#52 Ancestors 2019 Week 46 Poor Man: William Weems and the Wheel of Fortune

David and William Weems, the sons of David Weems the Immigrant (and my 7th great-grandfather) and his second wife, Esther Hill, were both born in Anne Arundel County MD at their father's estate, Marshes Seat.  They were the older brothers of Parson Mason Loch Weems, the legendary biographer of George Washington. The Weems brothers experienced both riches and poverty, but their responses to the vicissitudes of life were quite different.

David Weems, born in 1851, was the 14th child of his father and the 5th to be named David, the other four Davids having died in infancy. In 1777, he married Margaret Harrison, the daughter of Richard Harrison and Rachel Smith. David and Margaret were the parents of seven children: David, Gustavus, Rachel, Sydney, George, Theodore and Mason. The family lived at Marshes Seat, which David inherited from his father.

In addition to farming, David made a living as a merchant mariner. Before the advent of steam power, David Weems and his slaves constructed a sailing vessel, upon which he crossed the ocean to England, returning with rare and beautiful treasures and towing in the wake of the vessel a great mahogany log, which he had found adrift in mid-ocean.  The log was afterward converted to a carved mahogany table which is still in the possession of his descendants.  He also brought to Maryland a silver flagon, which is also included among the family heirlooms.

This love of the sea and seafaring adventure was passed along to David's son George, who was the founder of the Weems Steamship line.

David's brother, William, born in 1758, was also a sailor, captaining the ship Nantes on trans-Atlantic voyages and running a privateer operation with his brother's sloop "Little Sam" during the Revolutionary War. Captain Weems married three times, each time to a wealthy woman.  In 1784, he married British heiress, Rachel Morris, with whom he had three children: William Morris Weems, Captain Elijah Weems, and Sophia Morris Weems.  At the time of his marriage, he also purchased 350 acres of Maidstone in Anne Arundel County. He married secondly Ann Ewell, the daughter of wealthy Virginia planter James Ewell, and had two children with her: Mariamne Ewell Weems and James Ewell Weems.  He married thirdly Sally Taylor of Virginia and had two children with her: David Loch Weems and Anne Weems.

However, David experienced a number of financial setbacks and borrowed money from his brother William. Eventually the two brothers settled the matter in a chancery suit in 1815, shortly before William's death.

Now this may sound like a nice story of brotherly love, but according to David's son Gustavus, that would be an incorrect interpretation.

Gustavus's autobiography paints a very different picture of an uncle who loved to rub in his wealth on his poorer relations:

"I cannot forget a rich and pompous Unkle I had, whose children grew up with us, and very often both parent and children would be boasting of there wealth, and poore Bro. Davey's children's poverty. Dear God Child was my Unkle's hobbey word, and he had a way of coming into our rooms after we had gone to bed, to unbutton his Dear childrens shirt collars, and all the time he would be pitteying us, and entalling his dear children by saying-Dear God child, my children are well provided for, but Poore David's children, I don't know what will become of them, poore things, in this way night after night, frequently bringing tears out of our eyes, in hearing our destiny so bad, (recollect we all roomed together). "

According to Gustavus, William came to a very unhappy end, committing suicide with laudanum, bankrupt after having gone through all his money.

"But oh me what an awful change a few years brings about-The wheel of fortune is ever in motion-rolling some up, and others down-Now it will appear Exceedingly strange, but nevertheless as true as preaching-Not one of those lazy Harrisons, and the Bragging Weems's are to be found upon the face of the wide Earth and not one foot of there land owned by them, all gone out of there names, cliff and clear-Three of Bro David's poore children are no more, in Heaven I hope.

For at that time he had lost his first and best wife and had married the second, a Miss Ewell, and carrying on as if there were no end to the rope, or in other words, he could not find the bottom of his purse, and this was apart of the $43,000 got by Miss Morris, the first wife, and here let me mention a little incident that happened with him and myself. My father had told me to pay him I think $40.00 and knowing he would be at Friendship Meeting House, so I took the money with me, and offered it to him there, but lo and behold he was too good to receive it-in this he was right, (and I wrong) but oh my God, I awfully fear he was not in as good mind and feelings, the awfull day he took the dose of Laudanum that took his life. 

Now this was the awfull end of my Dear Unkle, that had so much pitteyed Poore Brother David's children, my poore Dear Unkle then a bankrupt after having buried three Wives and sinking all their estates, so much then for Extravagance and bringing up the children with great views and promises, Parents and the children die poor, and I would pray God that they may be better off in another world."

After William's death, his estate at Maidstone was sold to pay his debts. 

Gustavus's daughter Rachel reports that William's daughter Mariamne "married George Simmons. He drank and left her so poor that once we stopped at her miserable hovel with a dirt floor on the roadside. Father did everything he could to help him along and always cared for the poor orphans and loved them all the same."

William's youngest son David Loch, was apprenticed to a sailmaker and eventually moved to Connecticut with his sister Anne.

Gustavus's father David, on the other hand, died venerated and respected, as Gustavus writes in the family Bible (the spelling is the original):

"The last respect of my ever respected and Dear Parrent to be inroled in this Bible. On the 22 Day of January 1820 Departed this Life David Weems, Father of the before mentioned seven Children aged 68 5/12 years. He was confined to his room and Bed upwards of two months during which time he with perfect resignation bore the chastising hand of Affliction with intire submition sustained by Divine providence he was prepared and resigned to his will. In this happy state of mind he left those mondain shores of anxiety & care with a full asshureance of Blissful Eternity praising Jesus in his last expiring moments. But a few moments before the Spririt made its escape or flight with perfect composure he called his Children to his bedside, then and there admonished them to live peaceabilly & happily together, this promise being made he calmly took his leave and fell asleep in the Armes of Sweet Jesus. The next day his funeral sermon was delivered by the Revd. Mr. Lewis Stratton in St. James Parish (a privilege denied my mother) to a very large and attentive audience, from these words (Acquaint now thyself with him and be in peace thereby good shall come unto thee, this text will be found in Job 22, after which his remains were deposited in the Churchyard to mingle with its Mother earth."