Family Tree Maker's Genealogy Site: User Home Page Book: Descendants of William Mabe-8 Generations: Register Report of William Mabe

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Descendants of William Mabe

Generation No. 1

1. WILLIAM¹ MABE was born Abt. 1699 in England, and died 1762 in Albermale County, Virginia. He married ELIZABETH UNKNOWN. She died Aft. 1772.

Notes for WILLIAM MABE:
William Mabe was born in Bridstow, Herefordshire, England. He came to America as a bonded passenger in 1720, He received a land grant from King George II of Great Britian on February 1, 1738. The grant was for 204 acres and was located in Hanover County, Virginia. To keep the land William had to improve five acres per year.

William was married to Elizabeth and they had five sons, John, Charles, Robert, Phillip, and William. They are all mentioned in his will. The will was probated in 1762. The will was dated December 13, 1756. The will gave 40 acres to each son.

John, his oldest son, is listed as the seller in three separate land transaction between 1763 and 1771. These transactions totaled 172 acres of the other original 204. In the last sell the acreage included the plantation home. I think this land belonged to Charles because it required his signature.

Shortly after 1771 Robert and John moved to North Carolina. I think Charles went with them. Except for the will, there is no other mention of William, or Phillip. John and Robert bought land in the current Stokes County. The land was either in Rowan or Surry county.

FROM: Mabe Family Book (Authors Virginia Mabe King and Georgia Maria Mabe Thomas)

William and Elizabeth Mabe immigrated from (Cornwall) England to Albermarle Co., Virginia in 1738. On Feb. 1, 1738 William received a land grant of 204 acres in Hanover Co. VA from King George II. They had four sons and three daughters.

One of his sons was Robert Mabe, who according to a will dated in 1762, received land in Virginia from his father, William, which he later sold, and settled near Danbury (Stokes Co.) NC prior to 1771.

In 1778 Robert, both a miner and a farmer, received a land grant of 150 acres and later in 1795 he received a second grant of 50 acres. A voucher dated in 1782 listed in Treasurer and Controller's Records, Vol. XII, page 3, folio 4 records payment for services during the Revolutionary War.

"John Mabe b. Abt 1698 Bristow, Hartford Shire, England. Married Eliz Powell 6/19/1723 b. Abt. 1702" written above name of William Mabe in what Lyle L. Mabe Notes apparently copied from a letter furnished by Mintoria Mabe in Dec 1974. The author of the letter is unknown. Could this be the parents or brother of William Mabe?

FROM: Descendants of William Mabe, on the Internet

EMAIL from Hank Mabe 12/05/99
Hi Jim,This some of the info about William. When I get the doc's back from PRO, I will send you a copy. Heading in Latin translates as Hereford in the sixth year of the current reign 1719/20)"Williamus Mabe for burglary in the dwelling house of Richard Williams the 24th day of November last at Mitch Dewchurch & stealing a pair of Bootes value 10s. two Bridles value 4d two Garths value 6d a crupper value1d five shirts calue 4d a Little Bagg & two pieces of Linnen value 2d from the said Richard Williams."Several others were tried and received the same sentence. There is a lengthy note on the arrangements for the transportation of the convicts. "Whereas Hannah Bates the wife of William Bates late of Ross in the County of Hereford soldier, William Smith late of Ledbury in the same county labourer, Amy Hyett late of Eaton in the county of Hereford spinster &William Mabe late of Much Dewchurch in the same county labourer were severall convicted at the Assizes and General Gaol delivery of Grand Larceny for which they are lyable to the punishment of Burning in the hand This Court doth therefore order that the said Hannah Bates William Smith Amy Hyet and William Mabe be transported and sent as soon as conveniently maybe for the Term of Seven yeares to some of his Majesties Colonies and Plantations in America accrding to a late Act of parliament made in the fourth year of his Majesties reign for the further Preventing of Robbery Burglary and other Felonyes and for the more effectual Transportation of Felons etc And it is further ordered by this court that Thomas Mulso the younger Esquire Richard Hancox and Thomas Pickering Gentlemen or theSurvivors or Survivor of them be the persons appointed to make contacts with some other person or persons for the effectual transporting of the said Hannah Bates William Smith Amy Hyet & William Mabe for the said Terme of Seven yeares and to take Security for the performance of such transportation from the person or persons with whom such contract or contracts shall be made and to report the same to this court now held or to be held at the next or any other Assizes or general Gaol delivery to be approved of by the said court in order to trensfer and make over the said Hannah Bates William Smith Amy Hyet and William Mabe to the use of suchcontractor or contractors, pursuant to the Act of Parliament aforesaid. "Robert Thorpe, of Fisherton Anger, Gent, in 1720. a shipping merchant with supply ships, contracted by the state (England) for shipping bonded (prisoners) passengers to the colonies. William included. Appointed by the Justice of the Peace, usually merchants of standing already engaged in tobacco trade operating from main ports in southwest coast of England or the town of Bristol. (was this where william left from)One ship belonging to Robert Thorpe was the Honour. This is the ship William was transported on. It departed (town) May, 1720, with Richard Langley as the captain with destination to York River, Virginia. There was 60 people on board. It took about 7 weeks for the trip. There was a muntiny on board and they put 15 people ashore in Spain. Not only this ship, but most of the prisoners were in shackles and leg irons, and in the ship’s gallows. Quite a few of the people were dead upon arrival at port or buried at sea. The shippers would get paid for the amount of people arriving. But, conditions were not the best. Food shortage, diseases, accounted for quite a few of the passengers. Will have to fill in the blanks when we get the transcripts back.
Hank Mabe

