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An Indexed List of Documented Southern Phelps Immigrants in Colonial America

A compilation by Doug Phelps, September, 2007 - Continuous updates through 1/7/2009.  Sort by year column provided  7/2010

Copyright only on original comments by Douglas Phelps, 2007. - Which may be copied with permission.

  While much of this material is available in non-copyright sources, some is not. The structure and organization of this material is copyrighted.   In all cases of copying, please observe copyright and indicate the original source.

The following Phelps emigrant list was compiled using an extensive list of abstract books which are listed and numbered at the end, including a brief book review of most.  A significant number of Phelps came from from those listed in The World Book Of Phelps, pages 1.22-1.29, published by Halbert's Family Heritage, 1995 (Halbert's Family Heritage).   I checked each southern Phelps reference from that book to confirm the listed source was valid.  

Of the many Phelps listed here, several types and terms are worth noting:

• Phelps as "Shippers"  At the Virtual Jamestown web site, the term used appears to be "Agent".    An extremely complete and useful book was the The Complete Book(s) of Immigrants in Bondage 1614 – 1775 by Peter Wilson Coldham, 4 volumns and numbered 21 through 24 below.  That book also names quite a few Phelps as "shippers" who would " carry other immigrants and their labor contracts across the Atlantic and sell them to recover voyage expenses. By guaranteeing the contract terms to the servant before sailing these shippers were essentially speculating in forward-labor contracts"  These Phelps "shippers" appear not to have been listed as immigrants by most genealogy books - I think because of the word used.  Although I am not positive at this time, it appears they immigrated with those they were "shipping" - likely paying for their own transportation to America.  The wording of the event (seen below) is not entirely clear.

• Other terms seen in these records  "immigrated" means paid their own way; "transported" means others paid their way; "service" means served out their indenture time and, I think, given 50 acres. 

• "Under a headright system, the British crown awarded land to individuals for bringing others to the colonies. Typically ship captains and merchants received fifty acres for each indentured servant they transported. In Virginia, the colonial land office and county courts issued headright certificates. As a form of currency, a certificate might have changed hands several times until an applicant submitted it with a request for a land patent. ... Often the applicant submitted the certificate several years after the passengers arrived in the Chesapeake, so the date of the land patent does not necessarily indicate a recent arrival"  See http://www.pricegen.com/resources/servants.htm#_ftn36

•  Phelps in the Monmouth Rebellion of 1685  Two Phelps rebels, John and William, were convicted in the  Monmouth Rebellion of 1685.  This was a Protestant rising led by James, Duke of Monmouth and bastard son of Charles II against the Roman Catholic James II.  Another article is here.     Many were from southwestern England where Monmouthshire was located in Wales.  Wales has been implicated in the origin of a Thomas Phelps of Caswell Co in the 1700s; Thomas and James of that county may have been related.  And of course we know that DNA evidence links the James line with the Thomas d. 1751 line of Albemarle Co, VA and also the Thomas Felps line of early Baltimore Co, Md..  Click the previous sentence to link to the article.

• Thomas Phelps, artizan, of the second supply to Jamestown, but not seen in the later 1624/5 muster census.

• A few other Phelps have been identified in specific counties in Virginia and Maryland.:

  •  Lancaster Co:  James about 1671; 

  • Powhatton Co, VA: John 1777 

  • Rappahanock Co: Joseph 1666

  • Surry Co: Roger  1714

  • Northumberland: Thomas about 1664

  • Anne Arundel ,Maryland: Thomas abt 1668/9

The table below is sorted by first name, then by year.. In many cases the name is repeated with the same or near date of arrival.  I attempted to indicate repeated or duplicate entries which clearly are present.  I have also added the words  AGENT, NOT AN INDENTURED SERVANT or NOT AN INDENTURED SERVANT or INDENTURED SERVANT when the evidence shows either conclusively.

While it is probably impossible to review every emigrant book of early colonial America, it appears that this list is extremely inclusive. If one reads through the book reviews to note the very large numbers of named immigrants, it becomes clear the sources are persuasive.
 

Due to the very tedious material, it is possible I have made errors in copying information. However the general picture and numbers of Phelps is illustrative.  Most all these books are in the NC Genealogy library and specific Phelps of interest should be reviewed for accuracy.

