Also, in some of my husband's grandmother's notes is the story of one Aliss Proctor, widow of John Proctor, of Jamestown, who defended her home against the enemy in 1622.
John Proctor came to the U.S. in 1607 on the ship "The Seaventure." Aliss came in 1621 on "The George." Aliss's maiden name is unknown.

Pace's Paines, James' Citty.

John Proctor
Year:
1607
Place:
Virginia
Source Publication Code:
9833.25
Primary Immigrant:
Proctor, John
Annotation:
Date and place of mention in the New World. Extracted from a series of articles published in The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography titled "Virginia Gleanings in England." Records of wills and other biographical information provided.
Source Bibliography:
WITHINGTON, LOTHROP. Virginia Gleanings in England: Abstracts of 17th and 18th-Century English Wills and Administrations Relating to Virginia and Virginians: A Consolidation of Articles from The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography. Baltimore: Clearfield Co., 1998. 745p.
Page:
72


 JOHN PROCTOR, came in the SEAVENTURE, 1607.  
 ALLIS, his wife, in the GEORGE, 1621.  
                       Servants.  
 RICHARD GROUC, aged 30, in the GEORGE, 1623.  
 EDWARD SMITH, aged 20, in the GEORGE, 1621.  
 WILLIAM NAYLE, aged 15, in the ANN, 1623.  
 PHETEPLACE CLOSE, came in the STARR, 1608.  
 DANIELL WATTKINS, in the CHARLES, 1621.  
                            Servant.  
 JOHN SKINNER, in the MARMADUKE, 1621.  



THE MASSACRE OF 1622

"When the swift savage axe
Flashed in the fire-light, treacherous, and fell,
And all the far plantations shook with death."

As previously noted, the death of Powhatan in 1618 had left as successor to his throne, after short interregnum, the treacherous and vindictive Opechancanough, a deadly secret enemy of the colonists.

Protesting love and affection for them, for four years he plotted their destruction, while with crafty and unrelenting deliberation he sought and secured the promise of co-operation from the sub-chiefs and tribes who either acknowledged his over-lordship or came within the sphere of his influence.

The marraige of Rolfe and Pocahontas, while staying the hand of Powhatan, and causing him faithfully to observe the treaty of peace, then entered into, had not produced the lasting effect nor good-will and understanding among the two races as had at first seemed fully consummated.

The Indians were deeply offended that the English refused to follow the example of Rolfe and continue intermarraige with the women of their tribes. Not only did the settlers decline these advances, but sent to England for their wives.

Unfortunately, the colonists, not yet understanding the true traits of Indian character, were unaware of having thus instilled into the hearts of their savage neighbors, a feeling of offended pride and mortification. Little did they then realize an Indian never forgets nor forgives an affront and that this was an additional offense added to their grievances.

Yet, they had not been neglected by the colonists. Attempts at conversion had been made, trade had been established and many were employed by individual planters to assist in the various vocations of the time.

Encouraged in the cultivation of friendly intercourse they were welcome guests at the planters tables and admitted into their homes and habitations.

Though accepting the tender of hospitality, encouraged by their wily chieftain, the spirit of hate was ever cultivated and revenge found lodgment in the secret recesses of their savage breasts. It was during this unguarded intercourse that the Indians formulated their plan for a general massacre-- indiscriminate slaughter of every man, women, and child in the colony.

Opechancanough, distinguished for fearlessness and rancorous hate, renewed the the treaty that his more humane brother, Powhatan, had entered into and faithfully guarded. Availing himself of the feeling of security this act produced among the whites, he prepared his followers for the final act in the great tragedy he had projected with such consummate skill.

Each tribe, except those on the Eastern Shore, who were without the sphere of his influence, he carefully prepared, for the day of massacre, with that single mindness of purpose characteristic of Indian revenge.

A writer of that period asserts that, "notwithstanding the long interval that elapsed between the formation and execution of their present enterprise, and the perpetual intercourse that subsisted between them and the white people, the most impentrable secrecy was preserved; and so consummate and fearless was their dissimulation, they were accustomed to borrow boats from the English to cross the river, in order to concert and communicate the progress of their designs."

The death of Nemattanow, one of their celebrated sub-chiefs, seems to have furnished Opechancanough the final argument to sharpen the ferocity of the waiting Indians and give them sense of ample provocation.

