How the Farrars arrived in the USA

Sir John Farrar, born in 1550 at Ewood Hall, Halifax, Yorkshire had 3 sons. They were John (b: 1578), William (b: 1583) and Humphrey (b: 1585). When researching Sir John’s family I found that William died in a place called Farrars Island, in Charles City which is in Henrico, Virginia, USA.
As you can imagine, I was intrigued with him living in a place named after his family and so my research continued.

Sir John Farrar is said to have been a  relative of Nicholas Farrar Sr., who was a merchant and senior member of the Virginia Company of London (also called the Charter of the Virginia Company of London) which was an English joint stock company  established by royal charter by King James I with the purpose of establishing colonial settlements in North America. 

William Farrar in 1618

William came to Virginia in August of 1618 on the ship called The Neptune which was 2 years before the famous ship The Mayflower’ sailed from England to the New World with the ‘Pilgrim Fathers’. Life in the New World was hard, but the English had high hopes that their settlements would add valuable minerals and raw materials to their economy, in addition to providing strategic military outposts. They also saw this land as a new frontier for spreading Christianity. Virginia's economy was sharply transformed by the introduction in 1612 of new strains of mild tobacco by colonist John Rolfe. Rolfe's tobacco was shipped to England, and Virginia's economy soon began to prosper. In 1614, peace with the Indians was temporarily established, following Rolfe's marriage to the chief of the Powhatan's daughter, Pocahontas, who had converted to Christianity and had been baptized "Rebecca.” 

So William Farrar, who is our 9th great grand Uncle, emigrated to Virginia in 1618 and was a subscriber to the Third Charter of the Virginia Company where he paid £37- 10 shillings (about £10,000 in today’s money) for the honor.

As Alexander Brown wrote: "Unlike the Second Charter made up mostly of tradespeople, three fourths of the Third Charter were of the gentry," and many of those named in Browne's Biographies, among them William Farrar, "are originators of families who are today largely represented in the United States, and as patriotic citizens should take much pride in being of the Founders' Kin as is taken by Englishmen in tracing from the Roll of Battle Abbey."

  

At the age of 35, William Farrar cast his lot with the ventures and selling up his land in Hertfordshire, he arrived in Virginia in August, 1618 with Lord Delaware, who had been urged by the settlers to return to Virginia as a governor and who had persuaded many of the gentry to emigrate to Virginia.  Although the ship Neptune was a large one, with 200 passengers, especially equipped by the Virginia Company for Lord Delaware's return, the voyage was a long, perilous one lasting some sixteen weeks.

Meeting with contrary winds and very bad weather, many fell sick, and thirty died (among them) Lord Delaware himself. After his death they were forced on the Coast of New England, where they took on-board Wood and Water and an abundance of Fish and Fowl.

In spite of the great tragedy of the voyage, the Neptune brought welcome news that "many more people were preparing to be sent to the New World. Although the cultivation of tobacco was becoming profitable for trade, attracting an increasing number of settlers, the colony was struggling desperately for survival. In the summer of 1618, Virginia experienced a severe drought and an epidemic considered the worst in the colony's history. The fact that William survived and remained to play an important part in the establishment of the colony is a great tribute to his stamina as well as his ability.

In 1611 Farrar's Island was the site of the "Citie of Henrico", one of Virginia's first four primary settlement areas under the Virginia Company of London. Later, it was part of a 2,000 acre land patent and issued posthumously to William Farrar in 1637. Governor Sir George Yeardley appointed William to the governor's Council, a position occupied until 1632.
He also served as a justice for two counties. Farrar family members resided on the island until they sold it to Thomas Randolph on 26th January 1727.

  

Farrar Island

During the famed Indian massacre of Virginia settlers, which began on Good Friday 22 March 1622, ten people were killed at William Farrar's house upon the Appomattox River.  

