Joseph Martin Sr (abt. 1700 - bef. 1762)

Born about 1700 in Bristol, Somerset, England [uncertain]

Husband of Ann (Pulliam) Martin — married 28 Jun 1754 in Spotsylvania, Spotsylvania, Virginia

Descendants

Died before 14 Jan 1762 before about age 62 in Fredericksville Parish, Albemarle, Virginia

Problems/Questions Profile managers: Jenny Lawless [send private message], Ron Ragland [send private message], Tom Culver [send private message], Ronald Rideout [send private message], Raymond Nichols [send private message], Robert Neely [send private message], Larry Ayers [send private message], and Leslie Ross [send private message]

Biography

Joseph Martin, believed by some to be the youngest child of William Martin of Bristol, England, is our ancestor, progenitor and emigrant. Joseph was probably born about 1700 in England. His parents have not been documented. Researcher and descendant Joe Martin has located the 1736 will of a George Martin, merchant of Bristol, image attached, which names a son Joseph in Virgina. Joseph sailed to Virginia from Bristol, England on the “Brice” in 1725. ^[1] According to a family story the father, named William Martin, was dissatisfied with Joseph's engagement and intended marriage. William felt that Joseph was preparing to marry below the family's social class. Therefore, William decided to send his son Joseph to the New World on one of his ships so that the romance would cool down and hopefully dissolve. Joseph did what his father asked. He sailed to the colonies landing in Virginia. Joseph seems to have been given to "tender passion" for soon after his arrival in Virginia he fell in love with and married Susannah Chiles of King William County, Virginia. ^[2] The story continues that Joseph's father eventually heard of his marriage to Susannah Chiles and became so outraged that he disinherited him (the English aristocracy considered the colonists as inferior). Needless to say, Joseph did not return to England to negotiate with his father. ^[3] There is no actual evidence for this romantic story, although Joseph did marry Susannah, descendant of two prominent Virginia families, about 1732. They named one son "Brice," another "William," and a third George.

Joseph Martin, Sr. purchased land in Louisa County, Virginia, in 1732,^[4] but records show he was still living in Caroline County at least through 1737. ^[5] By 1740 they had moved to Louisa County (land located in Albemarle County by the time of Joseph's death). ^[6] Deeds refer to Joseph as ‘Captain,’ but no record of military service has been found. Joseph and Susannah were the parents of at least eleven children.

Susannah died about 1754 and Joseph married widow Ann Pulliam Sandige. ^[7] In his will, written in 1760, Joseph left hundreds of acres of land and named wife Ann, sons Brice, William, Joseph, John, and George, and daughters Sarah, Mary, Susannah, Martha, Ann, and Olive. ^[8] His will, dated Dec. 3, 1760 was probated January 14, 1762. ^[9] It was said that he was a genuine Englishman, possessing characteristics of arrogance and self-importance. He was bold, self-willed, fun of pride and had the highest sense of honor. Joseph and Susannah Chiles Martin had eleven (11) children ^[10]

• George Martin b ca 1733 ^[11]
• Sarah b ca 1735 married Thomas Burrus ^[12]
• Brice Martin b ca 1737, married Unity Barksdale and Rachel Lucas
• William Martin b ca 1738
• Joseph Martin, Jr. b September 18, 1740, married 1st Sara Lucas ca 1762 and 2nd Susannah Graves ca 1784
• Mary Martin b ca 1742, married John Hammack
• Susannah Martin b ca 1744
• Martha
• Ann Martin b ca 1751
• John Martin b ca 1752, m Susannah Emory
• Olive Martin b ca 1754, married Ambrose Edwards

Note: Children’s dates are unconfirmed.

