Chemistry in the New World

Zinc: The Missing Link?

Since their inception the English copper monopolies operated under the assumption that the Society of Mines Royal would mine and process raw copper and the Soci ety of Mineral and Battery Works would then combine the copper with zinc ores in a cementation process to produce brass. In cementation the copper is heated in a closed crucible along with crushed charcoal and zinc ore, such as zinc carbonate calamine stone (ZnCO3). Upon reaching temperatures between 900°C and 1000°C, the zinc held by the calamine stone vaporizes and is absorbed by the surrounding copper to form brass. Producing brass in this manner required immense skill and exceptional ingredients, and English calamine stone proved to have a high lead content, resulting in weak brass. This fault led to production of inadequate brass by the Society of Mineral and Battery Works and to decreased demand for the copper processed by the Society of Mines Royal. Consequently, as of 1605, both copper companies had yet to reach their primary objective and were operating at a dawdling pace.

The evidence increasingly suggests that both men and supplies were sent to Virginia specifically to look for better sources of zinc ore. Many of the men responsible for the formation of the Virginia Company were also directors and shareholders in England’s copper monopolies. Sir John Popham, lord chief justice of England, and Sir Robert Cecil, the newly created Earl of Salisbury, were central to the establishment of the Virginia Company and were also major shareholders in the Society of Mines Royal and the Society of Mineral and Battery Works. Thomas Smythe, the master of customs in London, was responsible for much of the Virginia Company’s financial backing and for recruiting some of the earliest settlers. Smythe’s father was one of the original shareholders in England’s copper monopolies, and Smythe inherited some of his father’s shares. Many of the lesser investors in the Virginia Company were also shareholders in the Society of Mines Royal and the Society of Mineral and Battery Works. Among these individuals were Sir Francis Popham, Richard Martin, and Thomas Middleton. The latter also held rights to the Society of Mines Royal’s smelting works in Wales.

Many of Jamestown’s early settlers also were involved with England’s copper monopolies. A man named Beale, for instance, is identified in Jamestown records as a practicing metallurgist, and the Beale family is known to have played a major role in the Society of Mines Royal. Robert Beale was the deputy governor of the Society of Mines Royal, and his son Francis was a shareholder.

Several settlers at Jamestown—John, George, and Captain John Martin—were sons and grandsons of Sir Richard Martin, an investor in the Society of Mineral and Battery works. The elder Martin was also lord mayor of London, prime warden of the Goldsmiths Company, master of the mint, and leaseholder for the production of brass in England. The Jamestown writer William Strachey referred to Captain John Martin as the “master of battery works.” This description was previously thought to be linked to the settlement’s armament and defenses, but in light of Jamestown’s associations with the Society of Mineral and Battery Works, it seems more likely that the characterization arose from Martin’s metallurgical endeavors in the colony. Martin was also described as “the authori tie consisting in refining” at James Fort, and further accounts from the settlement’s first year mention that he was involved in metal “tryalls.” Walter Cope reported Martin’s desire for some supplies from his father, Sir Martin, that were necessary for furthering his “tryalls.” As Sir Richard Martin held a lease over the production of brass in England from 1587, he may have anticipated his son’s discovery of resources in Virginia, such as calamine stone, which would aid the home industries.

While the documentary accounts of early Jamestown only indirectly refer to metallurgical activities like Martin’s “tryalls,” the crucibles and melted copper waste excavated from James Fort illustrate that settlers conducted metallurgical experiments involving copper during their early years in the colony. Several of these crucibles were subjected to scientific examination using a scanning electron microscope with an attached energy-dispersive X-ray spectrometer in hopes of shedding light on the metallurgists’ uses for them. As we might have expected, the resulting data suggest that Jamestown’s colonists were attempting cementation with Virginia mineral ores. One piece examined was a round beaker crucible with an interior black slag and a relatively large corroded copper-alloy prill. The slag present on the interior of the crucible contains high amounts of zinc oxide (ZnO) and iron oxide (FeO) at around 20% weight each, as well as a significant amount of lime (CaO), suggesting an attempt at cementation using a low-quality ore with minor zinc content. Additional analysis confirms that the copper that was melted in this crucible originated in English mines. Identifying the copper as English indicates that rather than simply assaying local native copper as part of a search for gold and silver, Jamestown’s metallurgists were using English scrap copper as a tool in their search for such zinc ores as calamine sand.

For Jamestown’s metallurgists English scrap metal would have been ideal for testing ores and for cementation experiments; it could be easily manipulated, its large surface area could absorb a large amount of zinc, and its known origins ensured the sample’s purity. And since it came in the form of industrial waste, it would have been relatively inexpensive.

Failed Experiment Or Chemical Landmark?

In the end neither Captain Martin nor any other metallurgist at Jamestown discovered a source of zinc in the New World, and copper-based industrial pursuits never brought significant returns to those investing in the Virginia Company. The English colonists’ failure to turn their metallurgical endeavors into profit was likely a result of several factors, including the lack of zinc resources in eastern Virginia, the hazards that came with settling in the New World, and changing priorities of the colony’s leaders. Episodes of sickness, starvation, and Indian attacks plagued the colony during its early years, and Jamestown’s metallurgists fared no better than their neighbors in the face of these hazards. The colonist known as Beale, for instance, is never mentioned in the eye witness accounts from Jamestown beyond the settlement’s early days, and, like so many others, he may have perished in the “starving time” during the winter of 1609–1610. A Swiss metallurgist, William Faldoe, also fell victim to the difficulties of settling in the Virginia frontier: he died from a burning fever. Likewise, accounts refer to Captain Martin as “very sickly and unserviceable.” He returned to England in the summer of 1608. Martin later came back to Virginia, although soon after he was wounded in an Indian attack.

Thus, the desire to find zinc in Virginia may have been short lived, and copper-based metallurgical activities might have vanished along with those who perished soon after the English settled Jamestown. The archaeological excavations of Jamestown support this, as trash deposits from 1610 contain large amounts of discarded scrap copper and related metalworking crucibles. These same trash deposits include other discarded supplies related to such industrial activities as perfumery and glass-making, suggesting that the search for potentially profitable commodities was soon cast aside in favor of more fundamental survival strategies involving agriculture and defense.

Nevertheless, identifying the metallurgical uses of copper within the earliest period of settlement at Jamestown casts a different interpretation on the earliest permanent English settlement in North America and helps us understand the extent to which Old World economic objectives figured into the organization and initial aspirations of the Virginia Company. Uncovering the pursuits at Jamestown reminds us that chemical enterprise has been part of the American story since the earliest days of its settlement.

For Further Reading

Agricola, Georgius. De Re Metallica. Translated by H.C. Hoover and L.H. Hoover. London: Dover Publications, 1950.

Barbour, P., ed. The Jamestown Voyages under the First Charter, 1606-1609. 2 vols. Cambridge: The Hakluyt Society, 1969.

Haile, E.W., ed. Jamestown Narratives: Eyewitness Accounts of the Virginia Colony. Champlain, VA: Roundhouse, 1998.

Hudgins, Carter C. "Articles of Exchange of Ingredients of New World Metallurgy? An examination of the Industrial Origins and Metallurgical Functions of Scrap Copper at Early Jamestown (c. 1607-17)." Early American Studies 3:1 (2005), 32-64

Kelso, William M.; B. Straube. Jamestown Rediscovery 1994-2004. Richmond, VA: APVA Preservation Virginia, 2004.