Edward Major (1615 –c. 1655) was an English religious dissenter who emigrated to the Virginia where he became a planter,military officer and politician who represented the area variously called Upper Norfolk County or Nansemond County and became Speaker of the Virginia House of Burgesses. [1] [2]
Major was born in England around 1615,and dissented from the ruling Church of England,probably aligning with the Puritan sect. [1] Complicating matters,as explicated by genealogist James Branch Cabell a century ago,other men of the same name lived in Virginia during his lifetime,particularly Edward Major who lived in Accomack County,on Virginia's Eastern Shore,bore sons named Thomas,John and Richard and died before 1645. [3]
Major sailed on the Bonaventure to the Colony of Virginia,landing in January,1635. He was listed as a headright by Robert Bennett,brother of future Virginia Governor Richard Bennett,who would represent Parliament's interests in negotiations with the Virginia Colony before it accepted Parliamentary leadership during the English Civil War. [1] [4]
Major briefly lived in Charles River County (and his son William would inherit land in that county) but settled to the south near the Nansemond River,where other Puritans had settled. In May 1637 Major patented 450 acres near the land of burgess Daniel Gookin (based on his own emigration and that of eight other people),and renewed that patent while also adding another 50 acres for another headright in 1646. In September 1645 he also patented 300 acres in Warwick County. [5]
Major became a prominent farmer as well as militia leader in what was sometimes called Upper Norfolk County or Nansemond County. The Nansemond Puritans went so far in 1642 as to write the Governor of the Massachusetts colony,John Winthrop,asking for clergy,and three clergymen soon arrived,to the great displeasure of Virginia Governor William Berkeley,who ordered them to leave (Some Puritans later blamed that edit for the Native American uprising of 1644). [6] Circa 1648,during his absence from the legislature as noted below,Major probably also helped Richard Bennett to establish the Puritan settlement in Maryland. [2] [1] [7] In any event,Governor Richard Bennett,sympathetic to the religious nonconformists,named Major Lieutenant Colonel of the Nansemond militia in 1653. [1] [8]
Whether titled of Nansemond,Nanzimond or Upper Norfolk County,local voters at least five times elected Major as one of the men representing them in the House of Burgesses. The first occasion was in 1645,when the county received an additional seat in the House of Burgesses,and Major won re-election once despite the number of burgesses representing the county again becoming two. [9] A similar legislative increase in 1653 also led to Major's addition as a burgess,but he also served in the first of two 1652 sessions in which Nansemond only had two burgesses in the assembly' lower house. [10] In one of the 1652 sessions,Virginia's assembly recognized Parliamentary control of the British government and acceded to its governance of the colony.
Major was closely associated with Puritan settlers in the colony,and was elected Speaker of the House of Burgesses in 1652,just after Virginia acceded to the authority of Parliament following the execution of King Charles I. [1] His successor as speaker in the other 1652 session,was Nansemond's other burgess,and fellow religious nonconformist Thomas Dew. James Branch Cabell believed that Governor Bennett ousted Speaker Walter Chiles in 1653 in order to assist in Major's election,which did not occur (burgesses instead electingWilliam Whitby,either because Major was already ill,or because Major was considered too radical). [1] [11]
Major married twice. He survived his first wife,Martha Butler (1614-1650),who bore three sons (Edward,Robert and William) and a daughter (Martha Buckner) who survived their parents and were named in this man's last will and testament. The widower remarried to Susannah Aston,daughter of Lt. Col. Walter Aston (and possibly the widow of Humphrey Leisher),who survived him,but did not bear his children. [12]
Major wrote his last will and testament in November 1652,and it was admitted to probate in February 1655. [1] It divided his land mostly among his sons,with Edward Jr. inheriting in Nansemond County,William in York County,and Robert in Warwick County. [13]
His widow Susannah had remarried,to William Batt (or Batte) by December 4,1656. [14]
Warrosquoake Shire was officially formed in 1634 in the Virginia colony,but had already been known as "Warascoyack County" before this. It was named for an Algonquian-speaking tribe that was part of the Powhatan Confederacy. The county was renamed Isle of Wight County in 1637,after an island in the English Channel.
Edward Digges was an English barrister and colonist who became a premium tobacco planter and official in the Virginia colony. The son of the English politician Dudley Digges represented the colony before the Virginia Company of London and the royal government,as well as served for two decades on the colony's Council of State. Digges served as interim Colonial Governor of Virginia from March 1655 to December 1656,and for longer periods as the colony's receiver general and auditor-general. He is also known for planting mulberry trees and promoting the silk industry in the colony.
Richard Bennett was an English planter and Governor of the Colony of Virginia,serving 1652–1655. He had first come to the colony in 1629 to represent his uncle Edward Bennett's business interests,managing his plantation known as Bennett's Welcome in Warrascoyack.
