Tobacco was introduced to England by explorers returning from the New World in the second half of the 16th century. By the time Jamestown was settled in 1607, smoking tobacco in clay pipes was a popular English pastime. The early clay pipes have small bowls because the tobacco was very strong and very expensive. One ounce of tobacco would fill a pipe 25 times! The shape and size of the tobacco pipe bowl changed throughout the colonial period providing archaeologists with a good idea of the dates of their sites.

Four white ball clay English tobacco pipe bowls with teardrop-shaped heels. The pipes are mold made and burnished to obscure the mold seams. All these pipes were excavated from plow zone except the example on the upper left. It was found in the Pit 1 (ca. 1607-1610) and has a maker's mark in the way of an incuse "S" on the heel. This mark has been found on London pipes dating ca. 1580-1610.