The Indian, Nemattanow, (Jack of the Feather) by courage, craft and good fortune, had obtained great repute among his countrymen. In skirmishes and engagements with other Indian tribes, and in former hostile clashes with the English, he had exposed his person with a bravery that so surprised his savage companions and so instilled them with awe and astonishment that to them his body was apparently nvulnerable; therefore, his person had been invested with the character of sanctity.

Emboldened by his continued successful achievements, Nemattanow treacherously murdered a planter named Morgan, and fell, in turn, a victim to revengeful fury of the farmer's sons.

Finding the pangs of death fast approaching he entreated his capturers to conceal his fate and grave, that the secret of his mortality might never be revealed.

The young men acceded to the request, but the secret was discovered, and amidst the lamentations of his tribesmen, Opechancanough issued his secret call to arms.

The colonists, unsuspicious of the treachery of their friends (?), not only continued instructing them in the handling of firearms, but furnished them with rifles, powder and ball to assist in hunting and in defense against their enemies.

God pity the innocence of these confiding Englishmen.

Differing from the colonists in New England and New Amsterdam, who mostly seated themselves in
towns and fortified stockades, the liberty loving Virginians disbursed themselves along the rivers and lowlands of the the Tidewater section, each intent to found a home in which he and family could enjoy the blessings of peace, undisturbed by an over-abundance of neighbors.

The land was fertile, the climate ideal, the arrangement a happy readjustment of conditions left behind them in the mother country, now far removed.

Again, were not the Indians their good friends upon whom they could call for assistance in any emergency which might befall?

This condition, of course, did much toward making the task, upon which Opechancanough had set his subchiefs to work, a comparatively easy one.

The Indians, instructed to be more friendly than ever before, brought fish and game as daily presents to the planters' doorsteps. Assistance was given in the preparation of crops and guides furnished in hunting and exploration.

Seated as guests at the planter's table, they partook of the food and hospitality of the unsuspecting host and his happy wife, fondled their little ones and listened to their infant prattle as the inquisitive children, climbed upon their laps and played with the bright colored beads that dangled from their necks.

Good Friday, March, 22, 1622, dawned bright and clear. Young mothers, humming homeland nursery songs, cuddled cooing offsprings to their breasts and smiled in day dreams of the happy years to come.

Housewives hastened preparations for the morning meal that husband and his Indian guests might eat their fill and smoke their Peace Pipe at the door.

We picture Superintendent Thorpe, lately arrived from England, pointing out the foundation of the university building the workmen had just commenced to lay; explaining to his new acquaintances the wonderful benefit it would prove to the Indian boys and girls;

John Rolfe, reading aloud the last letter from his young son in England and exhibiting the handwriting that appeared so unintelligible to his Indian guests. How proud, he thought, they must be of this child of Pocahontas, their beloved and lamented Princess.

Was their soul-piercing eye to read their thoughts; no mighty arm to stay their savage breasts? No Pocahontas hearted youth or maiden to give them warning of their pending fate? No Nantaquas?

Aye! One, and only one, found pity in his heart.

Chanco, a converted youth, working for his patron and godfather, Richard Pace, first learned the story of he plot on the night before the massacre.

His brother, spending the night with him, gave orders from the Indian chief that he should strike his patron down, when came the hour of noon, next day.

Chanco, dissembling, drew forth the story in the full, then, as his brother sped away to join his band, made haste to awaken the sleeping Pace and give him notice of the plot.

Pace succeeded in warning Jamestown and the adjacent planters, but those more distant could not be reached in time.

At mid-day, the hour arranged, the Indian war hoop signaled throughout the settlements; each savage swooping down upon the victim selected for his scalping knife.

Surprised, defenseless, there fell within the hour, mid every brutal outrage familiar to the savage race, 347 souls.

Neither age nor sex found mercy given them. Defenseless children, babes at breast, were added numbers to the slain.

Six members of the Council, Superintendent Thorpe, John Rolfe, Colonel Samuel Macocke (father of Sarah, who later married George Pace, son of Richard) and many of the colonists' most influential citizens, met death that day.

No quarter was shown to anyone who could not save his life by stout defense.

Henricopolis, destroyed, was never built again. The first university projected in America was forever to be abandoned.

On the morning of Good Friday, March 22, 1622, there were 1,240 people in the colony; that afternoon only 893 survived and many of these would have fallen victims of the massacre had not Chanco, the converted Indian, given warning to Richard Pace.

The disastrous tragedy came very near proving fatal to the young colony.

