Bristol and America
Subtitle: a record of the first settlers in the colonies of North America, 1654-1685, including the names with places of origin of more than 10,000 servants to foreign plantations who sailed from the port of Bristol to Virginia, Maryland, and other parts of the Atlantic coast, and also to the West Indies from 1654 to 1685. This list is compiled and published from their records by special permission of the Corporation of the city of Bristol, England.
By: With preface by N. Dermott Harding, keeper of the Bristol archives, and historical introduction by Wm. Dodgson Bowman.
Contributors: Harding, N. Dermott 1900-; Bowman, William Dodgson.; Hargreaves-Mawdsley, R.
Publisher: R. S. Glover
Published: 1930
Place of publication: London
Language: eng
Number of pages: 182
Subjects: United States -- History -- Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775 -- Sources.; Virginia -- History -- Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775 -- Sources.; Great Britain -- Colonies -- History -- Sources.; United States -- Emigration and immigration.; Great Britain -- Emigration and immigration.; United States -- Genealogy -- Sources.
Other titles: Servants to foreign plantations.
Notes: "Transcribed by R. Hargreaves-Mawdsley."
In 1654 the city "Council had ordained that, before embarkation, persons bound as servants were to be articled and enrolled as were the city apprentices. 'Servants to foreign plantations' were the fair copies of this system of enrolment. They were kept with the other Apprentice and Burgess books in the Chamberlain's office... The last ... [regular entry] appears in February 1685, after which the enrolment ceases," though there were some "scattered entries: Mar. 27, 1680-June 12, 1686." cf. p. viii-ix, and 171-182.
"Though [these colonists were] known officially as 'servants of the plantations,' this name was a misnomer in the vast majority of cases. In the earlier days of the Virginia company, their 'servants,' in return for their labours on the public land, received an allotment for themselves, and in course of time ... became landholders."--p. 15.