The Discovery of Lord De La Warr's Halberd in a Well
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 10 ก.พ. 2025
- With the Covid-19 crisis hitting us we've decided to return to some retro footage of a Jamestown Rediscovery highlight for all of you out there clamoring for archaeology footage. This Halberd was recovered from what was likely James Fort's second well in the summer of 2006. The halberd almost certainly belonged to one of Thomas West's, the Lord De La Warr, personal guard as it bore his family's heraldic symbols of griffins. Go ahead and guess what it might have been doing in the bottom of a well. We will probably never know but we have some ideas of our own. Film footage by Cinebar Productions.
Found more in twenty minutes then The Curse of Oak Island in ten years. 🎉🎉👍👍
😂
Phil Harding! Lovely to see him there!
I was going to say the same thing
Beat me to it.
I had to watch a second time to see that . Certainly did resemble him.
This was on time team years ago
5:18 -- There he is, hat, cutoffs, and all! In S4Ep1 of _Time Team,_ they were in St. Mary's City, Maryland. There was a constant chant of, "Stone the crows, but it's hot," "Cor blimey, it's hot," and "Crikey, it's not the heat, it's the..." and those of us who have spent summers in Tidewater Virginia know how the sentence ends. Phil needs a summer straw hat for when he comes to the US. for digs. Stetson has some truly spiffy ones which are similar in style -- dented crown, broad brim, fedora-esque, and perfect for decoration with band and feather cockade.
Not many artifacts can be nailed down to the person and exact date; what an incredible find. One of the best in the history of archaeology in my opinion.
I freaking LOVE this! Just wish i could watch the whole process of discovering artifacts unedited. Just so cool to think nobody had touched any of those for almost 400 years! You guys are awesome! Keep up the great work!
check out British the show Time Team they do this in a series for like 20 years.
I LOVE IT WHEN YOU ALL BROADCAST YOUR DISCOVERIES.
I♡♡♡ ARCHAEOLOGY.......
Lord De La Warr, was my several times great grandfather, interestingly of both my maternal grandparents share him as an ancestor. I was thrilled to find this post.
Pretty much everyone has the guy as an ancestor 😂
@@CommonContentArchivewait till u find out about how many white ppl claim to be native American 🤣🤣
@@CommonContentArchive Sounds like a bad case of jealous
If they both shared him as an ancestor, then their descendants would be inbred lmao 🤣
My favorite part is that Phil Harding was there to witness.
Ooooh-arrrr.
Insane!!!!! You guys have the best job, I couldn’t sleep at night with excitement of going back to work the next day
I just saw Phil Harding there, yes he's he man
Your site is legitimate when a wild Phil appears.
Was this when Time Team were visiting? I spot a certain Phil Harding there at the end...
That episode was funny watching them encounter our Southern US heat. Love those guys. RIP Mick.
"Stone the crows" is pretty diagnostic for Phil Harding.
Amazing to watch without a professional narrator telling us what we all can see.. but hearing the excitement, in the voices of those searching.. Just think.. the last person to hold that halberd, was a person over 400 years ago, in a world we can only imagine... wow
Spectacular find!!! Congratulations!
So happy that you found the halberd! Lord De la Warr was my ancestor, and I am always interested to learn more about his life. I hope that it will go on display for everyone to see.
He was my 13 great grandfather
He was my ancestor as well
He got about a bit didn't he💪🤫😉🇬🇧👍
He's my dad...I was wondering where he went. He owes a lot of child support. My mom is not gonna like this.
He was everyone's ancestor.. what a chad 😂
William West, First Baron De La Warr was my 12x great grandfather. Seeing all the comments here from other descendants just blows my mind!
@@andrew4829 I’m one of them too!
Half the country is related to the guy, I'm sure. Kind of like how everyone seems to be related to Charlemagne somehow 😂
The Great Khan would call these rookie numbers
@@Turnagaterwhat’s your point? I don’t understand your comment
@benjigirl1971 he said he was blown away by the amount of people. Look up how many people are related to Genghis Khan
Wow!! What a great find!
