Moore Fauntleroy

Moore Fauntleroy (born early 1610s – died between October 7, 1663, and March 28, 1664), whose surname was also written Fantleroy, was an English-born planter, merchant, militia officer, county justice, and politician in the Colony of Virginia. He represented Upper Norfolk, Nansemond, Lancaster, and Rappahannock counties in the House of Burgesses between 1644 and 1660. He also helped petition for the creation of Rappahannock County, presided over its county court, and rose to the rank of colonel in the colonial militia.

Fauntleroy accumulated more than 10,400 acres along the Rappahannock River, much of it through Virginia's headright system and a disputed 1651 conveyance from the Rappahannock people. His treatment of the Rappahannocks became one of the most serious controversies of his career. Colonial investigations concluded that he had failed to make the agreed payment for part of the land, and he was accused of seizing Rappahannock leaders and extorting shell money from the tribe. In 1662, the General Assembly removed him from his civil and military offices, restricted his use of the disputed land, and again ordered him to compensate the Rappahannocks.

Early life and family background

Fauntleroy was born at Crondall in Hampshire, England, early in the 1610s. His exact birth date is not recorded. His parents were John Fauntleroy and Phoebe Wilkinson Fauntleroy. Both Moore and an elder brother who was also named Moore appeared in the September 20, 1617, will of their mother's godfather. The existence of two brothers with the same given name has contributed to confusion in later genealogical accounts.

About 1618, the family moved from Crondall to Headley, Hampshire, where Fauntleroy received his education. On December 8, 1633, he acquired a coat of arms, affirming his recognized social status as a gentleman.

Fauntleroy was not solely a tobacco planter. He owned all or part of at least one merchant vessel and participated in trade between Virginia and other parts of the Chesapeake and Atlantic world. Surviving evidence suggests that he may have traded with residents of Maryland or with members and associates of the Calvert proprietary family.

Move to the Rappahannock

Beginning in the early 1650s, Fauntleroy acquired patents for more than along the Rappahannock River. About 1651 he moved from Nansemond to a part of Northumberland County that became Lancaster County later that year.

The rapid expansion of English tobacco cultivation along the river placed increasing pressure on the Rappahannocks. English patents translated Indigenous landscapes into bounded, individually owned plantations even where Indigenous communities continued to live, farm, travel, and exercise political authority. Historian Jessica Lauren Taylor places Fauntleroy among a group of planter-officeholders who used county government, surveys, trade, and militia power to convert Indigenous places into colonial property.

The 1651 Rappahannock conveyance

On April 4, 1651, Fauntleroy obtained a deed at a place recorded as machcomacoi from Accopatough, the Rappahannock weroance, and members of his council. The deed described a large tract beginning around the Morattico area and extending along the Rappahannock River toward Totuskey Creek and a Rappahannock town. The consideration was described in terms of peake, roanoke, and other trade goods - forms of shell bead wealth that had economic, political, and diplomatic significance in the seventeenth-century Chesapeake.

Accopatough died while traveling to Jamestown shortly after the deed was made. On May 11, 1651, his successor, whose name appears in the records as Taweeren or Moratoerin, confirmed the conveyance. The colonial government issued Fauntleroy a patent on May 22. A Rappahannock leader identified as Naeheoopa and members of the tribal council stated in 1658 that the late Accopatough had wanted Fauntleroy to be permitted to occupy part of the land.

Lancaster County leadership

On January 1, 1652, Fauntleroy, then holding the rank of captain, hosted the first recorded meeting of the Lancaster County Court at his home. County courts were central institutions of colonial government. Their justices handled land recording, estates, debts, minor criminal proceedings, taxes, roads, and the administration of bound labor.

Suspension from the House of Burgesses

In December 1656 and March 1659, Fauntleroy served on the House of Burgesses' Committee for Private Causes. The committee determined which civil appeals from the colony's Quarter Court should receive consideration by the General Assembly.

Conflict with the Rappahannock people

Failure to pay for land

The dispute over Fauntleroy's land acquisitions reemerged publicly in 1660. The Rappahannocks complained that he had not delivered the consideration promised for the 1651 conveyance. In July 1660, Governor Sir William Berkeley instructed the Lancaster County Court to investigate. Fauntleroy responded angrily to the inquiry. At the October 1660 session of the General Assembly, the court reported that it had found no proof that Fauntleroy had paid the Rappahannocks. In March 1661, the Assembly ordered him to provide thirty matchcoats, including a coat decorated with copper lace for the Rappahannock weroance.

Historian Taylor interprets the Fauntleroy affair as an example of the danger created when settlers combined private land interests with control of local courts and militia forces. In this instance, the Rappahannocks successfully carried their complaint beyond the county level, and the colonial government sided with them sufficiently to discipline one of the region's most powerful planters.