Our Jamestown Ancestors
Our family has several ancestors that lived in or around the Jamestown Colony founded on 14 May 1607 that are listed by the Jamestown Society as qualifying ancestors for descendant membership.
"One hundred members of a joint venture called the Virginia Company founded the first permanent English settlement in North America on the banks of the James River. Famine, disease and conflict with local Native American tribes in the first two years brought Jamestown to the brink of failure before the arrival of a new group of settlers and supplies in 1610.
During the 1620s, Jamestown expanded from the area around the original James Fort into a New Town built to the east; it remained the capital of the Virginia colony until 1699."
One of our our early ancestors to arrive in Jamestown was Randall Holt from Prestbury in Cheshire, in the Northwest of England. He arrived in 1621 at age 14 on the Ship George with his great uncle, Dr. John Pott, the first medical doctor in America and future Govenor of the Virginia Colony. Randall served as an indentured servant to his uncle until January 1627. Randall's grandmother convinced her brother to take Randall with him to America. Dr. Pott and Randall were the first residents of "Colonial Williamsburg" beginning on 30 January 1625 as Randall was enumerated in the Census and his age listed as 18 and residing on "Governor's Land" & living with Dr. John Pott. The "Governor's Land was later settled as "Middle Plantation, a fortified settlement on high ground between the James and York Rivers. Middle Plantation later became Williamsburg. The Capital was moved from Jamestown to Middle Plantation in 1699 and renamed Williamsburg by the Governor, Colonel Francis Nicholson, in honor of King William III of Great Britain. The new site was described by Governor Nicholson as a place where "clear and crystal springs burst from the champagne soil."
John Bayly arrived in Jamestown on 24 August 1618 from England with his wife Eleanor Ann Knight from Chippenham, Wiltshire in Southwest England and daughter Mary, born 1609 in Prestbury. He was a man of some means as he aquired 490 acres on Hog Island before his death on 20 Feb 1620. The Council of Jamestown appointed Robert Evers as Mary’s guardian at her father’s death and ordered that 490 Hog Island acres be deeded to her. Randall Holt and Mary Bayly were married in ca 1626 on Hog Island. Randall Holt, II, was born ca 1629 on Hog Island.
Randall Holt, II, married Elizabeth Hansford, born in 1640 in Yorktown, York, Virginia. Elizabeth's parents were Colonel John Hansford, born in 1698 in London, England and Elizabeth Jones also born in London in 1818. They arrived in Jamestown in 1635. Randall and Elizabeth lived on Hog Island and are buried in Lawnes Creek Parish Church Cemetery which is now on the adjoining propertry of the Surry County Dominion Surry Power Station.
