Tag: George Willis

Andrew Willis of Washington County – Revisited

Several years ago, a researcher asked if Andrew Willis, a Revolutionary War pensioner who died in 1823 in Washington County, Maryland, was descended from the immigrant John Willis of “Wantage” in Dorchester County. I published an article concluding we could not make that connection. Now, thanks to Sherry Taylor’s investigation of her Willis lines, it turns out we were wrong!  Revolutionary War muster rolls, pension files, census records, deeds, and probate filings establish that Washington County Andrew was a brother of Jarvis Willis, another Revolutionary War veteran and a proved descendant of Wantage John. Also, a tip of the hat to David McIntire, a researcher who almost nailed this years ago.  Below is the revised article; the original has been sent to the trash.

The Question

 Washington County Andrew was a Revolutionary War veteran who received a pension for service as a private in the 5th Regiment of the Maryland Line. There are five men named Andrew who were descended from Wantage John Willis and alive during the relevant period. Was one of those five the same man as the pensioner in Washington County? This article describes Washington County Andrew’s nuclear family and his geographic location. It then looks at each of the five men to see if they fit the facts about Washington County Andrew — his family makeup, geographic location, and military service. A bust on any of the three parameters means that particular person was not the same man as Washington County Andrew.

 Washington County Andrew – The Facts

Andrew Willis first appears in Washington County, Maryland in the 1800 census. That census lists him with (presumably) a wife, three sons, and two daughters.[1] The 1810 census shows him with the same family members.[2]

In 1812, Edward Willis (who is proved as Andrew’s son) purchased a small tract of land in Washington County on Antietam Creek.[3] His father was about 60 years old at that time. Edward may have purchased land his father had been renting and effectively became the head of household.

In 1818, Andrew applied for a pension. He stated he had served in the Maryland Fifth Regiment, had resided in Washington County for about twenty years, was 66 years old (thus born about 1752), was a laborer but unable to work, owned no home of his own, was impoverished, and his wife was old and frail. He said they lived with a son whom he did not identify.[4] He was awarded a pension paid from 31 Mar 1818 through his death on 4 Dec 1823. His pension was then paid to his wife Lettie/Letha Willis until her death.

As expected from the pension application, the 1820 census did not list Andrew Willis. It named Edward Willis heading a household that apparently included his parents, his brother and wife, and his sister. Subsequent records provide their names: brother and sister-in-law Isaac and Nancy, and sister Elizabeth.[5]

Edward died intestate in 1825 with a very small estate and no widow or children.[6] Under Maryland law, his estate went to his surviving parent(s) or to his siblings and their heirs if his parents were deceased. In 1829, Edward’s heirs sold the Antietam Creek land. The sellers were Hezekiah Donaldson and his wife Sarah, Nehemiah Hurley and his wife Elizabeth, and Isaac Willis and his wife Nancy.[7]

Edward’s mother did not participate in the sale, so she had already died. Sarah Donaldson, Elizabeth Hurley, and Isaac Willis were Edward’s living sisters and brother. Anyone not included in the deed could not have been a surviving sibling or child of a deceased sibling. That eliminates as possible siblings two Willis males who lived concurrently in Washington County.[8] Also, an unnamed son of Andrew and Lettie who appears in the 1800 and 1810 censuses but is absent from the 1820 census must have died without heirs. Otherwise, he, his spouse, or their child would have participated in the 1829 sale.

The facts prove Washington County Andrew’s nuclear family, as follows:

Andrew Willis                     b 1752                   d 1823

His wife:

Lettie LNU Willis              b 1756-65            d before 1829

Their children:

Edward Willis                     b 1785-90            d 1825

Isaac Willis                            b 1791-94            d after 1850

Sarah Willis                          b 1791-94            m in 1818 to Hezekiah Donaldson[9]

Son FNU Willis                   b 1791-99            d before 1820 Census

Elizabeth Willis                  b 1800                  m between 1820-25 to Nehemiah Hurley

Their daughter-in-law:

Nancy LNU                            b abt. 1790          m before 1820 to Isaac Willis

The evidence also proves Andrew resided in Washington County from at least 1800 until his death in 1823. The only evidence of his residence prior to that is his army service. The Fifth Maryland Regiment recruited from the counties of Queen Anne’s, Kent, Caroline, and Dorchester on the Eastern Shore. He was almost certainly from one of those counties.

By 1830, the family disappeared from Washington County. After Andrew, Lettie, and Edward died, the surviving family members moved to Ohio. In 1850, son Isaac Willis applied for a grant of land in Ohio based on Andrew’s service in the war. Isaac filed on behalf of himself and the other heirs of Andrew Willis.[10]

 Finding the Right Andrew Willis

Five descendants of Wantage John Willis who were alive during and after the war are candidates to be the same man as Washington County Andrew. Two were from Caroline County and three from Dorchester. They are shown below in bold face type in an abbreviated descendants’ chart showing their relationship to Wantage John. We will hunt for the man whose family matches the one above and who was in the right place to match Washington County Andrew’s residency and military service.

1) John “Wantage John” Willis d 1712

                   Caroline County Descendants:

2)    John “Marshy Creek John” Willis d 1764

                                    3) John “The Elder” Willis

                                                      4) Andrew “Friendship Andrew” Willis d about 1778

                                                                        5) Andrew No.1 Willis

                                    3) Isaac Willis

                                                      4) Andrew No. 2 Willis

                 Dorchester County Descendants:

2)    Andrew “New Town” Willis d. 1738

                                    3) Andrew No. 3 Willis

                                                      4) Andrew No. 4 Willis

                                    3) John “New Town” Willis

                                                      4) Andrew No. 5 Willis

                                                      4) Jarvis Willis

Spoiler Alert!