Will Transcript: Will of Joseph Martin of Albemarle County, Virginia reads as follows: "In the name of God Amen I Joseph Martin of the Parish of Fredrickvill [sic Fredericksville] in the County of Louisa that being in good health of body and of sound and disposing mind memory and understanding praised be God. Therefore considering with myself the certainty of death & the uncertainty of the time thereof and being desirous so to settle and dispose of such personal and worldly estate wherewith it hath pleased almighty God to bless me with as that no variance or controversy may arise touching or concerning the same after my decease do make and ordain this my last will and testament in manner following first and principally I commend my soul into the hands of almighty God that gave it hoping through the merits of my blessed Saviour to have a free pardon of all my sins and inherit eternal life and my body I commit to the earth to be decently interred at the discretion of my Executors in trust herein after named and as to my personal estate I dispose thereof as Followeth Inprimis - I give to my present wife Ann Martin one negro man named Ben and one negro woman named Sue and one negro girl named Temp during her natural life and no longer the said negro girl Temp to be at her disposing for ever - Item I give and bequeath all the tract of land I now live on to my wife Ann during her natural and no longer and after my wifes decease I give and bequeath to my son Brice Martin he and his heirs forever part of the said tract of land to be divided Beginning at the mouth of the Stony Branch and keeping up the stony branch to the back line my son Brice to have the manner plantation from the mouth of the Stony to the back line and so to the River - Item the reminder of the said tract of land all on the north side of the Stony branch I give and bequeath to my son William Martin he and his heirs forever - Item I give to my son Joseph Martin three hundred acres of land lying and being on Rocky Creek near buck mountain to him and his heirs for ever. - Item I give and bequeath to my son John Martin three hundred acres of land lying and being on Piny run near Buck mountain to him and his heirs for ever - Item I give to my son Joseph Martin my right and title of all my land lying on Goose Creek a branch of Pertomach [sic Potomac] that being in partnership with Colonal Francis Warin living in Essex county to him and his heirs for ever. - Item I give to my daughter Susannah Martin two hundred acres of land lying and being on Rocky Creek her choice out of the whole tract, in case she should die without heir I give the said two hundred acres of land to Susannah Chiles Hammack daughter of John Hammack to her and her heirs lawfully begotten forever. - I give to my daughter Susannah Martin one negro wench named Dianah to her and her heirs for ever - Item I give to my daughter Mary Hammack a negro girl named Perthenia she and her increase to her and her heirs forever - I also give to my daughter Mary Hammack the second choice of my beds & furniture - Item I give to my daughter Sarah Burros a negro man named Nepton to her and her heirs for ever Item I give and bequeath to my daughter Martha Martin one negro boy named Brister to her and her heirs for ever Item I give to my daughter Ann Martin one negro girl named Sillah she and her increase to her and her heirs for ever. Item I give and bequeath to my daughter Olive Martin a negro fellow named Ben and one negro wench named Sue after my wifes decease to her and her heirs for ever and after my decease and my wifes all the rest of my personal estate goods and chattels to equally divided among my six daughters Sarah Burros, Mary Hammock, Susannah Martin, Martha Martin, Ann Martin, Olive Martin. Item I give and bequeath to my son George Martin eight pound current money of Virginia to be paid out of my estate to him and his heirs for ever. I do hereby ordain and appoint Isaac Davis Thomas Burros whole and sole executors of this my last Will and testament and do revoke and make void all other wills by me at any time heretofore and do publish and declare this to be my last will and testament In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and affixed my seal this third day of December one thousand seven hundred and sixty [signed] Joseph Martin Test John Henslee, John Jones At a Court held Albemarle county the fourteenth day of January MDCCLXII [sic 1762] This last will and testament of Joseph Martin dec'd was proved by the oaths of John Henslee & John Jones the witnesses thereto and ordered to be recorded and on the motion of Isaac Davis & Thomas Burros the Executors therein named who made oath according to Law certificate is granted them for obtaining probate thereof in due form giving security whereupon they with Majors Jones & David Watts their securities entered into & acknowledged their bond accordingly Test John Nicholas Clk"^[13]

Louisa County VA Land Records Book: A, Page: 159, Grantor: Michael Holland, Grantee: Joseph Martin, Date: 12-Nov-1744 Michael Holland of St. Paul's Par., Hanover co. Gent., to Joseph Martin of Fredericksville Par., Louisa Co. £12 for 400 acres in Fredericksville Par on west side of the Little Mountains beginning at Timothy Dalton Junrs. corner; granted by patent 5 Dec 1740.

