Sarah (Maycock) Pace, Jamestown Orphan

Sarah Maycock "the Jamestown orphan"

• AKA: Maycox, Maycocks, Maycocke
• Birth: 1621 - Jamestown, James City, Virginia
• Death: 1655 - , Virginia
• Parents: Samuel Maycock, Mary Pierce
• Husband: George Pace

Children (need confirming):

1. Richard Pace
2. Stephen Pace
3. William Pace
4. Thomas Pace
5. Elizabeth Pace
6. John Pace

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Sarah Maycock, according to my available resources, was six days old when the Massacre of 1622 occurred. She was the lone survivor of her family at Maycock's Plantation.

https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/LY7B-417 She was left an orphan at two years of age and was raised in the household of Capt. Roger Smith, and his wife Jane Pierce, along with Elizabeth Rolfe, Jane's daughter from a previous marriage to John Rolfe. Sarah grew up in an atmosphere of wealthy families and fine houses. Capt. Smith looked out after her interest and in 1626 at a General Court arranged for her to receive the 200 acres that her father had applied for, for bringing over 4 more indentured servants who did not arrive until after his death. Thus Sarah became very marriagable, and at the age of 15 was betrothed to George Pace, the son of Richard and Isabell Pace. The marriage was desirable because of Sarah's need for someone with experience in running a plantation. The Manor House at Maycock Plantation was a two story, stone structure, reflecting Sarah's upbringing. Their only son Richard Pace was born about 1638, and at the time of his fathers death in 1655, it is mentioned that he Was the sole heir of both his fathers and his mothers estate. This caused some confusion, because there were other Pace children in Jamestowne and they have been ascribed to these parents. Roger Smith died in 1628, and Jane Pierce continued to raise these young daughters, and it is thought Jane remarried a George Menefie, who had a home in Bucklands Plantation, next to the property of William Perry and Isabell Pace Perry who is the mother of George Pace, her future husband. Sarah died at the Maycock Plantation prior to 1655.

Prepared by John G Pace a 7th GGGrandson from family records 30 Apr 2018

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From https://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=stevensp...

"Minutes of the Council and General court of colonial Virginia, 1622-1632. Published in Richmond, VA by The Colonial Press, Everett Waddey Co. in 1924. Call number J87.V85 This book is located in the Manuscript Reading Room in the Madison Bldg., Rm 101.

However, I was unable to copy the pages due to the poor condition of the book. (The spine was broken and the pages were becoming unstitched.)

But there was a copy made. It was back in the Jefferson reading room. It was a photocopy of the same book (at 99%). We found that it had a different call number (they are in the process of assigning them the same call number) It was F229 N523. Published by the Virginia State Library in 1979.

The preface indicates that these records are compiled from the partially burned remnants of records that were saved after the Richmond fire of 1865. English records, and other papers. Virginia has these remnants in a fireproof vault (Is the vault located in their Archives?).

Transcribed: VIIIth day of May 1626 A courte held the viiith day of May 1626 beinge p[?]fent Sr ffrancis Wyatt Knight Gournor &c, Capt ffranis Weft Capt Roger Smith Capt Samuel Mathewes Mr William Cleybourne.

Yt is order yt Sara Maycock for fower fervants brought over in the Abigaill 1622 vppon the Accompt of Mr Samuell Maycock fhall have two hundred acres of lande to be taken vpp by her in any place not fomerly Taken vpp.

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Extracted from “Who was Sarah the Jamestown Orphan?” by Jude Cowell (November 17, 2016) < stricklands’ blog >

Recently my forays into family ties through Jamestown lineages and history has revealed Sarah, the ‘Jamestown Orphan’ whose parents were killed in the March 22, 1622 Powhatan Uprising, aka, the Jamestown Massacre of 1622. Reverend Maycock and wife Mary Pierce Maycock are considered by some to have been Sarah’s parents though other researchers disagree (see the third link, below).