It had struggled through many adversities for fifteen years, and at last was justified in feeling it had established permanent settlements on the shores of the Chesapeake and James.

To the planters, happy in the thought that not only were they seated upon fertile acres of their own, crops justifying the labor they placed upon them and presuming their neighbors, the Indians, to be apparently friendly, the massacre came as a flash of lightning from a clear sky.

The colony seemed doomed. The months from March until December gave the crucial test as to whether the settlement should prove a failure, or, arising from its ashes. should push forward with more determination than ever.

Had it ever been a decision to be debated by the colonists alone, a satis factory solution could have been made by the survivors, but there were powers beyond the sea, intrigue, deceit and every other discouragement brought to bear upon them before the Virginians could again find security in the rebuilding of their shattered estates.

Such was the dread produced by this terrible massacre, in which, more than one-forth of the entire colony had been slain, most of the survivors left their plantations and hastened to Jamestown for protection.

Huddled together in unwholesome quarters, they awaited in fear a repetition of attempted annihilation. Many, panic-stricken, secured passage in vessels returning to England, and not one in ten of the plantations could muster an inhabitant.

Hawthorne, the historian, asserts that 2,000 settlers left the colony, but this error is evident, as there were only 893 survivors. The colony was not abandoned.

Concentration, at the more easily defended plantations, was decided upon. The suggestion that be abandoned and the colonists retire to Eastern Shore, where they could the better defend themselves, was re jected.

The points of concentration selected were Sherley Hundred, Flower dieu Hundred, Passapahey, Kicquotan and Southampton Hundred.

Samuel Jordan, of Jordan's Point, and Mr. Gookin, with his Irish settlers at Newport News (New Porte Neuce) refused to obey the order of the Governor and remained to defend themselves against all assaults.

One heroic woman, Mrs. Proctor, a proper, civil and modest gentlewoman, defended her estate for a month, till she, with all with her, were obliged by the English officers to go with them, and to leave their substance to the havoc and spoil of the enemy.

Edward Hill, also, at Elizabeth City, "altho much mischief was done to his cattle, yet did himself alone defend his house, whilst all his men were sick and unable to give him any assistance." (Stith)

Preparations for various manufactures were abandoned. The people were so terrified they feared to work in the fields, and crops were neglected. A winter of famine was the grim prospect.

Henricopolis was destroyed never to be rebuilt, and the projected university abandoned;

John Berkeley and the twenty skilled workmen at the iron works, erected at Falling Creek, had been among the slain; the first iron mine and foundry in the colony would never be reopened.

Maurice Berkeley, son of John, was temporarily assisting in erecting glass and salt works on Eastern Shore, therefore, escaped the fate of his Falling Creek companions.

Experiments in mining and forging had also been made near Providence Forge. (Deposits of good ore have lately been found in that vicinity.)


Through Centuries Three
by Squires

The Plantation
pp. 112-113

The "sicknesse" returned with fury redoubled. Sir George Yeardley wrote (1620)
"about 300 of the inhabitants dyed this year." That was one-fourth the colony!
The scourge grew worse. More than 1,000 died during Wyatt's first year, either
on shipboard or after landing from the pestilential ships.

"Such a pestilent fever rageth this winter among us; never known before in
Virginia, by the infected people that came over in ye 'Abigal,' who were poisoned
with beer, and all falling sick and many dying, everywhere dispersed the contagion."
(GEORGE SANDYS.)

Of 5,000 immigrants who came in five years (1619-24) the colony gained only 200 inhabitants!

A worse calamity now befell. For eight years there had been peace. Fields of
tobacco and corn extended for miles along the lordly rivers and the edges of
the forest. The Indians, docile and friendly, accepted the hospitality of the
whites, came to their cottages and left as friends, traded with them, ate at
their tables. Many farmers employed Indian servants, many hired Indian hands.
Many pagans declared themselves Christians and were baptized.

So completely were the planters deceived that they loaned the savages boats to
paddle to conferences where the murder of the colonists was planned! As the fatal hour approached the Indians were even more friendly than before. They came that very morning to sell deer, turkey, and fruit to those they expected to murder at noon.

Opechancanough (pronounced in Virginia "O-pe-can-oe") was the arch- demon.
He shrewdly foresaw, none more clearly, that the unending stream of settlers encroaching ever farther nland would sooner or later occupy all the fertile lands which the Great Spirit had given the Indians. The blow was to be struck simultaneously at noon, March 22, 1622. He knew well enough that only by surprise could the bloody work be done. The red men could not hope to win in battle array.

