Maj. William Mayo

William Mayo was the eldest child of the well-to-do family of Joseph and Elizabeth (Hooper) Mayo. At the age of twenty-five he left England, accompanied by his younger brother Joseph, to seek his fortune in Barbadoes, where a cousin had settled some time earlier. There he established himself as a surveyor. In 1717 Mayo received a commission to make a map of Barbadoes, which he accomplished with such skill that Governor William Tryon (North Carolina) urged the English Board of Trade to purchase it and to grant Mayo a patent enabling him to sell his map on a commission basis. The map also gained him election to membership in the Royal Society of London. Mayo remained in the West Indies for ten years. It was in about 1719 that Mayo, now nearly forty years of age, with his wife and four daughters and with his fortune already made and assured, began to consider moving permanently to Virginia. Finally, in 1723, with his own family and the families of two brothers and a cousin, he arrived in the Virginia. In 1736, a commission of six men sent a surveying party under Mayo's leadership to explore Lord Fairfax's territory (Virginia), one of three such parties outfitted at that time. This first survey of Fairfax's domains provided the first useful map of the region, and Mayo's journal provided most of the knowledge available to first settlers who were then breaking through the Blue Ridge gaps into western Virginia territory. Together with Professor Alexander Irvin, Mayo was also responsible for setting the boundary between Virginia and North Carolina. One of the rivers intersecting the line was named the Mayo River in his honor. In 1737, Mayo laid out the city of Richmond, Virginia. Mayo served as the chief civil engineer in Virginia until his death in Richmond in 1744.

A noted surveyor, was son of Joseph Mayo and Elizabeth Hooper, his wife, of Poulshot, county Wilts, England, and was baptized at Poulshot, November 4, 1684; he first emigrated to Barbadoes, of which he made a survey. He married here Frances Gould and went with her to Virginia in 1723; qualified in 1728 as one of the first justices for Goochland; in 1730 appointed major of militia; in 1729 one of the surveyors to run the dividing line between Virginia and North Carolina; made in 1737 a map of the Northern Neck; surveyed Richmond in 1737; in 1740 colonel of the Goochland militia. He married (second) Anne Perratt, about the year 1732. He died October 20, 1744.

Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography, Volume I

IV--Burgesses and Other Prominent Persons

__________________________________________________

Will of William Mayo

To daughter Mary, wife of Edmund Gray, 200 acres in Amelia Co. adjoining lands of Adkins and Towns, with 3 female salves: Chloe, Silvia, and Lucy daughter of Chloe. If she has no issue, then to George Carrington and Joseph Scott. Also to Edmund and Mary Gray, 1,000 acres on both sides of Angola Creek, adjoining John Pleasants.

To Joseph Scott and Sarah, his wife, 200 acres adjoining my own land.

To son John, all my lands in North Carolina, also 1,000 acres on Deep Creek in Goochland Co., adjoining John Perratt, with mill and plantation, also the rest of the land adjoining Edmund and Mary Gray on both sides of Angola Creek across Great Guinea Creek among branches of Willis River in Goochland, also 3 slaves: Hercules, Flora and Will.

To on Joseph, all my lands adjacent to Fluvanna River above Buffalo Island in Goochland reversion of 2,400 acres with houses in Goochland Co. on Fine Creek, after death of my wife; also, 3 slaves: Scipio, Phoebe and Jolar.

To my daughter Rebecca Mayo, 1,850 acres, being south part of my land at Peterville Chapel Goochland next to Joel Chandler. Also to her 3 slaves: Hannah, Venus and Matt.

To wife Ann, for life, my house and my lots at the Capitol landing and my 2,400 acres at Fine Creek in Goochland, and uses of slaves: Mamoe, Fatima, Jenny, Turpin, Congo, Awhey, Jollof, Cudgeo, Maddy, Harry, Rose, Pompey, Brissey, Shaty, Philip. Robert, Little Inan, Kate, Annie, Dick and Ned. Also to her my mill called Bide Mill on Peterville Chapel Branch, with 400 acres, also my household goods, tools and store goods.

Some slaves to be divided among my sons Daniel, John and Joseph after my wife’s death and some as decided by her.

To my son Joseph, Tarlton Fleming, and Stephen Hughes, my land on and above Soak Arse Run and Crooms Quarter Branch, equally, when Joseph is 21.

My executors can sell this land with Hutchins Burton having 400 acres if he pays £6.

Samuel Allen’s debt for the land and £40.

To my son-in-law George Carrington £10.

Rest of estate to my son Daniel, Wife Ann to be Executrix.

William Mayo

from "Virginians - The Family History of John W. Pritchett "

• Updated from MyHeritage Family Trees via daughter Martha Shepherd (born Mayo) by SmartCopy: Sep 30 2015, 15:02:22 UTC

Source:

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/85711077/william-mayo

GEDCOM Note

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, Johanna, and Hester Mayo. They rented land in Henrico Co. from Thomas Randolph in December 1723. Two children born in America, Elizabeth and William Mayo Jr. died young. Hester died soon afterwards.

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 Co.. 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.

GEDCOM Note

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, Johanna, and Hester Mayo. They rented land in Henrico Co. from Thomas Randolph in December 1723. Two children born in America, Elizabeth and William Mayo Jr. died young. Hester died soon afterwards.

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 Co.. 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.

William Mayo was the eldest child of the well-to-do family of Joseph and Elizabeth (Hooper) Mayo. At the age of twenty-five he left England, accompanied by his younger brother Joseph, to seek his fortune in Barbadoes, where a cousin had settled some time earlier. There he established himself as a surveyor. In 1717 Mayo received a commission to make a map of Barbadoes, which he accomplished with such skill that Governor William Tryon (North Carolina) urged the English Board of Trade to purchase it and to grant Mayo a patent enabling him to sell his map on a commission basis. The map also gained him election to membership in the Royal Society of London.
Mayo remained in the West Indies for ten years. It was in about 1719 that Mayo, now nearly forty years of age, with his wife and four daughters and with his fortune already made and assured, began to consider moving permanently to Virginia. Finally, in 1723, with his own family and the families of two brothers and a cousin, he arrived in the Virginia.

In 1736, a commission of six men sent a surveying party under Mayo's leadership to explore Lord Fairfax's territory (Virginia), one of three such parties outfitted at that time. This first survey of Fairfax's domains provided the first useful map of the region, and Mayo's journal provided most of the knowledge available to first settlers who were then breaking through the Blue Ridge gaps into western Virginia territory.

Together with Professor Alexander Irvin, Mayo was also responsible for setting the boundary between Virginia and North Carolina. One of the rivers intersecting the line was named the Mayo River in his honor.
In 1737, Mayo laid out the city of Richmond, Virginia.
Mayo served as the chief civil engineer in Virginia until his death in Richmond in 1744.* Reference: Find A Grave Memorial - SmartCopy: Nov 28 2021, 15:41:55 UTC