It might have been better than letting her rot in some English  
prison... perhaps they were given the choice, esp. if they were of a  
"good family". Maybe her crime was such that she was no longer wanted  
in that good society in GB, but sufficiently minor that she would  
still be good marriage material in Virginia, where English women were  
in very short supply. We've already sort of deduced that many of the  
laws as written in England, and as practiced "on the ground" in  
Virginia, where they were driven by necessity, were not always one  
and the same. She might have made someone a wonderful wife and had  
just the amount of fire and gumption needed to help her survive the  
frontier society.

Just speculation.

Nancy

-------
I was never lost, but I was bewildered once for three days.

--Daniel Boone



On Feb 2, 2007, at 4:29 PM, Mildred Fournier wrote:

> Now that I think about it, why on earth would a "good family" with a
> daughter of "good reputation" have consented to such a fate for her?
>
>
> MWF
>
>
> The Maids certainly were not all from orphanages or prisons -- in  
> fact most
> if not all very NOT such people. The criteria laid down by the  
> Virginia
> Company in London was that they be maidens of good families and good
> reputation. They were screened, probably interviewed, etc.,  
> according to VC
> records.
>
> Unfortunately, the names of the maids who arrived on the first 1 or  
> 2 ships
> (ca. June 1620) have been lost, as is the case with the one who may  
> have
> been my ancestor. I found her in a separate record (which was only
> referenced in the Colonial Records Project, not copied, and CRP didn't
> mention her as a Maid, but the original document that I ordered  
> from the
> Public Record Office in London did). Clearly, this document (a 1624/5
> "deposition" in a lawsuit involving Virginia
> property) should have been copied for the CRP because this maid --  
> first
> name Margry -- m. Reverend William Mease, founding minister at St.  
> John's
> Church, Hampton, 1610-11.
>
> jc
>
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