Our 9th Great-grandmother Ann (1604-1666) and Her Virginia Adventure

 

Early Jamestown

 Jay and I have watched five episodes of the series "Jamestown," about three women sent by the Virginia Company to Jamestown in 1619 to marry planters. My only criticism so far is that the married women characters have long straggly hair, instead of linen coifs over neatly pinned hair.  Curious to know more about such women and whether we have a 'tobacco bride' in our lineage, I searched our ancestry. Yes, we do.

The Francis Bonaventure might have resembled this ship, although a bit large I expect.

Ann, whose last name is unknown, arrived in Jamestown in August 1620 aboard the Francis Bonaventure, leased by the Virginia Company. Some believe Ann was a native of the Isle of Wight, but the ship set sail from West Cowes harbor there, so her origin of birth is speculative. After the Crown dissolved the Virginia Company and took sovereignty over the colonies, it conducted an official muster the winter of 1624/5, recording the date when each person arrived, the name of the ship and the person's present age. Married to the 'ancient planter' John Price, Ann was 21 and had a three-month old daughter Mary. The muster failed to list the older son Matthew (c.1623). 

Once married, Ann wore comfortable clothing and a coif over her hair.

 

John Price was the first of Ann's three husbands. He was 40 years old at the muster and had arrived in 1611 with Sir Thomas Dale on the ship Starr. HERE If John Price had been indentured, his time had ended, for in 1619 Governor Yeardley granted him 150 acres and he patented another 150 acres at Bermuda Hundred in Charles City County in 1620. 

On board the Francis Bonaventure carrying Ann and 152 others was Robert Hallom, age 23 at time of muster, indentured to Luke Boyse of Bermuda Hundred, and who would become her second husband in 1630 and our 9th great-grandfather . . . but I get ahead of myself. 

Ann was one of 90 young women brought to Virginia Colony by the Virginia Company in 1620. What possessed her to make that perilous voyage and live in a foreign clime where danger lurked? Hadn't she heard the stories of the Starving Time and of unfriendly indigenous peoples? It's likely her father had died and perhaps lacked a dowry. England was in an economic depression and many young men were too poor to marry. We can assume she was handsome, for the Company had become particular. 

17th century English coif for a married woman

 

The Company promised free passage and a trousseau (petticoats, linen for a coif a married woman would wear as a symbol of her status, an apron, two pairs of shoes and six pairs of sheets), shelter and food on arrival until she chose her husband, who would be well-enough off to afford her, because he would have to recompense the Virginia Company 150 pounds of best leaf tobacco for the expense it laid out for her. She was given the right to own land and to have a servant. The Virginia Company wanted the planters in Virginia to remain, marry,  have children and give permanency to the colony, so the Company's investors could reap their dividends. Unlike the Pilgrims in Massachusetts, who came in family groups for religious freedom, most men came to Virginia alone, intending to make their fortune and return to England. That really wouldn't do.

The Company had tried bringing women earlier - women from prisons - but their behavior had unsettled Jamestown. Now the Company required testimonials of good reputation and character from family and acquaintances. Someone had stepped forward to speak well of young Ann, who was about 17 when she boarded the ship in England, destined to become a founding mother of Virginia.

typical working garb of a Colonial Virginian c.1630

Ann freely chose the Welshman, John Price, probably wanting a man who was established, sober, kind, and would give her a comfortable life. True, he was nearly 20 years older, but he had a great deal of property and likely a newly-built house. If there was romance in their marriage, it was an unexpected benefit. 

John Price's house might have resembled this museum replica. Colonists were not yet building log homes.

 

They lived up the James River from Jamestown at the Neck of Land in Charles City County, which later became Henrico County, and escaped being killed during the Indian Massacre of 1622, when 347 settlers were killed and 20 women carried away, a quarter of Virginia Colony's white population. HERE

Someone conveniently circled in red where Ann and her three husbands lived at the Neck of Land on the south side of the James River.

 

 After the 1622 massacre John Price rose in importance and served in the House of Burgesses in Jamestown. In 1628 he patented another 150 acres. Ann had three children with John before his death in 1628, Matthew, Mary and John (b. 1625). Shortly after he died, she married Robert Hallom, our 9th great-grandfather.

Burnham, County Essex, England, now called Burnham on Crouch

County Essex, England

Closer to Ann's age, Robert Hallom was born in Burnham, County Essex, England, about 1699 and arrived at Jamestown with Ann on the Francis Bonaventure. His indenture to Luke Boyse, who paid his passage and lived near the Prices, was likely for seven years, so he was a free man in time to wed the widow Ann. 

