History and genealogy of Peter Montague, of Nansemond and ...

PETER MONTAGUE
AND HIS DESCENDANTS.
FIRST GENERATION AND CHILDREN.
I.
Peter Montague, was the son of Peter and Eleanor Montague of
Boveney, in parish of Burnham, Buckinghamshire, England. His
mother, Eleanor, was the daughter of William Allen of Burnham in
the same parish. Peter was born in 1603. He was an elder brother
of Richard Montague, the ancestor of the New England Montagues.
[See pedigree chart in the Introduction, where the pedigree of Peter's
family in England will be found in full.] Boveney, the place where
Peter was born, is a small hamlet, picturesquely situated on the river
Thames, twenty-three miles above London, three miles from Eton
college, that was founded in 1440 by Henry VI., while on the oppo-
site side of the river in Berkshire is Windsor Castle, the residence of
the Kings and Queens of England for the past 900 years. In this
vicinity the ancestors of Peter had resided, probably for 200 years
before his birth. Here his childhood and youth were passed, and
here he probably obtained a fair education, though there is no record
that he was ever a member of Eton college. His uncle William
Montague was a fellow of Kings college, Cambridge, and also of
Eton. Richard Montague, the celebrated divine, and bishop of Nor-
wich, was his father's cousin. Peter's family consisted of his parents,
an elder brother WT
illiam, two, younger than himself—Richard and
Robert—and three sisters, Elizabeth, Anne and Margaret. His
father was an agriculturist, or was engaged in raising sheep, cattle,
hogs, &c. This County was celebrated at that time for its beech
trees, the nuts of which were said to be very nutritious for the feeding
of swine, that roamed through the woods at will. At the age of 18
years Peter emigrated to Virginia, in America. What motive led him