Lusty Beggars, Dissolute Women, Sorners, Gypsies, and Vagabonds
for Virginia by Bruce P. Lenman In a drear Scottish prison,
convicts await transport to the colonies and a hard, brutal
existence as indentured servants. The prisons held "idle
vagabonds and beggars," poverty being itself sufficient grounds
for imprisonment and transport. Interpreters Christina
Westenberger, Zack Westenberger, Rod Faulkner, Stephen Moore,
Rachel Moore, and Bill Rose. Photo by Dave Doody Colonial
Virginia was always intended to be a piece of England translated
to the Chesapeake Bay. King James I expected his three
kingdoms—Scotland and Ireland being the other two—to develop
their own American colonies. By 1640, however, the surviving
overseas plantations were all English, and neither Scots nor
Irish were especially welcome. Nevertheless, many a Scot still
made his way to Virginia, though not always under circumstances
that commended the journey. Scotland's dealings with the Old
Dominion began in 1628. They generally were thought t