The William and Mary Centerfor Archaeological Research, through the support of the VirginiaDepartment of Transportation (VDOT) and the City of Hampton, conductedan intensive archaeological excavation at Site 44HT44 in the fall and winterof 1996/1997. Preliminary work in 1994, also sponsored by VDOT and theCity of Hampton, identified the first evidence of a seventeenth-centuryplantation at this site. Extensive archaeological excavation was eventuallydetermined necessary to recover information prior to construction of theCity Satellite Parking Lot adjacent to the Pentran Transportation Center.This latest study investigated traces of the colonial occupation at thesite and revealed details of plantation life not available in the historicalrecord.

Site 44HT44, situated near the heart of downtown Hampton, is closely linkedto the seventeenth-century settlement of Kecoughtan. In 1607, the NativeAmerican village of Kecoughtan stood amid a few thousand cleared acreson the east side of the mouth of the Hampton River. When the first Englishsettlers arrived, the great chief Powhatan had only recently extended hisinfluence over the ancient town. Powhatan had forcibly taken control ofthe village and repopulated it with a small, loyal community of subjectsfrom his confederation. Relations with Native Americans deteriorated soonafter the English began to settle the region. In 1610, Governor ThomasGates removed the Powhatan settlers from the village. Centuries of NativeAmerican occupation at Kecoughtan came to an end.

By 1616, there were about 20 English inhabitants at Kecoughtan, and mostwere engaged in farming. In 1619, Kecoughtan's first two representativesin the House of Burgesses were Captain William Tucker and William Capps.Tucker was the military commander of Kecoughtan and Capps an early landowneron the west side of the Hampton River. At the first session of the legislature,the two men petitioned the Assembly "to change the savage name of Kicowtan,and to give that Incorporation a new name." In 1620, the name "ElizabethCity" was adopted, and it served as the county's name until 1952.

Despite this early change,the place name "Kecoughtan" has been employed variously and has surviveddown to the present day. During the period between 1620 and the foundingof the town of Hampton in the 1690s, the name "Kecoughtan" seems to havereferred to the scatter of waterfront plantations and trading establishmentsalong the Hampton River. Site 44HT44, occupied during the mid- to late17th century, was one of these plantations. Historical research has hintedthat the site once belonged to William Claiborne, who served as treasurerand secretary of state of the colony, and later to ship captain ThomasJarvis.

Historical information aboutClaiborne's possible occupation at Site 44HT44 is sparse. Research suggeststhat Claiborne may have owned the property as early as 1624. The site mayhave been part of his 150-acre Kecoughtan plantation from which he operateda successful trading venture. By 1630, Claiborne was one of the 10 largesttobacco exporters in the colony. He was one of a handful of men who soughtnew enterprises outside of tobacco cultivation, namely, trade with NativeAmericans in the Chesapeake region.

Claiborne may have lived atthe site until 1661, when he moved to a new plantation on the PamunkeyRiver near what is now West Point. It is not known who might have purchasedClaiborne's 150-acre plantation; however, 20 years later, in 1680, ThomasJarvis owned a 200-acre "trading plantation" that probably included most,if not all, of the old Claiborne property and surrounding lands. It isfrom this plantation land that the town of Hampton emerged near the endof the 17th century.

Archaeology is revealing the plantation's organization and evolution, architecture,and the socioeconomic status of its occupants. The clues unearthed documentaspects of early colonial life that are rarely preserved in written records.For instance, the archaeology has revealed extensive remains of post buildings,fencelines, trash pits, and a stone-lined well. The arrangement of thesefeatures reflects yard areas around possible dwellings and outbuildings.The buildings were constructed in a common fashion for the period: framedwith large, evenly spaced posts set into the ground. The dwellings mostlikely had chimneys of daub (a mixture of clay and straw) applied to astick frame; however, traces of these features have long since been plowedaway. Many of the trash pits may have originally been dug for clay to makedaub and bricks.

The features discovered atSite 44HT44 indicate that modifications were made to the plantation overtime. Several of the buildings were built over the former locations offencelines. Evidence of the structures' posts, as revealed by the excavatedpostholes, suggests repair and replacement, and indicates fairly intensive,long-term occupation of the site.

Many of the features and depositssuch as the well, trash pits, and postholes were excavated, yielding thousandsof artifacts.  These include a portion of an English slipware bowldated 1668; Portuguese tin-glazed earthenware; a letter seal with the initials"TCN"; part of an iron wall sconce; Venetian glass tableware fragments;Dutch, English, and locally made tobacco pipes; fragments of iron hoesand shovels; a thimble engraved with the profile of King Charles II; anda wide variety of other domestic and agricultural artifacts. The artifactsreflect significant wealth that few Virginians possessed during the seventeenthcentury.

Sites like 44HT44 demonstrate the potential of archaeology to complementand expand the historical record. The study has enhanced our understandingof 17th-century settlement in Virginia, providing a rare glimpse of earlyplantation life on land that would become the City of Hampton.

Using the results of the excavation,a more complete history of the site has been written with information providedby laboratory analysis of the artifacts. The excavation records and artifactsrecovered from Site 44HT44 will become part of the City of Hampton's museumcollection, housed in the Charles Taylor Art Center, where they will beavailable for research, public education, and exhibition.

We wish to thank VDOT and the City of Hampton for their patience, interest, and assistance throughoutthis project.

A complete report of researchat the Pentran Site is available as CAR's TechnicalReport Series No. 28.

SUGGESTED READINGS

Deetz, James
1977   In Small Things Forgotten:The Archeology of Early American Life. Anchor Press/Doubleday, GardenCity, New York.

Higgins, Thomas F. III, et al.
1993   The Evolution of a Tidewater Town: Phase III Data Recovery at Sites 44HT38 and 44HT39, Cityof Hampton, Virginia. Technical Report SeriesNo. 12. William and Mary Center for Archaeological Research. Williamsburg,Virginia. Submitted to Virginia Department of Transportation, Richmond.

1999  Traces of HistoricKecoughtan: Archaeology at a Seventeenth-Century Plantation: Data Recoveryat Site 44HT44, Associated with the Proposed Pentran Bus Parking Lot Project,City of Hampton, Virginia. Technical Report SeriesNo. 28. William and Mary Center for Archaeological Research. Williamsburg,Virginia. Submitted to Virginia Department of Transportation, Richmond.

Horn, James
1994   Adapting to a NewWorld: English Society in the Seventeenth-Century Chesapeake. Publishedfor the Institute of Early American History and Culture, Williamsburg,Virginia, by the University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill.

Samford, Patricia, and David L. Ribblett
1995   Archaeology for YoungExplorers: Uncovering History at Colonial Williamsburg. Colonial WilliamsburgFoundation, Williamsburg, Virginia.

Shackel, Paul A., and Barbara J. Little (editors)
1994   Historical Archaeologyof the Chesapeake. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington and London. 


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