EMAIL from Hank Mabe 12/08/99
Hi Jim.Hopefully I will get the doc's on the ship & trial from the PRO office at Kew shortly. If this has the info as described, it will give departure port and the arrival port on the York River and passenger list etc.. It may mention who he was turned over to at port upon arrival. Hope so anyway. I've been told that the ships at that time went all the way up the York to within short distance of Richmond. Just have to wait and see what it says. A couple of people that you talked to have already talked with me. Hilton Turner and Deb's friend/husband?I tried to find out as much as can on the plantation owners of that time and see what/where William was doing from the time he finish serving his time and his land grant. I believe he was allowed to continue to work for a while so as to pay for his land grant. That's what happen to normal people (indentured passengers), the ones that immigrated and worked to pay for their passage. After their debt was paid, they could/might get a land grant for their good deeds/efforts.Sure, let your pen pal find out about the plantation,etc. As I have already sent for the doc's, there's no need for him to send for them.If we find the plantation he was on, we might find out who his Elizabeth really was. I believe she may have been a Shelton. They were friends with the Mabes and married each other.Did I tell you his land grant/plantation was near Esmont in Albemarle?Do you have the source for the birth dates/place for William's kids. If you do could you let me know what it is. Thank you. Yes, if you have synopsis of your friends research let me know, maybe I have something to help piece this thing together.
Hank Mabe

EMAIL from John Turner to his father Hilton Turner 12/04/99
Here is what I was able to glean from the Bonded Passenger books by Peter Wilson Coldham.
1) Re: William Mabe. The entry in the 1983 edition says Mabe, William of Much Dewchurch S. Lent 1720. This means that William Mabe was sentenced in Lent of 1720 and that there were no records found of his departure or arrival. Much Dewchurch is a parish in southcentral Herfordshire. There is also a Little Dewchurch nearby. According to the 1844 Topographical Dictionary of England Much Dewchurch then was a 4251 acre, 579 inhabitant parish containing Saddlebrow Hill and crossed by the Ross to Thruxton Road in the upper division of the Hundred of Wormelow, union and county of Hereford, 6 1/2 miles southwest by south from Hereford. Ity appears to be about 8 miles west of Bridstow and about 30 miles north of Bristol, the port from which convicts from this part of England were shipped to the colonies. I found a list of parish records for England. Much Dewchurch is listed as "deposited original registers: 1558-1893, no I.G.I., and local marriage records from about 1700. Copies of the registers are at Soc.Gen. Bridstow is listed as "deposited original registers 1560-1918; no I.G.I., marriage records beginning about 1758, and copies of registers at Soc. Gen.
2) Your note says that he left England May 1720 on the Honour. One of the ship lists says that 15 convicts on that voyage of the Hounour mutinied and forced the Captain to put them ashore at Vigo. One gazeteer indicated that there was something that is not a town, a body of water or river, a forest, a hill, or an antiquity located in Herefordshire which was named Vigo. It also had a town in West Midlands by that name. Another gazeteer indicate that Vigo was a locality in Worchester in Bromsgrove urban district which would also put it a few miles inland. I have not found anything in England which was on the seashore named Vigo. Another theory therefore could be that He escaped and 13 years later managed to get a land grant and went to Virginia as a tobacco farmer rather than as a plantation hand. The record of the ship's sailing is supposedly in the Oxford Circuit Money Books of the Public Record Office, Rushkin Avenue, Kew, Surrey TW9, 4DU. These are large ledgers containing amongst other matter, details of payments made by the British Treasury to transportation contractors from August 1718 to October 1744 and also recording the names of those transported from the City of London, Middlesex, the Home Counties, and Buckinghamshire. Mabe was not transported from any of these so his name is probably not mentioned.
3) Here is the difference between the 1988 edition and the 1983 edition of Coldham's work. The 1983 edition is set out by county in England and has a 150 or more page preface describing life in England and in the Colonies at this time. I sent you the relevant parts. Other parts I did not send were interesting but not relevant. For instance, one chapter describes the kidnapping of poor Scottish children to work on the plantations. Other sections make a fairly credible case for life as an indentured servant being as miserable as life as a slave. The 1988 edition adds perhaps 10,000 tranported people who were sentenced by the Courts of Quarter Session and puts the entire 50,000 deportees in alphabetical order.
4) Some historical gleanings. You will receive perhaps 100 pages of xeroxes sooner or later. Most indentured servants went to either Virginia or Maryland, not to Georgia as most people believe and they were sent over the entire colonial histories of these states. My guess is that most DAR members therefore also have skeletons in their closets because there were over 50,000 deportations to the colonies. The few attempts to send prisoners after the revolution did not work out which led to the shipments to Australia starting in the 1780s. Those sent essentially ended up as slave labor on plantations. Those shipped were from jails, whorehouses, or were "undeserving poor or unprotected children." They were sent in shackles and sold upon arrival often for tobacco which filled the ships on the way back to England. The customary term of service in 1720 was seven years. It cost about 4 pounds to transport a prisoner and they sold for ten pounds for unskilled labor and 25 pounds for craftsmen so it was a highly profitable, if dangerous business. Perhaps 14 percent died in transit. Transportation was considered to be a very harsh penalty. There were those who chose death over a second transportation.
There was a 1718 Act which Mabe would have been shipped under. It leasd to Jonathan Forward signing a long-term contract for a monopoly on shipping prisoners which lasted for 24 years. The statute allowed offense usually punished by burnng the hand or whipping to be punished by transportation for 7 years and for certain capitol offenses to be punished after pardon by transportation for 14 years. Idle persons, age 15 to 21, who were willing, could be transported in exchange for 8 years of labor. Mabe may have be in this age group. The Act also required merchants and ship's captains to contract. Captains were required to obtain certificates of landing from the customs officer at the point of disembarcation. Records for London and the Home Counties survive for 1718 to 1736, however I don't think the author found a disembarcation record involving Mabe. All Assize and Palatinate records are at the Public Record Office, Chancery Lane, London, WC2A1LR. Quarter Session Records are in the county of origin. My guess his record is an Assize or Palatinate record because Coldham included him in the 1983 edition.
Here are my research questions.
Are there any sales records in Virginia.
Are there any plantation records.
Are there any records of return trips.
Are there any records of Crown land transfers.
Are there any newspapers from Western England or even London in 1720 which would have reported on the mutiny.

