Maj. William MAYO

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From the History of Albemarle Co.

The Mayos have had a name and place in Albemarle from the beginning. Colonel William Mayo, the County Surveyor of Goochland, obtained a patent for eight hundred acres on the branches of Rockfish, near the Blue Mountains, in 1738. The patent of Dr. William Cabell for forty-eight hundred acres on both sides of the Fluvanna, obtained the same year, adjoined this entry of Mayo. Among the first deeds recorded in Albemarle, is one from Ann Mayo, conveying this land to Robert Barnett in 1748.

WILLIAM MAYO (Jody's 7th Great Grand Father) emigrated first to the island of Barbadoes; which island he surveyed in 1717-21. His plat or map is now on file in King's College Library. William MAYO is generally known as Major William MAYO, the surveyor; but he was a Colonel prior to 1743. He was for a number of years the surveyor of Goochland Co. The last entry made by him as surveyor bears date 17th Oct. 1744, and his will was admitted to record, 20th Nov. 1744; so he d. between these dates. m. (firstly) in this island, Frances GOLD, dau. of Enoch GOLD of Bridgetown. Himself and wife emigrated to Virginia about the year 1723, bringing with them four daus. m. (secondly) about the year 1732, Ann PERRATT, of Barbadoes, whose will was probated in Cumberland Co. Court, 27th Dec. 1773.

MAJ. WILLIAM MAYO (1684—1744)

Wilts County, England, was the birthplace of William Mayo, the son of Joseph Mayo and Elizabeth Hooper. He was christened at Poulshot on 4 November 1684. William emigrated to Barbados where he married his first wife, Frances Gould, the daughter of Enock Gould and his wife, Mary. They were wed 11 December 1709 in St. Michael’s Parish, Barbados.

William was a prominent surveyor and cartographer. He surveyed the island in 1717-21 and the map he drew is on file in the King’s College Library. William Byrd attested to its accuracy and in April 1722 the board of trade ordered its secretary to subscribe “for the use of the Board, for one of the maps of Barbados, which Mr. Mayo is about to publish.”

The William Mayo family emigrated to America about 1723. With William and Frances were their four daughters: Sarah, Mary [862.2], Johanna , and Hester Mayo [862.4]. They rented land in Henrico County from Thomas Randolph in December 1723. Two children born in America, Elizabeth and William Mayo Jr. died young. Hester died soon afterwards. The Mayo family settled in Goochland County, Virginia, where William was for many years a justice of the peace and the county surveyor. He paid tithes on eleven tithables in Goochland County in about 1732.

William Mayo is perhaps best known for helping to survey the boundary between Virginia and North Carolina in 1728. The purpose of the survey was to resolve ongoing jurisdictional disputes between the two colonies. The controversy originated in the two Carolina charters. The 1663 charter declared the boundary to be the 36 parallel, but the charter of 1665 placed the boundary about at 3630’, effectively adding a 30-mile strip of territory to North Carolina. Virginia preferred to ignore the second charter. Conflict began when settlers, to whom Virginia had granted land in the disputed territory, refused to pay quit rent taxes to that Colony. A more northerly border would also give North Carolina a route to ship tobacco without paying export duties to Virginia. In 1705 the House of Burgesses resolved to appoint a commission to cooperate with North Carolina to establish the boundary between the two colonies. Five years would elapse before the commission would begin. Yet cooperate, they would not. Both Colonies secretly undertook individual surveys, quibbled over official instructions, and found faults with the others’ readings. This survey was inconclusive. Both Virginia and North Carolina continued to grant land in the disputed territory. By 1714 the jurisdictional problems were so substantial that both the Virginia Governor Spotswood and the North Carolina Governor Charles Eden agreed on a compromise. The Crown approved the compromise yet it was not until 1728 that both colonies appointed commissioners and surveyors. North Carolina appointed Christopher Gale, Edward Moseley, William Little, and John Lovick commissioners and Virginia appointed William Byrd, William Dandridge, and Richard Fitz-William. Surveyors for North Carolina were Samuel Swann and Edward Moseley, also a commissioner. William Mayo and Alexander Irvine represented Virginia. Among the assistants was Peter Jones , Thomas Short Sr., and Abraham Jones. Joseph Mayo briefly joined them. The survey began on 5 March 1728/9, and by March 14 the team reached the Dismal Swamp. Surveyors and their twelve assistants struck out through the swamp and the commissioners and the others in the party went round. The two parties reunited two weeks later. After six weeks in the wilderness and running the line 73 miles, they suspended the survey until autumn. They continued the survey on September 20 and soon reached the Roanoke River. Having satisfied themselves about the eastern portion of the boundary, the North Carolina party turned back. The Virginia commissioners had orders to continue, and so they did. They advanced the line as far as Peters Creek on the border of present-day Stokes County. Winter and the challenge of the Appalachians ended their progress. Ascertaining a border between two colonies in the eighteenth century would typically be a historical footnote except for the journal William Byrd kept of the enterprise. History of the Dividing Line betwixt Virginia and North Carolina is an American literature classic. In fact, Byrd wrote two accounts of the survey. He wrote first The Secret History of the Line that he presumably did not intend to publish. In the Secret History, Byrd depicted principal characters with fictitious names. He was “Steddy” and Alexander Irvine and William Mayo were “Orion” and “Astrolabe.” The chaplain, Rev. Peter Fontaine, was “Dr. Humdrum” and Edward Moseley was “Plausible.” Dover Publications, Inc., New York, published both versions in a single volume. Below are excerpts from each version.

