Nathaniel Causey was an old soldier who came to Virginia in the First Supply early in 1608. It was on December 10, 1620 that he obtained a grant that he began to develop as a private plantation. This appears to have been located just to the east of West and Shirley Hundred on the north side of the James. If we accept the entry in the land list of May, 1625 this was for some 200 acres. Presumably he and his wife, Thomasine, also an "old planter" who had come to the Colony in 1609, lived here, at least for a time, perhaps, with servants which numbered 5 in 1625.
In the massacre Causey "being cruelly wounded, and the salvages about him, with an axe did cleave one of their heads, whereby the rest fled and he escaped." In 1624 Causey, who sat in the Assembly, is thought to have represented Jordan's Journey where he is listed as in residence that same year and again in 1625. He was among the 31 who signed the Assembly's reply to the declaration of charges against the Smith administration of the Colony made by Alderman Johnson and others. His plantation, Causey's Care, across the river from Jordan's Journey, continued, it seems, and for years was a landmark of the vicinity. Causey appears occasionally in the court records as when on May 23, 1625, he assumed a debt and obligation to "Doctor Pott" which required the delivery of "one barrel of Indian corne" to "James Cittie at the first cominge downe of the next boate."
[West and Shirley Hundred (8)]
This plantation, or hundred, on the north side of the James across from the mouth of the Appomattox River first comes into view as one of the areas in the Bermuda Incorporation established by Dale. Settlement is thought to date from 1613. As time passed it appears to have developed with less restrictive ties to Bermuda City than the hundreds adjoining it on the south side of the river. There is little to indicate that Bermuda Hundreds' claim on it in 1617 was ever seriously considered.
There is a glimpse of life here in Ralph Hamor's, A True Discourse of the Present Estate of Virginia: "At West and Sherley Hundred, (seated on the North side the river lower then the Bermuda 3 or 4 myles) are 25 commaunded by Captaine [Isaac] Maddeson who are imployed only in planting and curing tobacco, with the profitt thereof to cloth themselves, and all those who labor about the generall busynes." As such it was one of 6 settlements in Virginia, fourth in point of population.
It continued to develop as a rather important community. Even though not listed as sending representatives to Jamestown in 1619, it probably shared the services of the Burgesses entered from Charles City. It was listed as an established settlement when Argall left the Colony in April, 1619. Its name in the first decade fluctuated considerably first appearing as "Wests Sherly Hundred" then becoming "West and Sherly" and then Sherley (or Shirley).
The list of those killed in the massacre has no entry specifically labeled for this plantation indicating, perhaps, that the effect here was light. This may explain why it was one of the few points designated to be held after March 22, 1622, much the most interior, or westward point on the north side of the James. In 1624 "West and Sherlow Hundred" had its own Burgesses in the Assembly in the persons of Isaac Madison and Richard Biggs. In 1623 a special appointment had been made to Grivell Pooley, to make a special levy at "Sherley Hundred" and adjacent plantations. This, being 10 pounds of tobacco and 1 bushel of corn "for every planter and tradesman above the age of sixteene yeares alive at the cropp" time, was to meet the Corporation's yearly minister's salary and to aid in "publique charges."
In 1624 a total of 69 inhabitants were listed for Shirley Hundred, 45 in the Hundred and 24 "at West and Sherlow hundred Island." Perhaps this included the 16 persons who had been "planted at Sherley Hundred for Barkley Hundred Company." A year later the population stood at 61 with the decrease evidently all registered at the "Island." At this time there were 17 houses, 2 boats and ample corn and fish and some peas. There were 21 head of cattle, 24 hogs and 263 items of poultry. Small arms (47) and armor (31) seemed adequate although Indians still infested the place and occasionally a man was killed. Land grants listed in May, 1625 totaled 36 (4,410 acres) but of these only 8 (1,150 acres) were given as "planted." The majority of the holdings were 100 acres or less and there were 3,000 acres of Company land below "Sherley Hundred Island."
This area, on the north side of the James below Henrico and across from Bermuda (Nether) Hundred, was one of the several hundreds annexed to, or included in, the corporation of Bermuda City. Settlement seems to have begun in 1613 although little is known of events in the early years. "Curls" evidently was a name suggested by the course of the river here. The reported patent for 400 acres to Edward Gurgany in October, 1617 has been assumed to have been in this area. In 1619 Gurgany's widow bequeathed the tract to Capt. Thomas Harris. Progress in the occupation and use of the ground was severely checked by the massacre.