It seems to be a fact that all new settlements are unhealthy, and this proved to be remarkably so; for within about a year Captain Lawne died, and the London Company, November 30, 1620, ordered that: "In regard of the late mortality of the persons transported heretofore by the late Captain Lawne, his associates be granted till midsummer, 1625, to make up the number of persons they were disposed to bring." It also declared that the plantation was to be henceforth called Isle of Wight Plantation, for which change of name we are very thankful, on account of the difficulty of spelling and pronouncing its former name , which it took from the tribe of Warrosquoyacke Indians. We find this name spelled in every conceivable way, some of them being Warrosquyoke, Warrosqueak, Warrasquoyke; nevertheless, it was several years before the new name of Isle of Wight was in general use among the colonists. This name was given it, very probably because the famous "Isle of Wight" off the coast of England had been the home of some of the principal patentees; at least, one of them was certainly from Isle of Wight-Sir Richard Worsley, who came over in 1608.

        Many of the early settlers were of cavalier origin, and came from the city of Bristol, England, and its vicinity, and for many years, as shown by the old records, the "Bristol ships" made frequent trading voyages to this county, bringing with them, at every trip, batches of emigrants.

     On November 21, 1621, Edward Bennett, a rich merchant of London, was granted a patent for a plantation upon the condition of settling two hundred emigrants. Associated with him in that patent were his brother, Robert Bennett, and his nephew, Richard Bennett, Thomas Ayres, Thomas Wiseman and Richard Wiseman; and in February, 1622, the "Sea Flower" arrived with one hundred and twenty settlers, under command of Captain Ralph Hamor, one of the Council. Among them were Rev. William Bennett and George Harrison, kinsmen of Edward Bennett. Their place of settlement was called Warrosquoyacke, or sometimes "Edward Bennett's Plantation," and was located at the place on James River known as the "Rocks," the estate of the late Dr. John W. Lawson, who for many years represented this county in the General Assembly of the State, the Second Congressional District in Congress, and this county in the late Constitutional Convention.

     On the day the patent last mentioned was granted, Arthur Swaine, Captain Nathaniel Basse and others, undertook to establish another plantation in the same neighborhood. Captain Basse came over in person and his plantation was known as "Basse's Choice," and was situated on Warrosquoyacke (now Pagan) River. The houses of Captain Basse's Plantation were building when a great calamity happened to the infant colony. At midday on Good Friday, March 22, 1622, there were twelve hundred and forty inhabitants in the State of Virginia. Of these, three hundred and forty-seven, in a few hours, were killed by the Indians in the eighty settlements on the north and south sides of the James River, of which number fifty-three were residents of this county.

     After the death of Powhatan, his brother, Opecancanough, who always hated the whites, joined all the tribes in Eastern Virginia into an oath-bound conspiracy to kill the whites, and we are astonished with what concert of action and secrecy this great plot was arranged when we reflect that the savages were not living together as on nation, but were dispersed in little hamlets, containing from thirty to two hundred in a company. "Yet they all had warning given them, one from another, in all their habitations, though far asunder, to meet at this day and hour for the destruction of the English."

     So well was the dread secret kept that the English boats were borrowed to transport the Indians over the river to consult on the "devilish murder that ensued"; and even on the day itself, as well as on the evening before, they came as usual, unarmed, into their settlements, with their turkeys and other provisions to sell; and in some places sat down with the English on the very morning to breakfast.

      They spared no age, sex or condition; and were so sudden in their indiscriminate slaughter that few could discern the blow or the weapon that killed them. Those who had treated them with especial kindness and conferred many benefits upon them fared no better than the rest. The ties of love and gratitude the sacred rights of hospitality and reciprocal friendship, oath, pledges and promises were broken or forgotten in obedience to the commands of their chief for the execution of a great, but diabolical, stroke of State policy.

     With one, and only one, of all who had been cherished by the whites did gratitude for their kindness and fidelity to his new religion prevail over his allegiance to his king and affection for his people. A converted Indian, who resided with a Mr. Pace, and who was treated by him as a son, revealed the plot to him in the night of the 21st. Mr. Pace immediately secured his house and rowed himself up to Jamestown, where he disclosed the inhuman plot to the Governor, by which means that place and all the neighboring plantations, to which intelligence could be conveyed, were saved from destruction; for the cowardly indians, wherever they saw the whites upon their guard, immediately retreated. Some other places were also preserved by the undaunted courage of the occupants, who never failed to beat off their assailants, if they were not slain before their suspicions were excited. By these means the larger portion of the colony was saved from total annihilation in a single hour by this well conceived and well executed plot of those inhuman, but weak and simple, adversaries.

     Some miraculous escapes are reported in the Worrosquoyacke settlement. The Indians came to one Baldwin's house, wounded his wife; but Baldwin, by repeated firing of his gun, so frightened them as to "save both her, his house, himself and divers others." About the same time they appeared at the house of Mr. Harrison, half a mile from Baldwin's, where was staying Thomas Hamor, a brother of Captain   Ralph Hamor, who also live nearby. The Indians sent a message to Captain Hamor that their king was hunting in the neighborhood, and had invited him to join them. The captain, not coming as they expected him to do, they set fire to a tobacco warehouse and murdered the whites as they rushed out of Harrison's house to quench the fire. Many were killed, but Thomas Hamor was saved by a chance delay. He remained to finish a letter which he was engaged in writing. When he went out he saw the commotion, and although he received an arrow in his back, with twenty-two others he fought his way back to the house, which, being set on fire by the Indians, he left to burn, and fled to Baldwin's. In the meantime Captain Ralph Hamor was in utmost peril. Going out to meet the king, he saw some of the wretches murdering the unarmed whites. He returned to his new house, where, armed with only spades, axes and brickbats, he and his company defended themselves till the Indians gave up the siege and departed. At the house of Captain Basse, in the same neighborhood, everybody was slain. Basse, who was in England at the time, of course, escaped. The consternation produced by this horrid massacre caused the adoption of a ruinous policy. Instead of marching at once bold to meet and drive the Indians from the settlement, or reduce them to subjection by a bloody retaliation, the colonists were huddled together from their eighty plantations into eight. Works of great public utility were abandoned and cultivation confined to a space too limited merely for subsistence. These crowded quarters produced sickness, and some were so disheartened that they sailed for England. All Worrosquoyacke, from Hog Island down the river for fourteen miles, was abandoned.

     But it was not the nature of the Anglo-Saxon man to be for long intimidated by fear of these weak, cowardly wretches, who had inflicted upon them such a dastardly outrage; for, in July of the same year, they commenced to move against them, and in the early fall Sir George Yeardley commanded an expedition against the savages down the river. He drove out the Worrosquoyackes and Nansemonds, burned their houses and took their corn. On May 21, 1623, Captain Roger Smith was ordered to build a fort on the Worrosquoyacke shore, opposite to Tindall Shoals, where Captain Samuel Each had a blockhouse in building.