WILLIAMSBURG — Author Rebecca Suerdieck will sign copies of her book about Marye Bucke, one of the earliest English women to arrive in Virginia, at Jamestown Settlement on May 31.
Suerdieck jokes that she grew up in the 18th century — her mother worked for Colonial Williamsburg, where Suerdieck began volunteering at age 6. She has spent nearly 50 years educating people about colonial history and has earned several honors, including the National Medal for Excellence in Historic Preservation and a Congressional Commendation. It’s a background she says is not uncommon in Williamsburg but tends to surprise people from elsewhere.
As an adult, she said she fell in love with historic Jamestown and is one of the few people who works for both Colonial Williamsburg and Jamestown Settlement. She was married in the historic church on Jamestown Island and worked there as a guide until the program ended in October 2006.
Becoming Marye Bucke
The book tells the true story of Bucke, who arrived in Virginia in the early 1600s aboard the Sea Venture, a ship that wrecked in 1609 during the third wave of settlers bound for Jamestown. The passengers were blown off course and spent a year in Bermuda before continuing to Virginia.
Suerdieck began researching Jamestown women after being asked to model in 17th-century period shoots and wanting to portray a real historical figure. She said little is known about most Jamestown women unless they — or their husbands — were prominent. Kurt Gaul, the education coordinator at the time, suggested she portray a woman from the Sea Venture.
“I thought, like many people, that Englishwomen didn’t arrive until 1619 or 1620, when the brideships arrived,” she said. “But there were a handful of English women here as early as 1608, 1609 and 1610.”
On the ship’s manifest, she found two women listed: a minister’s wife and an unmarried woman. She chose to portray the minister’s wife, initially without knowing her first name. Through years of archival research — including work with the William & Mary Swem Library and the Newport News Virginiana Room at Main Street Library — she uncovered the name in a marriage record from All Hallows-on-the-Wall Church in London.
She had known the minister’s name was Richard Bucke. Finding his wife’s first name allowed her to restore it to the historical record at Jamestown and Colonial Williamsburg.
“It’s a delight to be able to share this story and make history relatable,” Suerdieck said. “That’s what I specialize in — looking at history from a human perspective.”
The signing, May 31 begins at 1 at Jamestown Settlement, 2110 Jamestown Road. For more information, visit rebeccasuerdieck.com.
