William Farrar (settler)
William Farrar | |
---|---|
Born | April 1583 |
Died | c. 1637 (aged 53–54) |
Occupation(s) | Councillor - Council of Virginia and Virginia General Assembly |
Spouse | Cecily Jordan |
William Farrar (April 1583 – c. 1637) was a landowner and politician in colonial Virginia. He was a subscriber to the third charter of the Virginia Company who immigrated to the colony from England in 1618. After surviving the Jamestown massacre of 1622, he moved to Jordan's Journey. In the following year, Farrar became involved in North America's first breach of promise suit when he proposed to Cecily Jordan.
In 1626, Farrar was appointed to the
Farrar was also on the Council when it arrested Governor John Harvey for misgovernance and forced his temporary return to England. By the time of his death around 1637, Farrar had sold off his remaining assets in England and established rights to a 2000 acre patent on Farrar's Island, located on a curl of the James River.
Background
William Farrar was born before April 28, 1583,[2] the date of his christening, in Croxton, Lincolnshire, England.[3] He was the 3rd son of John Farrar of Croxton[1] and London, Esquire, a wealthy merchant and landowner with various holdings in West Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, and Hertfordshire,[4] and Cecily Kelke, an heiress [5] and direct descendant of Edward III of England.[6] The nineteenth century historian of Virginia, Alexander Brown, states that while in England, William Farrar received an education in law.[note 1][9]
Relation to the Virginia Company and immigration to the New World
When Farrar went to Virginia, it was still part of the
Farrar left London on Neptune[15]: 209 on March 16, 1617/18 [note 3][16] along with Virginia's governor, Thomas West, Baron De La Warr. De La Warr had been commissioned by the Virginia Company to return to the colony with fresh people and supplies to help it achieve political and economic stability,[17]: 375–384 but he died en route.[18] When Farrar arrived in August 1618,[15]: 209 news of the governor's death threw Jamestown into turmoil, Deputy Governor Samuel Argall, who was already unpopular with many colonists, was accused of mismanagement and the unauthorized misappropriation of Neptune's passengers and cargo.[19] After a prolonged series of accusations from both the Virginia Company and colonists against Argall's governing, he finally stepped down in April 1619.[20]
In June 1619, the Virginia Company instructed that 40
As his personal headright, Farrar did receive a
Move to Jordan's Journey and marriage
During the Powhatan surprise attack, ten settlers on Farrar's land on the Appomattox River were killed.[21]: 566 However, Farrar survived and got to Samuel Jordan's settlement at Beggars Bush,[25] part of the plantation known as Jordan's Journey. After the attack, William Farrar stayed at Jordan's Journey[26]: 290–291 as it had become a relatively safe fortified rallying place for the survivors.[27]
Samuel Jordan died before June 1623.[28]: 46 Sometime afterward, Farrar proposed marriage to Jordan's pregnant widow, Cecily, which involved him in the first breach of promise suit filed in North America.[9]: 891 [29] Reverend Greville Pooley claimed he had first proposed marriage three or four days after Samuel Jordan had died and Cecily had accepted.[24] However, Cecily denied his proposal and accepted Farrar's, which resulted in Pooley filing the suit.[30] The case continued for almost two years. During the suit, Alexander Brown suggests that Farrar may have acted as Cecily's legal representative.[9] Eventually, Pooley signed an agreement in January 1624/5 that acquitted Cecily Jordan of her alleged former promises.[31]: 42
Even as the case was ongoing, William Farrar and Cecily Jordan continued to work together at Jordan's Journey. In November 1623, Farrar was bonded to execute Samuel Jordan's will regarding the management of his estate and Cecily Jordan was warranted to put down the security to guarantee Farrar's bondage.[31]: 8 During this time, "Farrar assumed the role of plantation 'commander' or 'head of hundred'"[32]: 10 for Jordan's Journey. A year later, the Jamestown muster of 1624/25 lists "fferrar William mr & Mrs. Jordan"[sic] as sharing the head of a Jordan's Journey household with three daughters and ten manservants.[15]: 209–210 During this time, Jordan's Journey prospered.[33]: 67–68 By May 1625 Farrar and Jordan were finally married, as it was then that Farrar was released from his bond to Jordan's estate.[31]: 57 They had three children together: Cecily (born 1625), William (birth year uncertain),[note 4] and John (born around 1632).[2]
Roles in the royal colony
On March 14, 1625/6, William Farrar was appointed councillor to the Council of Virginia by Charles I of England.[35] Farrar held this position, which entitled him as an esquire of Virginia,[36] until at least 1635 when Governor John Harvey was deported.[28]: 212–213
Farrar became a councillor during a period of uncertainty for the colonists.