Research Notes

There is no documentation for a middle name of ‘Lynch’- this is likely a mistake from genealogists who confused him with his great grandson, Joseph Lynch Martin.

The following is from Martin family descendant/researcher Col. Joe Martin, who traveled to Bristol, England in July, 2014, to search for information confirming Joseph Martin’s parentage and birth. “We did find a William Martin in Bristol, in fact several of them; one was listed in a newspaper article as dying at his home on Orchard Street on 4 Feb. 1765. No additional information was listed in this newspaper article. We found a rich, prominent William Martin who was the High Sheriff and Lord Mayor of Bristol in 1757, member of the Merchants Corporation and Alderman at the time of his death. However, we could not find a “will” in the Bristol Civic Archive Records but did find a “recorded and approved will” dated 20 Mar. 1765, in the Canterbury Archives Records office. This is where a “Will” would have been approved for someone who had multiple properties; all these multiple property “wills” had to be approved by the Canterbury Archives Record Office at this time. However, this “will” did not mention “where he died or when he died”. I’ve communicated with this archives office and two different researchers who work there and they have searched their records and no other information was found concerning this approved “will” for this William Martin. In this “will” he mentions, his brother Thomas, two sisters, nieces and several other relatives, but no children were mentioned. He also mentions a wife, Sarah, who he leaves a home to her located on Castle Street, which is only a few blocks from the Orchard Street home. The newspaper article said “a William Martin had died on 4 Feb. 1765 at his home on Orchard Street. This is puzzling for me. We searched all 16 parish records in Bristol for a Joseph Martin, birth or baptismal record, none were found. Therefore, we have nothing to tie Joseph Martin to this William Martin or any of the other William Martins found. I feel confident; this William Martin, whose “will” was approved by the Canterbury Records Office on 20 Mar., 1765 is the same person who is buried in the Lord Mayors Chapel in Bristol. His granddaughter, Sarah Reed Rydell is also buried with him in the church vault. This is proven by a plaque located on the wall of the church. We searched all the other archives in Bristol, including records at the Library, merchant seaman’s records, shipping records, and the old 1750’s city council office records. No records were found to establish that William Martin was the father of our Joseph Martin, the c. 1725 immigrant to America.”

The following from another descendant Joseph Martin: For his services Gen. William Martin was given a huge area of land around Newport, Wales and the Martin family remained there until about 1600 when one of my Great Grandfathers, another William Martin moved to Bristol, England, about 40 miles away and began an ocean going shipping business with 3 ships, one being the "Brice" which he sent my 5th Great grandfather, Capt. Joseph Martin to America on in 1725.

This was Capt. Joseph Martin Sr. who married Susannah Chiles, the great granddaughter of the somewhat famous Walter Chiles, Sr. of Jamestown.

Latest Y-DNA evidence suggests that Mordecai Hord was an illegitimate son of Joseph Martin Sr. and one of the daughters of John (Hore) Hord (abt.1680-1749). At present we have named her Unknown Hord (1712-).

At the moment it is unclear when the NPE occurred but it must be before Joseph Martin Sr. married Susannah Chiles.

We have Y-DNA tested a male descendant of Mordecai Hord (abt.1730-abt.1789) and he is matching other male descendants of the Martin family with a MRCA being Joseph Martin Sr. For the moment I have put Mordecai as a son of an unknown daughter of John Hord and Joseph Martin Sr. until we can figure out which daughter it could be. Please contact me for any queries and information on the Y-DNA results. Malcolm Hoare

Y-DNA Details lead to a new possibility (by Timothy Peterman)

In my opinion, the Y DNA result perfectly resolves anomalous oddities in both the Hord and Martin family.

