Re: Indentured Servants

["J. R. Carpenter Jr." <gra_jrc@SHSU.EDU>]

[ This is the Sinclair family discussion list, sinclair@zilker.net.
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Jean and Matheson,

>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. 

Thanks for the clarification on the supposed indenture. The very fact that
he went from an indenture to wealth quickly showed to me that it was not an
ordinary indenture. 

>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.

I was, though, actually referring to England's policy of "transporting"
trouble-making Scots to the American colonies after any of the many various
rebellions. It was the same reasoning that England sent the Presbyterian
Scots from the borderland to Catholic Ireland. They solved one problem, but
created another. In our case though, it was to America's benefit that the
Scots came here, transported for rebellion or not. But this was not the case
with Alexander Sinkler.

Multiple head right claims, I've seen that too.

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

Well noted, I haven't seen any of the original 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.

Rick
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