Holbrook post: Captain Peter Hayes, born about 1571, Immigrant

Folks, we have an adventurer in the family!  Not a farmer, at least not at first, not a pastor, not even a merchant, but a real live (at the time) adventurer.  He was called Captain for a reason, and it wasn't just to differentiate himself from his son Peter Hayes, "the Envoy".  It's always interesting to find someone with a story different from those of most of our ancestors, and Captain Peter Hayes is our man.

The frustrating thing about Peter isn't the lack of knowledge about him, because we actually know quite a bit. The frustrating thing is that I don't know who I should credit for this information. It is freely available on the web, but the closest I got to a source was page 168 and following of an unnamed journal, repeated on many web sites.

Peter was born about 1571 in Great Budworth, CHeshire, England.  I've seen his father referred to as "Sir" John Hayes, and his mother was Elizabeth Starkey Hayes.  He has a christening date of July 28, 1578 so I wonder if maybe he wasn't the second Peter Hayes in the family.  It was not usual to delay a christening for that long.  At any rate, he had six brothers and sisters.  As the third son, he was not given an inheritance but the family did give him an education, and he eventually apprenticed for his cousin, Edward Hayes, who was a ship captain and owned a ship called "The Golden Hind".  (I don't believe this was the ship of Sir Francis Drake, but the ship may have been named in honor of the famous vessel that sailed around the world).

When Peter finished the apprenticeship with his cousin, he married Margaret Davyes Howse, a widow, on September 18, 1591 in London (date supports the 1571 birthdate).  Known children are Peter, Elizabeth and Ann, all of whom outlived their father.  Shortly after James I came to the throne, he sold the nation's navy, leaving the merchant marines open to piracy from France and Spain, particularly.  Soon after that, most British seamen were either unemployed or were working for a foreign country.  Peter chose to work for the Dutch.  His route was to go from Texel Island (in the Netherlands) to Greenland, where the Dutch had established a colony.  His home base was at the town of Edam, not far from Amsterdam.

In 1630 the Dutch West India Company ordered Peter to take a group of Puritans to the Caribbean island of Tortugas.  From there he went to Delaware Bay, where again the Dutch wished to establish a colony.  Peter liked what he saw in America and when he returned the ship to the company, he terminated his employment also.

He was in Virginia by 1635 and settled on Pagan Point, now called James Creek.  He purchased land that was recorded in 1636, 350 acres, although he had likely made the purchase several years before that.  He was growing old, though, and in 1641 petitioned the Virginia Assembly to have his taxes abated due to his advanced age.  He was successful in this,  although he still had to pay the church tithe.  This is the last we hear of Peter.  His death date is generally given as 1641-1650, but there is no proof ofa specific date.

It's hard to imagine that Peter had an easy life.  350 acres was just the wrong size of land-a little too much for one man to handle, and a little too small to attract tenant workers.  It is possible, even probable, that he had native American slaves, given the time period he was living in Virginia.  One wonders whether he was glad he'd gone to America, or if he ever wished he had stayed on, sailing for the Dutch.

The line of descent is:

Peter Hayes-Margaret Davyes
Peter Hayes,-Ann possibly Hudson
John Hayes-Abigail Dixon
Jane Dixon Hayes-Thomas Stansbury
Thomas Stansbury-Hannah Gorsuch
Rachel Stansbury-Alexis Lemmon
Sarah Lemmon-Abraham Hetrick
Isaac Hetrick-Elizabeth Black
Mary Alice Hetrick-Louis Stanard
Etta Stanard-Loren Holbrook
Gladys Holbrook-Richard Allen
Their descendants