Thomas Graves (burgess)

Captain
Thomas Graves
Esquire[better source needed]
Illustration of an assembly of men in Jamestown
Illustration of the First General Assembly of Virginia, 1619
Member of the Virginia House of Burgesses
Incumbent
Assumed office
1619
Personal details
Bornc. 1580
Diedc. 1635
Accomac Shire, Virginia Colony[better source needed]
SpouseKatherine Graves
ChildrenJohn, Thomas, Ann, Verlinda, Katherine[better source needed]
Known for
Early adventurer to Virginia colony (ancient planter)

Thomas Graves (c. 1580–1635) was one of the original Adventurers (stockholders) of the Virginia Company of London, and an ancient planter (settler) in early Jamestown, Virginia, the first permanent English settlement in North America. He was also the first known person named Graves in North America.

Arrival in Virginia

Graves arrived in Virginia in October 1608 on the ship Mary and Margaret [Wikidata] with Second Supply. He paid £25 (equivalent to £5,489 in 2025) for two shares in the London Company and thereby was entitled to 200 acres (0.81 km2).

Captain Thomas Graves settled at Smythe's Hundred, situated on the north shore of the James River ten miles from Jamestown. Governor George Yeardley placed Graves in charge of Smythe's Hundred on May 30, 1618, after one man killed another in a fight.

As a representative and early settler

Capt. Thomas Graves was a member of the First Legislative Assembly in America, and, with Mr. Walter Shelley, sat for Smythe's Hundred when they met at Jamestown, Virginia on July 30, 1619. His name appears on a monument to the first House of Burgesses which stands at Jamestown today.

Smythe's Hundred was abandoned after the Indian uprising of 1622. The next record of Captain Graves showed him living on the Eastern Shore of Virginia by February 16, 1624.

On February 8, 1627, Captain Francis West, Governor of Virginia, ordered that Thomas Graves have a commission to command the Plantation at Accomac. Graves was the second Commander. As an "ancient planter" he received one of the first patents there on March 14, 1628, consisting of 200 acres (0.81 km2). He lived on Old Plantation Creek, now in Northampton County, Virginia, and served as Commissioner for Accomac Shire in 1629.

Captain Graves and three others represented the Eastern Shore in the Assembly of 1629‑30. He served again as a burgess in 1632. Because he was designated as "Esquire" on January 6, 1635, he may have been a member of the Council. Captain Thomas Graves, Esquire, was recorded as being a Justice at a court held for Accomac on April 13, 1635.

Death and descendants

He died between November 1635, when he witnessed a deed, and January 5, 1635/6, when suit was entered for Mrs. Graves concerning theft by a servant. He was survived by his wife, Katherine, and six children: John, Thomas, Ann, Verlinda, Katherine and Francis.

His daughter, Verlinda, eventually married governor of Maryland, William Stone, and his daughter Anne married Harvard's headmaster Nathaniel Eaton, and had at least one son named James Eaton. A descendant of Gov. Stone and Verlinda was Founding Father Thomas Stone, a signatory of the declaration of independence, and nephew of Founding Father Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer.

References

  1. 1 2 3 https://web.archive.org/web/20160711105224/http://jamestowne-wash-nova.org/ThomasGraves.htm
  2. 1 2 McCartney, Martha W. (2007). Virginia Immigrants and Adventurers, 1607-1635: A Biographical Dictionary, p. 337. Genealogical Publishing Co.
  3. ↑ Yorktown, Mailing Address: P. O. Box 210; Us, VA 23690 Phone: 757 898-2410 Contact. "The First Legislative Assembly - Historic Jamestowne Part of Colonial National Historical Park (U.S. National Park Service)". www.nps.gov.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  4. ↑ Dorman, John Frederick (4th ed. 2005). Adventurers of Purse and Person, Virginia, 1604–1624/5, Vol. Two, p. 132. Genealogical Publishing Co.
  5. ↑ Hiden, P. W. "Three Rectors of Hungar’s Parish and Their Wife". The William and Mary College Quarterly Historical Magazine, vol. 19, no. 1, 1939, pp. 34–41. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/1923039. Accessed 14 Oct. 2026.
  6. ↑ Hiden, P. W. "The Graves Family of York County." The William and Mary College Quarterly Historical Magazine, vol. 21, no. 2, 1941, pp. 157–71. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/1923627. Accessed 14 Oct. 2026.
  7. ↑ "Encyclopedia of the Stone-Campbell Movement: Stone, Barton Warren">Douglas Allen Foster and Anthony L. Dunnavant, The Encyclopedia of the Stone-Campbell Movement: Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Christian Churches/Churches of Christ, Churches of Christ, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2004, ISBN 0-8028-3898-7, ISBN 978-0-8028-3898-8, 854 pages, entry on "Stone, Barton Warren"