Updated November 25, 2022
Overview
The Virginia Colonial Records Project was established in the 1950s by the Virginia Historical Society, the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, the University of Virginia Library, and Library of Virginia to reconstitute the archive of Virginia's colonial history —a documentary record decimated by war and fire during the Old Dominion's first three centuries.
Between 1955 and 1985, project agents visited more than one hundred libraries and archives in Great Britain, Ireland, and France to survey their collections for Virginia-related documents. Agents reported their findings about pertinent records on Survey Reports from which the project ordered microfilm of many original documents. The project has generated 14,704 of these Survey Reports (which vary in length from one to more than one hundred pages) and acquired 963 reels of microfilmed documents.
19 Feb 1675/76
BATCHELOR of Brighton; Nich. Gillam mr.; for Chester 2. Rich.Bagnall ind.; 23 hhds". qt. 9,700 lbs. Virginian tobacco; cum aliis. exon 16 Mar.
Report Number 3971 rev
2 Jun 1676
Sam Gilham, merchant, Matthew Ryder, ship’s master. 750 lbs tobacco.
Report Number 3793
3 Aug 1676
ELIZABETH AND MARY of Shoreham
Wm. Gillham mr.; for Shoreham. 4: Thos. Askew ind.; 528 lbs Virginian tobacco; cum aliis. exon. 3 Aug.
Report Number 3971 rev
14 Aug 1676
14 Aug: 1676 SEAFLOWFLOWER of Brighton; Thos. Gilham mr.; for Chester. 1 Jn.Gould ind; 8 hhds. qt. 4,500 lbs. Virginian tobacco; cum. aliis. exon. 5 Sept.
Report Number 3971 rev
Abt 11 Jul 1678
Thos. Sands, merchant, Zach. Gilham, a Carolina, Ship’s master, 38,850 lbs tobo cum aliis
Report Number 6044
12 Jul 1678
Robert Christopher, merchant, Zach Gilham a Maryland, 1500 lbs tobo
Report Number 6044
15 Jul 1678
Thos. Sand, merchant, Zach Gilham a Maryland, 78 lbs tobo
Report Number 6044
Abt 15 Jul 1678
Robert Christopher, merchant, Zach Gilham, a Carolina, 940 lbs tobo
Report Number 6044
8 Feb 1689
Navy Office, 8 February 1689. States that yesterday a letter was received from Samuel Gillam, master of the vessel the Crane Ketch that was sent to Virginia with packets which were duly delivered. Enclosure: copy of letter from Samuel Gillam to
Navy Board, the Crane Ketch, Falmouth, 3 February 1689. Informing them of his arrival and according to orders he delivered the packets.
Letters to the Navy Board 1673-1738
Report Number 3854
24 Apr 1689
The Navy Board to the Secretary to the Admiralty. Navy Office,
24 April 1689. Acknowledges orders and packets to be delivered to Bermuda, Maryland and Virginia, and will lose no time in carrying out directions. Enclosures: receipt for four packets to be delivered to the Plantations, one of them to the Governor in Virginia, dated 23 April 1689, signed by Henry Russell and Samuel Gillam, master of the Crane Ketch. This receipt is duplicated.
Letters to the Navy Board 1673-1738
Report Number 3852
30 Aug 1776
The AURORA, John Hutchinson, master.
''Ship’s book” This book is without any beginning, as apparently several pages have been torn out. The opening page is headed ‘19' (but no other page is numbered,) with the words “Brodways August 30, 1776”
The first entry dated 30 August reads: "This day moderate and clear weather by moored at Brodways employed 4 negroes of Mrs. Gordon’s and 2 of John Gilliam’s tilling the water casks and one of Capt Gregory's employed in other sundry jobs in the evening. 31st sent the boat to James Town. On 4th September the small boat and the long boat came up from James Town and so the daily entries go on -descriptions of the weather and the employment aboard of the negroes belonging to various inhabitants of the locality until 30 September, when the entry reads "This day the wind blowing fresh from the S. W The Captain came on board to take charge of the ship - Went up to Petersburg for stores.
