Jamestown’s 400th Anniversary by

James S. Pula

The Virginia Company of London established the first successful Englishcolony in North America at Jamestown in 1607. Only a year later, the first Polesarrived around the beginning of October 1608, making this fall the 400th anniver-sary of the Polish experience in America. To mark this occasion, Polish AmericanStudies is presenting two articles on the subject. In this first of the two-part pres-entation, we provide evidence from the English records documenting the Polishpresence and, to the extent that it exists, the evidence of their activities in thecolony. In the second article, Richard J. Orli explores the question of what rolethe Poles played in the fledgling colony, focusing on the debate regardingwhether it was the Poles or the “Dutchmen,” sometimes identified as “Germans,”who were the glass makers. Since much of the speculation and controversy sur-rounding the Polish presence in early Jamestown relates to their specific econom-ic role in the colony, Orli’s well-researched and reasoned article will prove to bean important addition to the literature on the subject.

The purpose of this initial article is to present the primary source materialscontained in the extant English records from roughly the first fifteen years of thecolony’s existence. There can be no doubt that there were Poles in the Jamestowncolony, that they arrived only a year after the founding of the colony, and that theywere skilled artisans. There are at least fourteen separate specific references to thePoles in the English records from that era, the primary sources upon which his-torical inquiry and interpretation are based. These include three personal obser-vations by various Jamestown colonists summarized in The Proceedings of theEnglish Colonie in Virginia (1612); two additional reference in John Smith’s TheGenerall Historie of Virginia (1625); one reference in John Smith’s The TrueTravels and Adventures of Captaine John Smith (1819 edition); seven referencesin the Records of the Virginia Company of London (1619-1622); and one refer-

JAMESTOWN’S 400TH ANNIVERSARY 9Polish American StudiesVol. LXV, No. 2 (Autumn 2008)© Polish American Historical Association

ence in Edward Waterhouse’s A Declaration of the State of the Colony andAffaires in Virginia (1622).1

So, what do the primary sources tell us? The first references to Poles thathave meaning for the Jamestown colony actually appear before the founding ofthe Virginia venture. It should be remembered that the Virginia Company ofLondon, the parent organization of the Jamestown colony, was a joint stock com-pany in which people invested in hopes of a profit. To make the colony produc-tive, those planning the enterprise provided for the establishment of businessenterprises that would make the colony profitable to its investors. In 1586,Richard Hakluyt described the kind of men needed for a colony in North Americaas “Men skilfull in burning of Sope ashes, and in making of Pitch, and Tarre, andRozen, to be fetched out of Prussia and Poland, which are thence to be had forsmall wages, being there in manner of slaves.”2 Later, John Smith, the Jamestowncolony’s “president,” noted that “Muscovy and Polonia doe a yearly receauemany thousands for pitch, tarre, soap ashes, Rosen, Flax, Cordage, Sturgeon,masts, yards, wainscot, Firres, glasse, and such like.”3 From these comments weknow that the colony’s organizers were aware that Poland contained artisansskilled in making important commodities such as pitch, tar, resin, soapashes, andother materials in demand in England, as well as masts and yards in demand bythe Royal Navy and English merchant vessles. Thus, they planned to base thecolonny’s early productivity, as least in part, on commodities that could be pro-duced by skilled artisans from Poland.

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__________1Sources referenced here that specifically refer to the Polish presence in Jamestown

include: The Proceedings of the English Colonie in Virginia Since Their First Beginningfrom England in the Yeare of Our Lord 1606, Till This Present 1612, With All TheirAccidents That Befell Them in Their Iournies and Discoveries (Oxford: Joseph Barnes,1612), Chapter VII; John Smith, The Generall Historie of Virginia, New England, and theSummer Iles with the Names of Adventurers, Planters and Governours from their FirstBeginning An: 1548 to the Present 1624 (Oxford, 1625) [it was also published in a Londonedition of 1629 that was reprinted in Richmond by Franklin Press in 1819]; John Smith,The True Travels and Adventures of Captaine John Smith (Richmond: 1819), I, 193; SusanMyra Kingsbury, ed., Records of the Virginia Company of London (Washington: 1906-1936, 4 vols.), Court Book, July 21, 1619 (Vol. I, 353), May 17, 1620 (Vol. I, 353), May17, 1620 (Vol. III, 278), and June 22, 1620 (Vol. III, 304); Edward Waterhouse, ADeclaration of the State of the Colony and Affaires in Virginia (1622).

