Anne Burras - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Anne Burras was an early English immigrant to Virginia

Virginia

The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...

and an Ancient Planter

Ancient planter

"Ancient planter" was a term applied to colonists who migrated to the Colony of Virginia "before the coming away of Sir Thomas Dale" and who remained in the colony for at least three years. Under the terms of the "Instructions to Governor Yeardley" , these colonists received the first land grants...

. She was the first English woman to marry in the New World, and her daughter Virginia was the first child of English colonists to be born in the Jamestown colony.

Anne Burras arrived in Jamestown

Jamestown, Virginia

Jamestown was a settlement in the Colony of Virginia. Established by the Virginia Company of London as "James Fort" on May 14, 1607 , it was the first permanent English settlement in what is now the United States, following several earlier failed attempts, including the Lost Colony of Roanoke...

on September 30, 1608 on the Mary and Margaret, the ship bringing the Second Supply. She came as a 14-year-old maid to Mrs. Thomas Forrest.Anne was married in Dec 1608 to John Laydon, also an Ancient Planter

Ancient planter

, a carpenter who came on the Susan Constant

Susan Constant

Susan Constant, captained by Christopher Newport, was the largest of three ships of the English Virginia Company on the 1606-1607 voyage that resulted in the founding of Jamestown in the new Colony of Virginia.-History:Susan Constant was rated at 120 tons. Her keel length is estimated at 55.2 feet...

in December 1608.
John and Anne Laydon were listed among the living in February 1623/4, together with four daughters Virginia, Alice, Katherine, and Margaret.. All six were listed again in the muster of February 1624/5, and this census gives Anne's age as 30. All four children are shown as born in Virginia; their ages are not given.

John Laydon was shown as having 200 acres in Henrico in May 1625.. However, the 1624/5 Muster shows the family living in Elizabeth City. A patent to "John Leyden, Ancient Planter", dated December 2, 1628, refers to 100 acres on the east side of Blunt Point Creek, "land now in tenure of Anthony Burrowes and William Harris, and said land being in lieu of 100 acres in the Island of Henrico granted to him 2-26-1619 now resigned in regard of the great danger in seating there." Some family historians have speculated that the Anthony Burrowes mentioned in Laydon's 1628 patent might have been related to Anne Burras; however, no proof or disproof has emerged.

Laydon received another 500 acres in Elizabeth City, 3 October 1638. Then in 1636 Laydon patented 200 acres in Warwick River County, and only now does he claim the land due to him for the personal adventure of himself and his wife, "they being Ancient Planters before the government of Sir Thomas Dale".. This patent was soon assigned by Laydon to Garrett Stephens, who repatented the 200 acres together with an additional 200 acres, on October 9 1641.

John and Anne Burras Laydon lived through the most difficult years of the Jamestown colony, when most of their fellow colonists perished or returned to England. Their dates of death are unknown. Anne appears to have died after 5 May 1636, when she was named in her husband's patent of that date. John appears to have died sometime after 26 March 1639, when he sold land to Leonard Yeo.

No proof has been found of the marriage of any of the four daughters, though it has been suggested, on the basis of land records, that one daughter may have married John Hewitt or Howitt.

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