John Proctor and his wife Alice had settled in the farthest western stretches of the colony (Jamestown).  The area was known as Henrico, again, named after the son of James I, Henry.  They had their plantation just up river from the town of Henricus, the second settlement of the English, where Proctor’s Creek met the James River.  Today this area is in Chesterfield.  Proctor was away in England in 1622 gathering more settlers to join them in Virginia.  One was granted 50 acres by the Kind for each settler that was brought to Virginia.
 
Across the James from Jamestown, in Surry, lived a Richard Pace. He had developed an area called Pace’s Paines.  The word paine meant meadows in 17th century English. Paces Paines was 600 acres on the bluff across the James River from Jamestown. Prior to the famous Indian Massacre on March 22, 1622, Chanco, an Indian boy who had been treated like a son with much respect by Richard Pace, informed the latter of the planned massacre.  Pace urgently secured Pace’s Paines then rowed across the river with his wife, son George,  and Chanco, to warn the governor at Jamestown.  At the fort of Jamestown, the Indians struck from two sides.  But with stepped up defenses, none were killed there.  In all, 347 settlers of the 1200 at the time were murdered. All of the colonists would likely have been murdered by Chief Opechancanough had Chanco, whose own brother took part in the massacre, not informed Richard Pace. Opechancanough took over the empire of his late brother, Chief Powhatan. Jamestown would likely have ended up similar to Raliegh’s colony at Roanoke.
 
After hearing the warning, Alice Proctor, living at the plantation in Henrico without her husband, who had journeyed back to England, did not want to vacate the plantation.  She told the authorities she would not leave.  Only after the authorities threatened to burn down the house did Alice finally leave to join others in Jamestown.  The house did burn during the Massacre.  
 
It is interesting to note that upon John Proctor’s return from England, he was granted 200 acres in Surry in the area known as Pace’s Paines.  On February 16th , 1623, a census was ordered, which was known as, “The Living and the Dead”.  This is how it was known that 347 settlers did not survive the massacre. Also from this census, it is known that, at that time, there were 33 colonists residing on the south side of the river from Jamestown, in Surry.  Two of these are noted as Mr. John Proctor and his wife Mrs. Proctor. The Proctors remained in Surry for several generations thereafter.