Richard Frethorne was an
indentured servant
Indentured servitude is a form of Work (human activity), 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 a prepaid lump sum, as paymen ...
at
Martin's Hundred,
Virginia
Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...
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 city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
, 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, they refer to the change from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar as enacted in various European countries betwe ...
), 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 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 name, derived from the Hebrew (). "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 modern-day Nordic count ...
and to the books of
Jeremiah
Jeremiah ( – ), also called Jeremias, was one of the major prophets of the Hebrew Bible. According to Jewish tradition, Jeremiah authored the Book of Jeremiah, book that bears his name, the Books of Kings, and the Book of Lamentations, with t ...
and
Ecclesiasticus
The Book of Sirach (), also known as The Wisdom of Jesus the Son of Sirach, The Wisdom of Jesus son of Eleazar, or Ecclesiasticus (), is a Jewish literary work originally written in Biblical Hebrew. The longest extant wisdom book from antiqui ...
.
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
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 university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States. It was founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson and contains his The Lawn, Academical Village, a World H ...
Virtual Jamestown Project
*{{usurped,
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
1620s deaths