Remains of four early leaders of America uncovered in Jamestown with Catholic artifacts

This discovery is one of the rarest made in the country.

Under the floor of a Jamestown church, four body remains of the earliest English colonial leaders in America were unearthed. One was identified as Captain John Smith's rival, who researchers speculate to be part of a secret Catholic cell because of some artifacts buried with him. Researchers stated that this discovery is rare in the country.

MUNTINLUPA, PHILIPPINES (Catholic Online) - "What we have discovered here in the earliest English church in America are four of the first leaders of America. There's nothing like it anywhere else in this country," said James Horn, a historian who serves as president of the Jamestown Rediscovery Foundation.

Among the four burial sites, one was identified as belonging to a speculated Spanish spy, Capt. Gabriel Archer, whose remains lie with some Catholic relics. Capt. Archer's parents were Catholic, which was illegal during Protestant England.

On top of his coffin, they found a small silver box that researchers discovered to be a Catholic reliquary containing fragments of bones and a container for Holy Water. Another man was the first knight believed to be buried in the former colony, Sir Ferdinando Wainman. Rev. Robert Hunt, the first Anglican minister in the Americas, was among the four remains, according to The Daily Mail.

The fourth remaining belonged to Capt. William West, relative of Lord De La Warr, who died during a battle with the Powhatan Indians.

Only about 30 percent of the remains were recovered, but archaeologists were able to identify the men and approximately determine their ages at death, explained the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History.

They are working with the research team in studying and identifying those buried in the church where Pocahontas and John Rolfe, an Englishman, got married, which helped the English settlement find peace with the Powhatan Indians.

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