 Andrew Nos. 1 – 3 each had a nuclear family that did not match Washington County Andrew’s. Andrew No. 4 was too young to have served in the war. We can eliminate each (detail shown at the end of the article) and turn to Andrew No. 5, who must have been the same man as Washington County Andrew.

Andrew No. 5

Andrew No. 5 was the possible son of a John Willis in Dorchester County. John who inherited part of a tract called New Town as a contingent devisee when his brother George died. John did not pass New Town to any of his children; he sold it in 1784.[11] That might indicate none of his heirs were interested in the land, or they had moved away.

We know that one  proved son , Jarvis Willis, did so. Jarvis served in the army during the revolution and moved to North Carolina after the war.[12] He joined the regular army on 17 Feb 1777, served three years as a Corporal, and was discharged 14 Feb 1780 at Morristown, New Jersey.[13] He then appeared in Stokes County, North Carolina before 1790. Significantly, an Andrew Willis in Dorchester County enlisted in the same regiment and the same company on the same day as Jarvis and was discharged with him at the same place on the same day.[14] Surely, these men were brothers. Jarvis appeared in the Dorchester County 1783 Tax Assessment with no land and eight people in his household.[15]

Jarvis and Andrew showed up in Stokes County, North Carolina by about 1790. That census listed Jarvis Willis with a family of eight, matching his earlier household. Andrew Willis was not in that census but appeared on a Stokes County tax roll in 1791 with 250 acres of land.[16] Jarvis was listed on the same tax roll in the same district. He and Andrew may have shared the land. The 1792 tax roll showed Andrew’s acreage reduced to 200 acres, and Jarvis held 50. On a later roll, Jarvis had 125 acres, half Andrew’s original amount.

By 1793, Stokes County listed Andrew as “insolvent” and owing £5.10 in taxes.[17] Usually, this meant the party had abandoned their land and left the county. Where did he go? If he is the same man as Washington County Andrew, he took his family and retraced their steps 300 miles up the Great Wagon Road to Washington County, Maryland where he appeared in the census in 1800 and applied for a pension in 1818. Such reverse migrations were not common. I usually question the validity of any claim that someone migrated “backwards.”

In this case, the identical army service of Jarvis and Washington County Andrew outweigh any hesitancy about reverse migration. The date of enrollment is especially important. Officers of each company personally enlisted men to fill their ranks. For an officer to enroll two men on the same date meant the men almost certainly were in the same place when they signed up. There was no person more likely to be in the same location as Jarvis Willis on their enrollment date in February 1777 than a brother. With no other Andrew in the vicinity that seals the deal.[18]

Conclusion

Evidence about family makeup eliminates the first three men from being Washington County Andrew. Inability to have served in the army because of his youth rules out the fourth. We have no evidence of the fifth Andrew’s family on the Eastern Shore to compare to the Washington County family. However, there is strong circumstantial evidence implying Jarvis Willis is the brother of the fifth Andrew. His connections to Jarvis are significant – they enrolled in the same Continental Line company at the same time, served for three years, left the army on the same date, and later appeared together and may have shared land in Stokes County, North Carolina. Then Andrew Willis left at just the right time to arrive in Washington County to appear in the census there and to file a pension application. I conclude that the Andrew in Washington County is the brother of the veteran Jarvis Willis and therefore a descendant of Wantage John Willis.

The Descendant Andrews Eliminated

 Andrew No. 1

An Andrew Willis acquired land in Caroline County called Friendship Regulated in 1754. After Andrew’s death, his son Thomas distributed the land to his siblings according to his father’s oral instructions. Son Andrew No. 1 received 87½ acres.[19] The Supply Tax List of 1783 shows him in possession of that land with a household of five males and five females. A year later, Andrew No. 1 and his wife Sarah sold the land and did not appear in Caroline County again.[20] Their family, apparently four sons and four daughters (all born before 1783), are too old to be the Washington County family in which no child was born before 1785. Andrew No. 1 is not the same man as Washington County Andrew.

Andrew No. 2

Andrew No. 2 was the son of Isaac Willis and seems at first a likely candidate to be the same man as Washington County Andrew. After all, Washington County Andrew named one of his sons Isaac. Further, Andrew No. 2 disappeared from Caroline County before the 1800 census. Could he have moved to Washington County?

Sure. But the 1783 Supply Tax Assessment in Caroline County shows this Andrew with a household of one male and three females. That does not fit the Washington County family where the male children were older than the females and where no child was born before 1785. This rules out this man as Washington County Andrew.[21]

Andrew No. 3

Andrew No. 3 acquired about 60 acres in 1781.[22] He had that land in the 1783 Supply Tax Assessment for Dorchester County along with a household of seven people. Like the others we have examined, he had children born before 1783, while Washington County Andrew had none that old. He cannot be Washington County Andrew.

Andrew No. 4

Andrew No. 3 had a son, Andrew No. 4, to whom he devised the 60 acres. Andrew No. 4 was born in 1768.[23] He was the right age to have a young family in Washington County, but he was too young to have been in the war as a private. He was only nine when Washington County Andrew enlisted in the regular army and only fifteen when the war ended. He cannot be Washington County Andrew, either.

Again, thank you Sherry Taylor for your work on the Willis lines. Next, I must write about Jarvis Willis, who was Sherry’s primary interest. She is descended from one of Jarvis’s daughters! But I had to correct this article about Andrew first.

