Nicholas Martineau
Name rendered variously in the records: Marlier, Martue, Martin, Martian, etc.
1621
In 1621 a large party of French Walloons applied to the London Company for leave to settle in Virginia. Permission was granted, but as they received more favorable terms from the Dutch; they sailed to New York in 1622 and constituted the first Dutch colony in America.
Some few, nevertheless, came to Virginia, and among them was Nicholas Martieau, who received his denization in England. In the list of Walloons presented in 1621 to the London Company, there is entered “Nicholas de la Marlier, his wife and two children.”
1624
In the census for 1624, Nicholas is mentioned as living in “the Maine.”
1625
In 1625, Lt. Edward Berkeley had living with him his wife, Jane Berkeley, and daughter Jane. It seems that Martian married his widow. In the census of 1625 “Capt. Nicholas Martue” is named as living at Elizabeth City. (Hotten, List of Emigrants to America, 99, 176, 249.)
1630
When Chiaskiack, on York River, was opened in 1630 for settlement, he obtained the land at Yorktown and was the first representative in the Assembly for Chiskiack and Kent Island. He was one of the first justices of York County.
1635
In 1635, he took a leading part in protesting against the tyranny of Governor Sir John Harvey, and the loss of Kent Island to Lord Baltimore. He was arrested and confined, but Sir John Harvey was deposed by the council and Martian and his friend were released.
1639
In 1639 obtained a patent for land at Yorktown due him on account of importing himself, Nicholas Marlier, wife Jane, Michlas, his son, Elizabeth Marlier, his daughter, and Jane Berkeley her daughter and several others “the first year to Chiskiack.”
1645
In the records of York he is mentioned in 1645 as married to Isabella Beech.
1656-57
His will dated March 1, 1656’7, and proved April 4, 1757, names three daughters:
Elizabeth, his eldest daughter was the wife of George Reade;
Mary married John Scasbrook, of York County; and
Sarah married Captain William Fuller, distinguished Puritan governor of Maryland.
These daughters were probably by the second wife, Jane, widow of Edward Berkeley, and Colonel Scasbrook, who had a daughter named Jane.
Martieau’s French wife and children probably did not survive the “seasoning period.” Nicholas was the common ancestor of George Washington, Robert E. Lee and many other eminent Virginians.
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Based upon William and Mary Quarterly, Volume 14 – Page 123, Published in 1977
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