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Ancestors at Sea

Being from Iowa and living in Colorado, I don't think of my ancestors as being mariners. Most of them were farmers or at least had roots in farming. Those who immigrated to America, came by ship. And my father, Russell Mesenbrink, served aboard the battleship West Virginia in World War 2. But aside from that, I was unaware of any other significant amounts of time ancestors spent on the ocean.

Some of my family lines go back to colonial times. Most notable was Captain James Davis, who, had fortunes been reversed, would be as famous as his contemporary, Captain John Smith. Smith wrote of a family of Welsh sailors, most likely Davis, his brother Robert and others.

Davis was chosen as captain for an attempt to colonize in the new world by the Virginia Company of Plymouth. His group of colonists landed in what is now Maine just a few months after Smith's competing Virginia Company of London founded Jamestown. Davis' group formed the Popham Colony at Sagahodoc in 1607. But due to family problems with the sponsors of the colony, they abandoned the colony the next year and Davis would go to Jamestown.

In the year that the colony was active, they built a settlement illustrated by this map by John Hunt (from Wikipedia).



The colony also built a 30 ton ship there, called the Virginia, which made at least one trip to England and back to Jamestown. It was the first ship built in America by Europeans.

James Davis is credited for writing "The Relation of a Voyage into New England begun from the Lizard, ye first of June, 1607."

 Davis settled in Jamestown, raising a large family. No other family can claim older, non-native, roots in America than those descended from James Davis.

 Captain John Browne was another early colonial ancestor. He was born in England in 1645, and along with his brother Peregrine Browne, sailed two merchant ships between England and Maryland. He seemed to be a bit of a rabble rouser, being accused of disturbing the Government and vilifying the King's officers.

 On the Squibb side, I haven't found any ancestors who were mariners, but there was a Captain Thomas Squibb who was likely a relative. He made several trips to America, and participated in the 1625 Cadiz Expedition, a failed attack on Spain. One of his trips to America was in 1630, where he delivered 140 colonists to the Massachussetts Bay Colony. His ship was the Mary and John, one earlier piloted by Captain Robert Davis, brother to the above mentioned James Davis. Several of the Squibbs served the government in various capacities, another of which was Captain Stephen Squibb and another Thomas Squibb who was a sailor in the Caribbean in the 1600s.

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