Thomas Trammell (abt. 1645 - abt. 1725)

Born about 1645 in Devon, England [uncertain]

Ancestors

Descendants

Died about 1725 at about age 80 in St. Paul's Parish, Stafford County, Virginia

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Biography

Thomas Trammell was the progenitor of the Trammell family in America.^[1] The name Trammell is thought to be of French origin (Tremaille), and became established in Devon (also called Devonshire), England, after the Norman invasion. Thomas left England around the year 1670 as a servant indentured to Francis Wyth^[2] for the standard period of four years. Thomas was probably working his tobacco plantation and Wyth attempted to keep him on past his indenture but Thomas brought suit to gain his freedom:

5 Mar 1674/5 - In the case of Trammell vs. Wyth, "Uppon the Oath of Capt Moore that Tho: Trammell Came into this Country but for four yeares It is orde'd that he be Acquitted from his Service, and that Mr ffra: Wyth his master pay him Corne and Clothes According to Custome with Costs"^[3]

Providing food and clothing to someone being released from servitude was indeed the custom. Note that we don't know how soon after his four years of service he sued for freedom-- son John's birth prior to 1670 suggests at least some delay.

We know that Thomas was over 16 when he came to America on Capt. Moore's boat because the four year indenture period applied to those over that age.^[4] This places his birth prior to 1655 but given that he was very probably a young man we might accept 1640-50 as the time of his birth.

A search of English emigration records has failed to identify proof of Thomas leaving England.^[5]

Gottschalk says Thomas had land in St. Paul's Parish and Overwharton Parish in Stafford County, Virginia.^[6]

The next document that is found for Thomas is an entry in the Stafford County, Virginia, index to wills. It says that Thomas's estate inventory is to be found in Book K, p175, dated 1725/6. Unfortunately for us, Will Book K is lost.^[7]

The final reference we have is for a second estate inventory of Thomas Trammell in Stafford County in 1730.^[8] It is not clear if this is a correction to the inventory above or the inventory of a second Thomas Trammell. More work is needed.

Thomas's wife is thought to be a daughter of John Williams of Westmoreland County. In 1676 Williams made a bequest to his grandson John Trammell who was just six years old or so. It suggests that Williams's daughter gave birth to a son John and a daughter or two and then died prior to 1676.

Thomas and his wife had the following children:

1. John, born c. 1670.
2. Elizabeth, said to have married John Roberts.
3. Daniel. Proposed by Gottschalk. No further record.

Thomas and Alice Trammell

It happens that there are christening records for children of Thomas and Alice Trammell in London in 1669 and then 1676-1683. Two of the children were named John and Elizabeth. This has led people to imagine that the Londoners are identical to the Virginia couple, but they are not. The 1676 birth date for John Trammell in London doesn't fit what we know of the John Trammell in Virginia,^[9] and equating the London and Virginia families would require Thomas Trammell crossing the Atlantic three times. This mistaken theory has resulted in Thomas Trammell's wife being given the name Mary Alice Williams or Alice Mary Williams. She was a Williams but her first name is unknown.

English Ancestry

It is said Thomas is the son of a Philip Trammell, son of Thomas Tremall of Kent and Devon.^[10] More research on this topic is called for.

https://opendomesday.org/place/SX1686/tremail/

Thomas was born in 1649. He passed away in 1725.

Sources

1. ↑ A record for a John Traniell coming to Virginia in 1646 is found in Early Virginia Immigrants, 1623-1666 by George Cabell Greer. The year has been mis-reported by some researchers as 1668.
2. ↑ Often mis-reported as Wyeth. Note Wythe County in Virginia.
3. ↑ Minutes of the Council and General court of colonial Virginia, 1622-1632, 1670-1676, ..., p405
4. ↑ Brendan Wolfe and Martha McCartney, Indentured Servants in Colonial Virginia
5. ↑ Peter Wilson Coldham has two books that are the standard: Complete Book of Emigrants, 1661-1699 (1990), and Complete Book of Emigrants in Bondage, 1614-1775 (1988). The first has thousands of indenture agreements and the second deals with those receiving court sentences of banishment to the colonies.
6. ↑ Source needed
7. ↑ John B.C. Nicklen, A Missing Will Book of Stafford County and Its Contents, in the Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, vol. LVII (1949), pp67-75. Available online.
8. ↑ The Lost Will Book, 1730-1748, of Stafford County, by Charles Arthur Hoppin, in Tyler's Quarterly, vol. 8, pp111-117. Available from Ancestry.com. See attached graphic. Tyler's Quarterly Historical and Genealogical Magazine
9. ↑ John sold land in 1691 which means he was born 1670 or earlier.
10. ↑ Research said to have been done for Mrs. Maude Yingling by Kathrine Cox Gottschalk. A 1636 birth record exists for a Phillip, son of Thomas and Dorothy Tremill of Kent but Phillip died at the age of two. Still, the name Phillip does occur a number of times among Thomas's descendants.

• Kathrine Cox Gottschalk, Trammell family of Virginia : also of Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, ..., 1948. This important research report lays out the early years of the family in America.
• Charles S. McCleskey, Descendants of Thomas Trammell, Revolutionary Soldier, private printing, 1972. Cites Gottschalk plus John Frederick Dorman's research report Trammell Family of Stafford, Prince William and Fairfax Counties of Virginia, and Melvin Lee Steadman's Falls Church by Fence and Fireside.

• https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:NLGH-55Y