Adam Thorowgood, Slavery, and 17th Century Racism

What were you thinking, Adam Thorowgood?  Why did you do it?

Slave Market Memorial, Zanzibar Island

Recorded in the land records of the Lower County of New Norfolk on February 8, 1637, Captain Adam Thorowgood was granted “150 acres, due for transportation of 3 Negroes.”² Adam had become a success by 1637.  He arrived in Virginia in 1621 as a 17-year-old indentured servant eager to learn the skills of a successful planter.  He married well, recruited his own indentured servants, became a planter-merchant, was elected a Burgess, and was appointed to the Governor’s Council.  Through good management of his affairs, he secured the largest land grant at that time in Lower Norfolk (Virginia Beach), and, with his English family connections, he even received a recommendation from the King’s Privy Council.  He had achieved all that by age 33 without owning a single enslaved person.  He had acquired his land and wealth through providing opportunities for willing English workers to come to Virginia– until that February.¹

Hampton, VA 400th Commemoration of First Landing

 Adam Thorowgood,  by then a Captain in the local militia, had transported over 100 English headrights whose names were recorded.  Unlike his white indentured servants, the unnamed Africans had not willingly agreed to pay for their passage with their labor.  His purchase appeared as an insignificant entry in the 17th century land records, yet it was a pivotal life moment.  How seriously did Adam consider his decision? As the son of a minister, did his soul wrestle with a moral decision or was it a business decision based on “others are doing it?”  As three more workers and 150 acres were not critical to his success and there were few Africans in the Colony, was it done for status? being part of the next new trend?  “wise” planning for the future?

Virginia’s First Africans

Point Comfort (Fort Monroe), Virginia

The first Africans arrived in Virginia in August 1619 before the Pilgrims or New England Puritans ever  stepped foot in North America.  They arrived, not bringing their hopes for freedom from oppression and dreams of unlimited possibilities, but with sadness for their lost homes and liberty as well as fear for the future.  The United  States recently commemorated 400 years since the first Africans were brought to Point Comfort (Hampton), Virginia,  aboard the White Lion commanded by an English privateer John Jope.  The White Lion along with the Treasurer, which was owned by the Earl of Warwick, had attacked the Portuguese slave ship St. John de Baptiste which was carrying 350 African captives to Veracruz, Spanish America.

Battle of St. John de Baptiste, the White Lion, and Treasurer by R.C. Moore,  NPS

The captains took around 60 of the Africans as booty, of which the White Lion, arriving in Virginia, “brought not anything but 20, and odd Negroes which the Governor [Yeardley] and Cape Merchant bought for vituals…at the best and easiest rates they could.”³ It was a significant moment in the history of the Colony of Virginia and the future United States of America. Their descendants and those of later enslaved persons brought here have been part of the fabric and story of this nation ever since.  The descendants of those from Africa are as American as Mayflower descendants who came from England.

Enslaved or Indentured?

When Captain Thorowgood and the early Virginians looked at the world around them, they likely saw what they considered justification.  Although Virginia had been the first permanent English colony founded, it was not the first to be brought captured Africans.  The first  Negro was taken to English Bermuda in 1616, only three years after the settlement of that island.  In 1619, when Virginia got its first twenty or so, Bermuda had nearly 100 Black Africans, who, having been captured from slave ships, continued in bondage.⁴

Bermuda Fortress Photo by M. Suerdieck

In Bermuda and Virginia, a few Black Africans were fortunate to have time-limited service and were granted or able to buy their freedom.  Some historians have suggested that the status of Africans in Virginia was initially unclear as there were no official laws about slavery until the 1660s, and they should be considered indentured, not enslaved. However, as early as 1623, Bermuda passed a law forbidding Negros from having firearms, which Virginia seemed to copy in 1640 legislating that “all persons, except Negroes” should be provided with arms and ammunition. In 1630, English Barbados passed a law that “Negros … who came here to be sold should serve for life unless a contract was before made to the contrary.” English racism and slavery had taken root.⁵

Slave Ship

Slavery, though, is not just defined by the term of service, but also the conditions under which a person is placed in bondage.  No one was going all the way to Africa or even the Caribbean to recruit voluntary indentured servants for Virginia. Persons from Africa were not offered options for time- limited contracts while in their home countries nor did they request transport to the Americas on slave ships. The White Lion and Treasurer were not on humanitarian rescue missions to free those they pirated from the slave ship, but rather sought to profit from them.   Slave ship captains brought captured Africans to the Americas against their wills in the most horrendous conditions and sold them to labor involuntarily without recompense or opportunity to return to their homes. That is slavery, whether it was for a few years, a lifetime, or perpetual; whether they were treated kindly or harshly; whether housed with white servants or in slave quarters; whether or not the term “slave” was yet in the legal code or even if they were accorded a few rights.⁶

Slave Market Site, Stone Town, Zanzibar Island

Trans-Saharan and East African Slave Trade

The English and early Virginians, though, were not the inventors of African slavery.  Centuries before Columbus “discovered” America, Arabs and Ottoman Turks, forbidden from enslaving fellow Muslims, had  been capturing sub-Saharan Africans  for forced labor in Africa or transporting them as enslaved laborers and servants to the Persian Gulf and Arabian Penninsula. 

Trans-Saharan Slave Trade

While  the triangle trade of tobacco, sugar, and slaves spanned the Atlantic in the 17th and 18th centuries, there was also the trans-Saharan and East African trade in gold, salt, spices, ivory,  and slaves with major slave markets in the Nile Basin and on Zanzibar Island in the Indian Ocean. It has been estimated that at least 9 million Africans were taken in the East African slave trade which did not end until into the 20th century.⁷

Slave Caravel, Lagos, Portugal

Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade

Portuguese mariners  started to sell Black African slaves in Lagos, Portugal,  50 years before Columbus sailed and quickly expanded their trade further into the Western Mediterranean and islands off the African coast.  By the early 16th century, they were also sending enslaved persons to colonies in the Americas.  Most of the 5.8 million enslaved Africans transported by the Portuguese had short lives in the sugar plantations of Brazil and the Caribbean.   Although records of the Spanish trans-Atlantic trade are sketchy, it is now believed the Spanish may have taken at least 1.5 million Africans  to their Spanish colonies.⁸

Caribbean Sugar Plantation

The Dutch were early participants in the slave trade and brought about a million captured Africans across the Atlantic between 1596 to 1829 to their sugar plantations in Dutch Guiana, the Caribbean, and other colonies.  The French were also significant slave traders, bringing more than a million enslaved Africans to their Caribbean islands, particularly Saint-Domingue (Haiti).   Even the Prussians and Danes joined in the slave trade in the 17th through 19th centuries.  ⁹

Royal African Company Seal

English Slave Trade

Being late to colonization, the English were late to enter the African slave trade, but ultimately became the second largest group of slave traders.   In the 1560s, Queen Elizabeth I authorized Sir John Hawkins to engage in slave trading directly with Africa, taking around 1,300 Africans to the Spanish Caribbean over 4 voyages to exchange for pearls and other commodities.  However, it proved more profitable for English privateers to simply prey on Spanish and Portuguese slaving ships, as with the White Lion and Treasurer.  In 1631, the Guinea  Company of London merchants were granted rights  by King Charles I to trade with West Africa.  This was revitalized and reformed into the Royal African Company in 1672 under King Charles II.  It is estimated that between 1640-1807, the British  transported 3.1 million Africans to the Caribbean, North and South America, and other countries.¹⁰

New Towne at Jamestown by Keith Rocco, NPS

The number of Africans brought to Virginia in the first half of the 17th century was relatively small compared to the number of white English indentured servants. However, as it became harder to entice English laborers to Virginia, planters increasingly turned to using enslaved African workers. By 1650, there were about 300 enslaved persons in Virginia.  By 1700, there were 6,000. Virginia became a slave society, dependent on their slave labor. By 1860, the slave population in the United States had expanded to almost 4,000,000 of which about 500,000 lived in Virginia.¹¹

The Brookes Slave Ship with 454 slaves 

Slavery in New England

In the popular narrative of Colonial American history, slavery is viewed as a Southern sin.  However, New England Puritans not only profited from the slave trade early on, but some owned and financed slave ships as well as had enslaved servants and laborers. In 1638,  the year after Thorowgood made his purchase, the Salem-based ship Desire took a group of captured Native Americans to the West Indies to exchange for the first shipload of  enslaved Negros to be brought to New England.

