#william-good — Public Fediverse posts

Griffith James (abt. 1725? – 1795): Washington County, Maryland, Years, 1763-1793

Frederick County, Maryland, Deed Bk. J, pp. 652-3

Or, Subtitled: “A True Copy of the Free Male Taxibils of Sharpsburgh and Lower Antietam Hundred”

In the first posting in this series tracking the history of Griffith James (abt. 1725? – 1795), I focused on the first documentation I’ve found for him in the place in which he lived near Sharpsburg, Maryland, from at least September 1763 to 1793, when he moved from Maryland to Pendleton District, South Carolina. As that posting shows, by September 1763, Griffith James had acquired from Joseph Chapline, founder of Sharpsburg, a 75-acre tract called Pough just southeast of Sharpsburg, on which he lived continuously from September 1763 (and probably earlier than this) until May 1792, when he sold Pough before making his move to South Carolina. In the posting that follows, I’ll survey records for Griffith James in Frederick County (the parent county of Washington County) and Washington County, from 1763 until he made his move to South Carolina in 1793.

1760-1770

As the previous posting indicates, Joseph Chapline founded the town of Sharpsburg in 1763 and the following year, he laid out a plan for the new town, consisting of 187 lots located around the freshwater spring that was a primary attraction of the new town, with each lot measuring 103 feet wide by 206 feet long.

Immediately after the town was laid out, Griffith James purchased one of the lots in the new town [see the digital images at the head of this posting]. On 16 June 1764, he bought lot 66 from a Richard Dean who had the same name as the man whose son Samuel married Griffith’s daughter Gwendolyn, but is an entirely different man.[1] We can ascertain that this Richard Dean is not the Richard who was father of Samuel because various documents tell us that Richard Dean’s wife was named Priscilla, and the wife relinquishing dower for the sale of lot 66 in June 1764 was named Catherine. Beverly Dean Peoples has done valuable research on Richard and wife Catherine, and finds that the Richard Dean selling Sharpsburg lot 66 to Griffith James in June 1764 was a free man of color whose wife Catherine was the daughter of Robert Pearl, a mulatto freeman of Carrollton Manor, Maryland.[2]

The deed recording Richard Dean’s sale of lot 66 to Griffith James notes that the agreement of sale was made on the 16th and the deed was then recorded on 22 June 1764. The deed contains no information about the lot itself other than its measurements, which conform to the description given above of the lots in Sharpsburg as they were laid out: they were 103 feet wide by 206 feet long. Since the deed speaks of appurtenances, it’s possible that there was a structure standing on the lot when Griffith James bought it. He paid Richard Dean 55 shillings for the property, with a stipulation included in the deed that Griffith was to pay Joseph Chapline 3s 6d annually as quitrent. Richard Dean signed by mark with Joseph Smith and Peter Bainbridge witnessing and with wife Catherine relinquishing dower.

Frederick County, Maryland, Deed Bk. K, pp. 818-9

Griffith James did not hold onto lot 66 for long. On 25 October 1766, he sold the lot to Robert Cockburn for a shilling; if he had invested in this lot for profit, his investment definitely did not yield a hearty return.[3] Perhaps Griffith was indebted to Robert and used the lot to satisfy a debt? Robert Cockburn was a Scotsman who had ties to the Chapline family and was teaching the English-speaking children of Shepherdstown, Virginia (now West Virginia) by 1762. When Berkeley County was formed in 1772, he was appointed surveyor of that county.[4] As the previous posting notes, when Joseph Chapline’s father William moved west from eastern Maryland before 1730, he settled on the Potomac four miles above Shepherdstown.

Again, the deed for the October 1766 sale of lot 66 contains no information about the lot other than its measurements (as stated previously) and a clause indicating that any appurtenances on the lot were included in the sale, and that Cockburn was to pay quitrent annually to Chapline. Griffith signed his name with Joseph Smith and Samuel Beall Jr. witnessing. On 23 October, Griffith signed receipt for Cockburn’s payment of a shilling, and on the 25th, he acknowledged the deed with wife Mary relinquishing dower. Note that this document indicates that Griffith was married by October 1766 to the Mary who is named as his dear wife Mary in his 20 April 1795 will in Pendleton District, South Carolina, cited in the previous posting.[5] I have seen no information suggesting to me that the wife Mary of the 1766 deed was a different Mary than the wife named in Griffith’s 1795 will. By 1766, Griffith and Mary had children Hannah, Gwendolyn, Thomas, Joseph, and Mary, and it’s possible their sons John and Samuel, whose dates of birth are not easy to ascertain, had also been born by this date.

