Kiskiack - English Settlement and The Palisade

English Settlement and The Palisade

At a meeting held at Jamestown on October 8, 1630, Sir John Harvey, the Governor, and his Council,

"for the securing and taking in a tract of land called the forest, bordering upon the cheife residence of ye Pamunkey King, the most dangerous head of ye Indyan enemy," did "after much consultation thereof had, decree and sett down several proportions of land for such commanders, and 50 acres (200,000 m2) per poll for all other persons who ye first yeare and five and 20 acres (81,000 m2) who the second yeare, should adventure or be adventured to seate and inhabit on the southern side of Pamunkey River, now called York, and formerly known by the Indyan name of Chiskiack, as a reward and encouragement for their undertaking."

Under this order, colonists built houses on both sides of King's Creek. New ones were added along the south side of York River. The colony decided to fortify the area. In 1634, they erected a palisade across the Peninsula from Martin's Hundred to Kiskiack to protect the lower (eastern) area from Indian attacks. Middle Plantation, near the center of the palisade, was the first inland settlement, established by an Act of Assembly of the House of Burgesses in 1632. In 1699 Middle Plantation was renamed Williamsburg after being designated the capital of the Colony.

The former site of Kiskiack is now occupied by the U.S. Naval Weapons Station Yorktown. The original Algonquian name, often mispronounced by the Anglos-Americans, was the origin of "Cheesecake Road" and "Cheesecake Cemetery", also located on Navy lands in the same area.

The southern end of Cheesecake Road left the federal property and crossed State Route 143 (Merrimack Trail), and the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway, and connected with U.S. Route 60 (Pocahontas Trail) near the western edge of Grove and the James City County-York County border. It was split by the construction of Interstate 64 in the late 1960s.