Aspinwall Papers

by Thomas Aspinwall

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1871. ... THE ASPINWALL PAPERS. VIRGINIA. At The Council Chafer, Whitehaix, the 13th July, 1617. An Open Warrant for the reprieve of Christopher Potley, Roger Powell, Sapcot Molineux, Thomas Middleton and Thomas Crouchley, prisoners in Oxford Goal, and to deliver them unto Sir Thomas Smyth k' to be transported into Virginia or other parts beyond the seas, with provisoe, that they return not again into England, according to the form of a former Warrant entered at large the 24th March last. Note.--The minutes above, from the British State Paper Office, show that the transportation of convicts to Virginia did not begin, as supposed by some, and by Mr. Jefferson among them, at a late period, after the first settlement of the colony. It is nevertheless true, that, during the first ten years, from 1607 to 1617, the emigrants were exclusively of other classes. In the outset, under the charter of 1606, the greater portion were gentlemen, with tradesmen and efficient laborers barely enough to form a sort of village community, but utterly insufficient for a colony dependent upon its own labor and the productions of the country for food and other necessary supplies. In 1611, the plantation, as a residence, had fallen into such discredit with the laboring as well as the higher classes, that very few of either came out to Virginia. Sir Thomas Dale, who sailed from England early in that j-ear, wrote in the following August to the Earl of Salisbury, that the people brought over with him were such as they were "enforced" to take; "gathering them in riotous, lazy, and infected such disordered persons, so profane, so riotous, so full of mutiny and treasonable intendments, that, in a parcel of three hundred, not many gave testimony, beside their names, that they were Christia...

190 pages, Paperback

Published February 5, 2012