Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 1.djvu/140

 VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY

held i6th August, 1658. Upon Peticon of Mr. Tho. Willoughby a commission of Adm'con is granted unto him on his father's estate, Capt. Tho. Willoughby who deceased in Eng- land, hee putting in Security according to law."

Wormeley, Ralph, was a son of Christo- pher Wormeley, Esq., and a descendant of Sir John de Wormeley, of Hadfield, county York, England (1312), and brother of Chris- topher Wormely, Esq., acting governor of the Tortuga Island, 1631-1635, who also settled in \'irginia. He was born about 1620 and came to \irginia about 1635, and settled in York county. He was a justice of the county in 1648, with the rank of captain, and in 1650 was made a nember of the council. He died in 1 65 1. In 1646 he married Agatha Elton- head, widow of Luke Stubbins, gentleman, of Northampton county, Virginia. She was the daughter of Richard Eltonhead, of Eltonhead, county Lancaster, England, and on the death of Wormeley she married Sir Henry Chicheley, a royalist who fled to Virginia in 1649 and was afterwards lieutenant governor. He was father of Ralph Wormeley, who became secre- tary of .state of Mrginia. He died in 165 1.

Littleton, Nathaniel, was the sixth son of Sir Edward Littleton, of Henly, Shropshire, and brother of Sir Edward Littleton, lord keeper, served in the Low Countries, in the Earl of Southampton's company, in 1625, and emigrated in 1635 to Virginia, where he set- tled at Nadua Creek, Accomac county. In 1640, he was chief magistrate of that county, and on March 18, 1644, was appointed com- mander of Accomac, an office which he held for a number of years. On April 30, 1652, he was elected to the council, and was a mem- ber until his death about two years later.

Prior to ^larch i, 1652, Capt. Littleton, "Gov- ernor of Accomache." had married the widow of Charles Harmar. She was Ann, daughter of Henry Southey, Esq., of Rimpton, Somer- setshire, to whom the company had issued a patent in reward of his undertaking to trans- port 100 persons to \'irginia. Councillor Littleton's death occurred in or before 1654, ar.d that of his wife in 1656. He has numer- ous descendant'- in Virginia.

Harmer, Ambrose, came to Virginia in about the year 1625. This much may be gathered from his petition to the King, asking to be given legal control over Benoni Buck, the first idiot who had ever lived- in Virginia. The petition was dated 1637, ^n.d in it Mr. Harmer stated that he had had the tuition of Benoni and his brother, children of the well known \'irginia clergyman. Rev. Richard Buck, for thirteen years past. Just when Harmer was appointed to the council does not appear, but he was present at meetings on Jan. 6. 1639. and March 5, 1640. He was left out of the commission of councillors of Aug. 9. 164 1, but whatever the cause may have been, it was not unpopularity with the people, for he represented James City county in the house of burgesses at the sessions of Feb., 1644-45, Nov., 1645, March, 1645-46, and Oct., 1646, when his name appears for the last time in the records, and he was speaker of that honorable house. The land grants show a deed, dated April 18, 1642, from "William Taylor of Chisciacke, gent., to Ambrose Har- mer, of Virginia, Esq., and Jane now his wife." reciting that on Nov. 9, 1638, a grant 0^ 1200 acres was made to the said William Taylor, "the land lying on Chickahominy, in James City County, due him for the trans- portation of twenty-four persons, and said