Wolstenholme Towne

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Wolstenholme Towne was an English settlement in the Colony of Virginia, 7 miles (11 km) east of the colonial capital, Jamestown. One of the earliest English settlements in the New World, the town existed for roughly four years until its destruction in the Indian massacre of 1622. The Wolstenholme Towne site was later built upon by the Carter's Grove plantation in 1750 and is located within the present-day community of Grove, Virginia, United States.

Establishment

Wolstenholme Towne was established around 1618 in

On March 22 1622 [O.S. 01 April 1622], the Native American Powhatans launched what became known as the Indian massacre of 1622. Modern scholarship has questioned this framing and suggested that the campaign was in retaliation for previous violent acts committed by the English.^[1] The Powhatan attacked settlements from the fall line of the James River to Hampton Roads, surprising the colonists in their homes and fields, burning and looting the settlements. This resulted in the killing of 347 of an estimated total of 1,200 colonists, a quarter of the population of Virginia. Martin's Hundred was the plantation hardest hit with more than 50 residents recorded as dead, with perhaps as many as 70 dying within the hundred. Wolstenholme Towne's death toll was not separated in the death rolls. Surviving settlers in Virginia were largely evacuated by governor's order to Jamestown, which had been spared due to a last-minute warning. Wolstenholme Towne, like almost all English settlements in the region, was permanently abandoned.

Modern status

In the 20th century, separate groups of

In December 2007, Carter's Grove was acquired from the

• List of former counties, cities, and towns of Virginia

Further reading

• Hume, Ivor Noël (June 1979). "First Look at a Lost Virginia Settlement".
  OCLC 643483454
  .
• Hume, Ivor Noël (January 1982). "New Clues to an Old Mystery".
  OCLC 643483454
  .