Career
He was also the first known person named Graves in North America. Captain Thomas Graves is listed as one of the original Adventurers as "Thomas Grave" on page 364, Records of the Virginia Company of London, volunteer IV. Graves arrived in Virginia in October 1608 on the ship Mary and Margaret with Captain Christopher Newport"s second supply.
He paid 25 pounds for two shares in the London Company and thereby was entitled to 200 acres (081 km2).
Captain Thomas Graves settled at Smythe"s Hundred, situated on the north shore of the James River ten miles from Jamestown. Governor George Yeardley placed Graves in charge of Smythe"s Hundred on May 30, 1618, after one man killed another in a fight.
His name appears on a monument to the first House of Burgesses which stands at Jamestown today. Smythe"s Hundred was abandoned after the Indian uprising of 1622.
The next record of Captain Graves showed him living on the Eastern Shore of Virginia by February 16, 1624.
On February 8, 1627, Captain Francis West, Governor of Virginia, ordered that Thomas Graves have a commission to command the Plantation at Accomac. Graves was the second Commander. As an "Ancient Planter" he received one of the first patents there on March 14, 1628, consisting of 200 acres (081 km2).
He lived on Old Plantation Creek, now in Northampton County, Virginia, and served as Commissioner for Accomac Shire in 1629.
Captain Graves and three others represented the Eastern Shore in the Assembly of 1629‑30. He served again as a burgess in 1632.
Captain Thomas Graves, Esquire, was recorded as being a Justice at a court held for Accomac on April 13, 1635. He died between November 1635, when he witnessed a deed, and January 5, 1635/6, when suit was entered for Mistress
Graves concerning theft by a servant.