jamestown settlers as they moved into North Carolina, Georgia, Illinois, Wisconsin and Michigan.

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^[1]  William Waller Hening, ed., The Statutes at Large; Being a Collection of All the Laws of Virginia from the First Session of the Legislature, in the Year 1619, v.1, p. 58, Bartow, New York,1823. https://archive.org/details/statutesatlargeb01virg/page/59/mode/2up

^[2]  The First Virginia Charter  (April 10, 1606). https://www.let.rug.nl/usa/documents/1600-1650/the-first-virginia-charter-1606.php

^[3]   Elizabeth Scott Wright,  Jamestowne Society Genealogical Proofs. https://theboatinggenealogists.com/2026/01/29/jamestowne-society-genealogical-proofs-the-lanes-kirkpatricks-tuckers/

^[4]   Natalie  Zacek, Bartholomew Gosnold (1571–1607), Encyclopedia Virginia, 2020. https://encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/gosnold-bartholomew-1571-1607/

^[5]  Captain Bartholomew Gosnold, Jamestowne Rediscovery, https://historicjamestowne.org/history/captain-bartholomew-gosnold-gosnoll/

^[6]  Carville Earle, Environment Disease and Mortality in Early Virginia, p. 368-371, 381, 383-385, Journal of Historical Geography, 5, 4, 1979. https://faculty.salisbury.edu/~mllewis/607pdfs/earle.pdf

^[7] Map by Ralph Hall, Virginia Recto, 1637. https://www.loc.gov/resource/g3880.ct006343r/?r=0.041,0.063,0.509,0.23,0 and https://bostonraremaps.com/inventory/ralph-hall-virginia-1636/?srsltid=AfmBOoop_4Mo8d4xcWUUBSRLqHWuYUXqoPZluTShzovOvMQY0yZvRdFu

^[8]  Elizabeth Scott Wright, Jamestowne Society Genealogical Proofs. https://theboatinggenealogists.com/2026/01/29/jamestowne-society-genealogical-proofs-the-lanes-kirkpatricks-tuckers/

^[9]  Edward Waterhouse,  A Declaration of the State of the Colony and Affaires in Virginia. : With a Relation of the Barbarous Massacre, p. 20-21, G. Ekd for Robert Mylbourne, London 1622. https://archive.org/details/declarationofsta00wate/page/20/mode/1up

^[10]  John V. Reps,  Tidewater Towns: City Planning in Colonial Virginia and Maryland, The University Press of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, 1972.

^[11]  Nell Marion Nugent, Virginia Genealogical Society, Cavaliers and pioneers; abstracts of Virginia land patents and grants, 1623-1800, p. 10, Virginia State Library; 1934. https://archive.org/details/cavalierspioneer00nuge/page/10/mode/2up?q=pace

^[12]  Martha W. McCartney, Virginia Immigrants and Adventurers 1607-1635, p. 471-472, Genealogical Pub. Co., Baltimore, 2007.

^[13]  Joshua Fry and Peter Jefferson,  A map of the most inhabited part of Virginia containing the whole province of Maryland with part of Pensilvania, New Jersey and North Carolina, 1751.  https://www.loc.gov/resource/g3880.ct000370/?__cf_chl_tk=iFKEGwgXRRz3rXrS0WrM6KZpZm6hRleFDFuEusAUM5k-1782001877-1.0.1.1-48eA7uT5ViIcG2sfS6zXO.j5bmsdpp.IjnDJD0I.Q7I

^[14]  Freda Reid Turner, Compiler,  History of the Pace Family, p. 43-44, Wolfe, Roswell GA, 1995. https://publiclibrary.cc/digitalcollections/files/original/12/13651/Pace-Family-History.pdf

^[15]  Charles E. Hatch, Jr.,  The First Seventeen Years, Virginia 1607-1624, Charlottesville, Virginia, University Press of Virginia, 1957. https://archive.org/details/firstseventeenye00hatc/page/32/mode/2up

^[16]  Freda Reid Turner, Compiler,  History of the Pace Family, p. 45-47, Wolfe, Roswell GA, 1995.  Also see note 12 above. https://publiclibrary.cc/digitalcollections/files/original/12/13651/Pace-Family-History.pdf                    

^[17]  Lyon Gardiner Tyler, Ll. D., Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography,  Samuel Maycock, Vol. I, p. 94, Lewis, New York, 1915. https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofvi01tyleuoft/page/94/mode/1up?q=%22samuel+Maycock%22

^[18]  Nell Marion Nugent, Virginia Genealogical Society,  Cavaliers and pioneers; abstracts of Virginia land patents and grants, 1623-1800, p. xxx,   Virginia State Library; 1934. https://archive.org/details/cavalierspioneer00nuge/page/n45/mode/2up

^[19]  Brendan Wolfe, First Anglo-Powhatan War (1609–1614), Encyclopedia Virginia, 2020. https://encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/first-anglo-powhatan-war-1609-1614/

^[20]  Edward Waterhouse,  A Declaration of the State of the Colony and Affaires in Virginia. : With a Relation of the Barbarous Massacre, p. 14, G. Ekd for Robert Mylbourne, London 1622.  https://archive.org/details/declarationofsta00wate/page/14/mode/1up

^[21]  Edward Waterhouse,  A Declaration of the State of the Colony and Affaires in Virginia. : With a Relation of the Barbarous Massacre, p. 3, G. Ekd for Robert Mylbourne, London 1622. https://archive.org/details/declarationofsta00wate/page/3/mode/1up

^[22]  Edward Waterhouse,  A Declaration of the State of the Colony and Affaires in Virginia. : With a Relation of the Barbarous Massacre, p. 6, G. Ekd for Robert Mylbourne, London 1622. https://archive.org/details/declarationofsta00wate/page/6/mode/1up

^[23]  Charles E. Hatch, Jr., The First Seventeen Years Virginia, 1607-1624, p. 28, University Press of Virginia, Charlottesville, 1991. https://archive.org/details/firstseventeenye00hatc/page/28/mode/1up

^[24]  Carville Earle,  Environment Disease and Mortality in Early Virginia, p. 383, Journal of Historical Geography, 5, 4, 1979.  https://faculty.salisbury.edu/~mllewis/607pdfs/earle.pdf https://faculty.salisbury.edu/~mllewis/607pdfs/earle.pdf

^[25]  Edward Waterhouse, A Declaration of the State of the Colony and Affaires in Virginia. : With a Relation of the Barbarous Massacre, p. 22-23, G. Ekd for Robert Mylbourne, London 1622. https://archive.org/details/declarationofsta00wate/page/22/mode/1up

^[26]  Edward Waterhouse,  A Declaration of the State of the Colony and Affaires in Virginia. : With a Relation of the Barbarous Massacre, p. 33, G. Ekd for Robert Mylbourne, London 1622. https://archive.org/details/declarationofsta00wate/page/33/mode/1up

^[27]  William Bradford, Bradford’s History “Of Plimoth Plantation.”, p. 150-151, Wright & Potter, Boston, 1901. https://archive.org/details/bradfordshisto00brad/page/150/mode/1up

© Bruce A. Wright, Esq 2026