Hello, I forwarded your website announcement to a few Mottrom-Wright-Washington cousins. One sent a response that was chock full of information about Col John Mottrom and I thought it might be of interest to others on the list. At any rate, I would like to post it to the list archives so other cousins might find it in the future. Thank you kindly......~malinda You are right! I have not explored this site as yet, however a history of Northumberland Co.Virginia would not be complete without at least some mention of Col. John Mottrom b. abt 1610 in England (a descendant of the ancient and honorable family of Mottrom of Mottrom Andrew, co. Chester, lords and owners of the Manor of Mottrom for 400 years ), a gentleman by birth and education, whom one recorder states, John Mottrom was the first settler known in Northumberland County and was there in 1635. John Mottrom was a Cavalier in England. This means he was one of the "nobility and gentry" supporting King Charles I who reigned from 1642 to 1649, who were against the Roundheads, a political, religious party made up of Puritans and other non- conformists and some radicals. They had gained control of Parliament and opposed the will and authority of the King. The Mottroms were probably Catholic turned Puritan later on. After King Charles was executed in 1649, more than a thousand Cavaliers of the most dauntless stamp, with their families, came in one year to Virginia. John Mottrom debarked at York River and first settled in York County which then embraced both sides of the river near Chesapeake Bay. The name of his first wife is not available (although there are some theories re: her identity) who was born abt.1615 in England and died not long after the birth of her daughter Frances in 1645. She was one of the women of gentle birth and breeding who succumbed to the malarial and other afflictions that beset the lowlands of Virginia under the heat of summers such as they had never known in England. She was about 30 years of age at the time of her death and is buried beside her husband at the family plantation, Chicacoan. John Mottrom is mentioned as of York, Virginia in 1644. [Archives of Maryland, Vol IV, p.269]. He like most of the other prominent settlers, owned a shallop (small open boat), mentioned in the York County Records. With this boat he traded goods in Maryland. About 1645 he moved to Chicacoan, the first white settlement on the Virginia side of the Potomac River. His home became a resort for Protestants who opposed the government of Lord Baltimore in Maryland. They were accused of plotting treason and making Chicacoan their base for conspiracies. When Northumberland County was formed in 1645, John Mottrom represented the county that year in the House of Burgesses. He was Burgess again in 1652. He was also a Justice and Colonel in the militia. He died 25 Feb 1655. His Will was referred to the governor "because of some ambiguities in the procurings of it." It was probably recorded in the General Court. The records of that court were burned in Richmond, so no copy of the Will is available. His estate inventory, however is on record in Northumberland County Courthouse. It is dated 1655 and shows he was a man of wealth and literary pretentions. The total of his inventory was valued at 33,896 pounds of tobacco. Tobacco was the medium of exchange at that point in our history. [Ref: VIRGINIA MAGAZINE Vol. X, p.402]. John Mottrom's Will was written by George Colclough (McColclough), Lawyer, who later married John Mottrom's second wife Ursula Bysshe, widow of Richard Thompson, d. 1649. Richard Thompson and Ursula Bysshe had issue who married into the Presly and Willoughby families. Ursula Bysshe is of interest as a very close relative of Col. William Claiborne of Kent Island and Virginia.