William Peirce (burgess)

William Peirce (or Pierce) was born and married in England, where his name was common. Thus he is sometimes confused another man who frequently sailed (in the same era) to the Plymouth Colony far to the north.^[6] In June 1609, this man sailed for the two year old Virginia Colony with his wife and daughter (both named Joan) in a nine-boat flotilla. While the women arrived in the colony by the end of the year, Peirce's ship, the Sea Venture, shipwrecked in Bermuda, and he did not arrive until 1610. Another passenger on the wrecked vessel was John Rolfe, who was responsible for re-establishing the Jamestown settlement (and thus the colony), became the husband of Peirce's daughter (after outliving two previous wives).^[7]

Peirce had military training and used it, as the new colony threatened the interests of local indigenous people as well as prospective Dutch colonists. However, Peirce had not yet arrived when the Anglo-Powhatan Wars began in 1609, though he witnessed Governor George Yeardley's treaty with the Chickahominy people. In 1619, he, John Rolfe and another man went to Old Point Comfort to meet the Treasurer, which bore the first Africans to reach Virginia, and his household later included a Black woman who had arrived on that ship.^[8][9][10] Peirce was among the officers and troops responding to the massacres of 1622. Likewise, while Virginia colonists traded with the Dutch during his lifetime, the Anglo-Dutch wars erupted less than a decade after his death, and included an attack on Jamestown.

Peirce eventually built a store and what Sandys called the fairest house (a brick dwelling) in Jamestown, the colony's seat of government and main settlement. He also bought land nearby. As a government structure became established, and the countryside divided into shires, Peirce bought several land parcels. One that he bought with Rolfe and Smith, included 1700 acres on Mulberry Island (which later became Warwick County).^[11] Peirce also was one of three commissioners whom Virginia's governor designated to deal with the 1619 ship with enslaved Africans, and at least one of the first enslaved Africans, "Angela", lived at his house for eight years.^[12]

James City County voters elected Peirce as one of the men representing them in the House of Burgesses in 1624, and re-elected him in 1624.^[13] He was appointed to the legislature's higher branch, the Governor's Council (also known as the Council of State) in 1632, and was involved in the toppling the unpopular Governor Sir John Harvey in 1635. He was later recalled to England to face charges in the Star Chamber brought by John Harvey, (along with John Utie, Captain Samuel Matthews, and Governor John West) for a time, but the charges were eventually dropped and he returned to Virginia. He remained a council member until 1643, a few years before his death.^[14]

Notwithstanding Peirce's role in ousting Governor Harvey, Dame Elizabeth Harvey in 1644/1645 asked that he and Richard Kemp be substituted as trustees for Nansemond land held in trust for Samuel Stephens, her son by a previous marriage. The previous trustees were previously Capt. Samuel Mathews, Daniel Gookin, George Ludlow and Thomas Bernard.