______

[1] 1800 Census Washington County, MD. The listing for Andrew Willis includes a man and woman 26-44 years old with two males under 10, one male age 10-15, and two females under 10. Note that if Andrew was born in 1752 per his pension application, the census understates his age by four years, which is not an unusual discrepancy.

[2] 1810 Census Washington County, MD. Ages of all family members track to the next appropriate age category except for the youngest daughter, who remains less than 10. She may have been an infant in 1800 and was 10 years old in 1810. Or, she may have died before 1810 and the census lists a new daughter.

[3] Washington County, MD Deed Book Y: 439.

[4] See Pension File S35141. Andrew stated he could not remember the exact dates but thought he enrolled in 1778 and was discharged in 1781. He was off by one year on both dates, according to official records.

[5] 1820 Census, Washington County, MD shows Edward Willis’s household with two men age 26-44 and one over 45, one female 15-25, one 26-44, and one over 45. The older man and woman are Andrew Willis and his wife Lettie. The two younger men are their sons Edward and Isaac. The youngest female is their daughter Elizabeth. The woman age 26-44 is Isaac’s wife Nancy LNU.

[6] Washington County, MD Bond Book C: 427 and Administrative Accounts Book 7: 413. Nehemiah Hurley was administrator, Nehemiah Hurley, Hezekiah Donaldson and Isaac Willis were bondsmen.

[7] Washington County, MD Deed Book KK: 610.

[8] William Willis and Levin Willis, who appear in census and deed records of the era, were not Edward’s brothers.

[9] Morrow, Dale W., Marriages of Washington County, Maryland, Volume 1, 1799-1830, (Traces: Hagerstown, MD, 1977), D64.

[10] 31 Dec 1850 letter from Bennington & Cowan, St. Clairsville, Belmont County, Ohio on behalf of Isaac Willis, online at Fold 3 pension file S35141 of Andrew Willis. Isaac knew his father was from the Eastern Shore of Maryland but was not sure of the county. He thought it might have been Kent. However, there is no Kent County Andrew. He also thought Andrew’s company commander was named Bentley. That was close. It was Benson.

[11] Dorchester County, MD Deed Book NH 2:546. John Willis sold to Levin Hughes. No signature of a wife, so she is presumed deceased. Also, at NH 2:88 Mary Willis Meekins, widow of Benjamin, sold in 1782 her half of New Town. Both shares originated with Andrew Willis, died 1738, who devised half each to sons Richard and George. George’s share descended to his brother John upon George’s untimely death. Richard willed his share to his daughter Mary who married Benjamin Meekins.

[12] Palmer, 19. 6 Dec 1758, Jarvey [Jarvis] Willis, parents John and Nancy Willis.

[13] Archives of Maryland, Muster Rolls and Other Records of Service of Maryland Troops in the American Revolution, 1775-1783, (Baltimore: Maryland Historical Society, 1900), 254. Corporal Jarvis Willis and Private Andrew Willis listed with identical enrollment and discharge dates.  https://archive.org/details/musterrollsother00mary

[14] Roll of Lt Perry Benson’s Company, 5th Maryland Regiment of Foot in the service of the United States commanded by Colonel William Richardson, 8 Sep 1778. Corporal Jarvis Willis and Private Andrew Willis appear on the same roster, both sick in hospital.

[15] Andrew did not appear in the tax list. Neither Jarvis nor Andrew appeared in the 1790 census in Dorchester.

[16] Harvey, Iris Moseley, Stokes County, North Carolina Tax List, 1791, (Raleigh, NC, 1998), 11. There is no record showing how Andrew or Jarvis acquired the land.

[17] Harvey, Iris Moseley, Stokes County, North Carolina Tax List, 1793, (Raleigh, NC, 1998), 43

[18] The only other person close by was Andrew No.4 who was nine years old, too young to have been enlisted as a private.

[19] Caroline County, MD Deed Book GFA: 269, 1778

[20] Caroline County, MD Deed Book GFA: 777, 1784

[21] 1790 Census Caroline County, MD lists Andrew Willis with a household inconsistent with the 1783 Tax List. The household has five males age 16 or older, six males under 16, four females, and one slave.  Possibly, this is several families living together. In any event it does not match the Washington County family.

[22] Dorchester County, MD Deed Book 28 Old 356. Andrew Willis purchased 59½ acres from Mary and Benjamin Meekins. The tract was originally owned by Henry Fisher and may have been called Fisher’s Venture in the 1783 Supply Tax Assessment.

[23] Palmer, Katherine H., Old Trinity Church, Dorchester Parish, Church Creek, MD, Birth Register, (Cambridge , MD) 19. 12 Feb 1768, Andrew Willis, parents Andrew and Sarah Willis.

Henry Willis, Carpenter of Maryland and Philadelphia (1829-1906), Part 2

Introduction

In Part 1 we established that Henry Willis, a carpenter born in Maryland in 1829, married Martha Anne (Annie) Stewart in about 1880. They appeared in the 1900 census in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with their children Lola and Harry.[1] The couple lived in Philadelphia during the 1880s. They appeared in a city directory and in records showing the deaths of two children and the baptism of a surviving child. Henry died and was buried in Philadelphia in 1906.

Beyond those few facts, Henry does not exist in records where we would expect to find him. He does not appear in the 1850 through 1880 censuses. There is no record of his marriage. Henry bought no land either in Maryland where he was born or in Philadelphia where he lived.

