Markers of History

Historic Jamestowne mark­ers
Governor Harvey’s House, 1630s

Location: Colonial NHP, Jamestown, VA 23185

Visited: July 4, 2009, 1:55pm

Transcription of marker: John Harvey served as a mem­ber of a royal com­mis­sion inves­ti­gat­ing con­di­tions in Virginia in 1624. As a reward, he received land at the east end of New Towne. There he prob­a­bly built a res­i­dence and a wharf.

A tem­pera­men­tal sea cap­tain, Harvey was twice charged with beat­ing oth­ers – a ser­vant for demand­ing his free­dom and Richard Stephens, a coun­cil­man and fre­quent Harvey opponent.

When newly knighted Sir John Harvey returned as the new gov­er­nor of Virginia in 1630, he acquired addi­tional prop­erty, the for­mer Governor Sir George Yeardley’s lot across Pitch and Tar Swamp and this prime New Towne lot. Here he built a fine house that often dou­bled as the state­house dur­ing the 1630s.

Although the crown replaced Harvey as gov­er­nor in 1639, his house con­tin­ued in use as a state­house through the 1640s and 1650s. When Sir William Berkeley arrived in 1642, it again dou­bled as a town res­i­dence for the gov­er­nor. After Bacon’s rebels sacked and burned Jamestown in 1676, the house was rebuilt for a final time.

My impres­sions: I don’t know what is more sur­pris­ing to me: a pri­vate home being used as a state­house or the fact that it con­tin­ued that way after the owner was no longer gov­er­nor. I guess, think­ing about it a lit­tle more, it is less sur­pris­ing than it ini­tially seems, because the gov­er­nor was an appointed posi­tion at the time. I won­der if Governor Harvey returned to England after he was replaced. If so, he wouldn’t have needed it any longer, at least for a while. (I mean, he did leave in the 1920s and return to serve as governor.

I won­der what qual­i­ties there were that led the crown to decide that a “tem­pera­men­tal for­mer sea cap­tain” was suit­able to gov­ern the colony. Was his style a help or a hin­drance? Or was he tem­pera­men­tal enough that the English were just as happy to see him on the other side of the ocean from them?

Historic Jamestowne mark­ers
Swann’s Tavern, 1670s

Location: Historic Jamestown, Colonial NHP, Jamestown, VA 23185

Visited: July 4, 2009, 1:55pm

Transcription of marker: Although coun­cil­man Colonel Thomas Swann resided across the James River at his Swann Point plan­ta­tion, he also leased a Jamestown tav­ern that pro­vided accom­mo­da­tions to colonists who attended the assem­bly and courts, or had busi­ness in town.

Documents and exca­va­tion of a large brick foun­da­tion iden­tify this struc­ture as pos­si­ble Col. Swann’s tav­ern. The elon­gated four-room ground floor was typ­i­cal of such estab­lish­ments. An abun­dance of bot­tle glass and a brass spigot from casks of beer or cider stored in the cel­lar, pro­vide addi­tional evi­dence of such use.

Because Col. Swann, nick­named “ye greate toad,” advised the rebel Nathaniel Bacon, his Swann’s Point plan­ta­tion remained undam­aged dur­ing Bacon’s Rebellion. Charred tim­bers here, how­ever, sug­gest that his tav­ern burned dur­ing the sack of Jamestown. Repaired by 1679, the tav­ern con­tin­ued to oper­ate along with the dozen oth­ers in the town.

My impres­sions: The first thing that started ring­ing bells from this marker for me is the name Nathaniel Bacon, because at about the time I was start­ing to snarf land­marks and log them on Markeroni (and later on this blog), my wife and I drove to a church retreat a cou­ple of hours away. And on the way, we passed numer­ous his­tor­i­cal mark­ers. On the way home, I counted about a dozen. But because of dis­tance, time, and the fact that we were dri­ving another mem­ber of our con­gre­ga­tion with us, we didn’t stop for any of them, but I def­i­nitely remem­ber the odd-sounding title of Bacon’s Castle. So, while I expect I’ll learn more when we make our next trip that way and I’m able to read the marker, I also know what name to research should I want to learn more in the interim.

The other thing, related to that, is to think about the influ­ence of being an insider. From the retelling on this marker, Swann was able to use his insider’s “pull” to keep his lands across the river safe from Bacon and his rebel­lion. But it also shows that the pull has lim­its, as the tav­ern here appar­ently burned. Some things seem to be with us for­ever, and insider influ­ence seems to be one of them!