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| Born |
1586 |
Dorsetshire, England  |
| Died |
18 Apr 1644 |
Fluer De Hundred, Prince George Co., Virginia [now] |
| Buried |
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| Married |
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| Father |
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| Mother |
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| Born |
Est 1634 |
Fleur De Hundred, Prince George County, Virginia |
| Died |
1716 |
Henrico Co., Virginia |
| Buried |
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| Spouse |
Sarah Elizabeth Ferris | F2392 |
| Married |
Est 1656 |
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| Born |
Abt 1633 |
Henrico Co., Virginia |
| Died |
Yes, date unknown |
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| Buried |
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| Born |
Abt 1636 |
Virginia Colony |
| Died |
1 Oct 1684 |
Henrico Co., Virginia Colony |
| Buried |
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| Spouse |
Sarah Mary Pleasants | F6654 |
| Married |
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| Sources |
- [S89] Facebook, Van Malone -- Virginia Genealogy Network.
I am doing more research on the "Woodson" side of my family and wanted to share what I have found and see if anyone in here is related and has done research. This is what I have found about my 10th gg grandparents: Dr. John Woodson(1586 ? 1644) (LYD4-SJY) was born in Devon, England and died in Jameston, James City, VA (FAG# 67993655). Dr. John Woodson was born in 1586 in Devonshire England. He matriculated from St. John's College on March 1, 1604 at the age of eighteen. Dr. John Woodson married Sara Winston-they sailed from England on the ship "George" arriving in Jamestowne Virginia 16 Apri1 1619. Governor Yeardly and his wife were also on this ship and they became very good friends. John was a surgeon for the Militia in 1623 and has been asked by Governor Yeardley to come to America for their soldiers. He married Sarah Isabella Winston(1595 ? 1660) (LKYD-GQL) who was born in Devonshire, England and died in Henrico County, VA (FAG# 67994638). Sara was born around 1600 in Devonshire, England. She may have been the daughter of Isaac Winston and Mary Dabney. However the surname and ancestry of Sara seem to be a matter of some dispute. Sara married Dr. John Woodson about 1619 in Dorsetshire, England and the couple sailed on the ship "George" for Virginia on 29 Jan 1619 arriving in Jamestowne 16 April 1619.
The children of John and Sara were probably born at Fleur de Hundred some thirty miles north above Jamestown on the south side of the James River which is now called Prince George County. John "Tub" Woodson b. 1632 and
Robert "Potato Hole" Woodson Sr. b.1634. These boys were known as "Tub" and "Potato Hole" because when the Indians came to their home, Sara hid John under a washtub and Robert got into the hole were potatoes were stored.
It was during this raid which began on the 18th day of April that Dr. John Woodson was killed on the second day of the Indian massacre as he hurried home. His sons, John and Robert, were 10 and 12 years old at that time. The shoemaker, Ligon, was at the house and helped Sara in the killing of the Indians. John Woodson was killed in sight of home. It has been written that Sara and Ligon killed nine Indians. The photo of the gun is the weapon Ligon used in his fight with the Indians.
The following information was found on Geni.com.
On the 29th day of January, 1619, the ship Georgesailed from England and landed the following April at Jamestown, Virginia, nearly a year before the more famous ship, the Mayflower, came to Plymouth's shore. This vessel brought the new governor, Sir George Yeardley and about one hundred passengers; among whom were Dr. John Woodson, of Dorsetshire, and his wife Sarah, whom he had married in Devonshire. Tradition has it that her maiden name was Winston, but no documentation has been found to prove this. Dr. Woodson came in the capacity of surgeon to a company of soldiers who were sent over for the protection of the colonist against the Indians. Sometime in 1620 a vessel landed at Jamestown, having on board about twenty negro captives whom the Dutch skipper had kidnapped somewhere on the coast of Africa. These were sold to the colonist as slaves and found to be quite profitable in the cultivation of tobacco which was the staple crop at that time.