In 1641, Massachusetts was the first colony to enact a law regarding the parameters of slavery.  By midcentury, there were actually more enslaved Africans in the Northern colonies  than in the Chesapeake region, although that rapidly changed.  In the Boston vicinity, many families transitioned from primarily using white indentured  servants to enslaved Africans during the 17th century. However, as in all eras, there were those who embraced humanity, such as Samuel Sewall, the author of the first New England anti-slavery pamphlet, The Selling of Joseph, in 1700, which declared that even slaves, “are the Offspring of God,  and have equal Right unto Liberty….” ¹²

Slave Market, Charleston, S.C.           

Accountability

Overall,  the total number of enslaved Africans imported to the areas that became the United States of America was around 600,000. This was only about 5% of the estimated 12 million enslaved Africans brought to North and South America in the trans-Atlantic slave trade.  Despite the great migration of white Europeans across the Atlantic from 1580-1700, there were even more who arrived in the Americas in those years as enslaved Africans.   However, as the Black population expanded in the colonies, the number of enslaved individuals who were bought and sold in the intercolonial trade soon exceeded those brought from afar.  ¹³

Holding Room at Slave Market, Zanzibar Island

Slavery would not have spread across the world, though, without some complicit Africans.  Portugal engaged in war in Angola, but most Europeans  waited for captured Africans to be brought to the coasts.  Prisoners from wars between kingdoms and tribal groupings were sold by enemy groups.  In addition, greedy and cruel mercenaries  raided rural villages and sophisticated cities to capture and sell Blacks for profit.  Countless men, women, and children died in the raids, wars, and horrific marches across Africa to the sea coasts. Many of those who survived then died in the slave ships during the Middle Passage voyage across the Atlantic.  Trying to grasp the breath and depth of seventeenth century slavery through this post is not intended to shift or lessen anyone’s responsibility, but rather to extend accountability. ¹⁴

Pope Nicholas V

Gov. John Winthrop

Concept of Equality

How could Adam Thorowgood and other decent people of his time not see the shared humanity of the enslaved? Through the 17th century, most Europeans and non-Europeans did not believe all men were equal or that liberty was a God-given right.  The concept of equality was not championed by prevailing religious, political, or scientific thought.  Pope Nicholas V in 1452 sanctioned Portuguese Christians to “vanquish” and “reduce their [black Gentiles] persons to perpetual slavery…” as a means of conversion and controlling barbarians.  Protestant, especially Calvinistic, thought at the time believed men were predestined to their station in life and saw divine providence in the hierarchical social structure.  Many New England Puritans, including Governor Winthrop, did not oppose enslaving Africans or Native Americans.  Science focused on differentiating species and subspecies which some extended to humanity and the idea of race “inferiority.”¹⁵

John Locke, the influential English philosopher, proposed in 1689 that men had a natural right to life, liberty, and property, despite he himself having stock in slave trading companies. Gradually through the 17th and 18th centuries, these principles gained greater acceptance, even if they were not yet inclusive of all mankind/womankind. The American Founding Fathers, while imperfect in their own understandings, attitudes, and actions, were extraordinary and revolutionary in using ideals, not persons or heredity, to create a national government based on principles of equality and liberty.  Unfortunately, these rights were not extended to all.  We still need to improve.¹⁶

African Grandmother

Slavery in New Norfolk, Virginia

Adam Thorowgood was not the only one in New Norfolk, Virginia, to own Africans.  Argoll Yeardley, the elder son of Governor Yeardley, received his land grant in New Norfolk on February 6, 1637 by including “Andolo and Maria 2 Negroes.”  On May 18, 1637, John Wilkins also received land there for importing a Negro.  Between 1638 and 1650, at least 33 Africans were purchased in Lower Norfolk County. Among those, Francisco, Emanuell, Antonyo, Lewis, and Maria were sold to Francis Yeardley, Argoll’s younger brother and the third husband of Adam’s widow, Sarah Thorowgood Gookin Yeardley, “to possess and peaceably enjoy…for ever.”  A few years later in 1653, Argoll Yeardley sold to John Custis, recently arrived in Northampton, Virginia, his first enslaved person, a girl named Doll.  The terms were explicit that Custis was to “have and to hold her and her increase forever.”  Although this all occurred before the 1660 slavery laws, this was classic slavery.¹⁷

Julia Dent

Mary Anna Randolph Custis

Legacies

I have found no evidence that Adam Thorowgood himself purchased more than his initial three Africans.  He died only three years later in 1640.   In his will, Adam did not enumerate the names of or differentiate between his servants, but gave them all to his wife and minor children.¹⁸  I will discuss their further family entanglements with slavery in future posts.  While some of Adam and Sarah’s descendants continued to own enslaved persons until the Emancipation, others had already willingly freed theirs.  Some of their descendants moved North and fought and died as Union soldiers;  others supported the Confederacy.  The complexity of Adam and Sarah Thorowgood’s legacy is evidenced as one descendant, Mary Anna Randolph Custis, married Robert E. Lee and another, Julia Dent, married Ulysses S. Grant.

400th Commemoration at Fort Monroe, Virginia

I wish I could travel back in time to change the course of history and warn Adam Thorowgood and others not to open that door to slavery.  However, neither I, nor any of us, can alter the past, although we can seek to better understand and learn from it.  In my time, I can  oppose injustice and seek to make my community, my nation, and my world more inclusive, more kind, and more fair as we strive harder for liberty and justice for all.  I wish the world could have understood earlier how much Black lives really do matter.

Upcoming Post: Envisioning the Invisible: Thorowgood’s First Home in Lynnhaven, Virginia

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1. McCartney, Martha W., Virginia Immigrants and Adventurers 1607-1635 (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 2007), 691-692. ↩
2. Nugent, Nell Marion, Cavaliers and Pioneers: Abstracts of Virginia Land Patents and Grants, 1623-1800, v. I  (Richmond: Dietz Printing Co., 1934), 79. ↩
3. Horn, James, 1619: Jamestown and the Forging of American Democracy (New York: Basic Books, 2018), 85-88. ↩
4. Jarvis, Michael J., “Bermuda and the Beginnings of Black Anglo-America,”  Virginia 1619: Slavery and Freedom in the Making of English America, Paul Musselwhite, Peter C. Mancall and James Horn eds. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2019), 114-115, 125. ↩
5. Horn, 103, 112-114, 239. Jarvis, 125. Billings, Warren M., The Old Dominion in the Seventeenth Century (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2007), 173-178. ↩
6. Horn, 107-108. Morgan, Philip D., “Virginia Slavery in Atlantic Context, 1550 to 1650,”Virginia 1619: Slavery and Freedom in the Making of English America, Paul Musselwhite, Peter C. Mancall and James Horn eds. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2019), 86. ↩
7. McDougall, E. Ann, “The Caravel and the Caravan,” The Atlantic World and Virginia: 1550-1624, Peter C. Mancall, ed. (Chapel Hill: The University or North Carolina Press, 2007), 143-149. Horn, 92-94. Koigi, Bob, “Forgotten Slavery: The Arab-Muslim Slave Trade,” Fair Planet Dossier.  Accessed online  on August 27, 2020 at fairplanet.org/dossier ↩
8. Horn, 92-94. Northrup, David, ” The Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic World,” The Atlantic World and Virginia: 1550-1624, Peter C. Mancall, ed. (Chapel Hill: The University or North Carolina Press, 2007), 174, 227. Davis, David Brion, Slavery in the Colonial Chesapeake (Williamsburg, Virginia: Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, 1986), 2-4. Low Country Digital History Initiative of the College of Charleston, “African Laborers for a New Empire: Iberia, Slavery, and the Atlantic World.” Accessed online August 21, 2020 at ldhi.library.cofc.edu ↩
9. “Dutch Slave Trade” and “French Slave Trade,” Slavery and Remembrance: A Guide to Sites, Museums and Memory, (Williamsburg, Virginia; The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, 2020).  Accessed online on 8/18, 2020 at slaveryandremembrance.org.  Eltis, David, The Rise of African Slavery in the Americas (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), 37-38, 121-122.  Boucher, Philip P., “Revisioning the French Atlantic,”Virginia 1619: Slavery and Freedom in the Making of English America, Paul Musselwhite, Peter C. Mancall and James Horn eds. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2019), 302-304. Weindl, Andrea, “The Slave Trade of Northern Germany from the Seventeenth to the Nineteenth Centuries,” Extending the Frontiers, Yale Scholarship Online. Accessed 8/15/20 at yale.universitypressscholarship.com ↩
10. Eltis, 61-62. Morgan, 102-104. The National Archives, “Britain and the Slave Trade.”  Accessed online 8/ 14/20 at nationalarchives.gov.uk ↩
11. Billings, 173. Morgan, 85-87. “Virginia Slave Population Map, 1860,” Shaping the Constitution: Resources from the Library of Virginia and the Library of Congress.  Accessed online on 9/8/2020 at edu.lva.virginia.gov. ↩
12. Warren, Wendy, New England Bound: Slavery and Colonization in Early America (New York: Liveright Publishing Corporation, 2016), 7, 11-12; 221-222.  Whiting, Gloria McCahon, ” Race, Slavery, and the Problem of Numbers in Early New England,” The William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd ser. 77:3 (July 2020), 424-427. ↩
13. Eltis, 11.  O’Malley, Gregory E., Final Passages: The Intercolonial Slave Trade of British America, 1619-1807 (Chapel Hill: The University ofNorth Carolina Press, 2014).  “Slavery in the United States” Accessed online at en.wikipedia.org on 8/5/2020. ↩
14. Eltis, 59-60, 147-151. Horn, 115-116. ↩
15. Horn, 105- 107.  LDHI online. Davis, David Brion, The Problem of Slavery in the Age of Revolution 1770-1823 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), 42-44. Warren, 31-33. ↩
16. Davis, Problem of Slavery, 45-47. Eltis, 15-18.  Douglass, Frederick, “The Constitution of the United States: Is it Pro-Slavery or Anti-Slavery?” presented at the Scottish Anti-Slavery Society in Glasgow, Scotland on March 26, 1860.  Accessed online on September 15, 2020 at blackpast . Uzgalis, William, “John Locke, Racism, Slavery, and Indian Lands,” abstracted from The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy and Race.  Accessed 8/18/20 at  Oxford Handbooks Online: Scholarly Research Reviews at oxfordhandbooks.com ↩
17. Billings, 223. Horn, 111-112. Morgan, 86. Nugent, 53, 75, 81. Walczyk, Frank V.,  Northampton County, Virginia Orders and Wills 1698-1710, vol II 1704-1710  (Coram, New York: Peter’s Row, 2001), 7, 128. ↩
18. “The Thorowgood Family of Princess Anne County, Va.” The Richmond Standard.  26 November 1882 ↩

