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VIRGINIA SETTLERS MONUMENT
Thames Path, Blackwall, E14,
directly across the River Thames from the O2 dome

This imposing monument sits at the spot where in December 1606, during the reign of King James I, three small wooden ships departed for the so-called "New World," bearing just over a hundred English men and boys, who were sent by the London Company, a joint-stock venture, to establish a colony in what is now the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States.

In 1606, the spot was known as Blackwall and the three ships, which are commemorated 5 miles due west in a stained glass window in St. Sepulchre Church on Holborn, were called the Susan Constant, the Discovery, and the Godspeed. When the settlers arrived in May 1607, after taking the long route to America via the Caribbean Sea, they established a settlement named Jamestown--in honor of the King--which lay on the north side of the James River, also named for the King.

Jamestown was not the first English settlement in America, but despite coming close to failure in 1609-10, it was the first successful one. An earlier attempt, on Roanoake Island in what is now the State of North Carolina, in the 1580s, disappeared without a trace.

Jamestown's early years were marked by severe hardship. It was thanks largely to the leadership of Captain John Smith, who is commemorated by a statue next to St. Mary-le-Bow Church in the City, that the colony made it through a difficult period when Smith negotiated an uneasy peace with the native Powhatan Indians. Following Smith's return to England in 1609, due to an accident that disabled him, the colonists nearly starved to death when the Indians made it almost impossible for them to hunt or fish or plant crops. After Pocahontas, the daughter of Chief Powhatan, was kidnapped by the English and adopted their ways, and also married an Englishman named John Rolfe, peace prevailed. Rolfe is also famous for becoming the first English settler to successfully cultivate tobacco, which quickly became the leading cash crop of the colony. Shortly after Pocahontas came to England with her husband, she died and was buried at Gravesend, where a statue of her now stands in the churchyard where she was buried.

This monument itself has a somewhat long history. On Saturday, June 30, 1928, the bronze tablet that's affixed to the present monument, which was a gift to the Port of London Authority from the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities, was formally dedicated at ceremonies that included speeches by Lord Charnwood and Vice-Admiral G. Burrage of the United States Navy. The plaque, which was originally attached to the wall of the dockmaster's house at Brunswick Wharf, Blackwall, was unveiled by Sue and Nelle Tyler, daughters of the Mayor of Norfolk, Virginia. 450 people were invited to the ceremony.

During World War II, the dockmaster's house was badly damaged by German bombs. In 1951, after it was torn down and the area redeveloped as the Brunswick Wharf Power Station, the plaque or tablet was incorporated into a monument or memorial, which was unveiled by the American Ambassdor to Great Britain, Walter Gifford, on Friday, May 18, 1951. The monument, designed by Harold Brown for the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities, included the rough-hewn stonework of the present-day memorial (which came from the old quay wall of the West India Docks). The only difference between that monument and the present-day structure was its base and also, instead of the astrolabe that surmounts it today, there was a statue of a mermaid, which was later stolen.

After the power station was demolished in 1989, Barratt Homes redeveloped the area, building a granite base or plinth for the monument and in 1999, adding the present-day oversized Astrolabe, designed by Wendy Taylor, in place of the missing mermaid statue. An inscription on both the river-facing and land-facing sides of the base provides a summary of the monument's history. Flagpoles immediately behind the memorial usually fly the U.S., British, English, and Commonwealth of Virginia flags.

The housing development just to the back of the memorial, consisting of 800 homes, has a Virginia Theme. One of the streets, Newport Avenue, is named for Captain Christoper Newport, leader of the 1606-1607 expedition and the street directly behind the monument is called Jamestown Way. There is also a small area named Virginia Quay Park, which includes Explorers Way Playground. Affixed to the wall of a block of flats on Newport Avenue is a small metal plaque commemorating the Jamestown settlement. (See photo, right.)

Together with the 3-ships stained glass windows in St. Sepulchre Church in the City, the statue of John Smith next to St. Mary-le-Bow Church, and the statue of Pocahontas in Gravesend, this monument serves as a tangible reminder of how what is now the United States of America got its start through the daring of seventeenth-century English explorers and the London Company investors who were willing to take a a chance on their efforts, as well as the King who gave his permission.

References:
Yearbook of the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities (Richmond, Virginia: 1928), pp.13-16 and pp.36-39; Sunday Mirror (London), July 1, 1928, pp.12-13; The Guardian (London), July 2, 1928, p.3 and p.8; The Guardian (London), May 19, 1951, p.4; Daily Telegraph, May 19, 1951, p.5; Evening Standard (London), Sept. 3, 1999, p.70.