Wolstenholme Towne was established around 1618 in Martin's Hundred, a plantation organized into a hundred, beginning with a population of about 40 settlers of the Virginia Company of London. The settlement was named for Sir John Wolstenholme, one of its investors, and housing consisted of rough cabins of wattle and daub woven on wooden posts thrust into the clay subsoil. William Harwood was governor of Wolstenholme Towne.
Destruction
On April 1, 1622, the Native American Powhatans launched what became known as the Indian massacre of 1622, a campaign against English colonists in retaliation for previous violent acts committed against them by the English. The Powhatan attacked settlements from the fall line of the James River to Hampton Roads, surprising the colonists in their homes and fields, burning and looting the settlements. This resulted in the killing of 347 of an estimated total of 1,200 colonists, a quarter of the population of Virginia. Martin's Hundred was the plantation hardest hit with more than 50 residents recorded as dead, with perhaps as many as 70 dying within the hundred. Wolstenholme Towne's death toll was not separated in the death rolls. Surviving settlers in Virginia were largely evacuated by governor's order to Jamestown, which had been spared due to a last minute warning. Wolstenholme Towne, like almost all English settlements in the region, was permanently abandoned.
Modern status
In the 20th century, separate groups of archaeologists uncovered the sites of both Wolstenholme Towne and Henricus, another settlement founded by Sir Thomas Dale in 1611 also destroyed in the Indian massacre. Wolstenholme Towne is located on the grounds of the Carter's Grove plantation in the Grove community of southeastern James City County, and the findings were chronicled by author and historian Ivor Noel Hume. In December 2007, Carter's Grove was acquired from the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation by CNET founder Halsey Minor for $15.3 million. Minor planned to use the mansion as a private residence and use the site as a center for a thoroughbredhorse breeding program. However, Minor made no changes or repairs to Carter's Grove, stopped making payments in 2010 announcing he owed $12 million in debts, and his Carter's Grove LLC went into bankruptcy resulting in a federal judge turning the property over to a trustee to run. The property was assessed by trustees in October 2011 to determine the actual extent of damage present. Repairs have been made to the HVAC system, which has stabilized the temperature within the building and eliminated the damaging mold previously noted. Repairs to the structure are ongoing with the goal of returning Carter's Grove to the condition when it had been sold to Minor.
