By 1580, Thomas born in Much Hadham, Hertsfordshire, England.
By 1584, Anne born in England, d/o 19862. Thomas Seymour & 19863. Jane Berkeley.
7/14/1608, Thomas named executor and left the estates in his father’s will. [See Family notes.]
1609, Thomas named JP of Hertfordshire.
5/17/1620, At a meeting of the Virginia Company: “Mr. Treasurer signified to the court the company’s former resolve for the entertainment of two new officers by them, namely, deputies to govern two parts of the public land in Virginia. Mr. George Thorpe had already been chosen for one of these places, and the treasurer now anounced that the other was to be filled by a gentleman of the same worth, now present, called Mr. Thomas Newce, touching whom it was agreed that he should take charge of the company’s land and tenants in Virginia whatsoever, and that they for his entertainment have ordered that he and such as shall succeed him shall have 1200 acres belonging to that office, 600 at Kiquotan, now called Elizabeth City, 400 at Charles City, 100 at Henrico, and 100 at James City; and, for the managing of this land, [they] have further agreed that he shall have forty tenants to be placed thereon, whereof twenty to be sent presently, and the other twenty in the spring ensuing, all which now being put to the question received a general approbation.”
6/28/1620, Thomas was further honored by appointment to the Virginia council. [A post also to be occupied some forty years later by his grandson Joseph.]
1621, Thomas arrived in VA.
4/30/1621, the company adopted a resolution “concerning Capt. Thos. Newce, the company’s deputy in Virginia, as well in the discharge of a former promise made unto him, to the end that his reward might be no less than of others whose persons and deserts they doubted not but he could equal, they therefore agreed to add ten persons more when the company shall be able to make the former number 50.”
5/1621, Captain Thomas Nuce wrote from VA that the Germans were facing great difficulties. Swift streams were required to power the wheels of a sawmill, and the sawmill wrights had difficulty finding any in Tidewater Virginia.
7/24/1621, “Captaine Thomas Newce” enumerated in the formation of the VA Council. (S) The Three Charters of the Virginia Company of London. Jamestown 350th Anniversary Historical Booklet, No.4. 1957.
3/1/1621, Thomas was one of the survivors of the Indian Massacre and records show that he and his wife were extremely generous in sharing their possessions to save other survivors from starvation.
Bef. 4/8/1623, Thomas died in VA. (S) The governor and council, writing to the Earl of Southampton mention “Captain” Newce as “lately dead,” and George Sandys wrote of him on April 8, that he died “very poor” and that an allowance had been made for his wife and child.
8/6/1623, “Widow of Capt. Thomas Nuce”, Anne’s letter read before the Company: “in tender reguard of her great losse by the late death of her said Husband and comfortless in a strainge Country farr from all her friends”, requesting she still receive the money from the tenents of her husband’s land until it was sold. (S) History of the Virginia Company of London, 1869, P381.
(S) Boddie J.B., The Seventeenth Century Isle of Wight County Virginia, 1938. (S) Gethyn-Jones E., George Thorpe and the Berkeley Company, A Gloucestershire Enterprise in Virginia, Sutton, 1982. (S) Smyth J., History of the Hundred of Berkeley.
Family notes:
• Thomas has been cited primarily as a son of William Newce and Mary Fanshaw. Using a timeline of events and births, and with known facts it is seen that Thomas was not likely the son of this William. Thomas came from an influential family by virtue of his position in the VA Company; the VA Company was made up of Londoners of which this family is documented; Thomas died “very poor” because he died soon after reaching VA, and obviously did not inherit lands or wealth in England; and hence was not the 1st born. Mary recovered substantial money from “cosen William Newce of Much Haddam in Hertfordshire”. With these facts and the fact that there are many known but unnamed children in the family line, there are at least 3 good candidates from 3 different generations that could be this Thomas.
• The Newce family of Hadam, Hertfordshire, England are ancestors of President George Washington.
• 1575, William Clopton conveyed one half of the Berwick manor, co. Hertford, to Clement Newce. By 1569, Clement seised the whole of the manor. The manor passed to his son William who died in 1610-11; leaving it to son Thomas Newce, who died in 1623. His son William conveying the manor in 1648 to Edward Hide. (S) A History of the County of Hertford, V3, 1912. However, Thomas Newce of Much Hadam, heir and son of William, completed a contract in 1642; cosigned by William Newce, Henry Newce, and Clement Newce. (S) UKNA.
Child of Thomas and Anne:
i. Mary Newce (4965), born ~1600 in England.
