Richard Pace (Jamestown)


Richard Pace was an early settler and Ancient Planter of Colonial Jamestown, Virginia. According to a 1622 account published by the London Company, Richard Pace played a key role in warning the Jamestown colony of an impending Powahatan raid on the colony.

Origins

The origins of Richard and Isabella Pace are not known. They may have been the couple who 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 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 has emerged.

Pace's Paines

As Ancient Planters, Richard and Isabella Pace each received a land grant of 100 acres under the headright system established in 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 to 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 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 granted to Francis Chapman and which Isabella had apparently acquired by purchase:
near the location of the Pace's Paines plantation.
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. 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". 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." 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, described as a servant in the muster of Phettiplace Close.
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. A state historical marker near the location recounts some of the history of Pace's Paines.

Warning Jamestown

In April 1622, in the aftermath of the 1622 Powahatan 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."
George Sandys, Treasurer in Virginia, also wrote a letter to England about the attack and its consequences, and evidently went into much more detail.
Sandys's letter was apparently the original source of the story of the Indian who warned Richard Pace. According to the story, a Powahatan 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, and the Rev. Joseph Mead—all of whom knew and corresponded with each other and with a wide range of newsworthy persons. 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 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, 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 reference to "thousands" being saved is hyperbolic, since the population of the colony at the time of the massacre was only about 1240.
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 James shows the Treasurer's land near Paces Paines.

Later Accounts

In his General Historie of Virginia Capt. John Smith 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 Richard 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 Capt 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
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"

Although the Indian youth who warned Richard Pace was not named in the account given in Waterhouse's pamphlet, he has come down to history as "Chanco". This name seems to have been used first by William Stith, in his History of the first discovery and settlement of Virginia, published in 1740. According to a description of Stith's book on the Library of Congress website, "William Stith compiled this detailed factual history of Virginia by culling material from the Records of the Virginia Company, a manuscript archive that Jefferson later owned and used in his own work.". Stith included an account of the warning given to Richard Pace, for the first time naming the Indian as "Chanco":
Stith appears to have picked up the name "Chanco" from his reading of the Records of the Virginia Company. In a later passage in his book, he uses the name again:
This passage refers to a letter from the Virginia council to the Virginia Company of London dated April 4, 1623 :
Apparently, Stith read the name as "Chanco", and concluded from the description of the Indian as having "revealed the plot to divers upon the day of Massacre", that he was the same person as the Indian who warned Richard Pace. Whether Stith's identification was correct or not has not been determined. In Pocahontas's People, Helen C. Rountree argues that Chauco and the Pace's Paines Indian have probably been wrongly conflated.

Consequences

Whatever his name, William Perry's Indian servant may have saved many lives through his warning to Richard Pace. The story was then used by the London Company for purposes of propaganda, as evidence that the Virginia venture was still blessed by God. However, the Company was already in its death throes before the attack took place. The Charter was withdrawn by James I in 1624, and Virginia became a Royal Colony.

Return to Pace's Paines

In the wake of the 1621/22 attack, Richard Pace and his family resided within the protection of Jamestown's walled fortifications. Then, sometime between October 1622 and January 1622/23, he submitted a petition to the Governor and Council in Virginia requesting permission to return to Pace's Paines:
Richard Pace died before 9 May 1625 when his widow Isabella testified in court as Mrs. Isabella Perry, showing that by that date she had married William Perry. Isabella would also outlive William Perry and marry George Menefie, a merchant in Jamestown, after August 1637.

Descendants

The 1628 land patent quoted above shows that Richard Pace had a son named George Pace. The following Virginia Colonial land abstract of a quitclaim dated 25 February 1658/9, shows that George Pace married Sara Maycocke, whose father, the Rev. Samuel Maycock, was killed in the 1622 attack. The quitclaim also shows that George and Sarah Pace had a son named Richard:
This second Richard Pace had a wife named Mary, as shown by a Charles City, Virginia court record dated 13 March 1661/2, in which Richard Pace sells land "with consent of my wife, Mary Pace". He died by 14 February 1677/78, when administration was granted to Mary Pace on the estate of "Richard Pace, her deceased husband". No will survives. On the basis of a family letter, John Frederick Dorman, editor of Adventurers of Purse and Person, attributes eight children to Richard Pace of Charles City County, and gives information on descendants of three of the sons.