My Passage Through Time: The West Family Line

James West

My 5x Great Grandfather

I have spent several days trying to nail down this man. I know he was in Granville County, North Carolina in 1784, but where did he come from??

There were a few other men with the surname, West, in Granville in the 1700s.

Thomas and Francis West were both listed as being on the Muster Roll of the Granville Regiment under the command of Colonel William Eaton in 1754.
Thomas West had a land patent in 1761 on Cypress Creek.
Thomas and his son Richard West were on the list of taxables in 1755
Richard West had a land patent in 1761 near Bear Swamp.
John West had a land patent in 1754 on Stony Creek.

But these men do not appear to be related to James and they seem to have moved away from Granville County. I am still looking into these men as possible father of James. I can not eliminate them definitely yet.

However since I am a DNA match to others that are descendants of Peter West, Jame's son, I have looked into other trees and we all seem to have the same sources for James.

This is what appears to be the story of James West.

James was born in the United Kingdom, probably in Middlesex, although family stories indicate that he said he was from Wales.
The database; U.S. and International Marriage Records 1590-1900, has James marrying Sarah Bowman. They both have a birth year as 1750.

In January of 1765 James appears in court documents. He was convicted of Grand Larceny in the theft of a cloak. He was transported to Baltimore, Maryland on the ship Tryal. His sentence was for seven years. He was 15 years old at the time.

In 1718 the first Transportation Act allowed the courts to sentence felons guilty of offences to seven years transportation to America. Although it was believed that transportation might lead to reformation of the offender, the primary motivations behind this punishment were a belief in its deterrent effect, and a desire to simply remove hardened criminals from society.

Below are the transcribed court documents.