Author Archives: Professor Maddox

Early parishes of Stafford County, Virginia

21 Sunday Feb 2016

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When trying to understand early Stafford County, Virginia, land and parish records, it’s helpful to understand local parish name changes over time. Here’s a chronology:

Circa 1653-1680: Potomac Parish

Circa 1664-1680: Upper Parish (north) and Lower Parish (south)

Circa 1680-1702: Stafford Parish

1702-1776: St. Paul’s Parish (north)

1702-1785: Overwharton Parish (south)

1731: Hamilton Parish formed from land that transferred from Stafford Co to Prince William Co when Prince William Co formed

1776: Brunswick Parish formed in King George Co from Hanover Parish in 1732. A part was added to Stafford Co, when its boundary with King George was altered in 1776.

Dr. Edward Maddox bequeathed about 500 acres to his local Stafford Parish minister (Rev. Waugh) in 1694. This land was along the Passapatanzy Creek, just south of Marlborough Town.  The acreage would form the Overwharton Parish glebe.

Source: http://vagenweb.org/parishes.htm

Cornelius Maddox likely arrived in Maryland before 1680

21 Sunday Feb 2016

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Cornelius Maddox is regularly described by genealogists as having arrived in Maryland in 1680, based on a 9 July 1680 claim made by the merchant John Reddich/Redich/Reddick for transporting Cornelius and 19 other “transportees” (Maryland Patents Liber WC2, Folio 199, 9 July 1680).  However, John Reddich’s claim is likely an aggregation of these 20 transportees’ obligations.  These 20 transportees almost certainly did not arrive together on 9 July 1680.  Instead, the transportees probably arrived in the years before 1680, based on typical claim patterns at the time (“The Five George Masons: Patriots and Planters of Virginia and Maryland.”  Copeland, Pamela and MacMaster, Richard.  University Press of Virginia: Charlottesville, 1975. pp. 10&23.).

John Reddich was exercising the Colonial headright system, which rewarded sponsors of immigrants’ travel into the Colonies by providing 50 acres for each transportee’s arrival.  By claiming 20 headrights, including his own name, Reddich would have earned a 1,000 acre land grant from the Maryland Calverts.

The year 1680 would have been one of the worst times to arrive in the Maryland Colony.  The Colony was dealing with Catholic-Protestant upheaval, Indian territorial fights, and – most important for a merchant like Cornelius – a tobacco market recession.

Life after the Revolution

22 Tuesday Dec 2015

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The Maryland Society of Sons of the American Revolution have provided the Maryland General Assembly Assessment Record for Charles County, 1783 (and other years), providing insights into the conditions of the Maddoxes’ life at the time… http://www.mdssar.org/sites/default/files/archives/1783taxlists/Charles_Co_MD1783OPT.pdf.  Importantly, all of these Maddox sites were listed in the Durham Parish section of the tax list, meaning that the Maddoxes on this list probaby would have attended the Durham Parish church called Christ Church or Ironsides).

Benjamin Maddox is listed on p. 147 as owner of Posey’s Chance, 100 acres valued at 50 (pounds?), with a small dwelling house, corn house and meal house on site. (Page ref: msa_s1161_scm871-0561)

Leonard Maddox is listed on p. 144 as owner of Horn Fair, 150 acres valued at 75, with small dwelling house on site.

Polly Maddox is listed on p. 144 as owner of Hornfair “pt” (probably the land called Hornfair Addition in other documents), 30 acres valued at 15, in “poor forrest” with a small house on site.

John Maddox is listed on p. 147 as owner of Planters Delight and Renewment, with various houses, and on p. 148 as owner of Reserve.  He seems to have been doing the best of the lot.

Rhody Maddox is listed on p. 143 as owner of Fo-nd Hill, 33 acres, very poor quality, and on p. 140 as owner of Blue Plains “pt”, 88 acres, very poor quality with small dwelling house.

Edward Maddox is listed on p. 140 as owner of Blue Plains “pt”, 179 acres with a “sorry” dwelling and kitchen, tobacco house and corn house.

General Washington, General Smallwood, Daniel St Thomas Jennifer, and George Mason owned land in the same area.

