Moore Fauntleroy (d. by 28 March 1664), member of the House of Burgesses, was born at Crondall in Hampshire, England, and was the son of John Fauntleroy and Phoebe Wilkinson Fauntleroy. The date of his birth early in the 1610s is not recorded, but he and his elder brother of the same name were mentioned on 20 September 1617 in the will of their mother's godfather. About 1618 the family moved to Headley, in Hampshire, where Fauntleroy probably received his education. On 8 December 1633 he acquired a coat of arms that verified his status as a gentleman.

Fauntleroy, whose surname contemporary Virginians often spelled Fantleroy, may have made one or more trips to Virginia before he settled in Upper Norfolk County sometime before February 1643. On 20 February 1644 he patented almost 2,000 acres of land in the county, including 250 acres called Royes rest, where he lived. Fauntleroy obtained most of his land by purchasing or earning headrights, which entitled him to fifty acres of land for each person he transported to Virginia. He owned a full or part-interest in one or more merchant ships, engaged in trade, and may have had commercial relations with members of the Calvert family, the proprietors of Maryland, or with residents of that colony. Fauntleroy married into the Underwood family soon after settling in Virginia. The first name of his wife is not recorded, and they are not known to have had any children before her death. On or soon after 20 April 1648 he married Mary Hill. Their at least one daughter and at least two sons included William Fauntleroy, who remained in Virginia, married, and had sons who carried on the family name.

Fauntleroy represented Upper Norfolk County in the House of Burgesses for the sessions that met in October 1644 and February 1645. He also attended the 1647–1648 session representing the renamed Nansemond County. Fauntleroy took out patents for more than 10,400 acres of land along the Rappahannock River beginning early in the 1650s and about 1651 moved to a part of Northumberland County that soon afterward became Lancaster County. With the rank of captain, Fauntleroy hosted the first recorded meeting of the Lancaster County Court on 1 January 1652, and he represented the county at the March 1652, April–May 1652, November 1652, and July 1653 sessions of the General Assembly. He became a justice of the peace in April 1656, by which time he also was serving as a lieutenant colonel in the militia. At the March 1656 assembly, Fauntleroy introduced a petition from the inhabitants of the upper portion of Lancaster asking that the General Assembly create a new county. He represented the new county of Rappahannock in the March 1659 and March 1660 assemblies, presided over the county court with the rank of colonel, and purchased a gristmill there.

At both the December 1656 and the March 1659 assemblies, Fauntleroy sat on the important Committee for Private Causes that decided which civil appeals from the Quarter Court the General Assembly would hear. On 1 March 1659 the House of Burgesses suspended him for shirking attendance at the election of the Speaker and then for "tax[ing] the House of vnwarrantable proceedings" in the voting. The burgesses reinstated Fauntleroy a week later, after he admitted his error. His behavior may have prompted the burgesses to adopt five "Orders for observation of good order in the House," among the first rules of order to be entered in the surviving portions of the assembly's journals.

Fauntleroy apparently possessed a bad temper, and in 1660 he became embroiled in a controversy with the Rappahannock Tribe. He had purchased a large tract of land from them in 1651 but did not pay for it. In July 1660 the governor asked the Lancaster County Court to inquire into the Rappahannocks' complaints, prompting Fauntleroy to express his displeasure harshly. At the October session of the General Assembly, the court reported that it had found no evidence that Fauntleroy had paid the tribe, and in March 1661 the assembly ordered him to fulfill his payment with thirty matchcoats, including one with copper lace for the king. A year later, the assembly again ordered him to pay the Rappahannocks and not to use any land other than the portion that he had already cleared, and it expelled him from all of his civil and military offices for extorting property from the tribe.

Moore Fauntleroy may not have regained any of his public offices before he died on an unrecorded date between 7 October 1663, when he witnessed a deed in Rappahannock County, and 28 March 1664, when his widow requested her due from a deed of jointure executed about the time of their marriage. An inventory of his estate made in July 1664 placed a value on his personal property, including three servants, of 4,930 pounds of tobacco. Fauntleroy was buried probably at his Rappahannock plantation, where the riverside graveyard has washed away.

Sources Consulted:
Biography and transcriptions of documents in Juliet Fauntleroy, comp., "Colonel Moore Fauntleroy: His Ancestors and Descendants" (typescript, 1936), esp. 7–8, 66–102, Accession 35057, Library of Virginia (LVA); Virginia Land Office Patent Book, 1:822–823, 2:6–8, 229–232, 3:307, Record Group 4, LVA; Henry R. McIlwaine, ed., Journals of the House of Burgesses of Virginia, 1619–1658/59 (1915), 101, 114 (quotations), 1659/60–1693 (1914), 9, 12, 15; Warren M. Billings, with Maria Kimberly, eds., The Papers of Sir William Berkeley, 1605–1677 (2007), 123–124, 127; Billings, A Little Parliament: The Virginia General Assembly in the Seventeenth Century (2004), 126; old Rappahannock Co. Records (1656–1664), 249–252, 311 (last recorded appearance, 7 Oct. 1663); old Rappahannock Co. Records (1656–1664, transcriptions), 369–371 (estate inventory and proceedings, 28 Mar. 1664, concerning deed of jointure, 20 Apr. 1648); some estate accounts in old Rappahannock Co. Deeds, Etc. (1663–1668), 55–56.

Written for the Dictionary of Virginia Biography by Maria Kimberly.

How to cite this page:
Maria Kimberly, "Moore Fauntleroy (d. by 28 March 1664)," Dictionary of Virginia Biography, Library of Virginia (1998– ), published 2025 ({url}, accessed [today's date]).

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