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The “Waight Emigrant Family
Analysis” article is not the only way of looking at the data created when the
Waight immigrants arrived in Charlestown in 1768. Some may count the way the land was warranted
as a true indication of the number of immigrants who walked off the St. Helena. I believe this second view is invalid for
reasons described below, but this theory needs to be aired in case other
researchers raise questions.
John Waight and an extended
family debarked from the St. Helena in early February. As arriving Protestants, they were eligible for
land grants offered by the Colony of South Carolina.
The colony was using land
donation to attract new settlers. These
immigrants were urged to build homes and farms in the Up Country. They were to become a “buffer” between the
Low Land plantations and the Native Americans because Indian raids posed a threat
to the plantations.
On February 13th,
the colonial Council Journals recorded the following requests for Warrants of
Survey. These warrants show how the
colonial government ranked the arriving immigrants.
John Waight, Sr. 250
acres
John Waight, Jr. 100
acres
Samuel Waight 100
acres
Sarah Waight 100
acres
The St. Helena sailed from
Bristol, England and is not known to traffic in slaves. So, it is doubtful that there were any slaves
debarking with the Waight cluster.
The possibility that an
indentured servant traveled on the St. Helena can also be eliminated. This person would be listed as an immigrating
passenger by the St. Helena captain, George Arthur. Since all identified passengers
received warrants, there were no indentured people immigrating at this time. The absence of slaves and indentured servants
simplifies the problem of counting the immigrants.
John Sr., John Jr., Samuel
and Sarah Waight each received 100 acres because they were thought to be over
15 years of age. The elder John was
thought of as the “head of the household.”
As such, he could be given 50-acre allotments for a wife and for each
minor child over the age of two years.
John’s 250 acres, minus his
own 100 acres, leaves 150 acres for additional passengers. Dividing 150 acres by the 50-acre allotment
allowed means that there were three wives and minor children who are the only
ones not listed by name in the land granting.
These three are logically a
wife and two children. Had there been
two wives under consideration, they would be the mates of John Sr. and John
Jr. This is not possible because the 50
acres for the wife of John Jr. would have been added to grant raising his
amount from 100 to 150 acres.
A mate for Mary Waight would
have also raised her amount to 150 acres as well. Since the total allotted to John Jr. and Mary
only equaled 100 acres, neither were accompanied by a mate.
According to the land
warrants issued that day, there were a total of four adults, a wife and two
minor children. These seven people
claimed to be eligible for 550 acres.
Infants under two years of
age were not deemed worthy of counting by the colonial government. It likely was a reflection of the belief that
the mortality rate was higher in this young age group.
There is a second listing of
passengers that can be used to double check this list of passengers. This list of names and ages was used by the
colony to pay out money for covering basic expenses such as paying for a surveyor
to measure out the land the immigrant was obtaining.
This list passengers included
the following:
John Waight 60
Mary Waight 52
John Waight 19
Samuel Waight 15
Benjamin Waight 13
Sarah Waight
8
I wrote in the previous
article, “Waight Emigrant Family Analysis,” that this group would have only
obtained 400 acres if this was a nuclear family. Because of their ages and presumed
relationships, Warrants for Survey would look like this:
John
Waight, Sr. 300 acres
John Waight, Jr. 100 acres
John Waight, Senior would
have been eligible for 100 acres in his own right. He was also given 50 acres for a wife. Lastly, there was another 150 acres added for
the three minor children. John Sr.’s
total would have been 300 acres.
John Jr. was eligible for
receiving a 100-acre allotment because was over 16 years of age. A total of 400 acres was reached by his 100
acres being added with his presumed father’s 300 acres in a presumed nuclear
family situation.
But, that is not what
allotted for this emigrants cluster.
Warrants for Survey were issued the following individuals and for the
corresponding amounts:
John
Waight, Sr. 250 acres
John Waight, Jr. 100
acres
Samuel Waight 100
acres
Sarah Waight 100
acres
Here is how one counts heads
in this list. John Waight, Sr. is again
allowed 100 acres for himself. Then, add
another three people who upped John’s total another 150 acres. This makes a total of four people.
John Waight, Jr., Samuel
Waight and Sarah Waight, who each are listed as eligible for 100 acres, are an
additional three adults said to have arrived in 1768. These three, plus the four mentioned just
above, makes a group of seven getting off the boat.
Seven Waight individuals do
not match the list of those seeking money for expenses. Who is missing and who can be counted for?
These names appear as people
who are receiving land. Their ages are
shown for identification purposes.
John
Waight 60
John Waight 19
Samuel Waight 15
Sarah Waight
8
These four are two adults
and two minor children. Remember,
however, that each of these were counted as adults when the colony issued
warrants.
Those who are not counted in
the Expenses List are:
Mary Waight 52
Benjamin Waight 13
These are likely listed with
John Waight, Sr., who has three more people added to his land allotment. Three unnamed immigrants minus the two who
are named leaves one unidentified traveler.
Who could that person be?
That person logically would
not likely be another wife. That role is
probably filled by the adult woman named Mary.
There is no other person recorded in any records who might be John’s
wife.
If the missing immigrant was
older than Samuel Waight’s 15 years, he/she would be eligible for requesting a
100 acres in their own name. If this was
the case, their name would appear as another adult requesting a Warrant for
Survey. However, there is no other
request for a person who might be an older immigrant.
Therefore, it is possible
that the missing person is a child over two and under 16 years of age. A person with this age would cause an
additional fifty acres to be added to the 100 acres allowed to John Waight,
Sr. By adding fifty acres each for Mary
and Benjamin, John’s total rises to 250 acres.
John Waight, Senior
requested a warrant for the same 250 amount now calculated. It would seem that the problem is now resolved.
The only problem with this conclusion
crops up in the analysis of the land records.
This is where the truth becomes apparent.
First of all, Mary Waight
had 100 acres surveyed in her own name.
Her deeding the same land to her son, Benjamin, years later confirms
that the allotment was hers, not someone else’s. This is despite the fact that no warrant was
issued in her name.
At the same time, no land
was surveyed for a person named Sarah. One
possibility is that Sarah died suddenly and was not able to follow up by having
the warrant surveyed and platted. This seems unlikely for the following
reasons.
Sarah is described as young
girl of eight years of age. Her age
would prevent a warrant from being surveyed and platted. The deputy surveyor was not allowed to “give”
government land to a minor without a warrant.
The same situation existed
for a 100 acre warrant being issued to Samuel Waight. With an age listed as 15, he was just months
under the age of eligibility for receiving land in his own name. No survey was conducted in his name either.
Recapping the situation,
there were two warrants that were not surveyed in the names of Samuel and
Sarah. Yet, one was surveyed in Mary
Waight’s name for 100 acres.
Samuel and Sarah Waight’s
names, when added to Benjamin’s, exactly total the number of children who each
would receive fifty acre allotments.
This 150 acres was added to the amount allotted to John Waight, Sr.’s
100 acres. This addition makes John’s total
the 250 acres which was surveyed in his name.
Finally, there is young John’s
warrant and allotment. However, there
was nothing that raised questions about John Waight, Jr.’s warrant and
platting. He was warranted 100 acres and
that is how much was platted by the surveyor.
The land allotment process
is the ultimate test of who arrived on the St. Helena. Land was warranted for seven people. However, the surveyor staked land for only
six immigrants. The conclusion is that
there is no missing immigrant.