For those Phelps of interest, the researcher should see the full text of the source book.

Penal system immigrants are highlighted in yellow. 

Note  Abbreviations:

Addresses for the following is available in the referenced book.

AW = American Wills and Administrations in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury 1610-1857

BR = Bristol Register of Servants sent to Foreign Plantations 1654-1686

BOR = Bristol Record Office, City of Bristol Record Office... References are to manuscript volumnes entitled "Servants to Foreigh Plantations"

PCC = Calandars of wills and administrations in the Prerogative Court of Cantebury

PRO: Public Record Office.

In the list below, you will find the reference books where Phelps immigrants were found.

1. Barnes, Robert W. Gleanings from Maryland Newspapers, 1727-1775. Lutherville, MD: Bettie Carothers, 1976.

2. Boyer, Carl, 3rd, Editor. Ship Passenger Lists: The South (1538-1825). Newhall, California: the editor, 1979.

3. Brandow, James C, editor. Omitted Chapters - "Hotten's Original Lists of Persons of Quality..." Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 1982

Hotten's first book, Original Lists of Persons of Quality…, is the classic work on 17th-century British immigration to the colonies. Not generally known, however, is that Hotten included only a portion of the lists available to him. Nearly two-thirds of the important Barbados Census of 1679/80 was not used and this left out more than half of the island's parish registers, all of the militia rolls, and various lists of landholders.   Thousands of immigrants settled on Barbados before planting new roots on the mainland and their records have gone undetected--until now, that is, for this work, based on records in the Public Record Office in London, supplies all of the material missing in Hotten. The parish registers give the names of all of those baptized or buried, with the dates and the names of the family members; the census returns list landowners' names with the number of freemen, servants, and slaves in the household; and the militia rolls list the militiamen by regiment and company, as well as the landowners responsible for furnishing troops. About 6,500 persons are named--their first mention in the records of the Colonies!

The original book’s TOC begins with:  ORIGINAL LISTS OF PERSONS OF QUALITY IMMIGRANTS; RELIGIOUS EXILES; POLITICAL REBELS; SERVING MEN SOLD OR A TERM OF YEARS; APPRENTICES; CHILDREN STOLEN; MAIDENS PRESSED; AND OTHERS WHO WENT FROM GREAT BRITAIN TO THE AMERICAN PLANTATIONS 16oo - 1700 WITH THEIR AGES, THE LOCALITIES WHERE THEY FORMERLY LIVED IN THE MOTHER COUNTRY, THE NAMES OF THE SHIPS IN WHICH THEY EMBARKED,  AND OTHER INTERESTING PARTICULARS. FROM MSS.  PRESERVED IN THE STATE PAPER DEPARTMENT OF HER  MAJESTY'S PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, ENGLAND.   Viewable free at  http://www.allcensus.com/original_lists_index.htm No Phelps could be found in the 215 pages online.

Viewable book at ancestry.com for $$

4. Bristol and America: Record of First Settlers. Baltimore Genealogical Publishing Co., 1967 

.Bristol and America : a record of the first settlers in the colonies of North America, 1654-1685, including the names with places of origin of more than 10,000 servants to foreign plantations who sailed from the port of Bristol to Virginia, Maryland, and other parts of the Atlantic coast, and also to the West Indies from 1654-1685. This list is compiled and published from records of the Corporation of the City of Bristol, England     Vast majority were respectable and industrious.

5.  Clay, Robert Y. "Powhatan County, Virginia, Oaths of Allegiance." The Virginia Genealogist. 27:3 (July-September 1983), pp. 190-196.

6. Coldham, Peter Wilson. English Convicts in Colonial America. vol 1: Middlesex New Orleans: Polyanthos, 1974-76. This book was later published in three volumes as Bonded Passengers to America, 1983. See reference numbers 17 through 20.

7. Fothergill, Gerald. Immigrants from England 1773-1776. Reprint. Baltimore: Genealogical Pub. Co, 1977.  Partially viewable at this site

8.  Greer, George Cabell. Early Virginia Immigrants, 1623-1666. Reprint. Baltimore: Genealogical Pub. Co., 1960.   Partially viewable at this site   This is a list of immigrants to Virginia, 1623-1666, who were not original patentees of land and, as such, serves as a useful complement to Nugent's Cavaliers and Pioneers. The nearly 25,000 names were collected from original records in the Virginia State Land Office. Arranged alphabetically, for each is given the name of the patentee or party acting as sponsor, and the date and place of residence.

