Thomas Weston

English Puritans who escaped persecution by moving to Leyden sought a new life in the New World.

Thomas Weston, a somewhat successful English merchant, arranged for the vessel they would sail to America, the Mayflower.

That is well known about Weston.

What was largely forgotten about him, until this article, was “Thomas Weston, early seventeenth century London merchant, was by the end of 1623 among the first to ship fish into the Virginia colony.” based on evidence gathered from “three colonial Virginia court hearings: the first Virginia records we have involving either Weston or his ship, Sparrow.”

Though a neerdowell rogue, as colonists were starving, Thomas Weston may have alone saved another colony, Jamestown.

Arlene completed this research and published her findings in her article for Global Maritime History (February 2019), New Evidence: Was Thomas Weston, Seventeenth Century London Merchant, among the First to Sail Fish to Virginia’s Starving Colonists?