Richard Frethorne was an

indentured servant Indentured servitude is a form of labor in which a person is contracted to work without salary for a specific number of years. The contract, called an "indenture", may be entered "voluntarily" for purported eventual compensation or debt repaymen ...

Martin's Hundred Martin's Hundred was an early 17th-century plantation located along about ten miles (16 km) of the north shore of the James River in the Virginia Colony east of Jamestown in the southeastern portion of present-day James City County, Virgin ...

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 ...

in 1622-1623. He is known as the author of letters detailing his miserable condition in Virginia.

Life

Frethorne was from the parish of St. Dunstan-in-the-East in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, where his family received

poor relief In English and British history, poor relief refers to government and ecclesiastical action to relieve poverty. Over the centuries, various authorities have needed to decide whose poverty deserves relief and also who should bear the cost of hel ...

. In 1622 he was indentured by the parish and sent to Virginia as a servant, arriving in December on the ship ''Abigail.'' Textual analysis of his letters suggests he may have been around twelve years old at the time. Frethorne became one of the indentured servants of William Harwood, the “governor” or leader of Martin’s Hundred. In March and April following his arrival, he wrote several letters to his family and associates back in England, listing the miseries of his life in Virginia and begging them to pay off his indenture or, failing that, to send some food which he could then sell. Richard Frethorne died sometime before February 16, 1624 (1623

Old Style Old Style (O.S.) and New Style (N.S.) indicate dating systems before and after a calendar change, respectively. Usually, this is the change from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar as enacted in various European countries between 158 ...

), when his name (in this case spelled “Frethram”) appears on a list of the dead at Martin’s Hundred.

Letters

On March 5, 1623 (1622 Old Style) Frethorne wrote to Mr. Bateman, one of the

vestrymen A councillor is an elected representative for a local government council in some countries. Canada Due to the control that the provinces have over their municipal governments, terms that councillors serve vary from province to province. Unl ...

of his home parish, asking for his help. He lists various hardships suffered in Virginia, including lack of sufficient food, lack of adequate clothing, and settlements ravaged by recent native attack. He asks Bateman to free him (by paying off the indenture) or to send food, and refers to the biblical story of

Joseph Joseph is a common male given name, derived from the Hebrew Yosef (יוֹסֵף). "Joseph" is used, along with "Josef", mostly in English, French and partially German languages. This spelling is also found as a variant in the languages of the mo ...

and to the books of

Jeremiah Jeremiah, Modern: , Tiberian: ; el, Ἰερεμίας, Ieremíās; meaning " Yah shall raise" (c. 650 – c. 570 BC), also called Jeremias or the "weeping prophet", was one of the major prophets of the Hebrew Bible. According to Jewi ...

and

Ecclesiasticus The Book of Sirach () or Ecclesiasticus (; abbreviated Ecclus.) is a Jewish work, originally in Hebrew, of ethical teachings, from approximately 200 to 175 BC, written by the Judahite scribe Ben Sira of Jerusalem, on the inspiration of his fa ...

. At the end of March and beginning of April Frethorne wrote to his parents in three installments dated March 20, April 2, and April 3. In these missives he goes into greater and more emotional detail about his lack of food and clothing and about illness in the colony and the threat of native attack. He describes others in his situation as expressing the opinion that being limbless beggars in England would be preferable to their current circumstances. Frethorne's letter has been cited as evidence that the reports in England that Virginia was being run as a model of justice and equity were incorrect. Sigmund Diamond, "From Organization to Society: Virginia in the Seventeenth Century," ''The American Journal of Sociology 63 (1958), 170.

References

{{reflist

External links

The text of the March 20 letter to Frethorne's parents
from the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United States, with highly selective ad ...

Virtual Jamestown Project
The Letters of Richard Frethorne in a free bilingual French/English edition
ed. Susan Myra Kingsbury ; trans. by S. Famaco ; 2016 ; 72p. ; Éditions Ionas (online non-profit publisher). American indentured servants Frethorne, Richard American domestic workers