Ancestors in the Virginia Muster

Haven't been able to find a source for this image, which is found all over the internet.
I'm assuming it now longer is under copyright.

The original Jamestown expedition was an economic outpost, rather than a settlement. The first fort was established in 1607 by the Virginia Company of London. Its mission was to extract as much wealth as possible from Virginia, either through mining, cash crops, or other resources. Unsurprisingly, the company had problems from the start. Men whose primary raison d'etre was to make money had no interest in grubbing in the dirt to grow food, and although the original fort was placed on unwanted land, as the company expanded fields for tobacco, the English more and more came into conflict with the local political authority, Powhatan.

Powhatan reasonably assumed that any settlement placed on his lands, with his permission, was under his political authority. In fact, the story of John Smith being "saved" by Powhatan's daughter Matoaka (aka Pocahontas) was likely a ceremony (misunderstood by Smith) during which the English offered fealty to Powhatan. The frequent conflicts between the English and the Powhatan Confederacy reached a head in March 1622, when about one third of the English were killed in a highly successful attack on the plantations and villages surrounding Jamestown. That March battle was the closest the English came to being driven from Virginia, but the early years of Jamestown were tough on the English in many ways. Nearly half of the English population died between 1607-1622.

In the aftermath of the 1622 disaster (or success, depending on one's perspective), the Crown decided to take over from the Virginia Company and make Jamestown a royal colony. This was the first American lesson in the folly of choosing free-enterprise over a centralized government. (Almost 400 years later, I'm not sure we've fully learned the lesson.)(1)

As part of the transition to royal colony, the king and privy council demanded a census of all people and goods in Jamestown. This 1624/25 document is known as the Virginia Muster.  Those who appear in its pages are truly Virginia's first families (from a European perspective, at least).

I've blogged before about my Hancock line. Although some of the Hancocks go back to early Huguenot settlement in the area,  others lead back to the original English settlement. Two families of Hancock ancestors appear on the Virginia Muster(2):

Thomas and Adria Harris: Thomas and Adria lived in Neck-of-Land, Charles Cittie, with a girl of 7, Ann Woodlase, who was "theire kinswoman". They also had a 15 year old servant named Elizabeth, who had arrived on the Margaret and John in 1620. Thomas was 38 and arrived on the ship Prosperous. His wife had arrived November 1621, on the Marmaduke. Her maiden name was probably Hoare (they appear to have married after she arrived). Thomas and Adria owned two houses, a boat, 11 pounds of powder, 2 pounds lead, 3 "piece fixed" (some kind of gun), a sword, and a coat of mail. They also had, at the time of the census (which was taken January 24, 1624/5), 7.5 bushels of corn, 1 bushel of peas, 11 cattle (young and old), and 30 poultry.

Thomas and Adria's daughter, Mary, married Thomas Lignon (whose status as a "gateway ancestor" I blogged about previously). Their daughter, Johana Lignon, was the wife of Robert Hancock, the first of our Hancock ancestors born in Virginia.


William Coxe (or Cox): William Coxe was 12 years old when he arrived in Jamestown on the Godspeed, June 10, 1610. He was with the party of Thomas West, Third Lord De La Warr (for whom Delaware was later named). Lord De La Warr's brother had married an Elizabeth Coxe, daughter of Sir Henry Coxe of Broxburne, Hertfordshire, so it's assumed William was part of that family, although the exact relationship is not known. At the time of the muster, he was in the household of Thomas Bouldinge in Elizabeth City. At the time, Thomas Bouldinge was a man of 40, with a house, a palisade, and quite a lot of stored food. It's not clear if William was his servant, relative, or had some other role in the household. In addition to William Coxe, Thomas Bouldinge's household included Richard Edwards, aged 23, and Niccolas Dale, aged 20. Thomas's wife was already dead, but his son, William, born in Virginia, was part of the household. It appears William Coxe returned to England at least once, and then came back to Virginia before claiming land in the Arrowhattocks area.

William's great-great-granddaughter, Jane Cox, married Francis Hopkins. Their daughter, Patsy Hopkins, married John Walden. And their daughter, Harriet Walden, was the wife of Justus Hancock, and mother of Ammon Goode Hancock.


Although he didn't appear in the Virginia Muster, it's worth noting one more family connection to Jamestown, this time through the Kinney line. Stephen Hopkins was one of our Mayflower ancestors. Although he ended up at Plymouth, he was in Jamestown from 1610-1614, under John Smith. This experience proved valuable to the early colonists of Massachusetts.

References:
(1) There are a number of excellent sources on the history of Jamestown. I recently read (and recommend) a more general history of Native/Colonist conflict in the early English colonies. Weidensaul, Scott. 2012. The First Frontier: The Forgotten History of Struggle, Savagery, and Endurance in Early America. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

(2) All genealogical material comes from John Frederick Dorman's book, Adventurers of Purse and Person, 5th edition. Published in 2004 by Genealogy Press.