Thomas Shelburne 6

Thomas had never experienced such a flood of exuberation in his life as to see land after several months at sea. Captain Newport moved south along the coastline of "Virginia," named after Queen Elizabeth, the virgin queen. Finally, Cape Henry came into view, and they entered the head of the "Powhatan flu," as Captain John Smith called it. It wasn't long until James Towne came into view on the right side of the river.

Wynne had been expecting a settlement of a couple hundred, but there were barely sixty still alive at the site when they arrived. He hoped though that the worst was over. The originally triangular fort had burned to the ground over the winter, but Smith had rebuilt it better in a five-sided shape.

Captain Newport was surprised to find Captain John Smith in charge when he returned. This was Newport's third trip to the settlement. When they first came, Edward Wingfield had been elected president of the council. But he had been voted out and put under arrest, in large part because he was suspected of hiding food. Probably to his good fortune, he had been sent back to England on Newport's second return trip.

John Ratcliffe had been president when Newport had left that second time. But the discontented, dying colonists pushed him out as president too in the summer before Thomas arrived.

For good or ill, Captain Smith had then asserted himself as the man of the hour. He was a harsh leader for harsh times. Thomas would remember the disdainful look Smith gave him the first time he saw him. He would later understand the look to say, "Really? Another worthless mouth to feed."

Smith gave the some seventy new arrivals a stern speech that first night. The paltry number of survivors wanted to feast that first night at the arrival of supplies but Smith would not let them. It all had to be stored for the winter. He had built a new storehouse for that very reason. Of course the rats they had brought with them on the ships would spoil it all by the time they really needed it.

Thomas did not understand all of Smith's speech, but he caught the most important part: "He who does not work shall not eat."

Thomas Shelburne 5

The trip did take a bit more than two months. There was plenty of terror for Thomas for the first few weeks. He hardly left Wynne's cabin except when he was forced to, usually to get Wynne water or wine.

Wynne did start teaching him to read and write English after the first day. His idea was to dictate his daily journey to Thomas and teach him to write in that way. The first task was to teach him the letters, and this he did by way of the Welsh Bible, whose letters at least looked like the English ones.

"So do you know the Ten Commandments, boy?" Wynne asked him.

"A few."

"Well give me one."

"Na ladrata," Thomas said. Thou shalt not steal.

"It figures that you would know that one. So look at the letters here in the Bible." And in this way Wynne began to teach him the letters that went with the sounds he already knew. His young mind had picked up the letters and their basic sounds within a week of the voyage.

To learn English, Wynne began by writing the entries each night and teaching Thomas the meaning. So the first night he told of how he had gone to see Shakespeare's new play Macbeth the night before sailing. The Globe Theater was on the south side of the Thames. Thomas himself had seen the round building from across the river, but wouldn't have had the money to cross to the other side even if he had wanted.

After about a month of the journey, Thomas ventured out a little more. But a young man such as him on deck was bound to be given chores, so he still largely stayed to the cabin. Wynne gave him a taste of wine for the first time. It had such a sour taste to him that he couldn't imagine why the crew so enjoyed it. Besides, it only made them act foolishly.

One night he saw Leviathan, a huge sea creature that surfaced and disappeared gently into the waters. "Truly only God could pluck out such a creature with a fish hook," he remarked to the other boys.

There were some frightening storms, but good laughs as well. When Wynne would get a little wine in him, he would tell stories. Some of his favorite had to do with the English defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588. It established England as the supreme power of the seas in place of the Spanish. It was clear that none of the captains on ship cared much for the Spanish.

But it was a happy day indeed in early September when the word's "Land ho" rang throughout the ship. Captain Newport had somehow navigated the ship almost exactly on target. It was almost magic to Thomas how someone could use the stars and a compass to find land after being so long in the middle of nothing. As they sailed into the James River, he was not sure he would ever want to go back to visit Wales.

Thomas Shelburne 4

Chapter 2
Thomas stood looking over the side of the ship in disbelief. He had never been on a boat before, water on all sides. They were still on the River Thames, headed east for the English Channel. Soon they passed another dock full of ships, but they did not stop. They were already fully stocked.

"That's Gravesend," he heard Mrs. Margaret Forrest say to Anne Burras, her young maid. "They say that's where they finally ran out of bodies to bury after the Plague."

Thirteen year old Thomas caught the eye of fourteen year old Anne, whose look of uncertainty was not dissimilar to his. As it turned out, she and her mistress were the only women on board. Indeed, they would be the first women to come to Jamestown. At least Anne's father was on the ship as well, a tradesman.

Thomas of course would have no chance for romance with Anne or any woman for years. He was less than a nobody. He was an accident, destined to go down in history as "Others" who were on the second supply ship to Jamestown.

