Going to the Source | A Boy Indentured to Virginia, Richard Frethorne's Pitiful Letter Home

Welcome back to our series Going to the Source as Brian takes a deep dive into Richard Frethorne's pitiful letter home and how the letter survived because of a political fight for control of the Virginia Company.

There are very few firsthand accounts from the socially and economically poor that came to Virginia and Richard Frethorne's letter is one of the very few that survive. He was probably about 12 years of age and was indentured to Virginia by his London Parish, St. Dunstan-in-the-East, while his family probably also received poor relief from the Parish. Frethorne's account relates his condition at the settlement of Martin's Hundred, 10 miles from Jamestown and his pitiful existence there as he begs his parents to redeem his contract and bring him home

To read the entire letter, check out an online copy at Virtual Jamestown -- http://www.virtualjamestown.org/freth...

For a little background on English poor laws --
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tudor_P...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Act_for...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English...