R

SUPPLEMENT

R. Blair Savage

To the family history book

SAVAGE IS MY NAME

3711 Jungle Plum Drive, West

Naples, Florida 34114

239-304-0528

Thomas Savage, who arrived from England and settled in Northampton County, in colonial Virginia, by 1632, was the progenitor of the Savage family line enumerated in the book, SAVAGE IS MY NAME.. Readers of the book will probably agree that the line of descent from Thomas Savage to present generations was well documented. In the book, I identified Thomas Savage, the “Carpenter” as the same Thomas Savage who arrived on the Ship, Ambrose in 1623 and who was the indentured servant to one William Gany. This has proven to be erroneous. We find that the Thomas Savage who arrived on the Ambrose, died by drowning in 1626.

At this date, the earliest established record of Thomas Savage, the Carpenter was the 1632 land transaction where he bought 100 acres on Old Plantation Creek.

I have not determined the date of his arrival in the Virginia Colony. Also, I can now only assume that he was from England since the Virginia Colony at that time was, as far as I know, made up only of Englishmen. He was again identified as “the Carpenter” when in 1642 he was granted a certificate for ten head-rights for which he took a patent in 1646 for the 500 acres along Nassowattux Creek where he lived the remainder of his life.

As outlined on page nine of my book, the original information, developed in 1992-1994, for the tie-in of Thomas Savage, the “Carpenter” to Thomas Savage, the “Gany Servant” came from the July-September, 1963 issue of THE VIRGINIA GENEALOGIST, Volume #7, No. 3, page 99. In that issue is the article entitled; THOMAS SAVAGE, CARPENTER, OF THE VIRGINIA EASTERN SHORE by Lundie W. Barlow of Richmond, Virginia.

I mistakenly relied upon Barlow having had good information to support the claim that the two Thomas Savages were one and the same. I wrongly assumed that since it was printed in THE VIRGINIA GENEALOGIST it must have been reliable. That was ten years ago and today I am much more aware of how error-prone some of the published genealogy information can be.

Barlow begins:

“The story of Ensign Thomas Savage has been told many times, but scant attention has been given to his contemporary, Thomas Savage, carpenter, a neighbor and possibly, but not demonstrably, a kinsman.”

Barlow goes on to include a short history of Ensign Thomas Savage, and then follows with;

“With this summery of evidence respecting Ensign Thomas Savage and his immediate descendants as a background, consideration may now be given to his namesake, Thomas Savage, Carpenter.

1. Thomas Savage (c1606-c1654) first appears in the Virginia records in 1625 as a servant of Mr. William Gany of Elizabeth City County. He was eighteen years of age and had come to the colony about two years previously. On 14 March 1632/3 he entered into a twenty-one year lease for 100 acres of land on Old Plantation Creek in present Northampton County, being designated therein as “Thomas Savage, Carpenter”.”

Barlow then continues with some information on Thomas the Carpenter and two subsequent generations. That information has been verified by my own research, as outlined in my book. I also have a copy of the1625 muster (census) data which identifies Thomas Savage as a servant of Gany’s, gives his age as 16 and his arrival in 1623 on the Ambrose. It was evidently this 1625 muster information which Barlow relied upon and mistakenly assumed that the Gany servant was the identical Thomas Savage who appears on the Eastern Shore in 1632 when he purchased the 100 acres on Old Plantation Creek.

Gany was located in Kecoughtan (also called Elizabeth City, and now, Hampton, Virginia).

Recent information concerning the Thomas Savage who arrived on the ship Ambrose in 1623 as a head-right of William Gany, proves that he died by drowning in 1626. Therefore, of course, he could not have been Thomas Savage, the Carpenter. The following copy of minutes of the Court of Colonial Virginia was graciously provided me by Mr. James W. Petty, Genealogist, P.O. Box 893, Salt Lake City, UT 84110, 801-572-4049. It was Mr. Petty who, while researching the head-right system of Colonial Virginia, discovered that the Gany Servant had died. He thoughtfully notified me of that finding.

I have made very minor changes in the following to simplify the reading.

Note the various spellings of, Gany.

MINUTES of the COUNCIL and GENERAL COURT of COLONIAL VIRGINIA Edited by H.R. McILWAINE

SECOND EDITION

VIRGINIA STATE LIBRARY, 1979, US Can, 975.5, N2m

1979

14^th day of October 1626

A COURT at James-Citty the 14^th day of October 1626’

Present: Sr George Yardley Knt Governor &c, Capt Rogr Smyth, Mr Claybourne, & Capt: Tucker.

