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Locating Cornelius Maddox’s Tatshall tract

16 Wednesday Mar 2016

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In Charles County, Maryland, Cornelius Maddox owned a 60-acre tract called Tatshall in 1684-1688 (Charles County Circuit Court Liber L, Page 51, 26 Dec 1684).  His presence there would have put him in frequent contact with Piscataway and Susquehannock Indians.

Early descriptions place Tatshall east of Portobacco Fresh (now called Port Tobacco Creek) and west of Zekiah Swamp (sometimes called Allens Fresh), “adjoining to the land called Moores Ditch [aka Moore’s Lodge] at the exterior bound thereof,” and abutting land owned by Hussey, Shaw, Lindsey and Smallwood.  After a century of searches, the Moore’s Lodge site was found and excavated in 2008, revealing the locations of buildings owned by Maddox relatives Thomas Hussey and Samuel Luckett.  On modern maps of the surrounding area, a stream called Maddox Branch, just south of the Moore’s Lodge site, flows west-east from 38.46744, -76.981926 to 38.475227, -76.957444, into Zekiah Swamp Run – and Tatshall probably lay along Maddox Branch.  This means that Tatshall was almost certainly centered at about 38.481510, -76.968192.  The tract was also called Tatall, Totsall, Tattsall, Tasch Hall and Nuthall in various records.

Zekiah Swamp was the location of a Piscataway Indian fort during Cornelius’ land ownership and until the Piscataways’ departure in 1692.  The Indian fort, now called Zekiah Fort, was recently excavated by archeologists at approximately 38.569746, -76.872085 – about 8 miles northeast of Maddox Branch.  Zekiah Fort was a last defense for the Piscataway, whose enemies the Susquahannock were seeking revenge for the Piscataway alliance with the British.  The fort attracted frequent Indian skirmishes in the 1680s and 1690s.

Cornelius’ father-in-law James Smallwood served as an Indian agent, and had frequent contact with the Piscataway at Zekiah Fort.  Cornelius’ neighbor and family business partner Thomas Hussey, who owned Moore’s Lodge, also had contact with the Piscataway, as evidenced by his September 1681 “statement that the raiding Indians had carried away eleven Piscataway (one man and ten women) from his plantation,” and that “Hussey had all of his linen, blankets, clothing, and rings stolen by a band of Indians.” (Md. Archives 17:20, cited in “A Place Now Known Unto Them:” The Search for Zekiah Fort)

Maddox land patents in Colonial-era Charles County, Maryland

04 Friday Mar 2016

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Numerous Maddox and Maddox-associated tracts are described in the Charles County Circuit Court Land Survey, Subdivision, and Condominium Plats, including a few we haven’t seen before.

The following tract was owned by Cornelius Maddox and we’ve never seen the original description:

Totsall, 60 Acres; Patent Record CB 3, p. 163; Date: 1682; Developer/Owner: Ashford, Michael. http://plato.mdarchives.state.md.us/msa/stagser/s1500/s1529/cfm/dsp_unit.cfm?county=ch&qualifier=S&series=1587&unit=4123

The first three of the following tracts were owned by Benjamin Maddox (I) and Benjamin Maddox (II), and the rest are associated with their sons:

Horne Faire, 150 Acres; Patent Record 17, p. 522; Date: 1674; Developer/Owner: Nevill, William.  http://plato.mdarchives.state.md.us/msa/stagser/s1500/s1529/cfm/dsp_unit.cfm?county=ch&qualifier=S&series=1587&unit=2055

Horn Fair Addition, 30 Acres; Patent Record BC and GS 2, p. 182; Date: 1755; Developer/Owner: Maddox, Benjamin. http://plato.mdarchives.state.md.us/msa/stagser/s1500/s1529/cfm/dsp_unit.cfm?county=ch&qualifier=S&series=1587&unit=2058

Poseys Chance, 100 Acres; Patent Record LG B, p. 73; Date: 1739; Developer/Owner: Posey, John. http://plato.mdarchives.state.md.us/msa/stagser/s1500/s1529/cfm/dsp_unit.cfm?county=ch&qualifier=S&series=1587&unit=3260

Posey, 450 Acres; Patent Record AB and H, p. 170; Date: 1651; Developer/Owner: Posey, Francis Burlane, John. http://plato.mdarchives.state.md.us/msa/stagser/s1500/s1529/cfm/dsp_unit.cfm?county=ch&qualifier=S&series=1587&unit=3258

