fore "the
hogges [at Jamestown] were transported to Hog Ile, where also we built
[in 1609] a blocke house with a garrison, to give us notice of any
shipping; and for their exercise, they made clapboard, wainscott, and
cutt downe trees against the ships comming." Evidently when the three
sows in one year increased to 60 and odd "piggs" it proved too much for
the fort and its environs at Jamestown. In 1610 there was another
reference to the "Ile of Hogs" and then all is silence for a decade. The
doubtful safety of the spot, its inconvenience, and its distance from
Jamestown probably caused its abandonment as a suitable place for
quartering the Colony's supply of hogs.

In 1619 a request for a grant of 300 acres of marsh land in the area
called "Hogg Iland" was made to the Company, yet precise assignment was
not approved since the Court in England correctly stated that it did not
know "who allredie may lay clayme thereunto or otherwise how necessary
itt may be for the publique." On March 28, 1619, Governor Argall
proclaimed "Hog Island" within the bounds of Jamestown and granted
"inhabitants of Jamestown" the right to plant here as in other parts of
the area as "members of the corporation and parish of the same." There
is still, however, no record of a settlement here and no references to
losses in the massacre.

A year later the picture evidently had changed. In February, 1623, there
is mention of "Ensigne John Utie at Hog-Ileand" in instructions
involving the shipment of "three score thousand waight of sasafras" to
be raised on a levy basis in Virginia. In November, 1624, this John Utie
received a grant of 100 acres at Hog Island for the transportation, in
1623, of two persons to Virginia. He, it seems, was here before his
patent came through. The settlement apparently grew rapidly as the 1624
population listing enumerates thirty-one persons for Hog Island and the
census of 1625 shows fifty-three persons. Although not represented in
the Assembly of 1619, it had two representatives, Burgesses, in the
Assembly of 1624, John Utie and John Chew. Chew, who came to Virginia in
1620 and became a prominent merchant, also had property at Jamestown.

Still another prominent figure at Hog Island was Ralph Hamor. In May,
1624, he filed suit in the general court against Robert Evers. It would
appear that John Bailey received a grant from Governor Yeardley about
1617 for 490 acres on Hog Island. He did not seek to improve his land