William was appointed a major of the militia in 1730. A year later he, Byrd, and others planned an expedition but they canceled it because of Byrd’s illness. Nevertheless, Mayo stayed busy because the Council directed him to run the boundary line between Goochland and Hanover counties. In August 1731 William wrote to Anne Perratt, the daughter of John Perratt (c.1655- 7 June 1729) of Barbados, to come to America to marry him and she consented. His children by his second marriage were Daniel Sr., Rebecca , John Sr. , and Joseph Mayo Sr. .

In 1733 William Byrd made a visit to his North Carolina properties that he called “The Land of Eden.” Mayo was with him. An often referenced 19 September 1733 entry in Byrd’s journal is the following one.

Col. William Byrd Journal- When we got home we laid the foundations for two large cities, one at the Shaccos, to be called Richmond, and the other at the falls of the Appomattox River, to be named Petersburg. These Major William Mayo offered to lay into lots without fee or reward. The truth of it is that these two places being the uppermost landing of the James and Appomattox Rivers, are naturally intended for marts, where the traffic of the outer inhabitants must center. Thus we did not build castles only, but also cities, in the air. ... My Company consisted of Four Gentlemen (Namlely Major Mayo, Major Munford, Mr. Banister and Mr. Jones.)

It was not until four years later, in April 1737, that Mayo got around to making the survey. He then laid off Richmond in thirty-two squares, eight long and four wide, between the present Seventeenth and Twenty-fifth Streets and from the River to Broad Street. He divided each square into four lots, and William Byrd advertised them for sale in the Virginia Gazette April 22-27, 1737, for £7 “Virginia currency.” This is the ad.

Virginia Gazette -This is to give Notice, That on the North Side of James River, near the Uppermost Landing and a little below the Falls, is lately laid off by Major Mayo, a Town, called Richmond, with Streets 65 Feet wide, in a pleasant and healthy Situation and well supply’d with Springs of good Water. It lies near the Publick Warehouse at Shaccoe’s, and in the midst of great Quantities of Grain, and all kind of Provisions. The Lots will be granted in Fee-Simple, on the Condition only of building a House in Three Years Time, of 24 by 16 Feet, fronting within 5 Feet of the Street. The Lots to be rated according to the Convenience of their Situation, and to be sold after this April General Court, by me. William Byrd.

According to a latter plat of the city, now in the Valentine Museum in Richmond, many early purchasers were Germans. The legislature incorporated Richmond in 1742. We do not know if Mayo made a survey of Petersburg. Fort Henry had been there in 1646 and Maj. Peter Jones III, considered the real founder of the city, already had a well established trading post there in 1727. His old stone warehouse still stands on Peter’s Point. The following were trustees of Petersburg beginning in 1762: Robert Bolling, Roger Atkinson, William Eaton, John Banister , Robert Ruffin, Thomas Jones, Henry Walker, George Turnbull, and James Field. The legislature united the towns of Blandford, Petersburg, Pocahontas, and Ravenscroft and incorporated them as Petersburg in 1784. Meanwhile, in 1732 the king had appointed Byrd to figure out the southern boundary of Lord Fairfax’s property, the Northern Neck. He selected Mayo chief engineer. When the surveyors completed their work, he combined their plats into a general map “in a Masterly Manner.” Modern surveys show his work was remarkably accurate.

