sband.
Colonel Bridger also left to his wife, 1683, all "her apparel, rings and
jewels."

Although clocks are listed in seventeenth century inventories, one of
the earliest mentions of a watch was in 1697, when Richard Aubrey of
Essex County, bequeathed two silver seals and his "pendilum watch."

FESTIVITIES, RECREATION AND SPORTS

That Christmas was an occasion to be enjoyed, both with comfort and
merriment in the Colony, is indicated in an account, recorded in 1608,
when a group of the first settlers in two ships undertook to visit
Powhatan at his seat Werowocomoco on the Pamunkey (York) River. Setting
sail from Jamestown they encountered rough weather and were forced to
put in at Kecoughtan (now Hampton), where they spent Christmas with the
Indians. Their scribes recorded that they were "never more merry, nor
never had better fires in England than in the dry, warm, smoky houses of
Kecoughtan."

[Illustration: Drawing by the late Bessie Barclay, based on a study of
the original John White drawings made in 1653 and now in the British
Museum. Through courtesy of the _Daily Press_, Newport News.

Christmas at Kecoughtan 1608

A group of colonists from Jamestown bound for Powhatan's seat on the
York River put in at Kecoughtan after encountering adverse weather.
There they spent Christmas with the Indians who entertained them in the
native arched bark-house with feasting and a tribal dance.]

Christmas in the seventeenth century was celebrated on the day known to
the present as "Old Christmas," that is the sixth of January.

The dry, smoky houses of the Indians were long, arched structures with a
framework of bent saplings, over which was secured a close covering of
bark, while the roof was covered with mats or reeds. A fire built in the
middle of the habitation, with smoke curling through an opening above,
afforded both warmth and fuel for cooking. Mats and skins, hung at the
entrance and exit, kept in the heat and also some of the smoke, but shut
out the rough weather. Several families slept, ate and carried on their
indoor activities in these ample shelters.

And, here, it was that the colonists, with only the Indian maids to
provide feminine company, celebrated the first Christmas, of which
there is a record in the new world. After the feasting and the passing
of the pipes, as a token of friendship, there was probably a customary
Indian oration of welcome. Then, the Indian dancers appeared with their
rattl