#52 Ancestors 2020 Week 22 Uncertain: The Elusive Miss Crompton

John Weems, my 7X great-uncle, was the youngest son of James Weems and Sarah Parker of Calvert County MD.  Born in 1737, John married four times and died in Louisville KY in 1813.

John's 2nd, 3rd, and 4th marriages to Elizabeth Miller, Alice Lee, and Mary Swan, respectively, are fairly well documented.  His first marriage, however, raised a big mystery.

In 1854, John's son--John Crompton Weems--wrote a long letter laying out his knowledge of the family history, the kind of letter every genealogist prays for. Here's what he says about his father and mother:

My grandfather’s youngest son, my father, John Weems, married a Miss Crompton of Calvert County, my grandfather James Weems, having married her mother Mrs. Crompton, as his 4^th wife.  The children, my father and mother being both quite young were brought up to call each other brother and sister and after their marriage built and settled at Weems Forest in Calvert County and had very large family.

Christ Church, Calvert County MD

Wait, what!  He married a Miss Crompton.  OK.  That's a good clue.  In 1746, James Weems married as his second wife, Mary Skinner. (Note that John C. had that part backwards.  It was Mary's fourth husband, not James' fourth wife.) Mary, being already a widow three times over, brought into her fourth marriage a whole passel of children, including three daughters of her third husband, Thomas Crompton: Ann, Mary, and Catherine shown in the register of Christ Church Parish in Calvert County MD.  These three girls would have been under the age of 10 when they moved into the Weems household, close in age to John Weems.  As the letter above notes, the girls were brought up in a large family with a number of step-brothers and sisters.

In any case, John Weems and Miss Crompton were married sometime before 1760, when their first son James Weems was born (approximately, no birth record).  They had four more children: Mary (ca. 1765), Sarah Margaret (ca. 1766), William Loch (1772), and John Crompton, above, (1777, the only one with a definite birth date). Miss Crompton died sometime before 1784, when John married his second wife, Elizabeth Miller in Philadelphia. 

So, the question is, which Miss Crompton did John Weems marry? You would think that John Crompton Weems might have thought to mention this detail somewhere in the letter, but he does not, leaving the family historian to search out other clues.

Unfortunately, I was never able to find those clues. Other than their birth records in Christ Church Parish, those three Crompton girls seemed to leave to no trace. No marriages, no wills. No mention in their parents' estates as far as I could find. Mrs. _____ Crompton  Weems was not mentioned in her husband's will or estate records.  She did not have a convenient tombstone with her name on it.  None of her other children left letters with her name in them.

Now John Weems served in the Maryland Legislature right before the Revolutionary War, which means that he is included in that exemplary Biographical Dictionary of the Maryland Legislature.  But even the excellent researchers at the Maryland State Archives failed to come up with the name of his first wife. The best they could do was: possibly Ann Crompton.  No word on why they chose to go with Ann instead of the other two sisters.

John Crompton Weems served in the US House of Representatives, but his official biography is also silent on the question of his mother's name.

Naturally, I researched the heck out of those five Crompton-Weems children, hoping to find that one of them had mentioned their mother's name.  Nada.

• James was a surgeon serving in the Revolutionary War.  He died at sea.  No children.
• Mary married the well-known theologian, Rev. Charles Henry Wharton.  She died childless in Philadelphia PA. (Possibly named for Miss Crompton's mother, Mary Skinner.)
• Sarah Margaret married Phillip Thomas of Cecil County and had 13 children with him.  She did name her oldest daughter Catherine.
• William Loch married Mary Kinsey, daughter of Judge Kinsey of NJ.  They had four children. Only daughter named Catherine.
• John Crompton married Elizabeth Webster.  They had ten children, youngest daughter named Catherine Crompton Weems.

Still no explicit evidence for Miss Crompton's name.  So, in desperation, I went through and counted up all the Catherines among the descendants and decided to go with Catherine Crompton since that name showed up more than any of the others. Best guess. 

And there my research stood for many years.

Until one day I was busy adding tombstone pictures to my research and lo and behold I came across the tombstone of Mary Weems Wharton in St. Peter's Churchyard in Philadelphia. 

There it was, written in the tombstone inscription:

To the Memory of
MRS. MARY COMPTON WHARTON
the beloved Wife of the Rev'd
Charles H. Wharton, D.D.
This monument was erected by her most
affectionate and disconsolate Husband.
She was the daughter of John Weems, Esq.,
And Catharine, his Wife, of Calvert County,
in the State of Maryland.
She died in this City, June 2d A.D. 1798
Aged 37 years
and was buried in this place.
Blush not, recording Marble, to proclaim
What e'ver was mortal, of a spotless name
Here lies entomb'd; th' immortal spark above
Glows, unextinguishe'd, in the realms of love,
And in new worlds enjoys th' enraptured bliss
That crowns the virtues of the just in this.
And just she was, if e'er imperfect Man
By Heaven's kind aid accomplished Heaven's plan,
Each human virtue triumphed in her soul,
While Faith's ennobling signet stamp'd the whole.
Yes, Mary, such thou wast, and O! may I!
Like thee, live humbl'd, and as blameless die.

God bless you Rev. Wharton for adding that little detail and solving that genealogical puzzle for me.