 Search for a Family of Origin

Finding little record evidence of Henry Willis, I stopped looking for him and searched instead for people who could have been his parents. Since Henry was born in Maryland and family legend says he married in Cecil County, I focused the search there. Because he was a carpenter, I looked for a Willis family that included others of that trade. With those criteria in mind, I went to the usual sources:

    • The standard people-search features of Ancestry.com and FamilySearch.org.
    • The Maryland land records at MDLANDREC.net
    • The Cecil County Historical Society at cecilcountyhistory.com with its links to Maryland and Delaware records, and
    • The separate birth, death, marriage, and probate records for Cecil County and neighboring counties in Maryland and Delaware at FamilySearch

Results

The search involved many records, lots of note taking and analyzing, and an interesting but frustrating twist at the end. One family in Cecil County fit the search criteria – the family of John and Rebecca Kilgore Willis who married in Cecil County in 1817.[2] According to the 1830, 1840 and 1850 censuses, they had at least ten children – six sons and four daughters. John Willis and several of his sons were carpenters.

So far, so good. To see if his could be Henry’s family, we dug deeper into the censuses and other records.

 1820 Census

Although married in 1817, John Willis does not appear as a head of household in the 1820 census for Cecil County. He should have been listed with a wife and a daughter under five years of age. He and Rebecca were also not listed with her parents, James and Isabella Kilgore.[3]

1830 Census

John does appear in the 1830 census. It shows John Willis and a female between 30 and 40 years old with six minors — three females and three males. The two youngest males, under five years of age, fit Henry’s later-proved birth year of 1829.[4] This is promising.

1840 Census

The 1840 census shows even more promise. John’s eldest daughter is gone from the household, possibly married. Five earlier listed children remain, and three younger children are added to the family.[5] Henry, at age 11 in 1840, fits the age 10 to 15 reported for one male in that census. The census states one person in the household is engaged in agriculture. Four people are engaged in “manufacturing or the trades,” which includes carpentry.

1850 Census

The 1850 census reveals that John is 53 and Rebecca is 54. The older children, including our possible Henry, are all of age and out of the house. The remaining children are George, 19; Amos, 15; Andrew J., 13; and Rachel R., 10. Those ages track perfectly from the previous census data.[6]  The census lists John, George, and Amos as farmers, not carpenters. However, later records show George as a carpenter and Amos and Andrew as iron mill workers.[7] Separate records prove two adult sons to be James Kilgore Willis and John Thomas Willis. Both are carpenters.[8]

 Deed Records

Deed records reveal more about these families. John Willis’s wife Rebecca Kilgore had an older sister Rachel who married Samuel Burnite in 1810. Gift deeds prove the sisters to be daughters of  James and Isabella Kilgore. In 1826, James and Isabella sold 20 acres of land north of Elkton in Cecil County to John Willis for one dollar.[9] Kilgore had inherited the land from his mother in 1788.[10] In 1827, the Kilgore’s sold about 50 acres to Samuel Burnite for three dollars.[11] Prior to those sales, Willis and Burnite owned no land. We can reasonably conclude they already lived on the lands, probably since the date of their marriages to the Kilgore sisters.

The timing of the gifts seems apparent in retrospect. James was obviously in ill health. The couple liquidated all their assets in 1827. They sold the  8-acre lot that contained their house for $100 and much of their personal property for $86. James died shortly afterwards.

 John and Rebecca Willis lived on their piece the Kilgore land for another 29 years as they raised their family. They sold the place in 1856 for $2,500.[12]

Probate Records

John Willis made a will in December 1857 and died before the end of the year. Probate records do not include the names of any of his children, except the eldest son James. John left his entire estate to his wife Rebecca for her lifetime. The will stated that at or before her death she could dispose of the estate among the heirs as she saw fit.[13]

The estate, all personal property, amounted to $1,456 after debts and expenses. Rebecca loaned $500 to her eldest son James Kilgore Willis, secured by a mortgage on his property, 20 acres located near the former Kilgore place.[14]

On behalf of himself and all the heirs at law, i.e., “the children of John Willis,” James K. Willis sued his mother and Benjamin C. Cowan the co-executor of John’s estate in 1870. James asked that the estate funds be invested under the court’s supervision to protect the money for the benefit of the heirs at law. James claimed the heirs feared the estate would be squandered without the court’s intervention. Rebecca did not object but responded that $500 was already committed to a secure investment – her son’s property. The court agreed and in June 1870 ordered the co-executor to arrange for secure interest bearing mortgage investments of the remaining $956. The court also ordered interest from all investments go to Rebecca for her use.

Unfortunately, the probate files for John’s estate do not include a final distribution of funds identifying the heirs. There is no will or probate file for Rebecca. She died in 1886 at the home of her daughter Isabella and John T. Steele.[15]

Identity of the Six Sons

Our review of census, deed, and probate records to this point revealed six sons and proved the identities of five. The 1850 census proves the three youngest: George, Amos, and Andrew J. Willis. Probate records prove the eldest son James K. Willis. James and John T. Willis appear often in the deed records of Cecil County from 1850 through 1861 – James nine times and John four. Several of those transactions, including short term loans, are between the two of them. That activity is good circumstantial evidence that James K. and John T. are related and likely brothers.

That accounts for five of the six sons. Who is the sixth? Could it be our Henry?

Well, heck no.

