Compiled by Teresa
Martin Klaiber 2020
We
had been on a long summer camping and sightseeing vacation. The boys had a
wonderful time at Busch Gardens in Virginia.
We had visited Williamsburg and Jamestown. We were heading home, more
than weary when I was drawn to the sign to Carter’s Grove Plantation. We needed to stretch our legs. A historical sign stated that “On both sides
of this road and extending west was the plantation known as Martin’s
Hundred…settled in 1619…massacre …1622…”
The
house was built by Carter Burwell, grandson of Robert “King” Carter. When we toured it was part of the Colonial
Williamsburg Foundation’s properties.[i]
The
boys walked around the grounds as hubby and I listened to the tour guide. While the house was interesting, I could not
put my finger on why I had a sense of belonging. I have had that feeling before, when visiting
places and graves of my ancestors.
The
tour guide said that a new archaeological dig had marked out Wolstenholme
town, established about 1618, in Martin’s Hundred and now part of the
Carter Grove lands. By the time Robert “King” Carter purchased the land, circa
1709, there was no visual evidence left of the town, which today is just
referenced as Martin’s Hundred. Graves and the outline of several building
sites had been unearthed.
We
were welcome to walk down and visit but not disturb the archaeologists. I felt drawn to the grave sites and could
have watched the activity all afternoon.
We were just 9 miles from the north side of the James River. I was still feeling a draw, which baffled
me. Because those that know me, know
that I have stood up to stop archaeological grave digs. I even testified at the Ohio Capital against grave
removals, as studies, Native Indian graves being disturbed and military bones
in storage (Gnadenhutten), in the state of Ohio. Looking at the marked graves saddened me, yet
the reality, confronted me, that without this new knowledge, a very important
part of American history would be lost.
Martin’s
Hundred was named from Richard Martin, a recorder for the city of London. While the town of Wolstenhome within
the hundred was named for Sir John Wolstenholme. Both were investors in the Virginia Company.
National
Geographic published “First Look at a Lost Virginia Settlement” in June
1979. Ivor Neal Hume’s book Martin’s
Hundred had just been published.
Reading it cover to cover, I became aware that I was drawn to the site
because of my maternal grandmother’s own grandmother who descends from the
Adams/Addams family of Henrico (later Goochland County) Virginia. The
town of Henrico was also established by the Virginia Company, upstream on the
James River.
Robert
Addams was born about 1587. Some
researchers say he was born in northern Wales.[ii] Robert came to the Virginia colonies on the
ship Bona Nova commanded by Captain John Huddleton. The ship made several journeys between 1618
and 1622. Among others arriving on the Bona Nova was Augustine Leak.
Leak’s wife would follow in 1623 on the George.
While documentation is scant this compiler
believes that Robert Adams arrived on the voyage of April 1622 and helped with
the rebuilding of Martin’s Hundred after the Powhatan attack in March 1622. The Powhatan destroyed almost everything
that had been built by the settlers who had sailed from England on the Gift
of God. For some time it was
assumed all were lost. Later reports
show that a few escaped and that at least 15 or more women were captured. Some were released in the next couple of
years. Approximately twenty persons returned
to Martin’s Hundred to rebuild and others soon followed to assist. In a letter involving the Virginia Company,
the following February, Henrico, Charles City, as well as James “Cyttie” are
cited as massacred with only some 10 or
12 “howses” remaining, while Thomas Smith was acting governor.[iii]
Robert Adams was picked to represent the
community. He was listed as a James City County Burgess from James Island in
1623. The House of Burgess was the forerunner of the Virginia General Assembly.
The Burgesses were elected representatives from the shires and would be roughly
the equivalent of a Delegate today.
Sometime between June 1623/4 and January
Addams was shot in the leg during a scrimmage which he describes in detail in a
letter (see further this article). His
wife (unnamed) tried to seek shelter at William Harwood’s for safety while his
“partner” Augustine Leak(e) fought beside him.
The muster of the inhabitants of Martin’s
Hundred was taken 4 February 1624.
