During the colonial period labor was in very short supply in the colonies. Originally, indentured servants were the major source. These people paid for their passage by agreeing to a period of labor. The length of service required was limited to about 5 years. Once free the former indentured servants might become competitors of their former masters in the labor market. In those times the southern colonies developed a reputation of being unhealthy places and most people would think twice about going there. As a result the supply was never equal to the need.
It was natural to look for additional sources of labor that was other than voluntary. There were two categories of involuntary labor employed in colonial Maryland: convicts and slaves. Convicts were sentenced to transportation to the colonies by British courts. Transportation served two purposes. One was that it allowed Britain to rid itself of a population of people who otherwise would have been imprisoned at public expense or in some cases were shown mercy for having committed one of many capital crimes. Many crimes we would consider relatively trivial were punishable with death in Great Britain at the time. The second purpose was that it allowed the continuing economic development of the American colonies. The British Parliament established an option of transportation in 1717 for convicts that required 7 years of servitude with the same status as indentured servants. Many old and distinguished Maryland families can trace their lineage back to one of these convicts and it does appear that the system did allow the prisoners a second chance. The other major source of involuntary labor were African slaves and for them there was no second chance.
The Complete Book of Emigrants in Bondage 1614-1775 by Peter Wilson Coldham * lists three individuals named Lanham, who were sentenced to transportation to North America. Thomas Brown, alias Henry Lanham, was sentenced in June 1758 by the court in Middlesex, England and arrived in Annapolis, Maryland on the ship "Tryal" in September 1758. We do not know what became of him and whether he used the name Brown or Lanham after that point. Another Lanham was John Lanham, who arrived on the ship "Patapsco" in Annapolis, Anne Arundel Co., Maryland in June 1731. The third was a woman Sarah Lanham who was sentenced to transportation by the Suffolk County Court in 1731, but we do not know where she was taken.The John Lanham transported in 1731 would have been a free man in 1738 if he survived. Unfortunately, we have the other John Lanham, who immigrated as an indentured servant in 1678 and established the Lanham family in Prince George's County, Maryland. We do not know if these two John Lanhams, both immigrants from Great Britain, were closely related. The ex-convict John Lanham may appear in Maryland records, but by 1738 we also have several other John Lanhams, who were the Prince George's County man's descendants. One theory might be that this John Lanham is the same who married Comfort Brown, daughter of Robert Brown and is mentioned in Robert Brown's Anne Arundel Co. will of 1765. It is believed that this John Lanham relocated to Mecklenburg Co., North Carolina and was the father of the prolific Revolutionary War veteran Abel Lanham (c. 1756-c. 1838). Although there are claims the Mecklenburg County man descended from the John Lanham, who immigrated in 1678 via his son William, I have never seen any documentation supporting this claim of relationship. In other words, I am not aware that there are records of what happened to John, son of William, after his birth record or records that would indicate the Mecklenburg man must be this particular John Lanham. Since John Lanham, the convict was transported to Annapolis, Anne Arundel Co., Maryland and Robert Brown lived in Anne Arundel County this does place the two mentions in proximity. Of course, in 1731 most people arriving in Maryland would have landed in the major port of Annapolis regardless of where they settled in the state.
There are some "loose" records mentioning a John Lanham. For example, we have the 1753 debt book for Anne Arundel County mentioning that John Lanham held 150 acres of a tract named Richmond's Lot. This tract now lies in Howard County, Maryland and was originally patented by John Richmond in 1734. I have never been able to link this record with any of the Prince George's County Lanhams. It would be worth testing the DNA of descendants of the Mecklenburg County Lanhams and comparing it to known descendants of Prince George's County Lanhams in order to get a sense of the closeness of the relationship. However, I do not think that doing this would absolutely prove that the John Lanham, who married Comfort Brown, was the same who was transported in 1731.
* Published by The Genealogical Book Company, Baltimore, MD 1988