The following four sources are actually from the same book series Cavaliers and Pioneers: A Calendar of Virginia Land Grants, 1623-1800. Vol 1-6. 

9.  Nugent, Nell M. Cavaliers and Pioneers: A Calendar of Virginia Land Grants, 1623-1800. Vo 1:1--6. Richmond, VA: Dietz Printing Co., j 1929-1931. Although vol. 6 ends with the year 1695 no other volumes were published.]  

 For anyone whose research takes them into seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century Virginia, Nell Marion Nugent's three-volume Cavaliers and Pioneers is an indispensable source. These abstracts of the records of the colonial land office cover the years from 1623 to 1666 (Volume 1), from 1666 to 1695 (Volume 2), and from 1695 to 1732 (Volume 3). Dennis Ray Hudgins, in collaboration with The Virginia Genealogical Society, has edited additional volumes under the same title which brings the series to 1774 and the end of the forty-two volume colonial patent book series.

Nugent's first volume was published in 1934 and has since been reprinted, most recently in 1992. The second and third volumes, although abstracted during the 1930s, were not published initially until 1977 and 1979. All three were published by The Library of Virginia and are available individually or as a set. Volumes four through seven are published by the Virginia Genealogical Society, and all volumes are available through The Virginia Shop.

The abstract of each patent gives, in order, the name of the patentee, the number of acres in the patent, the county in which the land was situated at the time the patent was issued, the date of the patent, the book and page of recordation, a description of the location of the land, and, if applicable, the names of the persons on the basis of whose transportation the patent was due. Any additional information contained within the patent is also abstracted. The index includes all proper personal names as well as geographical designations.

10. Nugent, Nell Marion, abstractor. Cavaliers & Pioneers: Abstracts of Virginia Land... Reprint. Baltimore: Genealogical Pub. Co, 1969.   This is one of the most outstanding records of early immigrants to Virginia. It records, under the name of the patentee or grantee, the earliest Virginia land grants and patents from 1623 to 1666, giving the number of acres, locations and dates of settlement, and names of family members, and it further provides references to marriages, wills, and other legal instruments. It also has the names of some thousands who were transported or brought over by the early settlers as "headrights." The index contains the names of about 20,000 persons.

11. Nugent, Nell Marion. Cavaliers and Pioneers: Abstracts of Virginia Land Patents and Grants. Vol. 2  1666-1695. Indexed by Claudia B. Grundman. Richmond, VA: Virginia State Library, 1977. 609p.   '

12  Nugent, Nell Marion, abstractor. Cavaliers & Pioneers: Abstracts of Virginia Land... vol 3 [1695-1732]. Richmond: Virginia State Library, 1979.

13. Sams, Conway Whittle. The Conquest of Virginia: The Second Attempt; An Account, Based on Original Documents, of the Attempt, under the King's Form of Government, to Found Virginia at Jamestown, 1606-1610. . vol 2. Norfolk, VA: Keyser-Doherty Printing Corp.

14. Skordas, Gust, editor. Early Settlers of MD: Index Names of Immigrants compiles from records of land patents 1633-1680”  Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1968. An important historical and genealogical compilation, this book consists of an alphabetical index of over 25,000 settlers, virtually all of the immigrants to Maryland for its first fifty years. Information given includes the immigrants' full names, the approximate date of emigration, the basis of the claim for land, residence, a reference to the source of the information, and sometimes the family relationship or status. 

View partially here   Most seem to be recorded as “transported” which would be penal-indentured or simply indentured ; some are “immigrated” who paid their way,  or “service” indicating they had completed their indenture and were given land.

14A.  A supplement to the Early Settlers of Maryland, 1997  (corrects omissions and errors of the original document)

15. Tepper, Michael, editor. Passengers to America: A Consolidation of ship passenger lists from the New England historical and genealogical register .  Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1977

16. Tyler, Lyon Gardiner. "Census of Inhabitants." Cradle of the Republic: Jamestown and James River. Richmond, VA: Hermitage Press, Inc., 1906.  Viewable here

17. Coldham. Peter Wilson. Bonded Passengers to America. Baltimore: Gene. Publ. Co. Vol 2. Middlesex ..

18.  Coldham, Peter Wilson. Bonded Passengers to America. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co.  [Vol V ]

19.  Coldham, Peter Wilson. Bonded Passengers to America. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co.,

20. Coldham, Peter Wilson. Bonded Passengers to America. Baltimore: Genealogical Pub. Co., 1983, vol. 6.

21. Coldham, Peter Wilson. The Complete Book of Immigrants 1607-1660: A Comprehensive Listing ... Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1988. 600p.

