Join us for the Boscobel House and Gardens Buffet Lunch and Tour. For details and to sign up, please click on “Members” and on the Members page click on “Membership and Event Fees”.

The New York Company will have a discussion of the book A Brave and Cunning Prince: The Great Chief Opechancanough and the War for America by James Horn, D. Phil. The book is readily available in hardcover or as an ebook. At the suggestion of Dana Gumb, a member of our Council, we will discuss this book by video conference on Thursday, March 10, 2022.

James Horn is the President of Jamestown Rediscovery Foundation, which is affiliated with Preservation Virginia and supports the preservation, education and archeological investigation of Historic Jamestowne. The Jamestowne Society has provided meaningful financial support to these organizations over the past few years.

As explained in the Publishers Weekly Review below, Dr. Horn makes the case that Opechancanough and Paquiquineo/Don Luís Valasco are the same person. Many of us heard Dr. Camilla Townsend of Rutgers University speak about Paquiquineo at our meeting in November 2019 at Caffe dei Fiori in Manhattan.

From Publishers Weekly Editorial Review on 09/20/2021 (slightly edited):

James Horn, President of the Jamestown Rediscovery Foundation, delivers an immersive portrait of Opechancanough (c. 1547-1646), who helped build the powerful Powhatan chiefdom in America. Horn contends that Opechancanough was the same “princely young Indian” known as Paquiquineo who was kidnapped from the Chesapeake Bay region in 1561 and taken to Spain, where he was renamed Don Luís Valasco. A Catholic convert, Don Luís traveled to Cuba, Florida and Mexico before returning to the Chesapeake Bay to help establish a Jesuit mission in 1570. Shortly after his arrival, however, he left for his home village, where he organized a war party that killed the priests and destroyed the mission. He then helped his brother Chief Powhatan consolidate Native tribes along the East Coast to counter the European threat, and, in 1622, following a series of devastating raids on Jamestown, came “very close” to driving the English settlers—who knew him as Opechancanough—out of Virginia. Horn recounts Pocahontas’s marriage to John Rolfe and other famous events at Jamestown, and vividly describes brutal clashes between Powhatan warriors and English settlers before Opechancanough was captured and killed in 1646. Though Horn’s case that Paquiquineo/Don Luís and Opechancanough are the same person requires a good bit of speculation (he would have been close to 100 when killed), he builds a cogent narrative out of documentary fragments. Early American history buffs will be riveted.

For further information about this discussion, please email us at jsny1607@gmail.com

Brunch and Meeting at the Old ’76 House, 110 Main Street, Tappan, NY. A tour will follow at the DeWint House, 20 Livingston Street and Oak Tree Road in Tappan, Rockland County, New York. It will be an approximate 1 hour drive from Manhattan.

About the DeWint House. The DeWint House was registered on the National Register of Historic Places in 1966 and is owned by the Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons in the State of New York. It is the oldest building in Rockland County, built in 1700 by Daniel DeClark using brick and indigenous stone, and is an outstanding example of Dutch Colonial Architecture. Johannes and Antje DeWint purchased the house in 1746 and their daughter and her husband, Major Fredericus Blauvelt, lived there.  General George Washington was there on two occasions in 1780, one of which was for the trial of British Major and spy John André, after André had been captured having plotted with Benedict Arnold to turn over information about West Point. General Washington returned to the DeWint House twice in 1783. The House was where he negotiated with British General Sir Guy Carleton the final evacuation of the British from New York and from where he began his return into the City to resign his commission and return to private life.

About the Old ‘76 House. The Old ’76 House was built as a home and tavern in 1754 by Casparus Mabie, a merchant and tavern-keeper. It served as a meeting place for patriots during the American Revolution and also served as a prison for Major André after he was captured..

The New York Company will have a discussion of the book Love & Hate in Jamestown: John Smith, Pocahontas and The Start of a New Nation by David A. Price. The book is readily available in hard cover, paperback or as an ebook. At the suggestion of Dana Gumb, a member of our Council, we will discuss this book by video conference on Wednesday, September 9.

Luncheon, organization meeting and presentation by Dr. Camilla Townsend, Professor of History at Rutgers University entitled:

The True Story of Don Luis Paquiquineo, a Native American who left the Chesapeake in 1561, Traveled the World and Returned Home to His People. This story may have strongly influenced the course of events when the early English-speaking settlers arrived in Jamestown.

For further information, please email jsny1607@gmail.com.