JR4300A Chancel Burial

introduction

Confirming the identity of individuals who died and were buried at Jamestown four centuries ago is a difficult undertaking. Archaeology, artifacts, primary records, forensics, genomics, and genealogy must align to identify the person in question. Between 2016 and 2019, Jamestown Rediscovery conducted archaeological investigations inside the 1907 Memorial Church in preparation for the 400th anniversary of representative government in our nation. This project had two goals: first, to examine structural evidence of the historic church that remained untouched by excavations by the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities (APVA, now Preservation Virginia) between 1897 and 1906; and second, to recover and analyze burials within the structure, some of which had been disturbed by those earlier excavations. A final question for Jamestown Rediscovery was, could the owner of the Knight’s Tombstone, first uncovered in the church in 1901, be identified?

One of the few written records of Jamestown’s 1617 church includes its dimensions: 50 feet long by 20 feet wide. Little else is known about the building. In cases like these, archaeology can fill in the gaps. Excavations revealed the church’s cobblestone and yellow clay foundation, precisely locating the structure. Other building materials indicated the church was a close-studded timber frame building. This style of construction uses large wooden timbers spaced closely together to form most of the structure, with the gaps in between filled by wood lath and coated in plaster. These discoveries enabled Jamestown Rediscovery to re-envision the building and to define the internal elements of the church, including the chancel, where the first General Assembly meeting took place in 1619.

archaeology

A large number of burials were found during this project. However, only one was definitively associated with the 1617 church chancel. The chancel was a place of privilege for 17th-century English burials, and indicated the individual must have played a significant role in the colony. The grave was abnormally oversized for the individual interred there, which suggested it was once marked by a tombstone. A large Belgian black limestone slab, now called The Knight’s Tombstone and believed to have belonged to Sir George Yeardley, was uncovered nearby by APVA archaeologists in 1901. Yeardley was the Governor of the Virginia colony for several years and presided over the historic First Assembly in 1619. He died while serving as governor in 1627. His prestige in the colony and time of death made Yeardley one of the leading candidates for this individual. To find the answer, Jamestown Rediscovery turned to forensic and genetic analysis.

forensics

Human remains encode information about the person’s sex, age, health, activities in life, and sometimes their cause of death. The man buried in the chancel grave has features consistent with a European male between the ages of 38 and 44, which has since been confirmed by DNA analysis. He suffered from dental caries (cavities) and lost several teeth while he was alive. His skeleton did not show signs of heavy physical labor, though his leg bones had evidence of inflammation associated with a long-term infection elsewhere. The remains were chemically tested to understand the individual’s status and origin. Carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios suggest that he ate a diet that included wheat and animal protein. He also had moderately high lead levels within his bones, which suggest that he had some wealth, since the heavy metal was used in expensive ceramics and pewter used in high society homes.

genomics

To extract and sequence the ancient DNA within the remains, Jamestown Rediscovery worked with ancient and forensic geneticist Dr. Turi King and experts at the FBI. In historic identity cases, researchers use specific sections of DNA to trace descent through lines of all men or all women. Fathers pass identical copies of their Y chromosomes on to their sons, while women pass copies of their mitochondrial DNA on to all their children, regardless of sex. Geneticists working with ancient DNA prefer to follow female lines of descent because there is no chance of a paternity issue. Genetic signatures are sometimes different from how people connect themselves to their ancestors using genealogy. If the historical subject of interest is a male, a forensic genealogist must identify his mother, sisters, or other female relatives of his mother and then trace an unbroken female line through more than a dozen generations to a living descendant. This descendant’s DNA can then be tested and compared to the historic individual in question, but this process takes time.

Jamestown Rediscovery recruited professional genealogist Dave Annal, founder of Lifelines Research, to research Sir George Yeardley’s family tree. He found ten living people who can trace their ancestry through an unbroken female line to George Yeardley’s sister Katherin Yeardley (c. 1579-c. 1649) and should therefore share his mitochondrial DNA. Of those ten, one person shared their DNA for comparison. When the modern DNA sample was compared to the ancient DNA of from the excavated individual, they did not match. The man in the chancel grave is not Sir George Yeardley.

conclusion

Jamestown Rediscovery and our current partners are now pursuing the identity of the man buried in the chancel, as well as exploring the possibility that Sir George Yeardley may be among the individuals excavated from elsewhere in the 1617 church. The evidence still suggests the Knight’s tombstone belonged to Yeardley, but because it was eventually moved from its original location, it does not offer any additional clues as to where he may have been buried. However, the FBI was able to use the forensic and genomic analyses to make a facial reconstruction of the man in the chancel; now we need to put a name to the face. The research continues.