"Minutes" and "transactions" of the (London)
Virginia Company show germanely that, on November 17, 1619, "the
treasurer, council, and
Company" of this Virginia Company addressed
Sir William Cockaine, Knight, Lord Mayor of the city of London, and
the right worthys the aldermen, his brethren, and the worthys the
"common council of the city," and returning thanks for the benefits
conferred, in furnishing out one hundred children this last year
for "the plantation in Virginia" (from what Neill calls the
"homeless boys and girls of London"), states, that, "forasmuch as we
have now resolved to send this next spring [1620] very large
supplies," etc., "we pray your Lordship and the rest . . . to
renew the like favors, and furnish us again with one hundred more
for the next spring. Our desire is that we may have them of twelve
years old and upward, with allowance of L3 apiece for their
transportation, and 40s. apiece for their apparel, as was formerly
granted. They shall be apprenticed; the boys till they come to 21
years of age, the girls till like age or till they be married," etc.
A letter of Sir Edwin Sandys (dated January 28, 1620) to Sir Robert
Naunton shows that "The city of London have appointed one hundred
children from the superfluous multitude to be transported to
Virginia, there to be bound apprentices upon very beneficial
conditions." In view of the facts that these More children - and
perhaps others - were "apprenticed" or "bound" to the Pilgrims
(Carver, Winslow, Brewster, etc.), and that there must have been
some one to make the indentures, it seems strongly probable that
these four children of one family, - as Bradford shows, - very likely
orphaned, were among those designated by the city of London for the
benefit of the (London) Virginia Company in the spring of 1620.
They seem to have been waifs caught up in the westward-setting
current, but only Richard survived the first winter.
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