The Tryal
We don't have definitive proof that our John Cooley is the John who was
transported on the Tryal in 1753 and I personally haven't ruled out
that he may have been the boy who was convicted and transported in 1746.
Nevertheless, he fits and is our best candidate to date. Whoever he turns
out to be, this serves as an excellent opportunity to learn a little bit
about the era and of the lives of the convicts, redemptioners and indentured
servants who comprised more than half of the immigrants of the day.
Individually, most of them were ordinary people not possessing the talent,
skills nor opportunities of their more famous compatriots but collectively
they were a formidable force. In my opinion they, along with the Africans
wrenched from their homelands and the aboriginal peoples thrown into
conflicts not of their doing, deserve to be honored as much as the
celebrated heroes of the day. Our nation was founded literally on their
backs.
~
Received from Don Cooley, 2006: More Emigrants in Bondage
(1614-1775), by Peter Wilson Coldham, 2002, page 212.
Cooley, Thomas (John). Sentenced to transportation & transported July 1753
on the ship Tryal. Master of the ship was John Johnstoun. 108 felons on
board. Departed from London, landed in Virginia. Ref: T1/353/29,
T53/44/475.
We don't understand why he is also referred to as Thomas but, clearly, he
is the same John Cooley sentenced in London 18 July 1753.

Sandra Stanton found this at Ships On
Stamps
From Virginia Gazette: Extracts, 1752.
Transcribed by Kathy Merrill for the USGenWeb Archives Special Collections
Project.
[link]
October 27, 1752.
Just arrived from Africa, the Ship Tryal, Joseph Little, Master, with a
Cargo of choice healthy Slaves; the Sale of which began at York Town, on
Thursday, the 26th Instant, and on Tuesday, the 31st, will begin at West
Point, and continue till all are sold.
John Robinson,
Humphrey Hill.
From Colonial Williamsburg. [link]
Blair first mentioned the overseas slave trade on March 3 when he noted "Sad
news from coast of Africa; a ship burnt,& c., and great mortality amg the
slaves of another." Two months later, on May 16, Blair noted "Negroe Ship
arrivd." He might have learned about the arrival of the ship, the
Tryal, from the May 16 issue of the Virginia Gazette. Hunter's paper
reported "Last Night arriv'd in York River the Tryal, Capt. Abraham
Saunders, from Angola, with near 400 Slaves, consign'd to Messrs. [Philip]
Rootes and [Humphrey] Hill. 'Tis said she has buried very few, and that
they are all exceeding healthy."
And later in the article,
In his diary, Blair noted the arrival of only two of these vessels --the
Tryal and the Williamsburg. He might have made mention of the Tryal because
its owner, Philip Protheroe, was a resident of Bristol.
Blair had personal connections to Bristol merchants and ship owners because
they played an important role in the tobacco and slave trade in the York
River District in the second quarter of the eighteenth century. However,
Bristol merchants saw their share of the overseas slave trade decline by
mid-century. A smaller number of slave ships docked in the York River
District by 1750 because planters in the Piedmont wanted to buy enslaved
laborers to work the fields on their plantations. Perhaps Blair did not note
the other twenty-one vessels that transported Africans to Virginia in 1751
because he did not have the personal ties to the ship owners and merchants
that he had with John Harmer and Walter King.
From RBSG/CFG Historical Research Report - May 2006, page 20. [link]
Philip Protheroe |
predecessor, Joseph Haythorne & George Wright |
Part owner in five slave voyages, 1748-1756. |
Received from Sandra Stanton, June
2006: The King's Passengers to Maryland and Virginia. The following
108 convicts were transported to Virginia on the Tryal, July
1753.
Middlesex |
London |
Surrey |
Aspinall [Aspenwell], Richard (QS)
Atkins, Martha
Barclay, David
Barnes, Josiah
Barnfather, Samuel
Bartley, David - for life
Barton, Richard
Best, Elizabeth (QS)
Beverley, John
Birt, Robert
Blackwell alias Conner, Elizabeth
Branvile, Jane
Brookes, Jane
Brown, Mary
Butler, Eleanor (QS)
Butler, Richard (QS)
Carroll, Thomas
Cave, Felix (QS)
Clarey, Margaret (QS)
Collins, James
Cook, John
Cooley, Thomas (John)
Davis, Matthew
Derritt, Benjamin
Dobbins, Elizabeth
Drake, Ann (QS)
Dundas, James
Edgerley, Robert (QS)
Ellsey, Nicholas
Forbes, Isabella
Forrester, Ann
Freeman, John
Gainer alias Gehner, Sarah
Giles, John
Hall, Thomas
Hamon, John - 14 yrs
Hanson, James
Harrison alias Sarrison, Sarah
Hayley, Carbery
Hoadman, Martha
Holloway, John
Horn, Mary
Horne, Henry
Hunt, James
Johnson, Andrew
Johnson, Thomas
Lee alias Leeworthy, William
McDonald, Alexander
McDonnell, Mary
Middleton, willian
Miller, Thomas
Narder, James
Nugent, Patrick 14 yrs
Owens, William
Perkins, Mary
Rex alias Rix, Charles
Robinson, James
Selwood, Elizabeth
Smith, Edward
Smith alias Cox alias Brown, Mary
Standidge, Sarah
Steel, Richard
Stevens, Mary (QS)
Still, Richard
Swanson, Elizabeth
Thackeray, William
Toft, James
Underwood, John (QS)
Weaver, Thomas
Whitaker alias Slade, Mary
|
Bone, John
Cook, Charles
Cornhill, John
Dunn, Francis
Fife, Docia
Fillimore, Francis
Fish, Mary
Glover alias Lightfood, Richard
Harding, Edward
Hartford, John
Heard, Archibald
Holstop, Joseph
Jarvis, John, alias Black Jack
Lightfood, Richard
Metcalf, Elizabeth
Moore, James
Neale, Susannah
Newman, William
Onion, Hester - 14 yrs
Onion, Thomas
Paul, Benjamin
Peachy, Daniel
Peak, Frances
Price, John
Putten, Daniel
Richardson, Thomas
Riley, Philip
Robinson, Jeremiah
Russell, Sarah
Sheffield, Isaac - runaway
Smith, Thomas
Trow, John - runaway
Wiggins, John
|
Betts, John (QS)
Dutch, Ann (QS)
Harper, Christopher (QS)
Merry, James (QS)
Robinson, Robert
|
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