A Pictorial Booklet on Early Jamestown Commodities and Industries Part 4

The silk-making venture died a hard death, but the large mulberry trees which still grow in many places in Tidewater Virginia (perhaps scions of seventeenth century ones) are reminders of a day when a few Virginia colonists fed and nurtured silkworms and "wound off" silk thread onto primitive wooden reels.

In the conjectural ill.u.s.tration a woman is drawing silk thread from the cods; the man is winding the thread on a wooden reel.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Research on painting by author. Photo courtesy National Park Service.

Drawing And Winding Silk Thread, About 1650

_Conjectural Painting_]

POTTERY

There is definite evidence that pottery was made at Jamestown over 300 years ago. A kiln site was uncovered in 1955, and nearby were found overfired pots, misshaped vessels, and mis-glazed pieces--undoubtedly from the "waster" pile. Also found near the kiln site were two complete pots, and hundreds of fragments from local-made vessels which were used in the colony between 1625 and 1650--indisputable evidence that crude, utilitarian, lead-glazed earthenware was made at Jamestown during the seventeenth century.

Although made for everyday use, many of the pieces unearthed at the Jamestown kiln site are symmetrical in form and not entirely lacking in beauty. One can easily see that the craftsman took pride in shaping the pieces, as three centuries later the crude wares are still pleasing to behold.

The Jamestown potter, indeed, was no young apprentice or mere farmer who potted on the side. The potter's art, then as now, was a highly specialized one, rooted in a long tradition. Our potter was an artisan, trained in the mysteries of a medieval craft, and it was probably he who first transplanted his ancient skills to the Virginia wilderness.

The conjectural ill.u.s.tration shows a Jamestown potter shaping a vessel on his crude kick wheel.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Research on painting by author. Photo courtesy National Park Service.

Making Pottery At Jamestown About 1625

_Conjectural Painting_]

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Photo courtesy National Park Service._

Examples Of Lead-Glazed Earthenware Made At Jamestown Between 1625 and 1640

The pottery vessels shown were found near the site of an early seventeenth-century pottery kiln discovered on Jamestown Island in 1833.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: The Potter:

The Potter 1, sitting over a Wheel 2, maketh Pots 4, Pitchers 5, Pipkins 6, Platters 7, Pudding-Pans 8, Juggs 9, Lids 10, &c of Potters-clay 3, afterwards he baketh them in an Oven 11, and glazeth them with White-Lead. A broken pot, affordeth Pot-sheards, 12.

Courtesy Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, D. C.

Making Pottery In The Seventeenth Century

The kick wheel used by the Jamestown potter may have resembled the one in the seventeenth-century engraving.

From _Orbis Sensualium Pictus_ by Johann Comenius (London, 1685).]

METALWORKING

As early as 1608 two goldsmiths--William Johnson and Richard Belfield--emigrated to Jamestown. With them were two refiners and a jeweler. Although John Smith wrote that these artisans "never had occasion to exercise their craft," it is possible that they made a few small objects of silver, pewter, and latten metal (a bra.s.s-like alloy).

In spite of the fact that few specimens of silver and pewter were found at Jamestown, seventeenth century records and inventories indicate that many Virginia families owned such wares, including cups, beakers, dishes, salts, salvers, tankards, porringers, bowls, and plates.

A pewterer who lived thirty miles from Jamestown--Joseph Copeland by name--made the oldest dated piece of American pewter which has been found. In the 1930's, National Park Service archeologists, working at Jamestown, recovered the significant specimen--an incomplete pewter spoon which is a variant of the trifid or split-end type common during the 1650-1690 period. Impressed on the handle, in the trefoil finial of the stem is the mark of the maker, giving his name, the Virginia town where he worked, and the year he started business. The matchless spoon bears the sole surviving "touch" or mark of an American pewterer of the seventeenth century. The complete legend, encircling a heart, reads: "IOSEPH COPELAND/1675/CHUCKATUCK." (Chuckatuck is a small Virginia village located about thirty miles southeast of Jamestown.) Copeland later moved to Jamestown, and as he worked in the statehouse from 1688-1691 he may have made pewter in Virginia's capital "Citty."

The conjectural sketch shows a Jamestown metalworker making spoons.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Making Pewter Spoons At Jamestown About 1675 _Conjectural sketch_]

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Photo courtesy National Park Service_ A Unique Pewter Spoon Handle Found At Jamestown The rather commonplace and incomplete spoon fragment ill.u.s.trated is significant for many reasons. Its prime importance is that it is the oldest known pewter object of American manufacture. The mark on the handle is the sole surviving one of an American pewterer of the seventeenth century. The mark reveals that the spoon was made in 1675 by Joseph Copeland, who worked at Chuckatuck, Virginia (located thirty miles southeast of Jamestown).]

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Photo courtesy National Park Service._ Items Left At Jamestown By Early Metalworkers The bra.s.s weights, ingot of sc.r.a.p bra.s.s, and silver spoon shown, which were unearthed at Jamestown, are reminders of a bygone day when metalworkers made beautiful things in Virginia's colonial capital over three centuries ago. Contemporary records indicate that many metalworkers emigrated to Virginia during the seventeenth century.]

FISHING

When the first settlers planted their small colony at Jamestown the tidewater rivers and bays teemed with many kinds of fish and seafood.

Varieties which soon appeared on the colonists' tables included sheepshead, shad, sturgeon, herring, sole, white salmon, ba.s.s, flounder, pike, bream, perch, rock, and drum; as well as oysters, crabs, and mussels.

The day after the colonists reached Virginia, April 27, 1607, George Percy observed that the oysters were large and tasty:

We came to a place where they [the Indians] had made a great fire, and had beene newly a rosting oysters. When they perceived our comming, they fled away to the mountaines, and left many of the oysters in the fire.

We eat some of the oysters, which were very large and delicate in taste.

The following day, April 28, Percy noted that some of the oysters had pearls:

... we got good store of mussels and oysters, which lay on the ground as thicke as stones. Wee opened some, and found in many of them pearles.

The Jamestown planters who wrote accounts of the new colony commented on the abundance and variety of fish and sh.e.l.lfish in the rivers and creeks near the "capital citty." It seems rather surprising, therefore, that so many colonists died during the first autumn "of meere famine," as reported by Percy, when the James River teemed with fish, oysters, and crabs.

Captain Gabriel Archer, Gentleman, mentioned a seven foot sturgeon which was caught on June 13, 1607: "Our Admiralls men gatt a sturgeon of 7 foote long which Captayne Newport gave us." George Percy commented on the excellence of the sturgeon in the James River:

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Photo courtesy National Park Service._ Fishhooks, Fish-gigs, Lead Net-Weights The artifacts shown were excavated at Jamestown. These objects and many others found, are reminders of a day when fish and sh.e.l.lfish lived in abundance in every creek, river, and bay, in Tidewater Virginia.]

There are many branches of this river, which runne flowing through the woods with great plentie of fish of all kindes; as for sturgeon, all the world cannot be compared to it....

John Smith and William Strachey also listed the delicious and palatable varieties of fish and sh.e.l.lfish which were found in Virginia waters, revealing that seafood was an important source of food for the colonists. At times, especially during the early years, it was one of the main sources.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Repairing Nets At Jamestown About 1620 _Conjectural sketch_ Seafood was an important food for the early colonists. At times, especially during the first years of the settlement, it was one of the main foodstuffs.]