Captain Richard Stephens ( in

Wiltshire, England Wiltshire (; abbreviated to Wilts) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It borders Gloucestershire to the north, Oxfordshire to the north-east, Berkshire to the east, Hampshire to the south-east, Dorset to the south, and Somerset to ...

– 1636) was a merchant and described "

painter-stainer The Worshipful Company of Painter-Stainers is one of the livery company, livery companies of the City of London. An organisation of painters of metals and wood is known to have existed as early as 1283. A similar organisation of stainers, who gen ...

" (which was an investor in the

Virginia Company of London The Virginia Company of London (sometimes called "London Company") was a Division (business), division of the Virginia Company with responsibility for British colonization of the Americas, colonizing the east coast of North America between 34th ...

). Stephens arrived to

Colony of Virginia The Colony of Virginia was a British Empire, British colonial settlement in North America from 1606 to 1776. The first effort to create an English settlement in the area was chartered in 1584 and established in 1585; the resulting Roanoke Colo ...

as an unmarried man of means, with two to four servants, on aboard the ''George''. Stephens was an experienced military man and quickly began to establish himself in the colony by acquiring land, and was soon named burgess in the colony. After building a

blockhouse A blockhouse is a small fortification, usually consisting of one or more rooms with loopholes, allowing its defenders to fire in various directions. It is usually an isolated fort in the form of a single building, serving as a defensive stro ...

and receiving a patent on the same, the captain was issued the first English

land grant A land grant is a gift of real estate—land or its use privileges—made by a government or other authority as an incentive, means of enabling works, or as a reward for services to an individual, especially in return for military service. Grants ...

in the colony as incentive for other landowners to follow his example and build gardens within their property holdings. Captain Stephens amassed nearly 2000 acres. Stephens married Elizabeth Peircy (), daughter of Abraham Piercy, cape merchant of Jamestown. They had four sons: John, William, Richard Lawrence, and Samuel. Stephens fought the first duel in the English colonies after an argument with George Harrison, the latter being struck just below the knee. Harrison died two weeks later, though not from the wound, but some other malady of the time. Such an encounter in North America was not to be repeated for some 100 years. As burgess, Stephens (and local citizenry as well) often found themselves at odds with the then governor of Jamestown, Governor

John Harvey John Harvey may refer to: People Academics *John Harvey (astrologer) (1564–1592), English astrologer and physician *John Harvey (architectural historian) (1911–1997), British architectural historian, who wrote on English Gothic architecture a ...

. During a heated conversation, Harvey attacked Stephens with a cane or cudgel, knocking out a number of his teeth. The governor was eventually deposed and sent back to England, where he faced charges for numerous mistreatments of members of the colony. Upon the Stephens' death, Elizabeth Piercy Stephens married Governor Harvey. Richard Stephens died at the age of 33 or 34, and was subsequently buried in Jamestown's Fort James Cemetery. Two of Stephens' sons, Samuel and Richard (II), also made names for themselves in the New World. Samuel Stephens rose to prominence and become the second governor of the

Albemarle Settlements The Albemarle Settlements were the first permanent England, English settlements in what is now North Carolina, founded in the Albemarle Sound and Roanoke River regions, beginning about the middle of the 17th century. The settlers were mainly Virg ...

of North Carolina. Richard Lawrence Stephens for a time dropped his last name as a protective measure as commander of the garrison at Bacon's Castle in the mid-1670s, during

Bacon's Rebellion Bacon's Rebellion was an armed rebellion by Virginia settlers that took place from 1676 to 1677. It was led by Nathaniel Bacon against Colonial Governor William Berkeley, after Berkeley refused Bacon's request to drive Native American India ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stephens, Richard Emigrants from the Kingdom of England to the Thirteen Colonies 1636 deaths 1602 births 17th-century English farmers Merchants from colonial Virginia People from Jamestown, Virginia