Note the name Samuel Beall Jr. in the preceding deed: this is the Samuel Beall named in Joseph Chapline’s 4 September 1763 agreement establishing his ironworks on the Antietam near Sharpsburg, with Samuel Beall as one of his business partners in this venture.[6] As the previous posting shows, this agreement mentions Griffith James, noting that Chapline was excluding from the agreement 215 acres he had sold to Daniel Moore and Griffith James. The linked posting also points out that Samuel Beall was a first cousin of Alexander Beall, under whom Robert Leonard, father of Thomas Leonard who married Griffith James’ daughter Hannah, served at Fort Frederick near Hagerstown in the 1750s. Samuel Beall lived at Hagerstown and the 15 October 1774 will he made there identifies him as Samuel Beall Jr.[7]

Another name in both the June 1764 deed showing Richard Dean selling lot 66 to Griffith James and the October 1766 deed recording Griffith’s sale of the lot to Robert Cockburn deserves attention: Joseph Smith witnessed both deeds. Smith was a prominent settler in this part of Maryland, an associate of both Joseph Chapline and his business partner Samuel Beall. An English immigrant, in 1749 Joseph Smith patented tracts in Frederick (later Washington) County called Elwicks Dwellings and Smiths Purchase.[8] On 12 October 1761, he was an appraiser of the estate of Joseph Chapline’s father-in-law William Williams in Frederick County.[9]

Frederick County, Maryland, Deed Bk. K, pp. 453

On 27 July 1767 the Frederick County court rendered judgment for Griffith James in a supersedeas suit he had filed against Stephen Bennet, Wm. Bleakley, and Richard Moore.[10] The record of the verdict states that the judgment was recorded 18 August 1767, and contains no further information about the basis of the lawsuit. Richard Moore is, it seems clear, the son of Daniel Moore, whose Mores Delight land adjoined Griffith James’ Pough, and who, as the posting I’ve just linked indicates, may have married Mary Dean, a sister of Samuel Dean who married Gwendolyn James, sister to Griffith James’ wife Hannah. Daniel Moore’s son Richard was old enough to have a child born by 1777, so he was certainly of age in 1767.[11]

On 24 March 1769, Griffith James witnessed the will of George Laurance in Frederick County, Maryland.[12] On 8 August 1769, Griffith and the other witness to the will, Sarah Reed, proved the will at county court. The will and probate bond show George with a wife Mary. I have not been able to find any more information about either George Laurance or Sarah Reed.

As the previous posting indicates, on 25 July 1769, David Ross, one of Joseph Chapline’s business partners in the ironworks operation, had a grant in Frederick County for 8,025 acres that included a tract called Boston, Resurvey of Little I Thought It, and part of Keep Trieste, Dutch Loss, and Mill Place. The survey shows the land granted to Ross bordering both Griffith James’s Pough and Chapline’s Hunting the Hare tract, part of which he sold to Richard Dean (Deans Purchase), father of Samuel Dean who married Gwendolyn James, and part, I think, to Daniel Moore (More’s Delight)P. As the linked posting shows, Arthur Tracey’s index card for this grant and his map of patent locations for Washington County states that Pough was next to Keep Trieste, Boston, and Little I Thought It.[13]

Beverly Dean Peoples has sent me a transcript of a page of Frederick County court minutes that appear to date from 1769, showing the county court issuing an order for a road from Samuel Beall’s mills to cross the Antietam at the ford where Andrew House lives and then to run from the mills run to the landing on the Potomac below Rachel Vandever. From there, the road was to go on the upper side of Daniel Moore’s plantation and Peter Hill’s through John Kissinger’s to join the road leading from Fredericktown at Jacob Russell’s, and from the mill up the branch where Griffith James lived and along the eastern branch of Antietam Creek to the landing at the mouth of the creek. Another road order in the November 1770 county court minutes mentions the same road coordinates and indicates that Griffith James had been appointed overseer for this road.

1770-1790

On 6 May 1774, a Griffith James who is a different Griffith James from the man living in the vicinity of Sharpsburg in then Frederick County, Maryland, witnessed the will of Margaret Williams of Radnor township in Chester County, Pennsylvania. The will made a bequest of ￡5 to Mary, wife of Griffith James.[14] 

Because the Griffith James witnessing this will had a wife named Mary and was a contemporary of the man living near Sharpsburg, one family tree after another online and in published sources has conflated the Griffith James witnessing Margaret Williams’ will with the man living near Sharpsburg. But the Griffith James witnessing this will lived in Radnor township in Chester County, Pennsylvania, where he married a wife named Mary Gyger, and where that couple lived to the end of their lives — while the Griffith James residing on the Pough tract just southeast of Sharpsburg lived there continuously from at least September 1763 (and probably earlier) until he sold this piece of land in May 1792 and then moved the following year to Pendleton District, South Carolina. I’ll discuss the 1792 land sale and move to South Carolina later.

On 24 December 1774, Griffith James appears in a list of those with stray livestock in Frederick County.[15] After September 1776 forward, when Washington County was set off from Frederick, documents for Griffith James are filed in Washington County records.

“Unpublished Revolutionary Records of Maryland, List of Patriots Who Took the Oath of Fidelity and Support to the Government,” National Genealogical Society Quarterly 6,1 (April 1917), pp. 12-13

On 2 March 1778, Griffith James took the oath of allegiance in Lower Antietam Hundred of Washington County.[16] Griffith’s name appears in the list of oathtakers compiled by Chr. Cruso as “James, Grifet.”