If only we had a definite birth date for Sarah! November 1621 is the closest I’ve found …

From PACES PAINES AND MAYCOX [PLANTATIONS]: GEORGE I < link >

The first record of George [Pace], son of Richard and Isabella [Pace], is a land patent dated September 1, 1628. …

In the same year that William Perry died - 1637 - young Sarah Maycock reached marriageable age, - and married George Pace. Sarah was the daughter of Samuel Maycock. The record concerning him reads:

"Samuel Maycock was admitted sizar (i.e. as a student on a scholarship) at Jesus (a college of Cambridge University) May 26,1611. Son of Roger, Husbandman (i.e. farmer) of Y elvetoft (name of farm) Northants (Northampton County), School Shadwell (i.e. went to lower school at Shadwell in nearby Leicester). Migrated (graduated?) Caius (another college at Cambridge) May 15, 1618".

He must have immediately sailed for Virginia for he took up 200 acres of land on the basis of four headrights in 1618. The land lay on the James River on the east side of Powells Creek, and almost directly across the river from Westover. Governor Yeardley's plantation, Flower dieu Hundred, adjoined it on the east. Nathaniel Powell's plantation, bordering on Powells Creek, adjoined it on the west.

[Samuel] Maycock appears to have been highly thought of by Governors Argall and Wyatt. He is described as a scholar and a gentleman of birth, virtue and industry. In March 1618 Governor Argall asked that he be ordained as Minister to the Colony and Governor Yeardley apointed him a member of his Council. He continued as such under Governor Wyatt.

[Governor] Yeardley, however, seems to have had some reservations about Maycock. In a 1619 letter to the Virginia Company he praises him as his "chiefe strength in the ryght" but goes on to say "although when Capt. Argall was here he did a little run with the tide which was his safest course indeed". Argall was robbing the colony to enrich himself and Maycock may have found it expedient to close his eyes to some of his activities. As a matter of fact, [Governor] Yeardley, a self-made man always seeking the favor of the powerful, quite flatteringly named one of his sons "Argall".

The chances are that [Samuel] Maycock and his wife (of whom we know nothing) had a house in Jamestown to be "neare the Governor". He may have merely visited his plantation upriver to supervise his servants. He chose the wrong week-end for one of his visits, for on Good Friday, March 22, 1622, he and his three men were massacred by the Indians.

Sarah Maycock is given in both lists as in the household of Roger Smith in Jamestown, along with Mrs. Smith and Elizabeth Rolfe. The Muster taken early in 1625 gives Sarah's age as two years. If this is not a mistake or a hasty estimate, it would indicate that she was born posthumously. Since her father died in March of 1622, she must have been born no later than December of that year. This would make her a little more than two years old at the time of the Muster.

Inasmuch as her mother's name does not appear in the List of the Living of February 16, 1623, she must have died before that date, possibly when Sarah was born.

The orphan baby was cared for by Jane Smith and was raised along with her own daughter, Elizabeth Rolfe, Sarah's senior by two years. Jane and Mrs. Maycock may have been friends or neighbors in Jamestown. …

Jane Pierce Wolfe had married Roger Smith within a year after the massacre. He was a member of the Governor's Council, and a very prominent man in the colony. His house in Jamestown was bounded on the south by the Governor's garden and on the east by the lot of William Pierce.

Sarah [Maycock] thus grew up in an atmosphere of wealthy families and fine houses. No doubt she received the training given in those days to daughters of the upper class.

Roger Smith looked out for her interests. In 1626 at a General Court he arranged for land to be granted four-year-old Sarah for four indentured servants brought over in 1622 in the "Abigail" at the instance of Samuel Maycock, but arriving after his death. Such 200 acres of land "to be taken upp by her in any place not formerly taken upp." It is strange that [Samuel] Maycock himself had not selected and arranged for possession of such land before he transported these headrights. There is no record that any land other than the 200 acres of Maycox [Plantation] belonged to Sarah. However, the land around Maycox seems to have been vacant "back into the woods". Why not add the 200 acres to Maycox?

