Source Material

While reading various websites and citations on Nicolas Martiau and his arrival in Virginia, I have found several old books which provide useful background. Three sources are worth featuring here, and these are available in online formats. First, the Hathi Trust has a copy of John Baer Stoudt's Nicolas Martiau: The Adventurous Huguenot (1932). The second and third books were found on the FamilySearch website: Adventurers of Purse and Person, Virginia 1607-1625, compiled and edited by Annie Lash Jester (1956), and Jonathan Kennon Smith's book (cited in Sunday's post). Stoudt's book includes a reprint of a letter written by Martiau to Henry, Earl of Huntington on 12 December 1624. The letter includes Martiau's signature:

Source: Stoudt, Hathi Trust.

 
Martiau sent Huntington a gift of tobacco and sassafras from the colony. The Lester book contains a reprint and translation of Martiau's letter.

In 1630, Martiau received a land patent for 1300 acres. This territory became Yorktown. A map from the Stoudt book provides a good visual of the plantation.

Source: Stoudt, page 58.

The Stoudt, Lester and Kennon books also provide quite a bit of detail on the arrival of George Read in the Virginia colony. I will describe his role in the next post.