The first women to arrive in Jamestown, Virginia were a Mrs. Forrest and her maid, Anne Burras. Mrs. Forrest, her first name unknown, was the wife of one of the settlement's men, Thomas Forrest. These first two women in Jamestown arrived in 1608, about one year after the colony was founded.
The settlement that greeted these two women was the home of some 200 misfits and adventurers. Jamestown was a fort of about one-acre in size. Colonially speaking, it contained everything the modern woman of the early 1600s needed, if not all that she wanted. There was a shopping district that consisted of one storehouse. Jamestown sported one church, described by John Smith as looking like a barn.
Jamestown even had dwellings one could call homes, which were described as shacks that looked ready to tumble down and far inferior to any cottage back in England.
Mrs. Forrest gave birth during the winter of 1609-10, a time that came to be referred to as the "Starving Time." That devastating winter all but about 60 persons in Jamestown died out of a population of 20 women and 470 men.
It is uncertain as to whether Mrs. Forrest and her newborn survived that winter but her maid, Anne Burras, did. Anne was only fourteen when she arrived in Jamestown. Soon after arriving she was wed to a laborer ten years her senior. The occasion of Anne and her intended's marriage was the first wedding performed in Jamestown. In time, Anne gave birth to a daughter they called Virginia. The infant also lived through the starving winter.
Sources:
Athearn, Robert G. The New World: American Heritage New Illustrated History of the United States, Volume 1. Dell Publishing Co., Inc., New York, 1963.
Collins, Gail. America's Women: 400 Years of Dolls, Drudges, Helpmates, and Heroines. Harper Collins Publishers, New York, 2003.
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