within, yet outside of, the
regular Company projects. It was named for Richard Martin, an attorney
for the London Company. He was a leading member in the Society of
Martin's Hundred as this special group of adventurers was known. Another
leader in the sponsoring group was Sir John Wolstenholme whose name was
associated with the town, described in January, 1622 as "the Towne in
Martin's Hundred [which] is now seated called Wolstenholme Towne."

Wolstenholme was located on the James, it seems, and the boundaries of
the Hundred, when laid down in 1621, were measured five miles along the
"river called (Kinge) James River" in each direction from it. This was
five miles toward Jamestown and five toward "Newportes Newes." Northward
the bound was the Queenes River alias Pacomunky [York]. It is of
interest to note that the boundaries were to "the middest" of the
rivers. Roughly its 80,000 acres lay on the north side of the James
between Archer's Hope and Mulberry Island.

In October, 1618, the Society sent its first colonists to Virginia.
These made up a party of 280 who reached Virginia several months later
in the _Guift of God_. Several additional groups were sent out in 1619,
a large party in 1620 and others in 1621. The latter were sent, it was
recorded, "to plante and inhabite and to erect and make perfect a church
and towne there already begunne." At the time of the Assembly in 1619 it
was an established community and sent its representatives up to
Jamestown--John Boys and John Jackson.

It appears to have been a determined lot of "ancient adventurers" who
sponsored Martin's Hundred and the record indicates that they worked
hard and zealously to make it a paying organization. They were, however,
often beset with difficulties. Shipmasters and mariners abused them as
did the "Capemarchant," according to their reports. When they sought
Company shares to sustain losses in one shipment to Virginia, Sir Edwin
Sandys reminded them that they were a particular group. He related "As
Martins Hundred hath been at great charges, so have divers other
hundreds, so have also beene many perticuler persons, Captaine Bargrave
alone hath brought and sett out divers shipps ... Sir Thomas Gates, and
Sir Thomas Dale, besides a multitude of other[s], who have spent a large
portion of their estates therein...."

In May, 1621, Yeardley wrote concerning the arrival of servants to be
located at Martin's Hundred. He described the difficulty of mak