Dr. John Woodson, at this time or shortly afterwards, bought six of these Africans who were registered in 1623 as part of his household, but no names were given. Dr. John Woodson located at Fleur de Hundred, or, as it was sometimes called, Piersey's Hundred, some thirty miles above Jamestown on the south side of the James River in what is now Prince George County. He and his wife, Sarah, and their six negro slaves were registered at Fleur de Hundred in February 1623 Their two sons John and Robert were probably born at Fleur De Hundred. John was born in 1632 and Robert in 1634. There was also a daughter named Deborah. When the Indians attacked in April of 1644, Dr. Woodson was among those killed. He was returning home from seeing a patient and he was massacred by the Indians within sight of his home. Sarah managed to hold off the Indians along with a man named Col. Thomas Ligon, b. 1586 Madresfield, England, the cousin of Sir William Berkeley, Royal Governor of Virginia. He served in the House of Burgesses 1644-1645, was a Justice for Charles City County 1657 and was Lt. Col. Militia, Henrico County during the Indian wars. Sarah gave Col. Ligon her husband's gun and set about to find a weapon for herself. Looking for a place to hide the children, she spied a tub nearby; it was the only thing large enough to conceal a boy of ten. She placed John under the tub, and then managed to securely hide Robert in the potato pit. While Col. Ligon found a tree notch to brace the eight-foot muzzle-loading gun, Sarah was back in the house. Two Indians who were in the process of descending inside the chimney met her. She disabled the first with a pot of boiling water and felled the second with a roasting pit. (The reader must accept this account as given, no explanation has been offered as to why the Indians would risk a smoking chimney with a hot fire at the bottom. There has been no account of where little Deborah was hidden during the attack). Col. Ligon had, in the meantime, killed seven Indians as they approached the house. It was not until after the Indians had fled that Sarah and Col. Ligon found that her husband had been killed.
He was born in 1586 in Devonshire, England. He matriculated at St. John's College at Oxford on March 1, 1604. He lived in Dorsetshire until 1619, when he and his wife Sarah decided to join an expedition to the new colony of Jamestown.
The following information came from a different blog.
On January 29th, 1619, the ship George sailed from England and landed the following April at Jamestown, Virginia. The ship carried Sir George Yeardley and a company of his men to the Virginia colony, where Sir George had been appointed the new governor. Among the passengers on the George was Dr. John Woodson, attached to Sir George's company as surgeon. His wife Sarah accompanied him, and was one of only a handful of women to voyage to the colony before 1620.
At the time of their arrival the Jamestown colony was just over a dozen years old and numbered no more than 600 residents. Drought, disease, starvation, and war with the local tribe of Powhatan Indians meant that only about half the colonists who arrived between 1607 and 1624 survived.
Dr. John Woodson settled on Governor Yeardley's plantation, known as Flowerdew Hundred, which was about 15 miles up the James river from Jamestown. Dr. Woodson lived in a small, fortified compound on the plantation with about 10 other families.
Dr. Woodson and his wife arrived at the start of the second major wave of colonists to Jamestown. Between 1619 and 1622, the number of colonists grew to about 1000 in the New World colony. This tide of newcomers upset Chief Opechancanough of the Powhatan Confederacy of Indian tribes, who saw the influx as proof that the English planned to expand in to Powhatan lands.
On March 22, 1621/22, Chief Opechancanough launched a series of coordinated attacks on all the English plantations and towns developing around Jamestown. Powhatan Confederacy braves entered each settlement with trade goods, looking as if they wished to barter. When the colonists approached them, the braves grabbed any weapons or tools that were at hand and attacked the unprepared colonists. 347 people were killed, a quarter of the colony's total population. Only the most fortified positions survived. The fotifications at Flowerdew Hundred held and the Woodson family survived the attack.
The settlement at Flowerdew Hundred plantation was one of the few that was allowed to remain outside the walls of Jamestown after the 1622 attack. The next ten years involved attacks of retribution by the colonists. The time passed relatively peacefully for the Woodsons. Two sons were born to them, John in 1632 and Robert in 1634.
