Nicolas Martiau

Nicolas Martiau
Medallion representing Nicolas Martiau.
Born	c. 1591 Île de Ré, France
Died	c. 1657 (aged 65-66) Yorktown, Colony of Virginia, English Empire
Nationality	French
Spouse	Jane Berkeley

Statue of George Washington, with a medallion of his ancestor from Île de Ré, Nicolas Martiau.

Nicolas Martiau (1591–1657) was a Frenchman who immigrated to the English colony of Virginia in the 17th century. Born in the western island of Île de Ré, he is an ancestor of the first American president, George Washington.

The garden behind the Ernest Cognacq Museum in Saint Martin de Ré holds a monument with a statue of George Washington, with the base of the monument featuring a medallion representing Martiau. The monument was inaugurated on October 11, 2007, by the ambassador of the United States to France. The filiation between the two men is described on the monument.

Life

Nothing is known of Martiau's youth except that he had learned to read by studying the Gospels and the Bible. At the same time he absorbed the doctrine of Calvin, and learned to speak English. It is likely that, because of the political and religious context of the time, he was forced into exile in England since his signature is found on a register and a Huguenot church. On January 11, 1619, he was naturalised English. He married Englishwoman Elizabeth Jane Page . Nicolas Martiau's will written March 1, 1656/7, proven April 24, 1657, names daughters Elizabeth Reade, Mary Scarsbrook, Sarah Fuller, his three sons-in-law and provided freedom for slaves Phill and Nicholas. He also left one "heifer" to his servant Hugh Roy.

On May 16, 1620, Nicolas Martiau, aged 29, left England on the Francis Bonaventure in August 1620 and arrived in Jamestown where he built the fence defense which allowed the city to be spared in a massacre by the Indians in 1622. The success of this action earned him the title of "master engineer fences".

Nicolas Martiau was married to Jane Berkeley, In 1646, he remarried Isabel (Isabella) Beech, widow of Robert Felgate and George Beech. He died in Yorktown, Virginia, in 1657.

Nicolas Martiau is the earliest emigrant ancestor of George Washington.

Notable descendants

• Elizabeth II – Queen of the United Kingdom
• Tallulah Bankhead (1902–1968) – Hollywood actress
• Earl W. Bascom (1906–1995) – rodeo pioneer, inventor, "father of modern rodeo", cowboy artist/sculptor, Hollywood actor, hall of fame inductee
• Dan Blocker (1928–1972) – Hollywood actor, cowboy character of Bonanza television series
• John Moses Browning (1855–1926) – "world's greatest firearms inventor"
• Tom Cruise (1962–) – Hollywood actor, known for Mission Impossible
• Lady Bird Johnson (1912–2001) – wife of U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson
• DeForest Kelley (1920–1999) – Hollywood actor, known as Dr. McCoy in Star Trek
• Harper Lee (1926–2016) – American novelist, author of To Kill a Mocking Bird
• Robert E. Lee (1807–1870) – General of the Confederate Army during the American Civil War 1861–1865
• Meriwether Lewis (1774–1809) – American explorer, Governor of Louisiana Territory
• Benjamin McCulloch (1811–1862) – Texas Ranger, military officer, California 49er, sheriff, U.S. Marshall, U.S. Peace Commissioner ending the Utah War of 1857–58
• Henry Eustace McCulloch (1816–1895) – Texas Ranger, military officer in the Texas Revolution as well as the Mexican–American War and the American Civil War
• Thomas Nelson Jr. (1738–1789) – Brigadier General, Signer of the Declaration of Independence, Governor of Virginia
• Elvis Presley (1935–1977) – American singer and actor
• Elizabeth Taylor (1927–2011) – Hollywood actress
• George Washington (1732–1799) – General of the American Revolutionary War, first American President
• Tennessee Williams (1911–1983) – American playwright
• Bobby Fuller (1942–1966) – American musician, known for "Let Her Dance" and "I Fought the Law"
• Weston Adams (diplomat) (b.1938) – United States Ambassador

Line of descent

Captain Martiau to General Washington

• Nicolas Martiau – Jane Berkeley (1591–1657)
• Elizabeth Martiau – Colonel George Reade (1625–1696)
• Mildred Reade – Colonel Augustine Warner (1642–1684)
• Mildred Warner – Lawrence Washington (1659–1698)
• Augustine Washington – Mary Ball (1708–1789)
• George Washington (1732–1799) – first American president

References

• Ernest Cognacq Museum exhibit and monument.
• Genealogy
• Nicolas Martiau, the adventurous Huguenot, the military engineer, and the earliest American ancestor of George Washington, by John Baer Stoudt (Norristown, Pa.: [The Norristown Press] 1932).