found in the waters of Virginia as many as seven vessels belonging to citizens of New England, which had entered to obtain cargoes of the different products of the country in return for merchandise.[1] In 1654, a sale was made by Thomas Willett of New Plymouth to Mathew Fassett of Lower Norfolk of his entire interest in the Hopewell, a vessel of twenty-six tons, to be used in the New England trade.[2] The owners of ships in that region not infrequently hired them to persons in Virginia who wished to export goods from the North; thus in 1654, William Vincent of Lower Norfolk County entered into a charter party with John Hart, by which the latter rented his bark to Vincent for five months and sixteen days at the rate of eight pounds sterling per mouth, payment to be made in coin, merchandise, and agricultural products to the extent of one-third in each.[3] Two years later the goods which Francis Emperor and Richard Whiting, prominent citizens of the Colony, were importing from New England in the Dolphin of Salem were damaged by a leak that was sprung not long after the ketch passed out of Nantucket. Captain Emperor, who at this time owned a part interest in the ship, the Francis and Mary, was actively engaged in the trade with the English provinces at the North.[4] The
- ↑ Weeden’s Social and Economic History of New England, vol. I, p. 250. The wages of a sailor employed in the navigation of these ships were three pounds sterling by the month. The wages of a boy for the same length of time were one pound and fourteen shillings. See Records of Lower Norfolk County, original vol. 1651-1656, f. p. 129.
- ↑ Records of Lower Norfolk County, original vol. 1651-1656, f. p. 83.
- ↑ Ibid., f. p. 129.
- ↑ Ibid., 1656-1666, pp. 34, 114.
