#52 Ancestors 2024 Week 7 Immigration: Part 1 Immigrant Ancestors Paternal Line

 

With the theme of immigration, I decided to look at how many of my immigrant ancestors I have been able to identify.  However, since there are a lot of them, I'm breaking it down into sections.  Here, I'm looking at the first eight immigrant ancestors from my father's family.

1. Scrivener

As best I can tell, the immigrant in this line was Richard Scrivener, my 6x-great grandfather.  He was born, probably in England, 2 April 1686.  His marriage to Mary Burck was recorded at St. James Parish in Lothian, Anne Arundel County MD on the 1st of September 1709. The parish register also records the birth of three sons to this couple: John (my 5x-great grandfather), Richard, and William.  Richard Sr. was alive in Anne Arundel County until at least 1753 when he is mentioned in an estate settlement, and was likely a tobacco farmer. As I have written about elsewhere, I have not been able to trace Richard back to his origin in England, but I strongly believe that is where he came from. 

2. Barber

The immigrant ancestor of the Barbers in Maryland was Dr. Luke Barber, my 9x-great grandfather, born 28 February 1615 in Yorkshire, England. Dr. Barber married Elizabeth Younge in 1641 in Yorkshire.  At one time, he worked for Oliver Cromwell, probably serving as a physician or surgeon in the Lord Protector's army.  He came to Maryland in 1654 aboard the Golden Fortune, and settled in St. Mary's County in southern Maryland. He was a zealous friend of Lord Baltimore and served as a member of the Assembly, a Justice of the Provincial Court, and Deputy Governor. He died in St. Mary's County about 1674, leaving his home plantation, Lukeland/Luckland, to his son Edward, my 8x-great grandfather. Dr. Barber had children: Luke, Elizabeth (8x-great grandmother), Mary, Edward (8x-great grandfather), Thomas, and Ann. (With thanks to Robert Barnes, British Roots of Maryland Families II.)

3. Gwynn

The immigrant ancestor of this line may have been Hooper Gwynn, my 5x-great grandfather on both my paternal and maternal lines.  He is as far back as I have been able to trace this line.  He was in Prince George's County MD in the 1730's as a School Master and Court Scrivener, indicating that he was an educated man. A man of this name married in Yorkshire, England in 1725.  It's an uncommon name and odds are it is the same person or at least a close relative, but I really can't be sure if the man was born in England (or Wales, since Gwynn is definitely of Welsh origin) or was born in Maryland to immigrant parents.  Hooper Gwinn died in Fairfax County VA about 1759.  He had one son that can be documented: Bennett Gwynn, my 4x-great grandfather on both sides of my family. I have written more about Hooper and the Gwynns here. (With thanks to Effie Gwynn Bowie, Across the Years in Prince George's County.)

4. Keene

The immigrant ancestor of the Keenes in Maryland was Richard Keene, my 8x-great grandfather, born 7 December 1628 in Worplesdon, Surrey, England. Richard arrived in Maryland in 1653 with his brothers, Henry and Edward. He was a Quaker and was fined for refusing to train for military service. He was a close friend of Maryland's Governor, Charles Calvert and a large landowner, with over 10,000 acres on both sides of the Patuxent River. (Possibly these two facts are connected?)  His principal estate was St. Richard's Manor in St. Mary's County, where Lord Baltimore's Council frequently met. Richard married Mary, the widow of John Hodgkin shortly after he came to Maryland.  They had two sons: Richard and John, my 7x-great grandfather.  Richard Keene died in 1675 in Calvert County MD. 

5. Dent

The immigrant ancestor of this line of the Dents was Captain John Dent, my 8x-great grandfather, born in Yorkshire, England about 1635. He emigrated to Maryland about 1661 and married Mary Hatch shortly after his arrival in the colony. There is some evidence that he had an earlier wife in England and children there. He inherited land in Charles County MD from his uncle Thomas Dent, but eventually resided in the northern portion of St. Mary's County near Charlotte Hall. He was appointed Captain of the Chaptico Hundred in 1689 and served for some years as Justice of the Peace.  Like some of my other great-grandfathers, he was involved with Josias Fendall's rebellion against Lord Baltimore. (I’m looking at you, Thomas Gerrard!) John Dent had children (some with Mary Hatch): Peter, Michael, John, my 7x-great grandfather, George, Mary, Lydia, Anne, Abigail and Christian.  Captain Dent died in St. Mary's County MD about 1712, leaving tracts of land to each of his children. (With thanks to Harry Wright Newman, Charles County Gentry.)

