Adventurers of Purse and Person

by Melissa Shimkus

After "The Lost Colony" disaster at Roanoke, James I authorized a charter to the Virginia Company to create two colonies in the New World. The first colony, Jamestown, was established in modern day Virginia. The second, Popham, was established in modern day Maine, but was vacated within a year. After a second charter was granted for the Jamestown colony in 1609, the Virginia Company was renamed The Treasurer and Company of Adventurers and Planters of the City of London for the First Colony in Virginia. To provide royal control of the growing colony, Jamestown was transferred to the Crown on June 26, 1624. Upon transfer, the Crown requested a muster be completed to determine the condition of the Colony. That muster was taken between January 20 and February 7, 1624/25. The total population at the time was 1,232 individuals. The muster provided the following information: colonist name, home location, names of family members, names of servants, passenger ship and year of arrival, amount of food and livestock, amount of ammunition and guns, and number of houses and boats.

In 1956, "Adventurers of Purse and Person" was released. The book contained a transcription of the 1624/25 muster and information on three generations of descendants. Due to the popularity of the title, other researchers submitted data they had collected on individuals who appeared on the 1624/25 Jamestown muster. Four hundred years after the founding of Jamestown, the fourth edition of "Adventurers of Purse and Person, 1607-1624/25" was released as a three volume set (975.5 J4AA). The new edition provides a transcription of the 1624/25 muster, followed by information on up to six generations of the descendants of those early colonists, arranged alphabetically by surname. More than 10,000 citations lead to sources for the material provided on the descendants, so a researcher can locate verifying documentation.

Between 1607 and 1624, while Jamestown was under the control of The Treasurer and Company of Adventurers and Planters of the City of London for the First Colony in Virginia, more than 7,000 individuals settled in Jamestown. On the census for 1624/25, 1,232 people were left in the Colony. The 4th edition of "Adventurers of Purse and Person, 1607-1624/25" provides a thorough record of some early inhabitants of Jamestown and the six generations they produced, from Jamestown to the Revolutionary War. It is an excellent starting point for those with very early connections to Jamestown settlers.

Genealogy Gems
News from the Fort Wayne Library
No. 54, August 31, 2008