What is an Indentured Servant?

An indentured servant was a person who signed a contract (also known as an indenture or a covenant) by which he agreed to work for a certain number of years in exchange for monetary compensation upfront. The term was often four to seven years for adults and younger for children if they were apprenticed to learn a trade. Often the monetary compensation paid off a debt or paid for transportation to America. I was not previously aware that indentured servitude was common in England at the time but that explains why no one thought it unusual for bringing workers to America.

Below is the format that Lord Baltimore recommended to use for indentured servants coming to Maryland. He suggested 5 years as a typical length of service.

The Indenture made the ____ day of ____ in the ____ yeere of our Sovereign Lord King Charles, etc between ______ of the one party and ________ on the other party, witnesseth that the said _____ doth hereby covenant promise and grant to and with the said ____ his Executer and Assinge, to serve him from the day of the date hereof, untill his first and next arrival in Maryland, and after for and during the term of ____ years in good service and employment, as the said ________ or ssigns shall him empoy him, according to the custome of the country. In consideration whereof, the said _______ doth promise and grant, to and with the said ______ to pay for his passage and to find him with Meat, Drinke, Apparell and Lodging with the necessaries during the said term; nad at the end of the said time, to give him one whole yeeres provision of Corne, and fifty acres of land, according to the custome of the Country. In witness whereof, the said _____ hath put his hand and seale, the day and yeere above written.
Sealed and delivered in the presence of __________
The most common problem with the whole process was cruel treatment (such as whippings and poor food) by the master (owner of the contract), thus leading to numerous runaways. The common punishment for runaways was more beatings and extension of the period of service.

Often Heard about her Adventures When He Was Young

The previous blog entry discussed Therese Walling Seabrook. Among some hand-written letters to Therese found in the Vera Conover collection at Monmouth County Historical Association by Kathleen Mirabella is the one below from Joseph Harrison West, of Mercer County, NJ, a local politician and historian and genealogist as well as descendant of Penelope. The content under discussion is obviously the account of Penelope’s experiences, presumably similar to what Mrs. Seabrook published in the Midget (circa 1891) and what John Stillwell published in 1916.

What I find interesting are the memories of the writer’s father, Joseph L. West, who “never saw or read an account of Penelope Stout.” Mr. West, Sr. had heard many of stories but not the scar story.

“Hamilton Square, NJ July 8, 1886

“Cousin Therese:

“I venture to call you cousin, although we are beyond the third degree of consanguinity.

“I have been much pleased in reading your letter, and have read it two or three times. The tradition, as you have it, reads very much like the account in Smith’s, 1765, history of New Jersey, excepting the part which speaks of Penelope’s allowing her grandson, John, to pass his hand over the scar. There is no doubt but what it is all true, though I never heard that part before. Penelope must have lived to 1730, as John Stout was probably a young man about that time; and though I have doubted, a little, that she lived to be 110 years old, yet according to your accounts, it must have been a fact.

“My father, also, never saw or read an account of Penelope Stout, yet when I read to him the story as published in 1790, he said he had often heard about her adventures when he was young. I am a grandson of Annie Stout West. In her father’s bible it is spelled Anne and in the West bible Anna. It is likely that I am the youngest of all the great grand children of John Stout. My father was her youngest son, and I am his youngest.

“Grandmother was born in 1755, my father in 1798, and I in 1847.”

[skip sections]

“And now I come to grandmother Anne, who married William West, a son of Bartholomew, who was of the Monmouth Wests. I suppose you saw my “West” article in the Monmouth Democrat last April. William and Anne had nine children. They have all passed away. My father died in 1876, and he the next youngest, William S., died last spring aged 90 years and some months. Grandmother died in 1814.”

[no closing; missing page(s); but we know it is from Joseph West from the contents as well as from other complete letters in this handwriting and with his signature.]

