Tobias PHILLIPS

                   Historical information regarding dates, immigration, and illegitimacy of these children in the notes

From numerous sources:Margaret "Peggy" Lawrence, presumed to be the fourth child of Thomas and Mary Peploe Lawrence(d. 1729). Margaret was christened on 10 Apr 1709 at the nearby Battlefield Parish Church. As a young woman, about 19-20 years old, she was banished from Wem, in the County of Shropshire, England, because she left the Church of England for the Puritan Faith.Margaret was residing in London, Middlesex County, England, when she was indicted on a felony charge of theivery on 9 July 1729. She wastried and convicted in the Hall of Justice of "Old Bailey", located in the suburbs of London, on 25 February 1730. For her sentence she was given "His Majesty's royal mercy on condition of transporation to some parts of America for a spare of fourteen years". Her transportation bond was issued on 9 March 1730.Margaret became one of the 109 prisoners whom Jonathan Forward contracted to transport aboard the "Patapscoe Merchant", Darby Lux, Commander from the Newgate Prison, City of London, County of Middlesex, England to Maryland on 17 March 1730.Tobias Phillips, a second generation tobacco planter from Old Rappahannock (now Richmond) County, Virginia, learned of the ship arriving in Baltimore, Maryland and traveled 100 miles to meet Capt. Lux and inspect the 94 surviving prisoners. Tobias purchased Margaret's bond which entitled him to 14 years of service, and brought her back to his plantion in Virginia.While at the tobacco plantation she bore Tobias two illigetimate sons; John Lawrence, born about 1731, and Thomas Lawrence, born 1733. She did not live out her entire bond of fourteen years, and died before 1739, as is evident since she was not mentioned in Tobias Phillip's will dated on 10 September 1739.