12/1/2004
By Maureen A. Taylor
My ancestor Patience Breeden was an indentured servant of John Oldham in Virginia. She gave birth to a son, Bryan, about 1701. Court records state that Patience would be indentured an additional year, and Oldham would keep Bryan until he was 21. I suspect that Oldham was Bryan's father. How can I find out for sure, and learn whatever happened to Patience?
Q. My ancestor Patience Breeden was an indentured servant of John Oldham in Virginia. She gave birth to a son, Bryan, about 1701. Court records state that Patience would be indentured an additional year, and Oldham would keep Bryan until he was 21. I suspect that Oldham was Bryan's father. How can I find out for sure, and learn whatever happened to Patience?
A. An indentured servant entered into a contract for a specific number of years, in exchange for his or her passage to America. Indenture documents generally give the names of the servant, her parents and her master; the location and length of indenture; and, in some cases, immigration information.
Records of indenture can be hard to locate because they're held in a variety of places: Some, such as the ones you found, are part of court records; others are in collections of the master's personal papers. Patience's court records mention her child because her pregnancy extended her term of indenture. Establishing paternity may be difficult or impossible unless you can find a document, such as an additional indenture contract for Bryan, in which Oldham claims to be his father. Since Patience gave birth out of wedlock, you could look for a bastardy or fornication case against her.