Next Gathering – 2022 in Texas

Reference: Notable Clays, Jonas Clay (c1617-c1663) 1st New England Clay and above map of Barbados dated 1736

Unanswered Questions:

1. Did Jonas Clay come to the New England Colony via Barbados (see Clay in red circle)?
2. Did Jonas Clay’s wife, Mary Batson come via Barbados also (see Batson in red circle)?

Barbados is a southeastern Caribbean Island 21 miles by 14 miles first settled by the British in 1625. 

In the period 1640–1660, the West Indies attracted over two-thirds of the total number of English emigrants to the Americas. By 1650, there were 44,000 settlers in the West Indies, as compared to 12,000 on the Chesapeake and 23,000 in New England. Most English arrivals were indentured. After five years of labour, they were given “freedom dues” of about £10, usually in goods. (Before the mid-1630s, they also received 5–10 acres of land, but after that time the island filled and there was no more free land.) First, a tobacco producer, but then sugar after tobacco prices fell in the 1630s, as Chesapeake production expanded. – Wikipedia