Notes for Samuel GENTRY

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Notes for Samuel GENTRY

Land Record: VA Collection Card 1: Gentry, Samuel new Kent 20 Oct 1684 300
acres on SouthSide of York River Tallapollamays Creek. Patent 7, p. 405.

Unconfirmed information:
Samuel Gentry arrived Jan. 29 1677 on the ship "Bristol".
Notes for Samuel Gentry:
#117
#575 Records of Linda McCoy
WFT CD1 # 4049
#592 Internet-Loren P. Dahling's Records
#593 Internet- Vivian J. Worthingto's Records_Lists two other Wives, MABEL WOOD AND JANE BROWN.
#723 Records of James Taylor
#838 Internet Records of Stephen R. Gentry.

From the site of; NOTES AND HYPOTHESES ABOUT THE EARLY GENTRY FAMILY IN AMERICA
By
A. Denny Ellerman
http://www.gentryjournal.org/archives/current.htm

There are just about anything you want to know about the GENTRY family on this site...

The earliest known record of a Gentry in America is the 1684 patent for 300 acres in the vicinity of Totopotomoy's Creek in New Kent County (later Hanover County) by Samuel Gentry. The entry in the patent book is cited in full below with the original spelling and punctuation. The citation comes from Nell Marion Nugent's "Cavaliers and Pioneers: Abstracts of Virginia Land Patents and Grants. Vol. II (1666-1695)", page 282.

"Samuell Gentrey, 300 acs., New Kent Co.; S. side of York River; Betw. brs. of same and brs. of Tottapottamoys Cr., 21 Oct 1684, p. 405 (of Patent Book 7). Adj. Col. John Page, Esqr.; Edward Houchin and Nicholas Gentrey. Trans. of 6 pers; John Morris, Francis Middleton, Hen. Tully, Elizabeth Ody, Mor. Gardner, 2."

Aside from the obvious information concerning date and location, this patent contains two items of great interest. The first is the reference to Nicholas Gentry who is an adjacent landowner. The fact that Samuel would take out land adjacent to a person of the same surname must be considered a strong indication of some family connection between the two. The assumption that the two were brothers is based on family tradition as discussed on pages 14-15 of GFA.

The second item of note in this patent is that Samuel was granted the 300 acres for transporting 6 persons to the colony. This is completely in keeping with the headright system by which 50 acres were granted for every person brought into the colony. [Edit. note: a coming article will delve into the headright and indentured worker system in more detail.] It is not clear whether Samuei Gentry was one of the six persons for whom headrights were claimed. Five names are listed, leaving room for Samuel to be the sixth; however, there is a curious "2" listed after the last name suggesting that the sixth person could be an unnamed dependent of Mor(ris?) Gardner. There is no other reference in the land patent records to Samuel Gentry as either transporting himself or being transported by another. This could be explained by speculation advanced by Richard Gentry in GFA, that Nicholas and Samuel were British soldiers brought over to quell Bacon's Rebellion and later released to settle in Virginia. If so, Samuel was presumably able to accumulate the money as a soldier, or after discharge, to pay for the transportation of others to the colony, or to buy someone else's headrights.

In this regard, another land patent is of interest in indicating that Nicholas Gentry was transported to the colony by someone else, and not as a British soldier. The following citation is taken from Nugent's Vol. 1II (1695-1732), p. 39, where Patent Book 9 is copied.

"George Alves granted 1014 acres in New Kent Co., St. Peters Perish, on both sides of Totopotomoys Creek, 24 Apr 1700, p. 268, for transportation of [21 persons, among whom is to be found Nicholas Gentry, George Alves and an Alice Alves]."

The Alves family will be found adjacent to the Gentrys not only on Totopotomoy's Creek, but also at a later settlement further upriver in Hanover County. Since Nicholas Gentry was in Virginia as early as 1684, this grant to George Alves was obviously made long after the actual transportation had been made, as was not infrequently the case. Alternatively, this particular patent may have been a reconfirmation of an earlier grant for which no record is now (and perhaps then) available. In any case, this entry suggests that Nicholas did not come over as a British soldier but as dependent in some manner, perhaps as an indentured worker, of a George Alves or unknown person from whom George bought Nicholas' headright..

It should be further noted that there is no record of a land grant to Nioholas Gentry, similar to the one for Samuel Gentry. Presumably, Nicholas purchased land on Totopotomoy's Creek or was granted it after his arrival in the colony. The land transfer records of New Kent County could provide invaluable information on Nicholas Gentry, but those records were destroyed.

In view of the above, it ought to be questioned whether Nicholas and Samuel were British soldiers brought over to quell Bacon's Rebellion. This bit of family tradition may be more post-revolutionary embroidery on the family's undoubtedly English origins than fact. If the patents cited above are to be believed, Nicholas Gentry certainly was not brought over as soldier and the patent for Samuel Gentry suggests a man of more means than what would have been likely for British soldiers in the late seventeenth century. A further consideration is that New Kent County was a hot-bed of pro-Bacon sentiment during Bacon's Rebellion and one wonders whether it would have been the place a couple of ex-Redcoats would have chosen to settle.

The records cited above provide the basis for assuming that both Samuel and Nicholas were immigrants. In the 1680s, there were still few native-born. The only adult Gentrys found in the early Virginia records before 1709 are Samuel and Nicholas. Others are found after 1709, a full generation after the original seating on Totopotomoy's Creek; but those references are easily related to Nicholas Gentry in a manner that makes it most likely that they are his descendants.

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