A “Big Bang” Marriage: How Sarah (Offley) met Adam (Thorowgood) in London 1627

This was my  puzzlement–the curiosity that started my research and blog.  How did a twenty-two-year-old young man raised in Norfolk, England, having just spent four years working as an indentured servant in Virginia, suddenly show up in London and, within a year, marry the daughter of a wealthy merchant who was also a granddaughter and great-granddaughter of  Lord Mayors of London?  In the Big Bang Theory of life, how did these two very different orbits ever come crashing into each other? The marriage of Adam Thorowgood to Sarah Offly was recorded in the parish register of St. Anne’s Blackfriars, London, on July 18, 1627.

Jamestown Brides

In the Tenacity: Women in Jamestown and Early Virginia exhibit at Jamestown, it is noted that there was a “poor marriage market” in London in the 1620s.  That may have influenced the decision of some proper maids to accept the Virginia Company’s initiative to provide brides to the settlers at a substantial cost.  Those daring young women retained their right to refuse proposals, but many must have accepted, for it turned out to have been one of the Company’s few lucrative ventures. ¹  However, considering that fewer than 6,000 total men, women, and children migrated to Virginia over 17 years (1607-1624), that could not have been solely responsible for the decrease in marriageable men in England’s population of about 4 million. Certainly, the 1625 plague and disastrous military campaign at Breda would have affected the London “marriage market” the year Adam returned.² So, how then did Sarah manage to find and catch Adam or was it the other way around? Some possibilities to consider include:

“They Were Childhood Friends”

Wrong.  As noted in prior posts, Adam grew up in Grimston, near Kings Lynn, in Norfolk. Having left for Virginia as an indentured servant in 1621 when only 17 years old, there is no evidence that he had spent any significant time in London or met the Offleys (or Offlys) before leaving.  Sarah would have only been 12 years old at that time, so even if they had a chance meeting before the sailing, it is unlikely either would have thought of courtship.

Survivor of the London Fire  Photo by Maren Mecham

Sarah Offley  grew up at her father’s home on Gracechurch Street in London.  At that time, Gracechurch Street connected to the south with Fish Street Hill which extended over the Old London Bridge where her grandparents once lived. To the north, the street headed through town to join Bishopgate Street.   Sarah’s neighborhood was later consumed by the Great Fire of 1666, but houses which survived near St. Bartholomew’s Church give a sense of  London streets of that era. With her family’s success as merchants, Sarah would have enjoyed a very comfortable life in London. ³

“Dad Made Me Do It”

Wrong again.  Since the 12th century, English parents could arrange and recommend marriages, but not legally force or disallow a marriage of children who were of age. For girls, that was age 12; for boys,  it was 14. Few married that young, and many in that time married in their 20s. Especially if there was property involved, parents worked to arrange advantageous marriages for their children, and,  if those children hoped for a dowry or an inheritance, they would have complied with parental preferences.  ⁴  While both William Thorowgood and Robert Offley were distinguished in their own spheres and probably would have approved the union of their children, there is no evidence they ever encountered or had dealings with each other.

William Thorowgood was born around 1560 in Felsted, Essex, but moved to  Grimston, Norfolk around 1585 when he married Anne Edwards of Norwich, Norfolk, and accepted the post as the Vicar of St. Boltolph’s Church.  All of William’s nine  children were born in Grimston.  Reverend Thorowgood was honored by being appointed  as the commissary for the Bishop of Norwich.  William came from an armorial family. Although not needed for his position with the church, he received “a confirmation of this Armes and Crest” in March 1620. ⁵  While theirs was a legitimate claim, attempts to raise money without Parliament during the reigns of James I and Charles I included expected “loans” from gentry and the selling of knighthoods.⁶ The crest “confirmation” may have come with a fee, but was probably helpful to his son John who was beginning to move in courtly circles. William Thorowgood sent his son Adam to Virginia, but neither William nor his other sons contributed to or were involved with the Virginia Company or other merchant companies as far as is presently known.

Robert Offley II and his wife, Anne Osbourne, were both born in London. Robert was a “Turkey merchant” with the Levant Company (traders with the Ottomans) whose first Governor was his father-in-law, Sir Edward Osborne.  Osborne had been knighted and had been a Lord Mayor of London (like his father-in -law William Hewitt).  ⁷  Robert II was a member of the Virginia Company of London and invested over £100 there.   He was nominated by James I in 1622 as a Deputy to the General Court, but was not elected by the Company.  He  was also one of the Original Adventurers (investors) of the Somers Islands (Bermuda) in 1615 and supported Bermuda tobacco . ⁸

Both Robert Offley  and William Thorowgood died in 1625, the year before Adam returned from Virginia.  These two deceased dads did not arrange this marriage.

“It Was Big Brother”

Possibly.  Adam and Sarah both had several older brothers who could have been looking out for them.  If so, the contacts would probably have taken place in London.  There are no reports of related Offleys moving to County Norfolk until some of Sarah’s nephews moved there in the second half of the 17th century. ⁹

It has sometimes been assumed that Adam’s older brother, Sir John Thorowgood of Kensington, brought the families together based on his position in the court of King Charles I and the erroneous belief that he had been serving as the secretary to William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke, a significant member of the Virginia Company of London.  As previously noted, though, there were two Sir John Thorowgoods at this time. Pembroke helped his Sir John win a seat in Parliament in 1624, and  that Sir John later married the widow of Sir Henry Neville, III. ¹⁰ On the other hand, Adam’s brother Sir John Thorowgood of Kensington’s prior background is unclear, and he married Frances Meautys.  He likely came to the Court of Charles I around 1625 as a gentleman pensioner when Charles came to the throne.  However, as with others, he was not knighted until the king’s official coronation in Scotland in 1633.  ¹¹ The Levant Company of merchants held considerable influence during the reign of Charles I, so there might possibly have been some interaction between Sir John of Kensington and the Offleys, but it was more likely on business rather than personal matters. ¹²