The remaining son is Daniel Willis. He appears in several Cecil County records in the 1880s that do not definitively connect him to the family.[16]  However, the 1900 and 1910 censuses do the trick. In 1900, he is in the household of John T. Steele, the husband of John and Rebecca’s daughter Isabella Willis. Daniel is listed as a brother-in-law at age 77. This is the same place Rebecca Willis died in 1886. In 1910, Daniel is listed at age 87 as an uncle in the household of Annetta S. Crossan. She is a Steele daughter who married Samuel Crossan in 1869 and who had no children. Daniel died in 1911. Clearly, Daniel is a son of John and Rebecca Willis.

Conclusion

Our search for Henry Willis turned up a perfectly interesting Willis family of carpenters in Cecil County, Maryland. It just does not include Henry Willis. Below is a table setting out the data from the 1830, 1840 and 1850 censuses for John Willis’s household. The column of names and the information in the last two columns are proved by the census or other sources.

Name 1830 1840 1850 Born Comment
John Willis 30-40 40-50 53 Dec 1796 Carpenter/Farmer
Rebecca Willis 30-40 40-50 54 1796 Married 1817
Female 10-15 – 1815-20
James K. Willis 5-10 15-20 – 1821 Carpenter
Daniel Willis <5 15-20 – 1823 Carpenter
Female <5 15-20 – 1820-1825
John T. Willis <5 10-15 – 1827 Carpenter
Isabella Willis <5 10-15 – 1830 m. John T. Steele ~1849
George Willis – 5-10 19 May 1831 Farmer/Carpenter
Amos Willis – 5-10 15 1835 Farmer/Iron Mill
Andrew J. Willis – <5 13 1837 Iron Mill Worker
Rachel R. Willis – <5 10 1840 m. Dennis Dwyer~1858

The table highlights in bold the age range in the 1830 and 1840 censuses that I had mentally reserved for our Henry Willis. Cleary, that slot is occupied by John T. Willis. After this effort, I am convinced that Henry is not a native of Cecil County. So, the search for the will-o-the-wisp Henry goes on …

In any event, I hope that some descendants of John and Rebecca Willis will take DNA tests and join the Willis DNA Project (https://www.familytreedna.com/groups/willis/about) to see where they fit in the broader scheme.

 

Post Script – Part I of the search for Henry Willis was also published in the Spring 2022 edition of Chesapeake Cousins, the semiannual journal of the Upper Shore Genealogical Society of Maryland (USGSMD). I will also submit this Part 2 to them for publication. I recommend USGSMD, now in its 49th year, as a worthwhile organization for any researcher with ties to the Eastern Shore.

[1] 1900 Census Philadelphia, Ward 26, District 0628 at FamilySearch.org

1335 Kick [sic South Hicks] Street

Henry Willis head May 1829 71 M20  MD MD MD Carpenter Rent House

Annie Willis wife Jun 1846     53 M20  4/2 DE DE DE

Lola Willis son [sic Dau] Apr 1882 18  S  PA MD DE

Harry Willis son  Oct 1885 14  S  PA MD DE

[2] Married 28 Jul 1817 per Maryland Compiled Marriages, 1655 – 1850, at Ancestry.com

[3] James Kilgore appears in Cecil County in the 1820 Census at age 45+ with two women. One age 45+ is obviously his wife Isabella. The other woman is age 16-26, the correct age for Rebecca. However, there is no entry for people who could be her husband and/or her child. The indicated woman is likely Rebecca’s younger sister.

[4] 1830 Census Cecil County, Maryland, District 2, John Willis (2 1 – – – 1 – – – – – – –  – 1 – – 1 – – – – – -) https://www.ancestry.com. The household also contains a second female age 30 to 40. We can reasonably assume she is an adult relative of John or Rebecca. She may have been the single female aged 16-26 listed with James Kilgore in 1820, possibly a younger sister of Rebecca.

[5] 1840 Census Cecil County, Maryland, District 2, John Willis (1 2 1 2 – – 1 – – – – – – 1 – 1 1 – 1 – – – – – – ) https://www.ancestry.com. The ages in the census fit a perfect progression from the 1830 census, that is: John and Rebecca are 40-50; two elder sons are 15-20; a remaining elder daughter is 15-20; the third son and a younger daughter are 10-15; two new sons are 5-10; and the youngest daughter is under 5. The household includes four enslaved persons.

[6] 1850 Census Cecil County, Maryland, District 3, https://www.ancestry.com

John Willis M 53 Farmer  DE $1,200 real property

Rebecca       F 54                    MD

George        M 19 Farmer   MD

Amos           M 15 Farmer  MD

Andrew J.   M 13                   MD

Rachel R.    F  10                    MD”

[7] No enslaved persons are associated with the household in 1850. The separate Slave Schedule for 1850 shows no Willis as an owner of an enslaved person. Deed records do not record any manumissions.

[8] 1860 Census Cecil County, Maryland, District 4, https://www.ancestry.com

James Willis M 40 Carpenter MD $,1500 real property $800 personal

Mary               F  30                 MD

Joseph            M  13                MD

Sarah              F  11                 MD

Kate                F   9                  MD

Clara               F    7                  MD

Georgeanna F   4                   MD

Mary               F   1                   MD

1860 Census Cecil County, Maryland, District 4, https://www.ancestry.com 

John T. Wiles (Willis) M 33 MD Carpenter $500 real property, $100 personal

Catherine               F 28         MD

Mary                         F 7            MD

Louisa                      F 4            MD

[9] Cecil County, Maryland Deed Book JS 23:357, “James Kilgore, Esq., of North Milford Hundred, Cecil County, Maryland” sold to “John Willis, Carpenter, of the same hundred, county, and state.” The deed is signed by James Kilgore and his wife Isabella is named as having been privately questioned regarding her approval of the sale. The land was part of a 378-acre tract called Wallace’s Scrawl originally patented in 1737 to Matthew Wallace It was resurveyed and patented again in 1791 at 496 acres to Andrew Wallace. MSA S1194-1063 and S1194-1062, respectively.

