The Wealth of Jamestown - Softcover

The history of Virginia reflects the character and goals of the people who lived there, including the women who often ran the plantations and made the deals that became the foundation of the wealth and the basis of the laws.  
William Roscoe, young Virginia planter and sheriff, and Sarah Harrison, daughter of one of Virginia’s wealthiest planters, are engaged and in love, but Sarah is forced by her father for business reasons to break the engagement and marry James Blair, Commissary of the Church of England. She retains her dowry and wealth, and while Blair goes to England to lobby for a college of which he’d be President, she continues her relationship with William. She has a baby to be raised by her brother as Benjamin Harrison IV, and continues accumulating property. She and William come to own two sailing ships, and William begins trade with pirates in the new city of Charles Towne. Blair returns to Virginia and raises disputes with Governor Andros and his council. Blair goes back to London and accuses Andros of various offenses before an ecclesiastical court there. With the war with France finished, Andros decides to retire and return to England. Blair takes credit for removing the governor and selecting the new governor. He returns to a colony that is bursting with wealth and growth and excitement, over which he wants to exercise power, but which he doesn’t understand.

The Wealth of Jamestown is a work of fiction, using names of persons and dates of events occurring in Jamestown, Virginia in the period 1685-1700. Americans aren't taught their early history, and many people coming to Jamestown are amazed to learn that something actually happened between Pocahontas in 1615 and George Washington in 1776.  That's more than a hundred and fifty years and a good chunk of American history.
The book is an attempt to provide some understanding of the period, the time of the founding fathers' great grandparents, including the grandmothers. It derives from a work put together by the author over several years of research while serving as a docent in the gallery at Jamestown Settlement. After several years answering questions from visitors and responding to their comments, the author had prepared an annotated "Docent's Guide" of more than a hundred pages. 
Most visitors feel comfortable and familiar with Jamestown. Children instinctively know there was more to the Indians than Pocahontas.  The idea of a representative assembly to debate legislation separate from an executive officer was well established by 1685. Distrust of governors sent from abroad, as well as of clergymen sent by a distant church was already widespread.
Certain facts can be corroborated:  Edmund Andros and Francis Nicholson served as Governor and Lieutenant Governor during the period, and James Blair resurrected a college charter in 1693.  Buildings were erected and burned down as described, and Blair presented complaints against Andros to an ecclesiastical court in London. Relatively few public documents survive as Jamestown's state house burned several times.
Beyond that, the story comes out of the context of the time.