Eleventh in a series of biographical sketches on Burgesses whose descendants belong to the First Mississippi Company; in honor of the 400th anniversary of the July 30, 1619 meeting of the first representative governmental body in America at the 1617 church on Jamestown Island Joseph Bridger was elected as a Burgess to represent Isle of Wight County in 1658. Who was this man? Joseph Bridger, born in 1628 in the Parish of Dursley, England, was the son of Samuel Bridger. A dedicated Royalist, Bridger came to Virginia about 1655, at a time when those supporting King Charles II in exile in France were fleeing England to escape Cromwellian persecution or possibly death. He did well in Virginia, and settled below Jamestowne, south of the James River, and probably patented more land than any other resident of Isle of Wight County during the 17th century. Bridger was chosen to represent Isle of Wight County in the House of Burgesses in the session of 1658. After 1661, he filled the position without interruption until about 1672. As a Burgess, he received 250 pounds of tobacco for each day the assembly was in session in Jamestowne. In 1664, Captain Bridger and two other commissioners were sent to Chesapeake Bay to settle the dispute of a claim by the State of Maryland over a county line. He attained the rank of colonel in 1672 and in 1673, at the age of 45, became a member of the Council of State and General Court of the aging Virginia governor, Sir William Berkeley. Bridger was destined to take an active part in a series of historic events in Virginia history. With the governor's authorization he formed a 500-man army to fight the Indians who threatened the farmers. But Colonel Bridger never used his militia to protect these farmers because the governor was trading with the Indians for their valuable furs. Lacking government protection, the farmers became rebellious and allied with Nathaniel Bacon, a dissatisfied member of the governor’s Council. Berkeley was forced to flee Jamestowne; and Bacon, who named himself “General by consent of the people,” called Joseph Bridger a “wicked and pernicious councilor” for his continued loyalty to the governor and the King of England. Bridger fled with Berkeley; but Bridger’s son, Joseph Bridger, Jr., cast his lot with Nathaniel Bacon. Bridger disinherited his son and struck his name from his will in a codicil, perhaps because of their political differences. While in exile, Bridger witnessed the governor’s will and was appointed by the King to continue as a member of the Council. Berkeley was instructed to rebuild Jamestowne, burned by Nathaniel Bacon, and asked to have each Council member build a home there. By 1682, Joseph Bridger’s house was completed, and the Council met in his new home on the afternoon of November 25 that year. Colonel Bridger’s will was dated 03 August 1683 and probated 08 May 1686 in Isle of Wight County. In it he named his mother, Mrs. Mary Bridger; his wife, Hester (Pitt) and children: Joseph, Samuel, William, Martha, Mary and Elizabeth. Bridger was buried at his plantation named “Whitemarsh”; but in 1894 his body was moved to the chancel of the Old Brick Church near Smithfield. First Mississippi Company Descendants of Joseph Bridger: Janice (Joy) Willis Herron, Cynthia Walker Kennedy
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Tenth in a series of biographical sketches on Burgesses whose descendants belong to the First Mississippi Company; in honor of the 400th anniversary of the July 30, 1619, meeting of the first representative governmental body in American at the 1617 Church on Jamestown Island Christopher Branch served as a Burgess from Henrico County, VA. Who was this man?
Christopher Branch was about 22 years old when, in March 1619/20, he and wife Mary Addy embarked on the London Merchant for Virginia. He is listed in 1624 as living on the “College Land” in present Henrico County. In the 1624/25 muster, he, his wife and nine-month old son, Thomas, are named in the same location. In 1634, Christopher Branch of Henrico County was granted a lease on 100 acres. The next year, he patented 250 acres at “Kingsland” adjacent to his leased land using headrights gained for transporting himself and four others. By 1639 his plantation had grown to 450 acres. By 1640 there was a glut of tobacco on the market. The General Assembly decided to limit the tobacco crop to a percentage per planter and to destroy the remainder. Branch was then a Burgess for Henrico and was named by the Assembly to inspect each planter’s tobacco crop. In 1641 he was again named Burgess and in 1656 he was named a Justice. His will dated June 1678 and verified by witnesses in February 1682 indicated the general time of his death and that he was still at “Kingsland” at that time. His wife, Mary Addy, died much earlier. They were the parents of three sons: Thomas, William and Christopher. Christopher Branch was the third great grandfather of President Thomas Jefferson. First Mississippi Company Descendants of Christopher Branch: Suzanne Worthington Walters, Clayton Walters, Thomas Walters Ninth in a series of biographical sketches on Burgesses whose descendants belong to the First Mississippi Company; in honor of the 400th anniversary of the July 30, 1619, meeting of the first representative governmental body in American at the 1617 Church on Jamestown Island Cheney Boyce was elected as a Burgess to represent Shirley Hundred in 1629. Who was this man?