Click to access Charles_Co_MD1783OPT.pdf

Click to access Charles_Co_MD1782OPT.pdf

Edward Maddoxes in Colonial Virginia

29 Sunday Nov 2015

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In addition to our Edward Maddox, a few other Edward Maddoxes appear in Colonial-era documents, potentially conflating the identity of our Edward.  They deserve more research:

One Maddox genealogist claimed about 10 years ago that Edward Maddox’s father was Thomas Maddox (Lord Scethrog), who arrived in Jamestown in 1620 and died in 1623.  The link to this Lord Scethrog would bring us back to the 7th century in Wales.  His claim has proliferated on ancestry.com and other sites, and by now has become a standard claim among other family researchers.  It is true that a Thomas Maddox died in the Jamestown area in 1623, but he is not described as a lord or by any other titles, and nobody has yet proven our Edward’s link to this Thomas.  (Source: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~maddoxetc/Thomas.html)

The same genealogist claims that Edward Maddox is first found in the Virginia Colony “in 1642 Charles City Co., VA, with an unknown amount of acreage next to Joseph Royall’s 600 acres in West Sherley/Shirley Hundred on James River to Dickinans Creek. … [Source, Land Patent to Joseph Royall, August 20, 1642, Land Office Patents No. 1, 1623-1643, pg. 790].”  The genealogist does not explain why this might be our Edward.  Is it possible that our Edward made an initial effort in Virginia, returned to England in the 1650s where we know he had children, and then came back to Maryland in 1668?  (Source: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~maddoxetc/Edward.html)

An Edward Maddox is listed as a servant “3 tymes” to Lawrence Dameron on 340 acres “butting southeast upon the head of Tanx Yeococomico River,” possibly in circa 1652, on page 258 of Nell Marion Nugent’s Cavaliers and Pioneers: Abstracts of Virginia Land Patents and Grants 1623-1666. Vol. I (1934; reprint, Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 1991).  It’s unclear who this Edward is or what “3 tymes” means.

The genealogist claiming that Edward’s father is Thomas also claims that Edward Maddox owned land in Jamaica in 1670, according to a census available at http://genealogy-quest.com/census-records/1670-st-thomas-parish-jamaica-census/.  However, this was not a list of land owners – it was a census of permanent residents in Jamaica with their families.  Wouldn’t residence in Jamaica be impossible for someone already living in Maryland, which we have proven?

Finally, the records of Munslow Parish in Shropshire, England, list an Edward Maddox, buried on 10 October 1657, and an Alice Maddox, widow, buried on 8 February 1662. This is the same parish where our Edward’s children were baptized, and where he was married to two wives.  Could this Edward (d. 1657) be the father of our Edward?

Finally… Edward is listed as the father of Cornelius in Munslow Parish records, 1651

27 Tuesday Oct 2015

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We’ve worked for years to connect our known ancestor Cornelius Maddox (d. 1705) to his purported father, Dr. Edward Maddox (d. 1694). Connecting Cornelius to his father promises to bring us to the beginning of the line of American Maddoxes, at long last. Now we have what we think undeniably proves Edward’s paternity of Cornelius.

After much searching, we happily discovered the Munslow Parish record book – a series of registers from a small and ancient Anglican parish in Shropshire, England. Page 93, covering parish transactions for the year 1651, clearly lists Cornelius Maddox’s baptism on 4 October 1651, along with his father Edward Maddox and his mother Ellinor Maddox. The Munslow Parish record book is online at http://www.melocki.org.uk/salop/Munslow.html.

We’re happy to have found Cornelius with his parents – finally – but just as importantly the same record book lists the baptisms of a brother Edward and a sister Alice. These two names confirm that the Cornelius in the record is our Cornelius because Edward (Cornelius’ father) would later list Alice in a will and list his son Edward’s widow Amey/Anne in a will in Stafford County, Virginia, in 1694. Also, according to the Munslow records, the younger Edward was baptized on 8 April 1648, a date that reconciles with the birth year that he would apply to himself in two Charles County, Maryland, documents decades later.

Doctor Maddox and the short moment of Marlborough Town

20 Thursday Aug 2015

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Poring over documents related to Edward Maddox, presumed father of Cornelius Maddox, I stumbled upon a circa-1691 survey map of Marlborough Town, which lay on a spit of land surrounded by the Potomac River, Potomac Creek and Accokeek Creek in Stafford County, Virginia.  It was intended by the aristocratic colonist William Fitzhugh to be a major port town for Virginia, but the local tobacco planters saw the plan as a British government effort to centralize trade and enforce taxation.  Its original developers, including Doctor Edward Maddox and the rest of his fellow Stafford justices, managed to initiate the plans and start building on the site, but the initiative faded after just a few years.

