Royal Governor Sir Francis Nicholson described Middle Plantation as a place where "clear and crystal springs burst from the champagne soil.

As much of the lower peninsula to the east was becoming settled, this was a natural point for the English settlers who established Jamestown and the Virginia Colony beginning in 1607 to build a line of defense during early conflicts with the Native Americans.

Sir Thomas Dale, then governor, in a letter to the Earl of Salisbury, recommended the establishment of a fortified settlement at Chiskiack, some twenty miles (32 km) up the York River from Point Comfort.

Governor Francis Wyatt and his council wrote to the Earl of Southampton that they had a plan of "winning the forest" by running a pale between the James and York from Martin's Hundred to Chiskiack.

In 1626, Samuel Mathews, of Denbigh and William Claiborne, of Kecoughtan, offered to build the palisades and construct houses, at short intervals, between Martin's Hundred and Chiskiack.

There was little development along the north side of the peninsula adjacent to the York River by the English settlers before 1630, and no action on a cross-peninsula palisade had taken place.

Under Governor John Harvey, at a meeting held at Jamestown, October 8, 1630, Governor Harvey and the Governor's Council, "for the securing and taking in a tract of land called the forest, bordering upon the cheife residence of ye Pamunkey King, the most dangerous head of ye Indyan enemy," did "after much consultation thereof had, decree and sett down several proportions of land for such commanders, and fifty acres per poll for all other persons who ye first yeare and five and twenty acres who the second yeare, should adventure or be adventured to seate and inhabit on the southern side of Pamunkey River, now called York, and formerly known by the Indyan name of Chiskiack, as a reward and encouragement for this their undertaking.

Years later, Captain Nicholas Martiau, a French engineer employed by the colony, patented the land embracing the site of Yorktown.

Dr. John Potts blazed the way by obtaining on July 12, 1632 a patent for 1,200 acres (4.9 km2) at the head of Archer's Hope Creek, midway between Chiskiack and the James River.

In February, 1633, the Assembly enacted that a fortieth part of the men in "the compasse of the forest" east of Archer's Hope and Queen's Creek to Chesapeake Bay (essentially all of the lower peninsula) should be present "before the first day of March next" at Dr. John Potts' plantation, "newlie built," to erect houses and secure the land in that quarter.

The palisade is partially described in the following extract from a letter written in 1634, from Jamestown, by Captain Thomas Yonge: a strong palisade ... upon a streight between both rivers and ... a sufficient force of men to defence of the same, whereby all the lower part of Virginia have a range for their cattle, near fortie miles in length and in most places twelve miles (19 km) broade.

... in this manner to take also in all the grounde between those two Rivers, and so utterly excluded the Indians from thence; which work is conceived to be of extraordinary benefit to the country ...As Middle Plantation was developed midway between the heads of Queens Creek and Archer's Hope (later renamed College Creek), settlers moved into the region in considerable numbers, establishing homesteads.

Although this event was to represent the high-water mark of hostilities with the Natives, in 1646, Captain Robert Higginson was directed to run a new pale at Middle Plantation, as the old was out of repair.

On August 3, at the house of Major Otho Thorpe at Middle Plantation, Nathaniel Bacon held a convention of the leading men, including four councillors.

The people pledged themselves to resist the Royal Governor, Sir William Berkeley to the utmost, and to oppose any force sent out from England.

Upon learning of the many executions, King Charles II was so displeased by the scale of retaliation that he recalled the Royal Governor to England.

Succeeding Berkeley on May 5, 1677, Acting Governor Sir Herbert Jeffreys invited the weroances of the neighboring Indian tribes to his camp to seek a lasting peace.

As Bacon's forces had destroyed the statehouse and all other buildings at Jamestown, the first General Assembly summoned after the rebellion was held in February, 1677, at Berkeley's residence, Green Spring Plantation.

Royal approval of the structure came in 1694 when the Governor, Sir Edmund Andros, gave the parish a large silver server (paten).

[4] After years of campaigning, a long-sought dream of the colonists came to fruition in 1693 following a mission to London by the Reverend Doctor James Blair, the highest ranking representative of the Church of England in the colony.

While meeting there, a group of five students from the College of William and Mary submitted a well-presented and logical proposal to the legislators outlining a plan and good reasons to move the capital permanently to Middle Plantation.

Despite the periodic need to relocate to Middle Plantation, throughout the seventeenth century, Virginians had been reluctant to move the capital from its "ancient and accustomed place."

It had a state house (except when it periodically burned) and a church, and it offered easy access to ships that came up the James River bringing goods from England and taking on tobacco bound for market.

About the same time the Capital was moved, Middle Plantation was renamed Williamsburg by the Governor, Colonel Francis Nicholson, in honor of King William III of Great Britain.