Why was my ancestor from a prominent family an indentured servant?

Question

His name was Robert Patricks. He was born in Edinburgh and died in Maryland. His father was Hugh Kilpatrick. His father seems to have been important and their family must have been prominent because I’ve seen a plaque to them while researching. Unusual names from this branch of my family like Shadrack, Hezekiah, and Aquila that came along a little later have hinted that they may have been Romani, but I’m not sure. They did move around a lot and this could explain the indentured servant thing. If you are descended from this Patrick line, do you know or have any guesses?

Comments

https://www.wikitree.com/g2g/893844/i-need-help-tracing-the-origin-of-an-indentured-servant

The same question has been asked about this guy before.

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Indentured servants sometimes took the surname of their master.

Re dark olive skin -  lot of the Welsh had very dark skin, my mother inherited it from her father whose father was Welsh. Just look at people like Tom Jones!

Answer 1

Lill, you may have better luck getting a response from someone who may know about this family if you post a link to the profile that you are concerned about. I'm guessing there are a whole lot of Patricks profiles on WT and we need you to be a little more specific

Answer 2

Without going into your research, the likely cause of a member of a prominent family ending up as an indentured servant are rioting, and Edinburgh apprentices were good at it, and rebellion. The Monmouth Rebellion, the Jacobite Rebellion, and the English Civil War are all reason those captured would be sent overseas.

Answer 3

A bit more info is needed to give a real answer. As to some other parts of the question, I wouldn't think that Shadrack, Hezekiah, and Aquila are indicative of Romani.  The first two are biblical names and the last comes from Latin (means eagle).

There can be any number of reasons for indenture. If he wanted to leave Scotland and the family said no to paying for transport is one possibility. You do have to build the various profiles out in order to make a determination.

Comments

Yes that makes sense but the other indication for the Patricks being Romani is how spread out they were. Marriage, birth, and baptism records that matched their names, ages, and the names of their children, parents, and spouses traced them to places as distant as southern England. But again that’s just a theory. (Also my great-great-grandparents were olive skinned)

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Being olive skinned doesn't mean Romani. My grandmother was very dark and she was from Ayrshire. The fact you are finding them all over the place, could mean these people are not related at all. Make sure you have proof that all these linkages are related and not just happenstance. There are Kilpatricks, Fitzpatricks, and just plain Patricks. Also biblical names could mean they were involved in one of the primitive sects of Christianity.

Answer 4

I'd want to see the documentation that links a man surnamed Patricks to a father named Kilpatrick. I'm always a bit suspicious when I see things that need to be explained away. 

Answer 5

"Why was my ancestor from a prominent family an indentured servant?" - That's a red flag and usually means that the connection is wrong. Lots of online genealogies of colonial immigrants of humble origins say they are children of noble lines. Generally, there is no evidentiary support other than consistent name and time frame.

"Unusual names from this branch of my family like Shadrack, Hezekiah, and Aquila that came along a little later have hinted that they may have been Romani" - Those names were actually not that uncommon in 17th-19th century. Definitely does not mean they were Romani. The names seem to have been initially used by non-conformist protestants to name their children (the names are from the Bible) and then later carried on as family names.

Comments

https://www.whodoyouthinkyouaremagazine.com/tutorials/am-i-descended-from-gypsies

This was my source

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I don't think the names lists would be very helpful. Many of the surnames, while perhaps common on Gypsies, were extremely common among non-Gypsies - eg Cooper, Smith, Wood and Young. And many of the first names were also quite common among non-Gypsies, at least in New England during certain time periods - eg Elijah, Ezekiel, Nehemiah, Noah, Reuben, Shadrach, Sylvanus.

Answer 6

Being captured and the then indentured from the Jacobite rebellion of 1715 is a reason especially if his birthdate was only around 1705