The determination of the Company to exclude from the Colony the influences which would have followed from the introduction of criminals, is disclosed in its requirement that all who had decided to go to Virginia should give notice of their intention, and that no shipmaster should presume to carry out from any port passengers who had not sent in their names.[1] It was stated that no infamous persons had emigrated in the vessels previously dispatched, on account of the vigilance exercised, and this had induced the authorities of the corporation to extend their supervision to the shipments made in vessels belonging to private individuals or to associations. A book-keeper was appointed, upon whom the duty was imposed of registering the age, name, county, profession, and kindred of every one who set out. In every case in which this officer had evidence that a passenger was a malefactor, he was ordered to report the fact.[2] When a private person desired to carry over to Virginia a reprieved felon, it was necessary to obtain the permission of the Company.[3]
There still survive records of the instances in which persons who could be properly described as convicts were sent to Virginia to be used as laborers either in the service of the Company or of private persons; these records are not only few in number, but they also generally reveal the existence of special circumstances. There is no indication of any desire on the part of the English Government at that
- ↑ Abstracts of Proceedings of the Virginia Company of London, vol. II, p. 17. See Instructions to Yeardley, 1618, Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, vol. II, p. 164.
- ↑ Abstracts of Proceedings of the Virginia Company of London, vol. II, pp. 17, 18. See, as to previous arrangements of the same character, Instructions to Yeardley, 1618, Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, vol. II, p. 164.
- ↑ Abstracts of Proceedings of the Virginia Company of London, vol. II, pp. 10, 11.
