Samuel Young I ¹

The name of Samuel Young appears first in Northampton County records in the deposition of 28 March 1650 (N'hamp Co. Deeds, Wills, Orders 1645-1651, p. 206). In court he "Sayth that hee was up sick att ye house Rich Gilbert nowe liveth, att ye tyme Thomas Albeist dyed -----". Samuel Young did not state his age in this deposition, as was usual, but it is safe to assume he was at least 21 years of age at the time, placing his birth circa 1629 or earlier.

Samuel Young's name was given as a headright by Richard Allen on 21 Nov 1654, when Allen was granted 500 acres of land "near Matchepongo", for paying the transportation costs from England for ten persons, called headrights (Nugent, p. 296). Headrights could be accumulated for future use and from his deposition, Samuel Young had been in Northampton County at least four years by 1654.

On 24 Jan 1659, Samuel Young made a deed of gift to Samuel Arnold of a cow and calf (N'hamp Co Wills, Deeds, Orders 1657 - 1666, p. 24). It can be reasoned that Samuel Young was unmarried in 1650, when he was sick at the home of Richard Gilbert, but by 1659 had a home of his own. Since gifts of this nature were usually to godchildren, Samuel Young would have become established in Northampton County by 1659.

While there is no evidence of Samuel Young's marriage or death in Northampton County, it seems likely from the foregoing that he had married and lived out his life there. Neither do the records show that he had children. However, a Northampton County deed of 9 May 1679, in which Samuel Young gave a heifer to Elizabeth Church, indicates this was a younger Samuel Young, likely son of the first Samuel (N'hamp Co Deeds 1668 - 1680, p. 162). The first Samuel Young would have been too old at fifty plus to have been named a godfather.

Nothing more is found of Samuel Young in Northampton County records until 1675, when he declined grand jury duty. It was ordered by the court that the sheriff "take him into custody and keep him until he take the oath" (N'hamp Co. Orders and Wills, 1674 - 1679, p. 46). Dr. Susie Ames in (UND:)Studies of the Virginia Eastern Shore in the Seventeenth Century(:UND) (p. 177), in speaking of this incident, says grand jury duty was unpopular with "the most capable Freeholders". This implies that only men who owned land were called for grand jury duty, and there had been no deed to Samuel Young, so perhaps he was declining on this point.

Samuel married.