Patuxent Werowance Warnings

Within the first year of English settlement, between spring 1634-1635 CE, in what would become St. Mary’s City in the colony of Maryland, the Yacocomico and the colonists who lived alongside them received a visit from the werowance (leader/king) of the Patuxent nation, unnamed. The Patuxent people were familiar with the English and the challenges that accompanied their settlement in Indigenous territory. In a meeting aboard the Ark, one of two ships the English of Maryland arrived upon, he declared his intention to greet the newcomers and make their acquaintance. After the initial meeting aboard the Ark, the Patuxent werowance gave more ominous words of warning to the Yacocomico. The writings of Father Andrew White, a Jesuit priest who kept a journal during this time, provide a brief glimpse of the occurrences of the visit.

In early 1634, a group of English colonizers sailed into the Chesapeake Bay and continued up through the mouth of the Potomac River. After a failed request to settle on Piscataway land further up the Potomac, the English were directed back down the river to the Yacocomico people, a Piscataway-allied, yet independent tribe known to the English as the “Yaocomaco”. The English “bought” 30 miles of Yacocomico land, which included the area that became the settlement known as St. Mary’s City. Since the Yacocomico had already planted their crop for the season, the English agreed to live in close proximity with them until the harvest, after which time the Yacocomico would vacate the newly “purchased” land. It was during this period of mutual habitation that the Patuxent werowance visited. 

The Patuxent people, living in close proximity to the Yacocomico, became aware of the English colonizing of Yacocomico land. Around the same time, news was brought to the Patuxent werowance that the governor of the Virginia colony, Sir John Harvey, was traveling to visit the newcomers. Upon hearing this, the Patuxent werowance decided to come greet them both himself. After reaching the Yacocomico territory and the newly established English colony, he met the English aboard the Ark, which would have been anchored a short ways offshore, where he delivered words of welcome.

After the initial meeting aboard the Ark, there was much fanfare between the two English groups on the shore. That same evening, there was a ceremonial firing of the guns mounted upon the Ark. This display of military might spurred the Patuxent werowance into giving the first of two recorded warnings to the Yacocomico, documented by Father White. The werowance speaks of the sound produced by the bow when an arrow is fired, mentioning the distance from which it’s sound can be heard. He compares this to the sound of the English guns (canons), commenting

“When wee shoote, our Bow-strings give a twang that's heard but a little way off: Butt doe you not heare what cracks their Bow-strings give?” (Archives of Maryland, Vol. 0551, pg. 0049-0050).

This observation serves as words of caution given to the Yacocomico of the might held by the English colonizers.

Father White notes that the Patuxent werowance spoke many such warnings and/or observations during his visit; however, there is only one other recorded. As the Patuxent werowance prepared to return to his people, he offered an expression of his “love” for the English:

“I do love the English, so well that if they should kill me, so that they left me but so much breath, as to speak unto my people, I would command them not to revenge my death” (Archives of Maryland, Vol. 0551, pg. 0050).

The words of the Patuxent werowance here are quite pointed and express his desire to maintain peaceful relations with the colonizers. With them, he provides a final warning. 

The warnings of the Patuxent werowance were not unfounded, and unfortunately history played out in a way quite similar to what he had warned against. While living in close proximity with the English colonizers did provide some respite from Susquehannock raiding from the north, it did not help maintain friendly relations between the two groups for long. Land grabs and constant aggression by colonizers, as well as cultural misunderstandings, pushed the Yacocomico further and further from their pre-colonial homelands. In the year 1643, not quite a decade after the initial colonization of Yacocomico territory, the Yacocomico werowance was murdered by an Englishman, having been fatally shot. By this point, much of the Yacocomico population had been displaced and/or joined with other nations along the Potomac River and Chesapeake Bay.

Seib, Rebecca and Helen C. Rountree. Indians of Southern Maryland. Maryland. The Maryland Historical Society, 2014.

Steiner, Bernard C,. Beginnings of Maryland, 1631-1639. Johns Hopkins University Studies in History and Political Science. Baltimore, Maryland. The Johns Hopkins Press, 1903.

White, Andrew. A Relation of the Successefull Beginning of the Lord Baltemore's Plantation in Mary-land. Volume 0551. Pg. 49-50. Archives of Maryland. Accessed September 27, 2021. http://aomol.msa.maryland.gov/000001/000551/html/am551--49.html.