In August 1626, Farrar was also appointed by Yeardley as commissioner (i.e., magistrate) of the "Upper Partes"[sic] which lies along the James River west of Piersey's Hundred having jurisdiction over Charles City and the City of Henrico. Farrar was the head commissioner of six commissioners appointed: he was the one given the right of final judgement when present and allowed the discretion to hold monthly courts at either Jordan's Journey or Shirley Hundred.[31]: 106 When his commission was renewed by Governor Sir John Harvey in 1632, it also mandated that the court could only be in session when Farrar was present.[44]: 168
After 1619, settlers could purchase the cost of transporting white indentured servants from England to the New World as a contract that could be redeemed as a headright, and these headright contracts could be used for speculation[45] by being sold, bought,[46] or bartered.[47] William Farrar was one of the settlers involved in this activity.[48] For example, he is listed in patents as selling headrights to the settler William Andrewes around 1628[49]: 13 and surrendering land to Nathan Martin for the transport of servants in 1636.[49]: 41
Sale of inheritance
When William Farrar's father, John the elder, died sometime before May 1628, he willed his various landholdings in Hertfordshire to William. In addition, John Farrar also stipulated that William and his family receive a £20 annuity from his older brother from rents in Halifax Parish, Yorkshire and that William receive £50 upon his return to England.[4] In 1631, William Farrar returned to England to claim his inheritance.[26] He then sold the assets from his inheritance to his brothers, including his annuity for £240 and his landholdings for £200, for a total of £440 (equivalent to about $133,000 today)[50] and returned to Virginia.
Farrar's Island
At the time of his death sometime before June 11, 1637, Farrar was described as being "of
The patent was issued for land that included a peninsula formed by meander loop, or curl,[54] of the James River subsequently known as Farrar's Island. It is described in the patent as abutting the glebe lands of Varina in the east, and extending to the James River in the south, the end of the island (i.e., peninsula) in the west, and "to the woods" in the north.[49] Farrar's Island remained with the Farrar family until it was sold in 1727.[55][56]
Notes
- ^ Brown may be referring to William Ferrar, a younger brother of John and Nicholas Ferrar. Farrar was mistakenly identified as William Ferrar until the twentieth century.[7] The brother of Nicholas and John was born around 1590, went to Cambridge, studied law at Middle Temple in London and became a barrister in 1618. He set off for Virginia around 1619 but died on the way.[8]
- ^ For another comparison of the share's value, the entire annual wages of a skilled journeyman in London around 1588 was authorized to be between £4 and £10. [13]
- ^ Dual dating is given because the English new year did not begin until March 25 during Farrar's lifetime. See article on Old Style and New Style Dates for details.
- ^ William Farrar II's godfather was Captain Thomas Pawlett of Westover,[34] who also arrived in Virginia in 1618 on the Neptune[15]: 207
- ^ At least seven of the names of the patents were those of people listed as living with Farrar and Jordan in the Muster of 1624/1625,[48]
References
- ^ a b Bannerman, W. Bruce, ed. (1899). The Visitations of the County of Surrey: Made and Taken in the Years 1530 by Thomas Benolte, Clarenceux King of Arms; 1572 by Robert Cooke, Clarenceux King of Arms; and 1623 by Samuel Thomson, Windsor Herald and Augustin Vincent, Rouge Croix Pursuivant, Marshals and Deputies to William Camden, Clarenceux King of Arms. London: Ye Wardour. pp. 157–158.
- ^ ISBN 978-0806317441.
- ^ "Croxton Parish Records- Marriages, Baptisms & Burials (1583)". Lincs to the Past, Lincolnshire Archives. December 28, 2018.
- ^ a b Farrer, Thomas C. F (1936). Farrer (and Some Variants) Wills and Administrations : So Far Discovered by Me in England and Wales, and the Isle of Man Down to A.D. 1800. Dorking, England: Tanner and Son. pp. 126–128.
- ISBN 9781461045137.
