1. Henry Wheeler was born in 1604 in England. He died probably Abt 1680 in Isle Of Wight Co, Virginia.
King James I was on the throne and in 1607 he signed the charter for the Virginia Company of London. In the beginning there were two companies of the Virginia adventurers; one having its headquarters in London and the other in the western port of Plymouth. Englishmen at that time used the name Virginia for all the coast of North America that lay above Spanish Florida. In the original Virginia charter the adventurers were granted the rights of exploration and settlement on the "Coast of Virginia, or America". This was from about the mouth of the Cape Fear River in lower North Carolina to a point midway through what is now the state of Maine. The Plymouth grantees had a primary interest in the northern area which Captain John Smith would later name New England. They established a colony at Sagadahoc in August 1607. Their colony barely survived that winter and was abandoned in the spring of 1608. As a consequence, the Plymouth adventurers gave up. However, the London adventurers persisted despite many hardships. Their persistence served to tie the name of Virginia increasingly to them and to their more southerly settlement. As a result, "the London adventurers" became in common usage "the Virginia adventurers", their company "the Virginia Company", and their colony "Virginia".
Henry Wheeler was one of forty passengers on the ship Trial (also spelled Tryall) which landed at Jamestown, in the new colony of Virginia, in February 1620. All efforts to determine where he was born and who his parents were have proved futile. There were at least two "subscribers" (investors) of the Virginia Company named Wheeler but nothing else is known about them.
Until the loss of their charter in 1624, most of the colonists were indenture to the Virginia Company. The reason for this was that all but a very few emigrants were too poor to pay for their passage. They were, however, free persons. Merchants, or ships captains borrowed from the English apprentice system the familiar device of the indenture - a voluntary contract stipulating that in return for passage, food, and clothing the freeman would agree to work as a servant for a planter in Virginia for a set number of years. When a ship reached Jamestown, servants were put ashore where the planters assembled to buy the indentures. During the term of the indenture the master would agree to feed, clothe, and house the servant and to provide him, at the expiration of the term, with seed, tools, and any other items mentioned in the indenture.
The conditions in early Virginia were so horrendous that the mortality rate was very high. Henry Wheeler must have been in very good physical shape or had a kind master. Many abused and overworked their indentured servants.
Henry Wheeler also survived the Indian massacre of 22 March 1622 that devastated the colony. At least a fourth, and maybe a third, of all the residents lay dead at the end of a single day. In 1624, a census was taken of all inhabitants of the colony of Virginia and Henry Wheeler was shown living "at Buck Rowe". Buck Rowe was the name given to the property at Point Comfort belonging to Nicholas Roe. Early in 1625 the community of Elizabeth City, or rather the communities that made up Elizabeth City, could count some 359 persons. This included those "beyond Hampton River", earlier referred to as "at Bucke Row or Rowe". In the year before this area had counted some 349 people, thirty of them at "Buck Row". Elizabeth City, in 1625, was the largest community in Virginia, much larger than James City and its Island with 175 persons, which held second place in population.
In 1625, Elizabeth City was an established community of 279 males and eighty females. It began on the site of an Indian village on the west side of Hampton Creek and was known by its Indian name of Kecoughtan for a decade. In 1619, the name was changed to Elizabeth City in honor of the daughter of King James I.
When the early censuses were taken everything was counted. The 1625 census showed Elizabeth City had a total of eighty-nine houses and twenty stores (warehouses), all beyond Hampton River. There were twenty-four palisadoes, or fortified settlements. It had a large supply of corn and fish compared to the other settlements but it did not have as much livestock and poultry when compared to Jamestown and some of the upriver communities. Some Frenchmen had been sent to the Buck Rowe section in 1620 to instruct the colonists in planting mulberries and vines and in sericulture (the raising of silkworms) and viniculture.
It astounds the modern person who reads the records to learn how quickly the colony became so unbalanced socially. Land, power, and privilege were the prerogatives of a very small group of people who had "connections" in England. Some of the early colonists never owned land but simply "squatted" until they were forced to move or the land was "used up" by the tobacco farming and they had to look for another place to farm.
The Colony of Virginia now was poised for an extension of its frontier inland and across the James River into what was to become Norfolk and Isle of Wight counties. In 1637, Isle of Wight County "extended from the south bank of the James River to the North Carolina line and was bordered on the east by Nansemond County and on the west by James City County, which became Surry County in 1652. That was a major route of migration to the border counties of eastern North Carolina." This would precede the push to the west that later became such a familiar pattern. It was to this area that Henry Wheeler came.
To date no record has been found to show that Henry Wheeler owned any land or was mentioned in any other official capacity until 1679. On November 10 of that year Henry Wheeler was a witness to the will of one Ann Lindsey in Isle of Wight County. This will also mentioned "Henry Wheeler's son, John". The last mention of Henry Wheeler was when he witnessed the will of a Henry Rennolls, 9 June 1681. The name of Henry Wheeler's wife, or the names of any other children, are unknown.The following was found in the Isle of Wight court record abstracts:
ISLE OF WIGHT COUNTY, VA - COURT - 17 Sep 1678 Inquest [p.] 389 [...] Wee the Subscribers hereof are impanell'd upon a Jury of Inquest to inquire after y.e death of A man found dead upon the sands near y.e Mouth of Lyons Creek doe find this man to be a Neager & that he dyed naturally [?] and soe that there was something tyed w.th a Roap about his Neck & soe Cast into the River, Septemb.r y.e 17.th 1678 The mke [mark] IC of Jn.o Clay foreman The mke of I John Fivash Roger Archer The mke of P Peter Fiveash The mke F of Mathew Foanes The mke of c Henry Wheeler The mke WS of W.m Smyth The mke of R Rober Judman John Squire The mke of H Henry Reynolds The mke R of Richard Bickford Jn.o Freeman Recorded 17.th Octo.br 1678 P/ Jn.o Bromfield Cler Cur [page end] Isle of Wight Co., VA, Record of Wills, Deeds, Etc., Vol. 1 (1662-1715), p. 389 (The Library of Virginia, Isle of Wight Co. Microfilm Reel 22 abstracted by Matt Harris.)
Henry married an unknown woman in Virginia.
They had the following children:
+ 2 M i John Wheeler