- Kecoughtan, Virginia
Kecoughtan in
Virginia was originally named Kikotan (also spelled Kiccowtan, Kikowtan as well as Kecoughtan), presumably a word for the Native Americans living there when the English colonists arrived in theHampton Roads area in 1607. They were friendly to the English, but Sir Thomas Gates either worried about safety (including potential attack by the Spaniards and the Dutch) or coveted their corn fields after the "starving time" of the 1609-10 winter. The English seized their land while the men were out hunting, and for some reason the natives never attacked the settlement in response.The area was continuously occupied after 1610. It became part of
Elizabeth River Shire in 1634, and Elizabeth City County in 1637. In the 1690s, Kecoughtan became part of the newly incorporated Town of Hampton, which later became anindependent city . Elizabeth City County and its only incorporated town, Phoebus, both agreed to a consolidation with Hampton in 1952, forming the current City of Hampton.Through the Kecoughtan settlement, Hampton is the home of the oldest continually occupied English settlement in the
U.S.A. In an area immediately to the south of the original settlement, many years later, the
incorporated town of Kecoughtan was developed and existed in Elizabeth City County before it was annexed by the independent city of Newport News onJanuary 1 ,1927 .ee also
*
Lost counties, cities and towns of Virginia External links
* [http://www.wm.edu/wmcar/pentran.html William and Mary archaeological study of site of Kecoughtan]
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