Mistress Forrest (Margaret Foxe) and her maid servant Anne Burras, were the first two European women to come to the Virginia Colony. Arriving on October 1, 1608, in what is known as the Second Supply aboard the English ship the Mary and Margaret (or Mary-Margaret, both names appear in the records) under Captain Christopher Newport to resupply the colony at Jamestown, Virginia. Her husband Thomas Forrest (colonist) Esq. was listed as a gentleman on that ship as shown on its manifest, whereas she was listed only as Mistress Forrest.[1] Thomas and Margaret had married on August 16, 1605, in St. Giles in the Fields, London, England.[2]
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Colonial History by Captain John Smith 1624
Documents indicate that the first women at Jamestown were Mistress Forest and her maid Anne Burras, who landed with the Second Supply in 1608. Anne Burras is known to have married John Laydon, and both were listed in the 1625 muster. Mistress Forrest, probably the wife of gentleman Thomas Forrest, is not mentioned again in the historical record, and may have died soon after her arrival at Jamestown.
References
- ^ "John Smith, 1580-1631. The Generall Historie of Virginia, New-England, and the Summer Isles: With the Names of the Adventurers, Planters, and Governours From Their First Beginning Ano: 1584. To This Present 1624. With the Procedings of Those Severall Colonies and the Accidents That Befell Them in All Their Journyes and Discoveries. Also the Maps and Descriptions of All Those Countryes, Their Commodities, People, Government, Customes, and Religion Yet Knowne. Divided Into Sixe Bookes. By Captaine Iohn Smith, Sometymes Governour in Those Countryes & Admirall of New England". docsouth.unc.edu. Retrieved 2017-08-11.
- ^ Barnes, R.W. (2007). Colonial Families of Maryland: Bound and Determined to Succeed. Clearfield. p. 86. ISBN 9780806353166. Retrieved 2017-08-11.