As the preceding posting notes, in 1783, Griffith James was taxed in Lower Antietam Hundred of Washington County for the Pough property, with the acreage given as 100 acres.[17] The tax list states that this property comprised 60 acres of woods and 40 acres arable. Griffith was also taxed for four horses and eight beef cattle.

The posting I’ve just linked also states, though we know from Joseph Chapline’s September 1763 ironworks deed that he had already sold Griffith James the Pough tract by that date and Griffith was taxed for the land in 1783, it was not until 10 April 1787 that the executors of Joseph Chapline, his sons Joseph and James, officially sold Pough to Griffith James.[18] The deed states that the land was sold for￡5, and it gives the name of the tract as Pough, noting that the tract consisted of 75 acres. The deed was signed by Joseph and James Chapline with John Still and Alexander Clagett witnessing, and was recorded on the same day.

14 February 1788 in Washington County, Griffith James witnessed the will of Richard Dean, Griffith’s neighbor at Deans Purchase whose son Samuel married Griffith’s daughter Gwendolyn.[19] Witnessing the will with Griffith were John Ritchie, Hannah Codd, and William Gregory, who were the three witnesses proving the will on 7 April 1788 when Richard’s widow Priscilla presented it for probate.

1790s

As the previous posting states, Griffith James is enumerated on the 1790 census in Washington County, Maryland with a household comprised of two males aged 16 and over, one male aged under 15, and two females.[20] Listed next to Griffith is his son Joseph James, with one male over 16, three males under 16, and three females in his household.

Washington County, Maryland, Deed Bk. G, pp. 368-9

On 12 April 1791, Griffith James’ son Joseph sold his father for￡50 a 50-acre portion of a tract called King Cole in Washington County.[21] Joseph James signed, with H. Shryock and Thomas Crampton witnessing, and on the day the deed was made, Joseph affirmed it before these witnesses.

Dr. Arthur G. Tracey patent/tract index and map locations for Carroll, Frederick, and Washington Counties,” Maryland State Archives

As a previous posting has noted, Joseph James obtained the King Cole tract from James Austin through Joseph’s marriage to James Austin’s daughter Elizabeth about 1791. The original King Cole tract consisted of 1,970 acres patented to Henry Crabb on 30 August 1754.[22] Arthur Tracey’s index card in his list of patents in Carroll, Frederick, and Washington Counties shows King Cole lying next to the Antietam ironworks. In 1769, Jeremiah Beall owned 246 acres of King Cole, and the 9 April 1759 will of Alexander Beall stipulates that King Cole, a parcel of 246½ acres, was to go to Beall’s son Magruder.[23] As has been noted in previous postings (e.g., here and here), Alexander Beall was the commanding officer of Robert Leonard, whose son Thomas Leonard married Griffith James’ daughter Hannah, in the 1750s when Robert Leonard was stationed as a soldier at Fort Frederick near Hagerstown. Alexander was a first cousin of Joseph Chapline’s business partner Samuel Beall, who lived at Hagerstown.

Washington County, Maryland, Deed Bk. G, p. 666

On 3 March 1792, Griffith James bought from Stephen Yates, both of Washington County, for ￡65 an enslaved boy named Phill, aged 16 or 17.[24] William Good and Thomas Crampton witnessed this deed, which was recorded 13 April 1792.

Washington County, Maryland, Deed Bk. G, pp. 815-6

Also on 3 March 1792, for ￡90, Griffith James and James Austin sold to Stephen Yates, all of Washington County, 50 acres of the King Cole tract, the portion that Griffith’s son Joseph had acquired by his marriage to James Austin’s daughter Elizabeth and had sold his father in April 1791.[25] Griffith James and James Austin both signed the deed with William Good and Thomas Crampton witnessing. The deed was recorded 30 August. No dower release for the land is recorded. The sale of this tract and the Pough land in May 1792 indicates that Griffith James was making preparations to move to South Carolina to join his children who had gone there in 1786.  Griffith James’s son Joseph moved from Maryland to Kentucky in 1791.

Washington County, Maryland, Deed Bk. G, pp. 771-2

On 13 May 1792, Griffith James sold this Pough tract to Robert Hoffman for ￡330.[26] The deed names the land and states that it contained 75 acres. Griffith James signed with witnesses Thomas Crampton and William Good, and the deed was recorded on the 12th [sic] with Griffith’s wife Mary releasing her dower interest on that date.

By 11 June 1794, when Hagerstown’s Washington Spy published a notice by Robert Hoffman cautioning persons from taking assignment on Hoffman’s bond given to Griffith James for £65, Griffith James and wife Mary had made their move to Pendleton District, South Carolina.[27] The context for this notice appears to be that a company named James Browns and Co. had dissolved on 6 May, and bills owed to the estate of that company were being called in.

We can know that Griffith and Mary James were in South Carolina by this point since Griffith appears, along with his son-in-law Thomas Leonard, as a witness to a deed of Jacob Herring to Griffith’s son-in-law Samuel Dean in Pendleton District on 17 June 1794.[28] The next posting in this series will survey Griffith James’ final years in Pendleton District.

