Jamestown

8. Anglican Church

Williamsburg, VA

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The Anglican Church was an important part of colonial life. Under Lord De La Warr, Governor of Virginia, church attendance was mandatory. Services were held fourteen times a week. Prayer services were conducted twice a day between Monday and Saturday, and sermons were preached twice on Sunday as well as once on either Wednesday or Thursday. A settler who missed a service would lose his daily food ration. The punishments became increasingly harsher for repeat offenders. John Smith wrote that the earliest settlers in Jamestown created a temporary church from a sail stretched out across the boughs of trees, and the parishioners sat on unhewed tree trunks during services. They built a church structure within the fort, but this building was destroyed during a fire in January of 1608. It was rebuilt later that year. The second church was most likely the one in which Pocahontas was baptized and the place where she and John Rolfe were married. It was replaced by another church in 1617.