Captain Thomas Graves
Rod D. Martin’s 11th great grandfather, an original investor in the Virginia Company, and a founding member of the New World's first freely elected parliament.
by Rod D. Martin
December 21, 2014
Captain Thomas Graves (c. 1580-1635), Rod D. Martin’s eleventh great grandfather, was an original investor (“Adventurer”) in the Virginia Company, one of the earliest settlers (“Planters” or in more recent times “Ancient Planters”) at Jamestown, England’s first permanent colony in what was to become the United States. He was also a founding member of the first freely elected parliament in the New World, the Virginia House of Burgesses.
After the loss of Sir Walter Raleigh’s Roanoke Colony in the late 1580s, English plans to colonize the New World were set back for almost a generation. In 1606, investors led by Sir Thomas Smythe organized a new effort, the Virginia Company of London, each share of which sold for 12 pounds 10 shillings (commonly stated to be the equivalent of six month’s wages for an average working man at the time; however, by some calculations, each share may have been worth as much as $750,000 today). The proceeds of this offering were…