English Towns on the Periphery: 17th-Century Development in Ulster and the Chesapeake

Commonalities between 17th-century British expansion in Ireland and in North America have long been acknowledged by scholars on both sides of the Atlantic, although substantive comparative studies addressing the practice, divergence and legacy of the colonial process and its cultural entanglements are few in number. An examination of the cultural role and variable success of town building efforts in Ulster and the Chesapeake provides insight into the intentions and expectations of colonial planners as well as the often insurmountable impediments to town development and diversification inherent in unequal exchange relations. More importantly, a nuanced examination of archaeological and documentary evidence from Jamestown, Virginia and from Coleraine, Belfast, and Londonderry reveals the multiplicity of individuals engaged in the colonial discourses that shaped the colonial town and were in turn shaped by the colonial town.