At the time of Adam’s return to England, two of his older brothers, Thomas and Edmund, were preachers in Norfolk; Mourdant had died the previous year in the Siege of Breda; William had settled around Norfolk as had his sister Frances Thorowgood Griffith and his younger step-brother Robert.  Little is known of Edward, his eldest brother, although he might have resided in London.  If one of Adam’s brothers was not the match maker, there were other Thorowgoods in London, possibly cousins or uncles, who might have had dealings with the Offleys.  Thomas Thorowgood, a draper, who was noted to have rented a shop/residence outlined in Ralph Treswell’s survey of Pancras Lane, could have been a relative.¹³

Oldest House in London Photo by Maren Mecham

Sarah’s siblings might also have been likely players in this mutually advantageous match.  The Offley family had been interested in new settlements and trade and may have been anxious to have their own Virginia connection now that there would be no profits being returned from their father’s investment in the defunct Virginia Company. Adam Thorowgood could have been notable in the London “marriage market” because he had not only survived  disease and the Indian uprising in Virginia, but he also knew how to work tobacco, had just purchased 150 acres of good river land in Virginia, had an inheritance from his father, and was enthusiastically recruiting others to  join him in the Colony which would then grant him more land.  ¹⁴ He was a healthy (hopefully handsome-enough) young man who was poised to progress. Adam also would have benefitted greatly from the match with Sarah, as that would have likely resulted in a substantial dowry as well as connections to the commercial contacts of the Offley/ Osborne family.

Sarah and her sisters might have been even more daring than her brothers. They likely had watched with interest as the Virginia Company had recruited “young, handsome, and honestly-educated Maids” to send to the Colony in 1620-21 on “bride ships” to establish families and bring greater stability and order to colonial society.  These women were as much “adventurers” as their male counterparts.  ¹⁵ Just as Adam had chosen a life of adventure in Virginia when he was 17, so Sarah at age 18 was also drawn to that life.

While her brothers continued their work in England, at least one of her sisters and spouse later followed Sarah and Adam and settled in Lower Norfolk, Virginia. Robert Hayes and Anne Offley Workman Hayes were there before 1638 when he was elected to the Assembly. There must have been comfort in having a sister nearby to help face the challenges of the New World.   Adam’s brother-in-law, Edward Windham, whose sister Ann Windham had married Adam’s brother Thomas in 1623 in Norfolk, England, also came to Virginia giving them more family connections  

“They Met at Church”

St. Bartholomew, London Fire Survivor  Photo by Maren Mecham

Intriguing Idea.  What church were Sarah and Adam attending?  Already in England, there were divisions over congregations and preachers with Puritan leanings and those with traditional/conservative Anglican practices. Probably, Adam’s brother, Sir John, newly come to Charles I’s Court, would have been involved with a conservative congregation at that point.  Just the year before, Sarah’s family had buried their father, Robert, at their neighborhood church, St. Benet’s of Gracechurch Street with its new steeple. Sarah and her siblings had been christened there, Sarah on April 16, 1609. Her grandparents were buried there.  Gracechurch was their family church, and it appeared to be a traditional congregation. ¹⁶

Blackfriars (Ireland Yard) Photo by Maren Mecham

So why then did Adam and Sarah choose to marry in St. Anne’s of Blackfriars, a strongly Puritan church? The Blackfriars area was an exciting and eclectic part of 17th century London.  The Dominican (Black Friars) monastery had been dissolved by Henry VIII around 1541.  Tennis courts were set up at the site as well as the church known as St. Anne’s.  Shakespeare owned a place close to the private, covered Blackfriars Theater that had been built on monastery lands. It could hold up to 700 people and was frequented by the wealthy and well educated. Being a favorite theater of King James, the actors there became known as the King’s Men. In addition, many artists, such as Anthony Van Dyke,  lived in the quarter and attended St. Anne’s. Unfortunately, St. Anne’s and the neighborhood were also destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666.  Only part of a wall remains. The church was never rebuilt, and the parish was incorporated into St. Andrew-by-the-Wardrobe.

William Gouge, a known Puritan, was a lecturer there by 1622.  For forty-six years, he would serve as the “laborious, the exemplary, the much-loved minister of St. Ann’s Blackfriars” who said his highest ambition was “to go from Blackfriars to Heaven.” ¹⁷  Later, in 1643, he would serve on the Westminster Assembly of Divines with Adam’s brother, Thomas Thorowgood, also a noted Puritan.  Might Thomas have heard about Reverend Gouge and recommended that congregation to Adam in 1626?  Norfolk was known for its Puritan leanings.  But as the wedding in London was probably planned by the bride and her family, what or who brought Sarah to Blackfriars?  Was it “in” to be married by Reverend Gouge? Were they both drawn to novelty and excitement in that lively part of town?  Was there a daring element of nonconformity and independence in them, a desire to be “on the cutting edge”?  Those kind of  traits would serve them well in the New World.

Sarah and Adam would certainly have been familiar with Reverend William Gouge’s famous sermon “Of Domestical Duties”  delivered there in 1622 which was considered a “text” on family life in that era.  In the hierarchical structure popular in that age, Reverend Gouge saw a wife as above her children, but below her husband who was to be  “as a Priest unto his wife…. He is as a king in his owne house.” ¹⁸  There are no records of Sarah ever being in conflict with the three spouses in her life.  However, she became a strong and forthright woman, not to be intimidated by other men she encountered.

“Cupid was the Culprit”  

Daniel Heinsius, Cupido, 1615

Surely.  Being the era of Shakespeare, when Cupid traveled with a full quiver of love’s arrows to send into the hearts of unsuspecting lovers, it is likely Cupid had some part in bringing Sarah and Adam together. Did their hearts flutter at a chance encounter at the market place, during a furtive glance in a church service, or at an introduction by family or friends?  Despite his restricted view on a woman’s place, even Reverend  William Gough encouraged “love matches.” Hopefully, that’s what Sarah and Adam had found. No matter how this match was made, the Thorowgood-Offley alliance turned out to be a good one.

Special Thanks again to Maren Mecham for the use of her London photographs.

Footnotes:

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1.   Bruce, Philip Alexander, Social Life of Virginia in the Seventeenth Century. 2nd Edition.  (Lynchburg, Virginia: J.P. Bell Company, 1927), 233-4.  Potter, Jennifer, The Jamestown Brides: The Story of England’s Maids for Virginia (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019). ↩
2.  Population of Virginia. Accessed online 9/20/2019 at http://www/virginiaplaces.org/population. ↩
3. Bell, Walter George, The Great Fire of London in 1666 (New York: John Lane Company, 1920), 377.  Tinniswood, Adrian, By Permission of Heaven (New York: Riverhead Books, 2004). ↩
4.   Horn, James, Adapting to a New World:  English Society in the Seventeenth Century Chesapeake (Chapel Hill:  University of North Carolina Press, 1994), 206-207.   Walsh, Lorena S. “Till Death Us Do Part: Marriage and Family in Seventeenth Century Maryland,” in The Chesapeake in the Seventeenth Century, Thad W. Tate and David L. Ammerman, eds. (Chapel Hill: North Carolina University Press, 1979) 126- 140. ↩
5.   Harrison, William Welsh, Harrison, Waples, and Allied Families (Philadelphia: Edward Stein & Co published for private circulation only, 1910) 131-132. Facsimile.  “Rev. William Thorowgood 1560-19 May 1625” Family Search (online database).  Accessed online 9/5/2019. ↩
6. ” Thirty-Pound Gentlemen and the Jacobean Inflation of Honours,” Map of Early Modern London (MoEML): Encyclopedia.  University of Victoria: MoEML v.6.3, svn rev. 12049 2018-06-19. Accessed online 9-18-2019. ↩
7.   Dorman, John Frederick, Adventurers of Purse and Person, Virginia, 1607-1624/5,  2,(Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co, 2004), 697-701.   Wood, Alfred C., A History of the Levant Company, New York:Barnes & Noble, Inc, 1935), 7-20.  Brenner, Robert, Merchants and Revolution: Commercial Change, Political Conflict, and London’s Overseas Traders 1550-1653 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993), 18-19.  Harwood, “Pedigree of Offley,” The Genealogist: A Quarterly Magazine of Genealogical, Antiquarian, Topographical, and Heraldic Research, XIX, 1903, 217-231. ↩
8.   Dorman., 697-8. Brenner, 18-19. Kingsley, Susan Myra (ed.), The Records of the Virginia Company of London, II (Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office, 1906), 28. Kingsley, Susan Myra (ed.), The Records of the Virginia Company of London, III (Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office, 1933), 86.  LeFroy, J. H., Memorials of the Discovery and Early Settlement of the Bermudas or Somers Islands, vol. I (London: Bermuda Government Library, reprinted 1932), 100. ↩
9.   “Norfolk Connections,”  The Offley Newsletter, Newsletter No. 11 (Cambridge, England: self published by The Offley Family Society, Spring 1989), 12-13. ↩
10. Thrush, Andrew and John P. Ferris, ed.,  Thorowgood, John (1588-1657), of Brewer’s Lane, Charing Cross, Westminster; later of Billingbear, Berks. and Clerkenwell, Mdx.  accessed 7/7/2018 at   history of parliament online ↩
11. Matthew, H. C. G.,  and Brian Harrison ed., “Thoroughgood, John” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 54 (London: Oxford University Press, 2004), 660-662. Will of Sir John Thorowgood of Kensington, 1675, Catalogue Reference Prob /11/349, Public Records Office:  The National Archives (UK). ↩
12.   Brenner, 281-283. ↩
13. Schofield, John, The London Surveys of Ralph Treswell  (Leeds, England:  W.S. Maney & Son, 1987), 106-107. ↩
14. McCartney, Martha W.  Jamestown People to 1800: Landowners, Public Officials, Minorities, and Native Leaders, (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 2012), 403. ↩
15.   Potter, 7.  Horn, James, Mark Summers, and David Givens, 1619-2019 Democracy, Diversity, Discovery (Jamestown: The Jamestown Rediscovery Foundation and Preservation Virginia, 2019), 23. ↩
16. Harwood, “Pedigree of Offley,” The Genealogist: A Quarterly Magazine of Genealogical, Antiquarian, Topographical, and Heraldic Research, XIX, 1903, 217-231.  Ancestry.com London, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages, and Burials, 1518-1812 (database online). Provo, UT, USA.  Accessed online 12/5/2017. ↩
17.   White, James George, The Churches and Chapels of Old London: with a short account of those who have ministered in them, (London: C. E. Gray, Printer,  printed for private circulation, 1901), 33. Accessed online through andrea@archive. org  on 9/15/19. ↩
18. Horn, 205. ↩