[1] Frederick County, Maryland, Deed Bk. J, pp. 652-3.

[2] “Richard Deane (1701-1788) and His Children,” at Rootsweb. Beverly recommends to those seeking further information about the Pearl family Mary C. Jeske’s “Autonomy and Opportunity: Carrollton Manor Tenants, 1734-1790.”

[3] Frederick County, Maryland, Deed Bk. K, pp. 818-9.

[4] Danske Dandridge, Historic Shepherdstown (Charlottesville: Michie, 1910), p. 53; and Ted McGee, nomination form for Shepherdstown Historic District on National Register of Historic Places (2 April 1973), at the West Virginia Culture Center website.

[5] Anderson County, South Carolina, Will Bk. 1793-8, p. 82.

[6] Frederick County, Maryland, Deed Bk. J, pp. 793-804.

[7] Washington County, Maryland, Will Bk. A, pp. 13-16.

[8] History of West Virginia, Old and New, vol. 2: Biographical (Chicago and New York: American Historical Society, 1923), p. 180.

[9] “Joseph Chapline,” at Mike Marshall’s Early Colonial Settlers of Southern Maryland and Virginia’s Northern Neck Counties, citing the original appraisal record.

[10] Frederick County, Maryland, Deed Bk. K, p. 453.

[11] See Geolover, “Sarah’s Surprise — Part 1,” at West Virginia Family Tracks and Trails.

[12] Frederick County, Maryland, Will Bk. 37,2, pp. 422-3; and Bk. A-1, pp. 343-4.

[13] See Arthur G. Tracey’s patent/tract index and map locations for Carroll, Frederick, and Washington Counties at Maryland government’s Maryland History site.

[14] Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania, Will Bk. Q, p. 39.

[15] F. Edward Wright, Early Lists of Frederick Countians 1766-1775 (Silver Spring, Maryland: Family Line, 1986), p. 4.

[16] See “Unpublished Revolutionary Records of Maryland, List of Patriots Who Took the Oath of Fidelity and Support to the Government,” National Genealogical Society Quarterly 6,1 (April 1917), pp. 12-13; Henry C. Peden Jr., Revolutionary Patriots of Washington County, Maryland 1776-1783 (Westminster, Maryland: Family Line, 1998), p. 184; Raymond B. Clark Jr., Washington County, Maryland Records: Oaths of Allegiance, 1778, and Balance Books [Distributions] on Estates, 1778-1801 (St. Michaels, Maryland: Maryland and Delaware Genealogy, 1989], p. 3; and Margaret Roberts Hodges, Unpublished Revolutionary Records of Maryland, vol. 3: Oaths of Allegiance and Fidelity Taken in Washington County in 1778 (priv. publ., 1939), p. 35.

[17] “Washington County 1783 Tax Assessment,” Western Maryland Genealogy 7,4 (October 1991), p. 171; and “Assessment of 1783, Index,” citing Lower Antietam and Sharpsburg, p. 34 (MSA S1161-11-1. 1/4/5/54) at website of Maryland State Archives.

[18] Washington County, Maryland, Deed Bk. E, pp. 332-3.

[19] Washington County, Maryland, Will Bk. A, p. 168. The will spells the surname as Deane.

[20] 1790 federal census, Washington County, Maryland, p. 9.

[21] Washington County, Maryland, Deed Bk. G, pp. 368-9.

[22] See Edward C. Papenfuse and Sarah Patterson, “Dr. Arthur G. Tracey patent/tract index and map locations for Carroll, Frederick, and Washington Counties,” prepared by the Maryland State Archives in October 2009.

[23] Frederick County, Maryland, Will Bk. A, p. 127.

[24] Washington County, Maryland, Deed Bk. G, p. 666.

[25] Ibid., pp. 815-6.

[26] Ibid., po. 771-2.

[27] Washington Spy (Hagerstown, Maryland), p. 3, col. 3: see F. Edward Wright, Western Maryland Newspaper Abstracts 1786-1798 (Silver Spring, Maryland: Family Line Publications, 1985), p. 48, #335.

[28] Anderson County, South Carolina, Deed Bk. C & D, p. 360.

