I add this theory reluctantly to my blog because I am not altogether sure that “Cabin Boy” John Branch is our ancestor. He may be unrelated. He may actually be a “John Broach” that landed in the Jamestown colony. But I decided that he was interesting enough that you’d like to know him.
So there are ship’s lists out there; some on the internet and some not. We don’t have a record of everyone that came to the New World from England. Sorry that’s just a fact. Complete and comprehensive records don’t exist.
However in 1635, a ship called the Abraham was sailed from London, England to Jamestown with 51 passengers on board and near the top of the list was “Jno. Branch” age 13 as a boy by himself. Perhaps a “Cabin Boy”? Imagine, for whatever reason, your thirteen-year-old self boarding a wooden sailing ship to make passage across the ocean to a relatively unknown land. Maybe he knew the captain. Maybe he knew some of the young men on board. Maybe he had no other choice to make his way in the world. But this young John Branch came to America.
The interesting thing is that he appeared to thrive as far as I can tell. He somehow bought or was given land in Elizabeth City County in what is now present day Hampton Roads – Kecoughtan. (Amidst a very urban area, I was able to visit a public park near his land and it gave me a distant sense of what that early raw land was like.) And by 1646 some eleven years later, this 25 year old was elected to the House of Burgess for Virginia – meeting in Jamestown perhaps. There are references to his land in descriptions of neighbors. A vulnerable area of Chesapeake coastline – low, flat and swampy that seems very prone to hurricanes and such storms. Maybe it was very cheap land where he could eke out a meager living and likely see the comings and goings of ships in the Back River and Chesapeake Bay.
Anyway before we go further, this area is across at the farthest northeast corner of the Jamestown peninsula and across the James River from Isle of Wight Shire. George Branch was said to be in residence there in IOW as early as 1656. Is John Branch the father of George? Maybe. As the eight ball says, “All signs are favorable.” but “Not a sure thing.”
Records during this period of the early Jamestown colony are rare for some individuals of lower rank. Yes, John may have taken a wife but marriage records are few. Yes, he had land but no deed exists. We do know a few things. John Barker, the ship captain of the Abraham, likely made a few more trans-Atlantic voyages but a some point he appears to settle down on the south shore of the James River very near where George Branch lived in the mid-1600’s. John Barker most certainly knew who John Branch was. Maybe he was a mentor or older guide in life – after all if John Branch had a mother or father he wouldn’t have been crossing the Atlantic alone.
We will add to this story of young John Branch who arrives in the New World in 1635. Check back for more on his story.