Charred remains of Jamestown church burned down in 1676 Bacon's Rebellion discovered

Charred remains of church believed to have been burned down in Nathaniel Bacon's Rebellion in 1676 are discovered in historic Jamestown

Jamestown, Virginia, is the site of the first permanent English settlement in North America
The uprising led by Nathaniel Bacon was the first in colonies, 100 years before the American Revolution
Angry over economic woes and relations with local Indians, Bacon's forces burned Jamestown to the ground
A burnt layer dating to the revoIt is all that remains of the parish church

Published: 00:03 BST, 23 September 2021 | Updated: 00:04 BST, 23 September 2021

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Archaeologists at Jamestown, Virginia—the site of the first permanent English settlement in North America—have uncovered rare evidence tied to the first revolt in the British colonies.

In September 1676, wealthy landowner Nathaniel Bacon led a siege of Jamestown over what he saw as Governor William Berkeley's appeasement of local Native tribes and burned down the new settlement, including its parish church.

More than 340 years later, in 2019, Jamestown Rediscovery archaeologist Sean Romo uncovered burnt deposits below the surface near where the church would have been.

At the time, Romo believed the charring could have come from one of three sources—including a fire that engulfed the first church on that site back in 1608 and Confederate troops making a hasty retreat in 1862.

But there was also a chance it came from a later church, the one destroyed during Bacon's 1676 uprising.

After examining artifacts found on top of the burned layer, the team at Jamestown Rediscovery has concluded they date to just after the 1676 conflagration.

That means the charred remains underneath were from the church destroyed in the blaze, the Virginia Gazette first reported.

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A group of poor farmers, indentured servants and enslaved Africans revolved against Jamestown governor William Berkeley, burning the colony to the ground in 1676

Among the items found on top of the deposits were window leads, grooved metal frames used to hold panes of glass in casement windows together.

Leads would often be etched with the glazier's initials and the date, providing crucial clues to a building's origins.

In a video, Jamestown Rediscovery senior conservator Dan Gamble says that leads 'sometimes hold a few secrets.'

Details in the leads Romo found enabled him to date them accurately.

Archaeologists with Jamestown Rediscovery discovered a burnt layer at the site of the historic settlement that came from the parish church destroyed in the conflagration

Among the items that helped date the burned layer were window leads, grooved metal frames used to hold panes of glass in casement windows together. Pictured: Example of 17th century window lead

The church burned in the rebellion wasn't the first one at Jamestown — that was destroyed 68 years earlier.

It wasn't even the second, where Pocahontas married John Rolfe.

Instead, it was the fourth — made of wood and brick, it took more than 11 years to complete.

The current structure, the seventh house of worship on the property, was completed in 1907 and is still in use today as an Anglican church.

While many like to consider Bacon's Rebellion the first revolt against British rule, it can be attributed 'to a myriad of causes,' according to the National Park Service.

A painting of British settlers landing at Jamestown, Virginia, the first permanent English settlement in America, in 1608

These include growing competition from Maryland, an increasingly restricted English market, a decline in tobacco prices and the rising costs of English manufactured goods.

In addition, many colonists resented Gov. Berkeley's failure to protect them from attacks by Native American tribes.

They aimed to drive the Indians from Virginia but Berkeley pleaded for restraint.

Bacon eventually riled poor farmers into a violent revolt against Berkeley's rule, which he saw as corrupt.

His forces burned Jamestown to the ground on September 19, 1676.

Bacon had the upper hand much of the time but died of dysentery on October 26, 1676, causing his rebellion to soon fall apart. (Berkeley was eventually recalled to England.)

According to director of archaeology Dave Givens, the discovery adds to the story of the church, the revolt and Jamestown itself.

'We have positive evidence of Bacon's Rebellion and the burning that took place,' Givens told the Gazette.

'The nice thing about this dig is that, as it evolves, it will help us understand more about the layers and what we're seeing every day.'

Today, visitors to Historic Jamestown can take a walking tour recounting the events of the rebellion and its impact on the colony and local Native communities.

The Tercentennial Monument also hosts a re-enactment of the city's burning as it occurred on September 19, 1676.

Though the rebellion was 345 years ago, the parish church continues to provide clues to the settlement's inhabitants.

In 2018, a headless skeleton was discovered on the site—archaeologists believe it belonged to Sir George Yeardley, Jamestown's governor and one of the first colonists to own enslaved people.

The village of Jamestown, circa 1615. Led by Nathaniel Bacon, a group of poor farmers, indentured servants and African slaves attacked Gov. William Berkeley in 1676, burning Jamestown to the ground

Experts say the skull probably deteriorated over time or was destroyed by subsequent burials, rather than being removed as a result of foul play.

The body was buried in what would have been the chancel, toward the front and center of the building.

'The closer you are to the chancel, the closer you are to God, essentially,' Kaitlyn Fitzgerald, an archaeologist with Jamestown Rediscovery, told WYDaily.