Maddox on lot 15 of Marlborough Town Stafford Co 1691 Bland survey

“Doctor Maddox” can be read in plot #15 of Bland’s 1691 survey of Marlborough Town, on the right page.

“Doctor Maddox” is clearly written within the confines of plot #15 on the survey map, which was drawn up by Bland in 1691 and copied in a ledger by the Marlborough Town revivalist John Mercer in the 1730s.  We already knew from John Mercer’s “Land Book” that Edward had owned the plot, and had sold it to his friend (and rabid anti-Papist) John Waugh after a short time.  But I was surprised to see the doctor’s name written so clearly on such an old map – one of the earliest surviving surveys of the Virginia colony.

The Smithsonian archeologist C. Malcolm Watkins conducted a full survey of the Marlborough Town site in 1968 and published his results in The Cultural History of Marlborough, Virginia.  He was able to definitively locate Edward’s plot #15, and it was easy to compare Watkins’ maps with Google Maps details.  Doctor Maddox’s plot was located at 38.358003, -77.292369 (or 561-577 Marlborough Point Road).  This was intended to be the center of town and his plot was surrounded by prominent Virginians’ plots.

An archeological survey of the Marlborough Town site reveals plot #15's exact location, with modern-day Virginia Highway 621 underlaid.

An archeological survey of the Marlborough Town site reveals plot #15’s exact location, with modern-day Virginia Highway 621 underlaid.

Thomas Hussey dealings demonstrate Edward-Cornelius relationship

26 Monday Jan 2015

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A new chronology of dealings with Thomas Hussey by Edward and Cornelius Maddox in both Charles County, Maryland and Stafford County, Virginia, demonstrates a likely business handoff from Edward to Cornelius.  We’ve laid them out here: Hussey-Maddox interaction 1600s.

The chronology shows that Dr. Edward Maddocks dealt directly with Thomas Hussey in Charles County, Maryland, in 1681-1686.  After 1686 (just after Cornelius’ marriage), Cornelius Maddox generally deals with Thomas Hussey, receiving payments.  If this is a handoff, it probably is good evidence of a father-son relationship.

The strong Protestantism of Dr. Edward Maddock (d. 1694)

26 Monday Jan 2015

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The 1689 “Parson Waugh’s Tumult” is the case of a vehement anti-Catholic minister provoking an attack by Virginia Protestants against local Catholics.  The Stafford County, Virginia, parson John Waugh conspired with his in-law George Mason II to fan the flames of local distrust against a Catholic family (the Brents).  He started a rumor that the Brents were in league with Maryland Catholics, who were going to cross the Potomac with Seneca Indians to attack Virginians – a rumor that many locals took very seriously.  In the context of the anti-Catholic Exclusion Crisis and Tory politics in London and Jamestown, such provocation was not unimaginable.  Parson Waugh’s conspiracy did not pan out – Marylanders quickly pointed out that there were no Seneca Indians in Maryland! – and the Parson and George Mason II were punished.  But the incident sheds light on the strong religious lines in place at the time.

Dr. Edward Maddock served as a Justice in Stafford County, at least in 1691, and sat in judgment of Parson Waugh in a separate case – in which the court decided that Waugh’s marriage to a twelve-year-old was illegitimate.  Despite Dr. Maddock’s justice role and his awareness of the parson’s character flaws, he would will a 500-acre plantation to Parson Waugh in 1694.  Parson Waugh lived there until his death, and the historic Overwharton Parish found its roots there.

That Dr. Maddocks willed so much acreage to a man of such notoriety speaks volumes to the doctor’s Protestant resolve and to his strong familial relations in Stafford County.  The doctor specified in his will that the land should not go to his daughter Anne/Amey because she had married someone against his will.  We have to wonder if that someone was Catholic or otherwise against the doctor’s political allies.

Dr. Maddock’s marriage to Frances Norgrave – the widow of George Mason I – also adds to the picture.  They were married from at least 1691 until her death in 1693.  Perhaps Frances encouraged the doctor to support Parson Waugh out of respect for the Mason family.  Parson Waugh was directly related to George Mason, who was equally chastised for his role in the Tumult and stripped of his militia command.

Dr. Edward Maddock (d. 1694) was likely the father of Mr. Edward Maddock (1645-1690) of Nanjemoy, Md.

14 Sunday Sep 2014

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We’ve already provided evidence of the location of Dr. Edward Maddock (d. 1694) in Nanjemoy, Maryland, in the mid- to late-1600s.  He practised medicine in Charles County and owned numerous tracts of land along the Potomac River in Charles County, Maryland, and in Stafford County, Virginia, and he served as a Justice of Peace in Stafford County in the early 1690s.