1. Steven Dixon sworn and examined sayeth that upon the 9^th day of July last past, being at Mr English’s house, Anthonye Afson and Mrs Gainye came running up from the waterside into the house, and the said Anthonye prayed this deponent to go downe suddenly to the waterside, for that Mr Gainyes boy named Thomas Savadge was stucke in the mudd and was like to be drowned, soe when this deponent came downe hee could not see any part of the bou above the water: then presently Mrs Gainey said to this deponent that the said Anthonye did not borrow the boy of her, neither did shee lend him unto him, what answer can he make unto my husband, and this deponent sayed, I know not. Then the next day about ten of clock in the morning this deponent it being lowe water went thither and found the boy upon the mudd, where the water had ebbed away from the body about four strides, then this deponent went and told Mrs Gainey, who entreated this deponent to goe to Mr English his house and take one of his men to helpe to make a grave and to bury him, which this deponent did perform. And further this deponent sayth that when hee tooke upp the bodye it laye upon the mudd lyeing on one side and his leggs a little crooked; Moreover this deponent saith that where he found the body hee thinketh that the water is about as deepe as his middle, but hee thinketh by Mrs Gaineys her words unto him, that the body was removed about ten foote from the place where the boy was drowned: And further this deponent sayth that he could not perceive that the said Anthony Afson had waded or gone into the water to save the boy

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10^th day of January 1626

A COURT at James Citty 10^th day of January 1626, being present:

Sr George Yardley Knt Governor &c, Capt Smyth, Capt Mathewes Mr Persey Mr Claybourne Capt: Tucker Mr Sserrar

It is the opinion of the maior Part of the Table [court] that Anthony Afson shall pay for his offence committed in sending a boy named Tho: Savadge over a Creeke at Kecoughtan upon Mr Gaineys land to fetch his Canoe on the other side, whereby the said boy was drowned, viz, one hundred waight of Tobacco to Mr Wm Gainey who had the boy for the yeare, and two hundred waight more to Mr Humphry Rastall whose servent he was, for that it appeareth by oath that he the said Anthony might without doubt have saved the boy by wading a little into the water, and for that he did not ask leave of any one to have the said boy to fetch his Canoe.

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What a tragedy, and how terrified the young Savage must have been. And the scoundrel who sent him after the canoe was too cowardly to try to save him.

So now we know that Thomas the Carpenter was not the Gany servant! Than what was the origin of our Thomas Savage, the Carpenter?

In VIRGINIA’S EASTERN SHORE, by Ralph T. Whitelaw, Volume 1, page 511, Whitelaw relates;

“N106 (Parcel #106 in Northampton County)

1646; Patent to Thomas savage for 500 acres. Some historians have believed that this Thomas Savage was another son of Ensign Thomas Savage (N49), but a careful search has revealed nothing to substantiate that claim. It seems more likely that he is the same Thomas Savage, carpenter, who received a lease for 100 acres on Old Plantation Creek in 1633, and that he received this present patent after he had become established and acquired the means to provide the necessary headrights.”

It has been generally thought that Ensign Thomas Savage had only one son, Captain John Savage. However, several years ago, in early court records I found references to a second son, Thomas. I did not copy those records at that time because I was under the impression that Ensign Thomas Savage would not have been old enough to be the father of who I thought was our Thomas Savage (the Gany servant). In 1607 the “Ensign” was said to have been 13 and in 1625 the “Gany Servant” was listed in the muster as 18. I felt the Ensign would not likely have fathered the Gany Servant at the age of twelve. Of course I could have been wrong, those were different times. Now that we know that the Gany Servant was not our Thomas Savage and the first record of our guy is in 1632 – and we don’t know his age – than is it, perhaps, possible that Thomas Savage, the Carpenter could be the other son of Ensign Thomas Savage?

The following is a published copy of that entry of the court which identifies a Thomas Savage as the heir to Ensign Thomas Savage;

COUNTY COURT RECORDS of ACCOMACK-NORTHAMPTON, VIRGINIA, 1640-1645, by Susie M. Ames. Published for The Virginia Historical Society.

February 22, 1639:

“[fol. 17] It is thought Fitt and Accordingely Ordered By this Courte [that the] Land of Thomas Savage sonne and heire unto Ensigne Thomas Savage Deceased shall Be surveyed within the space of a Moneth after the date hereof. And that the Survey thereof shall bee payde for By the Overseers; And Further if in case noe payment shall bee by them made For the survey thereof, That then there shall soe much be raysed out of the said Land as shall Fully satisfye and pay For the same.”

September 7, 1640:

“A very greate Quantity of land is graunted unto Thomas Savage sonne and heire unto Ensigne Thomas Savage [bounded] as followeth viz. with the Creeke of Accomack on the [South the] greate Bay on the West Wisoaponso [?] on the North and the on the East dated the one and twentieth day of December I tertio Caroli Rex.”

Now, here is the contradiction:

It appears from other records that Ensign Thomas Savage’s son, Captain John Savage ended up with the bulk of his father’s land. Why would that be the case when the above record clearly names Thomas Savage as the heir to the land? And, nowhere in the record does it indicate that our Thomas Savage, the Carpenter owned a large quantity of land beyond the 500 acre parcel and the 250 acre parcel.

So, I find myself in a conundrum. Who was Thomas Savage, the Carpenter and when did he arrive in the colony?

In the UK records I have found a number of Thomas Savages who lived in England in the years just prior to 1632. Unfortunately, Thomas was a common name among the English Savages and I have not been able to pin down our guy. As I continue to search for the answer I will keep interested parties apprised of any new information by posting it on the web.