Robert Addams is listed along with his partner, Augustine Leak having Corne, 6 barrells; Fish, 3 ½ hundred; Power, 12 lb; Shott,
30 lb; Peeces fixt, 1, Matchcock, 1; Armour, 1 and 4 headps; Coats of Male, 2;
Coate of Steele, 1; Swords, 2; Swine, 2; House,1.
Then in November 1624 Robert Addams
was accused of gathering and taking Mr. Harwood’s corn. Richard Smith testified that to his knowledge
his master did not nor ever gathered Harwoods’s corn.[iv] Richard Smith, age 24 years, is listed as having arrived with Mrs. Leak on
the ship George in 1623. By the
time of the roll he is cited as a servant of Robert Adams.
The Virginia Company’s charter was
revoked in 1624. Robert Addams is one of
many at the Virginia Assembly who signed the document, along with others
including Nicholas Marten and Raphe Hamor.
Ivor Noel Hume mentions the census of 1625
calling Robert Addams and Augustine Leak and team having two houses, the second
built when Winifred Leak came over from England in 1623. The Adams-Leak household had six muskets referred
to as “peeces”.[v]
In records of the general court of James City,
11 April 1625, Robert, along with Alice Procter (wife of John Proctor) were
acquitted of the accusation of having killed a hogg belonging to George Graves.
They were said to have killed said hogg two and ½ years prior to the hearing
(circa 1623). Edward Smith was the only said person to come forward with
“contrary tales and by many strong assumptions conceived to have done it in
malice.pr The accuser, Edward Smith was sentenced to be whipped with thirty
stripes for his offense.[vi]
Two months later, Robert Addams Wrote to the Nicholas
and John Farrar in England describing the situation in Virginia. June 16, 1625:
Worshipfull and worthy gentillmen: …in the beginning of the yeare 1623 after the feare bred by the bluddy masaker heare was blowne over I intending to goe from James Iland wher I then lived to Haryhatocke* wher I had a house built …governor … Master Treasurer to advise and direct me to Martins Hundred the better to strengthen the place and to secure and asosyate Mr. Harwod and your other servants whoe then weare returning thether: Mr. Harwod allotted me one peece of a house wch then laye uncovered and some part of the ground formerly in the ocupatyon of one Ritchard Staples: I came hether with my wife one partnor and a servant …built a house …planting that sumer the same day that a woman servant of yours was slaine by the Indyans…
I was assaulted by them shott with a bullet in the leg and much of my corne cut downe by them it by gods blessing my partnor and I with our pouder and shott cleared the plantation of them: in the meane space my wife with much danger got to Mr. Harwods … wher he was armed and garded with your servants till the Indyans were fled: nether would he endure her importunity but forsed her from them into a watch house wher she stayed for the present…Sir George and Master Treasurer who we hope are now wth youe can enforme you it thorrow thes discuragmentes I stayed yt yeare: then Henry Barrowe and John …I remoued but Mr Emmersonatt that time cominge hether perswaded me againe to returne advising me not to doubt but that the worthy adventurers would consider of my charge in building and alow me a fitte time to enjoye my labors: I allowed to his advice and returned and have since builte another house and haue begune a pale or pallisadoe about my house though we reseaue lyttell comfort by Mr Harwods neborhood for at this present my selfe and your halves men being in sume want of pouder Mr Emmerson in our behafes requested hime to lend 50 lbs of the pouder amongst vs wch you last sent and to keep the rest wth his former store …I am willing here to continue if it please you and yr other adventurers to asure me a reasonabell terme in the house and …or a share of land for a resonabell adventure or otherwise to …I referre to the wysdome and pleasures of your selues and your wothie sosyety and so praying for yt your plantatyons may prosper and flurrish and you live in helth and prosperity I rest…[vii]
By 11 January 1626 Robert Addams is
back in court. He was presented for
drunkenness by the Provost Marshall, entered his bond in tobacco. Henry Gainye
was also censured for same. It does not clarify if they were “partying”
together.