6. Wright

I haven’t found the immigrant ancestor for my Wright line. The earliest Wright I have found is Littleberry Wright, my 4x-great grandfather. The 1860 Census puts him in Newnan GA, next door to his son, attorney William Wright, my 3x-great grandfather. The census says he is 60 years old at that point, born in South Carolina. He probably met his wife Henrietta Austin there and moved to Georgia with her family. He subsequently won two lots in the Georgia Land Lottery. He is found in the 1830 Census of Harris County GA, aged 30-39, along with 3 young boys, 2 young girls, a woman aged 30-39 and 6 slaves. His property in Harris County was sold to pay his debts in 1833. Henrietta filed for divorce in 1835, apparently on grounds of abandonment.  I haven't found Littleberry again until the 1860 Census, so I'm not sure if he stayed in Georgia.  I also haven't found a death or probate record for him in Georgia.  So, dead-end on this for now. 

7. Turner

I have a candidate for the immigrant Turner ancestor, but not a solid trail.  I believe the immigrant was William Turner, my probable 9x-great grandfather, who settled around St. Leonard's Creek in Calvert County about 1650. He probably came from England. He died in Calvert County MD about 1663. He left a will that named his children: Eldest son William, Edward, and Richard, all receiving land along the Choptank River (Dorchester County) and daughter Jane, wife of Stephen Clifton.  No wife is named, so I assume she is dead at this point. The reason I connect him to my line of Turners is because the family stayed around the St. Leonard's Creek area. William Turner Jr., who was of age in 1663, died in 1719 in Calvert County.  William's son, John, called John of St. Leonard's, predeceased his father about 1716. His will names his wife Johanna and sons John, Thomas, Gideon who are not yet of age. After that I can trace the Turners pretty clearly in my line. So, for now, I'm going with this rather tenuous thread of location/land ownership.  Calvert County having lost most records to several courthouse fires, it is hard to turn up more evidence. 

8. Somervell

The immigrant ancestor of this line was Dr. James Somervell, about whom I have previously written. Dr. Somervell, my 7x-great grandfather, was born 20 February 1688 in Ayershire, Scotland. He studied at the University of Edinburgh and was captured at the Battle of Preston and exiled to America. He prospered in the new world, married Sarah Howe in 1722 and had children with her: Rebecca, John, James and Alexander, my 6x-great grandfather, about whom I have written previously. Dr. Somervell served as a Justice of Calvert County and as the Sheriff.  He died in Calvert County in 1750. 

On the whole, then, I have done pretty well at identifying the immigrant ancestors for this section of my family tree. Four immigrants are very well documented since they were prominent land owners and active in provincial politics.  They knew and interacted with other ancestors of mine. Only one complete dead end, one kind of tenuous tie, and two open-ended connections back to England. I'm probably lucky that so many of these immigrants landed in Maryland and knew and interacted with each other, making connections somewhat easier to find. 

#52 Ancestors 2020 Week 7 Favorite Discovery: Great Uncle Gib Wright

I knew about my 3X great-grandfather, William Felix Wright, a lawyer and judge from Atlanta, quite some time ago.  Although he was born in Georgia and lived there his entire life, he happened to die while on a visit to his daughter, Ida Elizabeth Dent, in Maryland in 1887, and thus he turned up fairly early in my family history research.  After his death, his wife Elizabeth Caroline Dent, stayed in Maryland with her daughter and died there in 1914.

However, I never had much luck tracing the Wright line and further back than William.  I suspected that he might be the son of 60-year-old Littleberry Wright, who showed up in the 1860 Census of Newnan GA living next door to William and his family, but I had no evidence for this other than proximity.

Until I found a serendipitous reference to William one day when I was browsing through newspapers.com.  The Atlanta Constitution did a little article in 1898 about "kinsmen on the Georgia bench,"  listing judges who had fathers, sons, or brothers also serving in the judiciary.  It turned out that William had a brother who was also a judge: Gilbert J. Wright.  Who knew?  Certainly not me.  This Gilbert had never shown up in my research.

And fortunately for me, Gilbert was quite well-known in Georgia, far better known than his brother William.  Gilbert Jefferson Wright, or Gib, as he was known, was famous for his exploits as a general in the Confederate Army.  There were numerous articles about Gib and one of them named his parents, Littleberry Wright and Henrietta Austin.  Bingo. My 4X-great-grandparents.  A decades-long brick wall leaped over.

