Buck Site - 44JC568
The archaeology of 44JC568, the Reverend Richard Buck
site, tells a story of frequent change and challenging
times in Jamestown's hinterland. 44JC568 was excavated
under the direction of the Preservation Virginia (formerly APVA Preservation Virginia)
Jamestown
Rediscovery project during the summers of 1996 and
1997. Archaeologists named the site after the area's
first documented land owner, the Reverend Richard Buck,
who served as Minister at Jamestown from 1610-24.
The Buck site, located in James City County, Virginia, on a
parcel known as Neck-of-Land in the Peleg's Point
residential subdivision, is approximately one mile north
of Jamestown Island. Neck-of-Land Road forms the site's western boundary. The Back River--which drains into the Thorofare, and subsequently the James River--is approximately one-half mile to the southwest of the site. The main channel of Mill Creek is approximately one mile to the east of the site, and a tributary of Powhatan Creek is within one-quarter of a mile to the west.
Richard Buck's orphaned children and
their guardians, overseers, and kin were the series of
resident and non-resident owners at 44JC568 from 1630-50.
Archaeological investigations revealed insights into the
daily lives of these individuals and the tenants and
indentured servants in their employ. As a leading suburb
of Jamestown, Neck-of-Land and its inhabitants were
essential to the post-Uprising expansion of America's
first permanent English settlement.
