Thomas "The Ensign" Savage

Thomas 'the Ensign' Savage

• Birth; circa 1594 Possibly OF, Chester, Cheshire , England
• Death: 1633 (35-43) Savage Neck, Northampton County, Virginia
• Parents: unknown
• Spouse: Hannah 'Ann' (Elkington?) Cugley. (b. c 1600, d. b 17 May 1641). She married Daniel Cugley 2nd.
• Children: Captain John Savage (b. 1624, d. b 11 Dec 1678)

notes

According to Encyclopedia Virginia, "... almost nothing is known of Savage's life before 1607, when the boy left England on the John and Francis with the so-called First Supply of Jamestown colonists. He arrived in Virginia on January 2, 1608, to work as a laborer, but was soon thrust into a very different role..."

"Caution: If you are new to genealogy research, you need to be aware that there is an extreme amount of rubbish information posted on the Internet. Before using any information found on-line one should make sure it is documented. In my own searching, of this most valuable medium, I have found scores of postings relating to the lives of Ensign Thomas Savage and Thomas Savage the Carpenter which are highly questionable and many that are just plain wrong. After twenty-four years of searching, I have found no person, or source, on the Internet or anywhere else, who cites an actual record which identifies the parents of Ensign Thomas Savage, or the location in England from where he came. If anyone has such hard evidence I would sincerely appreciate your sharing it with those of us who have spent many years in search of it." - R. Blair Savage

Source: http://www.savageancestry.com/

Disconnected from unproven parents Sir Arthur Savage and Jane Stafford Savage. Contact curator if you have new, reliable evidence for parentage.

Thomas was born in 1595 at England.1 Thomas Savage came to Virginia in the first supply ship, the John and Francis with Capt. Christopher Newport, who arrived at Jamestown on 8 Jan 1607/8.2

He married Hannah 'Ann' (possibly an Elkington, NOT a Tyng) circa 1621.1 Thomas was living in 1625 at Eastern Shore, VA.3 Thomas died in 1633 at Northampton Co, VA.

Ensign Thomas Savage was probably the first permanent white settler on the Eastern Shore. On friendly terms with the "Laughing King" of the Eastern Shore Accawmackes.

He died between 12 Aug 1631 and 24 Sep 1633 when the widow Hannah Savage went on a bond of £500 for her neighbor Daniel Cugley (Adventureres of Purse and Person, p. 534 and N'hamp Orders, Wills, Deeds, etc., 1632-40, f. 11)..4

Family

1. Hannah 'Ann' Elkington b. c 1600, d. b 17 May 1641. She married Daniel Cugley 2nd.

Child

1. Capt. John (2) Savage I+ b. 1624, d. b 11 Dec 1678 Married 1) Ann Harmanson 2) Mary (Robins) Cowdrey

Citations

1. [S572] Ralph T. Whitelaw, Virginia's Eastern Shore (A History of Northampton and Accomack Counties).
2. [S940] John Frederick Dorman, Adventurers of Purse and Person, Virginia, 1607-1624/5, p. 118 (Savage Family).
3. [S624] Virginia M. Meyer & John Frederick Dorman, Adventurers of Purse and Person, Virginia, 1607-1624/5.
4. [S403] Northampton Co, VA, Orders, Wills, Deeds, 1632-1640, f. 11.

Sources:

1. Carl Savage's Genealogy WFT #4976 Source Media Type: Electronic

Links

• http://www.historyisfun.org/chronicles/tom_more.html
• http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~rhio/JnSavage.htm
• https://nockfamilyheritage.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/john_savage_...

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(About) Ensign Thomas Savage: In 1607, thirteen years before the Mayflower landed, an ex-privateer who had lost a hand by a Spanish sword, commanded a fleet of three English ships crossing the Atlantic. Their destination; Virginia. Their aim; to create a settlement on a river above the mighty Chesapeake. Against all odds, that settlement called, Jamestown, survived and was the beginning of what would become the United States of America. The ex-privateer was Captain Christopher Newport and he had on board a boy by the name of Thomas Savage. Newport gave the boy, as a hostage, to the great Chief Powhatan in exchange for an Indian named Namontack. Newport's purpose was two-fold, to help insure friendship with the powerful Powhatan and to have Savage learn his language. John Smith, present at the exchange, tells us Savage was thirteen years of age. Thomas Savage remained with Powhatan for three years and was an interpreter for the English Colony for the remainder of his life. He became known as, Ensign Thomas Savage. Had it not been for the influence that Savage had with the Indians, and the generous heart of Pocahontas, the Jamestown Colony would probably not have survived. In 1619 Ensign Savage settled in Accomack as the first white settler on the Eastern Shore. The Ensign is said to have given us the oldest continuing family name in America.

[http://savageancestry.com/]

Since it was recently discovered that Ensign Thomas (1) Savage's son Capt. John (2) Savage married first Ann Harmanson (see note below) and not Ann Elkington as once presumed, and since Capt. John named a son Elkington by his second wife Mary Robins, therefore his son Elkington was obviously not named after his first wife Ann Harmanson, but more likely after Capt. John's mother who was evidently an Elkington. http://espl-genealogy.org/MilesFiles/site/p128.htm#i12798