Never heard of the voyage of the Charles in 1621? That was probably a good thing if you were a passenger like Adam Thorowgood, Nicholas Brown, Randall Crews, John Hely, Robert Manuel, William Lusam, Peter Montecue, William Field, or Daniel Watkins. 1 It meant that their journey to Virginia was uneventful. (Information in purple was added in May 2021 revision of this post.)
By 1621, the arrival of a new convoy of ships at the Jamestown landing was welcomed, but not exceptional. The 1621 year end report for the Virginia Company “of the shipping, men, and provisions provided for Virginia” listed 21 ships that sailed to Virginia safely with 1300 passengers and 80 cattle. This included the Tiger “which being driven strangely near 200 leagues out of her course, fell into the Turkes hands, and yet came safe to Virginia.”2
Although the Charles made about four known journeys to Jamestown, it was not one of the regulars. William Parker arrived in the 1616 voyage, and John Askume and Robert Fennell came in 1624 aboard the Charles. William Hartley and Robert Ruce also came on the Charles, but their arrival dates are unknown. A letter to Sir Edwin Sandys while the ship was on its 1621 Jamestown journey indicated that it might be sent next to the East Indies for spices.3 The Charles was also part of Winthrop’s Puritan fleet to Massachusetts Bay in 1630 and transported 80 cows and 6 mares in 1632. 4 While not much is written about the voyages of the Charles, it fortunately had a more famous friend, George.
In July 1621, Williams Ewens, the owner of both “the good Shippe Charles” and “the good Shippe George,” residing on the River Thames, covenanted with the Virginia Company that those ships would be “strong and staunch and in all things well fitted and provided as well with furniture belonging to a Shippe as also Mariners and Sea men fit and sufficient for the safe and good performance of the voyage now intended.” He also promised “to give and make allowance of victual to the Passengers as by the schedule hereunto affixed” and “to deliver the said Passengers and goods, mortality and the dangers of the Seas only excepted, safe and well conditioned at James Cittie in Virginia.” 5
Four ships were listed as leaving in July: the George, 180 ton with 120 passengers; the Charles, 120 ton with 80 passengers; the Marmaduke, 100 ton with 80 passengers; and the Temperance, 80 ton with 50 passengers.6 The passenger counts may have included the crews who subsequently returned to England. For anyone who has visited the reproduction ships at Jamestown Settlement, the Susan Constant (the original settlers’ largest ship) was 120 ton, so the Charles was approximately the same size. The four ships may have traveled together in a convoy.
The George had made frequent trips to Jamestown, but in 1621 it carried a special passenger, Sir Francis Wyatt, the newly appointed governor sent to replace Sir George Yeardley. It was noted in the Company’s year end report that the Governor’s ship had arrived “at the end of the Summer with 9 ships and nearly 700 people, all safely, and in good health.”7 The other five ships were not specified, but presumedly were other ships that sailed that summer. With a mid-July birthdate, Adam Thorowgood would have celebrated his 17th birthday either just before or during his journey.
Just because ships arrived safely did not mean that passengers enjoyed the journey on those cargo ships. There were no separate “passenger” ships. Conditions on board the ships were hard and became worse if there were any delays. Passengers, their luggage, supplies, and animals all shared the area below deck, affording little privacy or comfort. Many suffered from seasickness, especially during storms when they were restricted from going on deck. While quarantines were not enforced by law until 1663 during the time of the Great Plague of London, there were some early efforts to screen for sickly passengers. 8 With crowded conditions and poor sanitation, diseases could spread quickly with deadly results.
While dining is one of the highlights of today’s cruise ships, it was not so on 17th century ships. However, it was not as bad as sometimes portrayed. If there were no mishaps on the voyage and the food supplies were properly stored, it was adequate to keep them alive. The main staple for crews and passengers was the “ship biscuit” or hard tack that continued to be used on board ships and as emergency survival foods into the 20th century. It would be dipped in liquid, like beer, to soften it enough to be eaten. However, if moisture got into the storage containers, mealy worms could develop which could make it more of a meat than a grain dish, as one sailor complained.
Other foods commonly used onboard were brined beef; salted pork; salted dried cod; and dried peas. When there was smooth sailing, some cooking could be done. In 2017, a group of researchers at Texas A&M prepared some of the foods in the manner of a 1682 ship cookbook and studied them in the environment of a reproduced 17th century ship. The ship and foods survived Hurricane Harvey, and while smelly, the foods were not spoilt. In 1677, the British Navy set the rations for sailors at a pound of biscuits and a gallon of beer a day along with a weekly ration of “four pounds beef, two pounds salted pork, 3/8 of a salted 24 inch cod, two pints of peas, six ounces of butter, and between eight and twelve ounces of cheese.” The earlier ships were not necessarily as consistent or generous. 9
Arriving with the new governor, passengers would have likely seen an excited Jamestown. However, when Adam Thorowgood stepped off his ship, it was not as a prestigious gentleman, but one who was either indentured or seeking an indentureship as a servant in the fields of Virginia. We do not know whether Adam met or was even noticed by Sir George and Lady Temperance Flowerdew Yeadley when he arrived. (See prior posts) No one could foresee at that time that one of the Yeardley sons would later marry Adam’s wealthy widow and the other son’s daughter would marry Adam’s son.