In 1634 the colonists built a pallisade defense wall across a six-mile wide strip of land between the James River and York River estuaries. This structure may have lulled the colonists in to a false sense of security. The Powhatan tribes were in no state to attack, having been nearly wiped out by English reprisal attacks. Emboldened, the colonists started building plantations outside the pallisade around 1640. Chief Opechancanough was once again outraged by the English encroachment on his lands. Gathering his forces, on April 18, 1644 he made a second surprise attack on the colony.
The Indian Massacre of 1644
An account of the Woodson family's ordeal during this attack was handed down through the Woodson family and first printed by a Woodson family genealogist in the early 19th century.
On the morning of April 18, 1644, Thomas Ligon, a soldier in the Governor's employ, stopped by the Woodson's house seeking Dr. Woodson's services. Sarah Woodson informed him that her husband was out on his rounds through the nearby plantations, and Ligon elected to wait for the doctor to return. When Ligon saw the Indians approaching, he raised an alarm and told Sarah to hide inside with her two sons. Ligon grabbed his eight-foot muzzle-loaded rifle, and bracing his gun in the fork of a tree, fired on the approaching Indians.
Meanwhile, Sarah gathered her boys together and desperately searched for a place to hid her 10 and 12 year old sons. She spied the root cellar where the family kept potatoes during the winter. She put Robert in the pit and covered it. Then she upturned a washtub and had John hide beneath it. With the boys hidden, she grabbed her husband rifle and proceeded to load and fire upon the Indian's from the window of the cabin.Before she could get off a second shot, the Indians had made their way around the back of the cabin and out of her sight. Then she heard sounds on the side of the cabin and on the roof. The Indians climbed atop the cabin and two of them attempted to come down the chimney. The fire had gone out, but she still had a pot of hot water sitting in the hearth. Thinking quickly, she upended the pot in to the fireplace just as the first Indian descended in to view, scalding his face. His companion then climbed out over his wounded fellow and came towards her. Sarah grabbed an iron roasting spit hanging next to the hearth and swung it at her attacker, knocking him senseless.
Sarah grabbed her children from their hiding places and fled the house. She ran towards Ligon, who was still firing upon the Indians, who were now in retreat. Ligon struck another Indian as they fled. In total, he and Sarah killed seven of their attackers. As she watched the Indians flee back in to the woods, Sarah noticed a familiar horse wandering riderless through the field from which the Indians had attacked. It was her husband's horse. Running to it, she found her husband lying beside the road to their house, an arrow in his chest. He had evidently returned just as the Indians attacked, and having forgot his musket at home, was defenseless against them.The Woodson Musket
Dr. John Woodson was one of 500 colonists who died that fateful day in 1644. Although the number was even greater than that killed in the 1622 attack, it represented less than 10% of the colony's population in 1644. Nevertheless, the retribution by the colonists was severe. A counterattack on all the nearby Powhatan-allied tribes nearly wiped them out. In 1646 Chief Opechancanough was captured and brought to Jamestown. He was nearly 100 years old at the time. While being held at the stockade awaiting trial, he was killed by one of his guards in revenge for a family member killed in the 1644 attack. After the death of their leader, the Powhatan Confederacy fell apart, and the individual tribes were either confined to reservations or left the area.
Sarah Woodson remarried twice and outlived all her husbands. She died in 1660. Her sons both married and had large families. Their descendants passed on the story of Sarah saving her sons from the Indian massacre, and referred to themselves as being either "potato hole" or "washtub" Woodsons. The Woodson musket was also passed down from generation to generation, until in 1925 it was donated to the Virginia Historical Society, where it is on display in Richmond. The Woodson Musket
Dr. John Woodson was one of 500 colonists who died that fateful day in 1644. Although the number was even greater than that killed in the 1622 attack, it represented less than 10% of the colony's population in 1644. Nevertheless, the retribution by the colonists was severe. A counterattack on all the nearby Powhatan-allied tribes nearly wiped them out. In 1646 Chief Opechancanough was captured and brought to Jamestown. He was nearly 100 years old at the time. While being held at the stockade awaiting trial, he was killed by one of his guards in revenge for a family member killed in the 1644 attack. After the death of their leader, the Powhatan Confederacy fell apart, and the individual tribes were either confined to reservations or left the area.
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