Richard Pace was an early settler and ancient planter in colonial Jamestown, Virginia. According to a 1622 account published by the London Company, Pace played a key role in warning the Jamestown colony of an impending Powhatan raid on the settlement.
Richard and Isabella Pace were from Stepney Parish in London. They married in St. Dunstan's Parish Church in October 1608: "Richard Pace of Wapping Wall Carpenter and Isabell Smyth of the same marryed the 5th day October 1608."St. Dunstan's Parish Register of Marriages, Oct 1568 – Jan 1610, London Metropolitan Archives. Note that the phrase "of Wapping Wall" only shows that the couple were living there at the time of the marriage. St Dunstan's has historic links with the sea and with seafarers, and was until recently the "Church of the High Seas", where births, deaths, and marriages at sea were registered. In the 17th century, when Richard Pace and Isabell Smyth married there, the parish included Wapping, a waterfront area occupied by mariners, boatbuilders, merchants, victuallers, and others concerned with London's burgeoning maritime ventures. These associations, taken together with the names, make it plausible that the couple who married in Stepney subsequently voyaged to Virginia and were in fact the same persons as Richard and Isabella Pace of Jamestown. However, no proof of this has emerged.
Pace's Paines Under Jamestown's colonial charter, Richard and Isabella Pace were designated "ancient planters" and each received a land grant of 100 acres under the headright system established in 1618. "Instructions to George Yeardley, November 18, 1618" Although Richard Pace's original patent has not survived, two later patents give details of the location and date.
Pace died by 1625, and his wife Isabella remarried William Perry. Perry thus became stepfather to Richard Pace's adolescent son George. Three years later, in 1628, George Pace claimed the land and headrights he had inherited from his father:
The patent record shows that of these 400 acres, 100 were due "for the personal adventure of Richard Pace", and the other 300 for the importation of six persons – each of these being worth a headright of 50 acres. The six are named in the patent as Lewis Bayly, Richard Irnest, John Skinner, Bennett Bulle, Roger Macher, and Ann Mason.
In the same month, Richard Pace's widow (now Isabella Perry) repatented the remainder of the original Pace grant—the 100 acres that had been granted "for her own personal adventure"—thus putting the land in her own name. At the same time, she also patented 100 acres which had originally been granted to Francis Chapman (another "ancient planter") and which Isabella had apparently acquired by purchase:
Quitrent of one shilling per 50 acres is specified in both these patents. Since ancient planters who had paid their own passage were to receive the land free of quitrent, this shows that Richard and Isabella Pace did not pay their own passage but were brought at the London Company's expense, probably as Company employees.
Having acquired their land, Richard and Isabella Pace made a return trip to England, apparently to find and bring back with them servants to help with the clearing and cultivation. They returned on the Marmaduke in August 1621, bringing with them the six persons later named as headrights in George Pace's 1628 patent (above). They brought with them also a young woman named Ursula Clawson, described as "kinswoeman to Richard Pace an olde Planter in Virginia whoe hath given his bonde to pay for her passadge and other Chardges".Ferrar Papers, MS 1601c, Magdalene College, Cambridge, England Among the other passengers on this sailing of the Marmaduke were a dozen women sent by the Virginia Company "for wiues for the people in Virginia." "CLXXXVI. Virginia Company. Letter to the Governor and Council in Virginia. August 12, 1621." Susan Myra Kingsbury, editor. Records of the Virginia Company, 1606–26, Volume III: Miscellaneous Records, pp. 492–497 Ursula Clawson was included in this group, but it appears she was not obliged to take her chances in the marriage auction since her passage was to be paid by Richard Pace. A copy of the bill for her passage was sent to Virginia on the same sailing, and is mentioned in the accompanying letter from the Virginia Company to the Council:
There appear to be no further records mentioning Ursula Clawson. Of the six Marmaduke passengers who were later named as headrights in George Pace's 1628 patent, only John Skinner appears again: he is listed in the 1624/5 Muster, still at Pace's Paines, where he is described as a servant in the muster of Phettiplace Close. Jamestown 1624/5 Muster
In recent years, archeological excavations have been carried out at the location of the Pace's Paines plantation in an effort to learn more about early colonial life.The James River Institute for Archeologyhttps://www.dhr.virginia.gov/registers/Counties/Surry/090-0015_Mount_Pleasant_2007_NRdraft.pdf National Register of Historic Places Registration Form A state historical marker near the site recounts some of the history of Pace's Paines.Pace's Paines - Virginia Historical Markers on Waymarking.com
Warning Jamestown In April 1622, in the aftermath of the 1622 Powhatan attack on Jamestown, the Council in Virginia wrote to the London Company giving news of the disaster. That letter gives few details of the attack and does not mention warnings, though it does say that the Indians had attempted "to haue Swept vs away at once through owte the whole lande, had it nott plesed god of his abundant mercy to prevent them in many places.""CCXXVII. Council in Virginia. Letter to Virginia Company of London, April (after 20) 1623" Susan Myra Kingsbury, editor. Records of the Virginia Company, 1606–26, Volume III: Miscellaneous Records, p. 306
George Sandys, Treasurer in Virginia, also wrote a letter to England about the attack and its consequences and evidently went into much more detail.An article on the website of APVA describes the archeological exploration of George Sandys's James City property. The article includes the statement: "In the weeks that followed the March 22 Uprising, Sandys composed a letter to the London Company describing the colony's devastation. He reported on the murders of nearly 350 settlers, prompting London-based John Farrar to compile a list of the deceased." At the Edge of the Precipice: Frontier Ventures, Jamestown's Hinterland, and the Archaeology of 44JC802 by Seth Mallios.