[10] Cecil County, Maryland Will Book 5:213, Will signed by Rebekah Kilgore dated 3 Jun 1785, probated 25 Oct 1788, gave 5 shillings each to five sons and three daughters. Daughter Elizabeth Alexander received all Rebekah’s wearing apparel. Son James Kilgore received the family plantation and the remainder of the personal estate.

[11] Cecil County, Maryland Deed Book JS 25:39, on 31 Mar 1827 Kilgore sold 50+ acres to Samuel Burnite for $3.00

[12] Cecil County, Maryland Deed Book HHM 7:304, The deed recites that the 20 acres descended to James Kilgore by will and that Kilgore sold it to Willis, and that the land is part of a tract called “Wallace’s Scrawl.”

[13] Maryland Probate and Guardianship Files, 1796-1940, https://www.familysearch.org

[14] James later sold the land, subject to the existing mortgage, for a tidy profit.

[15] The Midland Journal, Rising Sun, Maryland, 5 Feb 1886, Friday, p. 5. At www.newspapers.com. Mrs. Rebecca Willis widow of the late John Willis died at the residence of he son-in-law John T. Steele on Saturday, the 9th instant (9 Jan 1886) in the 91st year of her age. Her remains were interred at Head of Christiana Cemetery on the Tuesday following (12 Jan 1886).

[16] Daniel Willis married Hannah Ann Sutton on 15 Apr 1847 in Cecil County. They appear in the 1850 census living next door to James Willis. Hannah likely predeceased Daniel because he registered in 1863 for the Civil War draft as a single man at age 41, occupation carpenter. Daniel appears in the 1970 census in a boarding house as a single man, age 45, occupation carpenter. If he had children, he likely would have resided with one of them.

WILLIS or WILLEY – A Critical Misread

Occasionally, we each run into difficulty interpreting handwriting in old documents. It comes with the territory. Modern genealogists are not the only ones affected by the problem. Decades ago, clerks who hand copied original documents ran into the same issue. Worse, publishers then printed typeset versions of those recopied texts (or abstracts of them). Once a misinterpreted word gets into print, it becomes accepted wisdom and resistant to change.

The situation is particularly vexing when the misinterpreted word is a person’s name. Willis and Willey provide a good example. Families of each surname lived close to each other in early Dorchester County, Maryland. The handwritten name Willis in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries often ended with a downward swooping tail on the “s,” which made it look like a “y.” [1]

The following illustrates the script anomaly. Parties to legal documents of the era often took an oath on the “Holy Evangels of Almighty God,” meaning the Christian Gospels. Here is the way that phrase appears in a Dorchester County Will Book:

 

There is no discernable difference in the “y” at the end of the words Holy and Almighty and what is supposed to be an “s” at the end of Evangels. The scribe who recopied this deed into a nicely readable volume misread a long-tailed “s” in the original, writing it as a “y.”

No harm done. We know there is no such word as “Evangely,” so we can just move on … maybe tsk, tsk-ing under our breath. But what of the poor Willis and Willey families? A similar misread could easily convert a Willis into a Willey, or vice versa. In fact, an authoritative source of marriages in early Maryland states that Francis Insley married Keziah Willey on 27 Oct 1785 in Dorchester County.[2] However, a land sale by that couple twenty years later provides evidence that the bride’s name was actually Keziah Willis, not Willey.

In 1805, the Insleys’s sold 60 acres of land called “Addition to Adventure.”[3] The Willis family had owned that parcel for four decades, dating back to Richard Willis’s purchase in 1764.[4] The 1805 Insley deed recites that Benedict Meekins and his wife Mary [nee Willis] had sold the land to Andrew Willis, who devised it to his son Andrew. The deed does not state how Francis Insley and his wife Keziah got title to the land from the younger Andrew, and there are no other deeds that explain their ownership.

Explaining the Insley’s ownership is simple, however, if Keziah’s maiden name were Willis rather than Willey. Keziah was one of four children of the elder Andrew Willis and his wife Sarah.[5] The elder Andrew willed the land to his son Andrew, Jr. The younger Andrew subsequently died without a will and without children some time after 1796. His estate therefore passed to his heirs as defined under the Maryland laws of intestate descent and distribution, i.e., his siblings and the children of any already deceased siblings.

Keziah Willis Insley and her husband possessed the land in 1805 because she was Andrew’s only surviving sibling, and her brother George and sister Mary had each died without surviving children. Dorchester records make no mention in the relevant time frame of either George or Mary — no marriage, deed, death, or migration information. Their absence from the record supports the theory that they both died young and without issue.

The circumstantial evidence is sufficient to conclude that 1) a transcriber erroneously interpreted Keziah’s last name in the marriage record, 2) that Francis Insley married Keziah Willis in 1785, and 3) she was a party to the sale of Willis family land twenty years later.

The critical misinterpretation of Keziah Willis’s name will never be corrected in most published sources, but some of us will know the truth.

 

[1]Lower case “i” and “e” are also hard to distinguish.

[2]Palmer, Katherine H., Dorchester County, Maryland: Marriage License Records, 1780-1855, 1960.

