Mrs. S; The following list almost surely reveals that these headrights
were gained through purchase, trade or through "new" certificates of
abandoned grants/patents taken up from the clerks' offices. We also think
that this "master" - Benjamin Johnson - transported few, if any of these
folks. Notice too that the "rights" likely were gathered in the Americas,
since to gather such a list of folks from all over Britain would have been
more than difficult, and likely a waste of time for such speculators.
I suggest that Johnson was a speculator or entrepreneur who went about the
ports and towns and gained headrights from whoever owned those at the time,
all to the end that he patent lands and, in turn, sell those tracts to
buyers on the best terms possible. Another fact perhaps is revealed; there
are almost no wives listed, leading me to believe that he only bought strong
young men, plus an occasional woman, and then traded those "rights" among
planters, those who sought to undertake a "homestead" in the wilderness,
and those tradesmen who needed raw labor.
Were I you, I would check the "criminals" who were sent to the colonies as
outcasts. Then too, check the MD and VA land grants and note any of these
named "servants" who appeared as headrights either before and after the date
of this entry. I would bet that you will find some such duplicates. I also
would check the MD land ownership practices, since it is well known that
many tracts were "farmed-out" from the proprietors or nobility who had the
rights in such tracts, and "leased" those tracts for the life of one or more
people, thus creating some VERY long term leases.
Paul
**************
Bound to Benjamin Johnson: John Betson, aged 21, for Virginia; Arthur
Munday, aged 20, for Virginia; Thomas May, aged 21, for Virginia; John Wall,
aged 22, for Virginia; Daniell Habgood, aged 21, for Barbados; John
Thompson, aged 22, for Barbados; Thomas Nonson for Barbados; Thomas Miller,
aged 23, for Virginia; Humphrey Tedder, aged 23, for Virginia; John
Williamson, aged 21, for Virginia; William Elton, aged 28, for Virginia;
Thomas Allen of St. Martin in the Fields, [Middlesex], for Virginia; Robert
Downey, aged 22, for Virginia; William Dale, aged 26, for Virginia; Robert
Strides, aged 21, for Virginia; Alexander Cock, aged 24, for Virginia;
Richard Jones, aged 21, for Virginia; Abraham Taylor, aged 30, for Virginia;
David Higgs, aged 24, for Virginia; John Briteridge, aged 24, for Virginia;
William Kendall of Wilburton, [Cambs], for Virginia; William Ryley, aged 22,
for Virginia; William Blades, aged 23, for Virginia; RICHARD HIGHFIELD, aged
21, for Virginia; Elizabeth Gale, aged 22, for Virginia; James Black of St.
Martin in the Fields, [Middlesex], for Virginia; William Rolfe, aged 21, for
Virginia; Edward Smyth, aged 27, for Virginia; William Clay, aged 24, for
Virginia; Robert Cooke, aged 22, for Virginia; Oliver Bancks, aged 26, for
Virginia; Phebe Rumney of St.
Bride's, [London], for Virginia; Ralph Gibbs, aged 22, for Virginia;
Michaell Rudlidge, aged 29, for Virginia; Elizabeth Jones of Gloucester, for
Virginia; William Eckley, aged 28, for Virginia; Hugh Edward of Denbigh,
aged 18, for Virginia; William Page, aged 21, for Virginia; William Lloyd,
aged 22, for Virginia; Robert Boyce, aged 39, for Virginia; Jane Kitchen,
aged 21, for Virginia; William Jones, aged 24, for Virginia; Thomas Clark,
aged 23.
I do think it was a lease and not a rental.
Goodness, the indenture date was not mysterious to me, it was the issue of
two Highfields being sent to MD/VA pretty much at the same time.
Jeanine Scholz
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