Author Patricia Cornwell finds evidence from the past ... and gifts it to Colonial Williamsburg

Since writing Images of America: Mathews County I've become very involved in genealogy. Many of my ancestors can be traced to seventeenth-century Mathews County, Virginia, where I hit the proverbial genealogical brick wall. I assume that these ancestors were restless, like many in the period, and sought refuge and opportunity in the New World. 

Most of my Mathews forebearers were seafaring folk. It would make sense that in that age of government-sanctioned piracy that these entrepreneurial people were engaged in or familiar with acts of piracy of privateering. Mathews was a great, out of the way spot for those who sought privacy, I'm guessing. Most of Mathews is too thin for agriculture, but with many miles of waterfront property, it's perfect for people who make their living off the water for seafood and commerce. Some ancestors had kin in the Caribbean, New England, and Canada, and were engage in the triangular trade.

So, I was very interested to hear about author Patricia Cornwell's acquisition of two letters warning about the danger of Jamestown being a pirate base. She gifted the letters to the Jamestown arm of Colonial Williamsburg. According to the Colonial Williamsburg press release, “She asked me where the most logical place for them to reside would be,” said Bill Kelso, archaeologist. “I recommended the John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library. I thought with the Foundation’s collaboration with Preservation Virginia that the letters would enhance the greater Jamestown-Colonial Williamsburg story.”

The press release goes on to explain their content: 

In each of the letters, the king of Spain wrote to the Alonso Perez du Guzman, the seventh Duke of Medina Sidonia, about his concern over the first permanent English settlement in North America. In the first letter dated July 29, 1608, the king said, “By various avenues He (i.e., the King) has been advised that the English are attempting to procure a foothold on the Island of Virginia, with the end [in mind] of sallying forth from there to commit piracy.”

In the second letter dated June 11, 1609, the king asked, “You will do me great service in continuing [to gather] intelligence about the designs of the corsairs and any [intelligence] that shows the English having interest in continuing to populate the land called Virginia in the Indies.”

“Philip III of Spain was concerned the English would create a base in Virginia to attack Spanish ships in the Atlantic,” said Doug Mayo, associate librarian of the Rockefeller Library. “He is afraid that the English are not only going to attack the Atlantic but raid as far as the Pacific and New Spain, or Mexico, as well.”

King Philip believed his fleets were threatened by the British, and on two occasions the Spanish set out for Virginia to garner intelligence about the English settlements. In June 1609, a group led by Capt. Francisco Fernández de Ecija left Florida for Virginia but ran into the Mary and John, a larger English ship commanded by Samuel Argall off Cape Henry. The English ship chased the smaller Spanish ship down the coast for several hours, and Ecija abandoned his reconnaissance and continued down the coast to Florida. In 1611, a ship left Portugal to investigate the settlements in Virginia. Three men landed near Point Comfort and were taken captive by the English. Marco Antonio died shortly after capture. Don Diego de Molina got a message smuggled out of the country to the king of Spain during his imprisonment. The letter encouraged the king “to stop the progress of a hydra in its infancy, because it is clear that its intention is to grown and encompass the destruction of all the West, as well by sea as by land and that great results will follow I do not doubt, because the advantages of this place make it very suitable for a gathering-place of all pirates of Europe, where they will be well received. For this nation has great thoughts of an alliance with them.”

In 1616, Molina and Francisco Lembri were shipped back to Europe. Lembri was discovered to be an Englishman and hanged for betraying his country on the ship. Molina survived the voyage and returned to Spain.

The Duke of Medina Sidonia was known as the commander of the Spanish Armada in 1588. The single-page letters were part of the Medina Sidonia’s family archives in Spain and auctioned off at Sotheby’s in New York.
  
The letters help us put the seventeenth-century Virginia story in context. It was a century of turmoil and intrigue that has been largely overlooked until now. I believe that the new association between Jamestown and Williamsburg will lead to further attempts to flesh out Virginia history in this exciting age when my known ancestors started over and made their way on this side of the Atlantic.