<< This wasn't a case of indenture, but rather a business project. The whole affair is referred to as a "partnership". James was under the same contract as the merchant Woodward. >> Semantic maneuvers don't change the facts: The partnership was between Ralph Woodward, on the one hand, and William Bladen and John Fisher, on the other. The agreement called for Woodward to purchase land in New England and develop it with the assistance of the two servants (of whom Redway was one) supplied by Woodward's Dublin partners. Woodward, his wife, daughter "& servants that he carryeth over with him shall Imploy theire endeavors & labors, for the terme of three yeares after theire Arrivall." An indenture is simply a contract. Redway's inclusion in it was as a servant, which status he already occupied; the contract put an explicit limit on the term of his remaining service. << It is inconceivable James Redway was found on a Dublin street corner and traded a ticket for his manual labor. >> Of course it is. Setting up a straw man and knocking him down doesn't advance the debate. << Surely he was at least the younger son of a respectable family . . . >> This is pure, tendentious speculation. As I recall, this entire, tortuous, pedantic debate evolved from my having said that I favor referring to William Carpenter (b. ca. 1605; formerly of Shalbourne, England) not as Goodman William Carpenter (in that goodmen/yeomen were a dime a dozen) but as William2 of Rehoboth. It's time to let it go. Gene Z.