Historical information about the lives of individuals in the seventeenth century is typically very sparse, and the case of Thomas Atkinson is no exception. Preliminary historical research failed to uncover information about the early life of Thomas Atkinson, including the identity of his parents or whether he was born in England or Virginia. The first known mention of him is not until 1679, when he purchased a 64-acre tract in James City County from David Crafford (Crawford), who had purchased the tract from Richard Whitaker ten years earlier. Surviving county court records from neighboring York County reveal that Atkinson was a middling planter who lived in James City County in the 1680s and 90s.
Atkinson had at least two children that survived into adulthood. Thus he also presumably had a wife as well, but her name has escaped mention in the historical record. His daughter’s identity is similarly unknown, except that she did marry and bore a child, as indicated by the fact that the local county justices appointed Thomas Atkinson as administrator of his son-in-law’s estate, and as guardian of own granddaughter. His son, also named Thomas Atkinson, is known from a will made by Atkinson in 1709 when he bequeathed to him the 64-acre tract at Martin’s Hundred. Thomas Atkinson Jr. repatented the tract in 1717, suggesting that the elder Atkinson died sometime between 1709 and this date.
Based on the analysis of the fragmentary seventeenth-century documentary record, Atkinson’s 64-acre purchase coincides with the location of the archaeological site that now bears his name. Preliminary analysis of the artifacts recovered from the site suggests a date range that spanned approximately thirty years between 1680 and 1710, a range that corresponds almost exactly with the documentary evidence of the elder Thomas Atkinson’s ownership of the small plantation at Martin’s Hundred between 1679 and 1709. The combination of archaeological and documentary evidence strongly suggests that the archaeological site known as the Atkinson site was likely the location of the senior Atkinson’s residence.
* Note: The information on this page is based on the research findings of project historian Martha McCartney.
Archaeology
at Martin’s Hundred 
 |
| Copyright 2002 Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.
All rights reserved. Back to Colonial Williamsburg Archaeology page |
