We know that John Smith (of Smithfield) and his wife Martha Crafts went to West Jersey with John Fenwick on the Griffin in 1675, and we also know that Martha's sister Ann Craven and husband Richard did not go with them on that ship, because Martha sent a letter back to them after landing, and also because they were still in Limehouse when Richard died that same summer after the ship had left. So when did Ann Craven and her children go to New Jersey? We know Ann was still "of Limehouse" in Feb 1676/7 when her 1-year-old son Richard died (born after her husband's death); and was "of Shadwell" on 20 March 1676/7, according to a deed cited by Edward Sharpe, where she purchased 500 acres in New Jersey from John Eldridge. She was definitely in New Jersey by May 1679, when she was of "New Salem" in the warrant for survey on p. 549 in this link. Per Walter Sheppard's book Passengers and Ships Prior to 1684, Penn's Colony: Volume I, these ships sailed to New Jersey between those dates (with ships that didn't sail from London being unlikely):
- Kent, sailed from London, arrived Aug 1677
- Greyhound, sailed from London, arrived Oct 1677
- Willing Mind, sailed from London, arrived Nov 1677 / Jan 1678 / 28 Sep 1677 [?]
- Phoenix, sailed from Ireland, arrived Aug 1677
- Martha, sailed from Hull, arrived Sep 1677
- Mary of Dublin, sailed from Ireland, arrived Feb 1678
- Shield, sailed from Hull, arrived Dec 1677
- Success, sailed from London, arrived Apr 1679
But there's another warrant of note on the opposing page of Calendar of Records (p. 548), for her 10 acre lot in New Salem Twp, dated 7 Sep 1677. If she was in New Jersey by that date, it would rule out every ship except the Kent. The question though is whether you can infer from the issue of a warrant that a settler had arrived in the colony by that date, even if the record doesn't explicitly state their residence. Sheppard's book (note 3b) seems to indicate the answer is yes; a 1906 essay from Edson S. Jones seems to say no. To me, it wouldn't really make sense to start surveying land for someone that hadn't shown up to claim it yet, but I'm not enough an expert on the process to say for sure. But I did notice that two people that have been listed as Kent passengers, Henry Jennings and Christopher Saunders, got warrants for their 10 acre tracts in early Sept. as well (p. 547), only a few days before Ann Craven, which might suggest they all arrived at the same time.
But the other reason I suspect she may have been a Kent passenger is because taking the earliest ship she could have is arguably what she might be expected to do in her situation. If her husband was gone and her sister eagerly wanted her to come join her in New Jersey, and gave such a glowing recommendation of life there, I wouldn't see any compelling reason for Ann to linger in England longer than necessary. (Ann definitely must have gotten that letter by 1676, and it was even published along with others that same year, probably because it was good PR for the colony.) It wouldn't be odd for her to stay until March 1677, because many sources agree there were no ships to New Jersey between the Griffin and the Kent (so perhaps there's a tacit validation of that here), but once the Kent was setting sail abt. April 1677, I'd be kind of surprised if she were to pass on that ship and defer to a later one, given the facts. The main preparation she needed would be getting a land grant lined up in the colony, which she did on March 20, just as the Kent had started loading, and that doesn't seem like a coincidence. So in this timeline, she purchased her tract in late March, then loaded in the ship, set out to sea sometime in April, arrived in Salem colony sometime in August (August 23 according to some Quaker entries), and started having land surveyed in early September (all in the year 1677).
Do we think this holds water? And if it does, then perhaps in the future we might see fit for Ann and her children to be included in the list of Kent passengers, or at least in the circumstantial category?
