Mary (Mills) Motley (1640 - bef. 1684)

Born 1640 in Cittenburn Parish, Rappahannock, Virginia

Wife of John Motley — married 1668 in Rappahannock, Virginia

Descendants

Died before 1684 before age 44 in Rappahannock, Virginia

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Biography

John Motlin or Motley's will, written in February of 1684, does not leave any bequest to his wife. The executors of the estate are named friends. This shows that Mary had pre-deceased him. There is a bequest to a "son in law" (step-son) John Spicer.

However, there is an alternate biography, available at FamilySearch.org that states that Mary died in 1690.^[1]

"According to "Bicentennial History of Eleven Pioneer Families" that when John Motley died, Mary was a widow with 3 sons.

"1684 Mary is made administratrix of husband's will, in the Great Wicomico region of the Northern Neck in Virginia."

Research Notes

A quick search for the Bicentennial History of Eleven Pioneer Families by Beadles, Mary M., turned up no e-book that I could access. However google books did provide this quote "John Motley immigrated from England to Virginia in 1663. He married widow Elizabeth Spicer, and settled in Essex County" [1]

Rappahannock County

The British settlers established counties on both sides of the Rappahannock River. The original county was Northumberland County, established in 1645, and subsequently divided into Northumberland, Lancaster, and Westmoreland Counties. Eventually Lancaster became Lancaster, Rappahannock, and Middlesex Counties.

In 1645 Bartholomew Hoskins patented the Tappahannock site, which became known, at various times as Hobbs His Hole, Hobb's Hole, the short-lived New Plymouth, and the Indian name Tappahannock. The port town was to become a center of commerce during the 17th and 18th centuries establishing a crossroads.

During Bacon's Rebellion in 1676, armed men gathered near Piscataway Creek and defeated Governor Berkeley's cavalrymen. Later they prevailed in the Dragon Run Swamp, but eventually English warships and troops suppressed the uprising. Frontier patrols, however, were maintained against hostile northern Indians into the early 1700's.

In 1692, the now extinct Rappahannock County split into Essex and Richmond Counties.

--from the Essex County, Virginia, website [2]

Sources

Acknowledgments

1. ↑ FSFTID: GNQT-FX2

• WikiTree profile Mills-2146 created through the import of Keller-Freeland-Ferris Family .ged on Feb 27, 2012 by Elizabeth Tapia. See the Changes page for the details of edits by Elizabeth and others.

Other

The Ancestry.com Family Tree that was the original source for this profile has a broken link as of 23 Oct 2022:

• Ancestry.com Family Tree: http://trees.ancestry.com/pt/AMTCitationRedir.aspx?tid=18704240&pid=305