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Thanks Dan, I really appreciate the work you have put into this. I can attach this to John’s ancestry profile. I am sure it will help other families to piece his story together. You mentioned it is interesting to see a soldier’s rendition of historical events. That’s what I love about family history research is the fact that in a way you can get up close to the big names in history through the typical soldier’s stories.
I know this was posted a little while ago but it is a very interesting topic. When I was researching my family history several years ago I finally ran across my ancestor that had “emigrated” to the new world. I was very excited. Me and my family had originally thought that the first of our ancestors came over after the Civil War. I ended up finding out that our first ancestor came over on a ship called the ” Ye Merchants Hope” to Virginia in 1632. When I first ran across my ancestor’s name I was a little perplexed. It said that a John Dennis had “transported” my ancestor and 7 others for 300 acres of land to the new world in 1632. It sounded like my ancestor was a possible “convict” which really perplexed me because I was under the impression from our school system that only religious people immigrated to America during that time period. This led me on this crazy search regarding convicts transported from England to the American colonies. My research revealed that the British were sending about 1,000 convicts each year to America. Virginia would end up with about half of them working in the tabacco fields. They say that out of the 585, 800 immigrants to the 13 colonies during the years from 1700-1775 about 52, 200 were convicts. I also discovered that it was not until 1896 that American historical institutions actually admitted or recognized that convicts had been transported to the American colonies.
So while I was doing the research on my ancestor Robert Swanson, I noticed that the Cavaliers and Pioneers Patent book identifies that John Dennis was given this 350 acres of land. I also noticed that Robert was working on that land as a “Tabacco planter.” Later on after Robert passes away, Robert’s wife marries John Dennis ! In John Dennis’s will several years later, John leaves John Swanson, who was Robert’s son a portion of the land. So I have never really been able to figure out if Robert was some kind of indentured servant to John Dennis, a friend perhaps or maybe a petty convict that got off light. The records do not come out and say that he was a convict so it is a gray area.
Anyway in answer to your question I agree with the previous posters. The British would have definitely colonized Australia regardless of weather the American colonies split. In my opinion the British were the first “Capitalists” so to speak. They would have saw Australia as a new investment. There are sources that say the Brits were making money off of things that we may not think about today. For instance I read somewhere that British war vessels required two thousand trees for construction. Well we definitely had and have a lot of trees. I am not sure how true that is but I am sure there would have been resources that Australia could have contributed to the empire without being the primary convict destination.
Thanks Rev War !
I did some checking on William because to tell you the truth it’s been a while since I have delved into the research. My next project was to look more into him but I have not gotten around to it. Anyway I went back to what I do have on him and I think that he may have been living with his father or on his father’s land. His father was a Richard Swanson from Brunswick County Virginia and was some kind of land speculator (not sure what land speculator actually means. About a year ago I found out that my great uncle had done some research on the family years ago and I was sent a manuscript of what he found from a long lost relative on ancestry!. He notes in the manuscript that Richard was “apparently a land speculator”) I did an ancestry search and found that Richard was issued a land grant for Edgecombe, North Carolina in 1761 and William was born in Edgecombe. I am sure that they were probably farmers. They did seem to use their land to move to other areas. I have noticed that they moved a lot and used their land to their advantage. They started off in Virginia-moved to Carolina-Moved to Georgia during the Civil War (didn’t go very well for them)- moved to Alabama- moved to Oklahoma and then moved to Texas which is where I am from. I have wondered if William was some kind of closet loyalist but maybe he just didn’t want anyone taking his land or maybe his father was a loyalist and didn’t want him involved (I have been watching the show “Turn” and it kind of makes you wonder. Who knows ! Are there any good books on this subject I could read ? Thanks again and that would be great if you have the time for transcription. ! By the way for anyone interested I do family history research for people that need help. It’s free. Just something that I enjoy doing on the side. I can find transcripts like the one I uploaded on just about anyone’s family if they served in a war.
Thanks Hudson, I think the Carolinas during this time period is super interesting because they seem to be at odds with each other. It seems like the Carolinas had a lot of loyalists which really throws a wrench into the general story we were taught at school. I kind of wonder if my 6th great grandfather was kind of on “the fence” so to speak. Maybe he had to fight that one battle in order to protect his land which turned him in the last couple of years of the war. Anyway it’s all really interesting.
Regards, Jamie