The report of this incident went on to say "among others, slain at William Farrar's house were John England, John Bell, Henricke Peterson and his wife Alice and their son William, James Wardlaw (Woodshaw) and  Maidservants, Margaret and Elizabeth.”

William Farrar fled with other survivors and managed to escape and find     refuge at the fortified home of his neighbours Samuel and Cecily Jordan on the James River arriving the next day, where he stayed for many years thereafter. 

Beggar's Bush, the plantation of Samuel Jordan (a member of the First Virginia Assembly, whose name is on the monument at Jamestown), was a stronghold of the colony to which settlers fled for safety when attacked by Indians. After the Massacre, Samuel Jordan fortified   Beggars Bush.  Governor Wyatt wrote to the Virginia Company, April 1622, "that he thought fit to hold a few outlying places, including the plantation of Samuel Jordan; but to abandon others and concentrate the colonists at Jamestown."

It is thought that Beggar's Bush, soon to be known as Jordan's Journey, one of the earliest land patents of record, was a large area.

After Samuel Jordan died, William married Cecily and became involved in law making and helped to arrest and deports Governor Harvey. On 4th March 1625 King Charles I appointed him a member of the King's Council. He served on the Court and General Council of Virginia.

William and Cecily were married for 10 years and had 3 children, and then in 1634 William died.

Sometime later, Cecily married again, this time to Peter Montague and they had 7 children including Mary Montague who was George Washington’s grandmother.

Nearly one year after the massacre, 42 people are shown still living at Jordan's Journey and two years after the massacre on January 21, 1624, William Farrar and seven of the settlers for whom he later patented Farrar's Island, are among those listed as living there.  

Farrar Island

 

About one third or 347 of the 1240 Virginia colonists perished during the Indian Massacre. As Indians continued to prey upon settlers, colonists were ordered to remain in specified settlements. In the years following the Indian uprising of 1622, the colonists engaged in regular attacks against the Indians, pushing them further and further westward. Presumably William Farrar's home on the Appomattox River was burned and destroyed by the Indians, and he did not return to live on the property. He stayed on at Jordan's Journey as he and other survivors had been ordered to do.  

The achievement for which William Farrar is most remembered is the establishment of Farrar’s Island, in what is now Henrico Co. Virginia on a bend in the James River. The estate consisted of 2000 acres, very large for its day, granted to William Farrar for the transportation of forty settlers. It probably wasn't until after the sale of his inheritance in London in 1631 that William Farrar patented Farrar's Island, living there for only about the last five years of his life.

It was not until after William Farrar's death, at the age of 54, that the patent for Farrar's Island was finally granted posthumously by King Charles I to his and Cecily's son, William Farrar II on June 11, 1637. 

William Farrar II was the eldest son of William Farrar and Cecily Bailey Jordan Farrar and was probably born at Jordan's Journey where his parents lived and he was the second child of his parents and joined a thriving family then consisting of half-sisters Temperance Bailey 10, Mary Jordan 6, Margaret Jordan 4, and sister Cecily Farrar 2.   

William II was only about nine or ten when his father died in 1637. The Farrar's  Island patent was granted by King Charles I posthumously to his father June 11, 1637 and put in his name at that time.

A house on Farrar Island about 1850

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As the son of one of the colonies distinguished landed gentry William Farrar II was raised to take his place in Virginia society.

William II, like his father, became rather prominent in Virginia society. He served as   Justice of the Peace for Charles City Co. (1657) and for Henrico Co. (1677), and also was a   commissioner for the Henrico Co. Court (1669). However his most notable contributions to the colony were made as a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses, where he served for 18 years (1659-1676). He also wore the title of Colonel as a company commander in the militia.

So this is how the Farrar’s from England started the family name in the USA. William Farrar was a pioneer and whose great great Grandson, George Farrar married Judith Jefferson, who was the aunt of Thomas Jefferson, the 3^rd president of the USA. He was the principal author of the Declaration of Independence (1776) and the third President of the United States of America from 1801 to 1809.