Penknife End Cap

This small, silver end cap to a penknife is one of only a few artifacts in the Jamestown collection that has both a date and initials! The end cap was constructed of two parts, with sides decorated in a geometric diamond and triangle design and the end cap with incised numbers and letters. It is engraved “F * P 1622.”

Seventeenth-century penknives were important tools. As their name implies, they were knives used specifically to cut and sharpen feathers into quills, creating writing pens. They were also used to scrape the surface of parchment to erase writing or other accidental marks. Only a few years before the date on this penknife end cap, in 1618, an English writing master published the volume The Pens Excellencie or the Secretaries Delighte, in which he includes instructions for cutting quills with a penknife and advice for the proper way to hold a pen. 

The initials on the end cap provide a clue to their owner. This end cap was part of a penknife which may have belonged to Captain Francis Pott (“FP”), brother of Dr. John Pott. It is unclear when Francis came to Virginia, but his brother John arrived on the “George” in 1621 with his wife, two servants, and two surgeons. Although he is not mentioned on the muster, Francis possibly arrived at the same time, and his penknife end cap may have slipped from his belongings as he began a new life in Virginia at the port at Jamestown. While Dr. Pott was Deputy Governor from March 1629 to March 1630, he appointed his brother Francis to be the Captain of the fort at Old Point Comfort, now known as Fort Monroe.

Captain Francis Pott was instrumental in ousting Governor Sir John Harvey from office in 1635. Harvey was a Royal Governor, appointed by King Charles I in 1628. He was unpopular, described as an obnoxious tyrant and was in constant conflict with his governor’s Council. In April 1635, matters came to a head when both Harvey and the Council mutually attempted to arrest the other on charges of treason, and the Council, backed by armed musketeers, prevailed. Weeks later Pott and Harvey sailed back to England together. Upon their arrival Francis was arrested on Harvey’s orders and detained in Fleet Prison for two years. When he was released, he patented 2,000 acres in Northampton County and moved back to Virginia, living there until his death in 1658.

related images