Richard Pace (Jamestown)
| Richard Pace | |
|---|---|
| Born | May 24, 1583 Wapping, Middlesex, England |
| Died | September 17, 1627 Jamestown, Virginia |
| Occupation | Carpenter and Farmer |
| Spouse(s) | Isabella Smythe |
| Children | George Pace |
Richard Pace was an early settler and Ancient Planter of Colonial Jamestown, Virginia. According to a 1622 account published by the London Company, Richard Pace played a key role in warning the Jamestown colony of an impending Powahatan raid on the colony.
The origins of Richard and Isabella Pace are not known. They may have been the couple who married in St. Dunstan's Parish Church in October 1608: "Richard Pace of Wapping Wall Carpenter and Isabell Smyth of the same marryed the 5th day October 1608." St Dunstan's has historic links with the sea and with seafarers, and was until recently the "Church of the High Seas", where births, deaths, and marriages at sea were registered. In the 17th century, when Richard Pace and Isabell Smyth married there, the parish included Wapping, a waterfront area occupied by mariners, boatbuilders, merchants, victuallers, and others concerned with London's burgeoning maritime ventures. These associations, taken together with the names, make it plausible that the couple who married in Stepney subsequently voyaged to Virginia and were in fact the same persons as Richard and Isabella Pace of Jamestown. However, no proof has emerged.
As Ancient Planters, Richard and Isabella Pace each received a land grant of 100 acres under the headright system established in 1618. Although Richard Pace's original patent has not survived, two later patents give details of the location and date.
Pace died by 1625, and his wife Isabella remarried to William Perry. Perry thus became stepfather to Richard Pace's adolescent son George. Three years later, in 1628, George Pace claimed the land and headrights he had inherited from his father:
GEORGE PACE, son and heir apparent to Richard Pace deceased and to his heirs etc as his first dividend 400 acres in the Corporation of James City, on the south side of the river at the plantation called Pace's Paines, and formerly granted to his deceased father, Richard Pace, December 5th, 1620; abutting westerly on the lands of his mother, Isabella Perry, and easterly on the lands of Francis Chapman, now in the possession of William Perry, gent., his father-in-law; and northerly on the main river. Granted by Francis West, September 1st, 1628.
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