If Sarah was not born until late in 1622, she must have been only 15 when she married George Pace in 1637. (This date of marriage has been fixed by the age of their son Richard II, who was 21 in 1659 and therefore born in 1638). Fifteen was not an unusual age for girls to marry in those days. Women were scarce, and in Sarah's case there was urgent need for a man to run her plantation. George being 28 and presumably experienced in Planting, may have seemed a good match, ever though not too affluent.

He took over Sarah's inheritance and must have dealt with it wisely. Undoubtedly the plantation needed attention after fifteen years. Roger Smith with his governmental duties and his own plantation had little time to supervise its operation. Indeed, it may not even have been cultivated in the years following the massacre. Maycock's three servants were killed and the place was probably deserted. Of course, the four new servants who came over in the "Abigail" had to be provided for somewhere and they may have been stationed in Maycox to plant it. This might explain the failure [George Pace] to take up new land.

But a 200-acre holding was relatively small, and no doubt the land was becoming poorer year by year. George needed more land but this could only be acquired by paying the cost of transportation of headrights. Tobacco credits in London were used for this purpose. But these were times of low prices, high taxes and levies.

It apparently took George 13 years to accumulate enough credits to bring over some servants. In 1650 he obtained a grant of 1,700 acres for 34 headrights, such land extending south from Maycox between Powells Creek and Flower dieu Hundred plantation. He may have financed the transaction in partnership with a Thomas Drew, to whom he gave a bill-of-sale in the same year for "800 or 900 acres" roughly half of George's grant. For some reason the sale hung fire, for in 1655, after George had died, his son [Richard Pace II], although still a minor, found it necessary to cofirm it, as follows:

"Westover Parish, Charles City County, June 4, 1655: Know all men by these Presents, and witnesse, that I, Richard Pace, sonne and heire of Mr. George Pace of the Cpn. of Charles City County at Mount March in Virginia, and sonne and heire as the first issue by my mother, Mrs. Sarah Maycock, wife unto my aforesaid father, (both being deceased), . . . do confirm and allow . . . the sale of 800 or 900 acres of land being neare unto Pierce's Hundred als Flowrrday Hundred, sold by my deceased father, Mr. George Pace unto Mr. Thomas Drew as per bill of sale bearing date the 12th day of October, Ao 1650".

In 1652 George obtained another grant of 507 acres, (for the transportation of ten headrignts), adjoining his 1,700-acre tract on the south. Thus his son Richard's inheritance was a net total of 1,607 or 1,507 acres.

George died between 1652 and 1655 but since his minor so did not apply for a guardian until 1655, it was probably in that year that he died. Sarah was already deceased.

The wording of Richard II's confirmation of his father's sale raises some question as to whether George had more than one wife. Richard II seems unduly insistent on the fact that he was not only son and heir of his father, but also of Sarah Maycock, "wife unto my father". Why stress his mother's maiden name if not to distinquish her from another wife? "Heir to my father" would have been sufficient. Richard was certainly the oldest son: he inherited all the land. But were there other children by another wife?

The records on George are few. This may be due to the lose by fire or otherwise of many of the early documents. Or he may have led a more peaceful life requiring less record-making. But we have very little indication of his character other than his evident ability to cope with the problems of his day.

References

• https://www.britannica.com/place/Jamestown-Colony Jamestown Colony. English colony, North America. Also known as: James Cittie, James Forte, James Towne, Jamestown
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_massacre_of_1622
• Reference: FamilySearch Family Tree - SmartCopy: Nov 23 2016, 20:25:24 UTC
• Residence: Local - 1624 - James City, Colonial Virginia, British American colonies
• Residence: Maycock Plantation - 1655 - James City, Colonial Virginia, British American colonies
  • Reference: FamilySearch Family Tree - SmartCopy: Nov 23 2016, 20:25:24 UTC
• https://stricklandsblog.wordpress.com/2016/11/17/who-was-sarah-the-...
• https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Maycock-6
• https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Pace-23