Sometime prior to 1622 Captain Spilman, perhaps, Thomas Spilman, brother of Henry Spilman, occupied a tract that lay between Flowerdieu Hundred and Martin's Brandon. It was Thomas who had come to Virginia in 1616 or 1617. The massacre uprooted the settlement here and two persons were slain by the Indians. "Captaine Spilman, a man warie enough heretofore & acquainted with their trecheries," was forced to locate elsewhere. Thomas appears to have chosen Elizabeth City where he planted fifty acres and in 1625 was established with his wife, a child "borne in Virginia," and four servants.
Captain John Ward arrived in Virginia on April 22, 1619 in the ship Sampson with some fifty emigrants to establish a private plantation. Samuel Argall later placed this as in 1618. He selected some 1,200 acres west of Martin's Brandon and adjoining a creek on the south side of the James which still bears his name. He appears to have been in association with Captain John Bargrave who, for some years, had been intimately associated in Virginia trade and colonization. Several members of the Bargrave family were with him. It was Captain John Bargrave who, in 1622, claimed the distinction of having undertaken to be "the first planter of a private colony in Virginia." This effort he dated as late 1617, or early 1618, and it seemingly came to nought unless his effort was continued in the Ward and John Martin enterprises.
Both Ward and Bargrave were among those granted patents in 1619 and were included in the eleven people "Who had undertaken to transport to Virginia great multitudes of people, with store of cattell." Soon after arrival in the Colony, Ward found himself on the New England coast fishing to aid Virginia's food supply. On his return in July, he made his contribution to the general store.
His plantation evidently took root for it was among those that sent representatives to the first Assembly at Jamestown in July and August, 1619. Ward and his Lieutenant, John Gibbs, attended and Ward, himself, served on the Assembly committee that examined the first and third books of the "Great Charter."
Initially his representation was challenged on the grounds that he had seated in Virginia without authority and without a commission. The Burgesses, however, recognized his support of the Colony and the fact that he had adventured his person. He was permitted to take his seat providing he agree to get a lawful commission. There was no further question when he assented to this. Perhaps he fulfilled his obligation when his old indenture was passed again under the seal on May 17, 1620 in the name of "Capt John Warde and his associates."
Ward continued his activities and in the fall of 1620 he was again trading on the Potomac—"the people there, are said, to have dealt falsely with him, so he took 800 bushels of corne per force." Such acts probably had a bearing on the massacre that came in 1622. The massacre may, as a matter of fact, have ended the Ward Plantation story as it did the story for a number of settlements in early Virginia. Probably the twelve persons killed at Lieutenant Gibbs "Dividend" had reference to Ward's Plantation. Mention of the plantation ceases after this date although seemingly Ward received a new grant, or a reaffirmation of his old one, in June, 1623.
This private plantation, as did its founder John Martin, had a tumultuous history from the time of its establishment. Martin, a member of the first Virginia Council in 1607, lived almost constantly in the Colony for a quarter of a century. He will always be remembered as the single dissenting voice to the projected abandonment of Virginia in June, 1610. He, as James P. C. Southall, has stated was "in many ways ... a typical Englishman in the sense that he was jealous and tenacious of his own rights, stubborn and courageous in maintaining them."
When in England in 1616-17 he "was allowed in reward ten shares" of Company stock and on January 29, 1617, obtained a patent that contained privileges and exemptions such as were never before, or after, granted to a Virginian planter. It was stipulated that he could "hold and enjoy" his Virginia lands "in as large & ample manner and to all intents & purposes as any Lord of Mannor here in England." It included, too, provision for "free trafick in the Bay and Rivers" and the right to establish "convenient markets" on his lands. He entered into close business partnership with Captain John Bargrave, whom the Company, in March, 1617, granted fifteen shares of land in Virginia. Bargrave "relying upon the said patent of Martin" proceeded to furnish the "Edwyn of London with men and wares of good value fit for the said plantation, and sent the same with the said Captain Martin into Virginia." Martin left England in April, 1617 on the Edwin, "a barke of very good sayle" and reached Virginia in May just after Argall who had come as governor.