#AlexanderBeall #AlexanderClagett #AndersonCoSouthCarolina #AntietamCreekWashingtonCoMaryland #AntietamIronworks #BerkeleyCoVirginia #BerkeleyCoVirginiaWestVirginia #CatherinePearl #DanielMoore #DavidRoss #DeansPurchaseWashingtonCoMaryland #ElizabethAustin #ElwicksDwellingsWashingtonCoMaryland #EnslavedBoyPhill #familyHistory #FortFrederickWashingtonCoMaryland #FrederickCoMaryland #genealogy #GeorgeLaurance #GriffithJames #GwendolynJames #HShryock #HagerstownWashingtonCoMaryland #HannahCodd #HannahJames #HenryCrabb #history #JacobHerring #JacobRussell #JamesAustin #JamesChapline #JeremiahBeall #JohnJames #JohnKissinger #JohnRitchie #JohnStill #JosephChapline #JosephJames #JosephSmith #KingColeWashingtonCoMaryland #LittleIThoughtItWashingtonCoMaryland #MagruderBeall #MargaretWilliams #MaryDean #MaryGyger #MaryJames #MoresDelight #PendletonDistSouthCarolina #PeterBainbridge #PeterHill #PoughWashingtonCoMaryland #PrinceGeorgeSCoMaryland #RadnorTwpChesterCoPennsylvania #RichardDean #RichardDeane #RichardMoore #RobertCockburn #RobertHoffman #RobertLeonard #RobertPearl #SamuelBeall #SamuelJames #SarahReed #SharpsburgWashingtonCoMaryland #ShepherdstownJeffersonCoWestVirginia #SmithsPurchaseWashingtonCoMaryland #StephenBennet #StephenYates #ThomasCrampton #ThomasJames #ThomasLeonard #WashingtonCoMaryland #WilliamBleakley #WilliamGood #WilliamGregory #WilliamWilliams

Griffith James (abt. 1725? – 1795): Washington County, Maryland, Years, 1763-1793

Frederick County, Maryland, Deed Bk. J, pp. 652-3

Or, Subtitled: “A True Copy of the Free Male Taxibils of Sharpsburgh and Lower Antietam Hundred”

In the first posting in this series tracking the history of Griffith James (abt. 1725? – 1795), I focused on the first documentation I’ve found for him in the place in which he lived near Sharpsburg, Maryland, from at least September 1763 to 1793, when he moved from Maryland to Pendleton District, South Carolina. As that posting shows, by September 1763, Griffith James had acquired from Joseph Chapline, founder of Sharpsburg, a 75-acre tract called Pough just southeast of Sharpsburg, on which he lived continuously from September 1763 (and probably earlier than this) until May 1792, when he sold Pough before making his move to South Carolina. In the posting that follows, I’ll survey records for Griffith James in Frederick County (the parent county of Washington County) and Washington County, from 1763 until he made his move to South Carolina in 1793.

1760-1770

As the previous posting indicates, Joseph Chapline founded the town of Sharpsburg in 1763 and the following year, he laid out a plan for the new town, consisting of 187 lots located around the freshwater spring that was a primary attraction of the new town, with each lot measuring 103 feet wide by 206 feet long.

Immediately after the town was laid out, Griffith James purchased one of the lots in the new town [see the digital images at the head of this posting]. On 16 June 1764, he bought lot 66 from a Richard Dean who had the same name as the man whose son Samuel married Griffith’s daughter Gwendolyn, but is an entirely different man.[1] We can ascertain that this Richard Dean is not the Richard who was father of Samuel because various documents tell us that Richard Dean’s wife was named Priscilla, and the wife relinquishing dower for the sale of lot 66 in June 1764 was named Catherine. Beverly Dean Peoples has done valuable research on Richard and wife Catherine, and finds that the Richard Dean selling Sharpsburg lot 66 to Griffith James in June 1764 was a free man of color whose wife Catherine was the daughter of Robert Pearl, a mulatto freeman of Carrollton Manor, Maryland.[2]

The deed recording Richard Dean’s sale of lot 66 to Griffith James notes that the agreement of sale was made on the 16th and the deed was then recorded on 22 June 1764. The deed contains no information about the lot itself other than its measurements, which conform to the description given above of the lots in Sharpsburg as they were laid out: they were 103 feet wide by 206 feet long. Since the deed speaks of appurtenances, it’s possible that there was a structure standing on the lot when Griffith James bought it. He paid Richard Dean 55 shillings for the property, with a stipulation included in the deed that Griffith was to pay Joseph Chapline 3s 6d annually as quitrent. Richard Dean signed by mark with Joseph Smith and Peter Bainbridge witnessing and with wife Catherine relinquishing dower.

Frederick County, Maryland, Deed Bk. K, pp. 818-9

Griffith James did not hold onto lot 66 for long. On 25 October 1766, he sold the lot to Robert Cockburn for a shilling; if he had invested in this lot for profit, his investment definitely did not yield a hearty return.[3] Perhaps Griffith was indebted to Robert and used the lot to satisfy a debt? Robert Cockburn was a Scotsman who had ties to the Chapline family and was teaching the English-speaking children of Shepherdstown, Virginia (now West Virginia) by 1762. When Berkeley County was formed in 1772, he was appointed surveyor of that county.[4] As the previous posting notes, when Joseph Chapline’s father William moved west from eastern Maryland before 1730, he settled on the Potomac four miles above Shepherdstown.

Again, the deed for the October 1766 sale of lot 66 contains no information about the lot other than its measurements (as stated previously) and a clause indicating that any appurtenances on the lot were included in the sale, and that Cockburn was to pay quitrent annually to Chapline. Griffith signed his name with Joseph Smith and Samuel Beall Jr. witnessing. On 23 October, Griffith signed receipt for Cockburn’s payment of a shilling, and on the 25th, he acknowledged the deed with wife Mary relinquishing dower. Note that this document indicates that Griffith was married by October 1766 to the Mary who is named as his dear wife Mary in his 20 April 1795 will in Pendleton District, South Carolina, cited in the previous posting.[5] I have seen no information suggesting to me that the wife Mary of the 1766 deed was a different Mary than the wife named in Griffith’s 1795 will. By 1766, Griffith and Mary had children Hannah, Gwendolyn, Thomas, Joseph, and Mary, and it’s possible their sons John and Samuel, whose dates of birth are not easy to ascertain, had also been born by this date.

