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Isaac Allerton Jr.

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Col. Isaac Allerton Jr. (c. 1627/1630 – December 30, 1702) was planter, military officer, politician and merchant in colonial America. Like his father, he first traded in New England, and after his father's death, in Virginia. There, he served on the Governor's Council (1687-1691) and for many years in the House of Burgesses, representing Northumberland County and later Westmoreland County.[1]

Col. Isaac Allerton Jr.
Member of the House of Burgesses representing Westmoreland County
In office
1696-1697
Preceded byJohn Jordan
Succeeded byJohn Scott
In office
1680-1684
Preceded byJohn Washington
Succeeded byWilliam Hardidge
Member of the House of Burgesses representing Northumberland County
In office
1668-1677
Preceded byWilliam Presley
Succeeded byWilliam Pierce
Member of the House of Burgesses representing Westmoreland County
In office
1667
Preceded byNicholas Spencer
Succeeded byNicholas Spencer
Personal details
Born
Isaac Allerton Jr.

c. 1627/1630
Plymouth Colony
Diedafter October 25, 1702
Narrow's Plantation, Westmoreland County, Virginia
Spouse(s)Elizabeth (----)
Elizabeth Willoughby Overzee Colclough
Children5
Parent(s)Isaac Allerton
Fear Brewster
EducationHarvard College
OccupationPlanter, politician, soldier, merchant

Early and family life

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Born in Plymouth, Massachusetts, sometime after May 22, 1627, and before September 21, 1631 (since no birth record has been found),[2][3][4] his father and grandfather were among the colony's leaders. His father Isaac Allerton Sr. had emigrated to what was then known as the Plymouth Colony on the ship Mayflower, as a Pilgrim.[2] His father's first wife, Mary Norris, had died the following winter, on February 25, 1621. Thus the younger Isaac Allerton had 3 half-siblings (all born in Leiden, Holland): Bartholomew, Remember and Mary, the last surviving passenger of the Mayflower.[5]

His mother Fear Brewster, was the elder Allerton's second wife, and the daughter of Elder William Brewster.[2][6][7][8] the colony's spiritual and political leader,[9] who had also sailed aboard the Mayflower as well as signed the Mayflower Compact. Her mother was Mary Brewster, and Fear Brewster arrived at Plymouth, Massachusetts on July 10, 1623, aboard the Anne. Another passenger on the Anne was this man's aunt Sarah Allerton, who had married Degory Priest[10] who had also arrived on the Mayflower and signed the Mayflower Compact. The widowed Sarah had married Priest in a dual wedding with Isaac Allerton Sr. and his first wife.[11]

Fear Brewster Allerton died sometime before December 12, 1634. Disagreements with fellow Plymouth Colonists concerning his commingling his own merchant accounts with the colony's payments to the Merchant Adventurers for funding the Mayflower voyage increased after his second wife's death. Also, he had previously established a trading post in Maine, which interfered with the colony's monopoly on the fur trade and later with a British treaty. Thus, the elder Allerton moved south to the New Haven Colony. However, young Isaac did not initially join him. Instead he was raised by his maternal grandfather William Brewster, and eventually joined the family of his uncle Love Brewster. Meanwhile, by 1644, when elder Brewster died, the elder Isaac Allerton had again remarried, to his third wife, Joanna Swinnerton.[12]

Education

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His grandfather Brewster tutored young Isaac before he entered college.[13] He graduated from Harvard College in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1650.[14][15]

Marriage and family

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Allerton married twice. He married his first wife, Elizabeth (...) in New Haven, Connecticut in 1652–3.[13] Before her death, they had two children, Elizabeth (1653–1740) and Isaac (1655-?).[16] Elizabeth was born on September 27, 1653[16] in New Haven, Connecticut and first married Benjamin Starr, who was born in Yarmouth, Massachusetts, the grandson of Doctor Comfort Starr of Boston (who emigrated from Ashford, Kent[17] and founded Cambridge, Massachusetts and Harvard College) and nephew of Hannah Starr, the wife of John Cutt (the first President of the Province of New Hampshire). Following Starr's early death, Elizabeth married his first cousin Simon Ayers (or Eyres or Eyre) of New Haven.[18][19]

