John Witt, Headright

When and how John Witt arrived in Virginia is impossible to determine with precision, but we have several clues which permit us plausibly conclude that he arrived about 1672 as an unindentured free man.

The same John Witt was claimed as a headright in three Virginia land patents:

How do we know it was the same person? Because, in each patent, the same three headright names appear in the same sequence: “Jane Borar, Jno. Witt, Robt. Beasley”. In two of these three patents, the names of headrights “Job, Thomas Lyborne, Peter Prout” immediately follow the above three names. This second set of names is claimed yet again in two additional patents:

20 Oct 1688       Thomas Cocke Senr.                    Book 7, p668     1,650a   Charles City County

20 Apr 1685       (Phil)lemon Childers                    Book 7, p454     4,506a   Henrico County

There is also another set of six headrights which appear in three separate patents: in the Randolph & Bolling patent above, in Cocke’s second patent above, and in a patent by William and Thomas Puckett.[3] Finally, there is still another set of ten names claimed both by Randolph in 1685 and by Cocke in 1689. Each set of names represented a different importation event, although names appearing together within a set were not necessarily imported together.

Explaining the multiple uses of these lists of imported persons requires a brief digression.

The first step in obtaining a headright patent was to obtain a certificate of importation from either the county court or the Secretary’s office. Each certificate of importation included the names of persons who were imported. Each set of names referred to above therefore represents a unique certificate of importation. The names on these certificates were copied into the patents by the clerk, explaining why the names appear in the same sequence, and with the same spelling, in the patents. These certificates were, more often than not, sold or traded and thus we can draw no conclusion as to which of the importees was the actual importer.[4] It seems obvious that each of the above patents used multiple certificates (except for Cocke in 1688, who claimed only the three mentioned) and that John Witt, Jane Borar, and Robert Beasley were names on a single certificate which was used three times.

Knowing that these three may have arrived together doesn’t help us much, as there is no further record of Jane Borar, and no record for a Robert Beasley until several years later.

One of the most striking aspects of these patents is that the patentees were quite young (except Cocke), wealthy, and all lived within a few miles of one another. All were in the same tithable district in Henrico County’s 1679 tax list except Bolling, who was just across the line in Charles City County. William Randolph, who used John Witt’s headright first, seems to be the most likely candidate to have imported him. But Randolph had not arrived in Virginia until 1672, the same year he turned 21.

All of these patentees amassed large quantities of land, thus were quite unlikely to have stockpiled unused headright certificates. It seems most likely they would have used their certificates relatively quickly after obtaining them. Further, all had patented land earlier than the patents mentioned above, and didn’t use the John Witt certificate on those occasions. Cocke had used 40 headrights in a 1675 patent and Randolph had used 12 in a 1674 patent. That suggests that the certificate containing Witt’s name was not available for those earlier patents. Importation certificates could not be obtained until the imported persons had lived in the colony for three years, suggesting that John Witt’s importation took place after 1671. Indeed, if William Randolph were the importer and brought in John Witt when Randolph himself arrived in 1672, the certificate could not have been claimed until 1675, a year after Randolph’s first patent.[5] The bottom line is that, whoever imported him, it is highly probable that John Witt was imported within a year or so of 1672.

If this is the case, John Witt could not have been imported as a servant, since he was married and petitioning the court by October 1673. Servants were rarely permitted to marry, and certainly not to free women. Further, the right to bring suit was reserved for free citizens. I should note that headrights were not limited to persons imported from England or Europe, but required merely that persons enter the colony from outside Virginia. Like the great majority of colonists of the period, John Witt probably came directly from England, but it is possible that he was imported from Maryland, Bermuda, or some other colony. Thus it is possible, though unlikely, that John Witt was imported as a servant from some other colony with just a few months remaining on his contract. The probability, though, is that, like nearly 90% of the residents of Virginia in the 1670s, he came from southwestern England or the London area.

It is worth noting that John Witt was clearly an English citizen. Only citizens were allowed to own land or file suit, both of which he did. Prior to 1680, non-English settlers required an act of the House of Burgesses to bestow citizenship. These acts are well preserved, and no Witt appears in them. Unless he was made a citizen in England itself, he must have been born in England or one of its colonies.

Finally, there is some evidence that he was of the middle class. We cannot underestimate the degree of class stratification in English and Virginia society in the 17^th century. Robert Plaine, Walter Daux, and John Flower all appear to have been solidly middle-class. It seems likely that the Daux sisters would have married within their class, particularly since women were scarce enough to essentially have their choice of mates.