The genealogy of Joseph H. West is as follows:

Richard Stout + Penelope

John Stout (-1724) + Elizabeth Crawford
Richard Stout (1678-about 1749/50)+ Esther Tilton
John Stout (1701-1782) + Margaret Taylor (about 1711-)
Anne Stout (1755-1814) + William West (-1850)
Joseph Lippet West (1798-1876) + Hannah Hammell (1804-)
Joseph Harrison West (1847-) + Mary Reed Appleton (-)
 

Thus Joseph H. West and Therese Walling Seabrook were 2^nd cousins, one generation removed.

It’s nice to know that the various stories passed down through the generations in New Jersey substantially agree and that Penelope herself wanted her descendants to remember her adventures and survival. Next time, a family tradition that seems somewhat garbled.

The Hopewell Church Records of Rev. Oliver Hart

This post was updated Thursday, Nov 1 after I went to the South Caroliniana library on the USC campus in Columbia, SC to view the papers of Rev. Oliver Hart. What does he have to do with Penelope? Hart was the minister of Hopewell Baptist Church when Morgan Edwards published his book Materials Toward a History of the Baptists, the second printed account of Penelope's ordeal and the first to claim 502 descendants and an age of 110 years. I had assumed that Hart provided the data to Edwards but the journals recorded that Rev. Morgan Edwards preached in Rev. Hart's church in Hopewell on Feb 14, 21 and 28 of 1790, about the time that Edwards was supposedly collecting his data from various towns in New Jersey.

Why are the records in South Carolina. Rev. Hart was a Baptist minister in Charleston for 30 years before he was chased away by the British because he was an active patriot. He was originally from Bucks County, PA, just across the Delaware River from Hopewell, NJ  but his older children remained in Charleston and his widow returned there (presumably with his journals and papers).

Here from Rev. Hart's journals is the list of the 216 members of the Hopewell Baptist Church on Dec.  1, 1780, when Rev. Hart became the pastor. Typos may be embedded due to Rev. Hart's tiny but neat handwriting, 200 years of fading, the person who oiginally transcribed his journal, and my typing. This list makes it much easier to believe that Penelope had 502 descendants when she died.

Note: Later I will update this page with additional information in [brackets] from the journals.

86 male members--John Stout, Elder; David Stout, Elder; ??Stout, Deacon; Nathaniel Stout, Deacon; Nathan Stout, Deacon; Zebulun Stout, Jacob Stout, David Stout, Hezekiah Stout, Benjamin Stout, Andrew Stout, James Stout, David Stout, John Stout, Zebulun Stout, Richard Stout, Samuel Stout, Benjamin Stout, Richard Stout, Samuel Stout, Benjamin Stout, Jedidiak Stout, David Stout, Levi Stout, Zehania [Zephaniah] Stout, Benjamin Stout, Thomas Drake, James Drake, John Drake, Ralph Drake, Enoch Drake, Timothy Titus Senr., Timothy Titus, Junr., Stephen Barton, Deacon; Zebulun Barton, John Hunt, James Hunt, Wilson Hunt, Nathaniel Hixon, Andrew Hixon, Bonham Runyan, John Corwine, John Corwine, Joseph Reed, James Wicoff, David Labaw, Francis Labaw, Moses Labaw, Ichabod Lee, Joseph Lee, Elijah Lee, Henry Vankirk, David Snowden, John Jewel, Jacob Huff, James Osborne, Uriah Osborne, William Osborne, Abraham Servie, Joseph Merrell, Samuel Merrel, John Matthew, Benjamin Matthews, Jedidiah Higgins, Geshome Herren, Samuel Hill, Thomas Craven, James Hill, Alexander Buchanan, William Parks, John Manners, Joseph Higgins, John Disberry, John Hixon, Gideon Lyan, Jerrer’d Saxton, Nathaniel Foster, Ephraim Smith, Abm. Runkle, Rev. John Blackwell, Rev. Benjamin Coles.

