The newest revelation about the first permanent English settlers in America may explain some of the disastrous dissension in the first years of Jamestown.
Four newly identified leaders buried in the chancel of Historic Jamestowne’s 1608 church may have included a spy or a secret practitioner of a traitorous religion, archaeologists and historians revealed Tuesday in Washington at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History.
A silver reliquary box atop the coffin of early Jamestown leader Gabriel Archer raises questions about who he really was and who he was really supporting. A reliquary would traditionally be associated with Catholic rather than Anglican beliefs. Was Archer secretly loyal to the pope or even a spy for Catholic Spain?
“This is really a unique find. We’re having a hard time finding an exact parallel anywhere,” said William Kelso, director of archaeology at Jamestown Rediscovery Foundation.
Archaeologists investigated the four burials in November 2013, then joined with Smithsonian forensic anthropologist Douglas Owsley to determine the identities of the men.
English settlers arrived in Jamestown in May 1607 and built the colony’s first substantial church in 1608. The 104 men on the first ships soon found that disease, famine and dissension were as deadly as attacks by neighboring Powhatan Indians and the fear of attacks from Spaniards.
The first burial in the chancel of the new church has been identified as the Rev. Robert Hunt, who arrived with the first group of settlers. When he died in early 1608, his shroud-covered body was placed in the chancel with the head to the east, which is a typical orientation for a clergyman.
The other two men were relatives of Thomas West, Lord De La Warr, who was the first governor of the colony appointed by the Virginia Company of London. They arrived with him in June 1610, just in time to keep the desperate settlers from abandoning the fort after the winter known as the “starving time.” Some 300 settlers in the fall of 1609 had been reduced to 60 survivors at Jamestown by spring.
William Kelso has hit rock-star status for his archaeological discoveries and books about Jamestown, including his latest, “Jamestown, The Truth Revealed.” Kelso is looking into a new explanation for the silver reliquary found buried in the Jamestown church with a prominent settler.
- 2015, ALEXA WELCH EDLUND/times-dispatch
PHOTOS: New discovery at Historic Jamestowne
A silver reliquary box was found buried on top of a casket inside a gravesite in the 1608 church on Jamestown Island.
William Kelso, director of research and interpretation at Historic Jamestowne, holds the silver reliquary box found buried on top of a casket inside of the 1608 church on Jamestown Island. Photo taken Saturday, July 25, 2015.
- ALEXA WELCH EDLUND
William Kelso has hit rock-star status for his archaeological discoveries and books about Jamestown, including his latest, “Jamestown, The Truth Revealed.” Kelso is looking into a new explanation for the silver reliquary found buried in the Jamestown church with a prominent settler.
- 2015, ALEXA WELCH EDLUND/times-dispatch
William Kelso, director of research and interpretation at Historic Jamestowne, holds the silver reliquary box found buried on top of a casket inside of the 1608 church on Jamestown Island. Photo taken Saturday, July 25, 2015.
- ALEXA WELCH EDLUND
Aerial view of James Fort, Jamestown Island, Virginia.
- Courtesy of Jamestown Rediscover
Digital reconstruction of the 1608 Church.
- Courtesy of Jamestown Rediscover
Overview of the archaeological excavation of the 1608 Church. Lines denote the outline of the Church (24’ x 64’) and chancel.
- Courtesy of Jamestown Rediscover
Overview of the chancel burial excavations. Archaeologists (from left to right) Mary Anna Richardson, Danny Schmidt, David Givens, Dan Smith, Don Warmke, Jamie May, Dan Gamble, and Dr. William Kelso. Photo by Michael Lavin.
- Photo by Michael Lavin
Digital reconstruction of chancel burial coffins.
- Courtesy of Jamestown Rediscover
Chancel burial excavations, November 2013.
- Courtesyof Smithsonian Instituti
Chancel burial excavations, November 2013.
- Courtesyof Smithsonian Instituti
Iron leading staff fragment recovered in the grave of Capt. Gabriel Archer.
- Courtesy of Jamestown Rediscover
X-ray (left) and Micro CT imaging (right) of silver fringe found with William West.
- Courtesy of Colonial Williamsburg
Silver Reliquary and fragments of coffin wood found in the grave of Capt. Gabriel Archer.
- Courtesy of Jamestown Rediscover
Conserved silver reliquary with “M” on lid.
- Courtesy of Jamestown Rediscover
Modeled bone fragments and ampulla within the silver reliquary.
- Courtesy of Micro Photonics Inc.
Model of ampulla fragments virtually reassembled (left), rendering of complete ampulla (right).
- Courtesy of Micro Photonics Inc.
Sir Ferdinando Wainman, the first of the governor’s kinsmen to die, was appointed master of ordnance and leader of the horse troops. He lived only six weeks in the New World and was almost certainly the first English knight buried in American soil, said James Horn, president of the Jamestown Rediscovery Foundation.
Captain William West, the last of the chancel burials, was killed fighting Indians at the falls of the James River before the end of 1610. Companions brought his body back to Jamestown for a proper English burial, which included a military sash that’s evident from delicate silver threads visible on an X-ray and micro-CT scan.
Both of the governor’s kinsmen were buried in skillfully crafted coffins that had an indented compartment for the head. They’re thought to be the earliest example of anthropomorphic coffins in the colonies, Horn said.
Archer’s grave raised the most questions. He was one of the ringleaders of a conspiracy that removed the first president of the Jamestown settlement only four months after arrival in 1607, Horn said. Archer was also instrumental in ridding the colony of Captain John Smith.
“Several of the early leaders are thrown out of office or deposed, and Archer is involved in all of them. You might say he’s just a conspirator. He wants to be the leader,” Horn said. “Maybe there’s a different reason that we hadn’t considered before this new evidence of his Catholic leanings.”
Beyond the carefully placed reliquary box, Archer’s burial was oriented in the priestly fashion.
“Was Archer the leader of a Catholic cell at Jamestown? Was he a Catholic priest and does that explain why his head is to the east?” Horn asked. “There’s not a hint of Catholic in the records. He would be disgraced or worse. You could not be an open Catholic in a position of authority” after King Henry VIII broke with the Catholic church in 1536.
Archer’s parents, however, had been staunch Catholics, declared outlaws for not attending the Church of England.
The 2½-inch reliquary box contains bone fragments and two pieces of lead that appear to be from a small vessel for holy water or oil. It may have been intended for use in the consecration of a church, Kelso said. Archer’s grave also contained a fragment of a captain’s leading staff, same as the grave of Captain Bartholomew Gosnold, who commanded one of the three original ships.
Archer died during the starving time, when the colony was on the verge of abandonment, so the reliquary may have been buried with him simply to protect it, Kelso said.
“The physical evidence will give us the opportunity to do further study,” Horn said. “We need to do more study of the artifacts themselves, particularly the silver box and lead ampulla in it. Can we find out where it was from? Can we verify that the bones are human?
“Any significant discovery opens up new avenues of research and helps us focus on evidence we do have. Catholic crucifixes and rosaries in Jamestown may have a different meaning than thought.
“Situating a Catholic cell at Jamestown could have been intentional. This evidence is asking questions of us. If it was intentional, what role did Archer play?”
