Dumpling Island

Dumpling Island is a Virginia historical marker in Suffolk County, dedicated 1998.

Rte. 10, south of Five Mile Road

Get directions ↗Start a road trip Historical trails

The ceremonial heart of the Nansemond Indian district stood a mile east on Dumpling Island in the Nansemond River. In 1608, Capt. John Smith led colonists upriver to obtain corn from the Nansemonds, who attacked but were defeated and forced to feed them. The next summer, anticipating what was later called the "starving time" Smith transferred Capt. John Martin and 60 of the Jamestown colonists to the island. After his advance party disappeared, Martin attacked the Nansemonds, looted and burned their houses and temples, despoiled their dead, and seized their corn. The Indians soon counterattacked, driving the colonists back to Jamestown.

Maps this old were drawn largely by eye, so places on them can sit miles from where they really are. The pin is ours and marks the marker's location today.

TodayHistorical map

Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.

John Carter Brown Library, Brown University

Historical maps covering this location

1670 · Virginia and Maryland As it is planted and Inhabited this present Year 1670 ... (John Carter Brown Library, Brown University)
1889 · Virginia and West Virginia (eastern portion). (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1891 · (Virginia, N. Carolina) Railroad Map of the United States. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1919 · Smithfield, Virginia (USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection)
1949 · Chuckatuck, Virginia (USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection)

Smithfield, Virginia, 1919, covering the location of Dumpling Island, with a pin at the marker's coordinates — Smithfield, Virginia, 1919, covering this location. USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection. The pin is ours, placed from the marker's coordinates.

Example

For example, one family's tree showed the Articles of Confederation marker in Pennsylvania standing under a mile from where William Gabby lived in the 1760s.

What that marker records spans 1777 to 1789, overlapping William Gabby's years there.

From one family's 77-marker roster

Upload your family tree and TreeAlive finds the markers near where your own ancestors lived.

See your family's markers

Start with a tree file, a FamilySearch sign in, or a WikiTree ID.

Report a problem with this page

The marker isn't at this spotOur pin may be off. If you know where it stands, tell us.I couldn't find the markerWe record what the source recorded. We have not been to look.The sign reads differentlyThat would be an error, and we can pass it to the program.The historical map looks wrongThe period map behind the pin, not the marker itself.Something else

We may pass what you report to the state's marker program. Please don't include personal details.

Marker program managed by the Virginia Department of Historic Resources.

Dumpling Island

Historical maps covering this location

More markers nearby