Richard Tarling in early Virginia

Updated 20th. July 1999 after the Virginia Library and James City moved all their URL's without decent forwarding.

Richard Tarling in Virginia in 1636

We are trying to trace any further details of a Richard Tarling who we think was an early settler in Virginia (USA). He is referred to in Volume 1 of Nell Marion Nugent's "Cavaliers and Pioneers" (pages 48 and 124), being first mentioned in the granting of land to Stephen Webb on 18th. September 1636 in the Lower Chippoecks Creeke area in "James Citty County" (Jamestown to you - the home of the first permanent English settlement in America). Nugent's entry for Stephen Webb in 1636 (on page 48 of Volume 1, first published in 1934) says:

STEPHEN WEBB, 150 acs. James Citty Co., 18 Sept. 1636, p. 386. At the Lower Chippoecks Cr. neare upon a mile from the fore river, N. upon a Sw, towards sd. river, E. upon sd. Cr., S. upon land of William Carter & W. upon Sunken Marsh. Trans. of 3 pers: Richard Tarling, Georg Toulson, Walter Lest. Note: This pattent renewed by sd. Webb wherein hee hath put a pattent bearing date the second of March 1638 for 250 acres & added to them 100 acs. more. Test: Samll. Abbott, Clr.

The second Richard Tarling entry is on page 124 of Volume 1 of Nugent's "Cavaliers and Pioneers" and seems to be just a 1639 consolidation of Stephen Webb's 150 acres above, the further 250 mentioned in the Note above and finally the last 100 acres; to total 500 acres, along with a list of all the people involved, including Richard Tarling. So it seems as if the key is the 1636 entry.

The Virginia Archives card index (compiled between 1918 and 1921) to the 1636 entry has a briefer version, which says:

Webb, Stephen

18 Septr. 1636

James City County
150a. At the lower Chippoecks creek near upon a mile from the Fore river.

"This patt. is renewed by Stephen Webb, wherein hee hath put a patt. bearing date the 2nd of March 1638, for 250a. of Land and added to them 100a. more."

Patents 1, p. 386

Now the good news is that we can now also look at a copy of the original patents: Volume 1 page 386; as quoted in both the abstracts above. These are introduced in the Land Office Patents and Grants description which also acts as a gateway to the card index. The entry we want actually continues onto the top of page 387 as well, so we have combined them and tidied up and a medium resolution version of the original 1636 document can be seen here (WARNING this is a 56kb 1600 by 1550 pixel GIF file producing a large page and may be slow to download and unwieldy to view, please consider saving it and reading it later, or better still download this high resolution 130kb compressed TIF version here, viewable with Paint Shop Pro or a similar TIFF viewer that supports Group IV compression such as the generic TIFF viewer:
Now interpreting early to mid 17th. century handwriting is not our speciality, but the nearest we can get is that it says:

Stephen Webb 150 Exm^d.		To all to whome these p^Esents shall come' I Cap^t. John West Esq^r Gonern^Ed pr send pr Now Know ye that I the ' said Capt John West Esq^r doe w^th the Consent of the Councell of State accordingly give and graunt unto Stephen Webb one hundred and fiftie acres of land scifuate lying and being in the County of James Citty at the Lower Chippoecks Creeke near^e upon a mile from the fore river butting North upon a swamp towards the fore river East upon ---- Chippoecks Creeke South upon William Carter his Land West upon Sunken Marsh The said one hundred and fiftie acres of land being due unto him the said Stephen Webb by and for the transportatan of three persons
(397)		persons into this Colony whose names are in the records ~~ mentuned under this pattent To have and to hold & dated the 18th day of September 1636 ut in alijs Richard Tarling Georg Tonlson Walter Lest This pattent is renewed by Stephen West wherein hee hath put a pattent bearing date the second of March 1638 for 250 acres of land and added to them 100 acres mord TEstme Sam^ll Abbott Clr

There are a lot of difficult bits to read and interpret, including the bit just before the name Richard Tarling, where is says:

which looks to us like ut in alijs - any better guesses?

So it seems that Richard Tarling might have emigrated under the sponsorship of Stephen Webb, who received the 50 acres headright as a payment, although Stephen Webb may have purchased that headright. We would like to check in Peter Coldham's "Complete book of emigrants 1607 - 1660" (Amazon page here), but we can't find a copy - please let us know if you can help.

Now James City County grew from the original 1607 Jamestown settlement. The Jamestowne Society has a list of early census, musters etc. There was a massacre of the settlers in 1622 by the native Americans and the 1623 count shows 1,277 survivors, but no Tarling then. The James City County Project has a searchable list of many history sources and links, but there is no further note of Richard (or any other) Tarling as far as we can see, including in the 1704/5 alphabetic Virginia role. James City County became part of Surry County in 1652 and the rest is modern history.

So where did Richard Tarling come from, did he return to the U.K. and are there any descendants?

Any help, suggestions, answers or further clues would be gratefully received by John Tarling.

If you have any corrections, comments or additions to this web page please e-mail us.

Back to the John Tarling page.

To the Tarling Family History home page.

URL: http://www.tarling.net/varichard.html Latest update: 11 Nov 2003