The William and Mary College Quarterly Historical Magazine, Vol. 23, No. 3 (Jan., 1915), pp. 182-190 (9 pages)
https://www.jstor.org/stable/1914715
NORTHUMBERLAND COUNTY AND SOME OF ITS
FAMILIES.
page 182
At the arrival of the first colonists at Jamestown in 1607 there
was a tribe of Indians living on the south side of Potomac River
at the entrace, called Wiccocomicos, having 130 fighting men.
These Indians were small in statue, and quite a contrast to the
giant Susquehannas, who occupied the country at the head of
Chesapeake Bay. Adjoining the Wiccocomicos was a small tribe
of thirty fighting men called Chickacoans. In 1634, when Leon-
ard Calvert came with his settlers to St. Mary's, the Yeocomico
tribe, who inhabited on the north side of the Potomac, being
much harassed by the Susquehannas, sold Calvert's settlers their
lands and moved across the river and settled in the district called
after them Yeocomico, in what is now Westmoreland County, Va.
During the difficulties which ensued in Maryland between
Calvert and William Claiborne, who had settled Kent Island,
and regarded the charter of Maryland as a spoliation of the
territory of Virginia and a usurpation of his rights, Chicacoan
became a refuge and a rallying point for Protestants disaffected
to the government of Lord Baltimore, who was a Catholic. A
settlement grew up within the jurisdiction of Virginia, but sepa-
rated by many miles of unbroken forest from the settlements
on the Jamestown Peninsula.
page 183
For sometime these fugitives from Maryland were not noticed
by the law givers at Jamestown, and were not taxed in the levies,
but a step was made in this direction when in February, 1645, the
Chickacoan district having been erected by the governor and
council into a county called Northumberland, was required like
the other counties to contribute to the expenses of the war then
being carried on with the Indians, and in November, 1645,
Northumberland was represented for the first time in the House
of Burgesses by a prominent merchant named John Mottrom,
who not long before had removed from York to this distant set-
tlement on the Potomac.
Probably the turmoils of Maryland, for which the Chickacoan
settlement furnished a plotting place, were too engaging for any
other thoughts and, despite the commands of Jamestown, North-
umberland failed to contribute any taxes, and the county had no
representative in the Assembly of October, 1646.
This negligence did not pass unnoticed, and the last act of the
session at this time after declaring that " the inhabitants of
Chickawane, alias Northumberland, have not hitherto contri-
buted towards the charges of the war," assessed the county at the
rate of 78 pounds of tobacco for every person, 15% pds. °f
tobacco for every 100 acres of land and 15% pds. of tobacco for
every cow above three years of age, and threatened that "in case
the said inhabitants shall refuse or deny payment thereof the
next Assembly shall take speedy course to call them off the
said plantation."
Even after this the authority of Assembly failed to command
respect, for though the county was represented the following
Assembly in November, 1647, by Mr. William Presley, the first
act of the next Assembly of October, 1648, took the case of
Northumberland again in hand, and, while extending to it the
right of representation and the promise of furnishing the people
patents for their lands, authorized and directed Capt. Francis
Poythress, who commanded the militia north of the York to col-
lect not only the taxes ordered by the then Assembly but all
taxes in arrears, and in case of refusal to distrain for them.
page 184
This decisive measure seems to have ended the trouble, and
Northumberland was represented in the next Assembly (October,
1649) by Capt. Francis Poythress and John Trussed, and con-
tinuously afterwards. In 1653 upper parts of Northumber-
land from Machodoc river to the falls of Potomac, where the
Necostan Indians had their village, was made into Westmoreland
County.
Presley Family.
1. William1 Presley, who appeared as the representative
for Northumberland Co. in 1647, was afterwards a representa-
tive in 1651. He was one of the justices or commissioners of
the court, and his will dated Aug. 15, 1650, was proved Jan. 20,
1656. He had issue named in his will. 2 William, 3 Peter ,
under age in 1650.
2. William2 Presley, (William1) was a justice of Northum-
berland County and a burgess during the long Assembly 1662-
1676, and afterwards till his death about 1685. He is remem-
bered for his rather quaint sayings during Bacon's Rebellion.
One of the grievances leading to those disturbances was Berke-
ley's continuing the same Assembly for fourteen years, without
an election (1662-1676). At last yielding to the public com-
plaints, he called a new Assembly. At its meeting in June, 1676,
some one moved to invite the governor to send two of the coun-
cil to sit with the committee on Indian affairs. This was objected
to, and in reply a member urged that this was the usual method
of procedure. Whereupon "the old Assembly-man," Mr. Presley,
arose, and in "a blundering manner" said "Tis true it had been
customary, but if we have any bad customs amongst us, we are
come here to mend them," which set the House to laughing.
Presley considered the custom a bad one, as it was tantamount
to having spies present in the committee.
After Bacon's death, Sir William Berkeley hung so many of
his followers that the Assembly which met in February, 1677,
begged him to desist, and Mr. Presley on his coming back home
to Northumberland remarked to his colleague, Thomas Matthew,
of Cherry Point, who wrote for Lord Oxford an interesting ac-
page 185
count of Bacon's Rebellion, that "he believed the governor would
have hanged half the country if we had let him alone."
2. William2 Presley died about 1685, and left issue: 4
William, named in the will of William Presley his father, but
who did not survive his father ; 5 Peter , who on May 20, 1685,
is mentioned as "heir to his father, Mr. William Presley, dec'd."
5. Peter3 Presley (William,2 William1) was one of the jus-
tices in Northumberland in 1685, and appears in the records as
"Peter Presley, Jr.," to distinguish him from his uncle Peter.
He was captain in 1692 and a burgess at the Assembly, which
met in April of that year. He probably left female descendants
as the name Presley was used in a number of families of the
Northern Neck, Cox, Carr, which indicates intermarriages.
3. Peter2 Presley (William1) was a justice of the peace in
Northumberland Co. from 1660, and burgess for the county in
1677, 1684, and perhaps other years. He died in 1693, but as his
will cannot be found on record we only know of two of his
issue. 7 Jane, who married (1) Richard Rogers, (2) Christopher
Neale, and 8 Peter, who was a minor at the time of his father's
death. Thus a commission of administration was granted on the
estate of Peter Presley, dec'd 19 April, 1693, to Mr. Peter
Presley (afterwards Col. Peter Presley) and Thomas Hobson as
overseers of his will, in behalf of his infant son Peter. Peter
was still under age in 1699 (Quarterly, XXII., 211.)
8. Peter3 Presley (Peter,2 William1) was sheriff of North-
umberland and colonel of militia in 171 2, and burgess in the
Assemblies from 1710 to 1749. He married Winifred Griffin,
daughter of Col. Leroy Griffin (born in 1646), and had issue:
6 Winifred, only child and heiress, who married Anthony Thorn-
ton. Col. Presley was murdered by his servants, and his will
dated Aug. 12, 1748, was proved Sept. 10, 1750. With him the
male line of the Presley family in Virginia appears to have be-
come extinct. Col. Peter Presley gave nearly all of his exten-
sive estates in Virginia and elsewhere to his grandson Presley
Thornton, who was born in 1722, resided at "Northumberland
House," and was a member of the council from 1760 till his
death December 8, 1769. For his descendants see Quarterly,
IV., 176.