EXAMPLE: An early arrival, THOMAS BRADFORD: ( No connection has been made to my Richard but I am using this to show that just because someone was shown as a headright, indentured servant that was not always the case.) 1635 Ultimo July, 1635. Theis underwritten names are to be transported to Virginea, imbarqued in 'ye Merchant's Hope', Hugh Weston, Mr., per examinacon by the Minister of Gravesend, touching their conformitie to the Church discipline of England, and have taken the oaths of allegeance and supremacie. THO. BRADFORD........Years 40 page 117, The Original Lists of Persons of Quality, 1600-1700, by John Camden Hotten 1640 ROBERT HOLT, merchant, 700 acs. James Cittie Co., 23 July 1640, p. 727. On E. side of Chichahominy Riv. at the head of Checroes Cr. etc., E. from the bounds of land of Mr. John Felgate, crossing the Nly. br. of sd. creek etc., N. upon land of Edward sanderson etc. 500 acs. by pattent graunted to sd. Holt & Richard Bell, 2 Mar. 1638 which said Bell hath since assigned his share unto sd. Holt, reserving his owne per adv. & trans. of 1 servt. 200 acs. for trans. of 4 pers. The following names appear: ROBERT HOLT, JOHN NEWHOWSE, WILLIAM ALLEN, STEPHEN BEANE, ANTHO. LUCO, SAMLL. LUCAS, ROBERT PHILLIPSON, THO. KEYES, THO. BRADFORD, RALPH BLAKIN, RICHARD BURGIS, JAMES DAVIS, JOHN BUDGE. pg. 123, Vol 1, Cavaliers and Pioneers, Nugent David T. Bradford states in 'THE BRADFORDS OF CHARLES CITY COUNTY': "Thomas, a headright for James City merchant Robert Holt, died a bachelor in James City in 1671. His will was filed in England in the Prerogatory Court of Canterbury." IT IS HISTORICALLY ASSUMED THIS THOMAS WAS JUST ANOTHER 'HEADRIGHT', indentured to HOLT. If all of this is the same THOMAS he was born in 1595 and died at 76 years of age..... still owned property in England... no descendants... bbm "MIGRATION AND THE ORIGINS OF THE ENGLISH ATLANTIC WORLD" by Alison Games Harvard University Press, 1999 Page 34: George Grace reversed Gibbs's travel pattern. Like several other travelers to the colonies, Grace was a merchant. Many merchants were seasoned colonial traders, like John Redman, John Chappell, Nathaniel Wright, Nathaniel Braddock and THOMAS BRADFORD. [61] ............... Before his American voyage, Grace exported cloth to Holland and owned a house in Delft where he kept his goods. note: 61. John Chappell and Nathaniel Wright had imported goods from the colonies - Virginia tobacco and muscavado (unrefined) sugar - to London in 1633. In 1635 Chappell boarded a ship for Virginia, whereas Wright traveled to Barbados. Three other Virginia-bound travelers, John Redman, THOMAS BRADFORD, and John Butler, were tobacco merchants. Wright imported sugar, 25 January 1632/3, whereas Chappell imported Virginia tobacco, 17 May 1633, E 190/38/1, f. 12 recto, f. 59 recto, London Port Book 1632-1633, PRO. For John Redman, see Thomas Gower v. William Anthony, 9 May 1637, HCA 13/111 (no page numbers); for John Butler, E 190/41/5, f. 48verso, lists his tobacco imports in 1637, PRO; for THOMAS BRADFORD, see petition, c. 1644, of merchants, grocers, and others dealing in tobacco, Harley 1238, f. 9, BL. On the circumstances that inspired and bedeviled these tobacco merchants, see John Pagan, "Growth of the Tobacco Trade between London and Virginia, 1614-1640," Gu! ildhall Studies 3 (1979): 248-262 Page 197/8: Whereas colonial residents ventured east across the ocean to procure goods and favors for their American homes, London merchants reversed the process. They voyaged west to secure the annual flow of lucrative colonial products. London merchants comprised anywhere between 5 and 10 percent of the population of travelers from England to the colonies in the early decades of settlement. These men, or their factors and representatives, voyaged to cement commercial ties with colonial merchants and planters and to ensure their own share of the colonial spoils. The new American colonies required any product that a merchant chose to export, and in return, merchants imported colonial crops such as tobacco, sugar, cotton, and indigo in the 1630s and 1640s. Indeed, one did not even need to be a member of a merchant guild to trade with the colonies because the North American trade was not restricted. Thus, in Jacob Price's