Family History: Jamestown 2

A Schenck History of the US continues from the last post.
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7. Much would happen between 1607 and the first record of Thomas Shelburne in 1640 when we know he was married and had a son.

The years from 1610-14 involved brutal fighting between the settlers and the Native Americans around them. 1614 saw the famed marriage between John Rolfe and Pocahontas, a peace treaty of sorts. At least it slowed the fighting. She would be paraded back to England where she would die in 1617. 

In 1619, the first Africans (about 20) were traded to the colony as captive laborers in exchange for food -- workers for supplies. The two ships that brought them were not slave ships but had stolen 50-60 Africans from a Portuguese vessel they had attacked that was carrying them. Thus the first Africans had been brought against their will to the mainland of the New World.

Paradigms shift over time. Some of these Africans show up as free landholders in the early records of the Virginia colony. That suggests that their servitude was not clearly seen as permanent slavery at that time. Some were apparently able, over time, to become free.

This is a key developmental point in ideological history. By the time Thomas passed from the scene, slavery was becoming more and more intrinsic to being "black." Black = slave. But it was not clearly so at first. Many would argue that this shift in thinking was solidified during the time of Bacon's Rebellion. [1] More on that in a moment.

The first real influx of women to Jamestown came in 1620, ninety women. The demand for a wife among the mostly male, severely isolated colony was tremendous. We can imagine that the gentlemen absorbed the newcomers quickly. Another 57 arrived the next year.

I have come across multiple traditions that Thomas came over on the same ship as Captain John Smith as a cabin boy -- just like the family tradition my mother knew. Then there are traditions that Elizabeth was one of the women who came in 1620. [2] The historical records don't support either claim, however. It's possible but the evidence is silent. My guess remains that he actually came in the 1630s.

8. John Rolfe was a dominant figure during the 1610s. Delayed because his ship wrecked around Bermuda, he arrived in 1610 after the famed "Starving Time." (Shakespeare's The Tempest in 1611 may have been inspired by his shipwreck) Aside from his brief trip to England when his wife Pocahontas died, he was a leading figure in the colony from 1610-1622, when he possibly died during the "Indian Massacre of 1622."

It was he who had the idea of growing a sweeter, West Indian strain of tobacco, and it did indeed turn the colony around economically. But it required lots of workers, creating demand for indentured servants from England and of course, soon enough, slaves. 

Then there was the "Indian massacre of 1622," when a quarter of the colony was killed (347 people). Tensions had been high between the settlers, who were steadily moving up river, and the Powhatans had enough. Most of those killed were outside the city, which was warned in time to prepare.

9. In 1624, King James finally took over. The massacre and consistent mismanagement of the venture gave way to it becoming a Crown colony. The investors no longer ran the show from afar. Now the king did. 

As the first settlers came in 1607, they would have brought either a Bishop's Bible or the Geneva Bible. The King James Version would come in 1611 and no doubt would quickly be expected to be the standard Bible. Religious freedom does not seem to be a dominant motive for these first settlers, at least not publicly.

However, in 2015, the remains of Captain Gabriel Archer were found where the earliest church at Jamestown was. He died in 1609 or 1610 during the starving time. What is interesting is that a box was buried with him that may have had holy water and some bone relics inside of it -- very unusual objects for an Anglican. 

Some have wondered if he were a closet Catholic. He would of course have had to swear the Oath of Supremacy to King James as the head of the Church of England. But people swear all sorts of things to save their skin. In 1633, for example, Galileo recanted believing that the earth goes around the sun.

Tobacco required lots of workers. Landowners in the colony of Virginia would pay for the passage of an indentured servant from England and would get land in exchange. And after working the land for a certain number of years, the indentured servant would be freed of his obligation and could get land himself.

This was the system into which Thomas Shelburne came. Was he an indentured servant? On one account, his wife came from the Argall family, which played a prominent role in the early decades of the colony. If so, it might suggest that he was also of a higher class than a former indentured servant.

If his wife, Elizabeth's maiden name was Augustine, that also seems to be slightly higher class. Indeed, they named their son Augustine, and he named his son Augustine Jr. These seem like the practices of slightly higher class individuals.

Perhaps it is a coincidence, but Thomas also died in 1676, the year of Bacon's rebellion. It is tempting to think he died in the conflict. But if so, which side was he on? If my guess is correct about his class, I'm guessing he was on the side of the governor.

