East London Monument to the Virginia Settlers

On the banks of the Thames at Blackwall stands a monument to a cold December day in 1606 when three small ships Susan Constant, the Godspeed and the Discovery set sail from this spot, aboard were the first settlers setting out for the New World since those who had vanished after landing at Roanoake ten years before. It was also fourteen years before the Mayflower made it’s epic journey.

The passage wasn’t an easy one, and it wasn’t made easier that most on board weren’t experienced sailors but merchants who had never been to sea before. Many, too many it is thought, were classed as 'gentlemen' hardly the sort ready for the task that lay ahead of them.

During the voyage there were times when the ships lay becalmed and it was at one of these times that Capt John Smith a soldier and adventurer was charged with mutiny by Captain Christopher Newport who as well as being captain of the Susan Constant was in overall charge of the three ships. Smith was held securely awaiting execution.

Towards the end of April 1607 they came within site of their destination at Chesapeake Bay, one of the first things that was done was to open the sealed box that had been given to hem in England. The box contained a list of seven names who were to be councillors and charged with running the settlement. Among the names was that of Captain John Smith who was duely freed of all charges and wrote himself into history. By now many of the men and boys were exhausted by the long and arduous trip, and by sickness, one young man had died on the journey, so as they sailed up a river, which they named after King James, they decided to tie up in a shady bend to recuperate.

A month later the settlers began to establish the Virginia English colony on the banks of the James River

60 miles from the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay in which is now Virginia, almost immediately the settlers came under attack by the Algonquian indians, so for security they set about building a fort. Legend has it that Captain Smith was captured by the Algonquians and his life was saved by Pocahontas the daughter of Chief , but this is thought now to have been much romanticised.

Disease, famine and continuing attacks of neighboring Algonquians took a tremendous toll on the population so that by 1609 only sixty of the original two hundred and fourteen settlers survived, but then came the arrival of Lord De La Ware, who had been appointed the governor of the settlement now called Jamestown, with him came supply ships and the colony was able to survive.

The following year saw the arrival of a certain Captain John Rolf, he had been shipwrecked off the coast of Bermuda but had somehow managed to find his way to the settlement bringing with him tobacco seeds, which thrived in the Virginian climate so that in just two years he was the owner of a sizeable plantation, as the demand grew in the coming years it became responsible for Virginia’s future economy.

It’s here in 1613 that Pocahontas enters the story again, during yet another dispute with the Algonquians she was kidnapped by the settlers and taken to the fort she was held as ransom for the English prisoners being held by the Indians, and also some arms which had been stolen by them.. By now she was in her late teens or early twenties, it was here that she eventually met Captain Rolf, she was held in captivity for nearly a year, though she was given free run of the fort. When she was finally released she is said to have told her two brothers that she was in love with John Rolf. What follows is somewhat unclear but the outcome is that the two were married, whether it was a love match or a means of keeping the peace between two warring factions we shall never know, but within a year the two were married.

This was after Pocahontas was converted to Christianity christened Rebecca, for John Rolf was by all accounts a deeply religious man who debated long and hard about the decision to marry this ‘strange’ young woman, then the decision was made on the grounds that it would be good "for the good of the plantation, the honor of our country, for the glory of God, for mine own salvation ..."

Pocahontas gave birth to a son they named Thomas, and the couple seemed happy enough so that when John returned to England in 1616 his wife and young son came with him. When they arrived in England they went to London and were received by the King.  Pocahontas soon became the toast of high society, it was during her time in London that she met Capt Smith again who had left the colony in 1609, on seeing him she is reported as being unable to speak for she had thought he had died, but she soon recovered and together they spoke of the old times, this was the last time the two who would forever be linked together by history would meet.

Seven months later it was time to return to America, but as the ship began its voyage along the Thames it became clear that Pocahontas was seriously ill, it was agreed she should be taken ashore but sadly all efforts to save her failed, it is thought she had developed tuberculosis. She was buried in the vault of St George’s Gravesend. In 1727 the church was destroyed by fire, and when it was later rebuilt all remains, including those of Pocahontas were reburied in a communal grave. However a statue of her now stands in the churchyard; by this time John Rolf returned to America with his young son.

Relations between the settlers and the Algonquians had always been an uneasy one but in 1622 it spilled over into hostility leaving over 300 settlers dead, but somehow the fort survived. King James used this opportunity to revoke the Charter of the Virginia Company which had run the fort up until 1624 when it became a royal colony. The fort remained in existence until it gradually grew into Jamestown and gradually the fort disappeared.

The Monument

In 1928 a plaque commemerating the 'Virginia Settlers' was attached to the Dock Masters house at to what then was called Blackwall Quay. 

It was quite near this spot that the three ships sailed off to find a home in the 'new world'. The Dock Masters house has the appearance of once being a public house which it probably was. The plaque is just visible before the row of arches.

It remained there until world war two when the docks were the target of the intense bombing by the Luftwaffe, as were many docks throughout the country. The Dock Masters house was among those that suffered bomb damage in the Blitz so the plaque was removed.

In 1951 the P.L.A (Port of London Authority} erected a new memorial with the original plaque attached to large granite blocks and topped with a bronze mermaid. It was officially unveiled by the then American Ambassador Walter Gifford.

http://www.britishpathe.com/video/virginia-settlers-memorial/query/katherine

Some time later the monument was vandalised and the mermaid was stolen.

As a postscript to this story the following appeared in the press Febuary 2007.

A mermaid statue made to commemorate the first British settlers in America has turned up at an auction in Billericay after going missing from its plinth.

The bronze topped the statue which marked the spot in Docklands from where three boats set off for the New World.

When a nearby power station was demolished in 1984, the area became neglected and the mermaid disappeared from its plinth.

This week it reappeared at the auction of dealer Alan Marks's entire collection. He bought the near lifesize statue from a man in Hatfield Heath 15 years ago and since then it has sat in his back garden.

Mr Marks decided to sell it because he was moving but it failed to reach its £1,500 reserve.

In the 1990's the whole area was cleared for redevelopment and the monument was reinstated by Barratt Homes in 1999. Today 'The Mariners Astrolabe' sits atop the monument. The Mariners Astrolabe was used to detirmine the latitude of a ship at sea.  

The monument was unveiled by the current US Ambassador and the ceremony attended by th 'Jamestowne Society whose members need to prove they are descended from the original settlers, also included was a march past by pikemen and musketeers. So here it stands surrounded by streets renamed in honour of those brrave settlers of Jamestown.