Verdict in the SeaVenture Murder Mystery

Justice

Shakespeare

Shipwrecks, murder, storms, greed, and mistaken identities:  these are common elements of a good play by Shakespeare.  They are also all found in the true tale of the SeaVenture shipwreck on Bermuda in 1609 (which Shakespeare incorporated into The Tempest) and the life of Edward Waters.  In my last post, I put the evidence on trial as to whether Edward Waters, to whom Adam Thoroughgood was indentured in 1621, was a killer and/or a pirate.  Here, I will post my verdict and the basis for my conclusions.  I encourage you to refer to Edward Waters and a Trial of the SeaVenture Murder: Bermuda 1609 if you have not already read it or this may not make much sense.

Shakespeare, himself, had his heroine Juliette pose the question, “What is in a name?”  (Romeo and Juliette)  In this case, the name seems to be the issue on which the verdict hangs.  Everyone basically agreed that the sailor Edward Samuel was killed with a shovel by another sailor with the last name of Waters in a dispute shortly after the shipwreck on Bermuda.  He then hid on the island and refused to join the other passengers when they finally sailed to Virginia in 1610. ¹ But was it Edward Waters, who later became a settler in Virginia, or a Robert Waters, who was not again mentioned?  As I pointed out before, this matter has divided authors and scholars since the seventeenth century who have either rallied behind William Strachey’s “Robert” or John Smith’s “Edward.”

As I delved into the records and accounts of the SeaVenture and the life of Edward Waters, there was one item which I found compelling in my verdict that he was not the person who killed Edward Samuel on Bermuda.  I was not convinced by the much-touted reference to Alexander Brown’s finding of a confession of a diseased and distraught sailor on his way to the East Indies.  In the quote that Mr. Brown provided in defense of Edward Waters in 1890, the sailor’s name was not directly quoted nor was there any solid connection provided to the incident in Bermuda.² There could be more supporting evidence in that record, but someone would need to find it.

King James I

In 1624 King James I revoked the charter of the financially-strapped Virginia Company of London and made Virginia a Royal Colony.  At that time, he ordered a muster (census) to be taken in a house to house survey that included information about where the settlers  were living, their ages, and the dates and ships of their arrival to Virginia.  Information was also collected about the households’ food, arms, livestock, and buildings and boats; however, apparently, women, children, and servants were not significant enough to include.

In the Muster, Edward Waters was living in Elizabeth Cittie and listed as the head of the household.  He was reported to have 37 barrels of corn and  1500 dry fish (far more than his neighbors); no livestock (very few had any);  1 boat, 4 houses/buildings, and 1 palisade; 10 pounds of powder, 100 pounds of lead, 11″pieces” (muskets?), 1 pistol, 6 swords, and 4 “armors and coates.”  Edward Waters gave his age as 40 and stated he had arrived in Virginia on the Patience, having left England in 1608.  He had actually embarked on the SeaVenture in 1609, but with the Julian calendar still in use in England, it would have been only a few months into that new year. ³

400th Anniversary Memorial, Bermuda             Permission by R. Suerdieck

However, the name Edward Waters listed for his ship is  the critical information. The Patience was one of the two ships built in Bermuda to take the shipwreck survivors to Virginia in 1610.  It only made one voyage bringing passengers there.  If Edward Waters went to Virginia on the Patience, he could not have been the sailor who everyone agreed hid out and refused to leave Bermuda. No one in Virginia later disputed his claim to have been on the Patience, and there were still several, including Sir George Yeardley, who had been shipwrecked with him that could have challenged a false claim.   Edward Waters was awarded 100 acres as an Ancient Planter based on the report that he had arrived in Virginia prior to 1616. ⁴

Somer’s Garden, Bermuda Permission by R. Suerdieck

I also found the record that has been ascribed to Governor Butler, an early governor of Bermuda, to be supportive.  While the Governor never met Edward Waters, he would have known of him through Christopher Carter who was the only man who knew the full story, having never left Bermuda after the shipwreck.  Following Christopher Carter’s  attempt to lead a mutiny among the SeaVenture survivors, he escaped and joined the sailor who had killed Edward Samuel.  Based on The Historye of the Bermudaes or Summer Islands, the man who stayed on Bermuda with Carter when the others went to Virginia was a “Robert Walters.”  Then, after Sir George Somers returned to Bermuda and died, it was reported that only one of the two original men stayed on the island when the ship left to take the body of Sir George to England. The two new sailors who chose to stay with Christopher Carter were  Edward Waters and Edward Chard. ⁵ The information passed on by Carter is in line with what William Strachey, who was also on the shipwreck, had written.

The other “evidence” which reinforces my belief that Edward Waters  was not the killer is that society at the time did not take murder lightly.  Even if pardoned by Governor Gates, the stigma would have remained.  Yet, Edward Waters became a justice in the local Virginia Court and was even elected as a Burgess. If the man who killed Edward Samuel was too afraid to go to Virginia with the others in 1610, why would he later risk coming as a colonist?  Would a man known to have killed another be elected and appointed to leadership positions in the Colony at that time?

That does not mean that  Edward Waters’ conduct was spotless.  He was ready to resort to violence with Edward Chard over disputes regarding the ambergris.  He also  chose to join the shady voyage to the West Indies for “supplies” which Richard Norwood refused to be part of.  That group of 32 from Bermuda were never designated as pirates or privateers, although they did attack and capture a Portuguese vessel while they were “off-course” in the Canary Islands, had an encounter with  a French pirate, and later were rescued after another shipwreck on a deserted isle by an unnamed English pirate.⁶  Many questions can be raised, but few answered, about what really occurred during those five years between when he left Bermuda and returned to Virginia.  I would conclude that Edward Waters might have been capable of killing someone in a fit of anger, but I believe his arrival in Virginia on the Patience indicates that he did not.

Comedy of Errors by Shakespeare

There are a lot of Edwards in this story: Edward Samuel, Edward Chard, and Edward Waters.  Could the sources that Captain John Smith consulted when he wrote his history of Bermuda have confused the names? ⁷ By the time Smith published his history, Edward Waters was a known name as a finder of the ambergris on Bermuda, a participant in an ill-advised venture to the West Indies, and a Virginia settler who had escaped the Nansemond Indians during the Massacre.  Perhaps the coincidence of having two unrelated Waters on the same ship, both choosing to stay on the uninhabited island one after the other, seemed to Smith, as it does to me, to be improbable, and he merged their stories.  However, sometimes truth can be stranger than fiction.

