It appears that sometime prior to March, 1622, Thomas Sheffield obtained a patent for 150 acres located "some three miles from Falling Creeke" and about two miles above "Henrico Iland." He proceeded to establish a settlement here in the Corporation of Henrico. Seemingly all went well until the massacre when the Indians wiped out this advance post on the James. "Master Thomas Sheffeild and Rachel his wife" along with eleven others, including two boys, were slain. There is no mention of further activity at this date.
John Proctor was among those who came to Virginia under a Company Charter in the 1609-15 period. It would appear that he located a plantation well up the James River, on its south side, but below Falling Creek. The land list of 1625 specified that he had a 200 acre grant in this vicinity. Perhaps, he was established here well before the massacre. When the Indians descended on his place, he must have been away, for his wife stood her ground as she did later when the Colony officials sought to force her to vacate the now isolated post. It is reported that "Mistress Proctor, a proper, civill, modest gentlewoman ... ["fortified and lived in despite of the enemy">[ till perforce the English officers forced her and all them with her to goe with them, or they would fire her house themselves, as the salvages did when they were gone...."
In 1624 Proctor and his wife were living "Over the River" from Jamestown and a year later he, his wife Alice and three servants were at Paces Paines. It is not known whether he returned to his plantation upriver from which he had been uprooted in 1622. He had, in 1623, received a patent to transport fifty persons to Virginia together with sufficient necessities and provisions for cultivating the land. The latter seemingly included "a wherry or small boate." There is evidence, too, that he could punish his servants if the occasion warranted even to the extent of using a "line or whip corde."
Sir Thomas Dale had a good eye for land and security. Consequently he viewed the ground across the James from, and to the west of, Henrico with considerable interest which he translated into action soon after getting his principal settlement underway in 1611. Here, for the enlargement of the town, some 12 acres were impaled "especially for our hoggs to feed in." He named this locality "Hope in faith, Coxen-dale" and proceeded to secure it with a series of forts which he named Charity, Elizabeth, Patience and Mount Malado. There was "a retreat or guest house" for sick people which was declared to be on "a high seat" with "wholesome air." It was in this area that the Rev. Alexander Whitaker chose his "Parsonage, or church land." This was "som[e] hundred acres impaled, and a faire framed parsonage house built thereupon, called Rocke Hall of this Towne." Capt. James Davis was made commander of the forts.
Coxendale continued to exist and grow, perhaps, despite the inadequacy of the records that relate the story. Rolfe, in 1616, did not list it, yet possibly he considered it to be a part of Henrico. It was listed as one of 9 forts, plantations and towns found in Virginia when Yeardley reached the colony in April, 1619. There is no special reference to it in the list of burgesses named in 1619. Here again it may have been included with Henrico in matters of representation. In matters of land grants, however, it had a separate identity. In the spring of 1619 a grant of 100 acres "Scituate in Coxendale over against the Iland of Henricus" was made to Thomas Read "under the Collonies seale." This was in reward for eight years of "good service in that country." Three years later Read made over this tract, a part of it called "Mount my Lady" to Edward Hurd, a "London cittizen and iron monger."
The massacre struck here, too, as it did elsewhere. The statistics would indicate that the slaughter in this general area was light compared with many other points. Perhaps the water barrier in the "curls" of the river plus the palisades and forts gave greater security. Despite this, when the massacre was over, these points were isolated and removal was ordered. Capt. Roger Smith, on April 20, 1622, was given "absolute power and command in matters of warr, over all the people both in Henerico Ileand and Coxendale ... uppon paine of death." He was "to use all care and vigilancie" in "the safe bringeing away of all the said people, and cattell, and goodes...."
This was but a temporary delay in settlement as the urge for land and property became greater. Just how soon there was a return here is unclear. In May, 1625, however, 8 patents were listed for Coxendale in the Corporation of Henrico. This was for a total of 802 acres ranging from a twelve acre grant to Lt. Edward Berkeley, to 200 acres to John Laydon. It may be significant that none were marked as "planted."