458    Court and Testamentary Business, 1648.

            Liber A. The Depn of Thomas Bradnox aged 40 yeares & upwards

                  taken before the Gour & Councell att a Court held att St Maries

                  70 Decembr as followeth.

                    Gour         This Dept sayth That sometime in the

                  Prnt C. G. Brent. Winter, betweene Michaelmas & Christ

                    Mr Tho; Gerrard mas in the yeare 1644. Capt Willm Cley

                  borne (one of the Councell of Virginia) came uppon the Ile of

                  Kent, bringing wth him inTompson's Cock, & his owne Vessell,

                  Ten or Eleauen persons; and stird up the Inhabts of the sd

                  Iland, together his owne forenamed Company, & seauen or

                  eight other persons then newly arryued from Chicacoan, to

                  rise in armes agst the then there settled Gouermt & by force

                  of armes to take the howse of Mr Giles Brent, then lyuing

                  uppon the sd Iland. And uppon this designemt of taking the

                  sd Mr Brents howse by force of armes as aforesd & of taking

                  the Iland from under the jurisdiction there setled as aforesd

                  himselfe wth the foresd parties marched in armes from one

                  Edw: Commins howse, towards Mr Brents howse about 3 mile,

                  unto the howse of one John Abbotts. Where then the sd persons,

                  before they would march further wth him, requyred to see the

                  Authority by wch hee was enabled to goe uppon the accon then

                  in hand. And hee shewed them a peice ofparchmt & a Letter,

                  Wth bee sayd was a Commisn & a Letter from the King. But

                  the sd parties, or the greatest number of them (as it should

                  seerne) doubting of the validity of his Authority, to iustify them

                  in the sd accon there gaue ouer the designe & left him.

                  Whereuppon hee betooke himselfe to his Vessells & departed.

                  And this is all (to his best memory) tht the Dept can say of th

                  busines done att tht time. ffurther bee deposeth not.

                                              Thomas T Bradnox

                    The Depn of Tho: Bradnox aged 40 yeares & upwards taken

                  before the Gouernor & Councell as afore.

                    This Dept sayth tht sometime in the yeare 1646, about or

                  not long after Christmas, att W Brents howse uppon the Ile of

                  Kent, whereof Capt Willm Cleyborne had then possesd him

                  selfe, & his Cozen Tompson. That one Christopher Willin a

                  Man then belonging to Capt Cleyborne, told this Dept tht Capt

                  Cleyborne had Commisn from Sr Willm Berkeley, to take the

                  lie of Kent, & such estate, as had formerly belonged to Capt

                  Cleyborne therein, into the Sd Cleybornes possesn And further

                  tht the sdI Cleyborne had Commisn sent him in tht prnt yeare,

                  (if bee would haue accepted of it) to bee Gouernor of Virginia.

                  And That Sodenly after Capt Cleyborne (then being uppon the

                  Iland) drew the Inhabts of the sd Iland, together wth about 20

                  persons, whom bee had brought out of Virginia wth him, into