2See E. G. R. Raylor, ed., The Original Writings & Correspondence of the TwoRichard Hakluyts (London: Hakluyt Society Publications Series 2, LXXVI-LXXVII,1935). The Richard referred to here is the lawyer. In this and subsequent quotations, theoriginal spelling has been maintained.

3John Smith, A Map of Virginia. With a Description of the Countrey, theCommodities, People, Government and Religion (Oxford: Joseph Barnes, 1612), 360.

With the establishment of Jamestown, the arrival of the Poles is documentedin Proceedings of the English Colonie in Virginia which notes in Chapter VII that thesailing vessel Mary and Margaret arrived in 1608 with a number of colonists and“8 Dutchmen and Poles.”4 While the exact names, occupations, or other informa-tion relating to the “Dutchmen and Poles” were not stated, later in Chapter VIIthe Proceedings state: “As for the hiring of the Poles and Dutch, to make pitch andtarre, glasse, milles, and soap ashes was most necessarie and well.”5 Further,Chapter IX describes how John Smith was attacked by an Indian near the colonyand the Poles came to his rescue. It states: “Long they struggled in the water, fromwhence the king [the Indian elder], perceiving two of the Poles upon the sandes,would haue fled: but the President [John Smith] held him by the haire and throattil the Poles came in.”6 From these sources we know that eight “Dutchmen” andPoles arrived in 1608, that they were hired as skilled artisans, and that two ofthem came to Smith’s aid when he was attacked by an Indian. Although the extantsources are not specific on how many of the eight people were actually Poles, itappears from other descriptions in the English sources that there were betweenfour and five “Dutchmen”; thus, there must have been either three or four Poles.Richard J. Orli discusses this historical numbers problem in his essay appearingnext in this issue of Polish American Studies.

The English primary sources also provide us with John Smith’s evaluation ofthe Poles as workers. In The Generall Historie of Virginia he explains: “All thistime we had but one Carpenter in the Countrey, and three others that could doelittle, but desisted to be learners; two Blacksmiths; two saylers; and those wewrite laborers were for the most part footmen, and such as they could perswadeto goe with them, that neuer did know what dayes worke was: except the Dutchmen and Poles and some dozen other.”7 Clearly, Smith was unhappy with thework ethic of the colonists, except for “the Dutch men and Poles and some dozenother[s]” whom he exempted from the condemnation. We know from this thatSmith was pleased with the Poles’ work.

Yet, Smith was not entirely happy with the situation. In his True Travels hecomplained that “As for hyring of the Poles and Dutchmen, to make Pitch, Tar,Glasse, Milles and Soap ashes, when the country is replenished with people andnecessaries, would haue done well, but to send them and seuentie more withoutvictuals to worke, was not so well aduised nor considered of, as it should hauebeen.”8 While this passage serves as further confirmation that the Poles werepresent in Jamestown as skilled artisans, it also reveals Smith’s frustration that

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__________4Smith, Proceedings of the English Colonie in Virginia, Chapter VII.5Smith, Proceedings of the English Colonie in Virginia, Chapter VII.6Smith, Proceedings of the English Colonie in Virginia, Chapter IX.7Edward Arber, ed., Travels and Works of Captain Smith (Birmingham, England:

1884), I, 434.8Smith, True Travels, I, 193.

the planning for this venture by the Virginia Company of London was not as thor-ough as it might have been.

We also know from the various accounts that the Poles were involved indefending the colony from the hostility of the local indigenous population, suf-fering loss in the process. In The Generall Historie of Virginia, Smith describesthe capture of two Indian “elders,” one of whom was apprehended by “Robert, aPolonian.”9 Finally, the Virginia Company records include a first-hand account ofEdward Waterhouse who identified “Mathew, a Polander” as one of the victimsof an Indian attack on the colony in 1622.10 Taken together, these references pro-vide further evidence from original sources testifying to the presence and activi-ty of Poles in the early Jamestown colony, and testifying to their activities.

