LORD DE LA WARR REENACTMENT
Recently my kids and I visited Historic Jamestowne for a reenactment of Lord De La Warr’s arrival 400 years ago on June 10, 1610.
In 1607 the Virginia Company landed at Jamestown with 214 men.
Leading the adventurers, Captain John Smith insisted that those who do not work, do not eat.
By 1609, severe burn injuries required Smith to be transported back to England.
Instead of farming, the adventurers starved, leaving 60 survivors.
Abandoning the fort, they journeyed down river to await a ship from England to return home.
A ship indeed arrived with 150 men and a new leader, Lord De La Warr.
Boldly leading the discouraged men back to the fort, Sir Thomas West, the 12th Baron De La Warr, became the newly appointed Lord Governor and Captain General of Virginia.
First, he knelt in prayer.
His leadership established needed order, declaring that all must work to eat.
Although struggles continued, the colony was not abandoned again.
What a great program from these historic interpreters from Colonial Williamsburg!
BLACKSMITH
The wonderful smell of wood fire led us to the blacksmiths…from Colonial Williamsburg!
My son spent a lot of time talking to them and the blacksmith gave him a great science lesson (chemistry) explaining the blacksmith process.
NATIVE AMERICAN LIFE
Then we listened to a Native American detail every aspect of his life, using the artifacts seen here! It was very interesting.
We recognize this gentleman, too, also from Colonial Williamsburg!
17TH CENTURY MUSKET DEMONSTRATION
Next, we went to the musket demonstration…from one of the Colonial Williamsburg interpreters!
The ends of rope between his fingers on his left hand are lit and burn slowly, while he keeps the rope in that position.
When ready to fire, he uses the lit end of the rope to “ignite” the gunpowder.
Then my son learned how to use the halberds.
Although he wanted me to join in the fun, I opted to take a picture of him. 😉
ENGLISH LONGBOW
After lunch, we found the archer! We were so excited!
The gentleman was extremely informative and friendly.
I took a million notes from him.
This long bow my son is holding is extremely flexible because of the wood used, Orange Osage.
My son has been enamored with bows and arrows ever since I taught him Texas history years ago when we lived in San Antonio.
The East Texas Indians were renown for using their local bois d’arc wood, which was supple and flexible, to make the arrows.
He’s always wanted some of that wood.
He made his own bow and arrow to be Robin Hood years ago, from a narrow branch of crepe myrtle.
When my son mentioned bois d’arc wood, the gentleman told us that Orange Osage is bois d’arc wood!
We talked about its history, how it was made, its uniqueness, its range and trajectory…oh possibly everything you could think of.
Although we held the bow, we and pulled on the strings without releasing them, we did not actually shoot any arrows.
We could barely pull them back, so there’s no way we’d succeed with a bow anyway.
After lots of chatting about how much we enjoyed learning about the longbow in our homeschool studies, including our GA Henty books, he gave me his business card to keep in touch.
Wow! The informative archer was Jay Gaynor, the Manager of Historic Trades at Colonial Williamsburg!
