Nicolas Martiau was a Frenchman who immigrated to the English colony of Virginia

Virginia

The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...

 in the 17th century. Born in the western island of Ile de Ré

Île de Ré

Île de Ré is an island off the west coast of France near La Rochelle, on the northern side of the Pertuis d'Antioche strait....

, he is an ancestor of the first American president, George Washington

George Washington

George Washington was the dominant military and political leader of the new United States of America from 1775 to 1799. He led the American victory over Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army from 1775 to 1783, and presided over the writing of...

.

The garden behind the Ernest Cognacq Museum

Ernest Cognacq Museum

The Ernest Cognacq Museum is a French regional history museum, located in the city of Saint Martin de Ré, Ile de Ré, France....

 in Saint Martin de Ré holds a monument with a statue of George Washington, with the base of the monument featuring a medallion representing Martiau. The monument was inaugurated on October 11, 2007, by the ambassador of the United States to France. The filiation between the two men is described on the monument.

Descendants

• Nicolas Martiau – Jane Berkely (1591 Ile de Ré–1657 Yorktown)
• Elizabeth Martiau – Colonel George Reade (1608–1674)
• Mildred Reade – Colonel Augustine Warner
  Augustine Warner
  Augustine Warner , was born in Norwich, Norfolk, to Thomas Warner and Elizabeth Sotherton. He was the progenitor of the Augustine Warner Family, who arrived in Virginia in 1628 at the age of seventeen, one of a group of thirty-four brought in by Adam Thoroughgood...
  
   (1642–1684)
• Mildred Warner – Lawrence Washington (1659–1698)
• Colonel Augustine Washington
  Augustine Washington
  Augustine Washington was the father of general and president George Washington. He belonged to the Colony of Virginia's landed gentry and was a planter and slaveholder.-Family:...
  
   – Mary Ball (1708–1789)
• George Washington
  George Washington
  George Washington was the dominant military and political leader of the new United States of America from 1775 to 1799. He led the American victory over Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army from 1775 to 1783, and presided over the writing of...
  
  (1732 Yorktown–1799 Yorktown)