Person:Cicely Mathews (1)

There seems to be little or no evidence that Samuel Mathews was the father of Cicely, wife of Peter Mountague.

Meyer, in Adventurers of Purse and Person, shows the immigrant Peter married twice, with his first wife's name unknown, and certainly the mother of Peter, Anne, Ellen and Margaret, and probably the others. She shows Cicely as the second wife, speculating she might have been Cicely Farrar.

The Rutmans, in A Place in Time show Peter married first to Elizabeth, who is shown as the mother of all the children, and died shortly after 1656, and second to Cicely, relict of William Thompson.

The Sparacios, in Pamunky Neighbors, pp i-ii, show only one wife, Cicely, who they show as supposed to be the daughter of Samuel Matthews. They describe the younger Peter as "one of their sons", and list the six children as being mentioned in the elder Peter's will, and at pg 526 state both Peter and Elizabeth were the children of Peter and Cicely.

In Geneology of Peter Montague Albert Montague shows Cidely as the mother of all the children.

Duvall in Virginia Colonial Abstracts, pg 10, reports that Middlesex Co. Orders 1656-1666, pg 124 shows the order authorizing Cicely Montague, widow of Peter Montague, along with her Sonne in law Peter Montague, to divide the estate of the desceased. This shows that young Peter, at least, was her step-child, and not her own.

In A Supplement to Pamunkey Neighbors the authors' say "that it has been impossible to determine the name of" Peter's "first wife and likely mother of his children."

Has anyone found any evidence that established that Cicely was the daughter of Mathews?

"Peter Montague married, probably in the spring of 1633, Cicely -----. Effort has been made to discover the maiden name of his wife and something of the family to which she belonged. They were no doubt married some where in the vicinity of James City, for there it was that the first years of Peter's life in the new world were passed. Tradition says she was a daughter of Samuel Mathews, who was Governor of the Colony in 1656. It is true that Peter lived upon the plantation of Capt. Mathews during these early years and that Capt. Mathews and Peter Montague were life long associates and friends. No record of such marriage has been found. All of the records of James City Co. were destroyed during the late war and no record there dates back of 1865. His wife outlived him and was the executor of his estate jointly with her eldest son Peter. No record of her death has been found."^[1]

1. ↑ Montague, George William. History and Genealogy of Peter Montague of Nansemond and Lancaster Counties, Virginia and his Descendants, 1621-1894. (Amherst, Mass.: Press of Carpenter & Morehouse, 1894)
   56.