Charles Ryland Scott Family

Ancestors and Descendants

Person Page 290

Ensign Thomas Savage, (Ancient Planter)

M, b. about 1595, d. between 1631 and 1633

Child with Hannah ("Ann") Unknown (b. about 1600, d. before 17 May 1641)

SonJohn Savage, (Burgess)+ (b. 1625, d. 11 December 1678)
Pedigree Chart
Included in charts - listsBox Pedigree - CRS
Charles Ryland Scott Ancestors
Descendants of Thomas Savage - Jamestowne Resident at Muster of 1624/25 - Ancient Planter
Indented - CRS
Relationship to Ensign Thomas Savage (Ancient Planter)
Relationship10th great-grandfather of Charles Ryland ("Ryland") Scott
12th great-grandfather of Isaac Silas Vaughn
12th great-grandfather of Katherine Gilstrap Scott
12th great-grandfather of Joseph Ryland Scott
12th great-grandfather of Charles Parker ("Parker") Scott
12th great-grandfather of Orly Marie Vaughn
12th great-grandfather of Avital Catherine Vaughn

Person Exhibits

Highway Historical Marker

Biography

AnecdoteAlmost nothing is known of Savage’s life before 1607, when the boy left England on the John and Francis with the so-called First Supply of Jamestown colonists. He arrived in Virginia on January 2, 1608, to work as a laborer, but was soon thrust into a very different role. That February, he accompanied Captain Christopher Newport, Captain John Smith, Matthew Scrivener, and thirty to forty other men on a diplomatic visit to Werowocomoco, the capital of Tsenacomoco. There, Newport presented the paramount chief, Powhatan, with gifts from King James I—and with Savage, whom Smith and Newport led the Indians to believe was Newport’s own son. Powhatan reciprocated by giving Newport his servant, Namontack, and a large bushel of beans.
English and Indian leaders alike seemed to believe that these young men could absorb languages and transcend political and cultural barriers in a way that grown men could—or would—not. Savage and Namontack were just two of a handful of youths who were made to participate in this type of cultural exchange. The motive was twofold: the boys could promote understanding and facilitate trade between cultures in times of peace, but they might also serve as informants in times of war. In his nearly three years with the Indians, Savage learned the Indians’ language (a form of Algonquian), their culture, and their expectations; he also saw Anglo-Indian relations deteriorate beyond repair.

English Interpreters
Savage seems to have been well treated during his time at Werowocomoco: Henry Spelman, another young interpreter, later wrote that he and Savage dined at Powhatan’s “oune Table messe,” and once, after the paramount chief exiled Savage for failing to negotiate the release of Indian captives at Jamestown in 1608, he almost immediately sent his daughter Pocahontas to retrieve the boy, whom she said “he loved exceedingly.” But any goodwill present when the English handed over Savage at Werowocomoco had completely evaporated by the winter of 1609–1610. Following a number of violent confrontations with the English on Indian lands, the Powhatans laid siege to James Fort, exacerbating a famine that would devastate the English colony. By the end of 1610 Savage, likely fearing for his safety, invented an errand in Jamestown and stayed there. After Savage’s escape from Werowocomoco, William Strachey documented a Powhatan war song that mentions Savage, whom they called “Thomas Newport,” by name, indicating their displeasure with him. Nevertheless, his skills as an interpreter placed him in high demand among the English in Virginia.

Savage may have been present when Captain Samuel Argall kidnapped Pocahontas in 1613, and he played a critical role in negotiating an end to the fighting between the English and the Pamunkey tribe in March 1614. That May—after the marriage of Pocahontas to John Rolfe effectively ended the First Anglo-Powhatan War—Savage returned to the Indian capital with Ralph Hamor, secretary of the colony. Their mission was to arrange a marriage between Powhatan’s youngest daughter and Sir Thomas Dale, the governor of Jamestown. According to Hamor, the paramount chief greeted Savage warmly, but scolded him for escaping: “My childe you are welcome, you have bin a straunger to me these foure yeeres, at what time I gave you leave to goe to Paspahae [Jamestown] … to see your friends, and till now you never returned.” Despite the warm reception, Hamor and Savage’s attempt to arrange the marriage was unsuccessful.
Savage’s activities between 1614 and 1619 are largely unknown. By 1619 he was living at Martin’s Brandon, the plantation of Captain John Martin, and in 1619 and 1620, Martin and Governor George Yeardley vied for Savage’s services. In 1621 Savage accompanied John Pory, the secretary of the colony, on two trading expeditions to the Eastern Shore of Virginia, home to the Occohannocks and Accomacs. He developed a special relationship with these groups, and in particular with Esmy Shichans, the Eastern Shore’s so-called Laughing King.
At this time the relationship between the English colonists and the Powhatans again edged toward violence. Powhatan had died in 1618; his brother, Opechancanough, had effectively inherited the leadership of Tsenacomoco. Though Opechancanough had been outwardly receptive to talk of peace with the English and converting his people to Christianity, he was planning an attack that would devastate the English colony and, he hoped, send them away permanently. One version of his plan had involved poisoning the English using large quantities of a deadly plant native to the Eastern Shore, which he needed to obtain from Esmy Shichans; in addition to refusing to send the plant, the Indian leader alerted his friend Savage to Opechancanough’s true intentions.

