Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2011 with funding from The Library of Congress http://www.archive.org/details/notesonamericanh01neil NOTES AMERICAN HISTOEY. / •> EDWARD D. NEILL ;tr Vom the New-England Histokical and Genealogical Register for October, 1876. BOSTON: DAVID CLAPP & SON, PRINTERS. 1876. NOTES ON AMERICAN HISTORY. No. 1. Capt. Thomas Jones, of "May Flower." N. E.H. & G.Reg., Vi No. 2. Richard Feobisher, Ship-builder. No. 3. Chancellor West on Colored Suffrage. £_^"No. 4. George Ruggle, writer on Virginia. Ibid, Ibid, Vol Ibid, No. 5. Marylander's Legacy to Glasgow University. Ibid, No. 6. Governor Dinwiddie. No. 7. Berkeley's Speech. Jbid, Ibid, Vol No. 8. Washington's Letter concerning John Parke Ibid, .28 p. 314 ( p. 317 1.29 p. 295 p. 296 p. 293 p. 298 .30 p. 231 n 9QP. N NOTES ON AMERICAN HISTORY. No. IX. English Maids for Virginia Planters. AMONG the most important measures, inaugurated after Sir . Edwin Sandys became the presiding officer of the London Company, was the transportation of virtuous young women to Virginia. On the 3d of November, O. S., 1619, Sandys at the usual weekly meeting of the Company suggested "that a fit hundred might be sent of women, maids young and uncorrupt to make wives to the inhabitants." At the regular quarterly meeting held on Wednesday the 17th of the same month he again alluded to the subject. "He understood that the people thither transported, though seated there in their persons for some four years, are not settled in their minds to make it their place of rest and continuance ; but having gotten some wealth to return again to England. For the remedying of that mischief and of the establishing a perpetuity of the plantation he advised to send them over one hundred young maids to become wives, that wives, children and families might make them less movable, and settle them together with their posterity in that soil." First Shipment of Maids. The first shipment to the number of ninety was made by the "Jonathan" and "London Merchant," vessels which arrived in May, 1620, at Jamestown. In a circular of the London Company dated July 18, 1620, they declare their intention to send more young women like " the ninety which have been lately sent." Shipment per " Marmaduke." In August, 1621, the Marmaduke left the Thames for Virginia with a letter to the Governor, from which we extract the following : "We send you in this ship one widow and eleven maids for wives for the people in Virginia." A choice Lot. "There hath been especial care had in the choice of them for there hath not any one of them been received but upon good commenda- tions, as by a note herewith sent you may perceive." To be cared for. "We pray you all therefore in general to take them into your care, and most especially we recommend them to you Mr. Pountes, that at their first landing they may be housed, lodged, and provided for of diet till they be married, for such was the haste of sending them away, we had no means to put provisions aboard, which defect shall be supplied by the Magazine ship. In case they cannot be presently married, we desire they may be put to several householders that have wives, till they can be provided of husbands." More to come. "There are near fifty more which are shortly to come, sent by the Earl of Southampton, and certain worthy gentlemen, who taking into their consideration, that the Plantation can never flourish till families be planted, and the respect of wives and children fix the people in the soil, therefore have given this fair beginning." Price of a Wife. "For the reimbursing of whose charges, it is ordered that every man who marries one of them gives 1201b weight of best leaf tobacco, and in case any of them die, that proportion must be advanced to make it up, upon those who survive." Marriage to be Free. "We pray you to be fathers to them in this business, not enforcing them to marry against their wills ; neither send we them to be servants but in case of extremities, for we would have their condition as much better as multitudes may be allured thereby to come unto you. And you may assure such men as marry these women, that the first servants sent over by the Company shall be consigned to them, it being our intent to preserve families and proper married men, before single persons." The Marmaduke Maids Married. With the help of an old Virginia muster roll, we have found out that four of the twelve that came in the Murmaduke were married, and alive in 1624. Maiden. Husband. His arrival. Adria married Tho's Harris Ship Prosperous, May, 1610 Anna " Tho's Doughty " Marigold, 1619 Katharine " Rob't Fisher " Elizabeth, 1611 Ann Nieh. Bayly " Jonathan, 1620 Consignment by the " Warwick " and " Tiger." On Sept. 11, 1621, the London Company again write : "By this ship [Warwick] and pinnace called the Tiger we also send as many maids and young women as will make up the number of fifty, with those twelve formerly sent in the Marmaduke, which we hope shall be received with the same