122 female members--

Rachel Stout, Sarah Stout, Mary Stout, ?? Stout, Esther Stout, Grace Stout, Marcy Stout, Eppenetus Stout, Martha Stout, Catharine Stout, Charity Stout, Mebal Stout, Penelope Stout, Hannah Stout, Ann Stout, Rhoda Stout, Rachel Stout junr., Rachel Stout, Dorothy Drake, Jemima Hunt, Jemima Laban, Jerusha Lee, Charity Lee, Mary Jewel, Lidya Huff, Lidya Servie, Leah Merrell, Elizabeth Matthews, Frances Higgins, Sarah Higgins, Barsheba Hill, Rachel Buchanan, Rachel Parks, Rachel Shannon, Jemima Hixon, Martha Smith, Sarah Blackwell, Mary Coles, Sarah Runkle, Ann Wilkins, Martha Hogland, Alice Runyan, Sarah Vankirk, Sussannah Gano, Sarah Park, Rebekah Eaton, Eleanor Merrell, Jane Vannelt, Hannah Saxton, Elizabeth Hise, Lucretia Chamberlain, Elizabeth Knowles, Mary Carbines, Tabitha Brush, Phoebe More, Anne Manners, Penelope Stout, Elizabeth Roberts, Anne Sherd, Mary Silvers, Marcy Runyan, Catherine Nanpelt [Vanpelt?], Abigal Vannoy, Anne Warford, Martha Dollos, Thamar Drake, Elizabeth Hart, Amy Olivant, Sarah Stout, Anne Brinson, Sarah Matthews, Sarah Randolph, Lucina Stout,  Anne Craven, Lucina Park, Miriam Younk, Penelope Hart, Elizabeth Cochran, Martha Reed, Elizabeth Drake, Margaret Sherrard, Hephziba Stout, Mable Cannuel, Hosa Vankirk, Catherine Saxton, Mary Barton, Margaret Vankirk, Elizabeth Lefever, Mary Hise, Jane Hutchefon, Mary Prawl, Pamelia Hunt, Sarah Goflin, Sarah Wildgoose, Elizabeth ??, Mary Runayn, Elizabeth Stout, Naomi Osborne, Pencina Osborn, Frances Laryson, Hannah Merrell, Sarah Listsen, Sarah Runkle, Elizabeth Hill, Sarah Hunt, Sarah Brush, Jane Stout, Mary Biggs, Sarah Roberts, Mary Stout, Elizabeth Stout, Rachel Snowden, Sussannah Allen, Elizabeth Hixon, Margaret Wilson, Sarah Hilsy, Mary Vanpelt, Rebekah Chetester.

7 Negroes--Bonto, Cate, Dinah, Weld, Cate, Sor, Frank
 

I think the pattern of names is a grouping by families. Unfortunately, I see no distinction between groups. A listing of "Jemima Hunt, Jemima Laban" suggests Jemima Laban is the daughter of Jemima Hunt.

More details next week.

Conjecture #4: Penelope sailed on de Kath, which wrecked in the summer of 1648

Margaret Thomas Buchholz’s book New Jersey Shipwrecks: 350 Years in the Graveyard of the Atlantic opens with a vignette of Penelope’s shipwreck and claims it’s the first one known along the New Jersey coast. However, she doesn’t list ships by name until 1731 and even our favorite nameless shipwreck is lifted from H. F. Stout’s book Stout and Allied Families.

Kath is the First Documented Wreck in New Jersey

But Ms. Buchholz has a point. The first documented shipwreck is the Dutch West India Company’s ship de Kath (whose name is spelled many different ways), whose salvage report is recorded in the New Amsterdam Council Minutes on 9 Nov 1648 as follows:

        “Whereas the yacht De Cath, of which Jeuryaen Andries was master, arrived here from Curaçao with a cargo inside Sandy Hook, otherwise called Godyn Point, in a safe port and, the wind being contrary, tried to tack to before Fort Amsterdam, said yacht, in tacking, stranded on a sand bank with such force that notwithstanding all effort it could not be brought off, except the effects which were in and on her, inclusive of the masts; only, by the splitting of the ship, a quantity of salt was dissolved. The effects and merchandise being calculated against the monthly wages earned by the crew of the said ship, the proceeds according to the inventory were found to amount to more than the accrued wages; and whereas the ship’s crew appearing in a body before the council request a final settlement according to maritime law, it is therefore resolved and concluded in council to furnish a proper account to all members of the crew of the yacht De Cath, who shall be paid and satisfied by the honorable directors at Amsterdam, on condition that they shall continue in the Company’s service until their bounden time shall have expired. This day, the 9th of November 1648. Present: The honorable general, Mr. Dincklagen, Briant Nuton [Brian Newton] and Paulus Leedersz.”

