Berkeley Hundred over 60 documents relating to the settlement of Virginia between 1613 and 1634 which have survived to modern times. In 1619, the ship "Margaret" of Bristol, England sailed for Virginia under Captain John Woodliffe and brought thirty-eight settlers to the new Town and Hundred of Berkeley. The London Company proprietors instructed the settlers that "the day of our ships arrival . . . shall be yearly and perpetually kept as a day of Thanksgiving." The Margaret landed her passengers at Berkeley Hundred on December 4, 1619. The settlers did indeed celebrate a day of "Thanksgiving", establishing the tradition two years
Berkeley Plantation American "firsts" that occurred at Berkeley Plantation are: On December 4, 1619, a group of 38 English settlers arrived at Berkeley Hundred, about on the north bank of the James River near Herring Creek in an area then known as Charles Cittie (sic). It was named for one of the original founders, Richard Berkeley, a member of the Berkeley family of Gloucestershire, England. It was about 20 miles upstream from Jamestown, where the first permanent settlement of the Colony of Virginia was established on May 14, 1607. The group's London Company charter required that the day of arrival be observed