Page:Economic History of Virginia Vol 1.djvu/628

 have been entered by the court to the warrant issued, in 1635, to the sheriff of London to the effect that nine female convicts should be delivered into the possession of Captain Thomas Hill or Captain Richard Carleton for removal to Virginia. The criminals imported subsequent to the dissolution of the Company were not introduced by the English Government, but were brought over by merchants, shipmasters, and planters in the character of ordinary servants. In 1634, Thomas Brice, who was lying at that time in Newgate, having been recommended to the mercy of the King by the judge who had tried him, was ordered to be delivered to whatever sea-captain amongst those bound for Virginia his father should select. In 1635, John Talford, who had been convicted of stealing a mare, was granted to William Gibbs, on condition that Gibbs should carry him to the same country. In addition to the nine female convicts delivered to Captain Hill or Captain Carleton in 1634, to whom reference has already been made, there were five male felons. William Drysdale, in 1636, received six condemned men for shipment on his own account to the Colony. How negligent some of the persons were who acquired a property in these felons is shown in the case of Richard Ingram, who had been consigned to Lewis Edwards. Although Edwards had been commanded to transfer Ingram to Virginia, the latter appears to have been allowed to remain so long in England that he was arrested and brought up for execution