During his lifetime Mayo secured patents for nearly 34,000 acres of land: 26,060 acres in Goochland, 1,060 acres in Henrico, and 6,778 acres in Amelia County. Most of Mayo’s patents were in what was then Goochland County. In 1730 he obtained a patent to 9,350 acres and in 1731 he got 2,850 more acres. From 1734 until his death, Mayo acquired by patent about 14,000 more acres of land in Goochland County: 3,000 acres in August 1734 , 800 acres in September 1738 , 400 acres in March 1739 , 4,740 acres in August 1740 , 1,490 acres in January 1741/2 , 530 acres in March 1743 , 1,100 acres in August 1744 , and 1,800 acres in June 1746. One Goochland County grant was in what is now southeastern Nelson County. They named Mayo Creek there for him. In September 1745 the Land Office issued a posthumous patent to 1,060 acres in Henrico County that included land Mayo’s father had once owned. Mayo Creek, Nelson County, was named for William Mayo

On 27 February 1734/5, William Mayo secured a patent for 6,778 acres in what became Amelia County in 1735. On 12 September 1734, he deeded 1,600 acres of this land to John Dabney, of Hanover County. This sale was recorded in Amelia County twice. One was for five shillings and another for £5. The first deed was drawn in 1734 before the creation of the county so perhaps the second was to confirm the first. This land was on the south side of the Appomattox River. Ann Mayo relinquished her dower right. Four years later, in 1738 he made two other dispositions of 100 acres to John Townes and James Akin. In a deed dated 15 May 1739, William Mayo made a gift, of 1,600 acres , to his daughter Joseph and Sarah Scott. Included also were two slaves, Quasheba and Arabella. In 1737 Mayo’s two slaves, Cudjoe and Jack, who worked the Amelia County land, were listed as tithables. This was land next to land belonging to his daughter Sarah (Mayo) Scott. By 1739 Mayo’s surveying duties became too onerous for a man of his age. The Council permitted Mayo to hire Ambrose Smith to help him. Mayo made his last entry for new land he surveyed in Goochland on 17 October 1744. It was entry number 1,240. William made his will in Goochland County, Virginia, 10 February 1743/4. On 12 September 1744, soon before his death Mayo deeded 1,580 acres of his Amelia County patent to Thomas Tabb for £253. We believe William died 20 October 1744. They proved his will 20 November 1744. Mayo left 200 acres of land in Amelia County to his daughter Sarah and her husband, Joseph Scott.

Soon after William’s death Ann, the executor of his will, sold 61 acres in Amelia County belonging to William to Col. William Archer . The deed was dated 18 March 1746/7. William was undoubtedly precise with numbers and it is interesting that Ann priced the land at £7:6:4 and 3 farthings. This is the only deed in Amelia County priced to farthings. Ann later, in 1748, sold a 1,650-acre portion of her husband’s Amelia County land to William Seward the younger and Paulina —, his wife, of Surry County. The Seward’s paid £198. Virginia created Albemarle in 1744 from part of Goochland County and Louisa County. In the Albemarle County Court of February 1746/7 Ann, as executor of her late husband’s estate, pursued claims against John Scruggs and William Phelps. Virginia created Cumberland County from part of Goochland County in 1749. That same year, Ann Mayo sold 100 acres on Fine Creek to Peter Jefferson and 350 acres on Willis Creek to Hutchins Burton. George Carrington and Paul Carrington witnessed the latter deed. The next year she sold 400 acres in Cumberland County to James Anderson. Ann (Perratt) Mayo died in Cumberland County in 1773.

William married Frances GOULD, daughter of Enoch GOULD and Mary, on 11 Dec 1709 in Barbados, Caribbean. (Frances GOULD was born in England, United Kingdom and died in 1731.)

William next married Ann PERRAT in 1732. (Ann PERRAT was born in Barbados, Caribbean and died in Dec 1773 in Cumberland, VA.)