Historical
Reminiscing with Robert B. Hitchings
Cheese in Virginia
Have you ever wondered how cheese was produced in early America? When did the cheese come to Jamestown, Virginia?
One of the first discoveries in Jamestown was several years ago when an archeologist came across a piece of ceramic earthenware knows as a Surry Hampshire Border ware. The archeologist quickly recognized this as a device in making cheese. This discovery raised many questions concerning when cows were introduced into the colony of Virginia.
This small ceramic vessel was known as a cheese strainer to produce cheese. The big questions were when were they used, what year and when were the first cows introduced to Jamestown? One also has to remember that cheese making requires fresh milk and without modern day refrigeration, milk could not survive the long Atlantic journey. Sir Thomas Dale and Sir Thomas Gates were responsible for bringing in cows and cattle into Virginia in 1611. Could this cheese strainer be the year it was introduced to the farmers of Virginia? Also, what kind of cheese was produced? We may never know the answers. But this simple artifact must have come over with the women at Jamestown. Women began to arrive in Jamestown as early as 1608. Thomas Gates traveled with his wife and family to Jamestown in 1611. As early as the 17th century England, women were responsible for cheese making and other dairy products. Many were simply called milkmaids.
We may never know what type of cheese was produced here in the colony of Jamestown, but there is much evidence that cheeses were imported from England to the colony of Virginia in 17th century. The most popular was Cheddar and Double Gloucester cheese.
Today cheddar is a popular cheese that so many love. The connoisseurs know and love this cheese. It’s the most popular cheese just behind Mozzarella.
Cheddar has a long history dating back to the 12th century in a community in Somerset, England. Its namesake, Cheddar Village, is a quaint little town with gorges and caves that many farmers could keep milk cool and fresh in the hot summer days. The myth behind the birth of cheddar cheese is that a milkmaid forgot about a pail of milk in one of the caves. Later, when she returned, she found and discovered the milk had hardened into the perfect golden goodness that we love today. Before long the monarchs of England developed a taste for cheddar cheese. King Henry II purchased several pounds of cheddar in 1170. He is the king that declared it to be the best cheese in all of England. His son, King John (Magna Carta fame) carried on the tradition by ordering large qualities of the cheddar cheese for all royal banquets. King Charles I, who lost his head in 1649, loved this cheddar cheese too and had lots of cheese wheels (measurements in those days) stored in many of his palace basements. Merchants were buying large quantities of cheese wheels at that time. Even in this country, cheese would be bought in round cheese boxes. Today, many antique lovers love to add these quaint boxes to their kitchen decorations. In those days, one did not buy a small piece of cheese like carried in today’s supermarket stores, but one bought a whole wheel, sometimes 12 and 14 inches in diameter. Many times in the 19th century Norfolk, Virginia, people could see merchants rolling pounds of cheese in wheel barrows down Church and Main Streets.
Double Gloucester is another fine traditional English cheese made from Gloucester cow’s milk and a vegetarian rennet. It’s a hard cheese and has been produced since the 16th century by milkmaids of Gloucester. It has a distinctive orange color. Usually Double Gloucester is aged for around four to six months.
Unfortunately, in the 1950s manufacture of traditional Gloucester cheeses died out when other cattle were brought into the area. Apparently due to new breeds of cows being introduced to the area and people’s taste changing over the time caused this to become a lost cheese. However, in 2004 there was a movement to bring back this delightful old cheese.
In the Virginia Gazette, dated July 3, 1746, page 4, an article appeared that all contents of the prize ship, Providence together with her guns, rigging, tackle furniture and all its cargo would be sold at the docks in downtown Norfolk. And part of her cargo was delightful British cheese.
On November 15th 1770, page 3, the Virginian Gazette advertisement announced that the subscriber (F. A. Doeber) at his store on Church Street, Borough of Norfolk, had an assortment of items from India and Europe to sell, among the assortment of items was Gloucester and Cheshire cheese.
In St. Paul’s Episcopal Churchyard cemetery, downtown Norfolk, is the grave of a John Lawrence, a native of Great Britain who departed his life on December 25, 1814, at the age of 80 years. He had been a merchant who on May 12, 1774, advertised in the Virginia Gazette, a huge sale at his store of imported goods, rum, coffee, ginger, and bottle beer from Liverpool, linens, muscovite sugar and, of course, lots of cheese.
But one of the advertisements I read concerning cheese was an article published in the Virginian Gazette, dated December 8, 1775. Apparently on August 29, 1775, between 50 and 60 foot soldiers had offered to go to America to fight. These men had been used to shooting at a pasteboard image in the shape of a man. The reward for their bravery in fighting against a helpless pasteboard statue and any man that could shoot at a certain distance with a single ball received a quart of porter and two penny worth of bread and cheese. This was the reward from the British government in Boston for fighting the rebels.
Cheese making has come a long way since 1611.Today, the U.S. cheese market is around 36 billion dollars. In the grocery stores cheeses come in all shapes and sizes from all over the world. Cheese assortments are sold everywhere with so many varieties to choose from. And it all started here in 1611 with a simple cheese strainer at a place called, Jamestown, Virginia, just 414 years ago.
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Robert B. Hitchings is a seventh generation Norfolk resident, graduating with an Associate's Degree in Biology from Old Dominion University and BA in history from Virginia Wesleyan University. During his studies he was awarded a scholarship at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, England, and he was an exchange student at Brooks-Westminster College, Oxford, England. From 1999-2014 he worked as head of the Sargeant Memorial History Room at Norfolk Public Library, and since then has headed the Wallace History Room at Chesapeake Public Library. He is also the President of the Norfolk County Historical Society, and for six years was a columnist for The Virginian-Pilot. Robert may be reached at nchs.wallaceroom@gmail.com
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