In August 1626 Addams returned to
court and stated that while at William Harwood’s house he overhead a man named
Richard Crocker accuse Ralph Hamor and Mr. Pefey of profiteering. The accuser
is once again punished. Crocker was condemned to a month in jail with his ears
nailed to a board plus posting 300 pounds of tobacco for subsequent good
behavior. William Harwood was governor
of Martin’s Hundred and came over in the Francis Bonaventure. His wife Ann followed on the Abigall.
The last activity recorded for Robert
Addams was 3 April 1627 when he and Giles Allinton posted security for the
administration of the estate of Caleb Page. [viii] By February 1627 Robert’s “partner” Augustine
Leake was in Elizabeth City where he was granted administration to the estate
of Henry Gainy.[ix]
By January 1628, in his early 40’s Robert Addams was dead. His wife, still unnamed, was either pregnant
at the time of her husband’s demise or caring for an infant. “Mrs. Adams” of
Martin’s Hundred was granted Administration and paid 300 pounds of tobacco to
John Wareham a merchant which was owed by her husband.[x] It was not until 9 April 1628 that the court
at James City approved the nuncupative will upon the oath of John Lyford,
minister. The Witness’ included Captain
Smyth and Mr. Farrar.[xi]
This compiler believes that the Farrar
witness is William Farrar who had survived the Powhatan attack. He had three shares of the Virginia
Company. The John and Nicholas Farrar
that Addams had written in 1625, were second cousins (sons of Nicholas Farrar
Sr.) and managed Virginia Company interests from England. William established a
2000 acre patent on Farrar’s Island. The
earliest settlement known as Henricus was founded there.
This compiler also believes that in
the transcribed Addams-Farrar letter, where Robert Addams stated he had built a
house in “Haryhatocke” is a reference to Arrohattock[xii], which
was further upstream from Henricus. The
Arrohattoc were a Native American tribe that had earlier welcomed the Virginia
Company.Their village was located on the James at present day Henrico,
Virginia.
Records at James City and surrounding
areas have gone through many fires over the decades. Scant information from sources indicate that
the infant son of Robert Addams was William Adams/Addams born about 1627-28. What was the original source? Where did this
information come from? A book published by Jasper Hendricks, The Hendricks
and Their Kin in 1962, page 24-25 states that William is the son of Robert
Adams from the Isle of Angleses, North Wales who came on the Bona Nova
1619. Already I have a flag because
Angleses is misspelled but will give that one to the author as misconstruing
Welsh. However, careful review of Robert
Addams shows he does not appear in Martin’s Hundred until just after the 1622
massacre. Hendricks goes on to state that Robert’s son is William with two
references.[xiii] Just to reiterate, the publication date is
1962.
In 1983 Emma G. Baldwin published An
Adams-Goolsby Genealogy and a Shirley Genealogy again stating that William
is the son of Robert Addams. Her
references for William Adams as the son of Robert are:
7. Seventeenth Century Colonial Ancestors of Members of the
National Society Colonial Dames XVII Century (Compiled by
Mary L. Marshall Hutton, Ann Arbor, Mich., 1976)
8. Frederick Adams Virkus, The Compendium of American Genealogy (Chicago 1942), Vol. 7, p. 194
National Society Colonial Dames XVII Century (Compiled by
Mary L. Marshall Hutton, Ann Arbor, Mich., 1976)
8. Frederick Adams Virkus, The Compendium of American Genealogy (Chicago 1942), Vol. 7, p. 194
These publications link a William as
the father of Robert Adams born about 1690/92 in Henrico British America. They
also link a William as the son of Robert Addams of Martin’s Hundred.
Robert born 1690/92 married 4 February
1712 Mourning Lewis. Daughter Mary born in 1720 married Charles Moorman
(1715-1788). Daughter Elizabeth born
1713 married Achilles Moorman. These two
Moorman’s were grandsons of Thomas Moorman who came over on the Bona Nova in
1619. Daughter Sally married John R.
Farrar a descendent of Farrar of Martin’s Hundred.
