JOHN PUNCH [BUNCH?] arrived in Virginia before 1640. He and two other men fled for freedom but were captured in Maryland and returned to their master, Hugh Gwynn of York County. The information is preserved in this court record dated 9 July 1640:2
Whereas Hugh Gwyn hath by order from this Board Brought back from Maryland three servants formerly run away from the said Gwyn, the court doth therefore order that the said three servants shall receive the punishment of whipping and to have thirty stripes apiece one called Victor, a dutchman [sic], the other Scotchman called James Gregory, shall first serve out their times with their master according to their Indentures, and one whole year apiece after the time of their service is Expired ... the third being a negro named John Punch shall serve his said master and his assigns for the time of his natural Life here or elsewhere. (emphasis added)
Hugh Gwynn was a justice and one of the relatively few members of the House of Burgesses of that period, representing York County in 1639/40 and 1646. He patented large tracts of land, including what is now known as Gwynn’s Island in Mathews County. He was a resident of Gloucester County when it was created in 1651, serving as burgess for that county in 1652.5 Hugh Gwynn was dead by 23 March 1654/5, when widow and executrix, Elizabeth, patented 700 acres in Southside Virginia (a tract Hugh had initially patented on 3 March 1640/1). Of the fewer than one hundred African men who resided in Virginia before 1640, John Punch is the only man who bears a surname similar to Bunch. John Punch was an adult male living in the period in which John Bunch born about 1632-5 in Virginia, and resided in the same county. Evidence strongly suggests that John Punch was the father of John Bunch born about 1632-5.
The children of John Bunch born about 1680–85, freely married neighboring white families. The government of Virginia had focused directly on their father’s racial status in 1705 and decreed by statute that anyone with a great-grandparent who was African or Native American was a mulatto and forbidden to marry a white spouse. This indicates that the children of John Bunch born about 1680–85, must have been great-great grandchildren of the immigrant from Africa. Chronology does not allow them to be a generation closer. It is concluded from these facts that John Bunch born about 1632-5 was son of a white woman by an African immigrant. In early Virginia the child followed the status of its mother. If she were free, the child was free. If she were a servant, the child had to serve a period of indenture.
Since John Bunch born about 1632-5, acted as a legal adult in York County in 1658, he must have been born before 1637. As a new man (not inheriting land from his father), it would normally take a few years for him to establish himself. If there was no error when the clerk entered the facts about the lawsuit against John Bunch in 1658, then John had borrowed a sum in tobacco in order to plant a small crop in 1652, only to have the crop fail the following year. If son of a free white woman, then John Bunch born about 1632-5, was probably born in the early 1630s, which would indicate that John Punch, as his father, also resided in Virginia at that period as an indentured servant. If Hugh Gwynn had refused to grant John Punch his freedom at the end of his term of service, it could have provided him motive to seek freedom elsewhere, which he sought in 1640.
Whereas Hugh Gwyn hath by order from this Board Brought back from Maryland three servants formerly run away from the said Gwyn, the court doth therefore order that the said three servants shall receive the punishment of whipping and to have thirty stripes apiece one called Victor, a dutchman [sic], the other Scotchman called James Gregory, shall first serve out their times with their master according to their Indentures, and one whole year apiece after the time of their service is Expired ... the third being a negro named John Punch shall serve his said master and his assigns for the time of his natural Life here or elsewhere. (emphasis added)
Hugh Gwynn was a justice and one of the relatively few members of the House of Burgesses of that period, representing York County in 1639/40 and 1646. He patented large tracts of land, including what is now known as Gwynn’s Island in Mathews County. He was a resident of Gloucester County when it was created in 1651, serving as burgess for that county in 1652.5 Hugh Gwynn was dead by 23 March 1654/5, when widow and executrix, Elizabeth, patented 700 acres in Southside Virginia (a tract Hugh had initially patented on 3 March 1640/1). Of the fewer than one hundred African men who resided in Virginia before 1640, John Punch is the only man who bears a surname similar to Bunch. John Punch was an adult male living in the period in which John Bunch born about 1632-5 in Virginia, and resided in the same county. Evidence strongly suggests that John Punch was the father of John Bunch born about 1632-5.
The children of John Bunch born about 1680–85, freely married neighboring white families. The government of Virginia had focused directly on their father’s racial status in 1705 and decreed by statute that anyone with a great-grandparent who was African or Native American was a mulatto and forbidden to marry a white spouse. This indicates that the children of John Bunch born about 1680–85, must have been great-great grandchildren of the immigrant from Africa. Chronology does not allow them to be a generation closer. It is concluded from these facts that John Bunch born about 1632-5 was son of a white woman by an African immigrant. In early Virginia the child followed the status of its mother. If she were free, the child was free. If she were a servant, the child had to serve a period of indenture.
Since John Bunch born about 1632-5, acted as a legal adult in York County in 1658, he must have been born before 1637. As a new man (not inheriting land from his father), it would normally take a few years for him to establish himself. If there was no error when the clerk entered the facts about the lawsuit against John Bunch in 1658, then John had borrowed a sum in tobacco in order to plant a small crop in 1652, only to have the crop fail the following year. If son of a free white woman, then John Bunch born about 1632-5, was probably born in the early 1630s, which would indicate that John Punch, as his father, also resided in Virginia at that period as an indentured servant. If Hugh Gwynn had refused to grant John Punch his freedom at the end of his term of service, it could have provided him motive to seek freedom elsewhere, which he sought in 1640.