#52 Ancestors Week 30 The Old Country: Francis Hall and the American Revolution

My 7X-great grandfather, Francis Hall, was born about 1696 in Prince George's County MD. His sister Elinor having died at age 5, Francis was also the sole heir of his parents, Benjamin Hall and Mary Brooke.

Benjamin Hall built his home at Pleasant Hill, on land near the Patuxent River, during Francis's lifetime and had his son's initials inset in colored brick into the wall of the house. The house was described as:
'The great front doorway and arched hall within are typically Colonial; the rooms are large and well lighted, with huge fireplaces and plenty of closets; the stairway fine and easy of ascent. "

St. Omer

Although Benjamin was born in the Quaker faith, he converted to Catholicism.  Like many Maryland Catholics, Benjamin sent his son to France for his education at St. Omer's College, founded in 1593 as the English Jesuit College (in Flanders) in order to escape England's harsh legislation against Catholic education.  Since affiliation with the Church of England was required to attend Oxford and  Cambridge, Catholic families sent their sons to St. Omer's.

At his father's death in 1721, Francis inherited Pleasant Hill and a large estate which he expanded considerably during his lifetime.

Francis Hall married about 1718 to Dorothy Lowe, the daughter of Col. Henry Lowe and Susanna Maria Bennett.  Francis and Dorothy had three sons and three daughters: Benjamin 1719, Richard Bennett 1726, Eleanor 1730, Francis Jr. 1732 (my 6X-great grandfather), Susanna, and Henrietta.

Now, when the American colonies sought independence from Great Britain, Francis was an ardent supporter of the cause.  According to a fictionalized account in St. Nicholas Magazine, written by a great-granddaughter in 1889,  Francis was a Jacobite (a supporter of Bonnie Prince Charlie) and did not think he owed any allegiance to the current occupant of the throne. At the very beginning of the Revolution, he joined an association of patriots who pledged themselves neither to purchase nor use any goods from England. Francis sent cart loads of home spun cloth to support the American soldiers and he himself could certainly have worn that as many other patriots did.

However, family tradition says that he had another, more symbolic, action in mind. On hearing of the Battle of Lexington that began the war,  Francis put on a fine coat of blue English cloth with gilt buttons and made a vow that he would wear the same coat until the war was ended. As the years went by, the coat got worse and worse "faded and patched and mean-looking" according to the story, much to the embarrassment of his granddaughters. Although he was a man of great wealth, Francis wore the same patched and ragged coat until he received news of  Cornwallis's surrender at Yorktown in 1781.

Cornwallis Surrender

Another family story has it that one day some elegantly dressed French officers came to call on Francis. They did not recognize the master of the house in the shabbily dressed old man that they saw in the garden.  But his fluent French allowed them to recognize the scholarly Francis Hall.

Francis died at his  home in 1785, at the age of 89, leaving a will that named his children.

Francis's wife Dorothy lived to be almost 100 years old and was a formidable woman in her own right.  At the age of 90, she was (according to family legend), still able to swat a servant on the head when she felt she wasn't shown the proper respect. She died at the family home in 1803 at the age of 99.