Thomas Stinchcom's venture is recorded in The Register of Servants to Foreign Plantations Coldham, Peter Wilson, Gen. Pub. Co. Baltimore 1988 ...Thomas Stinchcom of Tortworth, Gloucester, to John Williams, mariner, 4yrs... ...
And so back to Nathaniel:
Without doubt there was interest in the Americas by those who lived in and around Berkely Castle which include the villages of Cromhall, Hawkesbury, Tortworth, Stinchcombe and Nibley. They were within miles of the Port of Bristol and had in all probability heard of the John Cabot's discoveries. Their interest was further peaked when one of the Hawkesbury villagers accompanied Sebastian Cabot on a later exploration. But these events were not the only events which tweaked our Nicholas Stinchomb's interest in the New World. Eric Gethyn-Jones, in his book George Thorpe and the Berkeley Company, (Alan Sutton, 1982) tells the story of a group of settlers who leave England and attempt to settle in Virginia. The book is very well researched and includes a list of those who travelled on the boats. Many of the early settlers came from Nibbley, a village a few miles to the southeast of Berkeley Castle and a mile or two to the south of Stinchcombe. I would speculate that Nicholas Stinchcomb of Hawkesbury had heard of these events and many more besides before he made his decision to emigrate. The Berkeley venture ended only forty-four years before Nicholas started his own venture.
It is worth taking a closer look at Eric Gethyn-Jones's book. It was writen and researched while he was rector of Berkeley Anglican church. In Eric Gethyn-Jones' s own words,
... (his essay) attempts to record the achievement of a group of mainly Gloucestershire men and women drawn principally from the Berkeley Vale, the Cotswold edge, and Hayles area, who in true pioneer spirit set out to establish a new "Berkeley town and Hundred" in Virginia in 1619. A similar settlement had been started in 1607 by the Virginia company. (Thorpe was related to Sir Thomas Dale by marriage and it was Dale who brought John Rolfe and his wife Pocahontas to England.)
Gethyn-Jones's work mentioned above also substantiates that the first regular and official American Thanksgiving Service was held, not in 1621 by the Pilgrim Fathers, but by the men and women involved with the Berkeley Plantation in 1619. A letter from Arthur Schlesinger on behalf of President Kennedy acknowledges this fact. (See appendix of same text by Gethyn-Jones)
In 1622 the Berkeley Plantation bore the brunt of an Indian massacre. The Berkeley Company itself was wound up in 1637. ( Was a Stinchcombe sent out to the Americas as a representative of the Berkeley Company ? A scrutiny of the Berkeley Papers/ Berkeley Company may answer this question.)
I speculate that the successful immigrants in these early years encouraged others from Gloucestershire to accept the risks and move to America. There are records of the Berkeley Company existing in the United States in various libraries and these are mentioned in Gethyn-Jones's book. Perhaps Stinchcombes on the East Coast of the USA will be able to explore these resources to discover if there are any mentions of Stinchcombes.
(For more information visit the Berkeley Plantation The earliest record of a Stinchcombe arriving on the American mainland is that of Nathaniel Stinchcomb (1635 - 1673) who emigrated with a servant and cow in 1663. Nathaniel was in his twenties and chose to emigrate. In other words, he was not forced to emigrate as a result of committing a crime as were some of the men and women who accompanied him at this time. This can be checked in The Early Settlers of Maryland edited by Gust Skordas (Gen. Pub. 1979). It is presumed Nicholas was born in Hawkesbury. Nathaniel establishes himself in Maryland but dies a few years after his arrival leaving children to be brought up by friends. There are many in the United States of America who claim descent from Nathaniel. I was recently made aware of one of Nathaniel's descendants, a William Stinchcomb, a major in the 17th Ohio Volunteers during the American Civil War. William was well prepared for the task - his maternal grandfather, the Reverend John Wiseman, was a veteran of Valley Forge. (But the Stinchcombes also have a foot in the navy - quite recently the person in charge of US navy shore installations was a Stinchcombe! ) But the early thrust of the Stinchcombe lines seems to have been related to tobacco farming. One notable accomplishment of this group was the establishment of the Stinchcomb Methodist Church in 1794 near Elberton, Georgia. This church still stands today.
