At this time, the number of servants in the Colony approximated four hundred and sixty-five. The ages of about seventy-four were not given when their names were set down in the census, beyond the fact that in many cases it is stated that they were boys or girls. Of the three hundred and ninety-two whose ages are recorded in the report of the muster, it is found upon an examination of the list that the average age was only twenty-three. There were only thirteen whose respective ages equalled or exceeded forty. One hundred and fifty-four had not attained their twenty-first birthday. Among the members of a great body of indented or apprenticed servants like this, servants who had in the majority of instances barely reached maturity, it is hardly probable that there could have been many representatives of the purely criminal classes of England. It must be remembered also, that these laborers had been brought into the Colony several years before, when they were still younger.
After the revocation of the charter of the Company, there appears to have been no decline in the feeling of hostility with which the public officers regarded the introduction of criminals into Virginia. A remarkable illustration of this feeling is to be discovered in the order adopted by the General Court in 1632, directing that there should be returned to England two maids who had been gotten with child in the course of their voyage to the Colony.[1] It can be easily seen from the tenor of this order, how quickly, if it had been possible to override a command of the English authorities, an injunction would
- ↑ Hening’s Statutes, vol. I, p. 552.
Musters of Inhabitants in Virginia 1624-25, pp. 201-265. In some few cases the ages of the servants are not stated. These servants are omitted in my general average. Thus Abraham Piersey had four maids in addition to the number of servants whom he is mentioned as possessing; I have not taken them into account, as their ages are not given.