[3]McAllister, James A., Jr., Abstracts from the Land Records of Dorchester County, Maryland, Volume 42 (Liber HD No. 21), Cambridge, Maryland, 21 HD 569

[4]McAllister, Abstracts, Volume 15 (Liber Old No. 19), Cambridge, Maryland, 1964, 19 Old 163

[5]Old Trinity Church records show that the elder Andrew Willis and his wife Sarah baptized three children — Andrew, Keziah, and George — between 1768 and 1775. The couple also had a fourth child, Mary.

Revised – A Surprising Willis – Quaker Connection

Subsequent to the original posting of this article, significant new information came to my attention requiring a substantial rewrite. I have deleted the original and post this revised version in order to clear the record of incorrect information. 

During the 18thand 19thcenturies, several Willis families on the Eastern Shore of Maryland were Quakers. I have long believed that the John Willis family who lived on land called Wantage in Dorchester County was not one of them.[1]The evidence I had found to date supported that conclusion.

For example, Wantage John’s eldest son John, Jr. lived on Marshy Creek in what became Caroline County. Several Quaker Meetings and the Anglican St. Mary’s White Chapel Parish served the region. The Anglican records do not survive, so whether John Jr.’s family attended there is lost to history. On the other hand, numerous Quaker Meeting records of the period exist. John, Jr.’s family does not appear in any of them. Apparently, the family was not Quaker.

The record for Wantage John’s son Andrew is more straightforward. Andrew lived in Dorchester County. Three of his four sons appear in the records of Old Trinity Church near Church Creek at the baptism of several children between 1754 and 1775.[2]No Quaker record names any of these people. This family was clearly Anglican and not Quaker.

The elder John had two other sons, Thomas and William. Thomas lived adjacent John Jr. on Marshy Creek. William inherited Wantage from his father and lived there until moving close to his wife’s family on Hodson’s/Hudson’s Creek in the Neck Region of Dorchester County. Neither of these sons appears in any religious record, Anglican or otherwise. Therefore, no evidence suggests a connection to Quakerism for anyone in the Wantage John family for the first couple of generations. And, there is evidence that one family group was Anglican.

Beyond these first generations, descendants of John of Wantage and related families were prominent in Methodism. Barratt’s Chapel in neighboring Kent County, Delaware was the birthplace of Methodism in America.[3]Lydia Barratt, granddaughter of Philip Barratt who built the chapel in 1780 is the great grandmother of Henry Fisher Willis, a direct descendant of Wantage John. Henry was a significant supporter of the Bethesda Methodist Church in Preston, Caroline County, Maryland, with a stained glass window honoring his service in the late 1800s. Henry’s father Zachariah Willis was a trustee of the Methodist Church whose twin brother Foster gave land for a church in 1831.[4]

I concluded from this data it highly unlikely that any of Wantage John’s descendants belonged to the Society of Friends. In fact, I used membership in the Society as a screening tool to eliminate various Willis lineages as being related to John of Wantage. For example, there is a Quaker Willis line in eastern Dorchester County and in the Federalsburg region of Caroline County.[5]Another Willis line in Talbot and Caroline County attended the Tuckahoe Monthly Meeting. Indeed, many researchers have conflated a Richard Willis in that line, who married Margaret Cox, with a Richard Willis in Wantage John’s line. A third line of Willises who lived in Kent County, Maryland were also Quaker. None of these families are related to John Willis of Wantage at least on this side of the pond.

With a high level of confidence in the religious affiliation of the John Willis family, or at least its lack of affiliation with the Quakers, imagine my surprise when I came across the following entries reportedly from the birth records of the Wilmington Monthly Meeting, New Castle, Delaware.[6]Oops:

  • Richard Willis 24 of 1 mo 1794    Son of Richard Willis and Britanna his wife
  • Ann Willis 2 of 6 mo 1799      Daughter of Do & Do
  • Senah Willis 19 of 4 mo 1802    Son of Do & Do
  • Zachariah Willis and Foster Willis     27 of 12 mo 1804   Sons of Do & Do
  • Peter Willis 21 of 4 mo 1811    Son of Do & Do

The same document contains the following burial records:

  • Richard Willis 27 of 5 mo 1820    in 26thyear
  • Richard Willis 2 mo 14 1823        63rd
  • Britanna Willis 1 mo 2 1826          in the 59th

The listed parents Richard Willis and Britanna (Britannia Goutee) are well known to me, but I had no inkling they were Quakers. Richard, born 8 Aug 1759, is the son of Richard Willis, died 1764, and the great grandson of John of Wantage.  Richard and Britannia, born about 1765, married in Caroline County on 22 Jan 1788.[7]She is descended from John Gootee and Margaret Besson/Beeson, who came to the colony from France with Margaret’s father and became naturalized citizens in 1671.[8]So, have I been wrong all along about this Willis line and Quakerism?

Well, I don’t know. Certainly, I was wrong about Richard and Britannia, however, these seem to be the only Quaker records online for the family … no marriages, no grandchildren’s births, no deaths recorded after Britannia’s in 1826.

This particular record does reveal some other information. First, the record is handwritten … an Index plus a section of Births and one of Burials. However, the cover page is typewritten, stating that it is from the Wilmington Monthly Meeting.[9]An examination of the contents reveals, however, that the cover page is incorrect. The record is actually from the Northwest Fork Meeting in Federalsburg based on the following. For one thing, the record noted that two of the listed people were “Elders in the NW Fork Monthly Meeting.” Additionally, surnames in the record, such as, Charles, Dawson, Kelley, Leverton, Noble, and Wright, are of Quaker families known to have lived near the Northwest Fork of the Nanticoke River. Finally, the record indicates the residence of a few of the listed persons. The record mentions only three counties: Caroline and Dorchester, Maryland, and Sussex, Delaware. Federalsburg is located at the intersection of those counties. Clearly, the record is from that Meeting and not Wilmington.

