CHAPTER XV.

1621-1622.

Silk in Virginia—Endowment of East India School—Ministers in Virginia—Sermon at Bow Church—Corporation of Henrico.

In November and December, 1621, at an assembly held at James City, acts were passed for encouraging the planting of mulberry-trees, and the making of silk; but this enterprise, so early commenced in Virginia, and so earnestly revived of late years, is still unsuccessful; and it may be concluded that the climate of Virginia is unpropitious to that sort of production.

The Rev. Mr. Copeland, Chaplain on board of the Royal James, East Indiaman, on the return voyage from the East Indies, prevailed upon the officers and crew of that ship to contribute seventy pounds toward the establishment of a church and school in Virginia, and Charles City County was selected as the site of it, and it was to be called the East India School, and to be dependent upon the college at Henrico. The Virginia Company allotted one thousand acres of land for the maintenance of the master and usher, and presented three hundred acres to Mr. Copeland. Workmen were accordingly sent out early in 1622, to begin the building. The clergymen in Virginia at this time were Messrs. Whitaker, Mease, Wickham, Stockham, and Bargrave.[158:A]

Early in 1622 very favorable intelligence from Virginia reached England, and upon this occasion, on the seventeenth of April, the Rev. Mr. Copeland, by appointment, preached before the Virginia Company, at Bow Church. He was shortly afterwards appointed a member of the Virginia Council and rector of the college established for the conversion of the Indians; but all these benevolent purposes and hopeful anticipations were suddenly darkened and defeated by the news of a catastrophe which had, in a few hours, blasted the labors of so many years.

FOOTNOTES:

[158:A] The following is found in the early records:—

The Corporation of Henrico.

On the northerly ridge of James River, from the falls down to Henrico, containing ten miles in length, are the public lands, surveyed and laid out; whereof, ten thousand acres for the university lands, three thousand acres for the company's lands, with other lands belonging to the college. The common land for that corporation, fifteen hundred acres.

On the southerly side, beginning from the falls, there are there patented, viz.:—

Acres.		Acres.
John Petterson	100	Peter Nemenart	110
Anthony Edwards	100	William Perry	100
Nathaniel Norton	100	John Plower	100
John Proctor	200	Surveyed for the use of the iron-work.
Thomas Tracy	100	Edward Hudson	100
John Vithard	100	Thomas Morgan	150
Francis Weston	300	Thomas Sheffield	150
Phettiplace Close	100
John Price	150

Cosendale, within the Corporation of Henrico:—

Acres.		Acres.
Lieut. Edward Barckley	112	Peter Nemenart	40
Richard Poulton	100	Thomas Tindall	100
Robert Analand	200	Thomas Reed	100
John Griffin	50	John Laydon	200