George Martin

  Notes:

http://www.lib.unb.ca/collections/loyalist/seeOne.php?id=693&string= ;
George Martin was the son of Samuel Martin (d.1778), a Virginia landowner and wealthy Whitehaven (England) merchant, and grandson to John Martin who had emigrated from Dublin, Ireland, to Virginia in 1730. John Martin acquired a considerable amount of real estate in Virginia and married Martha, the daughter of Lewis Burwell of Carter's Creek.

George Martin studied law in England and became a solicitor at Lincoln's Inn, London.

Both father and son owned property in America and in England, at least ten vessels, and carried on an extensive trading enterprise. With the outreak of the American Revolution, the Martin property in Virginia was confiscated and sold in 1779 by the General Assembly of Virginia. Samuel Martin lost not only his estates in America, but he was forced to assign all his property in England to discharge his debts which had been contracted as a result of trade with the colonies between 1773 and 1776. This property included the well known Somerset House which passed into the hands of the Littledale family. In addition to his estates in America and the property in England, the Martins lost ten vessels, six of them by capture and the rest destroyed. The Martin's were not the only family ruined by the war: Joseph Younger, Henry Ellison, Peter How, John Wilkinson and others were similarily affected."
However it can't be THE Somerset House as this passed directly from the Royal Family to the State. Perhaps there is/was a 'well known' Somerset House in Virginia??!?
and
"The documents contain information about the Martin estates in Goochland and Albermarle (now Fluvanna) in Virginia as well as the family's shipping losses during the war. The claims are directed to both the Commissioners of Claims in Great Britain and to the General Assembly of Virginia. An article concerning the Diary and the losses the family suffered, which was originally published in the Whitehaven News, is included in the microfilm on pages 59 - 61. The Diary itself has 153 pages."

From Jeremy Archer; barrister-at-law of London and Dublin. Admitted to Lincoln's Inn on 23 Apr 1776, spent a great deal of time administering the Virginia estates. Wedding and birth details also from Jeremy. Married his cousin. No issue.

George married Mary Breton, daughter of Michael Harvey Breton and Agnes Martin, on 26 May 1787 in Marylebone Parish Church, London.