Cheney Boyce, born in 1586 in England, first came to the Virginia Colony before 1616 and survived the Indian massacre of 1622. Some authorities suggest that Cheney's first wife, Sarah, was captured during the Indian raid; others, however, disregard this idea. Cheney is found in John Throgmorton’s Muster of the inhabitants of West and Shirley Hundred taken on 22 January 1624. Cheney is listed as a single man, aged 26 years, who arrived on the George. Cheney served as Burgess for Shirley Hundred Island in 1629, 1630, and 1632. He married a woman whose first name was Joyce about 1635; their one known child was Thomas Boyce whose testimony stating that he is the only son of Cheney Boyce appeared in the Charles City County Court Order of 1655-1665, p. 355. Cheney was designated as an "Ancient Planter" in the land grant he received for 1550 acres including the 100-acre bequest for being a settler before the time of Sir Thomas Dale. Boyce was responsible for importing 29 persons, according to Nell Nugent's Cavaliers and Pioneers p. 24. In August 1637, Boyce received another grant on Merchants' Hope Creek in Charles City County. The final land patent was dated 1 September 1643, when he received an additional 1,198 acres of land. The date of Cheney's death was after 1643 and well before 26 Oct 1649, when Cheney’s widow, Joyce, was described as being the widow of Richard Tye, her second husband. Thomas Boyce's records from the court primarily deal with property due him from his father's estate. Thomas petitioned the court to gain control of his father’s land, which, at Cheney’s death, had become the property of his mother, Joyce, and her second husband, Richard Tye. Joyce Boyce Tye apparently married a third time Dr. John Cogan. Several records establish a relationship between Cheney and Joyce Boyce and their daughter-in-law Emelia Boyce, wife of son Thomas. Emelia Boyce also obtained property from her grandfather, Richard Craven, another qualifying ancestor of the Jamestowne Society. First Mississippi Company Descendants of Cheney Boyce: Azalia Smith Francis Moore and Steven Merril Smith Eighth in a series of biographical sketches on Burgesses whose descendants belong to the First Mississippi Company; in honor of the 400th anniversary of the July 30, 1619 meeting of the first representative governmental body in America at the 1617 Church on Jamestown Island Edward Bennett 1577-1651 Isle of Wight County, VA Edward Bennett served as a Burgess from Isle of Wight County, VA. He was born 2 Feb 1577 in Wiveliscombe, Somerset, England, the fifteenth child of Robert and Elizabeth Bennett. In 1621 he ]established a plantation in Isle of Wight County on the Warrosquoake River and named it after the river. Bennett was a Puritan, as were several of his Virginia neighbors. His patent for Virginia land was contingent upon his settling 200 people in the colony, and the first settlers he transported arrived on the Sea Flower in 1622. Within a month of their arrival in Virginia, the Indian Massacre of 1622 occurred, and 53 settlers out of the 347 colonists killed died at Bennett’s plantation. He returned to England and married Mary Bourne, daughter of a prominent Somerset merchant in late 1622. Mary was 28 years younger than Edward, and they had six children together. The first two children were born in England: Mary, born in 1623; and Elizabeth, born in 1626. Bennett was a wealthy London merchant and the owner of a large fleet of ships which traded with Virginia, largely importing tobacco. He was also Commissioner of Virginia at the Court of England and an investor in the Virginia Company of London, which settled over 600 people in Isle of Wight County. About 1627 Bennett fled to Amsterdam, Holland during the Puritan migrations, where, because of his wealth, he became an elder of the Ancient Church. By 1631, Bennett had left Holland and moved to Bennett’s Plantation in Isle of Wight. Colonists from 80 plantations