We have already established the role
of Henrico in Robert Addams narrative. There is 62 years between the death of
Addams in 1628 and the birth of Robert Adams 1690/92 in Henrico British
America.
This compiler considers the Hendrick’s
and Baldwin publications as newer publications.
It took weeding through several references to find those mentioning a
“William Adams.” The Compendium of
American Genealogy, Volume VII by Virkus was published in 1942. The line he is citing is that of Robert Etter
Hardwick through Charles Moorman that married Mary Adams. The publication
simply states in parenthesis (Robert…William…Robert). Hutton’s Seventeenth
Century Colonial Ancestors was not published until 1975/6 and does not cite
a William in Virginia.
Hardwick also cites Thomas Tunstall
Adam’s publication Adams Biographical Genealogies,
published in 1928. Read every word
carefully. Page 12: “The first American
ancestors of the Adamses came from the Island of Anglesea, North Wales, and it
is a mooted question whether he came directly to the old “James River
Settlement, in Virginia, or settled in
the New England States, and thence his posterity drifted to the Old
Dominion. …The name of the emigrant ancestor is said to have been
William Adams but on this point there is no certainty. Robert Adams,
(father of Captain Robert …of the Revolution) was probably the grandson
of one “Robert Adams,” who about the year 1620 was a member of the first House
of Burgesses’ in Virginia…” On Page 15
and 16, T.T. writes: “…My information goes thus far: Robert Adams…son of
Robert Adams, Jr….who married Penelope Lynch…I cannot go back of this Robert
Adams …This guessing calculation takes him back to 1695…I find from
Hening’s Statutes…that one Robert Adams was a member of the first House of
Burgesses. My guess is that this
Robert Adams was the founder of the Adams family of Virginia…”
Juliet Fauntleroy along with Mrs.
George Boykin Saunders and others wrote “The Adams Branch of the Irvine Family,
of Bedford County, Va.” Fauntleroy died
in 1955.[xiv] The
article quoted Adams Biographical Genealogies word for word. Or Tunstall quoted Fauntleroy since the
article is not dated. The Fauntleroy Papers are later cited in The Margaret
Malin Phillips Collection at the Boyd County (KY) Public Library involving a
letter from a Mrs. Marian Fawcett. The notation states that most of her
information came from the Fauntleroy collection. In a handwritten note by Phillips, quoting
Fawcett “…the Va. And Mass. Adams families were from the same root – both
families coming from North Wales…I Robert…James River; II William Adams; III
Robert Adams Sr. …m. Mourning Lewis…”
The collection of Phillips involves her supplemental application in the
National Society Colonial Dames XVII in 1977 under Robert Adams (wife Mourning
Lewis).
These citations give no clue to where
T.T. Adams or Juliet Fauntleroy found the given name of William. No dates, no
location, no further citation. They are also not citing William as the
son of Robert of Martin’s Hundred but rather as a possible emigrant ancestor of
Robert. Thus, in this compiler’s
opinion, the name William was perpetuated by many including Varkus to Baldwin
to online articles (including this compiler) by a publication which was
clearing misunderstood as to whom the cited William might have been and where
he fit. It is obvious that Tunstall did not have access to the records of the Bona
Nova.
Henrico was formed in 1634, just six
years after the death of Robert Addams. If Addams has a male heir that is an infant at his
death then researchers have felt it is plausible that Robert Adams (Addams) of
Henrico/Goochland born 1690/92 is descendant within one or two generations,
following the pattern of other well known families of that area. According to an article on the Economic
History of Virginia (1896) in 1635 there were only 419 persons situated on both
sides of the James River between Arrahattock and Shirley Hundred. All citizens
of the county of Henrico.[xv] [xvi] While there were 886 persons in James City.[xvii]
All of the court records prior to 1655
and almost all prior to 1677 are missing or destroyed by fire. This compiler has found no head right for
Robert Addams who died in 1628. But
there are references in Henrico deeds to lands that were deserted and later
transferred who list several persons giving up rights. Among those is 244 acres to Robert Bullington
10 May 1678 described as at the head of Captain Jno. Farrar’s land[xviii];…at
the path goeing to “Harrahadox”… Among the transfer of five persons, according
to the extraction is an Adams. However a view of the scan copy provided at
Library of Virginia, is so black where the signatures are, as to be unreadable.
