May 21, 2000
By Kevin Hemstock
Managing Editor
JUPITER - The Union Jack may once have flown over Jupiter. A routine archaeological monitoring project, during the restoration of the Jupiter Lighthouse, turned up startling information that the site may have been the location of the rumored Revolutionary War-era British settlement, Grenville. The announcement came at a press conference, Thursday, May 18, 2000, at the base of the lighthouse, by archaeologist Bob Carr of Archaeological and Historical Conservancy, who made headlines last year with the discovery and excavation of the Miami Circle. "It reinforces that this historic site is even more historic than we thought," Carr said. He said that two artifacts
support anecdotal evidence that a British settlement, called Grenville, rumored to have existed in the Jupiter area, was located on or near the natural dune on which the lighthouse is located. The artifacts were discovered by Jim Pepe, the archaeologist who was the field supervisor during the $850,000 restoration project that lasted from October until April. The project required an archaeologist to be on hand during any excavation.
History of Area
On March 16, while a water line was being installed just southeast of the lighthouse base, Pepe found a "tabby", a piece of a concretion of crushed shell and sand, commonly used in the construction of structures by the British in the 18th century. In addition, he found a piece of "lead-glazed pottery" called "Jackfield Ware" that was likely from a tobacco pipe, also common during that time. Florida was a Spanish possession until 1763, when it was ceded to Britain at the Treaty of Paris that ended the Seven Years War. In a map from that period, by Dutch cartographer Gerard De Brahm, the inlet is marked as "Jupiter now Grenville." In a later map by De Brahm dated 1770, the inlet is called Grenville Inlet and the Loxahatchee River is called the Grenville River, according to Pepe's 65-page report.
In 1773, the area was visited by famous philosopher and surveyor Bernard Romans, who would later join the American forces to take Fort Ticonderoga. Pepe's report quoted him: "At the mouth of the river (the St. Lucy) is a bay, into which runs a rivulet from the south; Mr. De Brahm has honoured this with the name of Grenville River, on account of a tract of land here laid out for that gentleman, on one of the most unaccountable pieces of white sand I ever saw; which by reason of its being covered with a large growth of all sorts of trees, indicating a fine soil, I have always looked upon in the light of a natural curiosity."
"The Indian River was considered the south fork of the St. Lucie River, at that time," Pepe said in a separate interview, Friday, May 19, 2000.
The Grenville Colony
It's not certain whether the settlement of Grenville was named after George Grenville, the British Prime Minister from 1763-65 under King George III. Carr said it is possible that Prime Minister Grenville was involved somehow in granting a charter, and perhaps that is why the settlement had the name. Grenville, the prime minister, was responsible for the Stamp Act that so enflamed American colonists. He died in 1770. Pepe's report also notes: "The Grenville family had numerous investments in Florida during the British Period," adding that Grenville losses, when Florida was ceded back to Spain in 1783, were listed. "However, the Grenville Inlet holdings are not mentioned.
"It's uncertain at this time, Carr said, what sort of settlement it may have been. But it didn't last long, because Romans didn't mention anything about the settlement in his writings based on his 1773 trip to the east coast of Florida. "Something happened to terminate that colony, something happened to make them leave. Probably some hardship," Carr said. The answer to what happened to the settlement could probably be tracked down with research in England, he added. "What I think is that it was this big letdown when they couldn't do all the agricultural things they wanted to do," he said.Oldest English Colonial Site in South Florida. "It's
important. This now gives us a whole new English site," he said. "This
is the oldest English colonial site discovered in South Florida."
The
closest English colonial site discovered in Florida is in New Smyrna, he
said. He said that the monitoring project, considered routine, can lead
to important finds. "We don't have to do these formal excavation
projects to come up with important discoveries," he said. "It can be
done in a cooperative and genial way." "We're
going to continue to urge the Coast Guard to preserve this land," he
said, adding that he hopes there will be more opportunities to excavate
the area of the Grenville site. "With more digs, we'll probably find
more artifacts."
The press
conference was well attended by local media, but also by those with a
strong interest in local history, including Richard Procyk, a member of
the county's Historic Resources Review Board and member of the board of
the Florida History Center and Museum; Pat Magrogan, vice chair of
Jupiter's new Historic Resource Board; Amy Felmley, the Town's
consultant archaeologist; George Blanck and Bob Boyd of the Florida
History Center and Museum; Melinda Miller, the Town's director of
information services and a member of the Town's history web site; and
Janet Whipple, the Town Archivist.
Is the Lighthouse Hill a Burial Ground?
While the Grenville find
may have been the most exciting, it wasn't the only revelation of the
archaeology undertaken during the restoration. Carr said it also
confirmed that the lighthouse hill is a natural formation. Speculation
was that the hill could have been a funeral mound, or just a mound of
dredged sand. According to the
archaeological report: "The U-shaped sand ridge on which the Jupiter
Lighthouse is located is a geologic form known as a parabolic dune." "One of the big things is, you finally put to rest that it's not a burial ground," Blanck told Carr.
Evidence of Prehistoric Jaega Indians Found
But it was also determined
that Indians lived on and around the hill. Carbon-14 dating of material
found in a shallow midden on the hill showed it to be from a period
about 900 A.D. They were likely the Jaega Indians, Pepe noted, likely
the same that occupied a village at DuBois Park.However, by the time the
area was known as Grenville, the Indians were gone, the victims of
European diseases and English slave raids. The last mention of Jaega
Indians and the Jobe sub-tribe was in the early 18th century. These were probably the
same group of Indians that held Jonathan Dickinson, and other crew and
passengers of the Reformation, which ran aground near the inlet in 1696.
Town Hall... 
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