Note the name Samuel Beall Jr. in the preceding deed: this is the Samuel Beall named in Joseph Chapline’s 4 September 1763 agreement establishing his ironworks on the Antietam near Sharpsburg, with Samuel Beall as one of his business partners in this venture.[6] As the previous posting shows, this agreement mentions Griffith James, noting that Chapline was excluding from the agreement 215 acres he had sold to Daniel Moore and Griffith James. The linked posting also points out that Samuel Beall was a first cousin of Alexander Beall, under whom Robert Leonard, father of Thomas Leonard who married Griffith James’ daughter Hannah, served at Fort Frederick near Hagerstown in the 1750s. Samuel Beall lived at Hagerstown and the 15 October 1774 will he made there identifies him as Samuel Beall Jr.[7]

Another name in both the June 1764 deed showing Richard Dean selling lot 66 to Griffith James and the October 1766 deed recording Griffith’s sale of the lot to Robert Cockburn deserves attention: Joseph Smith witnessed both deeds. Smith was a prominent settler in this part of Maryland, an associate of both Joseph Chapline and his business partner Samuel Beall. An English immigrant, in 1749 Joseph Smith patented tracts in Frederick (later Washington) County called Elwicks Dwellings and Smiths Purchase.[8] On 12 October 1761, he was an appraiser of the estate of Joseph Chapline’s father-in-law William Williams in Frederick County.[9]

Frederick County, Maryland, Deed Bk. K, pp. 453

On 27 July 1767 the Frederick County court rendered judgment for Griffith James in a supersedeas suit he had filed against Stephen Bennet, Wm. Bleakley, and Richard Moore.[10] The record of the verdict states that the judgment was recorded 18 August 1767, and contains no further information about the basis of the lawsuit. Richard Moore is, it seems clear, the son of Daniel Moore, whose Mores Delight land adjoined Griffith James’ Pough, and who, as the posting I’ve just linked indicates, may have married Mary Dean, a sister of Samuel Dean who married Gwendolyn James, sister to Griffith James’ wife Hannah. Daniel Moore’s son Richard was old enough to have a child born by 1777, so he was certainly of age in 1767.[11]

On 24 March 1769, Griffith James witnessed the will of George Laurance in Frederick County, Maryland.[12] On 8 August 1769, Griffith and the other witness to the will, Sarah Reed, proved the will at county court. The will and probate bond show George with a wife Mary. I have not been able to find any more information about either George Laurance or Sarah Reed.

As the previous posting indicates, on 25 July 1769, David Ross, one of Joseph Chapline’s business partners in the ironworks operation, had a grant in Frederick County for 8,025 acres that included a tract called Boston, Resurvey of Little I Thought It, and part of Keep Trieste, Dutch Loss, and Mill Place. The survey shows the land granted to Ross bordering both Griffith James’s Pough and Chapline’s Hunting the Hare tract, part of which he sold to Richard Dean (Deans Purchase), father of Samuel Dean who married Gwendolyn James, and part, I think, to Daniel Moore (More’s Delight)P. As the linked posting shows, Arthur Tracey’s index card for this grant and his map of patent locations for Washington County states that Pough was next to Keep Trieste, Boston, and Little I Thought It.[13]

Beverly Dean Peoples has sent me a transcript of a page of Frederick County court minutes that appear to date from 1769, showing the county court issuing an order for a road from Samuel Beall’s mills to cross the Antietam at the ford where Andrew House lives and then to run from the mills run to the landing on the Potomac below Rachel Vandever. From there, the road was to go on the upper side of Daniel Moore’s plantation and Peter Hill’s through John Kissinger’s to join the road leading from Fredericktown at Jacob Russell’s, and from the mill up the branch where Griffith James lived and along the eastern branch of Antietam Creek to the landing at the mouth of the creek. Another road order in the November 1770 county court minutes mentions the same road coordinates and indicates that Griffith James had been appointed overseer for this road.

1770-1790

On 6 May 1774, a Griffith James who is a different Griffith James from the man living in the vicinity of Sharpsburg in then Frederick County, Maryland, witnessed the will of Margaret Williams of Radnor township in Chester County, Pennsylvania. The will made a bequest of ￡5 to Mary, wife of Griffith James.[14] 

Because the Griffith James witnessing this will had a wife named Mary and was a contemporary of the man living near Sharpsburg, one family tree after another online and in published sources has conflated the Griffith James witnessing Margaret Williams’ will with the man living near Sharpsburg. But the Griffith James witnessing this will lived in Radnor township in Chester County, Pennsylvania, where he married a wife named Mary Gyger, and where that couple lived to the end of their lives — while the Griffith James residing on the Pough tract just southeast of Sharpsburg lived there continuously from at least September 1763 (and probably earlier) until he sold this piece of land in May 1792 and then moved the following year to Pendleton District, South Carolina. I’ll discuss the 1792 land sale and move to South Carolina later.

