America’8 First Thanksgiving—In Virgitua

America’8 First Thanksgiving—In Virgitua

As Virginians plan to observe another Thanksgiving Day, it is well for them to recall wth pride a fact now being widely publicized for the first time—that the first Thanksgiving Day service in the New World was observed in Virginia, not in New England as is generally believed. The first Thanksgiving was held some 25 miles southeast of Richmond on the James River, on December 4, 1619, one - year and seventeen days prior to the landing of the Pilgrims on that rocky New England coast. s

The early records of^the Jamestown Colony firmly authenticate Virginia’s.claim as the place of the first Thanksgivng Day service, but like some^ other historical priorities of the Old Domnion, this one?, too, has been long neglected. (Readers who wish details of this Virginia priority convincingly presented from the records will find them in an article by Virginius Dabney, Editor, of the Richmond Times-Dispatch, scheduled to appear in the Novemebr 29th issue of the Saturday Evening Post). Here are the facts in brief:, • v r ^ A group of 80 Englishmen, headed by John Woodliffe, sailed from Bristol, England, on September 16, 1619. Their objective was the establishment and settlement of r Jown and hundred at Berkeley,” the present rite of Plantation. The settlers were sent by a company which owned a grant of 6,000 acres in the area. , v • The first of'a longest of instructions to the settlers from the company was that upon their arrival; they should ojr - serve that *day, annually and perpetually, as a day of Thanksgiving to Almighty , God.” "■ The colonists’ ship, “Margaret,” touched Virginia soil at what is now Hampton on November 30, 1619, proceeded up the James River, past Jamestown, then an established wlony and arrived at Berkeley on December 4, 1619. (This date was from the old calendar. The present calendar would put the landing about November

structions from their company, the settlers^ held a Thanksgiving service there that day. ; *

TnHav visitors to Berkeley will see a small but sturdily . *u .ij hriok shrine there on the shores of the James.River erected recently by descendants of the Woodliffe family, to

pl*ee where America first recorded , Thanksgiving was held. .. >

J„»t as the Jamestown Faatival of Vi pinful in nailing down, we hope for all time, that Jainesnetpiui m n»uu^ ^ first permanent English SSj^nfin AmSc and not Plymouth, to New England,

SftheJri&Sd&TJfthS. Thankagiring Day, will hrip rgrVirginia.

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