Captain Gabriel Archer

Gabriel Archer maintained a high ranking in the company of gentlemen that first came to settle in Virginia. Born in Essex c.1575, he attended Cambridge and is considered to be Virginia’s first lawyer (according to Edward W. Haile). He began his Virginia journey as co-captain of the Godspeed, and recorded the settlers’ first exploration of the James River in 1607 with Captain Newport. Archer went home to England in 1608, returning to Virginia in 1609, to take his place as Secretary to the Council. Most of what is known about Gabriel Archer comes from the accounts of the various gentlemen who traveled with him from England to the New World. These place him in positions of plotting and scheming with Captains Martin, Ratcliff and others to remove Captain Smith. Accounts of Archer ended during the “starving time” of 1609-1610, when it is assumed he perished with the other settlers. (Only 60 of approximately 500 survived.)

Archer’s Hope

“The twelfth day (May), we went back to our ships and discovered a point of land called 'Archer’s Hope,' which was sufficient with a little labor to defend ourselves against any enemy; the soil was good and fruitful with excellent good timber; there are also great store of vines in bigness of a man’s thigh, running up to the tops of the trees in great abundance; we also did see many squirrels, conies, blackbirds with crimson wings, and divers other fowls and birds of divers and sundry colors of crimson, watchet (sky blue), yellow, green, murrey (purple red), and of divers other hues naturally without any art using; we found store of turkey nests and many eggs. If it had not been disliked because the ship could not ride near the shore, we had settled there to all the colony’s contentment.”
(Taken from the written discourse of Master George Percy, 1606/1607)

In 1607, the Susan Constant, Discovery, and Godspeed reached the shores of Virginia. After exploring several sites along the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, the colonists, fearing pirates and Spanish competition, decided to explore further inland. Captain Gabriel Archer proposed they settle on land where the winery now stands. Jamestown, because of its deeper off-shore waters allowing close mooring for the ships, was chosen instead. It is not clear whether Archer’s Hope refers to the Captain’s wish for placement of the settlement or to an old English meaning of the word hope, “a small protected cove or inlet.” Archer’s Hope is mentioned twelve years later in the first land grant to the “Ancient Planters,” as the nineteenth land grant of 100 acres acquired by John Johnson for an annual lease of two shillings. Later, the property was mapped in 1781 by French Army cartographers disembarking on the shores of the James River to join the armies of Rochambeau, Lafayette, and George Washington.