Christian piety and charity as they were sent from hence." Price of a Wife raised. "The providing for them at their first landing and disposing of them in marriage we leave to your care and wisdom to take that order as may most conduce to their good and the satisfaction of the Adventurers for the charges disbursed in setting them forth, which coming to £12 and upwards, they require 1501bs of the best leaf tobacco for each of them. This increase of thirty pounds weight since those sent in the Marmaduke they have resolved to make, finding the great shrinkage and other losses upon the tobacco from Virginia will not bear less." Extraordinary Care in Selection. " We have used extraordinary care and diligence in the choice of them, and have received none of whom we have not had good testi- mony of their honest life and carriage, which together with their names, we send enclosed for the satisfaction of such as shall marry them." Marriage of " Warwick " Maids. The following maids were living as wives in 1624, who came in the Warwick. Maiden. Husband. ■His arrival Margaret married Hezekiah Raughtoii in Bona Nova. 1620 Sarah " Edward Fisher " Jonathan, •' Ann " John Stoaks Ellen Michal Batt it Hercules, 1610 Elizabeth " Tho's Gates ti Swan , 1609 Bridget John Wilkias " Marigold, 161S Ann " John Jackson " Tiger" Maids. t. Warwick. ie following who came in the Tiger were alive in 1624. Maid. Husband. His arrival Joan married Humphrey Kent in " George," 1619 Joan " Tho's Palmer lC At a quarterly meeting of the London Company on Nov. 21, 1621, it was mentioned that care had been taken to provide the planters in Virginia with "young, handsome and honestly educated maids," whereof sixty were already sent. No. X. The Mayflower People. The action of the passengers of the Mayflower in forming a social compact before landing at Plymouth Eock seems to have been in strict accordance with the policy of the London Company under whose patent the ship sailed. On June 9, 1619, O. S., John Whincop's patent was duly sealed by the Company, but this which had cost the Puritans so much labor and money was not used. Several months after, the Leyden 6 people became interested in a new project. On Feb. 2, 1619—20, at a meeting at the house of Sir Edwin Sandys in Aldersgate, he stated to the Company that a grant had been made to John Peirce and his associates. At the same quarterly meeting it was expressly ordered that leaders of particular plantations, associating unto them divers of the gravest and discreetest of their companies, shall have liberty to make orders, ordinances, and constitutions for the better ordering and directing of their business and servants, provided they be not repugnant to the Laws of England. Five hundred pounds sterling had been presented to the Company for the education of Indian children, and it had been proposed by Sir John Wolstenholme, that John Peirce and his associates might have the training of some of these children, but on the 16th of February a Committee reported "that for divers reasons they think it inconvenient. First, because after their arrival they will be long in settling themselves : As also, that the Indians are not acquainted with them, and so they may stay four or five years before they have account that any good is done." Under the Peirce patent the Mayflower sailed in September, 1620. She did not return to England until May, 1621. The next month John Peirce and associates took out a new patent from the "Council of New England." In view of this action on July 16th, at a meet- ing of the London Company, "It was moved seeing that Mr. John Peirce had taken a patent of Sir Ferdinando Gorges, and thereupon seated his company within the limits of the Northern Plantations as by some was supposed, whereby he seemed to relinquish the benefit of the patent he took of this Company, that therefore the said patent might be called in, unless it might appear he would begin to plant within the limits of the Southern Colony." From this minute it would seem as if Peirce had some understand- ing with Gorges, in view of the profits from fishing, of settling the Leyden people beyond the confines of the territory of the London Company, although he did not until June 1, 1621, receive a patent from the "Council of New England." No. XI. Transportation of homeless London Children. Sir George Bowles or Bolles, the Lord Mayor of London, and the Aldermen thereof in 1617, " fearing lest the overflowing multitude of inhabitants should, like too much blood, infect the whole city with plague and poverty," devised as a remedy, the transportation to Virginia of their overflowing multitude, and in 1618-19 one hundred children were sent to Virginia. The next year, 1619, the Mayor Sir William Cockaine resolved to ease the city of many that were ready to starve, and conferred with the Virginia Company. The following memorial from the Company was presented to the Mayor and Aldermen. "The Treasurer and Company of Virginia assembled in their great and general