Captain John Pinkard, Mariner and Merchant, was born about 1630 in Northamptonshire, England and was the first member of his family to come to the colonies. Northumberland County, Virginia records verify that Captain Pinkard lived in that county with his first wife and daughter Rebecca, who was born in Virginia. Proof of the father-daughter relationship between Captain John Pinkard and Rebecca, wife of Charles Sallard, is found in the Lancashire County, Virginia Court Order Book 3, 1691-1695, p. 182, where this statement appears: "Upon the petition of Charles Sallarad as marrieing Rebecca Pinckard, one of the daughters of Captain John Pinckard, (dec’d)."
The name of the first wife of Captain John Pinkard and Rebecca's mother is unknown. Other children from this marriage were named in Captain John Pinkard’s will, dated 12 Mar 1689, including three sons: John, Thomas, and James. This will also mentions, without naming them, other sons and daughters. Pinkard’s will demonstrates his fairness in the distribution of his property among his children: "They shall share and share alike." Little is known about all of John Pinkard's children, but his daughter Rebecca married Charles Sallard about 1691 before moving to Cecil County, Maryland. Their son, Simon Sallard, was born there in 1700. Rebecca apparently died shortly after his birth. Charles Sallard died in Cecil County, Maryland after 28 August 1710. Captain John Pinkard was in Northumberland when he purchased 500 acres in Wicco Parish, recorded 3 Jul 1677. In 1680, he sold that land and moved into Lancaster County. He was well respected by his neighbors as he was elected to serve as a member of the House of Burgesses from Lancaster County in 1688. Before moving to Lancaster County, John Pinkard’s first wife died; he married a second time in Northumberland County. According to Adventures of Purse and Persons Pinkard’s second wife was Sarah, the widow of Thomas Gaskins II, who died in 1675/76. Sarah died within four years of her marriage to John Pinkard. “On 21 Jan 1679/80 John Taylor, Henry Mayse, Josias Gascoyne [Gaskins] and Henry Gascoyne, in behalf of the orphans of Thomas Gascoyne [Gaskins] dec’d. in a suit against John Pinkard, who had married the widow of Thomas Gascoyne, for custody of the five children of Thomas Gascoyne, were successful and the court order the children to be delivered to them,” (Vol. II, 4th edition, p. 55). John Pinkard was a good steward of his property and assets. At his death in 1690, an extensive estate inventory included silver, silver plate, lace, furniture, and many other valuables uncommon in the colony at that time. First Mississippi Company Descendants of John Pinkard: Dr. Charles Edward Moore, Sr.; Dr. Charles Edward Moore, Jr.; Matthew Martin Moore; Charles Edward Moore, III; William Hamilton Moore; and Meredith Thompson Moore
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![]() Eighteenth 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. Abraham Peirsey first arrived at Jamestowne aboard the Susan, the first Magazine ship sent to the Colony in 1616 from England. His wife, Elizabeth Draper and their two daughters, Elizabeth and Mary, arrived on the Southhampton in 1624. He later returned to England on the Susan and sailed back to Jamestowne aboard the George. Peirsey was Cape Merchant of the Virginia Company and a stockholder. In late August 1619, John Rolfe reported that the privateer White Lion landed “20. and odd Negroes…which the Governor and Cape Marchant [Peirsey] bought for victuals.” He also made a trading visit to Newfoundland in 1619 on the George to exchange tobacco for fish.
In 1624 Abraham Peirsey bought Governor Sir George Yeardley’s plantation known as Flowerdew Hundred, located on the south side of the James River just upstream from James City in present day Prince George County. Peirsey renamed the plantation Peirsey’s Hundred and built a stone house with the first permanent foundation in the colony. Flowerdew Hundred was a palisaded settlement which may account for there being only six deaths there during the Indian uprising in 1622. According to the 1624/25 Muster, Peirsey was the second wealthiest man in Virginia after Yeardley. Peirsey’s Hundred included twelve dwellings, three storehouses, four tobacco houses, and housed a total of 57 people, including 29 servants and seven Negroes belonging to Peirsey as indentured servants. The other residents were six married men with their families and servants, three single men, and a minister. In 1624, Peirsey also owned Windmill Point at which included the first windmill constructed in America. Ample supplies of food were on hand in the form of cattle, hogs, corn, peas, and quantities of fish. A continued concern over defense was reflected in the cannon, armor, gunpowder, and swords listed. On 24 Oct 1623, along with John Pory, John Harvey, John Jefferson and Samuel Mathews, Abraham Peirsey was appointed to a commission to "look into the state of Virginia." He was appointed to the Council 1624 and elected as Burgess in 1625. Peirsey’s plantation went to his second wife, Frances Greville, upon his death in 1627/1628. She later married Samuel Mathews and died in 1633. At her death the property was awarded to Peirsey’s daughter Mary Peirsey Hill. One of Mary's first act upon acquiring Peirsey’s Hundred was to rename it Flowerdew Hundred. In the five years that passed after Abraham's death the estate was altered so much that Mary became destitute. Today the plantation is held by the Flowerdew Hundred Foundation and is listed on Virginia’s Captain John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail, Civil War Overland Campaign Lee-Grant Trail, and the National Register of Historic Places. First Mississippi Company Descendant of Abraham Peirsey: Henry Hunter Jordan III |
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
August 2022
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