words, a 'huckster horde" traveled to the c! olonies with a motley assortment of goods to barter for colonial crops. [26] London merchants aboard ships in 1635 traded in both tobacco and sugar. John Chappell was an importer of Virginia tobacco and in 1635 boarded a boat to travel there. Nathaniel Wright had imported sugar to London in 1633: two years later, he boarded a ship to Barbados. [27] Later records reveal three other Virginia-bound travelers, John Redman, Thomas Bradford, and John Butler, to have been tobacco merchants. [28] Possibly their voyages in 1635 launched their careers. Thus we see in the case of these five men the importance of personal trips to the colonies for those merchants engaged in marketing colonial products. Other merchants traveled in that year, including Abraham Johnson, George Grace, and Nathaniel Braddock, bound for Virginia. At least one of these men, George Grace, found himself resident in Virginia for at least three years after his entrepreneurial voyage in 1635, presumably still waiting to recoup his fortunes.[29] NOTES: 26. Jacob Price, 'Perry of London' (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1992), p. vii. 27. Wright imported Virginia tobacco, 17 May 1633, f. 59 recto, E 190/38/1, London Port Book 1632-33, PRO. Wright, of course, was not yet importing sugar from Barbados in 1635. 28. For John Redman, see Thomas Gower v. William Anthony, 9 May 1637, HCA 13/111 (no page numbers); for John Butler, E 190/41/5, f. 48verso lists his tobacco imports in 1637, PRO; for Thomas Bradford, see petition, c. 1644, of merchants, grocers, and others dealing in tobacco, Harley 1238, f. 9, BL. 29. Jacob Price has noted that these voyages back and forth formed a family strategy for some mercantile firms and kin: unfortunately, there is not enough evidence for these particular merchants, although clearly some families benefited from far-flung trade and kin networks. Price, 'Perry of London', p.1. Comment: It is clear from Ms. Games research that travel between England and the Colonies was not uncommon. bbm FURTHER from CAVALIERS & PIONEERS: A few facts to remember in reading Patents from Cavalier & Pioneers Vol. 1, Nugent: Introduction: "The term headrights in connection with a patent for land has been subject to no little misunderstanding. Elucidation is therefore in order. For the purpose of stimulating immigration and the settlement of the Colony the London Company ordained that any person who paid his own way to Virginia should be assigned 50 acres of land "for his owne personal adventure," and if he transported "as his owne cost" one or more persons he should, for each person whose passage he paid, be awarded fifty acres of land. There is, for instance, the case of Sir Thomas Lunsford, Knight and Baronett, who on October 24, 1650 was granted 3,423 acres for the transportation of sixty-five persons including himself, members of his family, friends, and servants, many of whom were doubtless indentured, or bound for a period of service. Among the headrights are found persons of all social classes, nobility and gentry, yeomanry, indentured servants (some of good family and connection in England), and negroes. It is not to be assumed that the claim for land in consequence of a person transported was made immediately after the arrival of the "headright" in the Colony. ......The head rights may have arrived in the Colony long before the patentee had enter claim for land thereby due. Nor is it to be assumed that the headright is necessarily an immigrant. Even men of prominence in the Colony, through a voyage or repeated voyages to England and return, appear as "headrights" of friends or relatives, who acquitted the cost of the passage in order to obtain the consequent land. ........Before obtaining land for the transportation of "headrights" the claimant was required to present a receipt in proff that the passage money was duly paid. But despite all precautions fraud and deception were by no means uncommon. Soooo.... from the above we don't even know what year someone may have come.... is it their first voyage... were they born here... went back to England for education, marriage, shopping, etc... are they merchants who travel frequently back & to.... Who knows? Social status? Regards, Becky