It was in the Nether Hundred, which became Bermuda Hundred and later the
"Neck-of-Land" in Charles City, that settlement was first initiated
"for there [according to Hamor in 1614] lyeth the most convenient
quantity of corne ground." With a "pale" from river to river but two
miles in length it was possible to secure some eight miles of "exceeding
good corne ground." Houses were built one-half mile from each other on
"the verge of the river." In 1614 these were described as "faire houses,
already builded." There were others as well totaling "not so few as
fifty." Gates' lieutenant, George Yeardley, was then in charge.

ROCHDALE HUNDRED (19B)

This plantation, just west of Nether (Bermuda) Hundred, was gotten
underway about the same time. A "crosse pale," about four miles long,
was, in 1614, already built "with bordering houses along the pale." It
was in this Hundred that the "hogges, and other cattell" had a 20 mile
circuit in which to graze securely.

BERMUDA CITY (19C)

The "chiefe Citty," when Hamor left, was not yet ready. Its
construction, at a point across the Appomattox from Bermuda Hundred,
while begun, was not pushed until the fall of 1614. Here Bermuda City
was fashioned to be "an impregnable retreat, against any forraign
invasion, how powerfull so ever." This became the fourth and last of the
public, or general, corporations taking its place with James City,
Kecoughtan, and Henrico. Within a few years its name would change from
Bermuda to Charles City to honor Prince Charles as Henrico had been
named for Prince Henry his brother, both being royal sons. Hamor, in
1614, spoke of "Bermuda Citty," evidently meaning to include Bermuda
Hundred as well, as "a business of greatest hope, ever begunne in our
territories their." At the same time he mentions the special "pattent,"
or agreement, made between Dale and the people there, "termes and
conditions they voluntarily have undertaken."

When Dale assigned small parcels of ground to planters for their own
use prior to, or in, 1613, he did much for the Colony. It stopped some
of the drain on the common "magazine" and allowed room for individual
profit and enterprise. It also freed the colonists from Company service
except in emergencies and for one month a year. In making this
arrangement, however, he excepted the Bermuda Incorporation people with
whom he made a special contract. They were bound to three years of
almost continuous public service in the Bermuda