Court, the 17th of November, 1619, have taken into consideration, the continual great forwardness of this honourable City, in advancing the plantation of Virginia, and particularly in furnishing one hundred children this last year, which by the good- ness of God have safely arrived (save such as died on the way) and are Avell pleased we doubt not, for this benefit, for which your bountiful assistance we in the name of the whole Plantation, do yield unto you deserved thanks. "And forasmuch as we have resolved to send this next spring very large supplies for the strength and increasing of the Colony styled by the name of the London Colony, and find that the sending of these children to be apprenticed hath been very grateful to the people, we pray your Lordship and the rest, to renew the like favours and furnish us again with one hundred more for the next spring. "Our desire is, that we may have them of twelve years old and upward, with allowance of £3 apiece for their transportation, and 40s. apiece for their apparel as was formerly granted. They shall be apprenticed, the boys till they come to 21 years of age ; the girls till like age, or till they be married. * * * And so we leave this motion to your honourable and grave consideration." The City co-operated in procuring the second company of children, but some were unwilling to leave London, as the following letter of Sir Edwin Sandys, the presiding officer of the Company, written in January, 1620, N. S., to Sir Robert Naunton, one of the King's Secretaries, indicates. "The City of London have appointed one hundred children from the superfluous multitude to be transported to Virginia, there to be bound apprentices upon very beneficial conditions. They have also granted £500 for their passage and outfit. Some of the ill-disposed, who under severe masters in Virginia may be brought to goodness, and of whom the City is especially desirous to be disburdened, declare their unwillingness to go. The City wanting authority to deliver, and the Virginia Company to transport these children against their will, desire higher authority to get over the difficulty." The necessary authority was granted, and the second company of children duly shipped. In April, 1622, it was proposed to send a third company, but no data can be found to show that they sailed. No. XII. Ships arriving at Jamestown, from the Settlement of Virginia until the Revocation of Charter of London Company. It must always be regretted that the London Company did not keep a proper ship and passenger register. The good Nicholas 8 Ferrar, Dep. Gov. of the Company, on Oct. 23, 1622, alluded to the errors of management in the transportation of persons and goods. He alluded to ships now going from London and other parts, and that "there was no note or register kept of the names of persons transported whereby himself and other officers were not able to give any satisfaction to the persons that- did daily and hourly enquire after their friends gone to Virginia." The following list of vessels, made up from various sources, although not complete, approaches to accuracy, and is submitted for correction. Ships which arrived at Jamestown. 1607—1624. Remarks. Capt. Chris. Newport, 71 passengers " Bart. Gosnold, 52 " John Ratcliffe, 20 " Newport, 50 colonists " Nelson, 70 " Newport, 60 " " Robt Tindal, Factor Sam. Argall " Ratcliffe, Gates & Somers Fleet 11 Martin, Nelson Master " Archer, Adams " " Martin, Pett " ' ' Moore " Davies, Built-in 1607 at Sagadahoc Built at Bermudas, and brought Gates and Somers with 100 colonists Lord Delaware's fleet Brought 12 men, 1 woman, 2 or 3 horses ' ' 30 colonists Dale's fleet Year . Mo. Ship. 1607 April Susan Constant 1 100 Tons tt " God Speed 40 ' ' 14 tt Discovery 20 ' c 1607- 8 Jan'y John and Francis 8 1008 April Phoenix 3 tt Oct. Mary Margaret 1609 July Diseovery 4 l I Aug. Diamond U it ( i Falcon Blessing " (I Unity tt tt Swallow 5 Virginia 6 1610 May Deliverance 70 tons 7 } 11 " Patience 30 *t a June 1C Delaware Blessing Hercules a Oct. Dainty 1611 April Hercules It it May tt Elizabeth Mary and James Prosperous a Aug. Star 8 tt tt Swan it a tt tt Trial Three Carvills Gates 1 The Susan Constant, Capt. Newport, left Jamestown for England with mineral and forest specimens on 22 June, 1607, and arrived in the Thames in less than five weeks. 2 Loaded with iron ore, sassafras, cedar posts, and walnut wood, sailed from Jamestown 10th of April, and on 20th of May reached England. The iron ore seems to have been smelted, and 17 tons sold to East India Co. at £4 per ton. 3 Capt. Nelson returned to England in July, 1608. 4 Discovery brought no passengers nor supplies, but was intended for private trade. " Twenty-eight or thirty were sent in ship Swallow to trade for corn with the Indians. They stole away with what was the best ship, and some became pirates. Others returned to England and told the tragical story of a man at Jamestown so pinched with hunger as to eat his de;id wife. — See Purchas, vol. iv. p. 1757. 