Sandys's letter was apparently the original source of the story of the Indian who warned Richard Pace. According to the story, a Powhatan youth living in the household of Richard Pace had been instructed to kill Pace and his family in conjunction with a planned attack on the colony. The youth instead warned Pace of the impending attack. After securing his household, Pace rowed across the James River to warn James City.
Though directed to the London Company, Sandys's account of the massacre seems to have been widely read and gossiped about in England, perhaps due to the efforts of professional correspondents such as Nathaniel Butter, John Pory (a former Secretary of the Virginia Colony), and the Rev. Joseph Mead—all of whom knew and corresponded with each other and with a wide range of newsworthy persons.Raymond, Joad, News Networks in seventeenth century Britain and Europe, Routledge (2006) A letter received by Joseph Mead in July 1622 refers to the massacre, and mentions "an Indian boy" warning a colonist:
The London Company's Account In August 1622, the London Company published their official response to the news of the massacre, in the form of a pamphlet compiled by Edward Waterhouse, Secretary to the London Company. This pamphlet, entitled "A declaration of the state of the colony and affaires in Virginia : With a relation of the barbarous massacre in the time of peace and league, treacherously executed by the natiue infidels vpon the English, the 22 of March last" was essentially a damage-limitation exercise by the London Company, trying to reassure disgruntled shareholders and potential emigrants and restore the reputation of Virginia as a place where reasonable persons might hope to make their fortune. Significantly, Waterhouse's pamphlet announces a change of policy towards the Indians:
Waterhouse presents the colonists' efforts to convert the Indians to Christianity as evidence of the "gentlenesse and faire usage" with which the Indians had (according to Waterhouse) previously been treated. He goes on to say that "it pleased God to vse some of them as instruments to saue many of their liues, whose soules they had formerly saued, as at Iames-Cittie, and other places, and the Pinnace trading in Pamounkey Riuer,The pinnace was later identified as that of Capt Raleigh Croshaw all whose liues were saued by a conuerted Indian, disclosing the plot in an instant."
Waterhouse then cites the letters from George Sandys:
Although the number of the dead, as given in this account, is more or less accurate (the total killed being 347), the reference to "thousands" being saved is hyperbolic, since the population of the colony at the time of the massacre was only about 1,240.Records of the Virginia Company, Vol. III, 288, "Mr. Wroth. Notes from Lists showing Total Number of Emigrants to Virginia. 1622."
Waterhouse's pamphlet was incorporated into the Records of the Virginia Company of London, now held by the Library of Congress.
It may be significant that George Sandys was located near Richard Pace, and may have been one of the first to whom Pace passed on the warning. A map of settlements and plantations along the JamesThe First Seventeen Years: Virginia 1607 - 1624, Charles E. Hatch, Jr, University of Virginia Press, 1957, pp. 32–33 shows the Treasurer's land near Pace's Paines.
Later accounts In his General Historie of Virginia Captain John Smith (who was not in Virginia at the time of the massacre) gave a long and detailed account of the events, including not only the story of the Indian who warned Richard Pace, but also accounts of warnings given in other places. However, his account of the warning given to Pace adds nothing to the version published by Waterhouse.
In 1705, Robert Beverley included an account of the Indian's warning to Pace in his history of Virginia. This appears to be based on the account given by John Smith. In 1707, the Dutch publisher Peter Van Der Aa published Scheepstogt Van Anthony Chester, na Virginia gedaan in het jaar 1620, which purports to be an anonymous eyewitness account of a voyage to Jamestown. This work was translated into English in 1901.Bishop, Charles Edward Bishop, "Two Tragical Events", William and Mary Quarterly, April 1901 The two events described in the account are a sea fight and the massacre; the account of the massacre includes the story of the Indian warning Richard Pace. However, it seems that the supposed eyewitness account of the events was in reality taken from John Smith's writings and the Waterhouse pamphlet.
The account given by George Sandys, and retold by Edward Waterhouse, thus remains the sole source for the story of the Indian youth who warned Richard Pace. However, the reference to the Indian's warning in the letter received by the Rev. Mead, so soon after news of the massacre was first received in London, helps to authenticate it as a genuine historical event.
William Stith's History: The First Use of the Name "Chanco"