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Notes for WILLIAM EPPES:
William was baptized in Ashford 7 March 1594/95; he left a will dated 13
Jan. 1640/41 and proved 3 March 1642/43. In March and April 1616 he
traveled with his cousins Thomas and Richard Godfrey in France and in the
Low Countries. He journeyed to Virginia in 1618 as a passenger on the
sailing ship William and Thomas. His wife Margaret arrived 3 years later
on the George. They both appear on the 1625 census of Accomack
Plantation in what later became Northampton County, Virginia, where they
dwelled until about 1630, having received in 1627 a patent for 450 acres
of land at the mouth of King Creek. In 1625 William had been
commissioned as commander of the colony on the eastern shore. Some
historians have asserted that William Epes fought in the first duel ever
to be staged in Virginia when he killed Captain Stalling but the report
to London indicated that the killing was simply the result of a drunken
brawl (Whitelaw: Virginia's Eastern Shore, 1968, Vol, I, pp. 24, 26, 140,
145, 156). It is said that in 1630 William having become involved in an
adulterous affair with a married woman, had to flee hastily from Virginia
to St. Kitts. Here he soon became a member of the Council of Governor
Sir Thomas Warner. He was back in Ashford by 1640, living there the rest
of his days.
Following is from footnotes in "Adventurers Of Purse and Person Virginia
1607-1625", pages 160-164, by A. L. Jester (Princeton, 1956):
Capt. Wm. Epes ..... 1618, and shortly thereafter, on shipboard just off
Newport News, engaged in a quarrel with Captain Edward Roecroft alias
Capt. Stellenge, stricking him with his sword still sheathed in its
scabbard "cleft" his skuli(sic). Roecroft died the next day. Epes,
tried, was found quilty of manslaughter, but after a short while was
restored to his command at Smythe's Hundred. In 1624 he was engaged in
a controversy with Ensign Savage on the Eastern Shore and "did lay Ensign
Savage neck and heels." ...
Family History: 217 Genealogy Books
The Eastern A MUSTER of the Inhabitants of the Easterne\
Shore. Shore, over the Baye.\
CAPT. WILLIAM EPES, his MUSTER, in the WILLIAM\
AND THOMAS.
MARGRETT EPES, in the GEORGE, 1621.
Servants.
NICHOLAS RAYNBERD, age 22, in the SWAN, 1624.
WILLIAM BURDITT, age 25, in the SUSAN, 1615.
THOMAS CORNISH, age 25, in the DUTIE, 1620.
PEETER PORTER, age 19, in the TIGER, 1621.
JOHN BAKER, age 20, in the ANN, 1623.
EDWARD ROGERS, age 26, in the ANN, 1623.
THOMAS WARDEN, aged 24, in the ANN, 1623.
BENJAMIN KNIGHT, age 28, in the BONA NOVA, 1620.
NICHOLAS GRANGER, age 15, in the GEORGE, 1618.
WILLIAM MUIMES, age 25, in the SAMPSON, 1619.
HENRIE WILSON, age 24, in the SAMPSON, 1619.
JAMES BLACKBORNE, age 20, in the SAMPSON, 1619.
NICHOLAS SUMERFILD, age 15, in the SAMPSON, 1619.
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