Special thanks again to Rebecca Suerdieck for the use of photos from her journey to Bermuda in search of the SeaVenture story.  Check out her website at http://www.maryebucke.com

Next post: Adam Thorowgood and Sarah Offley: Finding a 17th Century Spouse

Footnotes:

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1.   Wright, Louis B., A Voyage to Virginia in 1609: Two Narratives (Charlottesville VA: University of Virginia Press, 1964), 5-16, 105-109. ↩
2.   Brown, Alexander, The Genesis of the United States, vol. II (Bowie, Maryland: Heritage Books, facsimile reprint 1994; original copyright 1890), 1042. ↩
3. Shifflett, Crandall, “Search the Jamestown 1624/5 Muster Records,”  Viritual Jamestown, (1999, 2000) accessed online on 6/29/2019 at  http://www.virtualjamestown.org/Muster/muster24.html ↩
4.   Hotten, John Camden, ed., “Musters of the Inhabitants of Virginia 1624,” The Original Lists of Persons of Quality, (Berryville, VA: Virginia Book Company, 1980), 253. ↩
5.   Lefroy, J. Henry, ed., The Historye of the Bermudaes or Summer Islands, transcribed from Manuscript in the Sloane Collection, British Museum (London: Hakluyt Society, 1882), 15.  Lefroy, J. H., Memorials of the Discovery and Early Settlement of the Bermudas or Somers Islands 1515-1685, vol. I (London: Bermuda Government Library, reprinted 1932), 14. ↩
6.   Kennedy, Jean, Isle of Devils: Bermuda under the Somers Island Company 1609-1685 (Glasgow: Collins, 1971), 84-85. ↩
7.   Smith, John, ” The Fifth Book: The General Historie of the Bermudas,” The Complete Works of Captain John Smith (1580-1631), edited by Philip L. Barbour, vol. II (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1986), 350. ↩

Edward Waters and a Trial of the SeaVenture Murder: Bermuda 1609

Tercentenary Monument to SeaVenture in Bermuda                                      Used with  Permission of Rebecca Suerdieck

“Putting the Evidence on Trial”

Ladies and Gentlemen of the Jury: Today you are asked to investigate a most unusual murder case that will involve conjuring up the deceased to determine if there is sufficient evidence to convict Edward Waters of the murder of Edward Samuel on the island of Bermuda in 1609. Briefs have been submitted by family and friends on behalf of Edward Waters, claiming that he is not the one and that there is no reason to once again cast dispersion on his honored name. However, please carefully consider the facts.

Captain Christopher Newport

For my first witness, I call Captain Christopher Newport, the famed Captain who led the first fleet to Jamestown and was chosen to return with the Third Supply of nine ships. Captain Newport, how did you and the defendant, Edward Waters, come to be on the Island of Bermuda in 1609?

Sea Venture, World Heritage Center Permission R. Suerdieck

The Virginia Company of London did me the great honor of appointing me Captain of our excellent new ship, the SeaVenture, to transport needed supplies and passengers to the Colony of Virginia. As this was the largest and best of our ships, it was determined that Sir Thomas Gates, our newly appointed Governor, Sir George Somers, our Admiral, and other important Colony leaders should accompany me. All went well for much of the journey until about a week before our expected landfall at Cape Henry. Suddenly a storm came upon us unlike any I or my fellow seamen had experienced. My passengers have described it well.¹

William Strachey: …the clouds gathering thick upon us and the winds singing and whistling most unusually…, a dreadful storm and hideous began to blow….at length (it) did blow all light from Heaven…. The storm…had blown so exceedingly as we could not apprehend in our imaginations any possibility of greater violence; yet did we still find it not only more terrible but more constant, fury added to fury…. Prayers might well be in the heart and lips but drowned in the outcries of officers: nothing heard that could give comfort, nothing seen that might encourage hope.

Silvester Jourdain: …with the violent working of the the seas, our ship became so shaken, torn, and leaked that she received so much water as covered two tier of hogsheads above the ballast; that our men stood up to the middles with buckets… to bail out the water and continually pumped for three days and three nights together without any intermission; and yet the water seemed rather to increase than to diminish. Insomuch that all our men, being utterly spent, tired, and disabled for longer labor, were even resolved, without any hope of their lives, to shut up the hatches and to have committed themselves to the mercy of the sea (which is said to be merciless)….

The Gust of Wind by W. v. Velde

On the morning of the fourth day, as we despaired and prepared to meet our God, Admiral Somers, who had tried to steer us through the storm while lashed to the deck without food or water, cried out that land was sighted. However, it was not Virginia, but the much to be feared Devil’s Island, a haunted isle of demons and shipwrecks. Desperate, Sir George ran our ship between two reefs, steadying the SeaVenture so all of the 150 passengers could be ferried to land. We then returned to salvage what we could from the ship which was damaged beyond repair. To our surprise, we found the island to be an uninhabited paradise. The demons and fairies were no more than cahow birds and wild hogs upon which we did feast.

SeaVenture Landing Site, Bermuda  Used by Permission of Rebecca Suerdieck

Edward Waters was one of Admiral Somer’s crew. Shortly after we arrived, there was a dispute between two sailors, Waters and Samuel. Edward Samuel died when Waters hit him with a shovel. I do not know what the argument was about. There was an issue over jurisdiction on the island, as Admiral Somers was in charge during the voyage and Governor Gates was not the official governor until Virginia. The survivors soon divided, the passengers remaining with Governor Gates and the sailors removing themselves to another part of the islands, each tasked with building a new boat to carry them to Virginia. “The secret was that the sea and land commanders, being alienated one from another ( a quality over common to the English) and fallen into jealousies, there was produced, not only a separation of the company…but an affection of disgracing one another….” ²

I next call William Strachey, the Secretary of the Colony and author of “A True Reportory of the Wreck and Redemption of Sir Thomas Gates, Knight upon and from the Islands of Bermudas….” Mr. Strachey, you wrote about the murder. Did you witness it? No, I did not. However, this is what I know: ³

That Waters was a sailor, who at his first landing upon the island…killed another fellow sailor of his….We buried …one untimely, Edward Samuel, a sailor, being villainously killed by the foresaid Robert Waters (a sailor likewise) with a shovel, who strake him therewith under the lift of the ear; to which he was apprehended and appointed to be hanged the next day….But being bound fast to a tree all night, with many ropes and a guard of five or six to attend him, his fellow sailors…in despite and disdain that justice should be showed upon a sailor…they cut his bonds and conveyed him into the woods, where they fed him nightly and closely, who afterward by the mediation of Sir George Somers, upon many conditions, had his trial respited by our governor. 

Are you certain that his name was Robert Waters? I did not know him well as I seldom mixed with the crew on the voyage. Then we were very busy during the storm and in setting up our camp. He fled to the woods after the murder; his crew mates left us shortly thereafter, but, yes, I believe that is what they called him.

Captain John Smith

Captain John Smith, would you please step to the bar. In 1624 you wrote “The Fifth Book: The General Historie of the Bermudas … with their proceedings, accidents, and present estate.” Yet you were never present on Bermuda. Where did you obtain your information and whom do you believe killed Edward Samuel?

The tales of the SeaVenture shipwreck created quite a stir when survivors and their manuscripts started to show up in England. Even our favored barb, William Shakespeare, worked some of this into his play The Tempest. In my book, I cited my sources as Master Jordan (Jourdain), Master John Euens, Master Henry Shelly and others such as Governor Nathaniel Butler, Richard Norrod (Norwood), Mr. Pollard and Thomas Sparkes. According to my sources, when the boats were finished, the company departed for Virginia ⁴

…only leaving two men behind them, called Christopher Carter and Edward Waters, that for their offenses, or the suspicion they had of their judgments, fled into the woods, and there rather desired to end their days than stand to their trials and the event of justice….Waters being tied to a tree also to be executed, had by chance a knife about him, and so secretly cut the rope, he ran into the woods where they could not find him.

