John Mottrom

John Mottrom (?-1655), or Mottram, was one of the first, if not the first, white settlers in the Northern Neck region of Virginia between 1635 and 1640.

Political career

Mottrom was the first burgess for what would become Northumberland County in 1645 (one of his two times serving as a burgess). He presided over the county court for more than four years until his death in 1655.

Family

He was married to Mary Gostwick [John Mottrom and his son-in-law Col. Nicholas Spencer were connected through the Gostwick family. Col. Nicholas Spencer was the son of Nicholas Spencer Sr. (1611-1644) of Cople, Bedfordshire, and his wife Mary Gostwick, daughter of Edward Gostwick, Bart., of Willington, Bedfordshire, and Anne Wentworth] , and had at least three children: Anne (1639-?), John Jr. (1642-?), and Frances (1645-?). After Mary's death, he married Ursula Bysshe Thompson, who brought three of her own children into the family. Daughter Frances Mottrom was married to Col. Nicholas Spencer [ [http://www.bedfordshire.gov.uk/CommunityAndLiving/ArchivesAndRecordOffice/CommunityArchives/Cople/Manors.aspx Spencer ancestry, Rowlands Manor, Cople, Bedfordshire, bedfordshire.gov.uk] ] , Secretary and President of the Council and later acting Governor of the Virginia Colony (1683-1684) and patentee of the land at Mount Vernon with John Washington. [ [http://books.google.com/books?id=3kcFAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA12&lpg=PA12&dq=colepepper+nicholas+spencer&source=web&ots=67GhXzpEqV&sig=UnvnRvLdlpb9HoEqfMGQNfHvJYs&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=10&ct=result#PPA13,M1 Wills of George Washington and His Immediate Ancestors, Worthington Chauncey Ford (ed.), George Washington, Historical Printing Club, Brooklyn, N.Y., 1891] ] The Spencers named one of their children Mottrom Spencer after the child's grandfather John Mottrom. [ [http://books.google.com/books?id=hkwwKWvozdQC&pg=PA68&lpg=PA68&dq=%22mottrom+spencer%22&source=web&ots=OTEzpqLnYq&sig=46QOrShCyaj-ecppW14S5vS8B3g&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=8&ct=result will of Mottrom Spencer, The New England Historical and Genealogical Register, Vol. XLV, Boston, 1891] ] Another son of Frances Mottrom and Nicholas Spencer, William Spencer, returned to the Spencer family parish of Cople, Bedfordshire, where he served as a member of Parliament. [ [http://books.google.com/books?id=GFxgK1pm6UMC&pg=PA537&lpg=PA537&dq=colepeper+nicholas+spencer+cople&source=web&ots=Gtgl05jcgh&sig=jfnAnEgvPxHZcr-7CSUhVV74s0w&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=1&ct=result#PPA537,M1 The House of Commons, Eveline Cruickshanks, David Hayton, Stuart Handley, Cambridge University Press, 2002] ]

A descendant of John Mottrom's son John Jr. was Spencer Mottrom, whose descendant was the distinguished judge Spencer Roane (1762-1822) of Tappahannock, Virginia, for whom Roane County, West Virginia is named. [ [http://books.google.com/books?id=9jASAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA54&dq=%22spencer+ball%22+mottrom&lr= William and Mary College Quarterly Historical Magazine, College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Va., 1909] ]

Land

Mottrom owned property along or near the Great Wicomico River and the Chickacoan River. He also owned land on or close to Hull, King's and Chicacone Creeks. Mottrom was probably the first Englishman to settle on the Virginia side of the Potomac River, and his retreat was a refuge for Protestants fleeing Lord Calvert's Catholic Maryland. [ [http://books.google.com/books?id=CWiel4PVkEkC&pg=PA295&lpg=PA295&dq=%22john+mottrom%22+virginia&source=web&ots=_7edbsbzYF&sig=KcxMNhu1-QwI6NVzr2i2B3-turA&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=5&ct=result#PPA295,M1 Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography, Lyon Gardiner Tyler, Volume I, Lewis Historical Publishing Company, New York, 1915] ] His home, Coan Hall, served as the first county seat of Northumberland county. Mottrom was a merchant, owning a shallop with which he traded with Maryland. [ [http://www.jstor.org/pss/1921497 Mottrom-Wright-Spencer-Ariss-Buckner, The William and Mary Quarterly, Vol. 17, Vol. 1, pp. 53-59, jstor.org] ]

References

*http://www.co.northumberland.va.us/