His son Isaac (the third of the name) was born at New Haven on June 11, 1655. He accompanied his father to Virginia when he was a child, but returned to New Haven about 1683 and lived there most of the remainder of his life.[13]

In 1663, Allerton married as his second wife the twice-widowed Elizabeth Willoughby (Overzee) Colclough.[20][13][21][22][23] They had three daughters and a son:[24]

Career

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Circa 1660, the widower moved his family to Virginia's Northern Neck. Initially he had settled in Wicomico in Gloucester County on waterfront land near the plantation of Col. Richard Lee II, who later served with him on the Governor's Council and invested in land further upstream on the Potomac River in what became Northumberland and Westmoreland Counties. Allerton and his descendants became wealthy as planters in Virginia, with indentured servants, and ultimately owned a 2,150-acre (8.7 km2) plantation on the south side of the Rappahannock River.[25] As a tobacco planter-merchant Allerton probably constructed a wharf and warehouse (as his father had done in New Amsterdam) since financial success required both growing and transporting tobacco. Whether Allerton bought land from his neighbor Richard Lee II or acquired it over time is not known. He may have acquired the land from his marriage to Elizabeth, who would have acquired it from her previous marriages or from her parents.

In 1663 Allerton was appointed a justice of then vast Northumberland County (the justices jointly administered the county in addition to judicial duties). In 1667 he was a member of the "Committee of the Association of Northumberland, Westmoreland and Stafford Counties". He joined the local in the Virginia militia and ultimately rose to the rank of colonel.[22] As a major in 1667, he served under Colonel John Washington, the great-grandfather of president George Washington,[13] Settlers in the area had experienced massacres in 1622 and 1644, and when the southern Maryland Doeg sent a raiding party in 1675 that killed three colonists, the initial response was by Col. George Mason and Captain Giles Brent Jr., who destroyed their Virginia settlement (at Dogue Neck, later a plantation of the Mason family) and pursued them across the river and into the Maryland woods.[26] Then Maryland and Virginia colonists raised a force estimated at 1000 men, the Virginians led by Cols. Washington and Allerton and the Marylanders by Major Truman, to attack a fort the Susquehannocks had erected on an island in the Potomac River. The colonists attacked the fort, and five Native Americans who had surrendered were slaughtered by Maryland militia, which led to charges filed against both Washington and Allerton in the General Court at Williamsburg.[27][28] Although Washington died before the proceedings finished, Allerton was acquitted.[29]

Allerton first served as a member of the House of Burgesses in 1667, representing Westmoreland County during a break in service of his merchant friend Nicholas Spencer. He would then represent either adjoining Northumberland County, or Westmoreland County for all the sessions in which those Northern Neck counties sent representatives for the next fourteen years.[30][31][32]

During Bacon's Rebellion in 1676, Allerton remained loyal to governor Berkeley, who was later criticized by a royal commission.[33] Nathaniel Bacon specifically denounced Allerton as one of the governor's cronies.[34] Allerton's family also developed a close relationship with the Lee family, who had vast estates in both counties. Like John Washington, both Allerton and Lee were senior officers and also served as members of the General Court of Virginia (the county's appellate court had sessions during those of the House of Burgesses). Allerton and Lee participated in commerce, governmental affairs and social activities.[citation needed]

Allerton served on the Governor's council from 1687 to 1691, when he, Lee and John Armistead resigned rather than take a loyalty oath to William III and Mary II, who had ousted King James.[35][13] After a decade-plus break in service, Allerton won his last election to the House of Burgesses in 1696, but wrote that illness prevented him from attending to October 1697 session.[36] Nonetheless, he received an appointment as naval officer and tax collector for Westmoreland county in 1699.[37]