Medieval St. Mary the Virgin Church where Robert Hallom was likely baptized

Perhaps Robert was the love of her life or simply dependable, healthy, and without vice. She had three Price children to care for and he looked after their interests. In 1636 Robert patented 1,000 acres. Ann and Robert had three children together - Robert Hallom (c1629), who went back to the Hallom family in Essex for an apprenticeship, and died without children; Ann Hallom (b.1631), who married John Gundrey; Sarah Hallom (b.1632), our 8th great-grandmother, who married first Samuel Woodward, and then our 8th great-grandfather, John Sturdivant (1630-1684).  Sadly, in 1638, Robert Hallom died. Ann now had six children, for whom she was responsible, apparently without male relatives of either husband nearby for guidance. She was in her mid-thirties.

Shortly thereafter, Ann, as widow of Robert Hallom, was granted 1,000 acres in Henrico, called Turkey Island, "lying N. by E. into the woods, S. by W. upon the river, W. by N. toward Bremo . . . E. by S. towards Turkey Island Creek, adjoining the lands of John Price [i.e., her lands], due by bargain and sale by Arthur Bayly, merchant." Ann was intent on providing an inheritance for her Hallom children and, apparently, she had the means to do it. The following year, her son, Matthew Price, was old enough to claim the 150 acres granted to his father, John Price, in 1619. 

Her third husband, Daniel Llewellin/Lewellyn, was born in Chelmsford, County Essex, England, c1600. (See upper left corner of Essex map above.) He came to Virginia Colony about 1633 and settled near Shirley Hundred in Charles City County (across the James River from Bermuda Hundred on map above). Styled a gentleman, in 1642 he was granted 856 acres on Turkey Creek for transporting 17 persons, two of them being Robert Hallom, likely Ann's son, and his wife Frances Hallom. It indicates that Ann married him shortly after Robert Hallom, Sr's death. Daniel was a militia captain, elected a burgess from Charles City County 1642-44, and again 1646-56; a justice, and sheriff of Charles City County. Later, he received other land grants in the same area. He had good reason to acquire land for tobacco growing. Ann presented him with daughters Margaret (c.1641) and Martha (c1643), and son Daniel Alexander Lewellyn in 1647. Ann had married up - to a gentleman, no less, with political power. She must have been well-satisfied to have produced nine children who reached adulthood. Studies done on the increase in the fertility (and live births, I assume) of women in the New World (Canada and America), compared to that of contemporary women in England and France, concluded that the reason was an improvement in diet.

Tobacco was big business and Daniel Lewellyn made trips back to England. On one trip in the winter of 1663/4, he fell ill and made his will in February 1664.

Church at Chelmsford, County Essex, where Daniel is buried

Summary of Will: Daniel LLUELLIN of Chelmsford, Essex, planter. Lands, tenements, hereditaments in Charles County in upper part of James River in Virginia, to wife Anne for life, then to son Daniel LLUELLIN. Ditto as to goods, but to daughter Martha JONES, two seasoned servants [slaves]. Also to son Daniell LLUELLIN best suit, cloak, coat and hat, second best hat with silver hatband, all linnen [linen] and my sayle skinn [sealskin] trunk. To friend Mary ELSING of Chelmsford, spinster, for care, one of the best white ruggs [likely a thick bed cover] and my new peece [piece] of Dowlas [cloth] saving sufficient for a winding sheet to bury me. To Mary DEERINGTON of Chelmsford, widow, one of the worst [worsted] white rugs. To daughter Margaret CRUSE, 40 shillings to buy her a ring and to her husband, ditto. To son in law [stepson] Robert HALLOM, Ditto. To master Chr. SALTER living in Wine Court without Bishopgate and Ann his wife 10 shillings each for gloves. Goods sent over [to Virginia] this spring and summer to be sold for debts due, rest to son Daniel. Executors: Thomas VERVELL of Roxwell, Essex, James JAUNCEY to Cateaton Street, London, Hotpresser, and Master William WALKER of Colchester, Essex, Shopkeeper. To be buried in Parish Church of Chelmsford near the reading deske and friend Doctor John MICHELSON to preach." Witnesses: Robert LLOYD, Tim Code, senior, scrivener. It was proved March 3, 1664 in County Essex.

Widowed again, Ann was comfortably settled, surrounded by adult children to look after her welfare. She lived a few years more, dying on May 5, 1666.

Ann's and Robert Hallom's daughter Sarah (1632-1690) married John Sturdivant (1630-1684), and had Matthew Sturdivant, the father of Henry Sturdivant, and grandfather of Lucretia Sturdivant, mother of our 4th great-grandmother Martha Parham, who married James Rainey. And so our 9th great-grandmother, the tobacco bride, became a founding mother of white Virginia . . . and black Virginia, too, for Ann's many descendants were slaveholders for more than two hundred years.

I wrote an earlier blog about daughter Sarah Hallom's husband, John Sturdivant  HERE

By the way, we qualify through most of our early ancestors, who came to Virginia Colony before 1700, to join the prestigious Jamestown Society, should you be so inclined.