Among the many accomplishments that the Virginia Company noted in the year end report for 1621: “Persons Italians” had been sent to make glass beads to trade with the Natives and “for making glass of all sorts;” more young maids had been sent to make wives for the Planters; a ship was sent out for “the rich trade of Furres”; Master Berkley assured that there was “no more fit place for Iron-workes than Virginia”; the Indico (Indigo) seed “thrives well, but they yet want knowledge how to cure it.”
Frenchmen assured that “no Country in the world is more proper for Vines, Silke, Olives, Rice & etc. than Virginia” and that “for the rich commodities of Wine and Silke, there wanteth nothing but hands”; salt works were being erected for profitable fishings on the coast; plants from the Summer Islands (Bermuda), such as “Orange and Lemon trees, sugar canes…Plantain and Potatoes…begin to prosper very well,” and money, books, and “an exact Map of America” had been donated for the much anticipated College of Henrico. 10 Perhaps, most exciting of all, was the report that:
“Some of the English have made relation of a China box seene at one of the (Native) Kings houses, who declared, that it was sent him from the West, by a King that dwells over the great hills, whose Countrey is neare the Sea, he having that box from a People, as he said, that come tither in Ships and weare clothes and dwell in houses, and are called Acanackchina. And he offered our people that he would send his brother along with them…hoping thereby to discover the South Sea, so long talked of.”
The Virginia Company must have closed the busy year at the end of March 1621/1622 (Britain was still primarily using the Julian, not Gregorian, calendar) with pride at the success of the Colony and confidence in its bright future. However, they were completely unaware that, just days before, at least a quarter of the settlers had been massacred and that the very existence of the Virginia Company of London hung in the balance. Why did I name those nine passengers at the beginning? Although there were 80 passengers who left on the Charles in 1621, there were only those nine from that voyage whose names were listed in the Muster of Inhabitants of Virginia in 1624 . 12
ADDENDUM added 1/17/2019:
I was erroneously taught in school that the first women arrived in Jamestown in 1619. The first English women colonists, Mrs. Forest and her maid servant Ann Burras, actually came with the Second Supply in 1608. In 1619 the first large group of women came to the colony to be indentured and/ or married to suitable husbands. According to the Ferrar Papers now displayed in Tenacity: Women in Jamestown and Early Virginia exhibit at Jamestown Settlement, the only woman known to have come on the “Charles” in 1621 was Joane Haynes, a young maid. According to the entry by Nicholas Ferrar, she came “before any of the rest” (doesn’t say rest of what) and was the sister of Mintrene, the Joyner. Sadly, neither of them were listed on the Muster of 1624 or in other subsequent colonial records.
Upcoming Posts: Who’s First? 17th Century Thanksgivings; Indentured
Footnotes:
- Stevens, Anne “Pilgrim Ship Lists” compiled from Hotten, “Musters of the Inhabitants in Virginia 1624/1625.” Accessed online from packrat-pro.com on October 23, 2018. ↩
- Kingsley, Susan Myra (ed.), The Records of the Virginia Company of London, III (Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office, 1933), 639. ↩
- Kingsley, 508. ↩
- Stevens, online. ↩
- Kingsley, 286. ↩
- Kingsley, 639. ↩
- Kingsley, 640. ↩
- Tognotti, Eugenia, “Lessons from the History of Quarantine, from Plague to Influenza A,” Emerging Infectious Diseases, 19:2 (Feb 2013), 254-259. Accessed online November 5, 2018. ↩
- Mejia, Paula, “The Grim Food Served on 17th Century Sea Voyages Wasn’t All Bad,” AtlasObscura.com. (posted November 8, 2017). Accessed online October 30, 2018. Fictum, David, “Salt Pork, Ship’s Biscuit, and Burgoo: Sea Provisions for Common Sailors and Pirates,” Colonies, Ships, and Pirates: Concerning History in the Atlantic World 1680-1740 (posted January 24, 2016). Accessed online November 4, 2018. ↩
- Kingsley, 640-642. ↩
- Ibid. ↩
- Hotten, John Camden, The Original Lists of Persons of Quality, (reprinted Berryville, Virginia: Virginia Book Company, 1980), 243-254. ↩
Thorowgood World 
Peter Montague arrived on the Ship Charles in 1621, He served in the VA House of Burgesses in 1652-53, so therefore the number 6 for survivors should be further explored.
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Thank you for sharing about Peter. I have added him and two additional names and information in a revision of the post. There might have been a few other survivors whose ship or date were not recorded in the 1624 Muster, and likely some of the 80 original passengers were crew who returned to England. Still, there seems to have been a tragic rate of attrition.
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