- ^ "So, turns out the Fanning sisters are royals". Elle Australia. May 28, 2014. Archived from the original on October 30, 2019. Retrieved March 22, 2020.
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- ^ Ransome, David R. (2000). "John Ferrar of Little Gidding" (PDF). Records of Huntingdonshire. 3 (8). Archived from the original (PDF) on November 2, 2021.
- ^ a b c d Brown, Alexander (1890). The Genesis of the United States, Vol 2. Boston, MA Houghton, Mifflin. p. 691.
- ^ Wolfe, Brenden (November 16, 2016). "Virginia Company of London". Encyclopedia Virginia. Virginia Foundation for the Humanities. Archived from the original on August 13, 2018. Retrieved November 5, 2018.
- ^ Kolp, John, ed. (June 26, 2014). "Primary Resource: Third Charter of Virginia (1612)". Encyclopedia Virginia. Virginia Humanities. Archived from the original on May 22, 2017. Retrieved November 7, 2018.
- ^ Bemiss, Samuel M., ed. (1957). "Third Charter". The Three Charters of the Virginia Company of London with Seven Related Documents. Williamsburg, VA: Virginia 350th Anniversary Celebration Corporation. p. 7.
- ISBN 9780415271158.
- ^ a b Kingsbury, Susan M., ed. (1906). The Records of the Virginia Company of London. Vol. 1. Washington DC: Government Printing Office.
- ^ a b c d Hotten, John Camden (1874). "Musters of the Inhabitants of Virginia, 1624/25". The Original Lists of Persons of Quality, Emigrants, Religious Exiles, Political Rebels, Serving Men Sold for a Term of Years; Apprentices; Children stolen; Maidens Pressed; and Others Who Went from Great Britain to the American Plantations, 1600-1700. New York, NY: Empire State Book. pp. 201–274.
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- ^ a b Brown, Alexander (1890). Genesis of the United States, Vol. 1. New York: Houghton, Mifflin. p. 57.
- ^ Billings, Warren M. (October 27, 2013). "Thomas West, twelfth baron De La Warr (1576–1618)". Encyclopedia Virginia. Virginia Foundation for the Humanities. Retrieved December 21, 2018.
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- ^ Fausz, J. Frederick (July 8, 2013). "Samuel Argall (bap. 1580-1626)". Encyclopedia Virginia: Virginia Humanities. Archived from the original on January 15, 2019. Retrieved January 15, 2019.
- ^ a b c Kingsbury, Susan Myra, ed. (1933). Records of the Virginia Company of London. Vol. 3. Washington DC: Government Printing Office.
- ^ Wolfe, Brendan; McCartney, Martha (October 28, 2015). "Indentured Servants in Colonial Virginia". Encyclopedia Virginia. Virginia Humanities. Archived from the original on December 13, 2018. Retrieved January 16, 2019.
- ^ ISBN 9780806310824.
- ^ a b Kingsbury, Susan M., ed. (1935). The Records of the Virginia Company of London. Vol. 4. Washington DC: Government Printing Office.
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- ^ ISBN 9780806317748.
- ^ Smith, John (1910) [1624]. "The Generall Historie of Virginia, the Fourth Booke". In Arber, Edward (ed.). Travels and Works of Captain John Smith. Vol. Part II. Edinburgh, Scotland: John Grant. p. 584.
- ^ a b Sainsbury, W. Noel, ed. (1860). Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies: Volume 1, 1574-1660. London, England: Longman, Green Longman & Roberts.
- ^ Stanard, Mary Newton (1928). Story of Virginia's First Century. Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott. pp. 180-181.
- ^ Starrett, Vincent (March 3, 1958). "America's First Breach of Promise Case". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved November 27, 2018.
- ^ a b c d McIlwaine, H. R., ed. (1924). Minutes of the Council and General Court of Colonial Virginia 1622-1632, 1670-1676 with Notes and Excerpts from Original Council and General Court Records into 1683, Now Lost. Richmond, VA: Virginia State Library.
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- ^ Hatch, Charles E. (1957). The First Seventeen Years: Virginia, 1607-1624. Williamsburg, VA: Jamestown 350th Anniversary Celebration Corp. p. 68.
- JSTOR 1914946.
- ^ JSTOR 4242747.
- ^ Bruce, Phillip A. (1907). Social Life of Virginia in the Seventeenth Century: An Inquiry into the Origin of the Higher Planting Class, Together with an Account of the Habits, Customs, and Diversions of the People. Richmond, VA: Whittet & Shepperson. pp. 121–123.