banded together in eight plantations near Jamestowne for safety, and Bennett’s plantation was abandoned until a fort was built there and Governor George Yeardly drove the Warraskoyak and Nansemond Indians out of their villages in reprisals. The census of 1623 showed that Bennett’s plantation, which he renamed Bennett’s Welcome, was reestablished with 33 settlers, “including 4 negroes.” In 1624 the total population was 31. Because of the 1622 massacre, the settlement in the Isle of Wight County is dated from that year. Four of Edward and Mary’s children were born in Virginia: Sylvestra, born in 1630 in Isle of Wight; John, born in 1632 on Hogg Island; Ann, born in 1633 on Hogg Island but died as a baby; and Jasper, born in 1635 on Hogg Island. Edward Bennett represented Isle of Wight County in the Virginia General Assembly in 1628 and then left with his family for England. He left the management of Bennett’s Welcome to his Puritan nephew, Richard Bennett, who served as Governor of the Commonwealth of VA from 1652-1655. Isle of Wight County was a Puritan stronghold in Anglican Virginia for many years. Bennett never returned to Virginia and died before 3 Jun 1651 in England. First Mississippi Company descendants of Edward Bennett: Dell Dickens Scoper [ What do Jamestowne, the Mayflower and Shakespeare have in common? The answer is Stephen Hopkins: a Jamestowne settler, Mayflower passenger and survivor of the wreck of the Sea Venture, reputed to be the basis for Shakespeare’s comedy, The Tempest.
Hopkins (1581-1644), second son of John Hopkins (1550-1593) and Elizabeth Williams (b. and d. unknown), was baptized at All Saints church, Upper Clatford, Hampshire, England 30 April 1581. In 1603/4, he married his first wife, Mary. By 1608, they had three children, when Hopkins’ life took a dramatic turn; he was hired by the Reverend Richard Buck and charged with the reading of the Psalms and Chapters at Sunday services for the Virginia Company. On 2 June, 1609, he boarded the Sea Venture with Jamestowne Governor Sir Thomas Gates, , Admiral Sir George Somers, and Christopher Newport, who previously was Captain of the Susan Constant that brought the first settlers to Jamestowne in 1607. On 28 July 1609, the Sea Venture was separated from the remainder of the third supply fleet during a hurricane. For three days the vessel was tossed by monstrous waves, became sailless and took on water. Just as hope seemed lost, Somers spotted land and Newport beached the ship on the coast of the “Isle of Devils” – Bermuda. Life on Bermuda proved to be so easy that when Somers and Gates ordered two smaller ships built from the wreckage of the Sea Venture and local cedar to take the survivors to Jamestowne, some crew members refused to cooperate. Their leader was Stephen Hopkins. He was apprehended and tried for mutiny. Sentenced to death, he pleaded for his life so eloquently that he was pardoned. The story of the Sea Venture is said to be the inspiration for The Tempest by William Shakespeare, when it first appeared on the London stage in November 1611. The episode when drunken, power-hungry butler Stephano tries to depose the island’s ruler, Prospero, may be based on Hopkin’s mutiny. Finally, on 24 May 1610, the shipwrecked party with Stephen Hopkins and 140 others arrived at Jamestowne after having been marooned for nine months on Bermuda. There, Hopkins witnessed the results of Jamestowne’s Starving Times of 1609-10, when only 60 out of a population of 240 colonists had survived. He remained in Virginia until 1614, when the death of his wife forced his return to England. He worked as a shopkeeper and married Elizabeth Fisher in 1617/8. Still longing to return to the New World, he, his wife and three children joined the voyage of the Mayflower in 1620. His wife gave birth in route to a son named Oceanus. Hopkins signed the Mayflower Compact on November 11, 1620. In Plymouth, he served an ambassador between the