He stood at the side of the boat looking out for several hours. No one seemed to pay him any mind. He met a couple boys, Milman and Helyard. They were the cabin boys of Captain Newport and Captain Waldo. But unlike him, they had known they were going on this ride. Also, they would be dead within a year.

Finally, the land began to recede and Thomas became afraid that Leviathan would leap from the water and snatch him to his grave. Or perhaps as the ship began to sway he would lose his footing and fall into the water. He hesitantly made his way to Wynne's cabin.

"How long will the trip take?" Thomas finally asked.

"Captain Newport has cut it down to two or three months, I hear. He goes north following the curvature of the earth rather than south and across."

"Months?!" Thomas exclaimed. "Is there even that much ocean?"

"Much, much more even. Have you heard of Christopher Columbus?"

A brief back and forth of Thomas' head said no.

"You must really come from far inland, boy. A little more than a hundred years ago Columbus set out to find a shortcut to the East Indies. He thought he could go around the earth by going west and come back around on the other side."

"Did he?"

"Not exactly," Wynne continued. "He hit land and thought he had made it, but it turns out he was only half way there. The earth is indeed round like a ball. But where we are going is only half way around."

"What is it like in this New World?"

"I hear it is beautiful beyond belief, forest that stretches beyond what the eye can see, rivers full of fish that are bigger than you could imagine, gold to make a man rich."

"Does it have mountains or is it flat like the lowlands?"

"Flat, I'm afraid, from what I've heard."

And so the conversation went on for a time. Wynne of course knew almost as little as Thomas, but he thought he had knowledge. Also, Captain Wynne would be dead in a year.

Thomas Shelburne 3

Thomas had never been on a ship before. The idea of being surrounded by water was not a particularly pleasant one. His country had just been devastated by flood waters. He peered down the hole to see a dark, damp space that looked entirely unpleasant to him.

Captain Wynne's quarters were at least on deck level. Not so bad. They were not terribly large quarters, but Thomas had never had his own room before. The thought of having your own space was almost unbelievable.

"What is this huge book?" Thomas asked. "Is it a Welsh Bible?"

It was indeed a Bible, translated into Welsh by William Morgan in 1588.

"Yes," Wynne said. "Can you read?"

It was fairly obvious that he couldn't, even though his answer was, "A little."

"You know I could teach you to read on the journey to Jamestown," Wynne said. "I could take your wool as payment for passage."

Thomas wasn't quite sure what to say. He had no plans. He didn't know what he would do with the money once he had it.

But the Americas sounded very far away. He was afraid of the ocean.

"And how will I live once I get to Jamestown?" he finally asked.

"You can serve as my page. You can write letters for me, run errands for me. And when it is all over, you can have your own land. You can go from a homeless boy on the streets to an important person in the New World."

It was a lot to take in. After all, he had only just met this man a few minutes ago. It was tempting. As he looked around the cabin, there were things he had never dreamed he could ever have. Captain Wynne was a gentleman, the first he had ever met. His clothes, his shoes were beyond anything his father had ever owned. He had never touched a book before. His local parish certainly didn't have a Welsh Bible, although he had heard of them.

"And you'll be able to come back to Wales with me when I return, maybe with gold!"

That statement caught his attention, the possibility that he might return home one day to his father's house rich with gold. Imagine how jealous his brothers would be then.

But his fear of the sea kicked in. "No," he said. "That sounds very tempting. But I am afraid of the ocean. What if you take a wrong turn and fall off the earth? What of Leviathan?"

Wynne laughed so loud they could hear him on deck. "Come now, boy! Surely you don't still believe that the earth is flat! It's round boy, round like a ball. We've known it for millennia!"

Now Thomas was sure that Wynne was crazy and that he should have no part of this madness.

"Well, I'll take my leave of you now," he said. "Might I have the money for the wool?"

Wynne smiled wildly. He had heard familiar sounds from the deck, sounds that Thomas did not have the experience to recognize. Finally, there was a jolt that troubled Thomas, but Wynne interrupted his thoughts.

"Fine, lad. What weight of wool would you say is here? Twenty pounds?"

"That sounds good to me," Thomas said. "Twenty times six pence is ten shillings."

"You're quick with math, boy. Exactly right." Wynne opened a drawer and pulled out a pound. "How about a full pound?"

Thomas was astounded. A full pound. He took the coin and stared at it. What might he do with a pound?

"My offer stands," Wynne finally said. "If you should by chance change your mind, you're welcome to join me on this adventure. I'll get a mat and you can sleep right here on the floor, a better lot than the other cabin boys."

"Thank you very much," Thomas answered, "but I think I'll have to pass." Then, after another moment's silence, he continued. "I'll be going now."

So Thomas went to the door and emerged from the cabin. Things were much quieter on deck by now. Most of the men, along with the two women, were lined along the side of the ship, looking at something.