Left the carpenter in the woods getting oars for the long boat. Employed among the rigging, John Gilliam's negroes, Mrs. Gordon's 3, and Capt Gregory's 2 at work. On 4 October the ship dropped down the river to Avery’s and on the 6th the ship got as far as Colonel Benjamin Harrison's and on the 8th to 10 miles above James Town.
On the 9th the ship got down to Burell's Friary (?) where Capt ·Colbert was ordered to convoy the AURORA round to York. 18 October the pilot came aboard and the ship got under weigh with Capt Colbert in company. 19 October the AURORA anchored at York and on 22 October anchored at Cumberland. From that date until 24 November the ship's company was employed filling casks of water and getting tobacco out of the warehouses and on board and stowing it away and preparing for sea by 24 October the AURORA anchored at West Point and on 26th at York Town. On 19 December the ship was. "made loose" from York Town and the journey across the Atlantic starts in stormy weather." The daily entries make mention only of wind and gales. On 12 January 1777 the Mate and 2 men were washed overboard, but were got back again, and on the next day the Cookhouse and some water casks were washed overboard. The weather, moderated finally, and on 28 January the Pilot came on board and on 29th the ship was safe in Liverpool Dock. “Thanks be to God for it.”
Report Number 5705
22 Jan 1781
list of merchants names in Virginia’s follows:
Miles King, Hampton; "Hy. Brown & Brothers, Portsmouth; Wills Cooper & Coy, Suffolk; John King, Petersburg; Ross, Shoares & Coy, ditto; John Hollowway; Taylor, Grammar; Coll. Williams Cale; all of Petersburg.
Archibald Robinson & Coy, Blandford; Messrs Richard, Blandford Robert Gillman, near Brodway; N. M. Hampton, near Brodway.
Report Number 5719
24 Aug 1781
Three letters from B. Thompson to Sir Grey Cooper, dated 24, 25 and 28 August 1781, requesting the consideration of petitions of loyalist refugees from Virginia returned with Lord Dunmore: [Petitions not enclosed].
John ---
William Farrer
Robert Gilman
Rev. James Ogilvie
John Maclean
Walter Hatton
Alexander Gordon
Carey Michell
Austin Brockenborough
George Rae
William Farrer
Robert Miller
Edward Mirfield
Isaac Hildrith
Thomas Hall Parker
William Horner
John Earnshaw
John Earnshaw, junior.
John Hiell
James Ingram
Departmental, Treasury, Entry Books, 1781-1783
Report Number 6422
27 Feb 1781
A declaration made by Thomas Kennedy of the General Clausen before Robert Gilliam, one of the justices of the peace for Prince George County, on 27 February 1781 relating that while the General Clausen was at her moorings on 14 December in the harbour of Broadways, Appottomax river, Kennedy being ashore and the 2nd Mate, Mr. Robertson, being in command, a man called John King came aboard and seized the ship in the name of the Commonwealth. Robertson summoned deponent aboard, and King repeated that he had seized the ship to the deponent. He was asked on what authority, and he replied, on his own. Whereupon deponent threw King off the quarterdeck; the latter then left the ship. He had previously made overtures to the crew, making them offers to acknowledge the said ship and crew to be British." Deponent applied to persons in the mercantile line for advice and was then informed that King was a naval officer and that deponent could not proceed with the clearing and lading of his ship, his lading, consisting of tobacco, being all ready to be brought down the river. In consequence the ship lay idle from 14 to 22 December. On the latter date, an officer called Burrell came on board, and nailed a document to the mainmast respecting the said seizure. On 27 December deponent, at the request of the said King (by Mr Angus), gave him a meeting in Blandford, when and where the' said King acknowledged that he was convinced that the said ship was not liable to seizure, and proposed that if the deponent would pay the expenses of the prosecution, he would drop it. This the deponent consented to do.
The deponent, therefore, judging that King's actions were malicious and illegal and to the prejudice of the ship and her owners, does protest on behalf of himself and the owner John Henry Fabry, against the said King.
This document appears to be a statement by Mr Robertson, the 2nd Mate, regarding the behaviour of King on board the General Clausen on 14 December. It confirms the declaration of Captain Kennedy.
Report Number 5745
Sources
- Library of Virginia. The Virginia Colonial Records Project.