19 April 2008: Meeting and Luncheon, Henricus Historical Park, Chester, Virginia

Views of Henricus from DiscoverRichmond website

Members and their Guests
are cordially invited to attend
the Spring 2008 Meeting
at Henricus Historical Park,
Chester, Virginia,
on Saturday, April 19, 2008.

Meeting at 10:30 A.M., Education Center
Luncheon following the Meeting at the Education Center
Adjourn to Mount Malady Building
for presentation on
17th Century Medicine
by Margaret Carlini, Education Specialist at Henricus
$22.00 includes Luncheon & Program & Admission

Luncheon catered by Alice McIntyre,
with 29 years' experience catering, including for many
Chesterfield County functions at this site

Buffet Menu:

Tossed Salad with choice of 3 homemade dressings
Dijon Chicken Breast
Seasoned Green Beans
Oven Roasted Potatoes
Homemade Rolls
Warm Bread Pudding with Vanilla Butter Sauce or
Frozen Strawberry Angel Cake
Coffee or Iced Tea

Golf cart transportation available for those with walking difficulties to get from the Education Center to the Mount Malady Building
 

Mail your RSVP by April 11with your check made payable to Chesapeake Bay Company ($22.00 for each attendee - please indicate names of members and guests)
Send check and list of names to Susan Rager, Chesapeake Bay Company of the Jamestowne Society, POB 118, Coles Point, VA 22442-0118.

For driving directions from Tappahannock, click here.
For driving directions from Irvington, click here.

Please bring your 2008 Company dues to the meeting, or send them with your reservations. Thank you!

Scroll down for additional information on Henricus . . .

Henricus Historical Park is a Chesterfield County park whose focus is the Citie of Henricus. Henricus, established in 1611 by Sir Thomas Dale, is just a few miles southeast of the current day city of Richmond. At the time, it was one of the developments lying farthest west from the early capital at Jamestown.

Nearby, Pocahontas is believed to have met and married John Rolfe. They lived together across the James at Varina Farms Plantation where their son Thomas was born.

Henricus was the site of the attempt to establish the very first college in the colony. The University of Henricus, chartered in 1618, did not succeed; by the time of the 1622 massacre, there existed only a school for Indians on the site. A college in Virginia did not appear until the College of William and Mary in 1693. The school for Indians was intended to teach trades to the native children. Churches in England raised 32,000 pounds sterling to help support the school, which they believed would train the Indians as Christian missionaries to their own people.

In 1616, there were 60 people there. During 1622's massacre, the town was burned and an unknown number of colonists were killed. A year later, an exploration found it totally abandoned.

Remnants of Henricus were able to be seen 100 years later. In 1747, William Stith wrote that "the ruins of this Town are still plainly traced and distinguished upon the Land of the late Col. William Randolph, of Tuckahoe." Enough bricks remained to show outlines of the houses at the time of the Civil War. Since then, Union forces cut a canal to straighten out the James River.

Unlike Jamestown, which remained relatively unscathed in the centuries since the early English settlers lived there, the actual site of Henricus was not known for many years; it was rediscovered and has been partially restored. Henricus Historical Park is within the 810-acre Dutch Gap Conservation Area.

Captain Ralph Hamor, in a 1614 account, describes Henricus thusly: "There is in this towne, 3 streets of well framed howses, a handsom Church, and the foundation of a more stately one laid, of Brick, in length, an hundred foote, and fifty foot wide, beside Store houses, watch houses, and such like: there are also, as ornaments belonging to this Town, upon the verge of this River, five faire Block houses."

A pamphlet by the Virginia Company, intended to attract new settlers to Virginia, perhaps exaggerates how enthusiastically the men built at Henricus: "Being thus invited here, they pitch, the spade men fell to digging, the brick men burnt their bricks, the company cut down wood, the Carpenters fell to squaring out, the Sawyers to sawing, the Souldier to fortifying, and every man to somewhat. And to answer the first objection for holesome lodging, here they have built competent and decent houses, the first storie all of bricks, that every man may have his lodging and dwelling place apart by himselfe." This is generally acknowledged to be a rosy account, as the excavations which have taken place do not verify such grand homes, and the descriptions do not match the housing being constructed in this very early time in Virginia.

Reconstructions at Henricus include an Indian village, the Citie of Henricus, and the John Rolfe Farm. Mount Malady (intended to allow the ill to recover), and Rock Hall, home of Pocahontas for a time, are included in the reconstructions.   

The park is open until 5 PM, so there'll be time to explore the 32-acre site.If you have questions, contact Susan Rager by sending an e-mail.