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7,753. Originall Browne (Married (#7,754) (Source of information in blue on this page is The Wroe and Chancellor Families Compiled by William Clarke Wroe, 1992, pages 6 - 8, 12, 13, 22 and 23.)

 

Born: ? in England of an Unknown father (#15505) and Unknown mother (#15506)

Died: About 1655 in Virginia. [Note: although William Clarke Wroe found a reference to this date and location, he cannot find any document that supports the fact that Originall Browne ever actually resided in Virgiinia.]

 

[His siblings, if any are unknown]

 

Miscellaneous Information:

William Claiborne, a surveyor in Jamestown in June 1621, later returned to England and convinced five London merchants to form a partnership; a joint stock company for the purpose of organizing and financing a settlement with Claiborne designated as agent. That company was called The Cloberry and Company, with the aim for profitable trade with the Indians throughout the Chesapeake and Delaware Bay regions. Claiborne set up operations on an island in Virginia on August 1631. He called it Isle of Kent. In 1631, the Cloberry ship Africa brought 20 indentured servants to Kent Island. In 1634, (exact dates are unknown) six more shiploads arrived at Kent Island. The first two ships, the James and the Revenge delivered 37 workers. Originall Browne was one of these indentured servants.

Indentured servants were men who seeked to improve their lot. They were willing to work, for hope that the venture offered greater hope for a better quality of life. They were "willing to work as employees of the complany in exchange for passage and the assurance of regular food and shelter in exchange for a specific number of years of labor. At the end of that period of obligation, they were to have their freedom to work for themselves or as paid employees. Best of all, there as the possibility of eventually having land of their own."

"The 1634 roster of Claiborne showed the name as Ariginall Browne; however, in the years that followed, it was spelled Originall. Later documents proved the latter to be correct, suggesting that Claiborne initially used a phonetic spelling. We do not know whether or not this man was named after some earlier ancestor."

Originall is thought to be the first of this Browne family to reach America. "It seems clear that he left his wife, if she was then living, and his two sons in England. Whether he had other children, we do not know. The two known sons were (1) William Browne and (2) Richard Browne (#3,877). "

Since the exact date for the arrival of Originall is unknown, it is unknown whether or not he reached America before the arrival of his son, William Browne, whose name appears on the passenger list of the Maryland ship, the Dove, which landed on March 25, 1634.

"On his list of workers for that year [1634] , Claiborne made a notation beside the name of Originall Browne, 'old and decrepit;" but the two succeeding years there was no such comment, although Originall Browne was regularly listed among the 'woodcutters and laborers' of the settlement. " [Note: William Clarke Wroe in his 1992 document says that based on the age of his sons and the reference made that he was 'old and decrepit", Originall may have been born prior to 1575, which would have made him at least 59 years old in 1634. However, the fact that he had survived the rigors of the transatlantic passage and was acting as a woodcutter and laborer indicate that he must have had great stamina.]

Claiborne left for England following instances of open hostility between the Cloberry Company and Marylanders. While he was away, the London partners of the Cloberry Company, who where deeply concerned with Claibornes inability to cooperate with Lord Clavert in Maryland, hired an agent, George Evelyn, to go to Kent Island. Evelyn released Originall from his indenture.

It was the policy of Virgina to award gifts of 50 acres to each new settler, as well as a similar gift for the person who brought him. The title to public land granted to a person by the government is called a patent. September 1653, a patent was officially recorded to Claiborne for taking 100 people to Virginia. Originall Browne and many other former inhabitants of Claiborne's Kent Island settlement were named among the 100, each of whom was to receive 50 acres.

 

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