On 24 December 1774, Griffith James appears in a list of those with stray livestock in Frederick County.[15] After September 1776 forward, when Washington County was set off from Frederick, documents for Griffith James are filed in Washington County records.

“Unpublished Revolutionary Records of Maryland, List of Patriots Who Took the Oath of Fidelity and Support to the Government,” National Genealogical Society Quarterly 6,1 (April 1917), pp. 12-13

On 2 March 1778, Griffith James took the oath of allegiance in Lower Antietam Hundred of Washington County.[16] Griffith’s name appears in the list of oathtakers compiled by Chr. Cruso as “James, Grifet.”

As the preceding posting notes, in 1783, Griffith James was taxed in Lower Antietam Hundred of Washington County for the Pough property, with the acreage given as 100 acres.[17] The tax list states that this property comprised 60 acres of woods and 40 acres arable. Griffith was also taxed for four horses and eight beef cattle.

The posting I’ve just linked also states, though we know from Joseph Chapline’s September 1763 ironworks deed that he had already sold Griffith James the Pough tract by that date and Griffith was taxed for the land in 1783, it was not until 10 April 1787 that the executors of Joseph Chapline, his sons Joseph and James, officially sold Pough to Griffith James.[18] The deed states that the land was sold for￡5, and it gives the name of the tract as Pough, noting that the tract consisted of 75 acres. The deed was signed by Joseph and James Chapline with John Still and Alexander Clagett witnessing, and was recorded on the same day.

14 February 1788 in Washington County, Griffith James witnessed the will of Richard Dean, Griffith’s neighbor at Deans Purchase whose son Samuel married Griffith’s daughter Gwendolyn.[19] Witnessing the will with Griffith were John Ritchie, Hannah Codd, and William Gregory, who were the three witnesses proving the will on 7 April 1788 when Richard’s widow Priscilla presented it for probate.

1790s

As the previous posting states, Griffith James is enumerated on the 1790 census in Washington County, Maryland with a household comprised of two males aged 16 and over, one male aged under 15, and two females.[20] Listed next to Griffith is his son Joseph James, with one male over 16, three males under 16, and three females in his household.

Washington County, Maryland, Deed Bk. G, pp. 368-9

On 12 April 1791, Griffith James’ son Joseph sold his father for￡50 a 50-acre portion of a tract called King Cole in Washington County.[21] Joseph James signed, with H. Shryock and Thomas Crampton witnessing, and on the day the deed was made, Joseph affirmed it before these witnesses.

Dr. Arthur G. Tracey patent/tract index and map locations for Carroll, Frederick, and Washington Counties,” Maryland State Archives

As a previous posting has noted, Joseph James obtained the King Cole tract from James Austin through Joseph’s marriage to James Austin’s daughter Elizabeth about 1791. The original King Cole tract consisted of 1,970 acres patented to Henry Crabb on 30 August 1754.[22] Arthur Tracey’s index card in his list of patents in Carroll, Frederick, and Washington Counties shows King Cole lying next to the Antietam ironworks. In 1769, Jeremiah Beall owned 246 acres of King Cole, and the 9 April 1759 will of Alexander Beall stipulates that King Cole, a parcel of 246½ acres, was to go to Beall’s son Magruder.[23] As has been noted in previous postings (e.g., here and here), Alexander Beall was the commanding officer of Robert Leonard, whose son Thomas Leonard married Griffith James’ daughter Hannah, in the 1750s when Robert Leonard was stationed as a soldier at Fort Frederick near Hagerstown. Alexander was a first cousin of Joseph Chapline’s business partner Samuel Beall, who lived at Hagerstown.

Washington County, Maryland, Deed Bk. G, p. 666

On 3 March 1792, Griffith James bought from Stephen Yates, both of Washington County, for ￡65 an enslaved boy named Phill, aged 16 or 17.[24] William Good and Thomas Crampton witnessed this deed, which was recorded 13 April 1792.

Washington County, Maryland, Deed Bk. G, pp. 815-6

Also on 3 March 1792, for ￡90, Griffith James and James Austin sold to Stephen Yates, all of Washington County, 50 acres of the King Cole tract, the portion that Griffith’s son Joseph had acquired by his marriage to James Austin’s daughter Elizabeth and had sold his father in April 1791.[25] Griffith James and James Austin both signed the deed with William Good and Thomas Crampton witnessing. The deed was recorded 30 August. No dower release for the land is recorded. The sale of this tract and the Pough land in May 1792 indicates that Griffith James was making preparations to move to South Carolina to join his children who had gone there in 1786.  Griffith James’s son Joseph moved from Maryland to Kentucky in 1791.