I am a descendent of George Holloway who moved to Jamestown in the 1620s. This means so much to me!
Have you paid reparations to the peoples oppressed by your ancestor?
@@jrr0863 Have you?
@@jrr0863Lol 😆
Have the natives paid reparations to the people they attacked and killed?
@@jrr0863 Descendants are not to blame for the sins of the past. They have nothing to do with it.
More, more! This was exciting.
Doesn’t get any better than this.
Lord De La Warr, Thomas West was my Great Grand Uncle X 11, I am descended from his brother John, The West family were very prominent in England and in Colonial America
Any knowledge of a relation to Anthony West of Accomack would be greatly appreciated.....my great grandfather X 10
@@eye4west I have direct descendants both from John West of New Kent, Virginia and Anthony West through the Marvell/Marston...etc. line. With Anthony West his parents are not known, though there are those who have done research on the internet surrounding Anthony's life linked through paper trail documentation and that of his offspring and their kinship group connections.
Just google "Anthony West 1601-1652" at the same time take information with a grain of salt.
@@Lowest_Levels Thank you Big Britches. I have a detailed family tree provided me 50 years ago by a now deceased aunt from the eastern shore. I just have not been able to tie Anthony to any other West that settled there, nor his parents. I have tried through internet searches, but have been unsuccessful. Your response gives me hope that I need to search again.
@@eye4west You're welcome. Having been doing genealogical research for the last two years, I have noticed the importance of studying the extended kinship groups from which an ancestor targeted for research belongs, especially that of who the particular ancestor's children marry. In the case of Anthony, one of his children, Lt. Col John West marries a daughter of Col. Edmund Scarborough of the Eastern Shore, the wealthiest man of the area with colony wide governmental positions, owner of many ships and so forth. A very colorful character.
Anyhow, considering how Anthony arrived as an indentured servant, to then leave for England and return with his wife, his son not only marries into a prominent famliy but goes on to be very successful. From this one could assume that Anthony was potentially related to the other West's in Virginia. His children are given opportunity to intermarry with individuals of status and subsequently flourish. This is in no way proof of any kind to align Anthony with the other West's but highlights interesting food for thought in which to look for further clues. Marriage in that period was largely status oriented and controlled to a degree in line with kinship group patterns so it is a sort of mystery with Anthony how his children were able to thrive so well.
Even with the prior paragraph, Anthony is recorded as having transported 32 individuals to Virginia in which to gain headrights for land. So, with this information it's plausible that Anthony's personal efforts alone gave him the ability to have his children obtain secure marriages.
As a general caveat to any research on individuals from hundreds of years ago, there is little in the way of remaining paper trails and one has to be be careful scouring information that could be overly creative or worse. Most of what I am sharing in this comment comes from information from other individuals, not having the personal time nor energy to dig through the raw data, which could involve taking a trip to a local courthouse or heading to Richmond. So, even my comment and it's contents should be sprinkled with salt. Though with all of that, there are good resource websites like Ancestry that has a mountain of digitized scanned documents and books containing the work of earlier professional genealogists.
It may never be truly known who Anthony West's parents are and as a result, one has to simply rely on scraps of evidence based conjecture in which to frame out a picture of who he was and that requires research into the time period as a whole, the community he resided in and developing understanding about the cultural standards of his day. This is what makes genealogy so interesting when one goes looking for more intimate details and attempts to understand them. You end up becoming a lover of history, especially that of local and off the beaten path history.
Hopefully this comment wasn't too long winded and wish you best of luck in your search!
Just found out Thomas west is my great grandfather. Had to see what he was all about haha
Great to see Phil Harding there with you all. Excellent work!
Spotted him almost immediately.
Michael West Lord De La War, and his brother Thomas West 2nd Baron De La War, are my ancestors. I only learned that this year after my daughter finished a genealogy search. That's what brought me here .
They are my ancestors also 😊
@@patriciawest5594 That's awesome! So we're related in some way.
