Jon, Thanks for your thoughts and suggestions regarding further research on Greenfield LARRABEE, his voyages to New England, and his possible origins in Devon. On Jan 29, 2014, at 5:27 AM, Jonathan Frayne wrote: > Hi > > If Greenfield Larrabee just appears > out of nowhere and he is a sailor I would suspect he could be a deserter > from the Royal Navy and has changed his name to protect himself. I believe > Britain owned Barbados at the time and maintained a flotilla of vessels > there. It seems strange he would change his name to something so distinctive. I'd change it to John Smith. :) As far as Barbados goes, yes, it was British and quite a few settlers spent some time there before coming to New England and elsewhere in the American colonies. I believe a number of parish registers from Barbados have been published and are fairly accessible. > > I can help with the Phoenix (or Phenix as it seems to be universally > spelled). I have looked it up in both the 'Maritime History of Devon' and > also 'Early Stuart Mariners and Shipping 1619-35'. In the former mention is > made of two such named vessels and in the latter there are four mentions. > All records refer to owners of shipping. The former states on p.134, "In > 1626 returns of ships and mariners were made to the vice-admiral of Devon. > Although incomplete, they provide useful information. . . The lists of 1626 > show that most shareholders were merchants, but there were a few > professional men, like Francis Facey, a lawyer, who was part-owner of the > Phoenix of Barnstaple, with Nicholas Delbridge, a merchant, and Mary > Jenning." This information is confirmed in Early Stuart Mariners p. 94 which > has a transcript of the survey and describes the Phenix (sic) as being of 50 > tons burden, carrying no ordnance but capable of carrying 6. This is a solid lead. I want to check the indexes to the multi-volume series of Connecticut Colonial Documents in my library and to see what other references there are to the Phenix during the 17th century. (Sorry, I shouldn't have projected a current spelling to the past.) > > The other reference in "The Maritime History of Devon" is to a Phoenix of > Dartmouth in 1588 being supplied to Drakes fleet to fight the Armada by Mr > Gawen Champernowne of Dartmouth and it is described as being of 70 tons. In > Early Stuart Mariners there is mention of two Phenix(s) of Dart (presumably > the river on which they were kept) both of 80 tons. One owned by Rawleigh > Gilbert esq and the other by George Roope. > > There is also mention in Early Stuart Mariners of a survey of shipping in > South Devon in 1619 and there is a Phenix of Dartmouth of 18 tuns (sic) 15 > ages (???) and no ordnance. Finally on p 103 there is a reference to an > Alfred Staplehill owning 8 shares in the Phenix value £1 4s 0d. As this was > also in 1619 I would assume it to be a part of the same survey and to be the > same ship. > > My view would be that a ship that went to fight the armada would be too old > (if it survived) to be sailing to Barbados and New England. I think the > Dartmouth vessel of 15 tons is far too small. I know they went across the > ocean in tiny vessels but 15 tons is the same as a small yacht and in any > event wouldn't have been commercially viable for trading, surely? That > leaves the other two vessels on the Dart and the Barnstaple vessel as > possibilities. I seem to recall reading somewhere that the profits on > shipping were enormous as were the risks. A ship would be expected to pay > for itself in less than 10 years, and less than 5 in some cases. Obviously > they were also vulnerable to weather and enemy (and piratical) action. It > meant that ships, and sailors for that matter, were regarded by the owners > as rather disposable and not expected to have long working lives. > > Early Stuart Mariners and Shipping has long lists of mariners and owners in > it, but no record of the master or the sailor mentioned I'm afraid. > > The references are: > Todd Gray, Early Stuart Mariners and Shipping, Devon and Cornwall Record > Society New series volume 33, 1990 > Michael Duffy (editor) et al, The New Maritime History of Devon, The > University of Exeter and Conway Maritime Press, 1992 I'll try to find a copies in my University library (the University of Delaware Library, where I was a librarian before I retired) and request on interlibrary loan if we doesn't have. I'm pretty sure that we don't have the Devon and Cornwall Record Society publications, at least as a set, and I have a feeling that we don't have the Duffy, either. Our holdings on Devon are rather light. Although I selected in British history, my budget for Britain was limited and I had to be quite selective. Thanks again for your insightful comments. David Langenberg Newark, Delaware, USA