- ^ Bancroft, George (1888). History of the United States of America, Vol. I. New York, NY: D. Appleton. p. 135.
- ^ a b Campbell, Charles (1860). History of Colony and Ancient Dominion of Virginia. J.Philadelphia, PA: B. Lippincott.
- ^ Brown, Alexander (1898). The First Republic in America. Boston, MA: Houghton, Mifflin. pp. 645–648.
- ^ Brown, Alexander (1901). English Politics in Early Virginia History. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin. p. 100.
- ^ Bruce, Philip A., ed. (1894). "Mutiny in Virginia, 1635". Virginia Magazine of History and Biography. 1 (4): 419.
- ^ Tarter, Brent (March 13, 2017). "Sir John Harvey (ca. 1581 or 1582–by 1650)". Encyclopedia Virginia. Virginia Foundation for the Humanities. Archived from the original on December 21, 2018. Retrieved January 16, 2019.
- ^ Osgood, Herbert L. (1907). "Beginnings of Royal Government in Virginia". The American Colonies in the Seventeenth Century, Volume III: Imperial Control. Beginning of the System of Royal Provinces. New York, NY: Macmillan. p. 100.
- ^ a b Hening, William Waller, ed. (1809). The Statutes at Large; Being a Collection of All the Laws of Virginia, from the First Session of the Legislature, in the year 1619. Published Pursuant to an Act of the General Assembly of Virginia. Richmond, VA: Samuel Pleasants, Jr., printer to the common wealth. p. 168.
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- ^ )
- ^ a b c d Nugent, Nell Marion (1934). "Patent Book No. 1". Cavaliers and Pioneers, a Calendar of Land Grants 1623-1800. Vol. 1. Richmond, VA: Dietz Press.
- OCLC 499544604.
- ^ Bannister, Thomas T. (1996). "Mapping 17th Century Patents on the North Side of James River, Between Varina and World's End in Henrico County". Archived from the original on May 16, 2020. Retrieved May 16, 2020. accompanied by map, Patents in Southeast Henrico Co (Map). Archived from the original on May 16, 2020. Retrieved May 16, 2020.
- ^ McCartney, Martha W. (2011). Jordan's Point, Virginia: Archaeology in Perspective, Prehistoric to Modern Times. University of Virginia Press.
- )
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- JSTOR 4242430.
- ^ Bannister, Thomas T. (2002). "Appendix C. Records of the Farrar Patent Lands". Archived from the original on November 15, 2018. accompanied by map, Partition of Wm. Farrar's 1637 Patent (Map). Archived from the original on May 16, 2020.
Further reading
- Holmes, Alvahn (1972). The Farrar's Island Family and its English Ancestry. Baltimore, MD: Gateway Press. OCLC 499544604.
- Stanard, William G., ed. (1900-1902) The "Farrar Family" Excursus in The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography
- "The Farrar Family". The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography. 7 (3): 319–322. 1900. JSTOR 4242269.,
- "The Farrar Family (Continued)". The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography. 7 (4): 432–434. 1900. JSTOR 4242292.
- "The Farrar Family (Continued)". The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography. 8 (1): 97–98. 1900. JSTOR 4242320.
- "The Farrar Family (Continued)". The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography. 8 (2): 206–209. 1900. JSTOR 4242337.
- "The Farrar Family (Continued)". The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography. 8 (4): 424–427. 1901. JSTOR 4242386.
- "The Farrar Family (Continued)". The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography. 9 (2): 203–205. 1901. JSTOR 4242430.
- "The Farrar Family (Continued)". The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography. 9 (3): 322–324. 1902. JSTOR 4242449.
- "The Farrar Family (Continued)". The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography. 10 (1): 86–87. 1902. JSTOR 4242488.
- "The Farrar Family (Continued)". The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography. 10 (2): 206–207. 1902. JSTOR 4242519.
- "The Farrar Family (Continued)". The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography. 10 (3): 308–310. 1902. JSTOR 4242543..
- "The Farrar Family". The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography. 7 (3): 319–322. 1900.
(Note: The Vol. 7(4) entry in the excursus is incorrect on William Farrar's lineage. See "Torrence et al., 1942". The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography. 50 (4): 350–359. 1942.