North American immigrants

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We are researching early immigrants to the USA and Canada.
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William Drysdale 1636 - shipment of 6 condemned men to the colony [Virginia] - perhaps the first American Drysdale?

by Ronald Drysdale

Aug 2

Hi all,

I recently found a reference to a William Drysdale (who, in 1636, appears to have been a planter or Merchant in Virginia) in a book entitled "Economic history of Virginia in the seventeenth century, an inquiry etc..." Vol 1 - Bruce 1896

The reference gives the source of this information as "CALENDAR OF STATE PAPERS COLONIAL SERIES, 1574-1660 by Sainsbury 1860"

The prints below show both the initial reference to William Drysdale and the publication from which the information was sourced.

The problem I have is that the referenced publication does not include the 1636 reference to William Drysdale.

I have searched all the usual places for different or alternative versions of the source record (internet archive, Hathi, passenger lists etc. etc) but have had no luck in finding any Virginian Drysdales at all for the relevant timeframe (the earliest I've found is for a James Drysdale in Charles City in 1658).

I've probably come up against a brick wall in this but any inspired help would be appreciated

Regards

  • up

    Ronald Drysdale

    Hi all,

    I've made some slight progress since my previous post.

    After being pointed in the right direction (by someone from Rhode Island) I managed to download the original source with the Paragraph referred to in the quote from the "Economic history of Virginia in the seventeenth century etc" by Bruce

    Ref: https://archive.org/details/sim_great-britain-public-record-1625-16...

    Additionally, I've managed to unearth some further info on William Drysdale himself in London:

    He was born about 1592 & in the early 1600s William's family was the only Drysdale family in the London area. Together with his wife Mary Miller (or Muller) they had at least 3 daughters (one died) and at least two sons (one died).

    He was a craftsman, a 'saddletree maker' (the wooden framework of a horse's saddle) and his business must have been quite good because he moved up from Wapping in the East end of London (circa 1610) to Westminster, next to the Houses of Parliament in the 1630s.

    His father & his wife both died in 1635 & they are buried in St Margaret's Church, Westminster.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Margaret%27s,_Westminster

    So in 1636, in those circumstances, noting that he was a craftsman rather than a trader, it is not unreasonable to postulate that he was perhaps going to travel to Virginia himself with the 6 condemned men to start a new saddlemaking business out there.

    After 1636, there is no sign of William Drysdale or his family or in fact any other Drysdale in the London area for about 30 years.

    However still more work needed!

    Regards

    3

    Aug 4