One option I have considered regarding my immigrant ancestor John Stewart Sr., is that he arrived in Virginia in the aftermath of the Battle of Preston in 1715. The Battle of Preston was one of the major clashes during the Jacobite rebellion and was fought at Preston, Lancashire, England.
The Jacobites were on the losing side of this battle. They were rounded up and sent to various prisons. Some of the rebels were released, some escaped, some were put to death, and some of them were sent abroad on prisoner ships.
There are two possible scenarios that could fit with John Stewart Sr. The first scenario is that he arrived in Virginia on a prisoner ship. The ‘Elizabeth and Anne’ arrived in Yorktown, Virginia on January 14, 1716 and there were four individuals named John Stewart who were on board. Each of these prisoners were required to serve a five year indenture before they could attain their freedom in Virginia.
I have a couple of concerns with this scenario. My first concern is that the indenture would have ended in 1721, leaving John Stewart Sr. very little time to amass sufficient wealth as a planter to purchase a 1,600 acre land warrant on Fighting Creek by no later than his death in 1721/2. Additionally, given that his son, John Stewart Jr., was likely born in 1706, I am unclear how his wife and children would have paid for a voyage to be reunited in Virginia. Perhaps they too became indentured servants. Yet, I can find no record of this.
Additionally, family legend indicates that John Stewart Sr. ‘fled from the coast of England in the night and landed in the New World with only his sword and a stout heart.’ This sword was later buried with his great-granddaughter Parmelia Stewart. However, it would be unlikely that a rebel prisoner would be permitted to keep his sword.
The second scenario is that John Stewart Sr. was taken prisoner at Preston and later released. He then decided to relocate his family to colonial Virginia to avoid any additional entanglements with the English government. In fact, I have found a record from ‘The British Weekly Mercury’ indicating that a John Stewart was captured at Preston and taken prisoner in Newgate Gaol:
Later, ‘The Evening Post’ posted an update on the prisoners and indicated that a ‘Mr. Stewart’ had been released:
There were only two prisoners with the last name of Stewart who were sent from Preston to Newgate: James Stewart and John Stewart. The prisoner who was released must have been one of these two men. By process of elimination, we know that the released prisoner must be John, because James had already been sent to the Tower of London:
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