Are you certain that his name was Edward Waters and that your sources did not confuse his first name with that of the victim? Can you provide us with the reports of Master Euens and Master Shelley? I have heard that their reports have gone missing over these many years. I wrote what I found and was told. I believe that Edward Waters was the person who killed Edward Samuel, stayed on Bermuda the first and second time, and was kidnapped, but escaped, from the Nansemonds after the 1622 Massacre in Virginia. I have heard that some think I have the wrong name of the killer, and yet they still accept the other information I provided on the life of Edward Waters in Bermuda after the death of Sir George Somers. ⁵

Sir George Somers  Permission by R. Suerdieck

Then, let us now hear from Sir George Somers. Sir, how was it that you and most of the company reached Virginia? Why did you then return to Bermuda?

There were many of the common people amongst us who wanted to stay in the paradise of Bermuda, and we had three serious threats of mutiny. However, our charge had been to deliver the settlers to Virginia. I had talked to Governor Gates who agreed to pardon Waters and Christopher Carter, a leader of the mutiny. However, they did not trust the truce and refused to come with us. I reassured them we would return. We knew they would be able to survive there and thought they could help maintain England’s claim to the island. ⁶

Historic Jamestowne

On May 24, 1610, we arrived at Jamestown in our new boats, the Patience and Deliverer, only to find the settlers in desperate condition. Of the 400 who had been there in the fall, only 60 pitiful colonists remained after the Starving Time. They had eaten their belts and shoes, rats and snakes, and, in desperation, had even eaten the flesh of some who had already died. The other ships of our original fleet had arrived in late summer 1609 after the hurricane, but as their cargo had been tossed overboard, they brought only more mouths to feed with no supplies. Shortly after our arrival, Governor Gates made the difficult decision to abandon Jamestown, as it was no longer sustainable in that condition. We planned to leave for Newfoundland where arrangements could be made to return the colonists to England. With sadness, we buried the cannon, but looked forward to returning home to England as we headed down the James River. ⁷

Then, as I related in my letter of June 20, 1610 to the Earl of Salisbury:⁸

We met with the Lord La Ware (DeLa Ware) and Lord Governor which made our hearts very glad and we presently returned up to Jamestowne….I am going to the Bermuda for fish and hogs with small pinnaces and am in a good opinion to be back again before the Indians do gather their harvest. The Bermuda is the most plentiful place that ever I came to, for fish and fowl. Thus wishing all health with the increase of honor do humbly take my leave from Virginia.”

I took my nephew Matthew and a select group of sailors with me. Edward Waters, having come to Virginia with me on the Patience, was one of them. Samuel Argall also set sail, but we were separated in a storm. He returned to Jamestown, never finding the island. ⁹

Bermuda Reefs   Permission by R. Suerdieck

If Edward Waters had been with you on the Patience, then whom did you find in Bermuda? Having returned today for this inquiry from two graves , Admiral Somers, are you aware of what happened to you while there?

We found the two sailors we left on the island “alive and lustie.” ¹⁰ Despite having survived the hurricane and nine months on Bermuda, this time, however,  my feasting upon the hogs resulted in my death. It was most inconvenient. Contrary to following my strict instructions to bury me on beautiful Bermuda and then take food to Virginia, my greedy nephew, hoping to gain my inheritance, decided to take my body back to England to prove I was dead. They buried my heart and entrails, embalmed the rest of me, put me in a cedar box, and snuck me inconspicuously into the cargo without the knowledge of superstitious sailors. In England, I was given a ceremonious funeral. Having disobeyed me, I’m glad that my nephew never did get my inheritance. This time three of the sailors stayed on the island: Christopher Carter, Edward Waters, and Edward Chard. ¹¹

Grave of Sir George Somer’s Heart  Permission of R. Suerdieck

Another Edward? I am confused. Which Waters stayed on the island? Excuse me. Perhaps I can help. I am Alexander Brown of the Virginia Historical Society and author of The Genesis of the United States which I published in 1890. I am here at the request of Edward Waters’ family. I became aware of “the badly mixed-up and unfriendly account of this voyage” given in Smith’s History. Knowing that ¹²

the descendants of Capt. Edward Waters are numerous and respectable (some of them highly honorable) citizens of this country, it gave me pleasure to be able to clear their ancestor of the crime of murder, which Capt. John Smith fastened on him. The real murderer was a sailor named Robert Waters; he it was who remained in the Bermudas with Christopher Carter when Gates sailed to Virginia in May, 1610. He returned to England with Capt. Matthew Somers; entered the service of the E.I. Co. (East India Company), and died at sea on the voyage to East India, August 6, 1614, ‘a man long diseased in bodie, disturbed in minde by torment of conscience, for a man by him killed in Virginia.’

Site of Sea Venture Wreck   Permission by R. Suerdieck

So, you would have us believe that there were two unrelated men with identical last names, both assigned to the same crew, who both chose to stay, one after the other, on a primitive island? With due respect, Mr. Brown, I am acquainted with many of the fine documents you preserved in your book, but can you or anyone here produce a complete copy of this East India Company record? Your quote simply states you found a record of “a man” on his way to East India who was “long diseased in body” and not in his right mind who confessed to a killing in Virginia. Was there anything in the account you found that directly links this person to the murder of Edward Samuel in Bermuda?

You stated that you were trying to help his descendants. However, from the testimony we have heard so far, the Waters who first stayed on the island was in good health and not mentally distraught when Somers and his crew returned to Bermuda. Why then would he have wanted to leave Bermuda or suddenly have had debilitating pangs of conscience? Is there any evidence you can produce at this time that this was the same man who enlisted with the East India Company? Can anyone locate this document?

SeaVenture 400th Anniversary Memorial  by R. Suerdieck

I next call as an expert witness Major-General J. H. Lefroy, a former governor of Bermuda and compiler of the two volume “Memorials of the Discovery and Early Settlement of the Bermudas or Somer Island,” published in 1882. Gen. Lefroy, we appreciate your diligence in collecting manuscripts pertaining to the founding of Bermuda, including your transcription of an untitled manuscript from the British Museum for the Hakluyt Society which you thought might have been authored by John Smith. I understand that it is now ascribed to Nathaniel Butler, governor of Bermuda from 1619-1622 . What additional information did you find regarding the murder and Edward Water’s activities after the death of Sir George Somers?

The Carter House and 1612 Reconstructed Hut Permission by R. Suerdieck

Neither the report by Master Jordain nor the transcription of Governor Butler even mentioned the murder incident. Based on his sources, Governor Butler stated the the two men left hiding on Bermuda when the colonists went to Virginia were Christopher Carter and a Robert Walters. After the death of Sir George Somers, Governor Butler said that the ship’s captain ¹³

forced the rest…to shape their course toward England; so that once again these islands had been desolate, had it not been for one of those two formerly left behind , named Christopher Carter, (who, for that fact only deserves to be mentioned)……He would by no means be induced to return with the rest…the which moved them all, especially it wrought upon the humours of two (one of which had been Sir George’s servant), so that at last offered themselves to be the companions….

Map of Bermuda Based on Survey by Richard Norwood

Edward Waters, Christopher Carter, and Edward Chard then ¹⁴

… began to erect their little commonwealth , for a while with brotherly regency….Then…they chanced upon the greatest piece of Amber- greese (ambergris) was ever seene or heard of in one lump, being in weight four-score pound, besides divers other small pieces. But now being rich, they grew so proud and ambitious contempt took such place, they fell out for superiority, though but three forlorne men, more than three thousand miles from their native country….Notwithstanding, they sometimes fell from words to blows about mere trifles. At last Chard and Waters the two greater spirits must try it out in the field, but Carter wisely stole away their weapons…. And thus those miserable men lived two full years….

Please continue General Lefroy. How did Edward Waters get to Virginia and what about his rumored connection to Pirates? In 1612, the Virginia Company decided to sent 50 settlers to Bermuda under Master More as Governor. The “Three Kings of Bermuda,” as they became known, intended to keep their finding of ambergris quiet as this ingredient (sperm whale vomit) used for perfumes was (and still is) more rare and valuable by the ounce than gold. However, Master More became aware of the find when, after much questioning, Carter revealed the plot. The Virginia Company laid claim to the ambergris, although Governor Moore would not send it all at once, as a surety the Company would not abandon them. Carter, Chard, and Waters were given nothing, although it was never known how much they really found. Master More returned to England after a year, and a Council of Six was chosen to administer the island, each serving for a month until a new governor arrived. Edward Waters and Christoper Carter were among those chosen. ¹⁵

At the end of the first month, the first of the counselors, Caldicott, persuaded thirty-two others, including Edward Waters and Edward Chard, to go with him to the West Indies for “supplies” (loot). Richard Norwood, the surveyor, wrote in his diary: ¹⁶

Mr. Knight…was desirous that I was to go with him as his mate. But knowing what their design was, namely to rob and take what they could, it pleased the Lord to stay my heart from running into such a desperate evil course….And afterwards roving at sea they were driven to great extremity and at last, I have heard, taken by the Spanish who hanged up divers of them, what became of the rest I know not.

