 Augustine arrived in Virginia in 1628 at the age of seventeen, one of a group of thirty-four settlers brought in by Adam Thoroughgood.His first land acquisition came seven years later, when he patented .Continuing the typical pattern of 17th-century success in colonial Virginia as a merchant, landowner, and politician, he rose through the hierarchy to become a member of the House of Burgesses in 1652 and then in 1659 a member of the King's Council, which he held until his death.