He would have asked what they were looking at, if he knew English. But he realized the answer soon enough. The ship had already embarked, and it was gliding east along the Thames.

"Glad to have you as my cabin boy," Wynne said in Welsh, now leaning himself against the edge of the ship lighting his pipe, watching London go by with the others.

Thomas Shelburne 2

"Wool," he finally said somewhat sheepishly, placing himself right in front of the ship. There was a flurry of activity. People were carrying barrel after barrel of supply. There were dozens of people around, some of whom at least looked important.

"Out of me waye," came the voice of an irritated sailor carrying a box of something or other on his shoulder. But most paid him no mind. A thirteen year old boy was all but non-existent in the minds of these men.

And they were all men, as far as he could see. Over the space of about an hour, he only saw men board the ship. Only once that day did he see a woman, two women actually. A lady and her maide finally boarded the ship. He couldn't decide if it would be enjoyable or horrible to be the only women on a ship with dozens of men. He would later decide horrible.

"Wool for sale," he said repeatedly, to no avail. "Wool for trade," he sometimes would add. After an hour of timidity, he started walking up to people who looked to have some money. But he was simply brushed aside.

Finally, after about two hours with no results, he heard the familiar sound of Welsh coming from somewhere on the dock. Perhaps a kindred spirit would take an interest.

"Gwlân ar werth," he said to the man, "wool for sale." The Welsh caught the man's attention just as it had Thomas. He paused from a moment and looked down at Thomas, sizing him up.

"So where have you come from, Welsh lad?" he asked in their mother tongue.

"I'm selling wool," Thomas said. "I'll sell it to you at a good price and you can sell it higher wherever you are going."

Captain Peter Winne smiled. "How much are you asking?" he said.

"Six pence a pound," Thomas responded. It was a ridiculously low asking price, but he had no idea that the going rate in London that year was double that amount.

Winne smiled even bigger. "I'll take it all," he finally said, and Thomas' eyes grew big indeed with surprise. "Say, boy, where do you live? Where are your parents?"

Thomas somehow felt sheepish about giving a straightforward answer. "They sent me here from Wales to sell our wool."

The answer didn't convince Winne. The boy was clearly lying.

"You like adventures, don't you boy?" Winne finally said. "See this big ship? It's going on one of the greatest adventures you could go on. Why don't you carry your bag of wool to my cabin? I'll give you the money there."

Thomas Shelburne had no idea what Captain Winne was thinking. But Winne had guessed that Thomas was a runaway or an orphan. Either way, he had likely stolen the wool from somewhere. Winne had no page or cabin boy, still less anyone else on the ship who spoke Welsh. Perhaps the situation could work out to both of their advantage.

"This is the second supply journey of the new colony at Jamestown in the New World," Winne said as they boarded the ship. "It's said to be a magnificent land, beyond your greatest imagination. The captain of this ship, Christopher Newport, has already been to the colony twice and says there is gold and wealth to be had there beyond belief."

Of course Newport was both a fool and a liar. On his first trip back from Jamestown, he filled his ship with useless fool's gold. Even worse, only one in five of the original settlers had survived by the time he had returned on his first resupply mission. Two-thirds of all who had come would be dead by the time this second resupply mission arrived.

But Thomas barely had any idea what Winne was talking about. "What is the New World again?" Thomas asked.

Again, Winne chuckled. "Why it is the future," he responded. "All these men are going to be rich and important in the new lands across the ocean."

Thomas Shelburne 1

One morning you wake up on the streets of London. The next you find yourself on a ship bound for this place you've never heard of called Virginia.

1607 wasn't a particularly good year if you lived in Wales. Wales is the part of Britain on the left side that faces Ireland. They are not English. They have their own language, Welsh. They are descended from the Celts, like the Irish and the Scottish.

In 1607, the south of Wales was decimated by flooding. The north of Wales had a wee touch of the plague. It was a good time for a 12 year old to sneak out on your father's small farm one morning, stuff a bag full of wool, and head for London. After all, when you're the fourth son, you don't have much to look forward to except work, work work. Work for your father now, work for your brothers later.

Wool was the main thing England exported out of the country. As 1607 languished into 1608, naive Thomas Shelburne figured he could sell his wool in London and get enough money to do something. He didn't know what, but something.

London in 1608 was beyond anything a poor Welsh farm boy could have dreamed. Imagine, a bridge that had something like 200 buildings on it, some of them seven stories high. Fearsome were the tarred remains of traitor's heads, stuck on iron spikes on London Bridge. He didn't know names like William Wallace, Thomas More, or Thomas Cromwell, but he got the message clear enough.

The Tower of London was more majestic than any castle he had ever seen before. He wrongly imagined that the new King James lived there, king now for five years. But the kings of England had not lived there for hundreds of years. It was a prison more than anything else.

