1608 Church at Historic Jamestowne, part of Colonial National Historical Park

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The location of James Fort, the original fort built by English colonists in 1607, was not found until the mid 1990s. The reason is that nobody ever looked for it. A 1608 passage from the journal of George Percy read, “…our shippes doe lie so neere the shoare that they are moored to the Trees in six fathom water.” Historians interpreted this to mean that if the ships could get so close to shore back in 1608, and if the James River had significantly widened due to erosion over the hundreds of years since the founding of Jamestown, then James Fort must be somewhere at the bottom of the river.

In 1893 when Preservation Virginia acquired the property where James Fort is now situated, the only structure remaining from the Jamestown era was a brick church tower, which still stands today. This was thought to date to 1647, though researchers now believe it was built in the 1680s. Regardless, it was standing while Jamestown was still a thriving city.

If an existing church congregation has a building that it outgrows, or that burns down, or is so old that it must be replaced, a new church is typically built on the same location or very near to it. This has been a common practice throughout human history. Why would Jamestown be any different? Historical records state that a small, wooden chapel was constructed in 1608 and was replaced by a newer church built in 1617 on the same spot. Both churches were within the walls of James Fort. Perhaps then, the church from 1647 was also built on the same location. If so, then James Fort had to have surrounded the church tower, which meant that is was not at the bottom of the James River. This was the basis of a theory that archaeologist William Kelso came up with in the 1980s.

It took Kelso ten years of negotiations with Preservation Virginia to allow him to excavate the property. In the early 1990s, with the 400th Anniversary of the founding of Jamestown coming up in 2007, the organization finally decided to take a chance on him in hopes that he would find something remarkable in time for the celebration. Funding was lined up, an agreement was made, and the work began in 1994.

Kelso found artifacts from the Jamestown era on the very first day of digging when he unearthed what turned out to be a pit full of weapons, armor, ceramics, and coins. Soon afterward, he uncovered circular stains on the clay soil three feet below the surface. These stains were left by the decayed wooden posts of the palisade wall that once encircled the fort. Within three years the footprint of the fort’s southern wall had been identified, proving without a doubt that the fort was not in the river after all, but near the church as he predicted.

By 2006, all sides of the palisade wall had been found. However, the southern wall ran right through the front part of the church tower. This meant that the tower was not within the fort walls, and therefore not on the site of the original church, which was somewhere still to be found. Luckily James Fort is not very large, and if any remnants of the 1608 church existed, it was just a matter of time before they would be discovered. Soil stains identified the location of a barracks that had been constructed of posts buried in the ground just like the palisade wall, so most likely the church was built in the same manner. Unless its posts had been completely removed, soil stains would also identify its location.

In 2010, more post holes were found in the central area of the fort. The corners were marked by much larger posts, as would be expected of a building’s cornerstones. The dimensions between the four corners were approximately 24′ x 60′, exactly the dimensions of the church as recorded by Jamestown secretary William Strachey in historical documents from 1608. What’s more, four graves were found within the site boundary at a location described by Strachey to be the chancel. If this was the church, and most likely it was, these must have been very important men. If you visit old churches, VIPs are often buried underneath the church, not in the nearby cemetery with the riffraff.

The very first English church built in America had been found. Archaeology Magazine named the discovery one of the top ten finds of 2010. That’s cool enough on its own, but what’s even cooler is that this is most likely the church where Pocahontas and John Rolfe were married. Their wedding took place in 1614, and the 1608 Church was not replaced until 1617. No one can know for sure—they may have been married down by the river—but the logical assumption is that they were married in a church, and if so, this was the church.

Nothing remains of the building today, as only the location of the post holes were found, but Preservation Virginia has reconstructed a portion of the four walls to show visitors the size of the building and how it was most likely constructed. Such construction methods were common at the time, but of course nobody knows exactly what the church looked like.