I was minding my own business in early December, thinking only about the upcoming holiday season, when a nephew asked a genealogical question. He is a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel and is particularly interested in relatives’ military records. That led him to establish that Richard Willis of Caroline County, Maryland served in the Maryland Militia during the Revolutionary War. Richard was my great-great-great grandfather and the nephew’s 4th great. He enrolled us in the Sons of the Revolution based on “Rev War Richard’s” service .
The nephew then moved on to the War of 1812. He found a Joseph Willis who enlisted in Caroline County as a fifer in a Maryland Militia company commanded by Captain Peter Willis. In 1854 or 1855, “Joseph the Fifer” was granted 160 acres of bounty land for his service. He was about 64 years old and lived in Caroline County at the time of the grant.[1]My nephew wondered if Joseph the Fifer was the same man as the Joseph Willis who married Dorcas Willis in Caroline County in 1818.[2] “Caroline County Joseph” appears in census records from 1820 through 1850. The 1850 census shows him born in 1790, about the same year as Joseph the Fifer.[3]
I volunteered to check it out. It sounded like a classic “follow the land” inquiry. With the complete land records of Caroline County online at MDLANDREC.com, I figured I could simply find the sale of the bounty land at some point after 1855.[4] If the land were sold by Caroline County Joseph or one of his heirs, the sale would prove the fifer’s identity.
Not so fast there, Willis!
I began searching the Caroline County deed books between 1812 and 1860, the year Caroline County Joseph died.[5]There was no reference to a 160-acre tract. However, a Joseph Willis acquired more than 180 acres in smaller parcels between 1812 and 1836.[6] The deed records also show that no Joseph Willis sold any land before 1860 – neither the purchased land, nor the 160-acre bounty tract.
Then It Dawned on Me
After hours looking through grantor/grantee indexes and squinting online at faded, handwritten deeds, the big picture suddenly became clear. The lands mentioned in the records were all adjoining parcels, each part of two larger original tracts.[7] The Joseph Willises named in those records were surely the same person. There was clearly only one Joseph Willis in Caroline County during the period. The Joseph who married Dorcas in 1818 was certainly the same Joseph who in 1855 filed for bounty land. Caroline County Joseph was indeed Joseph the Fifer.
Nevertheless, He Persisted
Having identified Joseph, there was no need to search the land records further — except that I was curious, with an admitted touch of obsessiveness. I had not yet found the 160-acre grant. I persisted. Maybe Joseph’s 1859 will would provide clues. It divided his land among three of his children for their lifetimes, with the land descending to his grandchildren, as follows:
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- Joseph’s will devised the home farm and plantation to his widowed daughter Sarah Davis and spinster daughter Jane Willis until they married or died. Afterwards, the will gave the property to Sarah’s children and to the children of a third daughter, Susan Turner. Sarah had three children. Susan had six, including two born after Joseph’s death.
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- The will gave a second parcel of land to Joseph’s son John R. Willis and after his death to his children. John had two children.
The will named the grandchildren alive at the time Joseph made the will.[8] It did not, however, identify the acreage in either of the two parcels. Was the 160-acre grant part of the total? To find out, I went back to the deed indexes looking for any grandchild’s sale of the land. The first to appear was Sarah’s eldest daughter Willomina Lane (Davis) Perry. Willomina and her husband William E. Perry sold a ten-acre tract in 1869 that she inherited from Joseph.[9]Joseph’s daughters Sarah and Susan had a total of nine children, so Willomina’s share was one-ninth of the total. That proved the first parcel in Joseph’s will, described as the “farm and plantation,” totaled 90 acres. The second parcel in the will was sold in 1873 by the children of Joseph’s son John R. Willis. That deed states outright the tract amounted to 90½ acres.[10]
The two parcels that Joseph willed to his grandchildren thus totaled 180½ acres — a pretty close tally to the land he acquired between 1812 and 1836. Apparently, that was all the land he owned at the time of his death. Although Joseph had been granted another 160 acres for his war service, he evidently never took possession. Regardless, we can be sure that that Caroline County Joseph and Joseph the Fifer were one and the same.
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This abbreviated/modified tree indicates the relationship of the key players (shown in bold) in this article. All children are not shown, and the listing does not necessarily depict the children’s birth order.
