Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 1.djvu/141

 COLONIAL COUXXILLORS OF STATE

Taylor now conveys the land to Harmer and wife." Elizabeth, wife of Taylor, also con- veys her right of dower in the land. The wife of \\'illiam Taylor, or Tayloe, was Elizabeth daughter of Richard Kingsmill, and it is pos- sible that Airs. Jane Harmer was her mother, as Richard Kingsmill's wife was named Jane.

Yardley, Argall, was a son of Sir George

Yardley, governor and councillor of Virginia. The younger Yardlcy's name is first recorded among those present on Jan. 6, 1639, and on July 6, 1640. On Feb. 2, 1644, proceedings were instituted against "Col. Argall Yardley of the Council," for contempt. He was re- elected a councillor in April, 1652, and ap- pointed justice for Northampton in 1653, and once more elected to the council March 31, 1654-55. Colonel Yardley married Sarah, eldest daughter of John Michael, merchant. Their marriage contract bears the date of Jan. 23, 1640. On March 28, 1656, the gen- eral assembly had ordered the "denization" of "John Michael, stranger," then a resident of Northampton county. A deed is recorded under date of Dec. 28, 1648, from "Argall Yardley. elder son and heir of Sir George Yardley, deceased." to his son Edmund, also a deed from Argall Yardley to Henry and Edmund Yardley. and a deed of gift recorded Aug., 1674, from John Michael, Sr., to his daughter Sarah and her husband, Argall Yardley, and to their children. Argall Yard- ley, Jr.. John, Elizabeth and Frances Yardley. According to an inventory of the personal estate of Colonel Argall Yardley, Esq., dated Nov. 13, 1655, he had 41,269 pounds of tobacco, and a tobacco house and two servants in Bar- badoes. He has numerous descendants in Vir- ginia.

Bennett, Richard, governor of V^irginia (q. v.).

Digges, Edward, governor of Virginia (q.

v.).

Mathews, Samuel, governor of X'irginia

(<1. v.).

Wingate, Roger, was a member of an old P>c<lfordsliire family and the son of Roger Wingate, of Barnend, Bedfordshire. In the •year 1637, he was living in London and two years later was appointed by the King treas- urer of \'irginia and a member of the council. He came to the colony at once and was pres- ent in council Jan., 1639-40. and subsequently. Wingate probably died in the beginning of the year 1641, as in February of that year, Rich- ard Morrison was appointed to the council in his place. This may. however, have been in the following year as his name is included in the commission of Aug. 9, 1641.

Pettus, Thomas, first appears in the Vir- ginia records as included in the commission to the councillors at the beginning of Berke- ley's administration. Aug. 9. 1641. He prob- ably came to the colony about that time. He was present at meetings as late as 1651, but in this year seems to have lost his seat on the arrival of the parliamentar}- conmiissioners. The house of burgesses, however, elected him a councillor in 1652 and reelected him a num- ber of times afterwards. L^pon Berkeley's re- appointment to the governorship at the time of the restoration, in 1660, the King again commissioned Pettus a councillor. Colonel Pettus made his home at "Littletown" on the James river, not far below Jamestown. The date of his death is not known.

Morrison or Moryson, Richard, together with two of his brothers, settled in Virginia during the first half of the seventeenth cen- tury, where they all became men of promi- nence, Francis Morrison servmg as governor