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Queen's Creek is located in York County in the Virginia Peninsula area of the Hampton Roads region of southeastern Virginia in the United States. From a point of origin near the Waller Mill Reservoir in western York County, it flows northeasterly across the northern half of the Peninsula as a tributary of the York River. == 17th century: anchoring the palisade == As Jamestown in the Colony of Virginia was first settled by English colonists beginning in 1607 along the James River, the colonists had frequent and violent confrontations with the Powhatan peoples who had long lived there. The two cultures had differing ideas of land use and the Powhatan hunting grounds and territory were encroached on by the increasing number of colonists. In addition, after 1612 they began to clear land and cultivate it for tobacco productioin, exacerbated by their cultivation of land-hungry tobacco as a cash crop to export after 1612. Queen's Creek became important to the colony as an area to be fortified in the 1630s. Colonists discussed the idea of a palisade or fortification across the peninsula as early as 1611. But, colonist John Rolfe married Pocahontas, daughter of the Powhatan, in 1614 and the colony enjoyed a period of relative peace with the Natives. Following the uprising of the Powhatan and their Indian Massacre of 1622, colonists revisited the cross-peninsula palisade. In 1623, 73 settlers were slain in Martin's Hundred at Wolstenholme Towne, situated on the James about below Jamestown; the survivors temporarily abandoned the settlement. Governor Francis Wyatt and his Council wrote to the Earl of Southampton that they had under consideration a plan of "winning the forest" by running a pale between the James and York rivers. Dr. John Potts blazed the way by obtaining on July 12, 1632 a patent for at the head of Archer's Hope Creek (later renamed College Creek), midway between the James River at Archer's Hope and the former Native American village of Chiskiack near the York River. On September 4, 1632, the General Assembly expanded the program of granting land to settlers of Chiskiack, and offered headrights land to all persons settling between Queen's Creek and Archer's Hope Creek. In February 1633, the assembly voted to have men in "the compasse of the forest" east of Archer's Hope and Queen's Creek to Chesapeake Bay (essentially all of the lower peninsula) to go "before the first day of March next" to Dr. John Potts' plantation, "newlie built," to erect houses and secure the land in that quarter. Work on the palisade commenced by March 1, 1633.〔(Colonial National Historical Park: A Study of Virginia Indians and Jamestown-The First Century (Chapter 4) )〕 With this labor, palisades, six miles (10 km) in length, were run from creek to creek. Queen's Creek drained the northern half of the nearby section of the Peninsula, with a watershed leading to the York River. The two creeks and the palisade in between created a barrier from river to river. At the high ridge at the midpoint, a settlement to be called Middle Plantation was made, later to be known as Williamsburg. By 1634, the palisade (or stockade) was completed, providing some security from attacks by the Powhatan tribes for colonists farming and fishing lower on the Peninsula. The palisade was anchored at its center by Middle Plantation. It was described in the following extract from a letter written in 1634, from Jamestown, by Captain Thomas Yonge: "a strong palisade ... upon a streight between both rivers and ... a sufficient force of men to defence of the same, whereby all the lower part of Virginia have a range for their cattle, near fortie miles in length and in most places twelve miles (19 km) broade. The pallisades is very neare six miles (10 km) long, bounded in by two large Creekes. ... in this manner to take also in all the grounde between those two Rivers, and so utterly excluded the Indians from thence; which work is conceived to be of extraordinary benefit to the country ..." After 1644, the Native Americans of the Powhatan Confederacy had been overcome and were no longer a threat. When the palisade fell into disrepair, it was not restored. Almost all traces eventually disappeared. Middle Plantation began to grow as a settlement, largely due to early efforts of the Ludwell brothers and Colonel John Page and his sons, who built fine brick homes and helped with the establishment of the brick Bruton Parish Church. The settlement became more prominent in the 1690s, when Reverend Dr. James Blair, Commissary of the Bishop of London in the colony, returned from a successful trip to London with a royal charter for the new College of William and Mary to be built there. Blair and the trustees of the College of William and Mary bought a parcel of from Thomas Ballard, the proprietor of Rich Neck Plantation, for the new school.〔(williamsburg hotel virginia busch garden at williamsburgpostcards.com )〕 This was on the western outskirts of Middle Plantation, just a short distance from the almost new brick Bruton Parish Church, a focal point of the extant community. The new college opened in temporary buildings in 1694. Properly called the "College Building," the first version of the Wren Building was built at Middle Plantation beginning on August 8, 1695 and occupied by 1700. (The present-day College still stands upon those grounds, adjacent to and just west of the restored historic area known in modern times as Colonial Williamsburg). After the statehouse at Jamestown burned in 1698, the legislature moved temporarily to Middle Plantation, as it had in the past. Upon suggestion of students of the College, the capital was permanently relocated there. Middle Plantation was renamed Williamsburg in 1699. Nearby, Archer's Hope Creek was renamed as College Creek. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Queen's Creek」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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