140
VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY
remonstrance seems to have had no effect, for
in 1680 he was presiding justice and colonel
of militia. On May 23, 1683. ^^v. Culpeper
appointed him a member of the council, and
the nomination was confirmed by the King,
lie continued in this office until his death. He
was also one of the first trustees of William
and .Mary College in 1693, and, at the time
of his death, was collector of the lower dis-
tricts of James river. His death occurred in
Xov. or Dec. K'kjS.
Allerton, Isaac, mu of Isaac Allerton, one of the Puritan leaders of the "Alayfiower" ex- pedition, and his wife Fear, daughter of Wil- liam Brewster, was born in Plymouth, Mass., in 1630. and graduated at Harvard College in if SO- He is said to have been, for a time, associatefl with his father in the business of trading between I'lymouth. Xew Haven and New Amsterdam, but it is possible that during most of the time between his graduation and his father's death, in 1659, he was his reprc- stntative in \'irginia. .\s early as Feb. 6, 1^)50, there was recorded a dispute between tl;e Indians and a Mr. .Allerton, regarding a plantation which the latter had cleared, which reached the governor and council. It is be- lieved that this refers to the elder Isaac Aller- ton, but it may be that immediately after leav- ing college the son established a plantation in \'irginia. He apj^ears to have made his first permanent residence in \'irginia about 1660, and soon became a man of prominence. In 1663 he was sworn a justice of Northumber- land. In 1675, with the rank of major, he was second in command to Col. John Washington, of the Virginia troops sent against the Indians. In the campaign which followed they allied tliemselves with the Maryland forces at the latter's invitation in the siege of an Indian fort, but before the opening of hostilities a
horrible murder was committed by the Mary-
landers in the shooting of five Indian chiefs
who had come to negotiate peace. This was
done against the earnest opposition of Wash-
ii;gton and Allerton, but caused such indigna-
tion on the part of the Virginia authorities
tl-.at an investigation of their conduct was
ordered, which, however, cleared them of all
responsibility for the crime. Allerton was
burgess for Westmoreland in 1676-77, and for
Northumberland for a number of years be-
tween 1668 and 1677. In 1680 and 1688 he
was escheator of Westmoreland with the rank
ot colonel, and ])rior to Sept. 25, 1683, he was
appointed to the council. His occupation of
the position at this time seems to have been '
only temporary, as in 1686-87 Secretary Spen- cer, acting governor, wrote, that he had called Col. Isaac Allerton to the council in Col. Lud- ]
well's place. A little later King James wrote ]
that Col. Allerton was to be sworn as a mem- '
her of the council in Col. Ludwell's place, the royal favor being accounted for on the state- ment that Allerton was either a Catholic or inclined to that faith. He was present at ses- sions of the council regularly until 1691, when he refused, as did Armistead and Lee, to take the oath of allegiance to the new sovereigns, AA^illiam and Mary. He was probably not formally dropped until 1693, when the gov- ernor wrote that Col. Allerton, of the council, vv-as very old and had retired. His death occurred sometime in 1702. '
Armistead, John, a son of \\'illiam Arm- 1
istead, of Elizabeth City county, and grand- '
son of Anthony Armistead, of Kirk Deighton, I ii! Yorkshire, England, settled in Gloucester
county, of which he was sheriff in 1676, and ;
a justice and lieutenant-colonel of horse in j
1680. In 1685 he was a member of the house "^ of burgesses, and on Feb. 14, 1687-88, Gov.
