Henricus Citie Militia

01/01/2022

Happy New Year! 💥🎉
We look forward to the upcoming events at
Henricus Historical Park in 2022!

12/25/2021

❄️ Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays from all of us!
Henricus Historical Park 🎄☃️

12/25/2021

For the last of 2021, here is a photo taken by staff last week at Candlelit Christmas! There was something so magical about seeing the site aglow during the holidays🕯🎄

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas!

12/23/2021

It's time for Henricus' winter break! Staff will be taking time to enjoy the holiday season with our loved ones, working on projects around the site, and taking a field trip or two!

❄We can't wait to welcome everyone back on January 19th❄

12/04/2021

You know what time it is, it's ☀🌫🌾

This photo was taken early one morning on site out on the bluff overlooking the James River and we can't stop thinking about how gorgeous these sunrise colors are!

-
📸Steve Dills

12/04/2021

A very different path led to the emergence of the Swiss as a major contributor to the mercenary market, and offered other models and lessons for the later emergence of military enterprise. Under pr…

11/29/2021

It's time for and we will always show love to the Fall colors on site🍂🍃🍁

11/25/2021

11/25/2021

📣 Happy Thanksgiving from our family to yours!

11/25/2021

Reflections on the First Thanksgiving
By H. Graham Woodlief President, Virginia Thanksgiving Festival and a descendent of Captain John Woodlieffe

On Friday, April 3, 1931 an article was published in the Richmond News Leader. The News Leader was a widely distributed afternoon newspaper in the state. The article was titled First Thanksgiving in America Was Decreed for Town of Berkeley on James. It was written by Dr. Lyon G. Tyler, a columnist for the newspaper. Dr. Tyler, the son of President John Tyler, lived on the James River, downriver from his friend and neighbor “Mac “ Jamieson, who owned Berkeley Plantation. Dr. Tyler was doing research at the New York Public Library and accidently uncovered the John Smyth of Nibley papers , a collection of notes and letters that told of an interesting voyage to the New World.
Smyth was a relative of Richard Berkeley, who owned Berkeley Castle in Gloucestershire, England. They, along with two other adventurers, who were family members, met in London in the spring of 1618 to plan an expedition to Virginia. The men had been given a land grant by King James I, of 8,ooo acres, to start a settlement on the James River. They needed a leader and chose John Woodliffe. He had been to the New World several times , including spending eleven years at Jamestown. He was there during the “Starving Time” from 1609 to 1610. Known as the Berkeley Company, the four adventurers gave Woodliffe the title of Captain and made him the first Governor of the colony.
He leased the good ship Margaret, which weighed 47 tons and was only 35 feet long. It was a small ship built to carry 35 settlers, 19 crew members and Captain Woodliffe across the stormy Atlantic for 2 1/2 months. He recruited 35 men of substance. Craftsmen with the skills and determination to build a settlement. He also purchased the needed supplies.
After the long voyage across the ocean they entered the Chesapeake Bay and sailed up the James River. The ship arrived at the Berkeley Hundred site on December 4, 1619. As instructed by the Berkeley Company when they landed, Captain Woodliffe opened a list of ten commands he had been given. The very first instruction was that they say the following prayer when they landed. They prayed:
“Wee ordain that the day of our ship’s 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 Almighty God”.
The first “official” English Thanksgiving in America had just occurred, one year and seventeen days before the Pilgrims landed in Massachusetts. They gave thanks for several more years until the settlement was destroyed in 1622.
This historic event was recognized by President John F. Kennedy in 1963, by President George W. Bush at Berkeley Plantation and by legislators throughout Virginia. The late Virginia Governor Gerald Baliles said in a speech at Berkeley in 2007, “Let us not allow Virginia’s First Thanksgiving to languish in the midst’s of time. It could, should and ought to be the gift of history that never stops giving”.
As we reflect on Thanksgiving, let it be a time of thankfulness, gratefulness and a time to be with family. Let us appreciate those early settlers that endured so much to bring us the freedoms we now enjoy.

11/25/2021

Henricus Historical Park will be closing early this Wednesday, November 24, at 3pm and will be closed on November 25 & 26 for Thanksgiving.

Our staff will take time to be with family and friends, then be back this Saturday, November 27 for Friendship, Trade, & Feast!