An Indian boy, Chanco, lived with Richard Pace four miles from Jamestown and was a Christian. Chanco revealed the plot to Pace, who warned Wyatt. The Governor sent messages in every direction but time was too short to save the outlying districts from the impending blow.

When the hour arrived the savages everywhere fell upon their victims. Many were
cut down, even before they suspected evil "with their own tooles, most barbarously,
not sparing either age or sex, man, woman or child." As they worked in the fields, passed along the roads or sat in their homes they were ruthlessly slain. In an excess of hatred the Indians "fell again upon the dead bodies making as well as they could a fresh murder, defacing, dragging and mangling their dead carkasses into many pieces."

John PROCTOR born about 1557 and married to (?) GRAYE. He was believed to
have been a haberdasher in London and the father of John PROCTOR who was the
first to arrive in America.

While John PROCTOR left England in November 1609 aboard SEA VENTURE he
probably did not arrive in America before 1610 and no later than 1611.
The SEA VENTURE was caught in a storm off of Bermuda in 1609/1610. The
survivors remained in Bermuda for nine months and arrived in America aboard
one of two bargues built from the salvage of the ship wreck. ( William
Shakespeare's play, The Tempest, is based on this storm and ship wreck).

My Joshua PROCTOR (born abt. 1600) was the brother of the immigrant John
PROCTOR and arrived in America about 1618. I do not know the name of
Joshua's wife or his oldest son. I have his second son as Joshua Jr., his
youngest as Benjamin.

I have a total of five brothers that came to America. They were John abt.
1611, Joshua abt 1618, Anthony aboard the GEORGE in 1621, Thomas aboard the
MARY PROVIDENCE in 1623, Ambrose abt 1632.

On October the 4th, 1624, Alice Bennett was a witness before the General Court at the trial of John Proctor for cruelty to his servants. She was sworn and examined as to the beating of Elizabeth Abbott, serving maid of Mr. Proctors', and stated that she "found her by the waterside by Mr. Burrow's plantation lying behind a boat wrapped in a rug *** whereupon this examinat, with Her Husband, and Richard Richards carryed her and and delivered her to her master." (Va. Mag., 19, p. 389) "Richard Grove, servant of Mr. Proctor sayeth that the said wench often times ran away and that she was corrected for it, but that she never received over 20 or 30 lashes, etc., that when Mr. Richards and Mr. Thomas Bennett brought her home last she received no correction, but when they two and the Wife of Mr. Thomas Bennett brought her home last she had received correction from William Moyle, servant of Mr. Proctors."

The above testimony seems to prove that Alice Bennett was the wife of Thomas Bennett. Several othe witnesses testified at this trial and among them was John Burroughs by whose plantation on the waterside Alice Bennett and her husband had found Elizabeth Abbott. John Burroughs was living at Jamestown in 1625 but had a plantation called "Burrow's Hill" on the south side of the James in James City Co., now Surry. James City's records were destroyed in the Civil War. At the same court Anthony Barham swore that "he saw Mr. Proctor strike Elias Hinton one of his servants." In 1626 Anthony Barham had a patent of 100 acres next to Capt. Nathaniel Basse's on the James River in Isle of Wight, (V.M., 7, p. 218) In March, 1629-1630 he was a member of the House of Burgesses from Mulberry Island across the James from Basse's Choice. He came to Virginia with Capt. Basse on the Abagail in 1621.


Dorman, John Frederick, and Meyers, Virginia, eds.
Adventurers of Purse and Person, 3rd ed.
Richmond: Order of the First Families of Virginia, pp. 1- 71.
Transcribed by M.W. Harris. Pagination may not match original precisely.

THE MUSTER OF THE INHABITANTS OF
VIRGINIA
20 JANUARY-7 FEBRUARY 1624/5

(Paces Paines. James Citty)

John PROCTOR came in the "Seaventure" 1607
Allis his wife in the "George" 1621

servants
Richard GROVE aged 30 yeres in the "George" 1623
Edward SMITH aged 20 in the "George" 1621
William NAYLE aged 15 in the "Ann" 1623
Corne, 126 bushells; Meale, 2 bushells; Oatmeale, 5 bushells; Fish, 1/2 hundred;
Powder, 22 lb; Peeces, 3 and 2 pistolls & 2 petronells*; Lead, 45 lb; Armours, 5; Neat
Cattell, 7 and 5 Calves; Swine, 9; Houses, 2; Boat, 1.