It is worth considering why Nathaniel left England; certainly, the "lure of land" in North America was an important factor but as with most immigrants there were doubtless other causes about which we can speculate. England had recently suffered the violence of a civil war which had involved Berkeley Castle; there was also much discontent ( a euphemism for the violent intolerance of the times) as Catholic, Anglican and Presbyterian struggled for supremacy; and, there were also new farming developments which were in the process of replacing the traditional wheat-based, small holdings of feudal-subsistence agriculture with larger, profit-driven farms experimenting with new crops such as maize, turnips and potatoes ( even tobacco), and with new crop rotations. Add to this the cold winters and wet and short summers of the Little Ice Age and one can understand why a young man such as Nathaniel would head to Maryland.
There is evidence that Berkeley was not spared the ravages of the Civil War as this quotation presented by Robert Millard supports:
England's Civil War (1621 -1649) taken from the "History of Berkeley."
2000 Jim Lee sent me information on some of the Stinchcomb(e)s families in the U.S.A. He has prepared a booklet entitled, The Stinchcomb Family. which traces several Stinchcomb lines to Nathaniel. Jim tells about some interesting successes of the Stinchcomb families:
1. The early Stinchcomb(e)s were involved in tobacco farming and owned tracts of land connected with this enterprise. ( Much of this tobacco was transported back to the United Kingdom in the early days and provided a basis for the development of wealth.)
2. There were a lot of West Country (Gloucestershire, Devonshire) people living in the early colonial settlements and there was much inter-marriage. Absolem Stinchcomb married Mary Penn who in turn was related throught her mother to the gun-slinger "Doc" Holloday. But in fairness, through her father, Phillip Penn, she brings a connection with a roll-call of famous names - Penn, Pendleton, Gatewood, Dudley and Taylor. Phillip Penn's first cousin, John Penn, signed the Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776.
3. Stinchcomb(e)s became involved in administrative posts - civil, ecclesiastic and military. In 1794 Absolem Stinchcomb was trustee for land granted by Middleton Woods to the Stinchcomb Methodist Church - which still stood near Elberton, Georgia, in 2000AD.
4. Mary Penn was half-third cousin to Jamess Madison Jnr., fourth president of the United States.
So where do the Stinchcomb(e)s stand in American Military History ?
a. Nathaniel Stinchcomb (b. March 22, 1741/1742) served as a Lieutenant Colonel in the American Revolutionary War.
b. Christopher Stinchcomb ( c. 1750 Baltimore, Maryland. d. 1836/7 Baltimore, Maryland) fought in the American Revolutionary War.
c. William Stinchcomb (b. Nov.11, 1746) served as paymaster in the American Revolutionary War.
d. Norman Stinchcomb ( Baltimore, Maryland. September, 26, 1735; d. c1775 Baltimore. ) Served in French and Indian Wars 1757.
e. McClain (also McLane) Stinchcomb fought in the American Revolutionary War.
f. We also appear to have had family representatives fighting under the name of Stinchcomb on both sides of the American Civil War. Some antecedents on the distaff side also fought on both sides of the this war, too.
g. There is a Stinchcomb who fought against Canada for the Ohio Light Infantry.
c. William Harwell Dickerson elected a second lieutenant in the Co. B. 24th Reg. Georgia Volunteer Infantrry. William was in the wrong place at the wrong time and spent some time in the Federal Prison at Fort Delaware as a prisoner of war.
This is of particular interest Stinchcombes living in America.
Like to communicate with others involved in Stinchcomb(e) genealogical research ? Try visiting The Stinchcombe Forum
The folowing link connects to an excellent site detailing the exploits of Major James William Stinchcomb. Major James William Stinchcomb