Mathew Kemp (politician)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mathew Kemp | |
|---|---|
| Speaker of the House of Burgesses | |
| In office 1679 | |
| Preceded by | William Travers |
| Succeeded by | Thomas Ballard |
| Member of the Virginia Governor's Council | |
| In office 1681-1682 | |
| Member of the House of Burgesses representing Gloucester COunty | |
| In office 1679-1680 Serving with John Armistead | |
| Preceded by | Peter Jenings |
| Succeeded by | Henry Whiting |
| Personal details | |
| Born | ca. 1630 Gissing, Norfolk, England |
| Died | 1682 |
| Spouse | Dorothy (surname unknown) |
| Children | Mathew Kemp Jr. (1650-1716) |
| Parent(s) | Edmund Kemp, Anna |
| Profession | attorney, planter, politician |
Mathew Kemp (c. 1630 – December 1682) was an English attorney who emigrated from England to the Colony of Virginia where he became a government official, planter and politician. He supported Governor William Berkeley during Bacon's Rebellion and became Speaker of the House of Burgesses in 1679 before being elevated to the Virginia Governor's Council.[1][2]: 239 [3]
Born to Edmund Kemp and his wife. Edmund Kemp had emigrated to then-vast Lancaster County in the Colony of Virginia and became a planter and justice of the peace (all the justices in that era jointly administering the county). Mathew Kemp was educated in England and emigrated to Virginia before October 1660. His grandfather was Robert Kemp of Gissing in Norfolk, England and his uncle the baronet Sir Robert Kemp.[4]
He married a woman named Dorothy and had a son, also Mathew Kemp, who later served as Burgess for Middlesex County.[5]
Planter
In October 1660, Kemp patented 500 acres at the head of the Potomac River, and he and Peter Jenings(who died in 1672) later patented 1,000 acres at the falls or head of the Potomac as well as 1,000 acres on the northern branch of the Corotoman River in Lancaster County. In that era, land could be patented based upon the number of emigrants for whose passage to the colony the patentee had paid, and the patentee was also required to improve the land by creating a residence or farm. In 1661, Kemp reasserted his father's patent for 1,000 acres on the Pianketank creek in Gloucester County. He inherited land in Lancaster County from his father, although in 1662 he had to assert his interest in court as attorney for Sir Gray Skipwith, who had married his widowed mother and had been named as executor of Edmund Kemp's estate. Middlesex County would later be split from Lancaster County, and Kemp initially lived on that property, but later moved to Gloucester County in 1674.[6] Edmund Kemp in 1650 had previously inherited land from Sir Richard Kemp, his uncle who had served as the colony's secretary and on the Governor's Council but whose sole child (a daughter) died before reaching marriageable age. In 1675 Kemp claimed 575 acres in Gloucester County (purchasing 400 and claiming 173 for importing immigrants) and his son Mathew Kemp Jr. patented another 229 acres.[7] In 1677 Kemp sold the Potomac River tract he had owned with Peter Jenings (which would today be near Washington, D.C.).[8]
