ther rare in the Colony.

SERVANTS

To interpret accurately the meaning of the frequently used term
_servant_ is a difficult matter. It appears to have covered a wide range
of classifications in seventeenth-century Virginia. The designation was
often used in the modern sense of employee and, occasionally, members of
a family are listed in an enrollment as _servants_ with the obvious
meaning of dependents. This was the case in the muster of William Gany,
1625, whose child Anna heads the list of his "servants." Also, with
Thomas Palmer and his family, Richard English, aged eleven years, was
living in 1625, but is listed as a "servant." Abraham Wood, aged ten
years, is listed in 1625 as a "servant" of Captain Samuel Mathews. These
children obviously do not come within the twentieth century meaning of
the word.

Also, when individuals or groups of individuals sought to establish
large settlements in Virginia, they sent over a company of men, and
these men are listed as "servants," a term used in our modern sense of
_employee_. The musters of Edward Bennett, Daniel Gookin and others
present such lists. In the Bennett muster, Christopher Reynolds,
evidently a head man in overseeing the creation of a plantation, comes
under the designation. Also, Adam Thoroughgood, who later was named a
member of the Council, is first mentioned in the colony under a list of
"servants."

[Illustration: Photo by Flournoy, Virginia State Chamber of Commerce

Adam Thoroughgood House--Princess Anne County

This house, considerably altered, an example of early
seventeenth-century architecture, located in that part of Lower Norfolk
County which became Princess Anne in 1691, was built by Adam
Thoroughgood on land patented by him, 1635. The dormer windows are a
later addition.]

True it is that many young men bound themselves, by written agreement
before departing from England to serve seven years in the colony, in
return for passage and other considerations, granted at the conclusion
of their terms. However, apprenticeship was the customary means, by
which young men acquired knowledge, and some degree of skill from their
elders. Young Robert Hallom, about 1640, was sent to England to live
with relatives and receive some training. He, forthwith, was apprenticed
to his cousin to learn the trade of a _salter_, and was described by the
family as a "prettie wittie boy." When Doctor Pott came to Virginia, in
1620, he brought as apprentices to lea