The most epic privy/well dig of history. Also great to finally see all the footage of this most epic find. Ive been to the archearium about 3 times and the best thing is always the halberd.
Love it! Keep em coming.
Very cool and thank you to all those who keep our history alive
Uncle Phil! I remember this Time Team episode! Ha! The guy that came down to help seemed reluctant to do it. I would've dove in there before the guy who asked for help even finished the sentence!
I’m actually unrelated to Phil Harding and I’m also the 12 times unrelated grandson of William west
Hahaha good one
Phil Harding is - as everyone knows - ninth cousin to former U.S. president Warren G. Harding, who was of course directly descended from De La Warr, who was of course directly related to Charlemagne. Therefore, if you're related to Charlemagne - which is almost a certainty - then you are likewise related to Phil Harding! Congratulations!
@@CommonContentArchive Are people not suppose to have descendants? seems to offend the very sensitive for some reason. The Wests as well as many families in those days had very large families stands to reason all those children had children and grandchildren on up to modern times, would be strange if there were no descendants instead of the opposite.
@@mokee007 it was a joke
@@janitorizamped This same guy has harrassed me and others who are related to the Wests for several weeks about this, hes not joking hes a bitter jackass
Does it bother anybody else how unexcited this guy seems? I would be shaking and screaming like a child pulling that stuff out of the ground 😂
It was cool getting a ding on my phone and looking down and seeing a picture of Dave. Once you guys get cleaned up let's go to Florimonte's. I could use a chicken parm sandwich.
You would have thought every little scrap of metal would have been precious to them.
My uncle uncle Bilbo Baggins died in this well, may he finally rest in peace.
Bilbo Baggins, if you can believe it, was De La Warr's 13x great-grandfather, once removed. Small world!
Great work.
I hunt fossils in north Florida and south Georgia. And I love seeing how excited and gleeful they get over the artifacts. Makes me feel less like a dork. Of course I'm usually alone in a creek bed making these same noises 😂
I don’t understand why these things would have been tossed down a well. You would think the iron would have been repurposed...doesn’t make sense
There were plenty of tragic days at Jamestown that could explain it
Lack of oxygen?
Would have been tossed so that the enemy didnt get access to those weapons/technologies of the time. Rather ditch it than let it fall into enemy hands? America did it after most overseas conflicts, pushed it in the ocean, buried it etc.
Or stolen and hidden
It is thrilling for me to happen upon this! I am a descendant of Thomas West, as I'm sure are many!
Archeology is glamorous work. LOL. What a magnificent find!
Glamorous mudlarking?
Incredible ... thank god folks are saving this history
HOLY CRAP! That is an amazing find. WOW
You people are good!!!
Lord De La Warr was my 13th great grandfather. This is amazing to see this!
Wonderful items coming out of the well!
O. M. G. That is unbelievable!
I’ve been interested in these Jamestown discoveries for most of my life. After doing some genealogical research, I recently just found out that I am descended from Lord De La War.
You are a descendant of a slave owner? Have you paid reparations???
@@jrr0863everybody is from somewhere in their lineage. 🙄
Scotch Irish Houndsman, welcome to the extend fam, cuz.
Everyone is 😂
There is Only one man that I’ve ever heard say “Stone the crows!” Phil Harding!
Are you sure that wasn't an outhouse hole.Remarkable finds none the less.👍
SO SO COOL👍👍
What a beautiful weapon
Awesome 👍
Amazing 😉
Probably tossed in rather than letting it be taken by someone who was taking over the fort.
That’s the best reason I’ve heard so far.
That would explain the bent damage
Hard to believe they got anything done, listening to the "helpers".
Late seeing this but good to know the west's are still around. Hi all lost relatives.
Noticed phil harding from time team , at the end in the crowd . 5.46
Ah, archaeology. "Hold on, let me reach into this mud and grab a bunch of artifacts so I can get to this other artifact here."
When filming be sure to scream down into the well.
