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Introduction: In this article, Melissa Davenport Berry describes two visits Queen Elizabeth II made to Jamestown to mark its 350th and 400th anniversaries. Melissa is a genealogist who has a website, americana-archives.com, and a Facebook group, New England Family Genealogy and History.

The month of May will mark 419 years since 104 men and boys arrived at Jamestown (Jamestowne), America’s first permanent English settlement, on 14 May 1607. The celebration of this event is known as Jamestown Day.

Three ships, Susan Constant, Godspeed, and Discovery sailed from London on 20 December 1606, under the direction of the Virginia Company of London that was formed with a charter from King James I.

Here is a photo of the three replica ships on the James River off Jamestown Island: (from left to right) Godspeed, Susan Constant, and Discovery, 12 May 2007, for the 400th anniversary of the settlement.

When they landed at Jamestown the new colonists began building James Fort, which has been reconstructed by McPherson Design Group, who worked closely with the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation on the design of these replica buildings that were originally built within the fort in 1607.

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II of England participated in two important celebrations marking Jamestown’s history. In 1957 she came to commemorate the 350th anniversary, and in 2007 for the 400th anniversary.

In 1957 Queen Elizabeth II proudly retraced the steps her own ancestors made, including: her ninth great-grandfather Colonel Augustine Warner I, who was the fourth great-grandfather of General Robert E. Lee; and her eighth great-grandfather Colonel Augustine Warner II, who was the great-grandfather of General George Washington.

Queen Elizabeth II’s other ninth great-grandfather was Colonel George Reade, who came to Jamestown in 1637 and married Virginian Elizabeth Martiau. Their daughter Mildred Reade married Colonel Augustine Warner II. Reade was the ninth great-grandson of King Edward III of England.

Fifty years later, in May of 2007, the queen returned to Jamestown and received a royal treatment by thousands of public well-wishers and several American dignitaries, including Vice President Dick Cheney, Virginia Governor Timothy Kaine, and Chief Justice Sandra Day O’Connor.

The queen took a keen interest in the reconstructed settlement and historical museum displays.

Below is a photo from the San Antonio Express-News of the queen surrounded by excited crowds at Jamestown Settlement.

The queen’s visit in 2007 offered her much to explore as she strolled through the reconstructed James Fort site and viewed 17th century objects excavated from it.

This article reports:

During her 1957 visit to the same grounds, she was told that the site of the original three-sided palisade had been consumed by the adjacent James River.

Excavation of the site began in 1994, and the fort was discovered in 1996.

She was shown excavation trays containing chess pieces, iron knives, copper baubles and the discarded claws of crabs that had been a meal for the settlers.

These big digs are known as the “Jamestown Rediscovery,” and resulted in locating the original fort site and uncovering nearly a million objects associated with the earliest years of the settlement. “This discovery greatly increased interest in Jamestown,” says Colonial National Historical Park historian Karen Rehm.

Here are some details of the newly discovered relics the queen observed from the work of Dr. William Keslo, head archeologist at Historic Jamestowne in 2007, as featured in this Richmond-Times Dispatch article. The objects were found at the bottom of a well.

Here is a list of some of the artifacts pictured in the article (which shows the objects in their original condition). However, many were in surprisingly good condition. The article notes:

The diagram shows where many of the metal objects were found. Objects in the oxygen-deprived area below the water table [of the well] were recovered practically free of rust and corrosion.

• Spur: The English brought “six mares and two horses” to James Fort as early as 1609, and in 1611, 17 horses and mares.
• Halberd: A pole weapon used for thrusting, piercing, cutting, and crushing – adopted by infantrymen – it helped end the dominance of armored horsemen on the battlefields of Europe. The halberd found at the bottom of the well bore the family crest of Jamestown’s first governor, Lord De La Warr [Thomas West, twelfth baron]. He arrived in June 1610 with 50 halberdiers as his bodyguards. [His ancestors include the Knollys, Boleyn, and Howard lines.] It’s believed someone dropped the halberd in the well while trying to fish out the Scottish pistol.
• Bandolier: A belt slung over a musketeer’s chest that usually supported 12 cylinders of gunpowder.
• Priming-powder flask: Firearms of the period used two types of gunpowder: corned and serpentine. [To view the many gunpowder flasks found on the site over time, see Jamestown Rediscovery.]
• Gorget: A metal collar used to protect the neck, throat, and upper chest. It was often worn over an armor breastplate.
• Scottish pistol: Few examples of this type still exist. Its wooden fishtail butt and “snaphaunce” lock (firing mechanism) were vulnerable to decay and became outdated after a relatively short production period. This one was found fully loaded. Later versions of this pistol used flintlocks and were all metal. It’s believed such a Scottish pistol fired the “shot heard ’round the world” at Lexington, Mass., starting the American Revolution.

One of the discoveries not mentioned in this article is a signet ring that belonged to William Strachey, who joined the Virginia Company of London in 1609.

He was aboard the flagship Sea Venture along with the leaders of the expedition, including Stephen Hopkins, when the ship was blown off course by a hurricane and ran aground on the island of Bermuda.

Strachey and his shipmates were stranded for nearly a year, but eventually managed to construct two small vessels, Patience and Deliverance, and arrived at Jamestown in May 1610.

Strachey wrote an account of the adventure, “A True Reportory of the Wracke and Redemption of Sir Thomas Gates, Knight.”

It is believed by many authorities that because of Strachey’s close friendship with the Earl of Southampton, Shakespeare’s patron, the great bard probably read the record of the shipwreck – which influenced his writing of The Tempest.

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Note on the header image: reconstructed houses at Jamestown, Virginia. Credit: Tasma3197; Wikimedia Commons.