influential
families in the colony were chiefly composed of former criminals.
Defoe in two of his popular novels, gives voice to this opinion. In
Moll Flanders we find the following: "Among the rest, she often told
me how the greatest part of the inhabitants of that colony came hither
in very indifferent circumstances from England; that generally
speaking, they were of two sorts: either, 1st, such as were brought
over ... to be sold as servants, or, 2nd, such as are transported
after having been found guilty of crimes punishable with death. When
they come here ... the planters buy them, and they work together in
the field till their time is out.... (Then) they have ... land
allotted them ... and (they) ... plant it with tobacco and corn for
their own use; and as the merchants will trust them with tools ...
upon the credit of their crop before it is grown, so they plant every
year a little more (etc). Hence, child, says she, many a Newgate-bird
becomes a great man, and we have ... several justices of the peace,
officers of the trained band, and magistrates of the towns they live
in, that have been burnt in the hand."[15] In Mrs. Behn's comedy The
Widow Ranter, the same belief finds expression, for Friendly is made
to say: "This country wants nothing but to be peopled with a well-born
race to make it one of the best colonies in the world; but for want
of a governor we are ruled by a council, some of whom have been
perhaps transported criminals, who having acquired great estates are
now become Your Honour and Right Worshipful, and possess all places of
authority."[16] It is absolutely certain that the Virginia aristocracy
was not descended from felons, but this belief that found voice in
works of fiction of the 17th century must have had some slight
foundation in truth. It tends to strengthen the evidence that many men
of humble origin did attain places of honor and profit in the colony,
and it shows that in England in this period people were far from
imagining that many aristocrats had come to Virginia to settle.[17]

Although it is impossible to determine with accuracy the lineage of
all the leading families of Virginia during the 17th century, it is
definitely known that many of the most wealthy and influential houses
were founded by men that could boast of no social prominence in
England. In the days immediately following the downfall of the London
Company there was no more influential man in the colony than Abraham
P