I already have a connection to the Joseph Martin, Sr. family, which is why I quickly recognized the family. Briefly, Mordecai's son, Stanwix Hord (from whom I descend) married Jestina Burrus, who was the daughter of Thomas Burrus and Sarah (Martin) Burrus. Sarah Martin was the daughter of Joseph Martin, Sr. (d 1761) & Susannah (Chiles) Martin. There are some Burrus naysayers that reject that Jestina was the daughter of Sarah (Martin) Burrus, claiming that she had passed away & a second wife of Thomas is Jestina's mother. The eldest daughter of Stanwix & Jestina was named Sarah Hord. Thomas Burrus apparently died ca 1798/ 99 in Surry Co., NC. Within the next couple of years, many (maybe all) of his children moved to what was the Overton Co., TN (Clay Co., TN today; I think their lands were inundated by Dale Hollow Lake). This move appears to have been part of a broader move within the Martin family. Sarah Hord married Charles Smith. They had 10 children: 9 sons & 1 daughter. The daughter, Jestina (Smith) Lovell, was my great-great-great grandmother. Among the sons were Thomas Smith, Mordecai Hord Smith, Joseph Martin Smith, Stephen I. K. Smith. Charles Smith was the son of Stephen I. K. Smith (1756-1806). The name of his wife has not been preserved. However, because Stephen I. K. Smith named a daughter, Jestina, I suspect (no proof whatsoever) that she may have been a Burrus, an older sister to Jestina (Burrus) Hord, and a daughter of Thomas Burrus & Sarah Martin, which would make the marriage of Charles Smith & Sarah Hord a first cousin marriage. All of the children of Stephen I. K. Smith moved from Surry Co., NC to Overton Co., TN, and they were the ONLY part of the Charles Smith & Ann Mallory (parents of Stephen I. K.) family to do so, an indication again that this may have been part of the Burrus & Martin migration pattern.

I have long known that we have a noteworthy problem in the Hord family. In John Hord's 1749 will, he named "my grandson Mordecai Hord" without identifying how Mordecai connected. If you go through the list of the known (ie, will identified) children of John Hord, each one of them can be ruled out as parent for Mordecai. Perhaps an unknown son was Mordecai's father, or so I pondered before I saw the Y-DNA results last fall. Now I suspect the connecting child was an unknown daughter, one who died so young that she has escaped historical records.

This suggests that we should see a surname switch between Mordecai & his biological father, and now that I have seen the y-DNA result, I'm 99 to 100% certain that the father was Joseph Martin, Sr.

Joseph Martin's father was William Martin, said to have been Lord Mayor of Bristol, England, and the owner of a large, successful shipping company that operated out of Bristol. In 1724, William Martin sent his son Joseph (then in his early 20s) to Virginia on a ship called the Brice to do some of the shipping company's business. Joseph Martin wrote a letter to his father, stating that he had fallen in love with a girl in Virginia and intended to get married. I don't know if this letter survives any place. But this is the tradition that comes down in the Martin family. William Martin read the letter & wrote back to his son that 1) he did NOT have his permission to marry this girl in Virginia, and 2) he was being disinherited. Joseph Martin never returned to England. He remain in Virginia & a few years later, married Susannah Chiles, a well connected young lady with noteworthy relatives in Virginia. They went on to have a large family (11 children), including Sarah (Martin) Burrus, and Gen. Joseph Martin, Jr. Martin descendants have always been baffled by this tradition. What was wrong with Susannah Chiles? Was she not English enough? There was nothing scandalous about her at all. I don't think they ever entertained the possibility that maybe, just maybe, the letter didn't pertain to Susannah Chiles -at all.

