Martin's Hundred

W-51

This plantation was allocated to the London-based Society of Martin's Hundred by 1618 and was later assigned 21,500 acres. It was initially settled in 1620 around Wolstenholme Town, its administrative center, located near the James River. Archaeologists discovered the town site in 1977. They also located the graves of several people who died during the 22 March 1622 Indian attacks on English settlements coordinated by Chief Opechancanough, when 78 colonists here--half the plantation's population--were reported killed. These attacks were in response to English expansion into Indian lands. The area was soon resettled but the Society of Martin's Hundred's town was never rebuilt.

Department of Historic Resources, 2005

See a problem? Report it to HighwayMarkers@dhr.virginia.gov.

DHR could use your help! We don't have a recent image of this marker. If you have one that you'd like to submit for inclusion on this site, please send it to HighwayMarkers@dhr.virginia.gov.

References/Bibliographic Citation:

Archaeology at the Atkinson Site, Martin’s Hundred, http://www.history.org/History/argy/MHPage/MH.htm, 2 January 2005; Carter’s Grove, National Register of Historic Places Archives File (47-01), VDHR; Ivor Noël Hume, Discoveries in Martin’s Hundred in the Colonial Williamsburg Archaeological Series No. 10 (Williamsburg, Va.: Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, 1983; Ivor Noël Hume, “New Discovery at Martin’s Hundred,” Colonial Williamsburg: The Journal of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation 19 (Summer 1997): 29-33; Ivor Noël Hume, Martin’s Hundred (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1982); Martha W. McCartney, “An Early Virginia Census Reprised,” Archeological Society of Virginia Quarterly Bulletin 54 (December) 1999: 186, 194n; Martha W. McCartney, James City County: Keystone of the Commonwealth (Virginia Beach, Va.: Donning Company/Publishers, 1997); Susan Myra Kingsbury, The Records of the Virginia Company of London (4 vols.; Washington: United States Government Printing Office, 1906-1935), 3:570; E. Randolph Turner, III and Antony F. Opperman, Searching for Virginia Company Period Sites: An Assessment of Surviving Archaeological Manifestations of Powhatan-English Interactions, A.D. 1607-1624 (Forthcoming), 7:10-12.