Robert Felgate, who settled in Chiskiack in 1630, was one of several brothers that had an interest in, or actually came to, Virginia.
One was William, a "Skinner" and an established English merchant. Though he patented lands in Virginia in 1622 and passed along a hundred acres, as well as a share of Company stock, to his brother, Tobias, there is no indication that he himself was ever resident in, or even came to, Virginia.
William Felgate had been one of the signers of the second charter of the London Company on May 26, 1609, had subscribed 37£, 10s, and actually paid out 62£ 10s "towardes the supply of the Plantation begonne in Virginia." Also in 1615 he was a subscriber to the Somers Island Charter. His interest in the Colony, with which he was still trading as late as 1639, remained and in 1633 he was one of the commissioners for Virginia. [1]
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1. Alexander Brown, The Genesis of the United States (Boston, 1890), l, 217, 468 and 2, 770, 889; Records of the Virginia Company of London edited by Susan Myra Kingsbury, 3 (Washington, 1933), 6 , 83, 324. It is of record that in February 1622 an Erasmus Felgate of the "Parish of St. Buttolphes withoute Aldergate London Taylor" willed his four sons and one daughter 20£ each from his estate which his wife, Margerie, administered. Since there was a London Felgate family actively engaged in the settlement of Virginia and as Capt. Robert Felgate had a son named Erasmus, it is speculated that the brothers William, Tobias, and Robert were possibly the sons of this Erasmus. (Va. Mag. Hist. Biog., 19, 400.)