'You have to really be a prominent member of the society or in the clergy to be buried in the chancel of the church.'

Yeardley served as governor of the colony three times, and convened the first meeting of the House of Burgesses in 1619 – the same year enslaved Africans are believed to have arrived in English North America.

The bones indicate the deceased was in his late 30s or early 40s when he died, which lines up with what is known of Yeardley's death in 1627 around age 40.

DEMOCRACY, FREEDOM, CANNIBALISM, INDIAN WARS, PIRATES AND SLAVERY: JAMESTOWN'S CHECKERED PAST

Jamestown was the first successful English colony in the modern United States and set the conflicted tone for the future: a place which mixed idealism about democracy and freedom with slavery and conflict with Indians.

English colonists had tried and failed to set up home here before, most infamously at Roanoke, but in April 1607 finally gained a foothold which defeated starvation and drought in its first few months to become permanent.

It was named after King James I, the English king, and the first settlers came in three ships on a four month voyage which started in 1606.

They were welcomed by the Indians with dancing and tobacco, but by the end of 1607, as many as two-thirds of the English were dead thanks to attacks by Indians who had become hostile, and the fact the colonists arrived too late to plant crops - and anyway, too many were gentlemen who lacked practical skills.

Virginia past: A painting suggesting how Jamestown was in the early 1600s when it was the first successful English settlement

The Indians locally were led by Powhatan, and his daughter Pocahontas was to become a key part of history, when Smith was captured late in 1607 by one of her father's relatives.

Smith was later to relate to Queen Anne that she intervened to stop his brains being beaten out and 'hazarded the beating of her own brains to save mine,' securing his release and safe return to Jamestown.

In 1608, England sent supplies, gold, and more importantly skilled laborers and slowly, the colony started to thrive.

But then came the the 'Starving Time' of 1609 and 1610 - with scientific evidence now showing evidence of cannibalism among the settlers.

Also in 1609, colonists captured Pocahontas and held her for a year; she learned English and converted to Christianity.

By June 1610 there were just 60 survivors and ships were ready to take them to safety in Bermuda when another fleet arrived with supplies and men.

Among them were John Rolfe, who brought with him tobacco seeds from Trinidad which he started to farm upstream of Jamestown.

He became prosperous and wealthy and in 1614 married Pocahontas, the first recorded marriage between colonists and Indians, and they had a son the following year.

Eight years known as the Peace of Pocahontas followed - but not for the couple, who traveled to England in 1616; when they planned to return in March 1617 they got as far as Gravesend, Kent,just outside London, where Pocahontas died. John and their son returned to Virginia and thrived; they still have descendants in the United States.

By 1619, the colony was prospering, and ideals of democracy and religious freedom were being proclaimed - leading to the General Assembly being founded in July 1619.

The assembly was formed after the colonies introduced private property rights - which included the right to own slaves - and established that English common law was the law of the land.

Contested history: A woodcut showing the kidnapping of Pocahontas, the Indian princess who went on to marry John Smith in Jamestown before being taken to England and dying

The assembly, in the House of Burgesses, was 'to establish one equal and uniform government over all Virginia' and provide 'just laws for the happy guiding and governing of the people there inhabiting,' but only free men of English descent had the vote.

The colonists by then included Poles - who went to court and also went on the continent's first strike to secure equal voting rights - and indentured English servants, who could not vote.

But a new group of people also arrived - and not out of choice.

In the Carribean, English pirates seized captive Africans being taken to slavery in the Spanish colonies and brought around 20 of them to Jamestown - where they suffered the same fate of enslavement.

By 1622 the Indians led by Powhatan decided to try to eliminate the colony, ending the peace, and although Jamestown survived, its outposts did not.

Then in 1624, it became a direct royal possession, and continued to grow, now the official capital of the colony of Virginia.

It survived Indian wars and in 1644, imposed a peace treaty on defeated Indians which put them on a reservation, the first in the continent.

By 1676, Virginia was highly successful - but riven by class strife, leading to Bacon's Rebellion, as poorer men from the western frontier, indentured white servants and African slaves rose up under the leadership of colonist Nathaniel Bacon against the aristocratic masters, burning Jamestown to the ground.

They also tried to remove all Native Americans from Virginia; the rebellion faltered when Bacon died but in the aftermath slavery became along more clearly racial lines.

The end for Jamestown as the capital came when the statehouse accidentally burned to the ground in 1698, prompting a temporary move to WIlliamsburg, which became permanent the next year.

By the mid-1700s it was largely deserted, and although the 200th and 250th anniversaries of its founding were marked, it was mostly in ruins.

The land was farmed extensively until 1893, when its new owners donated 22 acres, including its then ruined church tower, to the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities.

That set off the area on a path which means that today more than 1,500 acres form a National Park with a live history museum and preserved remains of the settlement.