1 John Willis (abt 1689 – 1764) m.1 Mary LNU
… 2 Richard Willis (1718 – 1763) m. Rebecca Granger
….. 3 Rev War Richard Willis (1759 – 1823) m. Britannia Gowty
…….. 4 Dorcas Willis (abt 1795 – bef 1840) m. Joseph (the Fifer) Willis
….. 3 Robert Willis (abt 1755 – 1789 ) m. Sarah Rumbold
…….. 4 Joseph (the Fifer) Willis (1790 – 1860) m. Dorcas Willis
………. 5 Jane Willis – Never Married
………. 5 Sarah Willis m. William A. Davis
…………… 6 Willomina Jane Davis m. William E. Perry, Sr.
…………… 6 Sarah C. Davis
…………… 6 Franklin L. Davis m. Arabella R. Perry
………. 5 Susan Willis m. William Turner
…………… 6 Celia Turner m. FNU Leigh
…………… 6 Sarah Elizabeth Turner m. William Henry Williams
…………… 6 Joseph Willis Turner m. Frances E. “Fanny” Connelly
…………… 6 William Merrill Turner
…………… 6 Susan J. Turner
……………. 6 Martha J. Turner
………. 5 John Rumbold Willis m.1 Celia Sparklin, m.2 Mary Todd
…………… 6 Thomas Foster Willis m. Catherine LNU
…………… 6 Mary Todd Willis m. Joseph L. Griffith
… 2 Joshua Willis (1720 – 1797) m. 2) Deborah Greenhawk
……. 3 Captain Peter Willis (1777 – 1834) m. Elizabeth Holmes
[1] Maryland Militia in the War of 1812 – Volume 1 (Eastern Shore Counties) pg. 1-116, WILLIS, Joseph/Fifer, company of Capt Peter Willis, Aug 15 – 30(?) 1813. Mustered into service at Collins Cross Roads. Applied for bounty land May 13, 1854, age 64, residing in Lower Election District of Caroline County; wit: Willis Charles and James Stack, residing in Federalsburg. He applied for bounty land June 9, 1855, age 64, residing near New Hope, Caroline County. Received warrant for 160 acres.
(Captain Peter Willis, later a Colonel and a Caroline County Justice, was Rev War Richard’s first cousin. Peter was Joseph’s first cousin once removed. See abbreviated family tree at the end of the article).
[2] “Maryland Marriages, 1666-1970”, FamilySearch, this link Joseph Willis, 1816.
[3] 1850 US Census, Caroline County, lists Joseph Willis, age 60.
[4] See this link for instructions on using MDLANDREC.com
[5] Caroline County Will Book B:108. Will made in 1859; probate began 1860.
[6] Caroline County Will Book JR Bi:213, Joseph’s mother Sarah Willis devised an undivided interest in 15½ acres of land to Joseph and his brothers Charles and Peter. Joseph subsequently bought his brothers’ interests, Caroline County Deed Books L:233 and M:582. Joseph acquired other adjoining parcels at Deed Books M:346 and M: 348, 58 acres; T:099, 39+ acres; T:100, 65+ acres; and T:102, about 4 acres.At his death, Joseph had inherited or acquired about 182 acres.
[7] Every record referred to tracts called either Hab Nab at a Venture or Littleton’s Friendship.
[8] Caroline County Will Book B:108. The grandchildren alive when he wrote his will were Willomina Lane Davis, Sarah C. Davis, and Franklin Davis, the children of daughter Sarah who married William A Davis; Sarah Elizabeth Turner, Joseph Turner, Celia Turner, and William H. Turner., the children of daughter Susan who married William Turner; and Thomas Foster Willis and Mary Todd Willis, children of son John R. Willis who married 1) Celia Sparklin, 2) Mary Todd, 3) Elizabeth Stevens, and 4) Mrs. Ellen Moore.
[9] Caroline County Deed Book 33:301. William E. Perry and wife Willie M. [Willomina] sell 10 acres of land in the Third District to Joseph M. Noble for $133, it being all the land she inherited from her grandfather Joseph Willis, adjacent Zachariah Willis, John W. Covey, J. R. Willis.
[10] Caroline County Deed Book 35:428. John R. Willis and wife Elizabeth, Thomas F. Willis and wife Catherine, and Joseph L Griffith and wife Mary Todd sold 90½ acres of land to Peter Cook of Trenton, New Jersey for $700, it being land willed from Joseph Willis to John R. Willis for his lifetime with the remainder to John’s children Thomas F. Willis and Mary Todd Willis. Because John R. Willis had not yet died, he joined in the sale of the land. Presumably, the entire proceeds went to his children.