Author: Jane Dickenson

PRIMARY DOCUMENT

The humble Petition of Jane Dickenson Widdowe (1624)

In this petition to Virginia governor Sir Francis Wyatt and members of the governor’s Council, dated March 30, 1624, Jane Dickenson pleads for her release from indentured servitude. Having been taken prisoner by Pamunkey Indians following Opechancanough‘s attack in 1622, she was ransomed by Dr. John Pott, to whom she then owed service for both herself and her husband, who was killed in the attack. Some spelling has been modernized and contractions expanded.