10. In 1640, Thomas and Elizabeth were married. That same year, they had their son, Augustine I, the first of the Shelburnes to be born in America.

[1] Edmund Morgan, American Slavery, American Freedom.

[2] Hiram Kennedy Douglass My Southern Families and Shelburne, the Book of Augustine (Richard W. Buck, 1988).

Family History of the USA 1: Jamestown 1

1. When I was a child, my grandmother passed on a tradition that had been passed down by her mother's family before her. The tradition was that we had an ancestor who had come over to America with Captain John Smith--yes, the one of Pocahontas fame. 

As with most traditions, there seems at least a kernel of truth in the story. My mother's mother's mother's mother's father's father's father's father's father's father seems to have settled in Jamestown in the early 1600s. That is my great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandfather (8th great grandfather).

In this day when you can connect to other people's genealogical quest, I was intrigued to find another person out there with a similar family tradition. "It is tradition among VA families that the first Shelburne, Thomas, came to Jamestown in 1607 and settled there." 

So we have a tradition I can trace to my great, great grandmother that her ancestor came over to Jamestown in 1607, and I have been able to connect it to the family traditions of others who claim the same thing about the same person.

So, did Thomas Shelburne come over with Captain John Smith in 1607? It would be nice to think so. It is at least possible. The problem is that his name does not appear on any manifest in those early years. The lists were not exhaustive, especially if Thomas were a young cabin boy who was there only to play a subservient role.

Still, we know of other boys. There was a boy named Milman who was the cabin boy of Captain Newport. And another boy named Helyard was cabin boy to Captain Waldo. Both boys would be dead within a year.

2. According to some memory, Thomas was Welsh. There was a Welshman named Captain Peter Wynne on board. No doubt we could write a novel where a naive young Thomas Shelburne somehow ended up at the last minute serving as Wynne's cabin boy at the age of twelve.

But there is no record of it. There is no record of Thomas in those dark years of Jamestown where so many died. We have many names from those early years, but Thomas' is not one of them.

So while I would like to think that he came over in 1607--maybe he slipped through the cracks--I have to consider another option as perhaps more likely. It seems more likely that he was born in Great Britain during the reign of King James (1603-25). He then emigrated at some point in the 1630s and married Elizabeth Augustine around 1640 in Jamestown.

3. My DNA supports an ancestry that is some 64% British. How a young Welshman found his way to Jamestown is lost to history. We do know that southern Wales faced significant flooding in 1607. If Thomas really was born in 1595 and came to America at the age of twelve, perhaps here was a possible cause.

The London of 1607 was the London of King James I. It was the London of Shakespeare. The King James Version was underway and would be published in 1611. London Bridge at the time not only had houses on it, but the heads of former enemies of kings on pikes. These were individuals like William Wallace of Scotland fame, as well as Thomas More and Thomas Cromwell, both of whom were put to death by Henry VIII.

4. In December of 1606, three ships set sail from Blackwall, at that time just outside of London to the east, on the north side of the River Thames. These were the Susan Constant, the Godspeed, and the Discovery. Christopher Newport captained the largest of the ships, the Susan Constant. Captain John Smith was also on board. John Ratcliffe captained the Discovery.

Captain John Smith was one of those personalities who did not do well as a subordinate. Maybe he was smarter than everyone else or maybe he wasn't. But he found himself repeatedly in trouble with his superiors. He was jailed on the voyage over for mutiny and scheduled to be hanged upon arrival. But when they arrived, instructions from Virginia Company were opened, and Smith was to be on the governing council.

Throughout his time he would repeatedly clash with the leadership of the colony. He probably also was a key player in keeping the colony alive, as opposed to the earlier attempt at Roanoke Island in 1587. When Governor John White returned to Roanoke Island in 1590, the colony was gone, leaving only the word "Croatoan." Many think the colony moved and, perhaps, blended into some of the surrounding native American groups.

On those first three ships to Jamestown, there were some 105 passengers and 39 crew, all men. Only 38 men were still alive when Captain Newport returned again from England with the "First Supply" in 1608.

5. The three ships made their "first landing" in what they called "Cape Henry" after the son of King James, April 26, 1607. Chaplain Robert Hunt offered a prayer and they set up a cross. He would be dead the next year. His remains have been found on the site of the first church in Jamestown, the first one to be buried in the new church--no coffin, only in a shroud.

On May 4, 1607. they settled on the spot up the "James River" that would become "Jamestown," both named after King James. They had the original triangular fort up and built by June 15.

