makers, bricklayers, masons, weights for water and iron mills, founders, makers of edge tools, shipwrights, carpenters, calkers, coopers, tanners, shoemakers, and tilemakers.[1] Previous to the departure of Gates and Dale from England, a broadside was published, in which special inducements were offered to carpenters, smiths, coopers, tanners, shoemakers, shipwrights, and brickmen, among others, to emigrate to Virginia as a part of the expedition to set out at an early day.[2] In the account of the population in 1616, the only tradesmen referred to were smiths and carpenters, indicating that either the advertisements had not been generally successful in persuading English artisans to settle in the Colony, or if representatives of the different crafts had gone over, a great majority had been absorbed in the body of the agricultural laborers, there being no field for the employment of their skill.[3]
Argoll seems to have been disposed in the early part of his administration to adopt measures to promote the welfare of the trades; all mechanics were relieved by him from the operation of the provision that the tenant should cultivate two acres in grain under penalty of forfeiting their crops, and of being reduced to slavery in the public service.[4] In the instructions received by Yeardley on taking charge of affairs in 1619, he was directed to allot to every tradesman who decided to follow his handicraft in preference to engaging in husbandry, a tract of four acres. This area of ground, upon which a dwelling-house
- ↑ Tradesmen to be sent to Virginia, Brown’s Genesis of the United States, p. 469. It is stated that when Smith withdrew from the Colony in 1609, there was but one carpenter left among the settlers. See Works of Capt. John Smith, p. 486.
- ↑ Brown’s Genesis of the United States, p. 445.
- ↑ Rolfe’s Relation, see Neill’s Virginia Company of London, p. 107. The “etc.” in the text of the Relation may include the other artisans.
- ↑ Randolph MSS., vol. III, p. 143.