Batchelors Hope, 184 Acres; Patent Record C 3, p. 166; Date: 1695; Developer/Owner: Smallwood, James. http://plato.mdarchives.state.md.us/msa/stagser/s1500/s1529/cfm/dsp_unit.cfm?county=ch&qualifier=S&series=1587&unit=372

Blue Plains, 680 Acres; Patent Record BT and BY 3, p. 565; Date: 1747; Developer/Owner: Maddox, Edward. http://plato.mdarchives.state.md.us/msa/stagser/s1500/s1529/cfm/dsp_unit.cfm?county=ch&qualifier=S&series=1587&unit=497

Maddoxs Trouble, 236 Acres; Patent Record EI 2, p. 666; Date: 1738; Developer/Owner: Maddox or Maddux, John. http://plato.mdarchives.state.md.us/msa/stagser/s1500/s1529/cfm/dsp_unit.cfm?county=ch&qualifier=S&series=1587&unit=2540

The following tracts were wholly or partially owned by Edward Maddox:

Mannor of Poynton, 5000 Acres; Patent Record AB and H, p. 425; Date:  1658; Developer/Owner: Stone, William. http://plato.mdarchives.state.md.us/msa/stagser/s1500/s1529/cfm/dsp_unit.cfm?county=ch&qualifier=S&series=1587&unit=2582

Doags Neck, The, 450 Acres; Patent Record AB and H, p. 437; Date: 1658; Developer/Owner: Hall, Walter. http://plato.mdarchives.state.md.us/msa/stagser/s1500/s1529/cfm/dsp_unit.cfm?county=ch&qualifier=S&series=1587&unit=1170

Hopewell, 80 Acres; Patent; Patent Record CB 2, p. 44; Date: 1680; Developer/Owner: Athea, George. http://plato.mdarchives.state.md.us/msa/stagser/s1500/s1529/cfm/dsp_unit.cfm?county=ch&qualifier=S&series=1587&unit=2043

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.

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.

Cornelius… not a “pauper”

14 Thursday Nov 2013

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We received the Maryland Archives’ official copy of the “Returns of the Deputy Commissary of Charles County,” 19 April 1706.  We previously explained that Cornelius was described as a “pauper” in this record of the bond posted for the administration of his estate.  Well it turns out that the “pauper” description is a clerical error.  In the original, the word can be seen abbreviated in the margin next to Cornelius’ entry.  In contrast, some adjacent entries for other deceased men are annotated with the word “inventory” in the margin.  It looks like a reviewer of the record somehow overlooked Cornelius’ (extensive) inventory, which was conducted on 9 March 1706.  A scan of the archival copy is below.

As a silver lining, this document proves that James Maddox was the first son of Cornelius Maddox – a question for some other researchers.  It also provides further proof of Mary Smallwood’s marriage to Cornelius.

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Cornelius the pauper?

20 Thursday Jun 2013

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The book Abstracts of the Testamentary Proceedings of the Prerogative Court of Maryland, Volume X: 1704-1707, Liber 19C:35 (page 75), lists a “bond of James Maddox administrator of Cornelius Maddox (pauper),” dated 7 March 1705/6, and explains that “Mary Maddox the widow renounced administration, in favor of the eldest son James Maddox,” dated 25 February 1705/6.  Benjamin Adams secured the bond.

The title “pauper” is jarring, given Cornelius’ success in planting, his known property, his marriage into a well-to-do family, the support system that his large family could offer, and his sons’ primogeniture-based land ownership.  But it’s very likely that this refers to our Cornelius.  Our Cornelius did die around the time that this bond is recorded (Cornelius’ estate was inventoried on 9 March 1705/6), his first son was named James, and Cornelius’ widow’s name was Mary (Smallwood) Maddox.

Reviewing Cornelius’ March 1706 inventory, the list of property would not place him in the pauper category.  Beyond the necessities – tables, chairs, featherbeds, soap, buckets and more – that would support a small household, there were luxuries, including a silk petticoat, 5 books, wigs, pewter plates and utensils, and more.  His estate was sold off at a profit for the family.  It’s likely that the term pauper was applied in a court document simply to flag what were probably disproportionate debts, since he died mid-career and unexpectedly.