Orapax

W-19-a

Powhatan, the paramount chief of many Virginia Algonquian tribes when the English first landed at Jamestown, lived near here at the town of Orapax, having moved from Werowocomoco in 1609 following conflicts with the English. The English boy Henry Spelman lived with Powhatan at Orapax for several months during 1609. By 1614, Powhatan had moved again to Matchcot on the Pamunkey River. In Captain John Smith's 1624 writings, Smith recounted that he had been taken to Orapax after being captured near the Chickahominy River in 1607 by men of several tribes who were under the leadership of Opechancanough, Powhatan’s military leader.

Department of Historic Resources, 2008

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References/Bibliographic Citation:

Hamor, Ralph. 1615. “A True Discourse of the Present Estate of Virginia.” Reprinted in Jamestown Narratives: Eyewitness Accounts of the Virginia Colony: The First Decade: 1607-1617, edited by Edward W. Haile, 807, 831. Champlain, VA: RoundHouse, 1998. Smith, John. 1624. “Generall Historie of Virginia, New-England, and the Summer Isles.” Reprinted in Jamestown Narratives: Eyewitness Accounts of the Virginia Colony: The First Decade: 1607-1617, edited by Edward W. Haile, 235. Champlain, VA: RoundHouse, 1998. Spelman, Henry. 1609. “Relation of Virginia.” Reprinted in Jamestown Narratives: Eyewitness Accounts of the Virginia Colony: The First Decade: 1607-1617, edited by Edward W. Haile, 483-486. Champlain, VA: RoundHouse, 1998. Strachey, William. 1612. “The History of Travel into Virginia Britannia: The First Book of the First Decade” Reprinted in Jamestown Narratives: Eyewitness Accounts of the Virginia Colony: The First Decade: 1607-1617, edited by Edward W. Haile, 603, 615, 620, 628. Champlain, VA: RoundHouse, 1998.