Re: Indentured Servants

["Jean Grigsby" <jgrigsby@bcni.net>]

[ This is the Sinclair family discussion list, sinclair@zilker.net.
[ For more information, see http://www.mids.org/sinclair/list.html
-------

The term "indenture" was very loosely applied in the ship records.  The
term was often used simply to designate that their passage had been paid
for by someone else.  Often it was a relative who agreed to pay the passage
if they worked in their business a certain period of time and "proved"
themselves.  This was especially true in the Scottish families.  Proof of
this is most evident in Alexander of Augusta County, Virginia when he
"sponsored" his various relatives in their immigration to both Virginia and
Pennsylvania.  We believe this is the case of our Alexander of Stafford
County as there has been no recorded indenture in the court records. 
Lilian Blackford has traced many of the passengers on this ship and
strangely enough a very large number of them were children.  She is now
trying to discover if the parents came first and sent for the children or
if they were orphans.  They were not from the same place so that rules out
an orphanage being involved.  Rick, the ADDENDUM to the hardbound book
explains who we believe Alexander worked for when he arrived in Virginia
and it tends to prove that it was an "understood" indenture rather than a
legally binding one.  It also explains why he became so wealthy so quickly
and why his children married into the well established families of early
America.

The term "transported" simply means that their ship passage was arranged
(not paid for) by a certain person.  The person transported received a
certain amount of acreage.  If you study these people who  were responsible
for transporting new settlers, you will clearly see that some of them were
transported more than once, hence getting large pieces of real estate via
the same person.  Illegal but apparently got away with it in some cases. 
Transported does not mean a person left the mother country involuntarily or
because of a crime as some have thought.

If a person was transported for a crime, it was always noted on the
records.
Jean

----------
From: Matheson <zoo@uswest.net>
To: sinclair@zilker.net
Subject: Re: Indentured Servants
Date: Monday, November 09, 1998 7:21 PM

Basically, an indentured servant agreed to work however many years to pay
off the cost of their passage, which was paid by the employer.  Being
indentured was a legally binding agreement, and those who ran off or didn't
complete their indenture could be punished by law.
    -----Original Message-----
    From: J. R. Carpenter Jr. <gra_jrc@SHSU.EDU>
    To: sinclair@zilker.net <sinclair@zilker.net>
    Date: Monday, November 09, 1998 8:11 AM
    Subject: Two quick replies to a new subscriber!
    
    
    [ This is the Sinclair family discussion list, sinclair@zilker.net.
    [ For more information, see http://www.mids.org/sinclair/list.html
    -------
    
    Thank you list. I only subbed yesterday, and have received two very
quick
    replies already. Dallas B. St. Clair and Jean Grigsby responded to my
    initail post on my descent from Alexander Sinkler (born ca 1666 in
Scotland)
    of Stafford Co VA. I had mistakenly -- from faulty memory -- said that
old
    Alexander was from Loudon and Fauquier Cos.
    
    Jean, most of my info on my St. Clair lineage comes from your Vol. I
book of
    1987 or so, "Sinkler-Sinclair-St. Clair..." I have only been able to
add
    bits here and there, nothing substantial, to what you have compiled. I
need
    to email you privately about some of the Carpenter info in it if you
don't
    mind. I am having a devil of a time tracing them.
    
    What can be said about old Alexander Sinkler coming over to Virginia in
1698
    as an indentured servant for four years? Was that merely his way of
paying
    passage, or was he "transported", or ...? What could that say about his
    family in Scotland?
    
    There is a book out on the Scots in the Chesapeake Bay region and the
    tobacco culture there, I will get the reference and post it soon. It is
a
    good book, but it does not, however, mention my Alexander Sinkler.
    
    Thanks list,
    Rick
    [
    [ This is the Sinclair family discussion list, sinclair@zilker.net.
    [ For subscription, unusubscription, or other instructions, see
    [  http://www.mids.org/sinclair/list.html
    [ or send mail to majordomo@zilker.net with this single line in the
body:
    [  info sinclair
    [
    [ To unsubscribe, send a message like this:
    [
    [           To: majordomo@zilker.net
    [
    [           unsubscribe sinclair
    [


[
[ This is the Sinclair family discussion list, sinclair@zilker.net.
[ For subscription, unusubscription, or other instructions, see
[  http://www.mids.org/sinclair/list.html
[ or send mail to majordomo@zilker.net with this single line in the body:
[  info sinclair
[
[ To unsubscribe, send a message like this:
[
[           To: majordomo@zilker.net
[
[           unsubscribe sinclair
[