Stephen TARLETON  (1637 - 1687)

His name appears in the records of York County beginning in 1659. His 
occupation was shown as a tobacco appraiser. On 12 April 1660, he was 
charged by a servant girl, Mary Gunnell, who deposed that "Stephen 
Torlington[sic] got her with child and did use her several times by day 
and also by night in her master's hall and also in other places." It was 
shortly after this case that he removed to New Kent County. In 1663, he 
patented 394 acres of land in that county. This tract was located on the 
north side of the main branch of Blackwater Creek, and a fork of the 
Chickahominy Swamp, south of the Pamunkey River. In 1676, he was active
in the "Bacon's Rebellion" with Nathaniel Bacon, and he later renounced 
this association in a letter to His Majesty's Commissioners in Virginia 
pleading for pardon. However, a year later, in 1677, he was again involved 
in rebellious activities when he signed "The Blisland Parish Grievances," 
a list of complaints about the acts of oppression committed by the crown's 
agents in the Virginia Colony. In May, 1682, he was arrested by the Sheriff
of York County for inciting the "Tobacco Riots", during which tobacco 
plants, crops, and stored stockpiles were destroyed by the planters rather 
than sell them to the crown's buyers. This uprising was the last of its 
kind until the events which led to the American Revolution.

Sources:
"WMCQ(1)", Vol. XII, pp.45-47.
"The Valentine Papers", Vol. I, p.97, Clayton Torrence, Richmond, VA., 
1927. 1979.
"Tidewater Virginia Families", p.424, Virginia Lee Hutcheson Davis, 1989.
Colonial Granville County and its People, p.231, Worth S. Ray, Austin, TX.,
1947. 1993.