One final bit of information for all you Proctor's. Recently, I drove to Richmond, Va. to do some research on my line in Virginia Archives. I found several interesting documents. The first is "The Council Minutes" of Jamestown. In this record, John Proctor the first of the brothers to come to Jamestown about 1607, was put on trial for the murder of one of his servants, Elizabeth Abbott. He was accused of whipping her with whips tipped with fish hooks. She was later found dead of a massive infection to her thigh. John Proctor was not found guilty as he was in London at the time of her death. Also, Iocated a map listing all of the Virginia Plantations along the James River. In 1625, Proctor's Plantation was located at Proctor's Creek, a stream that empties into the James River about 10 miles north of Petersburg, Va. in what is now Chesterfield County. The site would have been near Henrico, the second city after Jamestown.

name: John Proctor

Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography, Volume I
IV--Burgesses and Other Prominent Persons

was brother of Thomas Proctor, "citizen and haberdasher of London." On July 5, 1623, he engaged with the London Company, of which he was a member, to carry over 100 settlers. He came to Virginia and resided on his lands on Proctor's Creek in the present Chesterfield county. When the massacre occurred in 1622 he was probably in England, for his wife, Mrs. Alice Proctor, is mentioned as holding the plantation successfully against the Indians. In 1625 he resided with his wife in the present Surry county.


Jamestown City, VA Census - 1624

THE CENSUS OF VIRGINIA IN 1624

Last Name First Name Age Status Head of Household Location Ship arrival dt Census Date

Nayle William 15 Servant John Proctor Paces Paines, James City Ann 1623 1624-02-04


Grove Richard 30 Servant John Proctor Paces Paines, James City George 1623 1624-02-04


Proctor Allis wife John Proctor Paces Paines, James City George 1621 1624-02-04


Smith Edward 20 Servant John Proctor Paces Paines, James City George 1621 1624-02-04


The Proctor family history is rich in character and history. Five brothers traveled to the American Colonies in the early 1600s, John Proctor arriving first in 1609 on board the Seaventure, after having shipwrecked on Bermuda in 1607 (the basis for Shakespeare's story - "The Tempest"). His wife, Allis, followed in 1611 with their son William (b. 1608) and fought off the Indians during the Jamestown massacre of 1622 while John was in England attending his brother Thomas's funeral. Thomas had sailed to America, but he had returned to England where he built the ship named "Tyger." Upon his death, Thomas gave 1/2 interest in the ship (which had never been sailed) to his wife Jane Squier Proctor and 1/2 interest to his son Samuel. In his will he named his brother John of the Virginia colony, whom he
owed a debt of 120 pounds, his Uncle William Graye and his wife Mary Graye, and his godson. John Proctor returned home to Virginia, only to be accused of murdering a servant whom he had beaten with a fish hook and whom later died of an infected hip. (See Virginia Genealogy for details). John's brothers, Anthony, Ambrose and Joshua arrived soon after Thomas died and took up residence near the James River. By 1632, all four brothers and their families were firmly planted within the Virginia Colony.
In 1692, John Proctor of London, England (a cousin to John, Thomas, Anthony, Ambrose and Joshua) was hung as a wizard (witch) in Salem, Massachusetts, his body flung into a ditch. John Proctor is mentioned in "The Crucible" and remains the best known of the Proctor family. Ancestors of the brothers soon spread throughout the east, and when the Craig Traveling Church left Spotsylvania County, Virginia to travel to Boonesborough, Kentucky, John Sr. Proctor (named as heir to William Proctor of Spotsylvania County, VA) went with them, taking his wife Lucy Henderson and son John Jr. Proctor. Other descendants of Ambrose moved into Ohio and a 2nd cousin, Nicholas Proctor (descended from Ambrose) met up with John Sr. in the 1788 Tax List of Fayette County, Kentucky. Descendants of Anthony Proctor moved down into North Carolina and in 1814, a free man of color, Alexander Proctor was born. From Alexander, descended the Proctors of color, a well educated and highly respected family who moved to Haiti to avoid the prejudice of the American Civil War and then later returned to the States.



