This was one of the earliest of the "particular" plantations and had a larger and more vigorous life than most. It has been said that this might be listed as the leading, or model, Hundred in the Colony. It was one organized and promoted by a group within, yet outside of, the regular Company projects. It was named for Richard Martin, an attorney for the London Company. He was a leading member in the Society of Martin's Hundred as this special group of adventurers was known. Another leader in the sponsoring group was Sir John Wolstenholme whose name was associated with the town, described in January, 1622 as "the Towne in Martin's Hundred [which] is now seated called Wolstenholme Towne."
Wolstenholme was located on the James, it seems, and the boundaries of the Hundred, when laid down in 1621, were measured five miles along the "river called (Kinge) James River" in each direction from it. This was five miles toward Jamestown and five toward "Newportes Newes." Northward the bound was the Queenes River alias Pacomunky [York]. It is of interest to note that the boundaries were to "the middest" of the rivers. Roughly its 80,000 acres lay on the north side of the James between Archer's Hope and Mulberry Island.
In October, 1618, the Society sent its first colonists to Virginia. These made up a party of 280 who reached Virginia several months later in the Guift of God. Several additional groups were sent out in 1619, a large party in 1620 and others in 1621. The latter were sent, it was recorded, "to plante and inhabite and to erect and make perfect a church and towne there already begunne." At the time of the Assembly in 1619 it was an established community and sent its representatives up to Jamestown—John Boys and John Jackson.
It appears to have been a determined lot of "ancient adventurers" who sponsored Martin's Hundred and the record indicates that they worked hard and zealously to make it a paying organization. They were, however, often beset with difficulties. Shipmasters and mariners abused them as did the "Capemarchant," according to their reports. When they sought Company shares to sustain losses in one shipment to Virginia, Sir Edwin Sandys reminded them that they were a particular group. He related "As Martins Hundred hath been at great charges, so have divers other hundreds, so have also beene many perticuler persons, Captaine Bargrave alone hath brought and sett out divers shipps ... Sir Thomas Gates, and Sir Thomas Dale, besides a multitude of other, who have spent a large portion of their estates therein...."
In May, 1621, Yeardley wrote concerning the arrival of servants to be located at Martin's Hundred. He described the difficulty of making land assignments "because we have never a surveyour in the lande." He added too that "the undertakers at Martins Hundred would thinke themselves muche wronged, if any other should be sett on worke to divide their groundes." He commented, too, that a proper division might be better since he had heard that the Society "intende ... to buy out the Indians of Chischiack [on the York River]."
Martin's Hundred suffered severely in the massacre of 1622. The slaughter took a total of seventy-eight persons including the commander. Among those killed were a score of women and children showing that family life was well developed here. The loss was so great that the settlement was temporarily abandoned along with a great many others in Virginia. The abandonment was of short duration, it seems, for new references soon appear such as that naming Captain Ralph Hamor "to have absolute power, and comand in all matters of war over all the people of Martins Hundred." In any case "the replantinge" was left to the Society which had originally established it. Although the Company deemed it, along with others which had been deserted, "of absolute necessitie," it was too busy with its own projects to aid materially.
The Society "set forth a verie chargeable supply of people" in October, 1622. When William Harwood was mentioned for the Council, Martin's Hundred asked that he not be named since they needed his services full time. Reverend Robert Paulett was named instead. In April, 1623 it was a going concern although life was dark in the eyes of Richard Frethorne who wrote of the danger, hunger, and the heavy work. He related "ther is indeed some foule [fowle], but wee are not allowed to goe, and get it, but must worke hard both earlie, and late for a messe of water gruell, and a mouthfull of bread, and beife." He stated that of twenty who came the last year but three were left. In all, he said, "wee are but thirty-two." The Indians he feared; "the nighest helpe that Wee have is ten miles of us." Here "wee lye even in their teeth." The break in the monotony, it seems, was an occasional trip to Jamestown "that is ten miles of us, there be all the ships that come to the land, and there must deliver their goodes." The trip up took from noon till night on the tide. The return was the same.
Nothing came, at this time, of the proposal for "runninge a pale from Martin's Hundred to Cheskacke," between the York and the James rivers. The stockade across the peninsula was still a decade away. When built it would be several miles to the west. There is nothing to indicate that the church, or school, for which William Whitehead left funds in his will in 1623, ever materialized. The plan was that it be built in Martin's Hundred.
Evidently conditions at this time were at a low ebb. George Sandys felt it was a pity that the project could not be pushed more vigorously. When the plantation was asked to take a number of the "infidelles children to be brought up" the officials asked to be excused since they were "sorely weakened and ... in much confusion." The Indians, too, were still around. The Governor in May, 1623 urged that the "Commander" keep watch, insure the carrying of arms and prevent stragglers from loitering about. The Indians were suspected of coming to "spy and observe." Seemingly the plantation, perhaps already a parish in the church organization, was not represented in the Assembly in 1624.
At this time Martin's Hundred was reported to have twenty-three persons, but twenty-eight had died within the year, two being killed. At the time of the general census of the next year, there were but thirty-one, a fact that indicates small growth. To accommodate these there were seven houses, supplies of corn and fish and some cattle and hogs. The settlement was well stocked in weapons with thirty-two armors of various types, thirty-one swords, and fifty-two small arms. Perhaps William Harwood, who was in charge, remembered well the massacre.