Fun Feather Facts
NATHANIEL PEACOCK
OF JAMESTOWN VIRGINIA 1607
A Peacock was one of our country’s first settlers.
Written and Compiled by Brenda Templeton for the
Peacock Association of the South Newsletter July 2010
Editor’s Note: Brenda is a former President of the Peacock Family Association of the South and a talented writer.
Most of us studied the Jamestown Settlement that was founded by John Smith in Virginia in 1607 when we were in grade school although what we were taught was but a brief introduction to the subject. Among the first ships of sailors and potential settlers was a young boy named Nathaniel Peacock.
He was alone, unaccompanied by family. His exact age is not known, but having been listed as a “boy” it is safe to assume that he was under 16 years of age. There were three other young boys on the ship as well, none accompanied by family. The fact that these boys were under 16 and unaccompanied is a clue that they may have been either orphans or from very poor families and may have been “indentured” to become crew members among experienced sailors.
In fact, the Historic Jamestown Biographies Project states that Nathaniel Peacock was a sailor/soldier who accompanied Captain Smith on his journey to Pamaunke to make contact with the Indians. John Smith left Nathaniel with the Indians in an exchange of “good faith”
while he took an Indian boy back to the camp with him.
Very little actual information is to be found about Nathaniel Peacock. Only a few of the first ship’s settlers who remained at the “fort” that first winter actually survived.
There is a list of the known survivors and a list of the known dead among those settlers . Nathaniel Peacock’s name is not on either list.
This gives the impression that Nathaniel was a sailor/soldier and may have returned to England between 1607 and late 1609. The ship Newport sailed back to England in June 1607, returned in January 1608 with 100 more settlers (and found only 38 survivors of the original group.) John Smith didn’t return to London until September 1609.
BRENDA’S NOTE: During the excavation of the site in the 20 th Century, the skeleton of a male youth was found. He had been injured or wounded in some way and according to the forensics report done on the bones, it was stated that he had died in great pain from infection. Of course the identity of the person cannot be established.
The Historic Jamestown Biographies Project has found a record of a Nathaniel Peacock who married Susan Tavernor in London at Saint Dunsten in 1617.
There was a John Tavernor (occupation: Gentleman) among the First Supply which arrived at Jamestown in January 1609. The notes of the Jamestown Historic Biographies Project states, Nathaniel Peacock, Sailor, possible born on the estates of Northorpe Hall in Lincolnshire. (Captain Smith was from Lincolnshire.) Nathaniel arrived in Virginia in 1607, with the original group, on one of three ships. May have survived to return to London and marry into the Taverner family.
Marriage record for a Nathaniel Peacock and Susan Tavenor is dated February 19, 1617, London. Richard Tavenor of Essex mentions a daughter, Susan Tavenor, in his will.
I don’t know how “feasible” it sounds for a poor young ship’s crew member to return to London and marry a gentleman’s daughter. But of course we cannot rule out that possibility.
There was a man by the name of Nathaniel Peacock in Virginia in 1628 who paid his tax to England by shipping 146 pounds of tobacco. The taxes were calculated by the number of slaves and freemen in the household and the head of the household was required to pay the tax. No children or white women were included as tithables. So it appears that Nathaniel Peacock of 1628 was head of a very small household. In 1629 his tax was 3, 500 pounds of tobacco. Apparently he had acquired a number of slaves or freedmen who were working for him within the span of a year.
There is another mention of a Nathaniel Peacock dying in 1642 in Virginia, “of fever”.
There is no way to know with any certainty if the original boy sailor and the later accounts of a Nathaniel Peacock in London and Virginia are all one and the same.
However the fact that there is a record of Nathaniel Peacock among the original group who landed at Jamestown, and a record of a Nathaniel Peacock paying taxes to England in 1628 and 1629, as well as a record of a Nathaniel Peacock dying in Virginia in 1642 at least proves that a Peacock from England was among the very first settlers in Virginia. (Whether or not he was the same Nathaniel Peacock who married Susan Tavenor in 1617 in London isn’t proven.)
BRENDA’S NOTE: Recent further research turned up a Nathaniel Peacock, gentleman, of Buckinghamshire England. This Nathaniel Peacock’s accounts show records for”sequestered rents” from February through November of 1647 and “taxes for maintainence” of the Army in Ireland. Also “monies for Army in Ireland” in 1648 and 1649.
Not knowing English history well enough to explain these accounts without seeing the actual records, I can only surmise that Nathaniel Peacock, Esquire, had duties related to the Army in Ireland. There is a record of a will for Nathaniel Peacock of Buckinghamshire England, dated 1663. I did not send for a copy of the will but that is something we may want to do in future. These records indicate to me that this is a seperate Nathaniel Peacock from the boy who sailed to Virginia in 1607, and supposedly died in 1642 of fever. It’s possible that the boy/sailor Nathaniel Peacock, is the one who was head of a household in Virginia in 1628 and 1629 who was taxed and sent tobacco to England. The records I found on Nathaniel Peacock of Buckinghamshire are abstracts on line at The National Archives of the United Kingdom, and I can make no proven claim of knowing if there were two seperate Nathaniel Peacocks in the early to mid 1600’s but it does look that way to me. Will need further research if we decide that we need to know more about Nathaniel Peacock.
Of course, we can speculate that Nathaniel Peacock (and/or the William Peacock who also showed up in Virginia in 1629 paying taxes to England) could have been ancestors of our Samuel One Peacock. And one of these days, hopefully, someone will find a record that will either prove or disprove whether either of these was our original immigrant ancestor.