About 32 years passed from the time Alain Outlaw, of the James City County Historical Commission, started looking for Argall Town to the time he found remains of the 17th century settlement.
In 1975, Outlaw conducted a 2,000-acre search with a group of surveyors looking for the town and couldn’t find evidence of it. He knew the town spanned about 300 acres in the vicinity of Governor’s Land, the stretch of land along Jamestown Road that runs from the Jamestown Settlement to Drummond Field and encompasses the former Jamestown Campground and Vermillion House, but he didn’t know exactly where Capt. Samuel Argall had established what at the time was the most successful settlement in the area.
At the time of the original search, the only area Outlaw couldn’t survey and comb for artifacts was the privately owned property of the Vermillion House. In 2007, he got the chance to search that property and found the elusive town. He said it was “footprints of structures” and artifacts from the appropriate time period that led him to believe he found the town.
“It was very exciting because it was the missing piece of the puzzle in more senses than one … looking at it and then finding Argall Town, it was very exciting to then locate that,” Outlaw said.
Outlaw said existing research at the time made things a lot easier than they were back in the 1970s.
When the group was looking for the town in that time period they were pioneers, Outlaw explained. There was nothing archaeologically comparable so extensive study was required to figure out how old sites were. With research for Jamestown and the items there, archaeologists have a point of comparison.
By looking at objects kept at Jamestown, Outlaw said today’s searchers can compare an item from Argall Town determine what year the item is probably from.
Argall Town was established in 1617 by Captain Samuel Argall, who established a settlement on about 300 acres of land just north of Jamestown Island.
“They were doing very well compared to most in the colony, but then at some point they started complaining about the houses decaying, and it’s hard to defend,” Outlaw said.
The land was established as Governor’s Land in 1618—a year after Argall Town was established—and Argall Town was incorporated into it. The governor used the land to house tenants who were bound to work the land for a number of years; they spent part of the money they earned on rent paid to the governor. The arrangement continued until the Revolutionary War.
Despite John Rolfe observing Argall Town and reporting the settlers had “done best of all New-Comers” the settlers petitioned to leave by 1627.
The marker for Argall Town was unveiled last week at the end of Jamestown Road near the Jamestown Settlement and the entrance to the Jamestown-Scotland Ferry.
In 2010, Outlaw received a Historical Commission Historic Preservation Award for leading “efforts to protect, preserve and identify archaeological sites on over 6,000 acres, including Freedom Park, Church on the Main and Governor’s Land.”