John Proctor of Virginia

from Virginia Gleanings in England

John Proctor was born abt. 1583 in London, England. He was a member of the Virginia Company and in May of 1609 boarded the ship Seaventure in London and sailed down the Thames,thirteen years before the Mayflower, voyage. After rondezvousing at Plymouth, there were to be nine ships in all carrying settlers and crews to the number of about 500. Rather than taking the island-threading route through the West Indies where the uncharted shoals and assorted Spaniards lie in wait, the Sea Venture led the convey on a north and more direct course that should have left Bermuda below the horison to starboard. Seven weeks out and only eight days from the expected landfall, gathering black clouds to the south fortold bad weather boiling up from the Caribbean. The Huricane that had scatterd Sir Walter Francis Drake's fleet in June,1586, was doughtless much in mind as the ocean turned an inky black and the first violent gusts of wind threatened the sails and whistled through the rigging of the fleet. The Sea Venture, the largest of the ships weighed about 300 tons and had a length of perhaps a hundred feet. When the hurricane passed over, the ship was about a mile from Bermuda's reef-girdled shore, after passing over it returned and struck the ship again. Fortunately did not sink the ship but drove it between two rocks where it was locked in. This llowed all to escape to shore including the ships dog. But more important time was gained to strip the ship of masts,cordage, and superstructure, along with the boatswain's and sailmakers
equipment. Over the next ten months the men labored to build two new vessles, the thirty ton
Deliverence and a pinnace they named the Patience and abord these they arrived in Jamestown on
the 24th of may, 1610. His wife followed him to Virginia accompanied by a servant and ample
posessions to earn the title of "Gentlewoman". John and his wife settled on the Pace plantation
called Paces Pains in a large typical 18ty century house. In March of 1622 the Quinoughcohannock indians conducted the first large scale attact upon the English settlers in the Colonys-the Great Massacre of 1622. It is thiught that John was in England at the time of the massacre as it is recorded that "Mistress Proctor" a proper' civil and modest gentlewoman held out against the Indians until the English officers forced her to leave the house for her own safety. The Indians then burned the house. Of an estimated 1244 settlers, 334 of them were slaughtered and the first section of the colony was abandoned. After the loss of their home, the Proctors moved to Surry County near Jamestown on the James River. John Proctor received a patent for land from the Virginia Company in July of 1623. and received 100 acres in Henrico on the James River in 1626. John died in 1624 and his will mentions his brother Thomas, a haberdasher in London. There is evidence that John and Alice had 5-7 children.<>

PROCTER, JOHN (in Virginia 1624, &c.); brother of Thomas Procter, citizen of London, who in his will desires to be buried in "great Allhallows," London, and bequeaths lands at Dunmow and Muche Wakeringe, Essex.

John Proctor
Year:
1610
Place:
Virginia
Source Publication Code:
6220
Primary Immigrant:
Proctor, John
Annotation:
Record of 20,000 very early immigrants, with much relevant information. Taken from Patent Books 1 through 5. Title page states, "In 5 volumes," but up to 1979 only three had appeared. See nos. 6221 and 6223 for second and third volumes, published in 1977
Source Bibliography:
NUGENT, NELL MARION. Cavaliers and Pioneers: Abstracts of Virginia Land Patents and Grants, 1623-1666. Vol. 1. Richmond [VA]: Dietz Printing Co., 1934. 767p. Reprinted by Genealogical Publishing Co., Baltimore, 1983.
Page:
30, ,

John Proctor of Virginia
from Virginia Gleanings in England
John Proctor was born abt. 1583 in London, England. He boarded the ship
Seaventure in London in 1607, thirteen years before the Mayflower, voyage. He
landed in Virginia City, Virginia. He did not undertake the voyage for
reasons of poverty as so many did. as his wife, Alice or Allis followed him
followed him to Virginia accompanied by a servant and ample posessions to
earn the title of "Gentlewoman". John and his wife settled on the Pace
plantation called Paces Pains in a large typical 18ty century house. In March
of 1622 the Quinoughcohannock indians conducted the first large scale attact
upon the English settlers in the Colonys-the Great Massacre of 1622. It is
thiught that John was in England at the time of the massacre as it is
recorded that "Mistress Proctor" a proper' civil and modest gentlewoman held
out against the Indians until the English officers forced her to leave the
house for her own safety. The Indians then burned the house. Of an estimated
1244 settlers, 334 of them were slaughtered and the first section of the
colony was abandoned. After the loss of their home, the Proctors moved to
Surry County near Jamestown on the James River. John Proctor received a
patent for land from the Virginia Company in July of 1623. and received 100
acres in Henrico on the James River in 1626. John died in 1624 and his will
mentions his brother Thomas, a haberdasher in London. There is evidence that
John and Alice had 5-7 children.<>