Joyce (Tracy) Powell (bef. 1605 - 1622)

Born before 1605 in England

Ancestors

Wife of Nathaniel Powell — married about 1621 in Virginia

Died 22 Mar 1622 after age 17 in Jamestown Colony

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Biography

Joyce (Tracy) Powell was a Jamestown colonist.

Joyce Tracy, daughter of William Tracy and Mary Conway,."^[1] was born in England in or before the year 1605.

In 1620, the Tracy family boarded the ship Supply^[2] and sailed to Jamestown. With William and Mary Tracy were their daughter, Joyce (Joice) and their son Thomas.^[1]

Not long after reaching Jamestown, Joyce married Captain Nathaniel Powell, who was one of the first colonists in Virginia, and was well established. He was a member of the Council, and owned a 600-acre plantation, which he called "Powell Brook." ^[3]The marriage probably took place in 1621, and by spring of 1622, Joyce was "great with child."^[4] It should have been a young bride's dream, but that was not to be.

Disaster fell upon them on 22 Mar 1622, when Powhatan Indians attacked the settlements of Jamestown and plantations along the James River, killing 347 men, women, and children.^[5] Twelve residents of Powell Brook Plantation were killed, including Nathaniel and Joyce Tracy.^[6] The General Historie of Virginia records their story this way:.^[7]

"Captaine Nathaniel Powell one of the first Planters, a valiant Souldier, and not any in the Countrey better knowne amongst them; yet such was the error of an ouer-conceited power and prosperitie, and their simplicities, they not onely slew him and his family, but butcher-like hagled their bodies, and cut off his head, to expresse their uttermost height of cruelty."

Joyce's father was also slain, in 1621. The fate of her mother is not certain, but her brother Thomas returned to England.^[1]

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2} Virginia Company of London; Kingsbury, Susan Myra, The Records of the Virginia Company of London, (Vol 3, Page 396) Washington: Government Printing Office, 1906, Archive.org accessed 17 January 2016.
2. ↑ Passenger List of the Supply 1620 Research and compilation by Anne Stevens, packrat-pro.com.
3. ↑ Tyler, Lyon Gardiner. Biography of Nathaniel Powell, Encyclopedia of Virginia biography, New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1915., page 42.
4. ↑ Kingsbury, Susan Myra. The records of the Virginia Company of London Government Printing Office, 1906-1935 Vol. 3, p. 555.
5. ↑ Virginia Records Timeline, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 1606 to 1827, Library of Congress (accessed 15 May 2021)
6. ↑ Kingsbury, page 569.
7. ↑ Smith, John. The Generall Historie of Virginia, p. 145.