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DOMESTIC LIFE IN VIRGINIA IN

THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY

Annie Lash Jester

Member, Virginia Historical Society

Virginia 350th Anniversary Celebration Corporation

Williamsburg, Virginia

1957

VIRGINIA 350th ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION

CORPORATION, WILLIAMSBURG, VIRGINIA

Jamestown 350th Anniversary

Historical Booklet Number 17

PART I
PART II
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX

[1]

PART I

Laying the Hearthstones

Introduction

Successful colonization, contingent upon a stable domestic life, wasquickened in Virginia with the coming of the gentlewoman Mrs. LucyForest and her maid Ann Burras, who with Mrs. Forest's husband Thomas,arrived in the second supply, 1608, following the planting of the colonyat Jamestown, 13 May 1607.

The possibility of finding a source of wealth in the new world, such asthe Spanish had found in Mexico and Peru, and the more urgent need offinding a route to the East and securing this through the development ofcolonies across the seas, had motivated the several expeditions, begunwith the unsuccessful settlement at Roanoke Island in 1585. Coupled withthese reasons, for colonizing in the new world, was an ever expandingpopulation in England, and the ancient law of entail, which limitedpossession of large landed estates to the eldest sons; younger sons andthe scions of the middle classes were left with exceedingly limitedopportunities or means of attaining estates in England, or, for thatmatter, of ever bettering their condition. Also, if England was tosustain its existing population, the nation must have sources of rawmaterials other than the dwindling supplies in the land, and it musthave also outlets for the wares of the artisans.

Thus, while the hope of wealth in one form or another was a factor inthe settlement of Virginia, a prerequisite to attainment, also takeninto account by the promoters of expeditions, was the establishment ofhomes in a new land. Homes would serve as stabilizers for permanentbases, from which could be carried on the trade essential to England'srising position as a leading power.

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