Meanwhile, Allerton was on the committee that in 1680 resolved the complicated widow's claim after the execution of rebel Giles Bland, and that year also was appointed escheator (resolving estates of those dying without issue) for Westmoreland or adjacent Northern Neck counties.[38] In 1688, Allerton joined Captain George Brent of Stafford County, Virginia (who had emigrated from Maryland) and Captain Lawrence Washington as trustees of the estate of their mutual friend, Nicholas Spencer; Col. Spencer also bequeathed each man forty shillings for a mourning ring.[39] to serve as trustees of his estates.[40]

Death and legacy

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Isaac Allerton died between October 25, 1702, and December 30, 1702, in Westmoreland County, Virginia.[13][22]

Lee's younger brother Hancock (1652–1709)[41] married Allerton's daughter Sarah (1670–1731) after Hancock's first wife died. They became the great-grandparents of President Zachary Taylor,[42][43][44][45] through their daughter Elizabeth Lee and grandson Colonel Richard Taylor, an officer in the Continental Army in the American Revolutionary War.[13] Another great granddaughter was Mary Willis Lee[46] (1757–1798), the daughter of Hancock Lee II (1709-1762) and Mary Willis[41] (1716–1766). She married Ambrose Madison[47] (1755–1793). He was the son of James Madison, Sr., the owner of a tobacco plantation in Orange County, Virginia; and the brother of James Madison[48] (March 16, 1751 – June 28, 1836) an American politician and political philosopher who served as the fourth President of the United States (1809–1817) and is considered one of the Founding Fathers of the United States.

