Jamestown Thought to Yield Ruins of Oldest U.S. Protestant Church

[rug]

William M. Kelso at the site of what he says was Jamestown's church.

By THEO EMERY
Published: November 13, 2011

JAMESTOWN — For more than a decade, the marshy island in Virginia where British colonists landed in 1607 has yielded uncounted surprises. And yet William M. Kelso’s voice still brims with excitement as he plants his feet atop a long-buried discovery at the settlement’s heart: what he believes are the nation’s oldest remains of a Protestant church.

The discovery has excited scholars and preservationists, and unearthed a long-hidden dimension of religious life in the first permanent colony.

It may prove to be an attraction for another reason: the church would have been the site of America’s first celebrity wedding, so to speak, where the Indian princess Pocahontas was baptized and married to the settler John Rolfe in 1614. The union temporarily halted warfare with the region’s tribal federation.

Last week Mr. Kelso, the chief archaeologist at the site, hopped into the excavated pit topped with sandbags and pointed to where Pocahontas would have stood at the altar rail. Orange flags marked the church’s perimeter. The pulpit would have been to the left and a baptismal font behind, with a door opening toward the river.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/14/us/ruins-of-oldest-us-protestant-church-may-be-at-jamestown.html

[xchrom]

1. recommend

[EC]

2. Since marriages were arranged in order to protect

ownerships of land by avoidance of occupations and wars, I'm beginning to wonder if the marriage between Pocahontas and John was arranged too.

[UrbScotty]

3. I've been there. It's pretty neat. So is the whole Jamestown area.

[rug]

5. I was there years ago.

What struck me was that one of the first things they erected was a building to house glass making. I suspect it was because England had used up much of its forests by then and Virginia's forests were there for the taking. Making glass requires very high temperatures. England seized America for its energy. Deja vu.

[WolverineDG]

6. Didn't they have to make a profit?

and if so, they'd need merchandise to sell. :shrug:

dg

[rug]

7. Yeah. That was how they planned to make a go of it.

Not gold, not agriculture. Glass.

IIRC the guide said Jamestown's location had three things going for it. Fuel (the forest). Sandy river beach (for glass making). And ready access to the ocean to ship the glass back to England.

It makes sense. Why else would a building for making glass be one of the very first things they built?

Everytime I read about the oil wars I think of this.

[dmallind]

4. Cool - seems too recent to have been so long buried and so damaged though. nt