There are also references of land
patents from the early years of James City County with several notations of several
female Adams as well as Martin’s Hundred.[xix] This
compiler has not seen any reference to intrigue further review at this writing.
Genealogists know that you should work
from the present; what you know to the past.
But sometimes they appear to collide and it is necessary to work both
ends of a problem with caution. I am
only one of many who continue to study the parentage of Robert (1690/92-1740)
and Mourning Lewis Adams (my direct line) as well as being drawn to Robert
Addams and Martin’s Hundred. More and
more records are becoming accessible. It
is my hope that new collaborations will unravel the records with proper
citations. tlmk
[i] IN 2007 Halsey Minor
purchased the property for a center for thoroughbred breeding. However, he made
no changes and in 2010 declared bankruptcy.
The Williamsburg Foundation was the only bid at auction and resold it to
Samule Mencoff, in 2014.Restoration is again in process.
[ii] Researchers have
long said he was born Isle of Angleses, North Wales but to date this is not
substantiated.
[iii] Edward Duffield Neill, History of the Virginia Company
of London: With Letters to and from... (N.p.: n.p., n.d.), 404-
[iv] H.R. McIlwaine, Editor, Minutes of the Council and
General Court of Colonial Virginia (Virginia: Virginia State Library,
1979), page 30.
[v] Ivor Noel Hume, Martin's Hundred (New York: Alfred
A. Knopf, 1982), page 140 & 149.
[vi] Baldwin, Emma G. An
Adams-Goolsby Genealogy and A Shirley Genealogy
[vii] "Letter, N. Farrar from R. Addams," , Colonial
Papers, York Co Thorndale 1997:188-189 also Ferrar; Paper 1622-1627 reel 3
#569; , Library of Virginia, .
[viii] H.R. McIlwaine, Editor, Minutes of the Council and
General Court of Colonial Virginia (Virginia: Virginia State Library,
1979), page 147.
[ix] Minutes of the
Council and General Court 1622-1629. The Virginia Magazine of History and
Biography. Vol 29, #4 Oct 1921, page 424
[x] H.R. McIlwaine, Editor, Minutes of the Council and
General Court of Colonial Virginia (Virginia: Virginia State Library, 1979),
.
[xi] H.R. McIlwaine, Editor, Minutes of the Council and
General Court of Colonial Virginia (Virginia: Virginia State Library,
1979), .
[xii] McCartney, Martha W. (2005). "Chapter 4: Narrative History". In
Moretti-Langholtz, D. (ed.). A Study
of Virginia Indians and Jamestown: The First Century. Williamsburg, VA: Colonial National Park Service, U. S
Department of the Interior. Archived from the
original on 20 August 2019.
[xiii] NSDAR Magazine
6-1926, page 364-5 and the Compendium of American Genealogy Vol 6
[xiv] The article quoted Adams Biographical Genealogies word
for word. The Juliet Fauntleroy Papers
are located at the Jones Memorial Library and were microfilmed by the
Genealogical Society of Utah (9 microfilm reels. Box 1, folder 1 contains Adams
family material).
[xv] Bruce, Phillip.
Economic History of Virginia in the Seventeenth Century: An Inquiry into the
Material Condition of People…NY, Macmillan. 1896. Chapter X.
[xvi] Census of Virginia
1634. Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, Volume 8 page 302 cited from
Colonial Papers, Vol 8, No. 55.
[xviii] Another daughter of Robert and Mourning Lewis Adams married
John R. Farrar.
[xix] Early Virginia
Families Along the James River: Their Deep Roots and Tangled Branches, Vol. III
