# Samuel Matthews (captain)

Captain Samuel Mathews (c. 1580 – November 30, 1657) was a Virginia planter, political figure, and the father of Governor Samuel Mathews (Colonial Virginia governor). Also known as Colonel Mathews, the elder Samuel became one of the most prominent men in the colony.

## Biography

Her Majesty's Public Record Office records Capt Samuel Matthews arriving at Jamestown on the Southhampton in 1622 with 23 servants, and living at the 'At ye Plantaccon oer agt James Cittie' in February 16 1623. He established a plantation, "Mathews Manor" (later known as Denbigh), which was located on the north side of the James River at the confluence of the Warwick and the James rivers in the area which later became Warwick County, Virginia (and which is now within the city limits of Newport News). He eventually had several other land holdings, including one near Henricus and another at Old Point Comfort.
By 1623 he was a member of the Virginia Governor's Council and was actively involved in conflicts with the Native Americans, leading a force against the Tanx (Weyanoke) Powhatan Indians. In 1624 he was one of the commissioners appointed by the King to enquire into the condition of the colony.
Frances Grevill was one of four women who arrived at Jamestown from Bristol, England in September 1620 aboard the ship, Supply. She was first married to Lieutenant Colonel Nathaniel West, brother of Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr, who had been governor of Virginia beginning in 1610. After West's death 24 February 1623, Grevill married Abraham Peirsey, a wealthy man who had purchased Sir George Yeardley's Flowerdew Hundred Plantation. Peirsey died shortly later, on 16 January 1628. Twice widowed, but with considerable legacies, she next married Samuel Mathews around 1629.
They had two sons Samuel Jr (1630–1660), and Francis (1632–1673). Francis, a tobacco planter had a large estate of some two thousand acres in Northumberland County.
In 1630, Col Mathews was commissioned to (re)build a fort at Point Comfort, at the location of Fort Algernon and modern day Fort Monroe.
Greville would die around 1633, leaving Mathews and the two young sons. In 1635, Col Mathews was one of the leaders of the popular mutiny that ousted Royal Governor Sir John Harvey. In the spring of 1637 Mathews was sent home to England to stand trial for treason in the Court of Star Chamber along with John West (governor), John Utie, and William Peirce (burgess), but the charges were eventually dropped and Mathews returned to Virginia in 1639. He resumed service on the Virginia Governor's Council until 1644.
In later life, Mathews would return to England to serve in London as the Colony's representative in handling disputes, particularly in the matter of establishing the border with Maryland. While there, he would marry Sarah Hinton, the daughter of Sir Thomas Hinton, whose adult son was a Gentleman of the King's Privy Chamber. Much of his political influence has been attributed this second marriage, and his position in London certainly helped his son in Virginia, who was appointed governor there in 1656. Mathews died in London, England on November 30, 1657.
As a member of the House of Burgesses, Mathews was viewed as an "honest, energetic and faithful servant of the Colony" whose death was "universally lamented."

## Mathews Manor

Captain Mathews built the Manor around 1626. The site of Mathews Manor, located within the independent city of Newport News, Virginia, was the subject of an archeological study led by Colonial Williamsburg's Ivor Noel Hume in the 1960s, and was placed on the National Park Service's National Register of Historic Places.