I agree that the Virginia Company was not worried about settlements, they were wanting to make money. It is fact that William Hancock was an investor, as he is listed on the charter. There are references to him coming to America as early as 1607 and as late as 1620. My problem with all this is that William is not listed on any passenger list, nor is he listed as among the dead at Berkley Hundred Plantation, where he was supposedly killed. On the first passenger list of men sent by the VA Company, there is the name Nicholas Hancock, but no other mention of him is ever found. I tend to think if William were here to get timber, he would have had to bring others with him to help with the cutting and loading, etc. No record of him paying anyone's passage is found. I have seen other references in very good and reliable books to this bible. It is possible it is all true, but without the bible, it's a point that seems impossible to prove. The only thing I could ever learn about this bible was that it was supposedly the property of Simon Hancock and had passed on to his descendants. It is very possible the bible is sitting in someone's attic, or that it has been destroyed over the years. Also, passenger lists are many time incomplete and unreadable. There are just so many 'ifs' in all this for me. It just seems if he did make the trip and was killed at Berkley Hundred, his name would be found somewhere. You would think a man wealthy enough to lodge at Thorpe's house at Berkely Hundred would have definitely been listed among the dead after the Indian attack. I see both sides of this, and the possibility that either side could be accurate. But it's been my experience that when there are this many gaps and holes in an accounting of someone, that likely that person was not a part of it at all. Lisa Check out my website at http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Valley/7502/index.html ----- Original Message ----- From: "Ardath Buckaway" <bqueen@compusmart.ab.ca> To: <HANCOCK-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Saturday, July 28, 2001 5:40 PM Subject: [HANCOCK-L] Early References to William Hancock > Lisa, Julia and others, > > We have been studying the very early history of Virginia, in depth. William Hancock, the immigrant was a ship builder, who came looking for forests for his ship building business in England. He like many others were of the upper class, but the Virginia Company was interested in investors. Remember, this was not a "settlement" as we think of one, it was to be a money making business. Many of those who came early, starved to death -- about 400 of them, because they had no skills. Yes, tradesmen did come, but still the gentry kept coming, and still had a difficult time surviving. Everyone forgets the terrible disease from the mosquitos in the swamps, the disasters, and other things, besides the Indian massacres. Along with that there was unrest in England, and the upper classes wanted to get away from it. The religious intolerance in many place in Europe drove many to America but that was NOT the original reason for the "Virginia Company" -- it was an investment. > > When these investors paid the passage of others, they were often indentured servants. For those who did this, many were given land, and William Hancock was an investor. He was given a land grant. Few were able to buy the land, because it belonged to the King and the Company. > > In 1619, Gov. Yeardly returned with a new charter, which gave 100 acres of land for each share that an investor had in the Virginia Company. William Hancock, came in 1620, and came under that new charter, and had purchased about 5 shares in the Company. I assume he was thinking he would get his land with forests on it for his ship building business back in England. That was probably one of the reasons he came alone, leaving his family in England. He intended to return probably when his business in the new world was set up to send the wood back to England. Another thing to remember was that a tree was 3 to 5 ft in diameter, and from 100 ft to 150 ft. tall. This was old growth timber, similar to the Red Woods of California. This was of great value in England, and Augustine came to claim his father's valuable estate. > > I don't know if any of this helps any of you to understand that time frame but I hope so. > > Ardath > > ] > > > ==== HANCOCK Mailing List ==== > If you have a HANCOCK Genealogy Homepage, and would > like to have it listed on our Links page, send the URL to the > list, or to: JuliaFWood@aol.com >