settlers and Native Americans and as an aid to the Governor. In later life he became a shopkeeper and died a wealthy man between 6 June and 17 July 1644. He had 10 children, 37 grandchildren and about 330 great-grandchildren. This biography was submitted by Mary Jane Simpson, Central North Carolina Company Historian, and later supplemented by Frederick Cron, Registrar of the First Colorado Company. Descendants of Stephen Hopkins who belong to the Central North Carolina Company include Dr. John Blue Clark, Jr. and Mr. Samuel M. Hobbs. Seventh in a series of biographical sketches on members of the House of Burgesses whose descendants belong to the First Mississippi Company in honor of the 400th anniversary of the July 30, 1619, meeting of the first representative governmental body in American at the 1617 Church on Jamestown Island Southey Littleton Abt. 1646-1679 Accomack County, VA Southey Littleton was the second son of Ann Southey and her second husband Nathaniel Littleton. Ann came to Virginia in 1622 on the Southampton with her parents and five siblings. By the time of the 1624/25 Muster, Ann’s father and three of her siblings were dead, and she lived in James City with her mother and a brother named Henry. Ann Southey Harmar, widow, had married Nathaniel Littleton by 1 Jun 1740. Nathaniel Littleton, sixth son of Sir Edward Littleton of Shropshire, England, came to Virginia about 1635 and settled in the part of Accomack County that became Northampton. Southey Littleton owned 2,340 acres at Nandua Creek in Northampton, 2,300 acres in Accomack County, and other land in Northampton County and Somerset County, MD. In 1674, Southey inherited 4,250 acres from his brother Edward Littleton. Much of the Littleton land had originally belong to Southey’s mother, Ann Southey—land she inherited from her first husband Charles Harmar and from her father Henry Southey. Southey Littleton was a prominent figure on the Eastern Shore. He was a member of Governor Berkeley’s court that sat in judgment of members of Bacon’s Rebellion. He served as a Burgess from Accomack in 1676 and 1677 and was one of three men appointed to value goods from the condemned ship Phenix. Along with Colonel William Drummond, he was sent to Albany, NY, to confer with Governor Andros on Indian Affairs; he died while engaged in this commission. His will, written at Albany-on-the Hudson, was proved in NY and in Accomack. He named his seven children in his will and his executors were charged with the disposition of 7,314 acres in Accomack. Southey married Sarah Bowman, who predeceased him. His children were named Nathaniel, Bowman, Esther, Sarah, Elizabeth, Gertrude, and Southey. Descendants of Southey Littleton who belong to the First Mississippi Company: Betty Stewart and Betina Cooper On November 18, 1618, two of the Virginia Company of London’s officers, Sir Thomas Smythe and Sir Edwin Sandys, drew up a set of instructions to the newly appointed governor, Sir George Yeardley. Unlike the three charters before it, this Charter, approved by King James I, not only dealt with matters of financing the Virginia Colony, it established a system of self-governance. Accordingly, it is referred to as the Great Charter of 1618. Rather than relying on stock sales or a lottery to raise funds to support the struggling colonizing venture, it was decided that the colony’s greatest resource, land, would be utilized. This system of giving 50 acres of land to those who paid for their or other’s (including indentured servants’) passage was known as the headright system. The Great Charter eliminated military law which had been used to rule the colony since 1610. Now the colony was to be jointly governed by elected representatives (burgesses) along with the King’s council and appointed governor. The first legislative meeting of these democratically elected burgesses would take place the following summer at the church in Jamestown. Years later, when the