Bear That In Mind, Part Two

My home is in the Granite area of Baltimore County. I have been here nearly thirty eight years.
Some people have not heard of it so I just tell them I am sort of southwest of Randallstown, very near the county line at the Patapsco River.

There is a road closure less than two miles from my house. Part of a retaining wall supporting a small section of Woodstock Road was washed away in the same storm that sent a devastating flood through Ellicott City in July. One detour route to Howard County has me traveling along Marriottsville road, crossing the Patapsco River further west. It is a rural and winding way through a quarry and past a gun club firing range. A section of the Patapsco River State Park, McKeldin area, is accessed from this road. There is a small but genuine rapid on the river here, maybe the only one, that is easy to get to.

Today's bear in mind thought has to do with a child of ancestors William Chew and Sidney Wynne. Daughter Ann, my 7th great grandmother, married a fellow by the name of Christopher Randall. Christopher and his brother Thomas apparently operated a tavern on what was then known as the Liberty turnpike, the beginnings of Randallstown, sometime in the early 1700s. Land deeds online indicate that he must have been prosperous since he acquired other parcels of land. One of special interest is "Good Fellowship", a land grant from Lord Baltimore, its patent even mentioning the falls of the Patapsco as a reference point in the survey. Has me wondering if the falls are the present day  rapids mentioned above. And if I may have hiked in his woods.

Woodstock is just across the bridge from Granite where there is a lovely old farm called Mount Pleasant, the home of "Patuxent Ranger" Thomas Browne and his descendants. It is now the Howard County Conservancy, an environmental education center. I have tramped through the farmland there. Acreage from "Good Fellowship" became part of Mount Pleasant. And I have learned how. Christopher's son Aquila was willed this land. Aquila married Margaret Browne, daughter of Thomas.

Unbelievable.
It seems I am spun from a spider's web of ancestral family relationships.
And, unbeknownst to me until just now, I returned to one of the cobwebs decades ago.

Bear That In Mind, Part One

Sometimes I wonder why my brain just doesn't implode. There are facts upon facts stored in there and even more useless trivia. It's a great day when I have that 'why did I walk in here' moment and can actually remember. And yet, I still enjoy learning even more new facts.

In the previous post I mentioned the phrase, bear that in mind. I first heard this used by Micky Nolan. Micky was our wonderful bus driver and tour guide during a visit to Ireland fifteen years ago. It was reminder to hang onto a nugget of information that would be explained later in his most Irish way. My knowledge of fairy trees is forever burned in my brain because of Micky.

I had also mentioned the land grant, Chews Resolution, the site of Avoca House, built by Arthur Pue. Online genealogy tells me that Arthur's mother was Mary Dorsey, the daughter of Caleb Dorsey, of Belmont. Having a prominent Howard County name, Dorsey, guaranteed success in finding these family members of old. So, we have a link between Avoca and Belmont.
Somewhere along the way, Caleb Dorsey became owner of Chews Resolution. When, why and how?

Caleb's son, Edward Dorsey, was married to Henrietta Maria Chew great great granddaughter of Colonel Samuel Chew, my 9th great grand papa, of Anne Arundel County fame. (More free facts from the internet genealogy.) Did Caleb buy it as a wedding gift for his son? Who knows?

What I do know now is that the builder of Avoca, Arthur, is possibly a cousin, somewhere between 3rd to 8th with probably just as many times removed, far away enough to make my head hurt.

And, I think I can safely say that Chews Resolution likely did stay in the family, or at least the cousin's family, if in a roundabout way.

More next time.

Don't call me Your Highness?

Because of the huge lapse of time in visiting my blogger, I had found myself in a state of total confusion. I had completely forgotten about starting fresh with a new blogspot name and everything. And now, nearly three years to the exact day of the new beginning, I think I have arrived at some sort of sense of what I am doing here. Thoughts on anything will be the theme, I think.

Last month, my sisters and I visited the Howard County decorator show house, Avoca, in the Ellicott City area. I did my homework and read about the house proir to seeing it and my interest was piqued. The house is sited on what was originally a 1695 land grant named Chews Resolution and Chews Vineyard. I have a Chew ancestor, my 9th great grandfather named Samuel.
Was this the family estate?

As it turned out, it wasn't his house since it was built in 1802. Papa Sam was born about 1630. I don't know if he ever lived in the area, known then as Elk Ridge. He apparently was a person of prominence in Anne Arundel County. Maidstone in present day Calvert County was his family seat. (The property in the 1695 land grant apparently changed hands and I believe it became part of Belmont, a lovely estate near Elkridge, MD, built by Caleb Dorsey. Bear this in mind.)

This tidbit of information sent me looking online for Papa Sam and his family. His father John was born in England and was a settler in the Jamestown colony. Samuel and his wife Ann Ayres of Virginia had eleven children and their son William was my 8th great grandfather. William was married to Sidney Wynne. And here it gets very interesting. Sidney was born in Wales. Her father was Thomas Wynne, personal physician to William Penn and like him, a Quaker. William and Sidney had eight children and their daughter Anne is my 7th great grandmother. (Bear this in mind, too.)

Thomas Wynne was apparently a direct lineal descendant of a prince of Wales with an unpronounceable name for my English tongue. In my blood flows the the DNA of royalty. No need to bow lower than the minute speck my DNA requires. I share this royal status with many millions of others, I'm sure.