The Aylett family of Virginia was a prominent family in King William County in Colonial Virginia. Several of the family members married into the Washington and Lee families. The family probably descended from Thomas Aylett (1570-1650) of Hovells, in Coggleshall, Essex, via his son William (1607- 1677) who became a merchant taylor in London. It was his son William (?1640-1679) who moved to Virginia. [1] Aylett, Virginia is named for the family. [2] , though a firm documented link between this William and the following Colonel William Aylett of Fairfield Plantation has not yet been established.
Notable members of the family include:
Robert Bolling was an English-born merchant, planter and politician.
Robert Carter I was an American planter, merchant, and colonial administrator who served as the acting governor of Virginia from 1726 to 1727. An agent for the Northern Neck Proprietary, Carter emerged as the wealthiest settler in the British colony of Virginia and received the sobriquet "King" from his contemporaries connoting his autocratic approach and political influence. He also served as speaker of the House of Burgesses and president of the Virginia Governor's Council.
John Washington was an English-born merchant, planter, politician and military officer. Born in Tring, Hertfordshire, he subsequently emigrated to the English colony of Virginia and became a member of the planter class. In addition to serving in the Virginia militia and owning several slave plantations, Washington also served for many years in the House of Burgesses, representing Westmoreland County. He was the first member of the Washington family to live in North America and was a paternal great-grandfather of George Washington, the first president of the United States.
Col. Isaac Allerton Jr. 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.
Thomas Ludwell Lee, Sr. was a Virginia planter and politician who served in the House of Burgesses and later the Virginia Senate, and may be best known as one of the editors of the Virginia Declaration of Rights.
Bartholomew Dandridge was an early American planter, lawyer and patriot. He represented New Kent County in the House of Burgesses, all five Virginia Revolutionary Conventions, and once in the Virginia House of Delegates before fellow legislators selected him as a judge of what later became known as the Virginia Supreme Court.
Spencer Roane was a Virginia lawyer, politician and jurist. He served in the Virginia House of Delegates for six years and a year in the Commonwealth's small executive branch. The majority of his public career was as a judge, first of the General Court and later on the Court of Appeals.
John Mottrom, or Mottram, was one of the first, if not the first, white settlers in the Northern Neck region of Virginia between 1635 and 1640.
Richard Lee II was an American planter, politician and military officer from Northumberland County, Virginia who served in both houses of the Virginia General Assembly and was captured during Bacon's Rebellion.
Frances Jones Dandridge was the mother of Martha Washington, the first First Lady of the United States. She was born in New Kent County, Virginia. Her father Orlando Jones and maternal grandfather Colonel Gideon Macon served on the House of Burgesses in Colonial Virginia. Her parents were prosperous Virginian landowners.
Popes Creek is a small tidal tributary stream of the Potomac River in Westmoreland County, Virginia. The George Washington Birthplace National Monument lies adjacent to Popes Creek estuary.
Col. John Dandridge of Chestnut Grove was a colonel, planter, politician, and Clerk of New Kent County, Virginia, from 1730 to 1756. He may be best known as the father of Bartholomew Dandridge and the first First Lady of the United States Martha Dandridge Washington. His grandson John Dandridge also served in the Virginia General Assembly.
Col. John Tayloe II was a Virginia planter and politician who served on the Virginia Governor's Council, also known as the Virginia Council of State. A colonial Colonel in the Virginia Militia, he is better remembered as an ironmaster, horse breeder, racing enthusiast and father-in-law of United States Declaration of Independence signer Francis Lightfoot Lee.
The Burwells were among the First Families of Virginia in the Colony of Virginia. John Quincy Adams once described the Burwells as typical Virginia aristocrats of their period: forthright, bland, somewhat imperious and politically simplistic by Adams' standards. In 1713, so many Burwells had intermarried with the Virginia political elite that Governor Spotswood complained that " the greater part of the present Council are related to the Family of Burwells...there will be no less than seven so near related that they will go off the Bench whenever a Cause of the Burwells come to be tried."
Col. William Tayloe or Teylow (1645–1710) was the nephew of William Tayloe of Kings Creek Plantation and High Sheriff of York County, Virginia; the father of John Tayloe I of The Old House; and progenitor of the Tayloes of Mount Airy, Richmond County, Virginia. His coat of arms, Vert a sword erect Or between two lions rampant addorsed Ermine, matches those of Teylow in Gloucester, England. He immigrated with his brothers Joseph and Robert who later returned to England.
Henry Corbin was an emigrant from England who became a tobacco planter in the Virginia colony and served in both houses of the Virginia General Assembly, in the House of Burgesses representing Lancaster County before the creation of Middlesex County on Virginia's Middle Neck, then on the Governor's Council.
William Augustine Washington was a Virginia planter and officer who served one term in the Virginia House of Delegates representing Westmoreland County, as well as terms as colonel of the county militia and as the county sheriff, before moving to the newly established District of Columbia. The son of the half-brother of President George Washington, he was also one of the seven executors of the former President's estate.
Bernard Moore (1720–1775) was a prominent landowner and member of the Virginia House of Burgesses representing King William County. His brother-in-law, powerful speaker John Robinson made unauthorized loans to Moore and other allies, discovered after Robinson's death in 1766, which caused his estate's administrator Edmund Pendleton and creditors including George Washington to auction Moore's land and 55 slaves.
Augustine Moore, nicknamed "Old Grubb", was a prominent tobacco merchant who became a planter and founder of the Moore family of Virginia. He may be best known for building Chelsea plantation, now on the National Register of Historic Places and one of the best-preserved 18th century buildings in the state.
Augustine Moore was the son of prominent planter and politician Bernard Moore who succeeded his father as a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses representing King William County and at the first Virginia Convention, and then moved toward Hampton Roads, and represented its three counties in the Virginia Senate (1777-1778). Complicating matters, the name "Augustine" was used by two different Moore families in the similar York River watershed area, so the burgess and the senator may have been different people.