Right offhand (based on some familiarity with the VCRP over the years) I'd
suggest:

One - the VCRP surveyors did a pretty thorough job in the major English
archives over the course of 50 years - I'm quite confident that they found
what was there.

Two - Notice the dates that are "missing" - they correspond with the
English Civil Wars, Commonwealth, and Protectorate - and the resumption of
record-keeping fits roughly with the Restoration of the Stuarts, passage
of the Navigation Act that created, and the Anglo-Dutch Wars that excluded
Holland from the tobacco trade - in short with creation of the
18th-century British Atlantic empire and its administrative mechanisms...

For that matter, the start date of 1639 corresponds with the first real
round of administrative mechanisms for royal colonies linked to Sir
Francis Wyatt...

Jon Kukla


> Dear readers,
>
> This is the 3rd time I have published this inquiry over the last 6
months or so and no one has replied -  not even someone from the
Virginia State
> Archives/Library where these records are housed.
>
> Can/will anyone answer these question:
>
> There are large gaps in the Port Books that have been copied and placed
on microfilm at the Archives as part of the Virginia Colonial Records
Project.
>
> For instance, there are Port Book records for ca. 1639/40/41 and then in
the 1670s and 1690s.
>
> The FHC in Salt Lake City has an index of Port Books -
> the years and ports, not personal names -  of English
> Port Books from well before 1600 until well after
> 1700.
>
> QUESTION: What accounts for the gaps in the Port Book
> records that have been copied for the VCRP?
>
> (1) Are the records copied for the VCRP the only ones
> that have Virginia connections from 1600-1700?
>
> - or -
>
> (2) Do the Port Books - especially London - have the
> kind of gaps suggested by my experience above?
>
> Thanks!
>
> Joe Chandler Jr
> Alexandria
>
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>
>


Dr. Jon Kukla, Executive Vice-President
Red Hill - The Patrick Henry National Memorial
1250 Red Hill Road
Brookneal, Virginia 24528
www.redhill.org
Phone 434-376-2044 or 800-514-7463

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