Notes for JOHN WOODLIEF:

*Sailed from Bristol, England on ship "Margaret".

Captain John Woodlief (Woodliffe) was with the Jamestown settlers in 1609- the Second Charter of the Virginia Company of London. He later returned to England to bring other colonists as well as his wife and family to Virginia. Again he returned to England and in 1619, Woodlief, as captain and governor, sailed from Bristol on the good ship Margaret. He returned with about 40 more settlers to Berkely Hundred along Virginia's James River. The Virginia Thanksgiving was essentially a prayer service. The very first in the list of written instructions to Woodlief as captain stated: "Wee ordaine that the day of our ships arrivall at the place assigned for the plantacon in the land of Viginia shall be yearly and perpetualy keept holy as a day of thanksgiving to Almighty God." In 1963, U.S. President John F. Kennedy issued a proclamation recognizing Virginia's claim to be the first Thanksgiving in America. I have no birth date for him but he was baptized December 27, 1584 at Dinton.


The FIRST Thanksgiving was held 1619 in VIRGINIA, led by our own CAPT JOHN WOODLIEF of Peterly Manor, nr Prestwood, Gr Missenden, Bucks, Engl.

Thanksgiving at Berkley Plantation.

Despite the popular conception that New Englanders held the first Thanksgiving, the first Thanksgiving in English-speaking America actually took place in Virginia - more than a year before the Mayflower set sail for Plymouth.

Massachusetts-native President John F. Kennedy acknowledged Virginia's claim in his official Thanksgiving Day Proclamation for 1963 - less than three weeks before his death; and 100 years before that, President Abraham Lincoln, who visited Berkeley once, also acknowledged Virginia's first-Thanksgiving claim. To this day, Virginia continues to commemorate its noteworthy event the first Sunday each November at Berkeley Plantation, the original Thanksgiving site.

The First Thanksgiving at Berkeley
History records that the first Thanksgiving occurred when Captain John Woodlief - a veteran of Jamestown who had survived its "starving time" of 1608 and 1609 - led his crew and passengers from their ship to a grassy slope along the James River for the New World's first Thanksgiving service on Dec. 4, 1619. There, the English colonists dropped to their knees and prayed as the British company expedition sponsor had instructed.

Today, on the site where Woodlief knelt, a brick gazebo contains the following inscribed words: "Wee ordaine that the day of our ships arrival at the place assigned for plantacon in the land of Virginia shall be yearly and perpetually kept holy as a day of Thanksgiving to Almighty God."

Each year, visitors to Berkeley on Nov. 1 can witness the reading of a proclamation - commemorating Berkeley's first Thanksgiving 379 years ago - at 2 p.m. In addition, a traditional Thanksgiving meal will be served to patrons at the Coach House Tavern.

Visitors to Berkeley any time of year won't want to miss touring the grounds, gardens and the three-story manor house to learn other interesting Berkeley facts. For example, Berkeley stakes a claim as the site of the first distillation of bourbon whiskey in America, when Episcopal missionary George Thorpe produced the beverage and declared it "much better than British ale."

The brick home, built in 1726 and among the earliest of the Georgian plantation dwellings, has a number of presidential connections. Berkeley is the birthplace of a signer of the Declaration of Independence and of ninth U.S. President William Henry Harrison and the ancestral home of 23rd U.S. President Benjamin Harrison. In earlier days - and as one of the James River plantations that became the focal point of colonial Virginia's economic, cultural and social life - Berkeley hosted more than 10 presidents including George Washington.

Lincoln, the first president to designate a November Thursday as Thanksgiving Day, visited Berkeley on July 8, 1862, to confer with Union General George McClellan, headquartered in the mansion. That same summer, Berkeley garnered another first when Union General Daniel A. Butterfield composed the "Taps" melody, customarily used as a "lights out" bugle call, while camped on the grounds.