When at twenty-one Richard became a free man, he went into business for himself, trading with the Indians for beaver. He must have been a good trader for he acquired a considerable estate. He also worked as an agent for William Claiborne, which in the end brought about his downfall. When Claiborne was proclaimed an enemy by the Maryland Council, Thompson was denounced also. He was in this way forced to flee to Chicacoan.
Before long a settlement had sprung up along the Coan. John Mottrom became the unofficial leader of this first white settlement in the Northern Neck. Although he did not know it, there was one among them who was to play an important part in his life—her name was Ursula, wife of Richard Thompson.
THE "KIDS"
As soon as their homes were built the settlers at Chicacoan began to remove the forest and clear the ground for tobacco fields.
The sound of axes was no doubt heard from sunrise until sunset. Then the stumps had to be dug up, and the soil had to be broken up with hoes. This hard labor was probably done by white indentured servants.
These British servants were commercially known as "kids," probably because most of them were young, their ages ranging from thirteen to thirty as a rule.
An early English writer described the manner in which these "kids" were obtained to send to Virginia—"very many children ... were violently taken away or cheatingly duckoyed without the consent or knowledge of their Parents by ... persons ... called Spirits ... into private places or ships, and there sold to be transported, and then resold there to be servants to those that will give most for them."
A letter written in England in 1610 says that—"there are many ships going to Virginia with them 14 or 15 hundred children w'ch they have gathered up in divers places."
The shipmaster who brought the children over could sell the indentures for whatever he could get for them. If he could not find a purchaser, he could sell the children to persons known as "soul drivers" who would "buy a parcel of servants" to fill his wagon and drive through the country until he could sell them at a cash profit.
Other indentured servants were brought over by planters as "head-rights," which meant that the planter paid for their transportation and received fifty acres of land as a reward for transporting an immigrant to Virginia.