legislature became bicameral, it became known as the House of Burgesses. This legislative body begun in 1619, the first of if its kind in North America, still meets today and is known as the Virginia General Assembly. Colonial Virginia’s process of self-rule was thereby institutionalized on 30 July 1619 and set an example for others to follow. As Virginians migrated in search of new opportunity, they took these lessons of self-rule they had learned and put them into practice in other colonies, territories and states. In late July of 2019, there will be a large celebration commemorating the 400th anniversary of the first legislative assembly held in North America when Governor Sir George Yeardley, the King’s Council and 20 democratically elected burgesses met in the Jamestown Church on 30 July 1619. Capt. Thomas Graves, a shareholder in the Virginia Company who came to Jamestown in 1608 aboard the Second Supply, was one of the original 20 burgesses representing Smythe’s Hundred and the tenth great grandfather of Lewis & Clark Company Governor, John Graves. William Hatcher was born in England 14 Jan 1614 and died in Henrico County, VA. His will was recorded on 1 Apr 1680 in the Colonial Wills of Henrico County 1677-1737 and establishes the year he died. Although his will does not list his sons, it names Burton and Elam men who marry into his family. Because William’s sons—Edward, William, Henry, and Benjamin—are not named in their father’s will, the implication is that what was recorded as his will is a codicil. The identity of his sons is established in deeds wherein the sons identify their father as William Hatcher. William Hatcher outlived his sons William and Henry; and sons Edward and Benjamin equally divided the land their father owned after his death, land called Varina, Pigg in the Bole, Turkey Island Point, and Neck of Land. The name of his wife is unknown. William is known to have been in Virginia by 1636 because he was granted 200 acres on the Appomattox River on 1 June 1636. He received two more parcels 200 acres on the Appomattox River on 1 June 1636. He received two more parcels of land: 850 acres in July 1637 and 150 acres in 1638. His headrights for the 850-tract were the four headrights he submitted in 1636. After Hatcher failed to settle the tract received in 1637, Henry Randolph secured patents for it in 1662. Six years before Hatcher’s death, he patented 227 acres in Henrico County on the south side of the James River next to Gilbert Elam. Hatcher prospered in Virginia and was respected by his neighbors, who elected him to represent them in the VA House of Burgesses during most of the sessions between 1644 and 1652. He was known to speak his mind, and in 1654 he called the speaker of the House of Burgesses a “Devil.” For that offense, he had to apologize on his knees and pay a fine. During Bacon’s rebellion in 1677, a jury found Hatcher guilty of “uttering divers mutinous words . . . and divers oaths” and fined him 10,000 pounds of tobacco. After considering Hatcher’s age—he was in his 60’s—the court reduced the penalty to 8,000 pounds of dressed pork to supply His Majesty’s soldiers. The identity of William Hatcher’s parents in England is unknown. The name “Hatcher” was derived from the Norman-French word hache, a light battle-ax. After the Norman invasion, hache was anglicized to the name Hatcher. Hatcher lived up to his bellicose name, not only in the House of Burgesses and during Bacon’s Rebellion, but also in dealing with his neighbors. He did not like for his neighbors to poach fish from his pond; and he ordered John Lantroope and his other servants to split all the canoes they could find in the swamp, including orders to strike a piece out of the head of Mr. Robert Woodson’s canoe with an ax as well. Descendants of William Hatcher who belong to the First Mississippi Company: John Wycoff Godsey, Ellen Lane McAllister, Constance Ellen Godsey, Dylan Bishop, Dean Bishop .
