Chapter XV

1621-1622.

Silk in Virginia--Endowment of East India School--Ministers in
Virginia--Sermon at Bow Church--Corporation of Henrico.

IN November and December, 1621, at an assembly held at James City, acts were passed for encouraging the planting of mulberry-trees, and the making of silk; but this enterprise, so early commenced in Virginia, and so earnestly revived of late years, is still unsuccessful; and it may be concluded that the climate of Virginia is unpropitious to that sort of production.

The Rev. Mr. Copeland, Chaplain on board of the Royal James, East Indiaman, on the return voyage from the East Indies, prevailed upon the officers and crew of that ship to contribute seventy pounds toward the establishment of a church and school in Virginia, and Charles City County was selected as the site of it, and it was to be called the East India School, and to be dependent upon the college at Henrico. The Virginia Company allotted one thousand acres of land for the maintenance of the master and usher, and presented three hundred acres to Mr. Copeland. Workmen were accordingly sent out early in 1622, to begin the building. The clergymen in Virginia at this time were Messrs. Whitaker, Mease, Wickham, Stockham, and Bargrave.[158:A]

Early in 1622 very favorable intelligence from Virginia reached England, and upon this occasion, on the seventeenth of April, the Rev. Mr. Copeland, by appointment, preached before the Virginia Company, at Bow Church. He was shortly afterwards appointed a member of the Virginia Council and rector of the college established for the conversion of the Indians; but all these benevolent purposes and hopeful anticipations were suddenly darkened and defeated by the news of a catastrophe which had, in a few hours, blasted the labors of so many years.

FOOTNOTES:

[158:A] The following is found in the early records:--

THE CORPORATION OF HENRICO.

On the northerly ridge of James River, from the falls down to
Henrico, containing ten miles in length, are the public lands,
surveyed and laid out; whereof, ten thousand acres for the
university lands, three thousand acres for the company's
lands, with other lands belonging to the college. The common
land for that corporation, fifteen hundred acres.

On the southerly side, beginning from the falls, there are
there patented, viz.:--

Acres.
John Petterson 100
Anthony Edwards 100
Nathaniel Norton 100
John Proctor 200
Thomas Tracy 100
John Vithard 100
Francis Weston 300
Phettiplace Close 100
John Price 150
Peter Nemenart 110
William Perry 100
John Plower 100
Surveyed for the use of the iron-work.
Edward Hudson 100
Thomas Morgan 150
Thomas Sheffield 150

Cosendale, within the Corporation of Henrico:--

Acres.
Lieut. Edward Barckley 112
Richard Poulton 100
Robert Analand 200
John Griffin 50
Peter Nemenart 40
Thomas Tindall 100
Thomas Reed 100
John Laydon 200