The first women at Jamestown came on a Second Supply trip. The wife of Thomas Forrest and her maid, Anne Burras, made their way on that third installment. Anne would be the first of the English to marry in the New World--to John Laydon. And she would be the first to give birth in Jamestown, although the first English baby born was Virginia Dare in the Roanoke Colony. Born in 1587, her eventual fate is unknown.

6. Those first few years of the Jamestown settlement were brutal. Because of the poor conditions, someone died almost every day. The swampy water around the peninsula where they built their fort was arguably part of the problem. It was unsuitable for drinking. The immediately surrounding land was unsuitable for farming. Almost two thirds of the first group to arrive would be dead less than five months after their first landing.

They arrived in one of the worst droughts the region had seen in seven hundred years. They had run out of supplies and it was too late for planting. In part that was why the Native Americans had not used it. Facing drought themselves, the surrounding peoples had less to give than they might have in another decade.

Within days of settling on the peninsula, they would be attacked for a couple months by some of the surrounding tribes, although they were initially greeted by the Powhatan Nation. The interaction of the settlement with the Native Americans must have been puzzling. At times some were friendly enough and traded for food. At other times some attacked.

Most of those who came were not prone to work. They were gentlemen who had little practical knowledge and expected others to work for them. Captain John Smith insisted they work. He was a hard man for hard times. His motto was based on 2 Thessalonians 3:10: "He who does not work, shall not eat."

Many of us have heard the story of Pocahontas. While exploring the area, John Smith was abducted, while most of them with him were killed. According to the legend, as he was about to be killed, Pocahontas rushed over and put his head in her hands, putting her cheek against his, pleading for mercy from her father, Powhatan...

A Family's History of the United States

I had a fun idea the other day. If my research is right, I could write a fairly curious history of the US based on various ancestors of mine. For various reasons, I wanted to start with what I see as chapter 7, "The Revivalin' Twenties." I thought I might post some on Saturdays and maybe eventually self-publish it as "A Family's History of the United States."
[As a post-note, I have clarified a number of issues in subsequent posts. Some of the information here has been refined or corrected, as the clip from the Camden Record below shows in relation to my grandparents' wedding]
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The Revivalin' Twenties
When the year 1920 came along, all of my ancestors had lived in Indiana for a while. Many of them probably had less a sense of their ancestry than I now have. As we've seen, in 1910 I had a great grandfather farming just north of Frankfort (Samuel Schenck). There was a great-grandfather running some kind of a grocery store in Sullivan, Indiana (Oscar Rich). Another was a Dunker working as a carpenter in Camden (Amsey Miller).

None of my parents were yet born in 1920, but they were almost twinkles in my grandparents' eyes. My grandfather, Dorsey Schenck seems to have been sowing his wild oats that year. I can't remember where I heard that he had headed west sneaking onto trains to California. Was it his sister Lula? It seems a little far fetched and I don't trust the memory of the young Kenny who thinks he heard it.

I do know this. The 21 year old Dorsey was not living at home in 1920 when the census taker came knocking at his father's farm just north of Frankfort. He would apparently run off with my grandmother Esther that summer, no doubt much to the consternation of her Dunker father. She would have just turned 18 at the first of the year. She would not end up wearing the bonnet.

Camden Record

They were married September 11 of that year in Camden. I presume it was at the Dunker church there, the one where I attended the funeral of my great uncle Calvin. Perhaps my aunt or uncle knows. If so, I can imagine that it was a matter of some discussion. Should Esther be married to this man outside the Dunker community in a Dunker church?

I presume that Dorsey was more or less a nominal Methodist at that time, the Dutch Reformed background of his ancestors long forgotten on the frontier. They were far from grace at that time, he might have later said. Neither of them would later believe they had been "saved" up to that point.

That all changed at a tent revival in Delphi, Indiana the next year. My grandmother wrote in the family Bible that they were saved in May of 1921. Then "sanctified" in August. To be sanctified in the Pilgrim Holiness Church, which they immediately joined that May, meant to have your sinful nature eradicated, your "bent to sinning."

I don't know, but I can imagine that Esther's conscience had been tender that first year of marriage. Perhaps someone in my family knows the story. Were they both interested in going to the meeting, or did she urge him to go? What is clear is that he would get a call to ministry within two years. In 1923 he received his local license to preach...

Dorsey and Esther, perhaps in front of his Indy grocery store in the 40s or 50s