This cross is erected at the site of the earliest known burial ground of the English in America at Jamestown. The first 104 colonists landed in May of 1607 and built a fort along the James River near the Chesapeake Bay. Harsh winters, disease, unrest, Indian attacks, and eventually famine killed hundreds of settlers in the first few years. The first settlers who died were buried inside the fort so as to hide the dwindling numbers to the Indians, but eventually they were moved to this site, a few hundred yards north of the fort. By 1619, a Governer was elected and a town laid out east of the fort. It was about this time that a permanent church was built for the town, and burials began to take place inside and around it. This cross was placed in 1967 by the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities.
This cross is erected at the site of the earliest known burial ground of the English in America at Jamestown. The first 104 colonists landed in May of 1607 and built a fort along the James River near the Chesapeake Bay. Harsh winters, disease, unrest, Indian attacks, and eventually famine killed hundreds of settlers in the first few years. The first settlers who died were buried inside the fort so as to hide the dwindling numbers to the Indians, but eventually they were moved to this site, a few hundred yards north of the fort. By 1619, a Governer was elected and a town laid out east of the fort. It was about this time that a permanent church was built for the town, and burials began to take place inside and around it. This cross was placed in 1967 by the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities.
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