6 This vessel was built at Sagadnhoc by the Popham colonists in 1607. Disheartened by Popham's death they set sail for England in a ship from b.'xeter, "and in the new pynnace the Virginia."— Bakluyt Pub., vol. vi. p. 180 7 The Deliverance was built bj r Richard Frobisher. — SeeNew-Eng. Hist, and Gen. Reg., vol. xxviii. p. 317, for a sketch of this shipwright. s In the autumn of 1611 the Star, of 300 tons, sailed from Jamestown for England with forty fair and large pines for masts. — Hakluyt Pub., vol. vi. p. 130. 1612 1613 1614 1615 Sept. 1616 Oct. 1617 May 1618 April " Aug. 1619 March " April ii it " May June Aug. Nov. John and Francis Sarah Treasurer Elizabeth it John and Francis Treasurer Susan George 1 Pinnace George Diana Sampson Neptune Treasurer Wm. and ThomaB 2 Eleanor Gift George Duty Prosperous Marigold Edwin Trial Privateer 3 Bona Nova 4 A small ship ii it it Capt. Argall, 50 men Brought thirteen persons Second trip Brought twenty persons ii ti it Came in October laden with supplies Gov. Argall and Rev. Mr. Keith, pas- sengers Owned by Capt. Martin Lord Delaware died on the voyage ; among the passengers Wm. Ferrar who settled Ferrar's Island Capt. Elfred, Gov. Argall part owner. Probably the vessel in which Blackwell and other puritans sailed Swift pinnace in which Argall secretly escaped Gov. Yeardley passenger. 14 persons died on the voyage ' Commissioned by Duke of Savoy, consort of Treasurer, brought "20 negars " Of 200 tons. Brought Rev. Jonas Stock- ton, son and 120 colonists 1 In April when the George arrived the number of men, women and children in Virginia was about 400, " and but one plough was going in all the country."— Sir Edwin Sandys to Virginia Company. 2 The "William and Thomas " was without doubt the vessel in which the first body of Puritans embarked under Blackwell, formerly an Elder in the Amsterdam Church. In Bradford's History, Cushman the Agent of the Leydeu people writes under date of London, May 8, 1619, ns follows: "Captain Argol is come home this week, * * * cameaway before Sir Geo. Yeardley came there. * * * He saith Mr. Blackwell's ship came not there till March, but going towards winter they had north-west winds which carried them to the south- ward beyond their course. And the master of the ship and some six of the mariners dying, it seemed they could not find the Bay till after long seeking and beating about. Mr. Blackwell is dead, and Mr. Maggner the captain; yea, there aie dead he saith 130 persons one and other in that ship ; it is said there were in all 180 persons in the ship, so as they were packed together like herrings. They had amongst them the flux, and also the want of fresh water, so as it is here rather wondered at that so many are alive, than that so many are dead. The merchants here say it was Mr. Blackwell's fault to pack so many in the ship." 3 The Treasurer with a commission as privateer from the Duke of Savoy against the Spaniards left Virginia on a cruise to the West Indies, where she consorted with the Flemish ship, and captured a Spanish vessel with some negroes. The Flemish ship brought twenty negroes to Virginia in August, 1619, the first introduced. "On February 16, 1623-4, there had been but a small increase. At Fleur Dieu Hundred 11 negroes James City " James Island " Plantation opposite " Warasquoyak " Elizabeth. City 3 1 1 4 1 21 4 The Bona Nova with the seven ships that follow in the list brought out 871 persons. Hist. Virginia Co, of London, p. 181. 10 1620 1621 May Duty it Jonathan 1 .1 Trial Falcon London Merchant Swan Nov. Francis Bona Ventura 2 Jan'y Supply Abigail Adam Margaret and John Bona Nova 3 Charles Oct. George Eleanor Sea Flower Concord Duty Nov. Marmaduke Flying Llart 4 Dec. Temperance Warwick Tiger 5 Of 70 tons, Capt. Damyron, brought 50 Bridewell vagabonds Of 350 tons. Brought maids for planters' wives Of 200 tons, Capt. Edmonds, 60 kine, 40 persons Of 150 tons, Capt. Jones, 4 mares, 52 kine, 36 persons Of 300 tons, Capt. Shaw, 200 persons " 100 " brought 71 persons " 240 " " 151 " Rev. David Sandis passengers Gov. Wyatt, Rev. Haut Wyatt, Dr. Pott, George Sandys, poet, passengers Rev. W. Bennett, passenger Capt. John Dennis, brought for wives, 1 widow and 1 1 maids Capt. Cornelius Johnson, a Dutchman, brought cattle of Daniel Gookin from Ireland This ship and the Tiger brought 38 maids for wives Captured by Turks and released 1 The Jonitban was a supply ship, and was among the first to bring maids for wives. On Nov. 3, 1619, Sir Edwin Sandvs at a meeting of Virginia Company " wished that a fit hundred might be sent of women, maids young and uncorrupt to make wives to the inhabitants." The girls were sent from time to time, but not in one ship. 2 On Dee. 16, 1620 Sir Edwin Sandvs reported to the Virginia Company "that they had received certificate of the safe arrival of all their ships sent ihe last Spring, as namely, the Francis Bona Ventura with all save one, the Trial and Falcon with all their passengers, the London Merchant with all theirs, the Duly with all save one. And so likewise the Swan of Barnstable. But the Jonathan, in her tedious passage, had lost sixteen ot two hundred. So by this last supply they had landed in Virginia, near the number ot 800 persons, for which great blessing, he rendered unto the Almighty all possible thanks. 