Need research pointers for John Stanton who arrived VA 1635

Question

Need some fresh ideas on where to look for records for John Stanton who arrived Virginia 1635 aboard the ship George (mostly deportees from England).

Family histories (real ones, not online stuff) created independently connect him to James Stanton but contemporaneous records have not been found.

I'm wondering about some new places to look for Virginia records and I know a lot have been lost (the Quaker records fire, Civil War, etc.). After a lot of dead ends thought I would ask for some fresh ideas. An aunt worked on this 20 years ago the old fashioned way by going there and digging through archives for many days and didn't find anything concrete.

Many thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Are you sure you are searching for the correct person?  Do you know that the John Staunton on the ship George actually arrived in America?  That was early enough that he should have received land within a few years, yet he's not in the records.  The court records of Surry County  from 1652 through 1682 are preserved and on-line at Ancestry.  There is no James or John Stanton/Staunton, but there is a Robert frequently mentioned.  It might be worth checking him out.  I've worked with early Virginia records quite a bit and it seems these early settlers spent a lot of time in court for one reason or another.  The only 'Stantons' mentioned in Virginia land records before 1666 are Christopher, Daniell, Henry, Mary, Richard, Robert, Thomas, and William.

Comments

Thank you. No, I could not confirm John arrived in the US since no records have been found on him. Even the records on the ship George are lacking the usual arrival information detail but I found no record of it being lost.

I had been stumped by no land records but also confused by reading about whose name headright could/would be in. What I read led me to believe it might not have been in his name but perhaps that was wrong information (or wrongly processed in my head!). What family histories have as his grandson James Stanton is documented and I was able to find his will and some land records rather easily. It may be worth working backward from this documented ancestor James through the other known Christian names of Stantons and see if one of them is perhaps the father of James rather than the undocumented James who leads to John.

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The court orders and deeds for Surry County from 1684-1733 (and later years) have also been abstracted, there's a book of tithables from 1668-1703, wills and administrations, etc.  I'm not sure where you live, but if you go to the Fairfax County (Virginia) Public Library catalog (they have a huge Virginia collection) and search on Surry County, Virginia you'll find quite a lot of books.  Some might be available at a Family History Center, or perhaps you could get them through inter-library loan from a library near where you live.

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Hi Kathie. Circling back to this after 17 months. Going through the Surrey County court records the only extant paper (I found) on James Stanton is his will and a couple of land records have been located. One of the Virginia Project folks made a comprehensive list of all known Stantons of the era and there's simply not much on James other than what has been added to the profile. I've not been able to connect him to any of the other Stanton families with the currently available information. Wondering if you have some additional thoughts on next places to search? I'm 1500 miles from Virginia so site visits aren't practical for me.

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I will be at the Fairfax library next week, I’ll take a look at the Surry records and see if anything shows up.  The fact that James who died in 1718 didn’t get a land patent until 1713 strongly suggests he was not in Virginia much earlier than that.  If he was born in Virginia it seems his father would have been a landowner and show up in a land record somewhere.

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I recall seeing things that made me think the Clerk named Robert Stanton and perhaps his successor Nathaniel Stanton were somehow related to James. Robert left c 1663 and it would be interesting to see where he went...I had wondered if he was a "New England" Stanton and went back there. I'll have to relocated info on Robert. If the PDF containing all the Stantons of the era would be helpful, please private message your email address and I will send it.