There are many different ways of coming to the Americas. Thomas Clutterbuck, my brother-in-law’s 9th great-grandfather, brought his family there via Barbados and was a part of the burgeoning British colony that would become the third largest (behind Plymouth and Jamestown). The Clutterbucks came to own Six Mens Plantation which produced sugar cane, the leading crop of the Caribbean at this time.

In 1663, the “eight Lord Proprietors”, a collection of English lords, received a charter by King Charles II to establish a colony in the Carolinas. They commissioned William Hilton to lead an expedition to explore potential sites. Thomas Clutterbuck was part of that expedition aboard Hilton’s ship Adventurer which eventually led to the discovery of Hilton Head Island (named after the captain) and the settlement of Charles Town (Charleston SC). A page from the ship’s log is illustrated above.

Clutterbuck returned to Barbados where he died in 1671, followed by his wife Mary in 1680. Their son John indentured himself to a William Freeman to learn the tobacco trade and established the family’s foothold on the mainland, settling in Caroline County Virginia.

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