Danyell "Daniel" Gookin was a Munster colonist,settler of Virginia and Massachusetts,and a writer on the subject of American Indians.
Thomas Stegg was a British merchant and politician in the Colony of Virginia. He served in both houses of the Virginia General Assembly,and became the first elected Speaker of the Virginia House of Burgesses during the 1643 session,when the Burgesses first met as a separate lower house.
Colonel Edward Hill was a Virginia planter,soldier and politician. In addition to representing Charles City County for many terms in the House of Burgesses,fellow members three times selected him as its Speaker,and he sat in the Virginia General Assembly's upper house,the Virginia Governor's Council in 1651 as well as from 1660-1663. Burgesses also sent Hill to Maryland to put down Richard Ingle's 1646 rebellion,and he acted as the colony's temporary governor before ceding to the proper governor,Leonard Calvert,but later contested nonpayment of monies promised to him and Virginia militia troops for that action. Col. Hill also led the Charles County and Henrico County militia and Pamunkey native Americans against other tribes in Hanover County in 1656,with less success.
Captain Thomas Harwood was a Virginia soldier,landowner and politician. He founded a family which like him for generations often represented the area now known as Newport News,but which in his day was known as Mulberry Island,and later Warwick River and still later Warwick County. Despite coming into conflict with royal governor Sir John Harvey in 1635,and a gap in legislative service,Harwood became the 5th speaker of the House of Burgesses.
Thomas Dew was a Virginia landowner and politician representing Nansemond County.
Walter Chiles was a British merchant who emigrated to the Colony of Virginia where in addition to his business interests,he became a prominent planter,military officer and politician who at times represented Charles City County and James City County in the House of Burgesses,as well as briefly served on the Virginia Governor's Council and as Speaker of the House of Burgesses until removed by Governor WIlliam Berkeley because of a conflict of interest in ongoing litigation.
William Whitby emigrated from England to the Virginia colony where he became politician and major landowner. He represented Warwick County as a burgess several times,and became Speaker of the Virginia House of Burgesses in the 1653 session.
Thomas Godwin(also spelled Goodwyn,Godwyn) was a Virginia politician,planter and real estate speculator in Tidewater Virginia. He thrice served in the House of Burgesses representing the Nansemond River area,and was its Speaker in the June 1676 session that preceded Bacon's Rebellion.
Francis Dade,was a Virginia soldier,politician and landowner. An English Royalist who emigrated to Virginia some time after the death of Charles I. In Virginia he officially used the name "John Smith" when he served as one of the two delegates representing tiny Warwick County and as Speaker of the Virginia House of Burgesses in 1658. He died at sea in 1662 or 1663.
Edward Bennett,was an English merchant based in London,and a free member of the Virginia Company. A Puritan who had lived in Amsterdam for a period,he established the first large plantation in the colony of Virginia in North America,in what became known as Warrosquyoake Shire.
William Hatcher was an English immigrant to America and a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses.
Rice Hooe was the name of three Virginia colonists,two of whom served in the colonial House of Burgesses,and became ancestors of a family of planters important in northern Virginia and southern Maryland. Their descendants Alexander Hooe,Bernard Hooe Jr.,James Hooe,two named John Hooe as well as John Hooe Jr.,and William Hooe would all serve in the Virginia General Assembly before the American Civil War.
John Carter was an English merchant who emigrated to the Virginia colony,where he speculated in land,established plantations using indentured and enslaved labor,and served in both houses of the Virginia General Assembly. He founded the more famous branch of the Carter family of Virginia. The immigrant ancestor of the other branch,Thomas Carter of Barford plantation may have been related since both came from the same English village,and while Thomas Carter initially settled in Northumberland County,both men eventually settled in Lancaster County.
Sir Richard Kemp was a planter and politician in the Colony of Virginia. Kemp served as the Colony's Secretary and on the Governor's Council from 1634 to 1649. As the council's senior member,he also served as the acting Colonial Governor of Virginia from 1644 to 1645 during travels by Governor Sir William Berkeley. Kemp had also worked closely relation with Berkeley's predecessor,Sir John Harvey.
Thomas Swannn was a planter,tavernkeeper,militia officer and politician in the Colony of Virginia who sat in both houses of the Virginia General Assembly and survived Bacon's Rebellion.
George Jordan (1620-1679) was a British attorney who also became a planter and politician in the Colony of Virginia. He twice served as the colony's attorney general and at various times represented James City County and Surry County in the House of Burgesses,and may have served on the Virginia Governor's Council.
Thomas Milner,emigrated from England to the Virginia colony where he became a merchant,planter,military officer and politician who twice served as Speaker of the Virginia House of Burgesses.