#52 Ancestors 2019 Week 23 Namesake--Henrietta Maria Neale, Grandmother of the Eastern Shore

#52 Ancestors 2019 Week 23 Namesake--Henrietta Maria Neale, Grandmother of the Eastern Shore

Queen Henrietta Maria

Henrietta Maria Neale, the daughter of James Neale and Anna Maria Gill, and my 9X great-grandmother, was herself a namesake to Queen Henrietta Maria, wife of King Charles I.  Henrietta's mother was said to have been a lady-in-waiting to the queen and family tradition says the queen was godmother to her namesake.

Henrietta Maria Neale was born in Spain in 1647, as her father served as the King's representative there.  James and his family later came to Maryland, receiving a land grant for services to the crown.

Henrietta married twice, first to Richard Bennett and second to Philemon Lloyd, and had twelve children with her two husbands.  Her son Richard Bennett III was the wealthiest man in Maryland in the early 1700's and her son Edward Lloyd became acting Governor of Maryland from 1709 to 1713.

But Henrietta's claim to fame was not her sons.  Madam Lloyd, as she was known, was not only the wealthiest woman on the Eastern Shore, but also its social leader and a capable business woman who managed the complex affairs of Wye House. She had wealth, beauty, and power, as well as fierce independence.  She founded such a prolific dynasty of descendants that she has been referred to as the "Grandmother of the Eastern Shore." A daughter named Henrietta Marie shows up at least once, and often more, in every generation.

Henrietta's daughter Susanna Maria Bennett produced two namesake daughters, one with each of her two husbands--Henrietta Maria Darnall (1684, daughter of John Darnall) and Henrietta Maria Lowe (1697, daughter of Col Henry Lowe.)

Henrietta Maria Chew

 Her son Philemon Lloyd named his first daughter Henrietta Maria in 1710.  She went on to marry Samuel Chew and name her first daughter Henrietta Maria Chew in 1728.  When that little girl died a year later, the name was also given to the second daughter in 1730.  Henrietta Maria Chew married Edward Dorsey and named her first daughter Henrietta Maria Dorsey.

Madam Lloyd's son James Lloyd married Ann Grundy and named his first daughter Henrietta Maria Lloyd in 1711. That daughter married Samuel Chamberlaine and named two daughters Henrietta Maria, the second born after the death of the first.

Henrietta Maria Tilghman

Madam Lloyd's daughter Anna Maria married Colonel Richard Tilghman and produced a daughter Henrietta Maria Tilghman 1707.  She married George Robins and had a daughter Henrietta Maria in 1736.
By the time of her death in 1697, just about every important family on the Eastern Shore of Maryland had a connection by marriage to Madam Lloyd and most had a namesake daughter in the house.

Her epitaph is still visible in the Lloyd family graveyard at Wye House:

Henrietta Maria Lloyd
Shee who now takes her rest within this tomb,
Had Rachell's face and Lea's fruitful womb,
Abigail's wisdom, Lydea's faithful heart,
with Martha's care and Mary's better part.
Who died this 21st day of May,
Anno Dom. 1697