Savage tried to warn English authorities, including Jamestown’s new governor, Sir Francis Wyatt, but his message fell on deaf ears. Wyatt had taken Opechancanough’s promises of peace at face value, writing to the Virginia Company of London that the English enjoyed “very great amytie and confidence w[i]th the natives.” On March 22, 1622, Opechancanough led a swift and terrible assault on outlying plantations that killed as many as 347 colonists, or about one-fourth of the English population in Virginia. The event initiated the Second Anglo-Powhatan War (1622–1632). The conflict lasted a decade, during which time colonial authorities relied on interpreters to reinforce their alliance with the Patawomecks and, in Savage’s case, to leverage his good relationship with the Accomacs and Occohannocks to obtain much-needed food and secure lands.
In the years that followed, some questioned Savage’s loyalties, but not his talents. Pory wrote that Savage “with much honestie and good successe hath served the publicke without any publike recompence, yet had an arrow shot through his body in their service.” Former governor Yeardley, showing less kindness than Pory, poached Savage from the colonial government by having him convicted of slander and insubordination against Captain William Eppes, a business associate of Yeardley’s with a violent streak, and sentenced Savage to serve his and Eppes’s own interests. In March 1625 Savage was designated the official interpreter of the Accomac region, but was ordered not to interact with the Indians without first securing Eppes’s permission, perhaps because he was not trusted. Savage worked for Yeardley and Eppes until 1627, when the former died and the latter left Virginia for the West Indies. At this point, Savage focused his attention on the burgeoning—and profitable—Indian fur trade.

In or around 1621, Savage had received from Esmy Shichans a large tract of land on the Eastern Shore containing an estimated 9,000 acres. (This tract of land would become known as Savage’s Neck.) About two years later, he married a woman named Hannah (sometimes Ann), who had come to Virginia at her own expense in 1621 on the Seaflower. The two had a son, John, around 1624. Savage’s prosperity in the fur trade is reflected in the records of the day: by early 1625, Savage was recorded as possessing a house, a barn, a boat, and two servants; two years later, he was the owner of a 150-acre plantation, Savages Choice.
Having added the role of planter to his resume, Savage continued to serve as an interpreter until his death in or before September 1633. He was survived by his son, who inherited his land, and his wife, who by 1638 had married a planter named Daniel Cugley.1
Person SourceEnsign Thomas Savage, (Ancient Planter), had person sources.2
Birthabout 1595He was born about 1595 in Chester, EnglandBGO.2
AnecdoteThe term “Ancient Planter” is applied to those persons who arrived in Virginia before 1616, remained for a period of three years, and paid their passage. They received the first patents of land in the new world as authorized by Sir Thomas Dale in 1618 for their personal adventure.
Anecdote8 January 1608Thomas Savage came to Virginia in the first supply ship, the John and Francis with Capt. Christopher Newport, who arrived at Jamestown on 8 Jan 1607/8.3
Marriagebefore 1624He and Hannah ("Ann") Unknown were married before 1624. Since it was recently discovered that Ensign Thomas (1) Savage's son Capt. John (2) Savage married first Ann Harmanson (see note below) and not Ann Elkington as once presumed, and since Capt. John named a son Elikington by his second wife Mary Robins, therefore his son Elkington was obviously not named after his first wife Ann Harmanson, but more likely after Capt. John's mother who was evidently an Elkington. (NOTE: In the sale of 400 acres of land to John Stringer, the wife of Captain John Savage was shown as Ann and her note reads "Brother Harmanson I do request you do me the favor to acknowledge these writings John Stringer shall deliver to you on my behalf in open Court and what you do I shall ratify as abovesaid resting your loving sister to ponier Ann Savage." (N'hamp Co Record Book 7, 1657-1666, by Howard Mackey and Candy Perry - published by Picton Press - pages 318 and 319) Also in the abstracts of the Wills and Adm. of Northampton County, VA, 1632-1802 by J.H. Marshall page 104 - Note: Ann Savage (the wife of Capt. John Savage) is the sister of Thomas Harmanson.)4 
MusterFebruary 1625/26He was listed in the Muster in February 1625/26 in Eastern Shore, Virginia, United StatesBG, . He was shown as Ancient Thomas Savage, head of his own Muster, who came on the John and Frncis in 1607. Listed with him was Ann Savage and servants John Washborne and Thomas Belson.
Deathbetween 1631 and 1633He died between 1631 and 1633 in Northampton, Virginia, United StatesBGO. Ensign Thomas Savage was probably the first permanent white settler on the Eastern Shore. He died between 12 Aug 1631 and 24 Sep 1633 when the widow Hannah Savage went on a bond of £500 for her neighbor Daniel Cugley.2,5,6
Last Edited2 December 2021

Citations

  1. [S7531] Virginia Humanities, University of Virginia, Encyclopedia Virginia (https://encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/savage-thomas-ca-1595-before-september-1633/ : accessed 2 Dec 2021)
  2. [S7] Savage, Thomas Web Site, online http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~digginforroots/savage/asavagethomas.htm, 2. Hereinafter cited as Savage, Thomas Web Site.
  3. [S159] John Frederick Dorman, Adventurers of Purse and Person, Virginia, 1607-1624/5 (), p. 118 (Savage Family). Hereinafter cited as Adventurers of Purse and Person, Virginia, 1607-1624/5.
  4. [S74] Miles Files, online espl-genealogy.org/MilesFiles. Hereinafter cited as Miles Files.
  5. [S159] John Frederick Dorman, Adventurers of Purse and Person, Virginia, 1607-1624/5 (), p. 534. Hereinafter cited as Adventurers of Purse and Person, Virginia, 1607-1624/5.
  6. [S200] , compiler, Northampton Orders, Wills, Deeds, etc. 1634-40 (). Hereinafter cited as Northampton Orders, Wills, Deeds, etc. 1634-40.