I have been writing about my ancestor's parts in the American civil war, and most recently about John Cantrell Fite. I am now waiting for possible information from the federal archives about the wounds he certainly received and any other details about his service in the Union cavalry. Meanwhile I am diverging to write about my great great-grandfather (my mother's father's mother's father) Stephen Clement Attebery. Several years ago I quoted a biographical sketch of him from "Memorial and Biographical History of Dallas County", 1892, and I'll try now to add some details.
The large Attebery family in the U. S. has been well researched, and they have been quite prolific. Families with more than a dozen children were common, and even siblings sometimes spelled the surname differently. Some of the spellings are: Atterbury, Atteberry, Attebery, etc. The patriarch was a convict, born in London in 1710. At that time British law was exceptionally harsh, and a convicted thief could be hanged or imprisoned for many years. Evidently hanging was considered a bit much for petty theft or similar, so the jails and prisons were overflowing. Meanwhile in the American colonies some of the colonists were slaveholders, and others would like to have slaves but couldn't afford them. So a system was developed: many thieves, drunkards and "ne'er do wells" were convicted and sentenced to "Transportation". This was free passage to America, but on arrival the "passengers" were auctioned off for seven years of servitude. After seven years the convict was free. The colonists got cheap slaves, and the ship's captain got a share of the auction price, so the "passengers" were kept in general working order. There are stories of down and out folks in England who, in desperation, would commit a petty theft and thus trade seven years of servitude to get to the American colonies. In fact, perhaps a quarter of all the British immigrants to colonial America between 1718 - 1775 were transported convicts.
William Atterbury was tried and convicted in February 1733 (in the "Old Bailey") of stealing 5 yards of linsey-woolsey, and sentenced to Transportation. Linsey-woolsey was a coarse, tough and warm cloth that was woven with linen warp and wool weft. It was used for outer clothing, and was worn by ordinary folks; it was not expensive. We'll probably never know whether William was a common thief or was looking for passage to America. In any case he arrived in Annapolis in November 1733 aboard the ship Patapsco and was immediately auctioned for 7 years of servitude. I haven't seen records of his price or the details of his servitude, but he was 23 years old and probably healthy and strong. It is likely that he worked in the Annapolis shipyard for the next 7 years.
William would have finished his servitude in 1740, and by 1746 he was farming land he now owned in Maryland. He was married (his wife's name was Sarah) and they had children. In 1754 he sold his land for "three thousand pounds of tobacco", and moved across the Potomac River into Virginia where he lived until his death in 1767.
William was the great grandfather of Stephen Clement Attebery, and the next 50 years and two generations between them are complicated, and Part 2 will try to cover the period.