The second thing apparent from this register is that it is a copy and not the original register. The handwriting is identical throughout, both in the index and the birth and death entries. Had the entries been made at the times the events occurred from 1790 to 1828, the person making the entries surely would have changed from time to time. Therefore, the handwriting would have varied. Furthermore, many entries relating to a single family are grouped together regardless of date. For example, all the Willis birth entries are on a single page.[10]The same is true of some other families. One would expect the original register to be in chronological order with the family names mixed together. Apparently, a clerk prepared a copy of the original register, reorganized and indexed it. Likely, this document was intended for the files of a Quarterly or Yearly Meeting to which the Northwest Fork Meeting was subordinate. That would have been the Southern Quarterly and the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting during the years in question.[11]

One additional Quaker reference to this family is Kenneth Carroll’s Quakerism on the Eastern Shore.That source lists under the Northwest Fork Monthly Meeting the birth of Ann Willis, daughter of Richard and Britannia and the death of Ann Willis “daughter of Richard.”[12]If this is the same Ann, she died unmarried at age 35. Interestingly, Carroll’s work does not include the other data found in the mislabeled Northwest Fork record. Obviously, he did not have access to that register.

In conclusion, it is clear that Richard and Britannia Willis affiliated with the Quakers. Apparently, the Friend’s connection ended with Ann’s death. Possibly she was the motivating factor for the family’s involvement in the sect.

_____________________

[1]John Willis, died 1712, patented a 50-acre tract named Wantage in Dorchester County in 1702.

[2]Palmer, Katherine H., transcribed Baptism Record, Old Trinity Protestant Episcopal Church, Church Creek, MD, (Cambridge, MD), 19, baptisms of son Richard’s children Mary (1754), John (1755), Elizabeth (1758) and Richard (1761); son John’s child Jarvis (1758); son Andrew’s children Keziah (1770) and George (1775).

[3]See www.barrattschapel.org

[4]Caroline County, MD Land Records, Liber JR-R, Folio 115, 29 Oct 1831 deed for ½ acre from Foster Willis and Wife Ann to trustees of the Methodist Church, proved 31 Jan 1832.

[5]Actually, this family were Nicholites, or New Quakers, until that sect reunited with the Quakers in 1798. See Carroll, Kenneth Lane, Joseph Nichols and the Nicholites: A Look at the “New Quakers” of Maryland, Delaware, North and South Carolina (Easton, Maryland: The Easton Publishing Company, 1962), 78, Births of the children of Andrew and Sarah Willis: Andrew, 3 Nov 1774; Mary, 5 Dec 1770; Rhoda, 18 May 1766; Roger, 14 May 1768; and Shadrick, 15 May 1772. Births of children of Thomas and Sina Willis: Anne, 5 Dec 1770; Elic, 1 Feb 1785; Jesse, 15 Feb 1773; Joshua, 15 Dec 1774; Milby, & Aug 1768; Milley, 3 Feb 1784; Thomas, 28 Oct 1776; and William 20 Sep 1771.

[6]Ancestry.com, U.S., Quaker Meeting Records, 1681-1935: Births & Deaths, 1790-1828, Wilmington Monthly Meeting, New Castle, Delaware. Birth records are all at p. 19; Burial records at pp. 7, 8, and 10, respectively.

[7]Cranor, Henry Downes, Marriage Licenses of Caroline County, Maryland, 1744-1815(Philadelphia: Henry Downes Cranor, 1904), 18.

[8]Browne, William Hand, Archives of Maryland v.2, Proceedings and Acts of the General Assembly of Maryland, April 1666 – June 1676(Baltimore: Maryland Historical Society, 1884), 270, Naturalization of John Gootee and Margarett Gootee his wife of Dorchester County and Stephen Besson of Dorchester County all born in the Kingdom of France. Act read as being passed by the Assembly at 19 Apr 1671 closing of the session on the General Assembly, which began 27 Mar 1671 in St. Mary’s County.

[9]The typewritten text on the cover page reads, “II Department of Friends’ Records, 302 Arch Street, Phila., PA, Wilmington Monthly Meeting, Del., Births and Deaths, 1790-1828, Births 22 pp.; Deaths 11 pp.; Index 32 pp.”

[10]This record, however, does not include the couple’s two eldest daughters, Rebecca, born 9 Nov 1788, and Dorcas, born between 1790 and 1793.

[11]Jacobsen, Phebe R., Quaker Records in Maryland(Annapolis: The Hall of Records Commission, State of Maryland, 1966), 78, In 1800, by permission of the Southern Quarterly, a Monthly Meeting was established at Northwest Fork, consisting of Marshy Creek [Note: later named Snow Hill and then Preston], Centre, and Northwest Fork Preparative Meetings … When the Separation occurred within the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting in 1827, the Southern Quarterly Meeting was simply dissolved by the Orthodox.”

[12]  Carroll, Kenneth Lane, Quakerism on the Eastern Shore(Baltimore: The Maryland Historical Society, Garamond/Pridemark Press, 1970) 255, Ann Willis daughter of Richard and Britana [sic] born 19 Apr 1799; 260, Ann Willis daughter of Richard died 22 Sep 1834.