There are many indications that the estates of men who followed this branch of mechanics were not derived from the pursuit of their calling alone; they were not only engaged in planting tobacco, but also in some cases in selling merchandise in the character of factors. In 1693, Messrs. Perry and Lane, who were deeply interested in the trade of Virginia, made to a cooper a consignment of goods valued at forty-two pounds sterling, representing a great variety of articles, such as ironware, spices, drugs, liquors, hats, stockings, shoes, and cloths.[1]
Persons engaged in the pursuit of carpentry in general combined with it the trades of wheelwright, turner, and joiner. There are numerous evidences that many of these persons were thrifty and prosperous, most probably because they were able to unite other callings with the coordinate branches of mechanics which they followed. Among the first grants recorded in the Colony was one to Richard Tree, to whom fifty acres were in 1623 assigned by patent at Jamestown. Nor was this the only case at this early period in which a tradesman of this kind secured tracts of public land either in fee simple or by lease for a long term of years. Towards the middle of the century, however, the patent books show that but few patents were obtained either by carpenters or any other handicraftsmen.[2] During many years previous to 1648, John Hewitt was the only mechanic who appeared as a patentee.[3] In 1755, John Motley of Wicocomico, a carpenter, acquired a grant in Westmoreland County of six hundred acres on the basis of the transportation of twelve persons.[4] Subsequent
- ↑ Records of York County, vol. 1690-1694, p. 361, Va. State Library.
- ↑ Va. Lard Patents, vol. 1623-1643, Tree, p. 19. For other instances, see Ibid., pp. 11, 98. Thomas Passmore, a carpenter, also held property in Jamestown. See Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, vol. I, p. 89.
- ↑ Va. Land Patents, 1643-1651, p. 138.
- ↑ Ibid., 1652-1655, p. 349.
