Graves arrived in Virginia in October 1608 on the ship Mary and Margaret with Captain Christopher Newport's second supply.

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.

Thomas Graves was a member of the First Legislative Assembly in America, and, with Mr. Walter Shelley, sat for Smythe's Hundred when they met at Jamestown, Virginia on July 30, 1619.

[2] On February 8, 1627, Captain Francis West, Governor of Virginia, ordered that Thomas Graves have a commission to command the Plantation at Accomac.