My synthesis, based on the Y-DNA results is that: 1. Joseph Martin, Sr. fell in love with, seduced and impregnated an unknown daughter of John Hord. 2. I suspect that this daughter died in childbirth (possibly before William Martin's letter arrived in Virginia) 3. If Joseph Martin had wanted to marry the Hord girl, he couldn't, because she was deceased 4. John Hord raised his grandson & gave him the name Mordecai Hord 5. Several years later, Joseph Martin met and married Susannah Chiles. 6. I suspect that in all of those early Hord genealogies, written in the mid 1800s, the daughter & thus the scandal was omitted; Mordecai was included, sometimes erroneously called a son of John Hord.

The tested patrilineal descendant of Mordecai Hord (through his middle son, William Hord) belongs to the haplogroup R-FT70044. The only other person who shares this terminal SNP is a descendant of Joseph Martin, Sr.

The MRCA between the two participants is estimated to have been born in 1750 AD (the variance is 1581 to 1895). Joseph Martin was born about 50 years before this, but well within the variance.

R-M207>M173>M343>L754>L761>L389>P297>M269>L23>L51>P310>L151>P312>Z46516>ZZ11>U152>Z56>BY3548>Z43>Z46>Z48>CTS12976>S4634>Y157199>BY121920>BY96344>FT70044

Any additional thoughts are most welcome.

In progress................

Sources

1. ↑ Coldham, Peter Wilson. Complete Book of Emigrants 1700-1750 Genealogical Publishing Co., Baltimore, MD. p. 347. "21 Oct - 9 Nov Shippers by the Brice, Mr Joseph Martin, bound from Bristol .Virginia; Thomas Chamberlayne, Thomas Martin & Co. William Curnock."
2. ↑ Land records place her parents in St. Margaret’s Parish in King William County. “Chiles Family.” The William and Mary Quarterly Vol. 8, No. 2 (Oct., 1899), pp. 105-106 Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1915909
3. ↑ A Biographical Sketch of General Joseph Martin. The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography , Vol. 8, No. 4 (Apr., 1901), pp. 347-359 Published by: Virginia Historical Society Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4242374
4. ↑ 3 November 1732, Davis, Rosalie E, Louisa Co., Virginia Deed Books A & B 1742-1759,
5. ↑ Juror, 1737. Dorman, Frederick, transcriber. Caroline County Virginia Order Book, 1732-1740. 1971.
6. ↑ County Court, Louisa County, Deed books, 1742-1865; general indexes to deeds, 1742-1872, 1969-1978, Deed book, v. A, 1742-1754 -- Deed book, v. B, 1754-1759; digital images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CS42-43Q3-Y?i=90&cat=281398), images 91-92. Grantor: Michael Holland, Grantee: Joseph Martin, Date: 12 Nov 1744.
7. ↑ Marriage bond Joseph Martin to Ann Sandige. Virginia County Records - Spotsylvania County, 1721-1800, Volume I, Book E, transcript Ed. William Armstrong Crozier
8. ↑ Albemarle County Will Book 2, page 112. Image of will here
9. ↑ Will, see reference above
10. ↑ Woods, Edgar. The History of Albemarle County. The Michie Co., Charlottesville, VA, 1901. p. 263
11. ↑ Joseph Martin gave 130 acres of land to George in July, 1754, suggesting that George was now 21. Deed, Louisa County, Virginia, Deed Book B, p. 10 image at deed
12. ↑ Joseph Martin sold 350 acres of land to Thomas Burrus for L40 in 1758. Deed, Louisa County, Virginia, Deed Book B, p. 269, image at Burrus deed
13. ↑ Albemarle County, Virginia Will Book No. 2 with Inventories & Accounts 1752-1785, pages 112, 113 & 114; https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-89P7-97CR

• See also
• Stray Leaves
• Geni.com
• "Family Tree," database, FamilySearch (http://familysearch.org : modified 16 August 2017, 17:45), entry for Captain Joseph Lynch Martin(PID https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/4:1:LVGV-7LR); contributed by various users.
• Find A Grave: Memorial #60955458 for Capt Joseph Martin Sr.
• https://familysearch.org/tree/person/details/LTGN-HM5