Thomas knew nothing of its most famous prisoners. He did not know about Guy Fawkes or the recent plot to blow up the houses of Parliament, just three years earlier. He did not know anything yet about Sir Walter Raleigh, imprisoned comfortably with his family at the time. Raleigh had tried and failed to start a colony in America twenty years previous.

He didn't speak much English, only enough to do some basic trading. When he woke up that morning on the first of August, 1608, he figured he would go down to the Pool of London, just east of London Bridge on the Thames River, and sell his wool. He had slept on it every night since he left Wales a couple weeks before. The pool was lined with ships, under the shadow of the Tower of London.

When he got to the river, he looked for the biggest boat. If he could have read, he would have seen the name Mary and Margaret on the side of the humongous 150 ton ship. Surely someone here would buy some wool. He'd sell it cheap enough for them to make a profit wherever this ship was headed.

Family Tree Overview

Last night while watching the launch of the Winter Olympics, I discovered how much census data is now available onsite. Although the information is not infallible, I was able to find all my primary ancestors in the year 1850.

I. My Father: Melvin Lee Schenck (1924-2012)
     A. My Paternal Grandfather: Dorsey Schenck (1898-1974)
          1. Great-Grandfather: Samuel Schenck (1871-1930, born in Indiana)

               a. Great-Great Grandfather: Henry Schenck (ca. 1834, born in Ohio)
                   In 1850, he was 17 years old and living with his father in Madison Township, Butler
                   County, Ohio.  The 1930 census suggests Henry was born in Holland, but this is clearly not
                   true. However, it may indicate the ultimate origins of the Schenck family.

                     1) Great-Great-Great Grandfather: William Schenck (ca. 1804, born in New Jersey)
                          In 1850, he was 46 years old and living in Madison Township, Butler County, Ohio,
                          with at least 3 kids.

                     2) Great-Great-Great Grandmother: Jane (Schenck) (ca. 1810, born in Ohio)

               b. Great-Great Grandmother: Ellen (Schenck) (born in Pennsylvania)

          2. Great-Grandmother: Pearl Dorsey (1874-1949)

     B. My Paternal Grandmother: Esther Elma Miller (1902-1977)
          1. Great Grandfather: Amsey Miller (1878-1944)
               a. Great-Great Grandfather: Christian Miller (1857ish in Indiana-1944)
                    1) Great-Great-Great Grandfather: David Y. Miller, born in Ohio in 1810,
                         "preacher of the gospel"
                    2) Great-Great-Great Grandmother: Eve Miller, born in Ohio in 1812?,
                         perhaps also Elisabeth (could be second wife, b. 1816 Pennsylvani).

               b. Great-Great Grandmother: Sarah Rule (d. 1917)

          2. Great Grandmother: Salome Wise (1878-1946)
               a. Great-Great Grandfather: Eli Wise (b. ca. 1849 d. 1929)
                    1) Great-Great-Great Grandfather: Leonard Wise
                    2) Great-Great-Great Grandmother: Catharine Wise
               b. Great-Great Grandmother: Esther Wenrick (d 1921)

II. My Mother: Helen Juanita Shepherd (1926-)
     A. My Maternal Grandfather: Harry Allison Shepherd (1883-1963)
          1. Great-Grandfather: Elijah Washington Shephard, born 1839 in Indiana, blacksmith
               a. Great-Great Grandfather: Eli, born in Kentucky? (1808ish)
               b. Great-Great Granmother: Lucinda Stark, born in Kentucky, 1806ish

          2. Great-Grandmother: Seba Elizabeth Wright, also born in Kentucky about 1847

     B. My Maternal Grandmother: Verna (Vernilla) Opal Rich (1894-1979)
          1. Great-Grandfather: Oscar Robert Rich (1875-1935)
               a. Great-Great Grandfather: William Raymond Rich (1854-1882)
                    1) Great-Great-Great Grandfather: Jackson Rich (1824ish)
                    2) Great-Great-Great Grandmother: Sarah A. Rich (1825ish, may have gone by Sally)

               b. Great-Great Grandmother: Caroline Case (1857-1920)

          2. Great-Grandmother: Rena Catherine Wall (1873-1967)
               a. Great-Great Grandfather: William Wall (1836- )
                   He is William Walls in the 1860 census, living in Hamilton Township, Sullivan, Indiana

               b. Great-Great Grandmother: Melisse Shelburn (1836-1901)
                   Her name is variously spelled in the censuses--1860 she is Mallissa married to William,
                   apparently born in Kentucky.

                    1) Great-Great-Great Grandfather: Champeon Shelburn (ca. 1793, born in Kentucky)
                         In 1850, he was living in Jackson Township, Sullivan County, Indiana. Wife seems to
                         have died by that point.