The Slowness of Bureaucracy

Aha, you say, de Kath wrecked in November and Penelope was already in Gravesend in September. No, the November date pertains to the salvage report being entered into the Council Minutes. There is no mention of when the wreck occurred but surely the bureaucracy of investigating shipwrecks took months, even in the 17th century.

The Stopover

Aha, you say, de Kath sailed from Curaçao, an island in the Caribbean, whereas Penelope sailed from Amsterdam. I ask, why can’t both statements be true? If you flew from Los Angeles to New York with a change of planes in Chicago, then you traveled from Los Angeles but both you and your second plane flew from Chicago. How much importance do you attach to the stopover? So, is it plausible that Penelope sailed on one ship from Amsterdam to Curaçao and took another ship from Curaçao to New Amsterdam?

Kath was a Busy Ship

Follow the career path of de Kath, as recorded in the contemporary records. Source details can be found on my website. Note: the Dutch had already converted to the Gregorian calendar; thus all these dates are in modern format.

6 Jun 1647: The New Amsterdam Council ordered the ships Groote Gerrit, de Kath, and de Leifde to voyage to the West Indies as privateers. No info on when they actually departed.

19 Feb 1648: Vice Director Lucas Roodenborch of Curaçao wrote a letter to Stuyvesant that the Groote Gerrit was severely damaged by a storm and that de Cath and de Liefde were ravished by sickness. Stuyvesant received the letter by way of Boston on April 14.

15 Apr 1648: In the Caribbean de Kath captured a Spanish ship with a cargo of hides and tobacco. Note the delay between capture (15 Apr) and official announcement (2 Jul).

2 Jul 1648: The New Amsterdam Council announced that Hans Wyer, captain of the yacht De Cath, arrived in New Amsterdam with a captured Spanish bark Nostra Signora Rosario, laden with hides, captured below Margarita in the Caribbean Islands. Note: The West India Company protocol required three public announcements for an auction of seized goods but Stuyvesant was reprimanded for issuing only one announcement.

20 Jul 1648: The New Amsterdam Council ordered a ship to Curaçao to deliver supplies and bring back salt. Author’s Note: The sale of salt to New England fishermen was a big business. Name of ship was not recorded. The Council records often documented events that had already happened. In the Council minutes for July 2, they were already planning this voyage.

9 Nov 1648: The salvage report for de Kath’s salt was entered into Council Minutes.

How Long to Sail from New Amsterdam to Curaçao and Back?

If de Kath sailed from New Amsterdam in early July, took 5 weeks for a trip to the Caribbean and back, picked up passengers in Curaçao, and wrecked in mid-August, that schedule allows four weeks for Penelope to be attacked, rescued, and delivered to Gravesend before 12 Sep 1648. This scenario assumes that she is recuperating from her injuries at the Applegate home in Gravesend when she witnessed the cow incident. This timeframe also allows a plausible 3 months for creation of the salvage report.

 Don’t buy it? Then counter with a better idea. But first look at the previous blog entry Conjecture #3: Penelope and Richard Stout married in late 1648/early 1649.

 The Chain of Circumstances

Too unlikely? Every unusual event has a long chain of circumstances leading to it. Why was a particular passenger on the Titanic? If a child is hit by a stray bullet on the streets of Chicago, why was that particular child in that particular location at that particular time and why was the shooter there at that time? If my daughter hadn’t moved away from Brooklyn in Feb 2001, then my wife might have been waiting for discount Broadway tickets in the World Trade Center lobby eight mornings after Labor Day in 2001.

Comments , Please

Please use the comments section to express your opinions about my conjecture and the logic behind it or to ask questions that might spur further research.

Sponsored by Jim's website and the book Penelope: A Novel of New Amsterdam