Marylandwas established with religious freedom for Catholics. The colonial economy was based on tobacco cultivated by Africans who had been enslaved.
Phillisyanna (Phizanna) Maxwell Smithers married Richard Smithers (Smethers, Smither, Smiths, Smothers) on August 18, 1709 in Saint Georges, Baltimore County, Maryland. Richard was born about 1672 in Kent County, Maryland.
Richard had been married before to Blanche (Blanch) Wells. They married on February 14, 1700 in St. George's Parish, Maryland. She was the daughter of Colonel George Wells and Blanch Goldsmith (Gouldsmith) and was born about 1674 in Septusia, Baltimore County, Maryland.
Richard and Blanche's children probably included:
Blanch Smithers (1702),
John Smithers (1704), and
George Smithers (1708 indentured in 1715 to his grandfather, Colonel George Wells, until age 21- Smethers Society Gazette).
Richard's wife, Blanch died about 1708.
Richard and Blanche's children probably included:
Mary Smithers (October 15, 1710).
After Phillisyanna died, Richard married Mary Phillips before 1718. She was the daughter of James Phillips and was born about 1675 in Kent County, Maryland. She was the widow of John Carvil (Carville) of Kent County, Maryland.
In 1724 Richard was summoned for contempt of court for not delivering estate of son, John, to court.
Baltimore County, Maryland was founded in 1659 and included most of northeastern Maryland. The original county included parts of Cecil, Frederick, Harford, Carroll, and Baltimore Counties.
Maryland Calendar of Wills
Smothers, Richard,
Kent County,
23 December, 1730, 18th May 1731.
To wife Mary and hrs., lands,
goods, etc., which she had a right to as the relict (widow), of John
Carvile, or by any other way.
Testator ratifies a deed made by testator and sd. wife to Mrs. Martha Paca 17th august 1723 sd. deed being made in trust
to sd. Paca for payment of sd. Carvill's debts, as well as the several
portions of his children.
To dau. Blanch, all things brought over the bay;
sd. dau. to take care of wife.
To John Carvill, bro James, Parker Hall,
Peter Leaster and son John, personality.
Test: William Graves, Phebe
Carvill..
Testis (Test) is latin for witness. Testes is the plural.
Slavery is an immoral system of forced labor where people are treated as property to be bought and sold. It was legal in the American Colonies and the United States until the Civil War.
Maryland Calendar of Wills: Volume 8
Smithers, Mary, widow,
Kent Co.,
28th Feb., 1737; 1st Mch., 1738.
To son John Carvill, personalty.
To dau. Aberilla Hall, certain personalty and the use of a certain negro as long as her bro. John Carvill thinks fit, then to be given to grandson John Hall.
To daus. Susanna Johnson, Phoebe Carvile and Blanch Hall, grandsons John Carvile, Edward Hall and Richard Johnson, and grand-daus. Mary Johnson and Martha Hall, personalty, some of which des. as in poss. of Mr. Hanbury.
To son and dau. John and Phoebe Carvile, certain personalty on the Island
and present dwelling plantation, shd. sd. dau. Phoebe marry without consent
of her Aunt Paca and during the life of her sd. aunt, she is to have no part
of afore-mentioned bequests except the negro girl.
Son John Carvile ex. and residuary legatee.
Test: William Harris, Margaret Groome (Groom), Mary Tilden. 22. 49.
Personal property can be called personalty (personality), goods, chattels, articles, or movable property. It includes both animate or inanimate property.
Rent rolls were lists of landowners showing whether they had paid their annual quit-rents to the Crown. A quick-rent was a feudal remnant and was paid by a freeholder in lieu of services that might otherwise have been required.
from The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, Volume 26 edited by Philip Alexander Bruce, William Glover Stanard
Robert Gibson died June, 1704. His will dated June 4 and proved June 12, 1704, makes mention of no issue, but leaves to his sister Sarah Beall [Bale] certain land on Rumley [Romney] Creek, and 100 acres of Gibson's Park to Joseph Compton and his heirs. He makes his wife his executrix and leaves to her and his heirs the residue of his estate (Annap. Wills, 3; 236). That Robert Gibson left no children seems certain.
His widow Mary married soon after his death, George Wells, Jr., the son of Col. George Wells of Baltimore County and his wife Blanche Goldsmith, the eldest daughter of Major Samuel Goldsmith of the same county. The Baltimore County Rent Roll, 1705-1720 (Md. Hist. Soc. MSS.) shows the tracts Goldsmith's Rest and Goldsmith's Enlargement as then "in the possession of" George Wells. The administration account of the estate of Robert Gibson was recorded July 6, 1708, by George Wells, gent, and Mary his wife the executrix of Robert Gibson (Balto. Adm. Accts., 2; 121-2). Shortly afterwards GeorgeWells and Mary his wife convey to Aquilla Paca, Gibson's Park, 800 acres on Bush River, the deed reciting that this tract was surveyed in 1683 for Miles Gibson, who dying intestate, the land descended to his son and heir at law Robert, who devised it by will to his wife Mary (Balto. Deeds TR: no A; 129).
Mary Goldsmith married thirdly, Nov. 1727, William Marshall of Baltimore County, a native of England. John Hall, Esq, aged 70 years, deposes in regard to the bounds of the tract Goldsmith's Rest, that "about the year 1693 he intermarried with Martha Goldsmith, the mother of the petitioner, Mary Marshall, widow" (Balto. Co. Court Proc. H. W. S. No. 3: 23). An administration account upon Wells' estate was filed Aug. 4, 1719, by William Marshall and Mary, his wife, administratrix (Balto. Adm. Accts. 1; 64). William Marshall's will dated Dec. 15, 1720, and proved May 6, 1721, mentions his wife Mary, his mother Ann, brothers Joseph and Charles and sister Ann, but refers to no children (Balto. Wills 1; 510). Mary Goldsmith outlived her last husband about twenty-eight years. Her will dated Dec. 3, 1746, and proved Apr. 8, 1749, makes bequest to her son-in-law John Hall, his daughter Susannah and his brother Aquilla Hall (idem 1; 365). It would appear from the above evidence that Mary Goldsmith was survived by only one child, a daughter, who married John Hall and left a daughter Susannah. The St. George's, Spesutia, Register shows the birth of Susanna Marshall, the daughter of Mrs. Mary Marshall, who appears to have been a posthumous child, and the marriage June 2, 1742, of John Hall and Susanna Marshall.
A gentleman had no title, but descended from an aristocratic family, was of the landed gentry, and had a coat of arms.
Maryland State Archives, Acts 569
Mary Smithers and Martha Paca claimed the said lands so devised by Anthony
Philips as also the lands given them by the said act as their own
and had
committed great waste and destruction thereon
and whereas it appears to this
assembly that a citation issued out of the court of the commissary general
of this province against the said Martha Paca and Mary Smithers to answer
such questions as should be asked them concerning the said will of James
Philips the elder
upon the return of which citation the said Mary Smithers
appeared and deposed that she knew of the said will that the same was in her
possession and which she then produced to the comissary general.
And that
she found the same with part of the Preamble torn off among some old papers
belonging to Aquilla Paca who was the husband of the said Martha.
At the
nstance and for the benefit of whom and the said Mary Smithers, the said act
was obtained. But that she the said Mary Smithers knew not how the said will
came here
and whereas it also appears to this present assembly that the will
was proved the 4th day of June, Sixteen hundred and eighty nine, before
Henry Johnson, then specially appointed for that purpose
and which said will
was then ordered by the commissary general to be recorded and now remains on
record by which the inheritance of the aforementioned lands appear to
descend in a manner different from that directed.
