3. Even After Applying to Become a Bride, Women Might Have Jumped Ship Before Departure
With so many women applying to become a Jamestown bride and settle in Virginia, people would believe the women were eager to go. However, records suggest that this was not always the case. In fact, on one of the ships which brought the Jamestown brides over the sea, many women attempted and possibly succeeding in escaping the ship before it officially departed. Many historians speculate that this might be because the women realize what they had been promised for the voyage was not there. Accordingly, the ladies wondered if they would receive any incentives they were told.
While the records from the Virginia Company show that some women protested while on the ship, or before boarding, we do not know how many women, if any, who refused to go to Jamestown on that voyage. What we do know is that not all the supplies were on the shop with the women because, after the ship’s departure, a letter was sent to Jamestown’s Colonial Council. In the letter, the company apologized to the council for not being able to address all the supplies they told the women they would receive. What happened after the ship arrived in Jamestown we do not know. We do not know if anything was waiting for the women once they came to the settlement, if they stayed, or if they went back to England.