University of Virginia Library

MARTIN.

The name of Martin has belonged to a number of families
in the county. The year it was organized, 1745, Captain
Joseph Martin, as he was called in the patents, obtained
grants of more than fourteen hundred acres on Priddy's Creek,
and eight hundred on Piney Run. His will disposing of land
in Essex County, it is surmised he came from that part of the
State. He and his wife Ann had eleven children, Brice,
William, Joseph, John, George, Sarah, the wife of John Burrus,
Mary, the wife of a Hammock, Susan, Martha, Ann, and
Olive, the wife probably of Ambrose Edwards. The Captain
died in 1761.

James Martin owned at an early date a considerable tract
of land that now belongs to the Grayson family, near the
present site of the Miller School. In 1759 he gave two hundred
acres to each of his six sons, Stephen, John, James,
Obadiah, William and David. These sons, or the most of
them, it is believed, emigrated to North Carolina, about the
time of the Revolution. It is possible the John just mentioned
was the John Martin who lived in the western part of
the North Garden. His place was formerly known as the
Pocket Plantation. He was a prosperous man, and became
the owner of upwards of fifteen hundred acres. He died in
1812. His wife's name was Elizabeth, believed to have been
a Wheeler, and his children were Benjamin, Sarah, the wife
of John Watson, Mary, the wife of William Wood, Susan,
the wife of Hickerson Jacob, and Clarissa. Benjamin succeeded
to his father's place, and died in 1821. His wife's
name was Catharine, and his children were Ann, the wife of
Augustine Woodson, Lindsay, John, Caroline, the wife of
Joshua W. Abell, Julia, the wife of Micajah Wheeler, Benjamin,
Emily, the wife of Richard Abell, James, Elizabeth,
the wife first of Peter Garland, and secondly of Daniel Martin,
and Jane, the wife of Samuel M. Powell.

A John Martin in 1762 purchased from Joseph Thomas
upwards of six hundred acres in the southern part of the
county, on Ballenger's Creek. He died in 1810. He married
Ann, daughter of James Tooley, and his children were
Sarah, the wife of James Wood, Ann, the wife of John
Dawson, Dabney, James, Celia, Alice, Simeon, Massey and
Lindsay.

Thomas Martin was already settled on the south fork of
Hardware in 1764, where his descendants have been resident
ever since. He seems not to have been a patentee, and
when he purchased does not appear. He died in 1792. He
and his wife Mary had ten children, Abraham, George,
Thomas, Charles, John, Pleasant, Letitia, the wife of Richard
Moore, Mildred, the wife of an Oglesby, Ann, the wife
of a Blain, and Mary, the wife of Benjamin Dawson. Pleasant
removed to Amherst. John married Elizabeth, daughter

of David Lewis, was a Captain in the Revolutionary army,
had charge of the troops that in 1780 guarded as far as
Frederick, Md., the British prisoners, on their removal from
the Barracks, and of those stationed in Charlottesville at the
time of the Tarleton Raid, and in 1786 emigrated to Fayette
County, Kentucky. Charles lived on the place where J. Goulet
Martin now resides, and sold it in 1783 to Rev. William Irvin.
His wife's name was Patty, and he had two daughters,
Elizabeth and Martha, who became the wives of brothers,
Thomas and James Cobbs, of Halifax County; and selling
the remainder of his land the next year, he probably followed
them to that county. George married Barbara, daughter
of Samuel Woods, and died in 1799. His children were
Malinda, the wife of Lewis Teel, Samuel W., and Elizabeth,
the wife of William Garth. Samuel W. married Sarah,
daughter of Garrett White, and died in 1857. His children
were Garrett W., George, Thomas, John A., Samuel W.,
Jeremiah, and Eleanora, the wife of Jesse L. Heiskell.

Hudson Martin was a Second Lieutenant in the Ninth
Virginia, during the Revolution. For a number of years he
was deputy Clerk of the county, and subsequently a magistrate.
He married Jane, the eldest daughter of Nicholas
Lewis. Near the beginning of the century he removed to
Amherst, in the vicinity of Faber's Mills, where his descendants
still live. In 1834 Captain John Thomas testified
before the County Court in behalf of his heirs, to the fact of
his having served in the Revolutionary army. A son John
M. Martin became a member of the Albemarle bar in 1809.
Another son, Hudson, married Mildred, daughter of Dabney
Minor, and at one time lived in Arkansas.

In the early years of the century, a Thomas Martin married
Mary Ann, daughter of Daniel White. His home was
west of Batesville, north of the place now occupied by William
H. Turner Jr. He died in 1827. His children were
Ann, the wife of John L. White, Azariah, Diana, the wife of
James Lobban, Thomas, Mary, the wife of William Stone,
Charles, Elizabeth, Daniel, Henry, Barbara, the wife of John
Lobban, and Lucy, the wife of William H. Garland.