It has been difficult to determine the relationship between the Edward Maddocks called “doctor,” “apothecary,” or “physician” in Charles County records, and another Edward Maddocks who is described only as “mister” in the same county.  But it seemed likely, based on their common name and common location, that they were immediately related.

Now we have good circumstantial evidence to demonstrate that Dr. Edward was the father of Mr. Edward.  Most importantly, pages 165-166 of Liber D of the Charles County Court Proceedings, 1668-1670, shows that Edward Maddock sued Samuell Price for 240 pounds of tobacco for physicians services that Edward provided.  That the younger Edward Maddock was practising medicine in Charles County, just like the elder Dr. Edward Maddock around the same time, supports an immediate relationship.

We also clearly know that the elder Dr. Edward Maddock and the younger Mr. Edward Maddock are not the same person, since Dr. Maddock left Charles County for Stafford County, Virginia, a decade or so earlier: the elder Dr. Maddock is described as “late of Charles County” on Page 374 of Liber B, No. 3, Provincial Court Proceedings, 1657-1658.  The elder Dr. Edward Maddock did return to Charles County in the 1670s, though, and lived on Cheshires, part of Poynton Manor, with his wife Margery (Stone) Maddox, but sold that land to Richard Fowke and departed again by 1684.

The younger Edward was born circa 1645/6, since he claimed to the court that he was “22 or 23” years old in 1668 and claimed that he was 26 in 1670 (Charles County Court Proceedings, 1668-1670, Liber D, p. 133 and pp. 165-166).  He married Henry Frankcum’s widow Annah/Amey Frankcum on or after 1668 (I&A 5.285).  His cattle mark was “the left eare cropt the right ear hole with a nick in the under part of the same” (Charles County Court Proceedings, Liber E, 10 September 1672).  He died between 1685 and 1690, based on a petition by his stepson Henry Frankcum, Jr. for land held by Edward Maddock, “dec’d” (Charles County Land Records, Volume III Liber Q, Page 10 – dated 10 June 1690).

It is possible that Amey/Annah Maddock is the same Amey Maddock whom Dr. Edward Maddock chastised in his 1694 will for marrying without consent.  She would have been single again after the younger Edward’s death in circa 1690.  A circa-1899 history of Stafford County’s Overwharton Parish claims Dr. Maddox willed the entirety of his estate – 450-500 acres with a home along the Passapantanzy Creek in Stafford County – to the parish in 1694.  Importantly, in this account Dr. Edward Maddox was apparently punishing his only heir, Amey Maddox, by not willing anything to her.  She had married a man without Edward’s consent.

Richard Fowke seems to be the common link between the elder Dr. Edward Maddock, the younger Mr. Edward Maddox, and Annah/Amey (Frankcum) Maddox.  Richard Fowke purchased two plots of land from the elder Dr. Edward Maddock in 1672 and 1684, and witnessed the administration of a gift of one mare from the younger Edward Maddock to the newly widowed Annah/Amey Frankcum in March 1668/9 (Charles County Court & Land Records Vol II, p. 26; Charles County Court & Land Records Vol II, p. 82; Charles County Court Proceedings Liber D, p. 55).  Since Richard Fowke and Zachary Wade both witnessed the administration of the mare, and since Fowke’s and Wade’s lands adjoined at Lyon’s Hole (Charles Court Court & Land Records Vol II, p. 26), it is possible that their role as witnesses was based on geography – perhaps the younger Edward Maddock was living near Lyon’s Hole, which also once belonged to the elder Dr. Edward Maddock.

Leaving Chicago

03 Sunday Aug 2014

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Just before her departure from Chicago in 1946, Lolith Irene Maddox sentimentally photographed the sites of her daily routine.  They were all taken around her 4602 Beacon Street apartment.  The trio of photos below, and Irene’s commentary, provide an unusual first-hand viewpoint.

Buvid's Bus Stop View 1946 corrected

Irene wrote on the back of this one, “For fourteen years – you saw this view – as you waited for your bus – .”

Is there a bus coming 1946 Chicago

On the back of this photo, Irene joked indecipherably, “Is there a bus coming? My True Rat looked for the answer here many, many times.”

Diane of the Beacons corrected

Irene (Diane) wrote on the back of this photo, “Diane of the Beacons – saw this view – thousands of times -.”