Washington County, Maryland, Deed Bk. G, pp. 771-2

On 13 May 1792, Griffith James sold this Pough tract to Robert Hoffman for ￡330.[26] The deed names the land and states that it contained 75 acres. Griffith James signed with witnesses Thomas Crampton and William Good, and the deed was recorded on the 12th [sic] with Griffith’s wife Mary releasing her dower interest on that date.

By 11 June 1794, when Hagerstown’s Washington Spy published a notice by Robert Hoffman cautioning persons from taking assignment on Hoffman’s bond given to Griffith James for £65, Griffith James and wife Mary had made their move to Pendleton District, South Carolina.[27] The context for this notice appears to be that a company named James Browns and Co. had dissolved on 6 May, and bills owed to the estate of that company were being called in.

We can know that Griffith and Mary James were in South Carolina by this point since Griffith appears, along with his son-in-law Thomas Leonard, as a witness to a deed of Jacob Herring to Griffith’s son-in-law Samuel Dean in Pendleton District on 17 June 1794.[28] The next posting in this series will survey Griffith James’ final years in Pendleton District.

[1] Frederick County, Maryland, Deed Bk. J, pp. 652-3.

[2] “Richard Deane (1701-1788) and His Children,” at Rootsweb. Beverly recommends to those seeking further information about the Pearl family Mary C. Jeske’s “Autonomy and Opportunity: Carrollton Manor Tenants, 1734-1790.”

[3] Frederick County, Maryland, Deed Bk. K, pp. 818-9.

[4] Danske Dandridge, Historic Shepherdstown (Charlottesville: Michie, 1910), p. 53; and Ted McGee, nomination form for Shepherdstown Historic District on National Register of Historic Places (2 April 1973), at the West Virginia Culture Center website.

[5] Anderson County, South Carolina, Will Bk. 1793-8, p. 82.

[6] Frederick County, Maryland, Deed Bk. J, pp. 793-804.

[7] Washington County, Maryland, Will Bk. A, pp. 13-16.

[8] History of West Virginia, Old and New, vol. 2: Biographical (Chicago and New York: American Historical Society, 1923), p. 180.

[9] “Joseph Chapline,” at Mike Marshall’s Early Colonial Settlers of Southern Maryland and Virginia’s Northern Neck Counties, citing the original appraisal record.

[10] Frederick County, Maryland, Deed Bk. K, p. 453.

[11] See Geolover, “Sarah’s Surprise — Part 1,” at West Virginia Family Tracks and Trails.

[12] Frederick County, Maryland, Will Bk. 37,2, pp. 422-3; and Bk. A-1, pp. 343-4.

[13] See Arthur G. Tracey’s patent/tract index and map locations for Carroll, Frederick, and Washington Counties at Maryland government’s Maryland History site.

[14] Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania, Will Bk. Q, p. 39.

[15] F. Edward Wright, Early Lists of Frederick Countians 1766-1775 (Silver Spring, Maryland: Family Line, 1986), p. 4.

[16] See “Unpublished Revolutionary Records of Maryland, List of Patriots Who Took the Oath of Fidelity and Support to the Government,” National Genealogical Society Quarterly 6,1 (April 1917), pp. 12-13; Henry C. Peden Jr., Revolutionary Patriots of Washington County, Maryland 1776-1783 (Westminster, Maryland: Family Line, 1998), p. 184; Raymond B. Clark Jr., Washington County, Maryland Records: Oaths of Allegiance, 1778, and Balance Books [Distributions] on Estates, 1778-1801 (St. Michaels, Maryland: Maryland and Delaware Genealogy, 1989], p. 3; and Margaret Roberts Hodges, Unpublished Revolutionary Records of Maryland, vol. 3: Oaths of Allegiance and Fidelity Taken in Washington County in 1778 (priv. publ., 1939), p. 35.

[17] “Washington County 1783 Tax Assessment,” Western Maryland Genealogy 7,4 (October 1991), p. 171; and “Assessment of 1783, Index,” citing Lower Antietam and Sharpsburg, p. 34 (MSA S1161-11-1. 1/4/5/54) at website of Maryland State Archives.

[18] Washington County, Maryland, Deed Bk. E, pp. 332-3.

[19] Washington County, Maryland, Will Bk. A, p. 168. The will spells the surname as Deane.

[20] 1790 federal census, Washington County, Maryland, p. 9.

[21] Washington County, Maryland, Deed Bk. G, pp. 368-9.

[22] See Edward C. Papenfuse and Sarah Patterson, “Dr. Arthur G. Tracey patent/tract index and map locations for Carroll, Frederick, and Washington Counties,” prepared by the Maryland State Archives in October 2009.

[23] Frederick County, Maryland, Will Bk. A, p. 127.

[24] Washington County, Maryland, Deed Bk. G, p. 666.

[25] Ibid., pp. 815-6.

[26] Ibid., po. 771-2.

[27] Washington Spy (Hagerstown, Maryland), p. 3, col. 3: see F. Edward Wright, Western Maryland Newspaper Abstracts 1786-1798 (Silver Spring, Maryland: Family Line Publications, 1985), p. 48, #335.

[28] Anderson County, South Carolina, Deed Bk. C & D, p. 360.

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