Captain John Smith related in his book: ¹⁷

But this poor vessel, whether through bad weather, or want of Mariners or both …instead of the Indies fell in with the Canaries (Canary Islands) ….where (it) was taken by a French Pickaroune (pirate), so that the Frigate … makes a second time for the West Indies, where she no sooner arrived, but foundered (filled with water or failed) in the sea; but the men in their boat recovered a desolate Isle, where after some few months stay, an English pirate took them in, and some of them at last got for England….

Edward Waters obviously did not return in time to serve his month as one of the Council of Six of Bermuda. About five years after leaving Bermuda for this venture, Edward Waters showed up as a colonist in Virginia.

Sir George Yeardley Jamestowne Interpreter

Sir George Yeardley, please step forward. You had the opportunity to know Edward Waters both as a fellow survivor of the shipwreck in Bermuda as well as an “ancient planter” in Virginia. As Deputy Governor and then Governor of Virginia , did you receive any formal complaints or demands for justice from other SeaVenture survivors regarding Edward Water’s behavior in Bermuda once he arrived in Virginia? Was he ever brought to court in Virginia for piracy or threatening or violent behavior?

I believe Edward Waters finally came to Virginia as a colonist around 1617, and he acquired 100 acres of land as an “ancient planter” near Blount’s Point in the Elizabeth Cittie Parish. I never received formal complaints against him from the former Bermuda passengers and am unaware of any court proceedings against him for threats or violent behaviors at least until my own death in 1628. He married a fine young woman who was actually working in my household at the time of their marriage around 1621. I did not object to their union. He was not charged with piracy. ¹⁸

Adam Thorowgood at Thoroughgood Education Center, Virginia Beach

Captain Adam Thorowgood, please approach the bar. I understand you worked for Edward Waters as an indentured servant near Blount’s Point. According to court records, I see you yourself were involved in an incident during that time when two servants died. Would you explain the incident and Mr. Water’s reaction? Did you ever see episodes of unprovoked anger or have reason to fear for your life while working for him?

I was seventeen when I began as an indentured servant for Edward Waters in 1621 at Water’s Creek in Elizabeth Cittie Parish. Mr. Waters was a fair master. We were all very concerned when he and Mrs. Waters were kidnapped by the Nansemonds during the Massacre and excited when they returned. It is true that on New Year’s Eve 1625, I and six others foolishly took the Grace out on the river without permission. Not being skilled sailors, we could not manage it, and five ended up going overboard. With our calls for help, others assisted in pulling three out of the water. Tragically, the other two drowned. I was relieved when the case was dismissed. Whereas some masters would have punished their servants, prolonged the contract, or dismissed them, I was allowed to complete my contract with Mr. Waters, although I learned a serious lesson. The following year, I purchased some land near Mr. Waters on the Back River in Hampton. We continued as good friends and neighbors. ¹⁹

Church attended by Waters and Thorowgood

Mr. Waters held important leadership positions during the years I knew him intimately. He was deemed to be a gentleman in 1625, became a justice of Elizabeth Cittie’s court the next year, and was elected a Burgess. He also served as a Captain in the militia and was particularly pleased when he was promoted to Lieutenant in 1629 and given responsibility over a group of plantations in Elizabeth Cittie Parish. Edward Waters was also a church warden for our parish. I was saddened when I heard of his death in 1630 on a visit to England. He was buried in his home town of Great Nornemead in Hertfordshire, England. His wife remarried Obedience Robins and moved to the Eastern Shore. I always enjoyed his tales of adventure but cannot recall a time I felt threatened by his behavior. ²⁰

Having been a justice for the Lower Norfolk court and a member of the Governor’s Council, I know that any accusation of murder is taken very seriously as it is a heinous crime. However, some leniency can be granted when the death is not intended or in the protection of oneself or others. There are many unexplained facts about the death of Edward Samuel. I note that the sailors who were present, rather than demanding revenge for the death of one of their crew members, protected and assisted the killer. I would conclude that there must have been special circumstances if the esteemed Governor Gates and Admiral Somers both agreed to a pardon.

I would like to thank all of the witnesses for their efforts to appear. I also note that several amicus curiae (briefs of interested parties) have been filed. Those supporting the innocence of Edward Waters include “The Shipwreck that Saved Jamestown,” and ” In the Eye of All Trade”; those accusing Edward Waters of the murder include “Virginia Immigrants and Adventurers,” “Isle of Devils,” and “SeaVenture: Shipwreck, Survival, and the Salvation of the First English Colony in the New World.” ²¹

Ladies and gentlemen of our Public Jury, after considering all of the available evidence, what is your verdict?  (Here’s my verdict) 

Special Thanks to Rebecca Suerdieck for her assistance and permission to use her photos of Bermuda. Check out her website at http://www.maryebucke.com

Footnotes:

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1. Wright, Louis B., A Voyage to Virginia in 1609: Two Narratives (Charlottesville VA: University of Virginia Press, 1964), 5-16, 105-109. ↩
2. Lefroy, J. H., Memorials of the Discovery and Early Settlement of the Bermudas or Somers Islands 1515-1685, vol. I (London: Bermuda Government Library, reprinted 1932), 14. ↩
3. Wright, 53-55. ↩
4. Smith, John, ” The Fifth Book: The General Historie of the Bermudas,” The Complete Works of Captain John Smith (1580-1631), edited by Philip L. Barbour, vol. II (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1986), 350. ↩
5. Smith, John, ” The Fourth Book,” The Complete Works of Captain John Smith (1580-1631), edited by Philip L. Barbour, vol.II (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1986), 308-309. ↩
6. Smith, “The Fifth Book,” 351. ↩
7. Wright, 59-83. ↩
8. Lefroy, Memorials, 11. ↩
9. Hotten, John Camden, ed., “Musters of the Inhabitants of Virginia 1624,” The Original Lists of Persons of Quality, (Berryville, VA: Virginia Book Company, 1980), 253. Brown, Alexander, The Genesis of the United States, vol. II (Bowie, Maryland: Heritage Books, facsimile reprint 1994; original copyright 1890), 1042. ↩
10. Lefroy, J. Henry, ed., The Historye of the Bermudaes or Summer Islands, transcribed from Manuscript in the Sloane Collection, British Museum (London: Hakluyt Society, 1882), 15. ↩
11. Lefroy, Memorials, 52-53. ↩
12. Brown, 1043. ↩
13. Lefroy, Memorials, 53-54. ↩
14. Ibid ↩
15. Kennedy, Jean, Isle of Devils: Bermuda under the Somers Island Company 1609-1685 (Glasgow: Collins, 1971), 84-85. ↩
16. Ibid ↩
17. Smith, “Fifth Book,” 359. ↩
18. McCartney, Martha, Virginia Immigrants and Adventurers 1607-1635: A Biographical Dictionary (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 2007), 722-723. ↩
19. “Minutes of the Council and General Court 1622-1629,” The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, XXV:2 (April 1917), 118-119. Nugent, Nell Marion, Cavaliers and Pioneers: Abstracts of Virginia Land Patents and Grants 1623-1666, vol I (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co, 1974),70-71. ↩
20. McCartney, 722-723. Dorman, John Frederick, Adventurers of Purse and Person Virginia 1607-1624/5, vol. III, 4th edition (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 2007), 473-474. ↩
21. Glover, Lorri and Daniel Blake Smith, The Shipwreck that Saved Jamestown, New York: Henry Holt & Co., 2008. Doherty, Kieran, Sea Venture: Shipwreck, Survival, and the Salvation of the First English Colony in the New World, New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2007. Jarvis, Michael J., In the Eye of All Trade: Maritime Revolution and the Transformation of Bermudian Society 1612-1800: A dissertation presented to the faculty of the Department of History of the College of William and Mary, Ann Arbor: UMI Dissertation Services, 1999. Kennedy, Jean, Isle of Devils: Bermuda under the Somers Island Company 1609-1685, Glasgow: Collins, 1971. ↩