This is a heroic attempt to bring together from English sources a complete list of immigrants to the Colonies from 1607 to 1660. No doubt records of passengers leaving for America were kept in this period, but while no systematic record has survived, the remaining records are substantial. Some were collected and published by John Camden Hotten over 100 years ago, and they were the passenger lists he found in the British State Papers. Since then a great many sources have been found and the time has been long overdue for these facts to be assembled in one comprehensive book.

Hence the publication of this work by the English scholar Peter Wilson Coldham, the leading authority on early English emigration records. His book is a reworking of the Chancery records and records of the Exchequer, the 1624 and 1625 censuses of Virginia, the records of licenses and examination of persons wishing to "pass beyond the seas." To Hotten's basic list, which he has revised and augmented to 1668, Coldham has added fascinating records of vagrants, waifs, and prostitutes who were transported to the colonies. He has also added new transcriptions of records--not in Hotten--of servants sent to "foreign plantationes" from Bristol, 1654-1660. And he has added much more from port books, court records, and from any types of official papers and documents. As a result this book is a stupendous achievement.

Also see  Index correction to The complete book of immigrants, 1607-1660, by Peter Wilson Coldham.

22. Coldham, Peter Wilson. The Complete Book of Immigrants: A Comprehensive Listing... 1661-1699. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1990. 894p

From every available source in the public archives of England, Peter Wilson Coldham, the foremost authority on English emigration records has put together a comprehensive list of immigrants who sailed to America between the years 1661 and 1699, thus extending by forty years the period of coverage begun in The Complete Book of Immigrants, 1607-1660 (see Items 1097 and 1104) and bringing to a conclusion his efforts to document emigration from England to America during the whole of the seventeenth century.
Arranged by year, and thereunder by date of record, the entries give, usually, name, age, occupation, residence, ship, and destination, and for each there is a precise source citation. In total some 30,000 immigrants of the period 1661-1699 are identified, bringing the total named in the two volumes to well over 50,000! As with the first volume, two superb indexes to persons and ships reduce the chore of searching the records to seconds.

23.  Coldham, Peter Wilson. The Complete Book of Immigrants: A Comprehensive Listing... 1700-1750.

Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 19921743p.

This work provides a comprehensive list of immigrants from surviving records in English archives. The records used in this volume, in addition to the usual spread of sources, derive principally from (1) Plantation Apprenticeship Bindings; (2) Port Books; and (3) Convict Pardons on Condition of Transportation. Altogether some 25,000 immigrants are identified.

24. Coldham, Peter Wilson. The Complete Book of Immigrants, 1751-1776. A comprehensive listing... Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1993. 349p.

25.  Smith, Clifford Neal. British Deportees to America. Part 7: 1775-1775 Monograph 7, 1987. 37 p. (British-Amrican Genealogy Researc Monographs)  McNeal, AZ. Westland Publications.

In this fourth and final volume of The Complete Book of Immigrants, Peter Wilson Coldham brings the story of English emigration in the colonial period to a natural if uneventful close. Voluntary emigration from the British Isles went into a steep decline after the year 1750, only to rise again sharply from 1770 and to reach epidemic proportions by 1773, a year of great economic hardship in Britain. Involuntary emigration, on the other hand, the forced transportation of criminals of almost every degree, rose sharply during the period, from a yearly total of 500 in 1750 to 1,000 in 1774-75. The records drawn on, in addition to the usual sources, include port books, plantation apprenticeship bindings, and treasury records of immigrants departing from English ports.

Now that all the volumes have been completed, Mr. Coldham's remarkable achievement identifies about 140,000 English immigrants to colonial America from virtually every reference that can be found in England.

