Capt. Robert Moseley, Sr.

A Patriot of the American Revolution for VIRGINIA. DAR Ancestor # A131736

Robert Mosely/Mosley/Moseley (who used all of these spellings of his surname during his lifetime') was born about 1710 being at the time of his death in late 1786 or very early 1787, he is said to have been 77 years of age. However, we have no actual record of his birth or baptism.

What we do know for certain about his early life is is that:

Robert born about 1752 was the only son of Robert Mosley/Moseley I and his first wife, Barbara/Barbra (Sisson) Mosley/ Moseley (formerly Shoobottom or Shewbottam also born in St. Mary's, Maryland Colony. After the deaths of both of his biological parents, he was brought up along with his two sisters, Elizabeth and Patience) by his stepmother, Margaret or Margret (Cooke) Bloomfield (formerly Mosley or Moseley), as stipulated in the Will of his biological father, presumably with the assistance of Margaret's second husband, Jaffell Bloomfield, who she had married by early in 1721/22. As of the death of his father in late 1721, he was living at Poplar Hill Hundred, St. Mary's, Maryland Colony, and he was certainly less than 18 years of age; in fact he was probably just 11 or 12 years old.
Note 3: We have gone to considerable lengths to document all of the facts that can be associated with this Robert Mosley or Moseley II because there has long been doubt about whether (a) he was the son of Robert Mosley or Moseley I, of Poplar Hill Hundred, St. Mary's, Maryland Colony, and (b) he was also the Robert Mosley or Moseley who was at least a landowner in (if not living in) Prince William County, Virginia Colony, by about 1765, We believe that these facts are now well established, and that they are confirmed by certain other facts that can now be found on web pages related to his only son, Lieut. Robert Moseley III (see also Sources below).

We now actually know a great deal about Robert Mosley or Moseley II, starting with the fact that he seems to have changed the spelling of the family name from his birth name of Mosley or Mosely to Moseley, and it is possible that he did that to foster the idea that he was related to other, higher-status Moseleys in Virginia after he first acquired land in Prince William County, Virginia, in the late 1750s or early 1760s.

There is little doubt that Robert was given a good education because his father had stipulated this in his will in 1721, stating very clearly that part of his estate be rented out to pay for such an education. It is also important to recognize that Robert had property from an early age, having been left a plantation in St. Mary's by his father (although he was forbidden from selling that property by the terms of his father's will).

The next area that lacks clarity is exactly where Robert was between the time he became an adult, in the late 1720s, and his initial (apparent) presence in Prince William County, Virginia, in the early 1760s. We know that

During that time frame he appears to have had a total of three wives.
1 - The first of these wives is utterly unknown; the second may have been Martha Redman (see below)
The last of these wives was quite certainly Lucy (Gregg) Peake, the widow of his close friend John Elijah Peake

2 - Robert married the widow Lucy (Gregg) Peake in about 1757, shortly after the death of her first husband; there were no children of this marriage (because Lucy was > 50 years of age at the time of the marriage)
He had three children, and all three of these children appear to have been born in St. Mary's, Maryland Colony.