The indentured girl servants did not work in the fields unless they were slattern and offensive. Their work was to bake and brew, clean, milk, churn, wash and sew.

Due to the scarcity of women in Virginia the girl servants usually married within the first three months. If their reputation was good, they often married into a higher station.

_INDIAN SERVANTS_

The settlers at Chicacoan may have had some Indian servants. Tradition says that William Presley of Coan employed Indians to care for his "roaming stock."

It was customary in Virginia to take Indian children as apprentices to learn a trade, and to learn to read and write. This was with the consent of the parents that the child should be instructed in the Christian religion.

The children were usually taken at thirteen or fourteen years of age and the apprenticeships lasted until they were twenty-one.

The value of the Indian servant was about the same as that of the English indentured servant. The relationship between the Indian boy and his master was the same as that between the master and the English servant. Food, clothing and shelter was furnished by the master.

Records of the clothing lists included leather breeches, cotton waistcoats, shoes and stockings.

_MONEY_

The indian word wampum meant "shells." Wampum and copper were the Indians' substitute for gold and silver. The early settlers also used the Indian wampum as a medium of exchange.

Wampum, in Virginia, was usually made from the oyster shell. The dark wampum, which was made from the black or purple part of the shell, had twice the value of the white. For instance, three of the dark beads or six of the white beads equalled one English penny.

The beads were cylindrical in shape about an eighth of an inch in diameter and one-fourth of an inch long. They were rubbed against stones until they were polished smooth. A hole was bored through the center of each bead with a flint instrument so that it could be strung on thread.

Much of this wampum was made by tribes who manufactured and carried on commerce.

The most common wampum, made of white shell, was called rhoanoke. In old records wampum was sometimes referred to as "a chain of pearl." In a Northumberland County record there is listed among the items in the estate of "James Claughton, dec'd: Mr. Richard Thompson per order 20 arms length of Rhoanoke." Another early settler of the Northern Neck, Moore Fauntleroy, paid the Indians for his land "ten fathoms of peake"

and "thirty arms length of Rhoanoke."

The English went so far as to import imitation wampum of white porcelain for sale to the Indians.

The early settlers also used beaver skins as currency. Northern Neck records about 1656 show that Colonel Nathaniel Pope offered to go security for John Washington "in beaver skins." Even hens were used for currency.

Tobacco soon became the most important currency in the colony. The words of the old song--"Where money grows on white oak trees," was almost true in Virginia for there tobacco was money and tobacco grew everywhere.

Instead of gold and silver the colonial had his "tobacco note." The chief reason that metallic coin was scarce throughout the whole colonial period in Virginia was the fact that tobacco was currency.

It seems that there was always a small stock of coin in the colony, but it was either used in trade with other countries or it was hoarded by the colonists. A Virginia county record of 1700 says that: "Spanish money may not be exported out of this colony, but that it may pass currently from man to man and that all pieces of eight pass for five shillings specie."

The most convenient metallic money in Virginia (1722-1835) was a Portuguese gold coin called a johannes. A full johannes was called a "half-joe," and a double johannes was called a "joe."

As banking institutions were non-existent in the colony in the early days, and as robbers sometimes lay in wait in the woods for a lone horseman, travelers used to carry gold coins sewed under the lining of their waistcoats or quilted into their coats.

_A PARADISE DISCOVERED_

For several years the settlers at Chicacoan lived in a dream-like paradise--ungoverned and untaxed.

But this state of freedom could not last. News of the thriving young settlement in the Northern Neck was probably carried to Jamestown by the stream of travellers who plied back and forth along the waterways between that city and St. Mary's in Maryland.

How great the consternation must have been at Chicacoan when one day a boat arrived from Jamestown. There may have been soldiers on board or other representatives of the government. They brought a startling message.

The message was in the form of an Act passed by the House of Burgesses at an Assembly in 1644. It said:

"Whereas, the inhabitants of Chicawane, alias Northumberland, being members of this colony, have not hitherto contributed toward the charges of the war (with the Indians) it is now thought fit that the said inhabitants do make payment of the levy according to such rates as are by this present Assembly assessed."

The rates were "for every 100 acres of land, 15 pounds tobacco; for every cow above 3 years old, 15 pounds tobacco."