Hi Jim,
Well, I got the doc's back from the PRO. Everything is correct except one thing. William's name wasn't own it. It said it went to York River, but no town mention. I guess you will have to do a delete or retraction on the info about the Honour. In the Coldham's book it had listed:Mabe, William of Much Dewchurch, S Lent 1720, Heand went on to say in the related info, if the name of the ship wasn't listed, the person would have been transported on the next ship. The Honour was the next ship to Va.Well, I'm not sure what info I will get, but I have just dropped in the post another order to the PRO for more ship doc's. There is 4 more ships listed for Va. up to Nov 1725, and 5 ships to Maryland up to Feb 1723. I ordered a copy of these doc's. If I don't get what we are looking for, I will have plenty of info to share. These doc's were readable in almost modern day English.Received the trial papers also. The parts I could read of this doc is what has been stated. I will have to send them to Hilton for better translation. Well, guess I jumped the gun on this one. Got to be more careful. I'll make sure I have the right info next time. Can't believe everything you read, even in a well authored book. We still haven't gotten him to Va. yet. lol!!
Hank

More About WILLIAM MABE:
Fact 8: 1720, Came to Virginia as an Indentured Servant
Fact 9: February 01, 1737/38, Received Land Patent for 204 acres
Occupation: Tobacco Farmer

Children of WILLIAM MABE and ELIZABETH UNKNOWN are:

	i.	PHILLIP R.² MABE.
2.	ii.	CHARLES M. MABE, b. Abt. 1735; d. Abt. 1803.
3.	iii.	JOHN MABE, b. Abt. 1738, Albermale County, Virginia; d. Bef. September 20, 1808, Danbury, Stokes County, North Carolina.
4.	iv.	ROBERT MABE, SR., b. Abt. 1740, Albermale County, Virginia; d. Bet. 1820 - 1830, Stokes County, North Carolina.
	v.	WILLIAM MABE, JR., b. Abt. 1743; d. Abt. April 1760, Virginia.

Notes for WILLIAM MABE, JR.:
There's an entry in the "Records You Probably Never Saw, 18th Century
Virginia, by Rosalie Edith Davis and John C. Bell" regarding the death of
William Mabe's son.....

William Maib, jr dies with Aaron McKinzie administrator of estate. It?s
listed as McKinzie?s Bond for Administration of Maib?s (Mait?s) estate 22
Apr. 1760. pg 62-64 /// 100 pounds(money) for bond

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