![]() However, the colony disappeared, giving rise to the legend of a mysterious Lost Colony. The first English colony was established by John White on Roanoke Island. His men explored the area between Cape Henry and Cape Lookout in July and August 1584. The English soon followed with an exploration party under the auspices of Sir Walter Raleigh. Spanish explorers also mapped the Cape Henry coast. The Spanish sailed past the Chesapeake bay and landed in Chincoteague (Virginia) in 1524. This group of 104 men and boys would move inland and establish the first permanent English settlement at Jamestown.Įuropean arrivals Cape Henry Memorial Cross near the site of the First Landing of English settlers in 1607 In 1607, a group of three ships ( The Susan Constant, The Godspeed and The Discovery), led by Captain Christopher Newport, landed at Cape Henry. Little did they know that the vision was correct. The Powhatans wiped out the entire Chesepeian tribe in a proactive defensive measure. Having no prior knowledge of the Europeans that would eventually land at Cape Henry, the Powhatans assumed the vision implicated the Chesepians. Local legend has it that an advisor to the Chief of the Powhatan tribe had a vision in which strangers from the East would come and take their land. According to William Strachey's The Historie of Travaile into Virginia Britanica (1612), the Chesepians were wiped out by Powhatan because Powhatan's priests had warned him that from the Chesapeake Bay a nation should arise, which should dissolve and give end to his empire. Their tribe, totally defeated by Powhatan, was wiped out completely during this time frame by disease and attrition. The Chesaspeakes have no pure descendants. The last time the Chesaspeakes were mentioned in historical documents was in 1627. ![]() The Chesepians did not belong to Powhatan's alliance, but instead defied him.īy 1607, around the time the first permanent English settlement was founded, the Chesaspeakes had united to fight the Powhatan Confederacy, suffering heavy losses. Powhatan, whose real name was Wahunsunacock, was the most powerful chieftain in the Chesapeake Bay area, dominating more than 30 Algonquin-speaking tribes. ![]() Although the Chesepians belonged to the same eastern-Algonquian speaking linguistic group as members of the Powhatan Confederacy across Hampton Roads, the archaeological evidence suggests that the original Chesepians belonged to another group, the Carolina Algonquian. Politically, the area was dominated by the Virginia Peninsula-based Powhatan Confederacy. Archaeologists and other persons have found numerous Native American artifacts, such as arrowheads, stone axes, pottery, beads, and skeletons in Great Neck Point. Of these, it is known that Chesepioc was located in the present Great Neck area. The Chesepians also had two other towns (or villages), Apasus and Chesepioc, both near the Chesapeake Bay in what is now Virginia Beach. The main village of the Chesepians was called Skicoak, located in the present independent city of Norfolk. To their west were the members of the Nansemond tribe. They were divided into five provinces or kingdoms: Weapemiooc, Chawanook, Secotan, Pomouic and Newsiooc, each ruled by a king or chief. They occupied an area which is now the Norfolk, Portsmouth, Chesapeake and Virginia Beach areas. Selecting the better-known name of the oceanfront strip area, Virginia Beach has since grown to become the most populated city in Hampton Roads, which are each linked by the Hampton Roads Beltway which crosses the harbor of Hampton Roads through two large bridge-tunnels.Ĭhesepians were the Native American (American Indian) inhabitants of the area now known as South Hampton Roads in Virginia during the Woodland Period and later prior to the arrival of the English settlers in 1607. In 1952, when 2-square-mile (5.2 km 2) resort Town of Virginia Beach became an independent city, followed by the rest of Princess Anne County which whom it was reunited and politically consolidated by mutual approval of residents to form a new independent city in 1963. Since 1634, area known today as Virginia Beach has been part of the same unit of local government, except for 11 years. The Colonial Virginia period extended until 1776 and the American Revolution, and the area has been part of the Commonwealth of Virginia ever since. The history of Virginia Beach, Virginia, goes back to the Native Americans who lived in the area for thousands of years before the English colonists landed at Cape Henry in April 1607 and established their first permanent settlement at Jamestown a few weeks later. The Old Cape Henry Light, completed in 1792, was the first federal construction project under the United States Constitution
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