26.  Wareing, John  Immigrants to America: Indentured Servants Recruited in London, 1718-1733  Baltimoer: Genealogical Publishing CO, 1985  From "a register of the names and surnames of those persons who have
voluntarily contracted and bound themselves to go beyond the seas to His Majesty's colonies and plantations in America…," London Record Office. Includes alphabetized table of names, agents, destination (colony name), date, and page number in the original records.

27.     Bonded Passengers to America, 1993.  Nine volumes in three..   Peter Wilson Coleman, 1983.  Detailed notes and references.

28.      ORIGINAL LISTS OF PERSONS OF QUALITY IMMIGRANTS; RELIGIOUS EXILES; POLITICAL REBELS; SERVING MEN SOLD OR A TERM OF YEARS; APPRENTICES; CHILDREN STOLEN; MAIDENS PRESSED; AND OTHERS WHO WENT FROM GREAT BRITAIN TO THE AMERICAN PLANTATIONS 16oo – 1700  This book was not listed as a source in the World Book of Phelps, so perhaps there were none. I found no Phelps while searching the 215 pages (partial) of the online version at  //www.allcensus.com/original_lists_index.htm

 Index correction to The complete book of immigrants, 1607-1660, by Peter Wilson Coldham.

29.  Immigrants From England, 1773-1776

30. Ruth Sparacio & Sam Sparacio, Order Book Abstracts of Lancaster County, Virginia 1670-1674 (McLean, Virginia: The Antient Press, 1993), 25, quoting Lancaster County, Virginia Order Book 1666-1680, 182.  From http://pricegen.com/index.htm (Unverified)

31. W. Preston Haynie, Records of Indentured Servants and of Certificates of Land, Northumberland County, Virginia, 1650-1795 (Bowie, Maryland: Heritage Books, 1996), quoting OB 1652-65, 193.  From http://pricegen.com/index.htm (Unverified)

32.  Charles City, VA Court Orders 1687-1695  Abstracted and compiled b Benhamin B. Weisiger III

Following is a list other potential helpful books of English immigrants, however I expect there are few or no additional Phelps. They should have been covered in the above books..

• The Bristol Registers Of Servants Sent To Foreign Plantations, 1654-1686
• The Complete Book Of Immigrants, Volumes 1-3
• English Adventurers And Immigrants, 1609-1660
• English Adventurers And Immigrants, 1661-1733
• Immigrants to America Appearing In English Records
• A List Of Immigrants From England To America, 1682-1692 From 1682 to 1692, the Lord Mayor's Waiting Books, the source of this work, were used to record the names of indentured servants or private citizens traveling on passes from England to America. These records give, where appropriate, the person's place of residence in England, age, date of indenture, length of service, name of master, destination in the colonies, and, for an under-age servant, the name of a witness (usually a relative).  

Viewable at http://content.ancestry.com/iexec/?htx=BookList&dbid=49225&offerid=0%3a7858%3a0

• A List Of Immigrants From England To America, 1718-1759
• List Of Immigrants To America From Liverpool, 1697-1707

And Others Who Went From Great Britain To The American Plantations, 1600-1700

• Supplement To The Complete Book Of Immigrants In Bondage, 1614-1775

Barbados Records Baptisms 1637-1800  compiled by Joanne McRee Sanders, Genealogical Publishing Co, Inc. Baltimore 1984

Thomas son of Thomas & Jane Phelp    May 9 1662,   Christ Church Parish  Page 263, original page 58, RL1/17

Thomas son of Thomas and Jane Phelp  Sept 15, 1664   Christ Church Parish, Page 265, original page 68, RL1/17

Mary dau of William & Elizabeth Phelp  Oct 7, 1666  Christ Church Parish  Original page 77, RL1/17

Barbados Records Marriages 1643-1800  compiled by Joanne McRee Sander

Thomas Phelp and Jane Reynald  Jan 26, 1662 Christ Church Parish, Page 17, original page 32, RL1/20

Note: The earliest recorded marriage in this parrish was April 9, 1643.

Jno: Blewett & Elnor Phelps  Aug 21, 1664   St Michael Parish, Page 17, original page 87, RL1/1

Note:  The earliest recorded marriage in this parrish was Jan 3, 1648/9. There were only three marriages recorded in this parish between Oct 12, 1659 and August 14, 1664, barely allowing for this Phelps marriage.  Could there have been others?

Barbados Records - wills and Administrations 1639-1725      No Phelps or Felps are listed.