The substantial records of the Virginia Company provide additional informa-tion on the Poles in Jamestown. In the court records there is a notation for July21, 1619, reading:

“Upon some dispute of the Polonians resident in Virginia, it was nowagreed (notwthstanding any former order to the contrary) that they shalbeenfranchized, and made as free as any inhabitant there whatsoever: And becausetheir skill in making pitch & tarr and sope-ashees shall not dye wth them, it isagreed that some young men, shalbe put unto them to learne their skill & knowl-edge therein for the benefitt of the Country hereafter.”11

What this appears to describe is a “dispute” over enfranchisement, and pos-sibly freedom, the latter most likely in the sense of civil liberties rather than lit-eral freedom, as a result of which it was agreed that the Poles would be enfran-chised and “made as free as any inhabitant there whatsoever.” The latter proba-bly means that they would be granted the same civil and political rights asEnglish citizens. Apparently in return, the Poles would teach their skills to someyoung men for the greater benefit of the colony.

Further light may be shed on this occurrence by a subsequent entry in thesame court records which read: “Pitch and tar: potashes and soap ashes, for themaking whereof the Polackers are returned to their work.”12 Apparently the Polesleft work and then returned. While not absolutely conclusive, when taken togeth-er the two entries appear to refer to the basic outlines of what we would today call

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9Smith, The Generall Historie of Virginia. This engagement, which took place in1616, was attested to by the following witnesses: Captain Nathaniel Powell, WilliamCantrill, Sergeant Booth, and Edward Gurganey.

10Edward Waterhouse, A Declaration of the State of the Colony and Affaires inVirginia (1622).

11Susan M. Kingsbury, ed., Records of the Virginia Company of London (Washington:1906-1936), Court Book (July 21, 1619), Vol. I, 251-52.

12Kingsbury, Records of the Virginia Company, May 17, 1620, Vol. I, 353.

a “strike.” There was a dispute over enfranchisement and freedom; the Polesstopped working; there was an agreement that the Poles would be enfranchisedand given the same freedoms as any other resident; the Poles agreed to teach theirskills to others in the colony; the Poles went back to work.

Under the same date, but recorded in a different volume of the VirginiaCompany records, there appeared another entry verifying that the return of thePoles to their work was linked also with the training of apprentices:

For pitch and tar, we advise and require that the Polackers be returned inpart to these their works, with such other assistance as shall be necessary. Thelike we shall desire for Pot-ashes and Soap-ashes, when there shall be fit storeof hand to assist them: Requiring in the meane time, the care be generally taken,that Seruants and Apprentices be so trained up in these works, as that the skilldoe not perish together with the Masters.12

The “Masters,” of course, were the Polish artisans. Apparently not wishingto rely entirely on the training of apprentices as a source for further skilled arti-sans, an entry in the Company records a little over a month later refers to anoth-er venture designed to meet this need: “For hemp and flax, potashes and soapash-es, pitch and tar, there is a Treaty already on foot, for procuring of men skillful inthose trades from the Eastern part: besides the Polackers yet remaining inVirginia.”13 It is clear from these entries that the manufacture of the commoditiesfor which the Polish artisans were responsible were regarded as important aspectsof Jamestown’s economic life. Equally clear is that the Poles objected to whatwas probably inequitable political treatment and that it was agreed that theywould be considered free and enfranchised and that the Poles would teach theirskills to others among the colony, whereupon the Poles returned to work.