Expecting more findings videos
THATS AMAZING
So, do you think he was pushed down the well or dumped in there after losing a battle? The shoe say a Human went down there with that stuff. Would bones be preserved in that muck. Or did they stash that stuff there to hid it and were unable to get it back.
How do these items wind up down a well ? Thrown there by people sacking the village ? Thrown there by the owners for "safekeeping" pending return after fleeing a battle ? Not a trash heap/midden/privy but a drinking water well.
I also wonder how so many things would end up there, I guess some can be easily explained, but I wonder if there were any accounts of raids, etc that could be the reason?
What's that Tom Waits line again....?
All kidding aside, this is so fascinating.
Why was such a thing tossed into a well? It was a precious object even then.
Well it was a weapon, maybe someone got into a fight and tossed it down the well so the conflict wouldn't escalate further.
For all the descendants Baron De La Warr, there is a town in the OKC metro area named Warr Acres..just wondering if it was named after him or later descendants.
These researchers are rock stars.
There is this new invention that could help these guys....called a .....pump.
Too rough on the goodies.
Why would the Halberd be found down in a well? Did the man get killed, and his things thrown down the well?
Do you know why someone threw it down a well?
Was that Phil Harding in the background in the end of the vid??
i am a descendant of this family.... very interesting!
I need this in blade and sorcery now
Surely there must be some mention of it being lost.
Only 10' to get below the water table is crazy.
The question is how and why did it end up in the bottom of a well?
If you ever dropped your phone in the toilet, don’t feel bad. This dude dropped his whole sword.
The halberdiers with Cortez were incredibly effective. The Indians in Mexico had no good defense. In Virginia, it seems not so much. I wonder why.
Guns
Radically different terrain and circumstances, different opponent, and 90 years more history
So cool to watch this I wonder why they threw it in the well.
Wow! Lord De La Warr was my grandfather.
Wow!
I know it was 4 years ago, but lets make sure the sound guy gets an award for Worst Placement of an Audio Recording Device, after that wonderful sample of a squeaky pulley.
Is there a follow up video to this one?
Ahh flying down the colonial highway in the 70 was fun. Back when they hadn't found much in Jamestown.
Why were armor and weapons thrown into a well?
Probably to clean the mess up. No rug to sweep under, just a well.
And it was at the bottom of a well why?
He was my 13 great grandfather.
5:17 Phil Harding in the background. Sporting his infamous untamed hair. Held down by the same hat for years. With cut off blue jeans. Only his voice would give away him not being an American.
You can't pump out the water?
Interesting..... who was that personal guard? Was this halberdier dumped in the well, shoes and all? Sir Thomas Leighton West 2nd Baron Lord De La Warr was my 11th ggf. Died in England. Descendant of his son John and then his son John of West Pt, Vir. Several of my family lines showing up at Jamestown.....
I think your brother is in the comments here too, and also related to Phil Harding, incidentally
That looks like Phil from Time Team at the end.
Would be nice to know what was on top of what.... ya know... for archeological reasons.
I do not understand why you do not pump the water out.
It's a well, which by definition taps in to the water table, which is quite high in coastal areas. Water would probably have come in as fast as it could be pumped out.
The artifacts are preserved for hundreds of years but that pulley sounds like it won't last another minute
I'd love to know who made it.
From the comments:
There are many many descendants here 😅
And why are these in the well?
Answers plz 🙏🎄
Genealogists can be an unscrupulous bunch. They often rely on word of mouth for repeat business, which means that of course we're all related to Charlemagne and to various royal houses. Guaranteed, or your money back 😂
Why would they throw their rubbish down their well?
my eardrums have left the chat
3:50
Uncle Phil was there 😊😊
Is that Phil 🤔
Why the heck are so many objects in the well?
1:47 can a contemporary object sink into the land so deeply???Is it possible???
Good thing there wasn’t a bear trap set to go off that was” found” the hard way!!!😮
How does something like this end up at the bottom of a well?!!
According to primary sources, De La Warr was nicknamed "Butterfingers"
Can someone tell me why this would be pitched down a well?
What did they find??