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2022 SESSION
WHEREAS on December 4, 1619, along the historic James River, America’s first Thanksgiving Day was inaugurated by the prayer of English voyagers as they arrived at Berkeley Hundred Plantation; and
WHEREAS, in 1620, at Berkeley Plantation, America’s second official Thanksgiving was celebrated; and
WHEREAS, Berkeley Plantation celebrated a third Thanksgiving in 1621, the same year Plimouth Plantation had its first Thanksgiving feast; and
WHEREAS, the new riverfront plantation in Virginia was named in honor of the ancient, fortified, Berkeley Castle, sited to protect the inlets on the west coast of England from Welsh raiding; and
WHEREAS, the Berkeley voyagers knew each other from long association with the Castle and its historicity, e.g. being the third castle built right after the 1066 Norman Conquest, its notable Thorpe’s Tower, the gruesome revenge killing of the deposed King Edward II imprisoned there, the blasting of a fort wall from point blank range and a law that the damage may never be repaired, in prospering as the center of England’s wool trade, Queen Elizabeth I’s lawn bowling afternoon, having the first fully endowed school in England, and the Berkeley family’s five centuries of ownership; and
WHEREAS, the leader of the voyagers was an experienced sea captain John Woodliffe, who had been to the James River several times and recruited the types of craftsmen and supplies needed there, and whose direct-line descendant, Graham Woodlief, leads Berkeley’s modern-day Thanksgivings; and
WHEREAS, one of Captain Woodliffe’s advisors, Fernando Yates, had been “wished by Mr. Thorpe [the cleric, who oversaw work on the upriver campus of the new Henricus Colledge requested by Pocahontas] to take a note of everie daies travail upon the seas…that seamen endure with mercies of allmightie God to support them in all distresses” (notes included in the historic Smythe of Nibley Papers); and
WHEREAS, upon landing at the site, in awed silence, the men walked to a nearby knoll, and, at signal, dropped to their knees as the prayer, composed in England under the Virginia Company, was read aloud: “We ordaine that this day of our shipps arrival, at the place assigned for plantacon, in the land of Virginia, shall be yearly and perpetually keept holy as a day of Thanksgiving to Allmightie God”; and
WHEREAS, on Sunday, November 7, 2021, Henricus Colledge (1619)®, America’s First Colledge ~ Revived, made a round-trip History Cruise along the James River from City Point in Hopewell to share in Berkeley Plantation’s 402nd Anniversary of America’s First, Official, Annual Thanksgiving; and
WHEREAS, the History Cruise utilized the James River Association’s pontoon boat and crew and Westover Plantation’s dock and was dedicated to the memory of Shirley Little Dove Custalow McGowan, Mattaponi; and
WHEREAS, the voyage was itself a Maritime Experience Cruising Classroom which taught boating safety, river navigation, the return of the Atlantic Sturgeon to the James River, and nautical companionship, and while ashore, participants enjoyed smoked turkey legs and watched the renowned Chickahominy Tribal Dancers; now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED by the House of Delegates, the Senate concurring, That the General Assembly hereby commend Henricus Colledge (1619)® on the occasion of its special City Point History Cruise on November 7, 2021, which highlighted America’s First, Official, Annual Thanksgiving Day, at Berkeley Hundred Plantation, which was originally held on December 4, 1619, but now, for weather concerns, is celebrated in November; and, be it
RESOLVED FURTHER, That the Clerk of the House of Delegates prepare a copy of this resolution for presentation to Chancellor Steven C. Smith and Henricus Colledge (1619)® as an expression of the General Assembly’s appreciation for the unique contributions of James River History Cruises in teaching about the Virginia Company (1606-1624) and America’s first Thanksgiving.