But the real shock came at the end of the message: "And in case the said inhabitants shall refuse or deny payment of the said levy, as above expressed, that upon report thereof to the next Assembly, speedy course shall be adopted to call them off the said Plantation."

The settlers were no doubt infuriated at this command. They ignored it, and continued to live in their independent way.

John Mottrom, however, must have thought it high time to look into the situation. In the fall of 1645 he sailed for Jamestown.

_A VISIT TO JAMESTOWN_

Although a trip to Jamestown would have been an exciting change after years of wilderness living, there is reason to believe that Mrs. Mottrom did not accompany her husband to the capital city. She probably supervised the preparation of food for the voyage, and packed his clothes.

John Mottrom's clothes were no doubt as fashionable as the English tailors could furnish. Rich fabrics and bright colors were worn by Virginia gentlemen of the seventeenth century, and they never seemed to think that their "citified" garments looked out of place in the primitive setting of the New World.

Among the clothes that Mrs. Mottrom may have packed, there might have been "a sea-green scarf edged with gold lace," a scarlet coat with silver buttons, a camlet coat with sleeves ending in lace ruffles, a pair of red slippers, a Turkey-worked waistcoat, a whole suit of olive-color plush, silk stockings, a beaver hat, neckcloths of finest holland and muslin, shoes with shining silver buckles, delicately scented handkerchiefs of silk and lace, and a gold belt for her husband's sword.

The Mottrom household was probably on the bank of the Coan to wave good-byes when the anchor was weighed and the sails of the shallop were hoisted.

Out of the Coan sailed the shallop, and into the Potomac. Out of the Potomac into the Chesapeake. Then it was straight sailing down the Bay, past the mouths of the Rappahannock and York, and finally, into the James. It usually took four average sailing days to travel from the Northern Neck to Jamestown.

As the boat neared Jamestown Island John Mottrom could doubtless see the orange-tiled roofs and tall red chimneys of the "citie," which had long ago burst from its palisades and was now stretched for half a mile along the river front, as well as backward into the swamps and meadows.

He could no doubt see the tower of the new brick church, and east of it the State House, which looked so "London-like" with its three steep gable ends facing the river.

Captain John Smith had written that the water here was deep "so neare the shoare that they moored to the trees in six fathom water," but the Mottrom boat may have tied up at Friggett Landing in the rear of the Island. There were probably other vessels already tied up there, and others still arriving for the Assembly.

Mottrom may have seen a barge coming down from the upper James, loaded with gaily dressed men and women--a Burgess or Councillor and his family and retinue, perhaps.

Once ashore John Mottrom probably took a walk to stretch his legs and see what changes had taken place since he had last visited "James Citie." He may have passed the new church, which was still unfinished, and strolled along some of the narrow lanes. Outside the town there were some "cart paths," and over some of the swamps there were bridges. Back of the Island lay the forested Indian district of the "Passbyhaes."

"New Towne" was the most thickly settled part of "James Citie." Most of the houses were a story-and-a-half of "framed timber" with steeply-pointed roofs of tile, and a few of slate. Each had its garden and was enclosed with palings. The road along the river bank was edged with mulberry trees.

The State House, situated near the river and down stream from the church, was probably the most imposing building in the town. It was really three brick houses joined together in a row to form a block, like the medieval gabled houses in London. Its windows were casements with lattices of lead and diamond-shaped panes of greenish colored glass. The place had a garden, fruit trees and vines, all enclosed by palings.

This State House was the focal point of the government and the center of social life at Jamestown. John Mottrom probably stayed there during his visit for the governor, Sir William Berkeley, who lived in the building on the western end, acted as host to all important visitors.

The Assemblies, courts and councils were held in the "middlemost" of the three houses. The Assembly would soon convene and the visitor from the Northern Neck had come a long way to be present at that meeting of November 20, 1645.

We can imagine him there on that important day, sitting with that dignified group of men, dressed in their rich bright garments, all with their hats on in imitation of the House of Commons in far away England.

Little is known of what took place in that meeting that concerned Chicacoan except that John Mottrom was accepted and recognized in this Assembly as a Burgess from the "Plantation of Northumberland." It seems that an English name was preferred instead of the Indian name for that land between the Rappahannock and the Potomac.

_FRANCES_