Finally, there is the saga of “Molasco the Polander.” In 1623 he lodged aclaim against the Virginia Company of London. As described in the court records:

Molasco the Polander earnestly besought that his petition might be readalledginge that he had attended about a Quarter of a yeare and the Earl ofNorthampton said that if his case were as he were informed he had sufferedmuch wronge. Mr. Deputy said that he was not altogether ignorant of the matterbut knewe that there was so fowle oppression that had bin used to the poore man,and likewise upon diuers others in the like cases as he was afraide, both theCompanies and Plantations did to the waight of their owne sins suffered Godspunishment for these former offenses: Wherefore he thought it most necessarieto endeavor the rightinge of him, but that was to be donn accordinge to the formprescribed by the Quarter Courte; In this Court it could not be donne his casebeinge verie longe and somewhat intricate: Whereupon the Earl of Southampton

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12Kingsbury, Records of the Virginia Company, May 17, 1620, Vol. III, 278.13Kingsbury, Records of the Virginia Company, July 22, 1620, Vol. III, 304.

willed mr. Deputy with all convenient speed that might be to call the Committeeto whome that matter was referred, that so the Court might doe him justice:Which mr. Deputy promised.14

From this we may conclude that Molasco filed a claim against the VirginiaCompany which court officials believe to have merit. This initial reference in thecourt records was followed a year later with another entry, apparently about thesame claim:

Molasco the Polander – Peticioninge for such money hee said his MajestiesCommissioners found due unto him from the Company was answered that theCompany had made itt appeare by their answere that ye said Commissioners thathee was not to be satisfied from them butt from such as have received greatallowances from the Company for satisfaction of him and the rest of Polandersas appeared upon the Companies Accompts, And namely from mr. Woodallwhom the Commissioner promised to examine upon Oath touching the saidmoneys, unto whome the Petitioner was to repayre to know what they had donetherein.15

From this entry it appears that Molasco’s claim was investigated and he wasawarded a judgment. However, there was a dispute about whether the funds tomeet Molasco’s claim were to come from the Company or from people theCompany had already paid to satisfy its debts. The other important informationcontained in this entry is that there were other Poles who were to be satisfied aswell. From these entries we know that one of the Poles filed a claim against thecompany, apparently on behalf of himself and other Poles, that royal commission-ers agreed with the claim, and that the Poles had difficulty collecting.

A final entry in the Company records referring to Molasco indicates that hewas among those who voted to surrender the charter of the Company to the gov-ernment in 1623.16 From this, it would appear that the Company did honor theagreement to enfranchise the Poles, for Molasco, as a free man, was exercisinghis right to vote.

To summarize, then, the English records provide clear proof of the Polishpresence in early Jamestown. We know leaders of the Virginia Company ofLondon, including John Smith, were aware that Poland contained artisans skilledin making important commodities much in demand in England, and for whichthere were abundant raw materials in the New World. We know that between twoand four Poles arrived in 1608, that they were hired as skilled artisans, and thatJohn Smith valued their work. We know that two of the Poles came to Smith’s aid

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14Kingsbury, Records of the Virginia Company, February 19, 1623, Vol. II, 279.15Kingsbury, Records of the Virginia Company, February 2, 1624, Vol. II, 510.16Kingsbury, Records of the Virginia Company, November 1623, Vol. II.

when he was attacked by Indians, that one later captured an Indian “elder” dur-ing a skirmish with the local inhabitants, and that a Pole was among those killedin the Indian attack on Jamestown in 1622. We know that the Poles objected towhat was probably inequitable political treatment and that it was agreed that theywould be considered free and enfranchised and that in return the Poles wouldteach their skills to others among the colony. We know that Poles remained in thecolony at least into the 1620s, and that one filed a claim against the Company onbehalf of them, that royal commissioners agreed with the claim, and that the Poleshad difficulty collecting.

All of the information above is verified in the extant English records. Atpresent, this is what we know of the early Polish presence in Jamestown.Notwithstanding the claims of ethnic journalists and others, until additional ver-ified sources are found, this is all that we know with certainty. It is this provenrecord that ought to be remembered and commemorated as part of our nationalexperience.

JAMESTOWN’S 400TH ANNIVERSARY 15

FO R LI B E RT Y A N D JU S T I C EA BIOGRAPHY OF BRIGADIER GENERAL

WÒODZIMIERZ B. KRZYZ ÆANOWSKI, 1824-1887

JAMES S. PULA

A revised and expanded version of this biography ofGen. Krzyzæanowski will be available in February at$29.95 per copy. To reserve your copy at a specialPAHA discount price of $25.00 (postage included),send a check or money order for $25 to: James S.Pula, 378 Ballenisle Court, Chesterton, IN, 46304.