Benjamin Syms' name was spelled variously, as Sim's, Simes, Sym, Symms, Syms, and Symes. He was reported in the census of Virginia in 1624/25 as thirty-three years old and living at Basse's Choice in what was later known as Isle of Wight County.
Although Benjamin Syms had paid for the passage of Joan Meatheart to America, intending to make her his wife, they quarrelled in May 1626, and he appeared against her at a court session held in James City on October 11, 1627. The court decided that Joan should serve a certain John Gill for two years, in return for which service Syms should be paid 100 weight of tobacco and three years' service from the first man servant to arrive in the colony on any vessel.
In 1629/30 he was living in Jamestown. Notwithstanding the meagerness of this account of his life, it is nevertheless true that he left a clear record to show that he was one of the earliest and probably the earliest inhabitant of any North American colony to bequeath property for the establishment of a free school.
On February 12, 1634/35, two years before the first possible date for the gift of John Harvard to the college that bears his name, he wrote a will leaving a farm of two hundred acres situated on the Poquoson River in Elizabeth City County, together with the milk and the increase of eight cows to provide a free school for the children of the parishes of Elizabeth City and Kiquotan.
This will was confirmed by the General Assembly held at James City in 1642/43.
Benjamin Syms is known for establishing a fund that provided for the Syms School until 1805 and then formed part of the endowment of Hampton Academy, often referred to as the Syms-Eaton Free School, until 1852, when a public school system was established. In 1933 it was reported as a fund of $10, 100 and is still used by the public school commissioners to educate the children of the county.
Quotes from others about the person
In a pamphlet of unknown authorship published in London in 1649, A Perfect Description of Virginia, the author mentioned "a free school, with two hundred acres of land, a fine house upon it, forty milch kine" and wrote that "the benefactor deserveth perpetual memory; his name, Mr. Benjamin Symes, worthy to be chronicled. "
There is no indication that he ever married.
