William Loch Weems was born in 1792 at Billingsley Plantation in Prince George's County MD, the eldest son of Nathaniel Chapman Weems and Violetta Van Horn. In 1814, he married Elizabeth Taylor Burch, also of Prince George's County MD, the daughter of Joseph Newton Burch and Eleanor Taylor. He and Elizabeth had six children before their move to Hickman County Tennessee in 1825. Elizabeth died in Tennessee, shortly after the birth of their seventh child, Cornelia Weems, in 1825. About 1836, William married Elizabeth Ann Burchett of Virginia and had a son with her, Phillip Van Horn Weems, who was killed outside Atlanta during the Civil War. One of William's main claims to fame is founding the Bon Aqua Springs resort in Hickman County, shortly after his marriage to Elizabeth Burchett. He purchased some 1800 acres around the springs,erected cabins and began to advertise the spot as a health resort. William died in Hickman County in 1852 and his wife Elizabeth died there in 1855. In the published family histories, this was the extent of William's marital adventures.
However, while searching through the Chancery Court records at the Maryland State Archives, I came across a case that proves that William had another wife and child between the two Elizabeths--Mary R. Hatton, the daughter of Henry Hatton and Ann Davison of Prince George's County MD.
As told in Chancery Court Case 12370, Mary R. Hatton was one of two children of Henry Hatton, along with her brother, Henry Davison Hatton. Henry's 1824 will had left property to Mary during her lifetime and to her children afterward. If she had no children, then the property reverted to Mary's brother, Henry Davison Hatton. In 1832, the 37-year-old Mary was unmarried and living with her brother.
William Loch Weems, widowed for seven years, returned to Prince George's County from Tennessee about this time, and, according to Henry Hatton, tricked Mary into marriage while her brother was away. Henry claimed that Mary was "weak-minded," unable to manage her own affairs and "subject to frequent fits of derangement." In 1832, shortly after the marriage, William and Mary filed suit against Henry claiming that he was withholding the property to which Mary was entitled. William and Mary returned to Tennessee, where, William reported, Mary had given birth to a daughter, Mary Ann Weems, in 1835. Both mother and child died shortly after the birth. Weems then returned to Maryland and filed a claim for his daughter's inheritance from her mother--namely Henry Hatton's bequest.
The case includes fascinating depositions from the Hatton's neighbors in Prince George's County supporting Henry's claim that Mary was incompetent. Apparently, she threw tantrums and locked herself in her room whenever she did not get her way. Weems likewise provided depositions from the midwife and the doctor to support his claim that he had had a daughter with Mary.
In the end, the court ruled against Hatton and required him to turn over Mary's inheritance to Weems, including several dozen slaves, whom Weems promptly sold. It is interesting to speculate that this was the source of his funding to purchase Bon Aqua Springs.
The case file also included a sad letter from a lawyer in Tennessee telling Henry Hatton that Weems had apparently mistreated Mary during the marriage.
In any case, the brief Weems-Hatton marriage seems to have been quietly ignored by family historians.
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