Both Jamestown, founded in 1607 by the Virginia Company of London, and Plymouth, founded in 1620 by English religious separatists, were products of the English drive for New World colonization as were those of Spain and other major powers. Three personages associated with Jamestown also ended up being major figures in the sailing of the Mayflower. First was Captain John Smith. Second was Captain Samuel Argall, employed by the Virginia Company to transport colonists to Jamestown. In 1613, he led an expedition that wiped out French colonies in Nova Scotia and Maine, thus securing the Atlantic seaboard for English speaking Protestants. Smith returned to the New World in 1614, explored the New England coast and went home to publish A Description of New England, in which he described how it was ripe for colonization. The religious separatists then living in Holland must have seen the book. They had decided they needed to relocate and would try colonization. The third figure, and ultimately most important, was Sir Edwin Sandys. He was a principal in the Virginia Company and deeply committed to successful English colonization in the New World. He played a major role in keeping Jamestown going, including calling for the first elected representative body in Jamestown and conceiving the sending of 100 "maidens" to Jamestown to help stabilize the colony. Sandys was the son of the Bishop of Yorkshire; whose ecclesiastic seat was Scrooby. The Bishop’s manor was rented by the family of William Brewster, who would become one of the leading figures in the separatist community in Holland. In 1617, Brewster wrote to his old friend, Sandys, for help in transporting the separatists to the New World. Sandys played a huge role in the negotiations, going as far as lending the separatists £300. He also helped to arrange an agreement between the separatists, antagonistic to the Church of England, and King James I, which enabled the grant of a patent for colonization. That patent allowed them to found a colony as far north as New York, but they ended up at Cape Cod in mid-November, as their captain was not willing to take them any farther. The ship's passengers, however, included both separatists and secular colonists, and there was a question as to who had authority to govern. In the end, all the men who were going to stay in the new colony agreed to a written accord of self-government, which we call the Mayflower Compact. It recognized that they were loyal subjects of King James and, being about to engage in a democratic form of government, is certainly reflective of Sandys’s influence on the language and content of the Compact. By Erica Hahn; a First California Company member and past Governor of the Orange County Colony of the General Society of Mayflower Descendants Fifth in a series of biographical sketches on members of the General Assembly and House of Burgesses whose descendants belong to the First Mississippi Company in honor of the 400th anniversary of the July 30, 1619, meeting of the first representative governmental body in American at the 1617 Church on Jamestown Island Thomas Farley was elected to the Virginia General Assembly to represent plantations in James City County, VA, in 1629. Who was this man?
Thomas Farley was born 15 January 1590, in Worcester, Worcestershire, England. He was the son of Roger Farley and Isobel Pumphreys and the brother of Robert, William, Elliot, and Edward Farley. He was known as a “gentleman of Worcester of Worcestershire.” Thomas Farley married Lady Jane Molyneux of Sefton, the illegitimate daughter of Sir John Molyneux of Sefton and Margaret Hope, on 12 July 1622 in Savoy Church, Worcester, England. Jane was christened on 30 September 1607, at the Church of St. Mary the Virgin. Being born on the “wrong side of the bed,” Jane had no right to call herself “Lady” and was presumably sent to Worcester to live with relatives in order to avert any embarrassment to the Molyneux family in residence at Sefton. Thomas Farley and his wife Jane first arrived in James County, Virginia, in 1623 on the ship Ann the year after the Indian attack that slew more than 347 inhabitants of the colony of Jamestown in 1622. Their first child, a daughter whom they named Ann, was born either soon after their arrival or aboard the ship. Accompanying them was a servant Nicholas Shotten, age 40 years. Thomas Farley owned a plantation and rented other adjoining properties to produce large quantities of tobacco for English markets. He was twice elected to the General Assembly. In the March 1629-1630 session, Farley served as a Burgess from the plantations between Harrop and Archer’s Hope and Martin’s Hundred, and in the February, 1631-1632 session, he represented Archer’s Hope. At court in James City, 21 August 1626, “Thomas Farley, gent.,” confessed to being absent from church on the Sabbath Day for three months. It was determined by the court that a fine of one hundred pounds of tobacco for the public treasury would restore him to his spiritual status. The minutes of the Council and General Court, 1622-1629 states, “Thomas Farley of Archer’s Hope bargained with Widow Bush for the land he was settled on.” Thomas Farley died after 1634 in Archer’s Hope, James City, Virginia. First Mississippi Company Descendants of Thomas Farley: Sandra Sartor Ford, Martha Ray Sartor, Daniel Ford, John-Peter Ford, Mark Ford Revised. |
To Our ContributorsWe welcome properly researched contributions of ancestor profiles, vignettes and comments from members that focus on their ancestors’ roles in Jamestown’s history, plus other aspects of their lives, events and experiences in the colony. PLEASE NOTE that all information must be documented and backed up by primary source documents, and not unverifiable information and family and urban legends. Submissions without this backup may be rejected. Please limit contributions and blog entries solely to the ancestors themselves, and do not include subsequent lineage information. Entries should be no more than 400 words. Archives
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