#52Ancestors Week 4 Invitation to Dinner: Lois Gongo Evans Vernon

#52Ancestors: Week 4

While I have many family members who seem to be interesting characters and would probably be interesting dinner guests, one person from the family tree that I would really love to meet is Lois Gongo.  Lois, the daughter of Anthony Gongo and Faith (Wilson?), was born around 1660, probably in Anne Arundel County MD.  Lois is not a direct ancestor of mine; she is something like the mother--in-law of my 8th great-uncle. (Lois's granddaughter married into the Scrivener family, which is what brought her to my attention.) What makes Lois so interesting to me is that she was apparently a feminist long before feminism became a thing.

Lois married first Lewis Evans, a Welshman like her father, about 1674.  Lois and Lewis had four daughters: Catherine, Elizabeth, Sarah and Ann Evans. 

Catherine married first John Clark and second William Thornbury and died about 1768 in Anne Arundel County MD.
Elizabeth married first Francis Anktill and second Moses Faudry. She died about 1762 in Anne Arundel County MD.
Sarah married Samuel Griffith, with whom she had eight children.
Ann married Benjamin Battee and had two daughters with him.

After Lewis's death about 1690, Lois married secondly Christopher Vernon, a fairly well-to-do landowner from an old British family in Hertfordshire, who had emigrated to Anne Arundel County MD.  Lois and Christopher had five children: Ephraim, William, Lois, Thomas and Ann Vernon, recorded in the records of St. James Parish, Anne Arundel County MD.

Christopher Vernon died in England in 1724 and here is where the story gets really interesting.  Christopher was apparently a very unhappy man.  He left a will in England, which does not mention his wife and children.  He leaves his estate to aunts, nieces, nephews and other relatives.

Curious, yes?  However, back in MD, there is an earlier handwritten will, apparently never recorded that explains the will in England.  In the earlier document, Christopher castigates Lois as "stubborn and brutish" and  claims he was never really married to her since she absolutely refused to say the words "honor and obey"  when she married Christopher. (Imagine that in 1691!)  Further, he claims that Lois tried to poison him.  Likewise, he is furious that his daughter Ann married against his wishes.  And the document is full of complaints about his other family members.

The one person he seems like is his step-daughter Elizabeth Evans Anktill, beside whom he wishes to be buried and whom he wishes to be his executrix.  Christopher then apparently left for England where he proceeded to give away all his property in England so that Lois could never get her hands on it. Elizabeth did attempt to probate the earlier will, but the courts threw it out because the later English will was already on file.

Lois seems to have made out all right in the long run.  She had property from her first husband, Lewis Evans.  She made over property to her son Thomas Vernon in 1738 and died in Anne Arundel County in 1739.

So, Lois is definitely someone I would like to have a conversation with to get her side of the story.