| Notes |
- The English surname BOATWRIGHT, and its variants BOATRIGHT and BOTWRIGHT, is of occupational origin, descriptive of the trade or profession pursued by the initial bearer of this surname. The name is derived from the Old English word "bat" meaning boat, and "wyrhta" meaning wright, and thus, the original bearer would have been a boat builder or ship's carpenter. The earliest reference to this surname dates back to the fifteenth century where one John Botwright is recorded as living in Suffolk County, England in 1469. In 1524 one John Botewrighte is listed in the "Subsidy Rolls" of Suffolk.
The genealogical record for John Boatwright and descendents assumes that all of the various branches of the Boat(w)right family in America descended from John Boatwright. This may very well not be the case. Many of the early records of Boatwrights in Virginia have been lost to fire. DNA testing can provide an answer as to the relation of the various Boatwright family branches.
A Brief History of our Boat(w)right Family in America
Our ancestor, John Boatwright, traveled from Suffolk, England to the new world of Virginia in the mid 1600's. John signed on as an indentured servant. It must be emphasized that the indentured servants were not slaves, and that at the expiration of their terms there was no barrier, legal, racial, or social to their advancement. The terms of indenture not only took for granted that the servant, upon completing his contract would establish himself as a proprietor, but usually made it obligatory for the master to furnish him with the equipment necessary for his new life. The servants upon completing their contract, were often given fifty acre plots and finally became owners of land. In exchange for his passage to America, young John agreed to work as an indentured servant for three to seven years. This was a very common way of attracting people to the new world: the promise of a bright future, land ownership and freedom, in exchange for three to seven years of hard labor. John's headright was granted to Humphrey Dennis, of Virginia, in 1654, in exchange for the payment of John's passage to Virginia.
Why did young John travel from England to Virginia? England was in turmoil in the late 1640's. The English civil war had just ended. Victorious Puritans would soon behead the King, Charles I. Oliver Cromwell was in the early stages of his protectorate and still battling competitors for supremacy among their Puritan comrades. As the Puritan government became established, Englishmen who supported the monarchy found that England was no longer a safe haven for them. Not only might they lose their financial wealth, some were in danger of losing their heads if they remained in England. The Stepney docks must have been frantically busy as entire families and their retainers sought passage out of England. Was it, perhaps, imperative that John leave the country at this time? Was John or his parents so closely associated with the Royalist cause that he had to flee for his safety? Or was John simply looking for a better life, the chance to own land and prosper? We will most likely never know the cause of John's immigration to Virginia as an indentured servant.
The Boatwright family established themselves in Virginia, settling in the county of New Kent and a portion of New Kent that became Hanover County in 1720. In 1714 William Byrd argued before the Colonial Board that the cost of the government in Virginia, which had become a burden on the King, could be defrayed by selling the land outright at 5 shillings for 50 acres. This produced a profound effect on the colony and by 1755 almost all of present Virginia had been claimed, mostly by descendants of the early colonists. Persons arriving in years after that were obligated to purchase land from the conglomerate landholders and speculators at the market rate.
With land in Virginia at a premium, branches of Boatwright family migrated west in Virginia, to the counties of Cumberland and then Buckingham. Other branches of the family migrated to North Carolina and South Carolina during the second half of the 1700s.
In the early 1800s branches of the family moved westward to Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois and Ohio. In the south, branches of the family moved to Georgia, Florida, Alabama and Mississippi. In the 1830s and 1840s, migration to Arkansas and Missouri occurred. The migration of Boatwrights mirrored the migration within America in general, as families moved to undeveloped land, looking for better farming conditions and better economic opportunities.
For the first 200 years of our family in America, we were farmers. As the country began to industrialize during the 1850s and beyond, many of our family left the farms and immigrated to the cities of America.
|
1607 - 1656 (48 years)
