#52 Ancestors 2024 Week 33 Favorite Discovery: Hooper Gwynn, My maternal and paternal great-grandfather

 

Hooper Gwynn

Susanna Hilleary-----                           Bennett Gwynn                       -----Mary Belt

John Hilleary Gwynn—Ann Eliza Dyer                        Thomas Belt Gwynn—Eliza Ann Gardiner

Andrew Jackson Gwynn—Louise Keene                     Ann Eliza Gwynn—John Francis Summers

Louise Carmelite Gwynn—FP Scrivener                     John Kostka Summers—Regina Ann Hill

Frank Phillip Scrivener Jr.—Elizabeth Dent                 Paul Francis Summers—Evalina Sasscer

Frank Phillip Scrivener III                    -----                  Anne Theresa Summers

My 5X-Great Grandfather, Hooper Gwynn (also Gwinn/Gwin), has the distinction of being my grandfather through both my father’s and my mother’s family. See the chart above.

Grandfather Hooper is somewhat of a mystery man since I haven’t really been able to trace his family further back.  There is a marriage record in St. Peter’s Parish, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, for a marriage between Hooper Gwin and Martha Wainman on the 27^th of June, 1725.  Given that Hooper Gwin is a fairly unusual name, most researchers have assumed that this is the same man who later shows up in Maryland.  The further assumptions are that Hooper was born in England or possibly Wales, since Gwynn is of Welsh origin, and that he was probably born in the early 1700’s if he married in his early 20’s. Of course, no one has shown any evidence for these assumptions, and they could be wrong. Other researchers think Hooper Gwynn was born in Maryland and the Hooper Gwin in Leeds is a relative (father, uncle cousin). Either way, I don't know who Hooper's parents were, but there is likely a Welsh origin in there somewhere. 

In any case, by 1736, Hooper Gwynn was in Prince George’s County, Maryland, as a School Master and later as the Scrivener to the Court, indicating he was an educated man who could read and write. Other records show him with “a wife” but do not give her name, so it may or may not be Martha.

In 1743, Hooper Gwynn witnessed a mortgage between Humphrey Hasseldine and John Hepburn of Prince George’s County MD and later witnessed the wills of John Mawdesley (1748) and Richard Clagett (1752) in the same county.

Given his name and location, you might expect to find Hooper Gwynn connected to the Hooper family who settled in Calvert County MD in the 1650's and later moved across the Chesapeake Bay to Dorchester County (a short boat ride, keeping in mind there was no Chesapeake Bay Bridge). This is further reinforced by that fact that Richard Clagett, whose will was witnessed by Hooper Gwynn, was the son of Mary (MNU), the widow of Richard Hooper (d. 1672 in Dorchester County), who married Capt. Thomas Clagett as her second husband. However, I have not been able to find any definitive connection between Hooper Gwynn and any other Hoopers.  Doesn't mean there isn't a connection, just that I don't have any evidence of it.

Hooper Gwynn apparently moved from Prince George’s County to Fairfax VA where probate records for him appear in 1759, an administrative bond and an inventory, but not, alas, a will. His administratrix was Ann Gwinn, who may have been his surviving widow.

Hooper Gwynn had at least one son who has a proven connection to him: Bennett Gwynn, my 4X-great grandfather.  In 1777, Bennett Gwinn, the son of Hooper Gwinn, deceased, age 19, comes into court in Prince George’s County MD and chooses Thomas Hagan as his guardian. Thomas Hagan accepts the guardianship, and Bennett’s estate is delivered over to Thomas who gives a bond for four hundred pounds. (With thanks to my redoubtable great-aunt, Effie Gwynn Bowie, who ferreted out that document when she published Across the Years in Prince George's County, her genealogical magnum opus.)

This record puts Bennett Gwynn’s birth at about 1758 or shortly before Hooper Gwynn’s death in 1759. It is not clear why Bennett is choosing a guardian in 1777, but possibly it is because his mother had died and he is not yet legally of age (21). He is possibly the son of the Ann Gwinn who administered Hooper Gwinn’s estate in Fairfax, and his name, Bennett, may suggest his mother’s family, but I do not have evidence for that. 

Thomas Hagan was possibly/probably Bennett’s brother-in-law, having married his older sister Grace Gwynn.  A brother, Thomas Gwynn, born about 1755 (and therefore of age by 1777 and not needing to choose a guardian) migrated from Maryland to Nelson County KY about 1790 along with a wife and a number of children.  Thomas Gwynn was instrumental in spreading Catholicism in Kentucky, but that is the subject for another blog. Thomas Gwynn died in Bardstown KY in 1835.

Bennett Gwynn was living in Prince George’s County in the 1790 Census, in a household of 5 white males over age 16.  It is not clear if they are related to Bennett, sons of his brother perhaps? or farm workers who lived there.  There are no slaves shown in the household.

In 1795, 37-year-old Bennett married his first wife, Mary Belt, the daughter of John Belt and Diana Lane. They had one child—Thomas Belt Gwynn, my 3X-great grandfather on my mother’s side.  Mary Belt Gwynn died shortly after the birth of her son.

Bennett Gwynn married secondly in 1797 Susannah Hilleary, the daughter of Henry Hilleary and Cassandra Magruder. They had three children: John Hilleary Gwynn (1797), my 3X-great grandfather on my father’s side; William Henry Gwynn (1800), and Anne Gwynn (1801).  Susannah Hilleary Gwynn died about 1806.

Bennett Gwynn married for the third time in 1807 to Rebecca Edelen, the daughter of Richard Edelen. They had no children.  Rebecca Edelen Gwynn died in 1818.

In 1815, Bennett Gwynn administered the estate of his erstwhile guardian, Thomas Hagan, and later purchased part of Hickory Plains from his son, Leonard Hagan.

Bennett Gwynn married for the fourth time in 1819 to Ann Theresa Elder, widow of Ignatius Boone. There were no children from this marriage. Ann Theresa Gwynn died in 1848 at age 90 at Mt. St. Joseph’s convent in Emmitsburg, having outlived her husband by many years. 

Bennett Gwynn spent his married life, raised his family, died and is buried at his estate at Hickory Plains in Prince George’s County. He was a devout Catholic.

Bennett Gwynn died at his home on May 29, 1826.  His son William, who had married his step-sister, Rosella Boone, administered his estate and inherited the Hickory Plains plantation.  Thomas Belt Gwynn inherited the plantation at Locust Grove. John Hilleary Gwynn inherited Marlowe’s Resurvey which bordered the property of his friend, John Francis Summers.

The map below shows William Gwynn’s property in 1861 in the Piscataway District of Prince George's County, underlined in red at the lower center section.