Update. You might want to look at the book "Sir Robert Bell and His Early Virginia Descendants" Supposedly the name Bell and the various forms of Beale are the same border clan/tribe. Spellings were fluent in those days.. Could be a half dozen ways to spell it. Even the owner of the name might spell it differently at various times. Anyway they were a border tribe with English and Scottish members. Due to crowding they began to move further into the countries. The Bells in this book seem to be living in the London area. Some even seem to have ties to the Jamestown Company. Anyway Frances Beale/Creech is listed as coming to Virginia in 1623. The boys supposably went to England to live with their uncle John after their parents were massacred. According to the book. Uncle John never went to Virginia but rather moved to Mass in the 1630s. I think we have eliminated Richard Crouch (muster of 1623). So we are left with Richard Critch arriving in 1635 in Virginia. If the boys were raised by uncle John then it was in Mass. On the other hand there are a couple John Bells related to Frances Critch who did come to Virginia. One even came sponsored by William Carter the same gentleman who Richard Critch was indentured to. Carter was land wealthy from the land he received for paying passage for people (at least 12 more than Richard). I assume all were indentured to him, I know Richard was. It is possible one of these Johns raised the boys. This would put the massacre in the 1640s, possibly the 1644 massacre. Of course this does not solve the Richard Critch/Crich question. My grandma always told me we were Scottish. David Bethune 8th of Creich had only 2 brothers according to Scottish sources. Robert the oldest died at age 20. And a younger brother William. Thus if Richard was a brother (also notice the family surname is Bethune not Creich), he was either expelled from the family or threw off the family name and ran away. Another possibility would be he was illegitimate Also at this time many commoners would take their place of origin as a surname if they moved elsewhere. Add to this the fact that there are at least 2 places in England called Creech (current spelling) plus another Creich Parish in Scotland and he could come from several places. Scottish or English. The records showing a tie between Richard Crich, William Carter, and John Bell give some credibility to James Milton Creech's Family History. The way he presents it implies he is passing on two very similar accounts of Richard back to back that he has received from two separate sources that are never given. Perhaps family bibles, which were for a long time transmitters of genealogy. There are obviously errors but a nugget of truth. Another foot note. While William Carter is referred to as Captain I have never found a ship he commanded. He was born in 1600 so I doubt he would have been old enough to have captained a ship in 1623. Also I have checked as many records as I could find. There seems to never have been a ship called the Journeyman that sailed to Virginia or anywhere else that is recorded. I have repeated much here that i posted before. But after much more research these seem to be the most accurate facts. But a new undiscovered fact constantly surprises me. So I will continue the quest. In the meantime I will cling to our family's "Scottish" roots till I discover iron clad evidence to the contrary. Truth after all is what genealogy is all about. A fairy tale would be so much easier.
