So to follow up on my previous message:  one can safely say that
Jamestown was the first permanent English settlement in the Western
Hemisphere.

Let the fanfares continue, Randy!

--Jurretta Heckscher


On Nov 6, 2006, at 6:59 PM, gcg wrote:

> Jamestown is the first permanent English settlement in the future
> United
> States of America. I believe we can safely say that. Glenn
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Discussion of research and writing about Virginia history
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Randy Cabell
> Sent: Monday, November 06, 2006 09:41
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Raining on our Jamestown Parade?
>
> 'Jamestown -- The oldest permanent English Settlement in America(?),
> in The
> New World(?)',  between latitudes ___ and ___(?)   uhhhhhhhhh?????????
>
> Here, I have invested my twilight years in celebrating The Trumpeter of
> Jamestowne, Jamestown 400, etc. only to pick up the paper this morning
> to
> find that somebody else settled up in Port Royal (Canada) half a decade
> earlier.  What gives?  The article was a bit unclear as to whether
> anybody
> continued to live there, but I do know from visiting Port Royal a few
> years
> ago that it was an English bastion at some point.
>
> In his tongue-in-cheek history of Virginia, James Branch Cabell poked
> some
> good natured fun as us Virginians for trumpeting THE OLDEST PERMANENT
> ENGLISH SETTLEMENT, which (1) ignored the fact the Spanish had
> settlements
> in Florida a generation earlier and (2) at the time JBC was writing
> back in
> the 1940's, almost nothing of Jamestowne had been found.
>
> Last Saturday, I heard just about the best talk on the meaning of
> Jamestown
> that I have ever heard - by John Quarstein.  In fact afterward, I
> suggested
> to the people at my table that we chip in and send him up to our New
> England
> Pilgrim Brethren to set the record straight on the heritage of
> Jamestown and
> our life in America today.
>
> Now, it looks like those upstart Canadians are trying to beat us out
> of the
> first permanent etc.......  What next?  Will the French say that a
> small
> party (un petite corps) settled Ft. Louisburg on the coast of Nova
> Scotia in
> 1606?  And how about the Dutch?  Will they claim that they really
> landed a
> large party (Den Grosse Kompanie)  at New Mastrecht in 1602?  Hey, and
> how
> about Henry Hudson?
>
> I guess I need a table (matrix?) of 'firsts' in the New World, so that
> I can
> safely make a statement about where Jamestowne fits in.
>
> Randy Cabell
> The Trumpeter of      uhhhh.......  Boyce

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