Anne Burras was an early English settler in

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

and an

Ancient Planter "Ancient planter" was a term applied to early colonists who migrated to the Colony of Virginia in what is now the United States, when the colony was managed by the Virginia Company of London. They received land grants if they stayed in the colony fo ...

. She was the first English woman to marry in the New World, and her daughter Virginia Laydon was the first child of English colonists to be born in the Jamestown colony.Dorman, John Frederick, ''Adventurers of Purse and Person'', 4th ed., v.2, p. 431. Anne Burras arrived in Jamestown on September 30, 1608, on the ''Mary and Margaret'', the ship bringing the

Second Supply The Jamestown supply missions were a series of fleets (or sometimes individual ships) from 1607 to around 1611 that were dispatched from England by the London Company (also known as the Virginia Company of London) with the specific goal of initially ...

. She came as a 14-year-old maid to Mrs. Thomas Forrest. In November or December 1608, Anne married John Laydon/Layton/Leyden. The Laydons had four daughters, Virginia, Alice, Katherine, and Margaret. All six members of the Laydon family were listed in the muster of February 1624/5. According to the muster, Anne was 30 years of age when the muster was taken. All four children are listed as born in Virginia; their ages are not given. John Laydon was shown as having 200 acres in Henrico in May 1625. However, the 1624/5 muster shows the family living in Elizabeth City. A patent to "John Leyden, Ancient Planter", dated December 2, 1628, refers to 100 acres on the east side of Blunt Point Creek, "land now in tenure of Anthony Burrowes and William Harris, and said land being in lieu of 100 acres in the Island of Henrico".Virginia Land Patents Book 1, pp. 69-70. No proof has been found of the marriage of any of the four daughters, though it has been suggested, on the basis of land records, that one daughter may have married John Hewitt or Howitt.

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Burras, Anne Colonial American women Virginia colonial people English emigrants 17th-century deaths Year of birth unknown People from James City County, Virginia

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