Ancestry

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Notes

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  1. ^ "Isaac Allerton (ca. 1630–1702) – Encyclopedia Virginia".
  2. ^ a b c Jones, pp. 24-26
  3. ^ Merrick, p. 30
  4. ^ Allerton, p. 30
  5. ^ "Mayflower History". Archived from the original on 12 May 2010. Retrieved 25 April 2010.
  6. ^ Allerton, p. 19
  7. ^ Allerton, p. 29
  8. ^ Merrick, pp. 1-5, 12
  9. ^ Deetz, Patricia Scott; Christopher Fennell (14 December 2007). "Mayflower Compact, 1620". The Plymouth Colony Archive Project. Archived from the original on 19 August 2009. Retrieved 25 April 2010.
  10. ^ Townsend, Charles Delmar (1994). "Degory Priest". Archived from the original on 5 February 2010. Retrieved 25 April 2010.
  11. ^ "Isaac Allerton (ca. 1630–1702) – Encyclopedia Virginia".
  12. ^ "Isaac Allerton (ca. 1630–1702) – Encyclopedia Virginia".
  13. ^ a b c d e f g h Jones, pp. 38-39
  14. ^ Allerton, p. 31
  15. ^ Sibley, p. 531
  16. ^ a b Allerton, p. 34
  17. ^ "Harvard Charter of 1650, Harvard University Archives, harvard.edu". Archived from the original on 11 January 2011. Retrieved 6 May 2010.
  18. ^ Merrick, p. 102
  19. ^ A Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England, Vol. II, James Savage, John Farmer, Orrando Perry Dexter, Little, Brown and Company, Boston, 1860
  20. ^ "Isaac Allerton (ca. 1630–1702) – Encyclopedia Virginia".
  21. ^ Billings, pp. 112-115
  22. ^ a b c Allerton, pp. 32-33
  23. ^ The following marriage and children information is no longer accepted by the General Society of Mayflower Descendants; see Mayflower Families Through Five Generations (Vol. 17: Issac Allerton) by Robert S. Wakefield and Margaret Harris Stover.
  24. ^ "Isaac Allerton (ca. 1630–1702) – Encyclopedia Virginia".
  25. ^ Quitt, Martin H. "Isaac Allerton (ca. 1630–1702)". Encyclopedia Virginia. Retrieved 14 October 2015.
  26. ^ "The Brent Family".
  27. ^ Walter Biscoe Norris Jr., Westmoreland County Virginia: 1653-1983 (Montross: Westmoreland County Board of Supervisors 1983) pp. 49-50
  28. ^ Justin Glenn, The Washingtons: a family history (El Dorado Hills, California: Savas Beatie LLC 2014) vol. 1 p.2
  29. ^ "Isaac Allerton (ca. 1630–1702) – Encyclopedia Virginia".
  30. ^ Cynthia Miller Leonard, The Virginia General Assembly 1619-1978 (Richmond: Virginia State Library 1978) pp. 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 46, 47
  31. ^ while such a break in service often indicates a son of the same name began service, a source previously cited states Isaac Allerton III remained in New Haven
  32. ^ Norris pp. 673-675
  33. ^ Norris pp. 50-51
  34. ^ "Isaac Allerton (ca. 1630–1702) – Encyclopedia Virginia".
  35. ^ "Isaac Allerton (ca. 1630–1702) – Encyclopedia Virginia".
  36. ^ Leonard p. 57
  37. ^ "Isaac Allerton (ca. 1630–1702) – Encyclopedia Virginia".
  38. ^ "Isaac Allerton (ca. 1630–1702) – Encyclopedia Virginia".
  39. ^ Westmoreland County records include a February 4, 1661, power-of-attorney from merchant Gabriel Reve of London to "Lawrence Washington, of Luton, County Bedford, merchant" asking for payment from Captain Nathaniel Pope's heirs for all sums due to London merchant Reve. Undoubtedly Lawrence Washington of Bedfordshire and Nicholas Spencer were known to each other in England.[1]
  40. ^ Spencer, Washington and Allerton had been involved in an episode in Maryland involving the Pascatoway Indians in 1675.[2]
  41. ^ a b Lee, pp. 518-531
  42. ^ Jones, 251
  43. ^ Jones, 252
  44. ^ Jones, 253
  45. ^ Zachary Taylor at Find A Grave
  46. ^ Mary Willis Lee Madison at Find A Grave
  47. ^ Ambrose Madison at Find A Grave
  48. ^ See "Madison, James Jr., (1751–1836)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. US Congress. Retrieved 24 August 2009., "James Madison Jr". teachingamericanhistory.org. Retrieved 24 August 2009. and "Madison, James Jr". Princeton University. Archived from the original on 23 March 2010. Retrieved 24 August 2009.

References

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  • Allerton, Walter S. A History of the Allerton Family in the United States 1585 to 1885 Higginson Book Co., 1900.
  • Billings, Warren M. The Old Dominion in the Seventeenth Century Publisher: UNC Press, 1975 ISBN 0807812374.
  • Jones, Emma C. Brewster. The Brewster Genealogy, 1566-1907: a Record of the Descendants of William Brewster of the "Mayflower," ruling elder of the Pilgrim church which founded Plymouth Colony in 1620. New York: Grafton Press, 1908.
  • Lee, Edmund Jennings Lee of Virginia, 1642-1892: Biographical and Genealogical Sketches of the Descendants of Colonel Richard Lee Publisher: Heritage Books, 2008, ISBN 0-7884-2103-4.
  • Merrick, Barbara Lambert. William Brewster of the Mayflower and His Descendants for Four Generations, Revised 3rd Edition, Barbara Lambert Merrick, compiler. General Society of Mayflower Descendants, 2000.
  • Sibley, John Langdon. Biographical Sketches of Graduates of Harvard University, in Cambridge, Massachusetts: 1659-1677 Publisher: University Bookstore, 1881.
  • Cochran, Charles F. "Early Generations of the Newton Family" (1928–29), Genealogies of Virginia Families from the Virginia Magazine of History and Biography (Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1981), vol. 4

Further reading

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