3 The ships sent out by the London Company in 1621 were nine in number: the George, Sea Flower, Bona Nova, Concord, Marmaduke, Warwick, Tiger, etc. Upon the return of the " George" in 1622, the Company invited the Rev. Patrick Copland to preach a 1, hanks- giving Sermon in view ot the safe arrival of all their ships at Jamestown. Upon the 18th of April, Copland in accordance with the request preached at Bow Church. Alluding to the vessels he uses these words : " The fittest season of the year tor a speedy passage being now far better known than before, and by that means, the passage itself made almost in so many weeks as formerly it was wont to be made in months, which I conceive to be, through the blessing of God, the main cause of the safe arrival of your last fleet ot nine sail ot ships that not one (but one, in whose room there was another borne) of eighty hundred which were transported out of England and Ireland should miscarry by the way. * The Flying Hart brought Daniel Gookin of Ireland, with fifty men of his own, thirty other passengers, and a number of cattle. The London Company writing to the authorities of Virginia under date of Aug. 12, 1621, allude to Gookin. They say : " Let him have very good tobacco lor his cows now at his first voyage, for if he make a good return, it may be the occasion of a trade with you from those parts, whereby you may be abundantly supplied, not onlv with cattle, but with most of those commodities you want at better and easier rate." Clarke seems to have been the pilot of the ship. 5 The Tiger was captured by the Turks and released. Copland in his sermon alludes to it in these quaint words : „. . . . „ t , " When God brought some of the ships of yonr former fleets to Virginia in safety, here God's providence was seen and felt privately by some ; and this was a deliverance written as it were on quarto, on a lesser paper and letter. . " But now, when God brought all of your nine ships, and all your people in them, in 11 1622 April Bona Nova 1 It ■' Discovery 2 11 11 July Charity God's Gift Darling Furtherance It Abigail It Southampton 1( James 1623 April Providence 3 (i Margaret and John t< Sea Flower 11 July Samuel t( True Love ii Aug. Ann it Oct. George 1624 Prosperous Jacob Susan Due Keturn 200 Tons. Capt. John Hudleston Capt. Thos. Jones Came by way of Plymouth in New England Nathaniel Basse, Passenger Catherine, wife of Rev. W . Bennett, Passenger Rev. Greville Pooley, Passenger Capt. Clarke, chartered by Daniel Gookin Capt. Wm. Peirce safety and health to Virginia, yea, and that ship Tiger of yours, which had fallen into the hand's of the Turkish men-of-war, through tempests and contrary winds she not being able to hear sail, and by that means driven out of her course, some hundreds of miles, * * * * ***** when this your Tiger had fallen into the hands of those merciless Turks who had taken from them most of their victuals, and all of their serviceable sails, tackling and anchors, and had not left them so much as an hour-glass, or compass to steer their course, thereby utterly disabling them from go ; ng from them ; when I say God had ransomed her out of their hands, by another sail which they espied, and brought her likewise safely to Virginia, with all her people, two English hovs only excepted, for which the Turks gave them two others, a French youth and an Irish, was not here the presence of God printed as it were in foho, on royal crown papc, and capital letters." 1 Capt. Hiidlestone arrived at Jamestown sixteen days after the first great massacre of the whites by Indians. In June, 1622, he was fishing off the coast of Maine, and sent a boat to the Puritans of Plymouth Rock with a letter containing the sad news. He said, " I will so far inform you that myself with many good friends in the Southern Colony of Virginia have received such a blow, that 400 persons large will not make good our losses."— See Bradford. 2 For Sketch of Capt. Jones, see vol. xxviii. p. 314. 3 Clarke had been captured by the Spaniards in 1612. On June 20, 1620, Cushman writing to his pastor Robinson at Leyden said, " We have hired another pilot here, one Mr. Clarke who went last year to Virginia with a ship of kine." On Feb. 13, 1621-22, the Presiding Officer of the London Company acquainted them "that one Mr. John Clarke being taken from Virginia long since by a Spanish ship that came to disarm that plantation, forasmuch as he hath since that time done the Company good service in many voyages to Virginia and of late went into Ireland for the transporta- tion of cattle to Virginia, he was an humble suitor that he might be admitted a free brother of the Company." Soon after he arrived in the " Providence " he died. &iiiz*