Memorial Day Letter To My Children
We have a rich heritage, to which we must live up.
by Rod D. Martin
May 25, 2014
Everyone,
Tomorrow is Memorial Day, and I wish to remind you that you have a rich heritage, reaching back centuries, one of which you may and ought be proud.
Our ancestors helped found both of our countries. William Martin commanded William the Conqueror's ships when he crossed from Normandy, and having distinguished himself at the Battle of Hastings was granted significant lands in Pembroke by the King, where his heirs built Martin Castle, and which remains in our family to this day.
Your twelfth great grandfather was Thomas Graves, an original investor ("Adventurer") in the Virginia Company, years before it sent John Smith to colonize Jamestown. He settled there himself on the third resupply voyage, and later was a founding member of the Virginia House of Burgesses, the first freely elected parliament in the New World.
Several generations later, your sixth great grandfather Joseph Martin saved the southern colonies during the Revolution, resulting in the victories at Cowpens, King's Mountain, and ultimately Yorktown. Later he was instrumental in the Constitution's ratification; but years before both those things he made possible our country's claims and settlement across the Appalachians, by establishing Martin's Station at Cumberland Gap (twice!) and by exploring the lands west before Daniel Boone.
Joseph Martin was close friends throughout his life with Governor Patrick Henry, and grew up with Thomas Jefferson. His father (Joseph Sr.) pioneered Albemarle County (and Charlottesville), what was then the far west. Joseph Sr.'s father William was Lord Mayor of Bristol, the second greatest port after London in the entire empire, and owned a great shipping concern. He sent Joseph Sr. to America to oversee the family enterprise in the New World, but disowned him for marrying a colonist (another of whose ancestors gave the land for the College of William and Mary).
And what more can we say? Your not-so-distant ancestors settled Tennessee, fought Commanches in Texas, founded a winery in California (still in the family), and fought in all of America's wars. One even helped start PayPal.
We should take pride in this, and honor those who went before us; but none of us should see in any of this a reason for personal pride. Their achievements are not our achievements, but they can be our inspiration, and mandate for more and greater deeds. And indeed, I believe that you and I, in the next thirty years and after, can greatly excel all that they've done, if we work together and if we unwaveringly honor our Lord.
I love you, each of you, with all my heart and soul. I am intensely grateful that God has allowed me to give you this heritage, and this hope.
Love,
Daddy