And bonus, Gib was also an interesting character in his own right.

Born in Gwinnett County GA 18 February 1825, about a year after William, Gib grew to a towering height of 6' 4". According to his biography in Men of Mark in Georgia, in his youth, he fell into bad habits and during one of his drinking bouts, was so unfortunate as to kill one of his comrades.  This led to a notable trial and his ultimate acquittal of the charge.  Gib was one of the first to volunteer for the war with Mexico in 1846, where he sustained a wound that gave him a stiff neck and a slightly peculiar stance for the rest of his life.

Returning to Georgia after the war, he studied law, set up practice in Albany GA, and in 1850, married Dorothy Chandler, the daughter of Thomas Henry Chandler and Mary Belle Jackson. They had no children.

At the outbreak of the war between the states, Gib organized the Albany Hussars, part of Cobb's Legion.  He participated in more than 100 engagements during the war and ultimately rose to the rank of Brigadier General. There are many accounts of his eccentricities, such as this story about his actions at Gettysburg:

On entering a small town, a panic-stricken courier rushed up to him saying, "General, the Yankees are coming down this road! "  To which Gib replied: "Tell 'em I'm travelling this road myself and if they don't get out of the way, it will be hell to pay." In a few minutes, he met the Federals, charged them instantly, and despite the fact that he was outnumbered, he routed them and captured a great many Union prisoners. (The Anderson Intelligencer, Anderson Court House SC, 14 February 1900.)

After the war, Wright returned to Georgia and the practice of law, was several times elected mayor of Albany and eventually appointed to the bench in 1875.

As a judge, he continued to forge a unique path, as this story illustrates:

"The redoubtable Col. Gilbert J. Wright, mayor of Albany, and judge of the Circuit Court, 1875-80. "Old Gib," as he was known to the cavalrymen of the Army of Northern Virginia, was a man of undisputed courage, successor of Gen. P. M. B. Young as colonel of Cobb's Legion. Once when he was presiding on the bench, two men, a white man and a Negro, were tried on the same day, for the same offence, by the same jury. The jury found the white man innocent: later that day they declared the Negro guilty. Said Judge Wright: "Stand up, Moses. You have been convicted of being a nigger. I put the lightest fine on you the law permits, one dollar, and I pay it myself." (Atlanta Constitution, 25 April 1962.)

Gilbert Jefferson Wright died in Monroe County GA 3 June 1895 and is buried in the Forsyth City Cemetery.

So, the discovery of my 3X-great-uncle, Gilbert Jefferson Wright, not only led me back another generation in my family history, but also uncovered a genuinely interesting branch of the family tree.

#52 Ancestors 2020 Week 1 Fresh Start: The Redemption of Hinton P. Wright

Hinton P. Wright seemed to have everything going for him. Born in 1849 in Franklin County GA, he was the eldest son of a prominent lawyer (later Judge), William Felix Wright and his wife Elizabeth Caroline Dent.  His maternal grandfather was a well-known member of Congress from Georgia, William Barton Wade Dent, who helped found the city of Newnan GA where Hinton grew up. Hinton's name was the family name of William BW Dent's wife, Sarah Hinton.  (I never have found out what the P. stands for!) Hinton went into the law profession himself and was regarded as a talented legal mind as well as an exceptionally handsome man.

Unfortunately, Hinton also had a temper and a seeming proclivity for using his considerable talents in his own self-interest rather than his clients.

In 1869, he was courting Marie Louise Robinson, the beautiful young daughter of John Evans Robinson.  Her family opposed the marriage, and her brother Edward challenged Hinton to a duel one morning outside of the Baptist Church in Newnan.  Hinton shot Edward dead, was arrested, but managed to escape custody.  Eventually, Hinton was acquitted, the young couple eloped and were married in March 1870, and had two children: Ida Dent Wright in 1871 and Albert Spaulding Wright in 1873.

The Atlanta city directories from 1872 to 1888 show Hinton practicing law with various partners, including, at one point, with his father. In 1876, Hinton was a magistrate, a low-level judge.  Even after his death, other lawyers told admiring stories about his courtroom exploits and clever legal maneuvers.

In 1879, however, Hinton was involved in a bribery scandal that got national attention. The Comptroller-General of Georgia was impeached for stealing public funds and apparently used Wright to bribe two members of the legislature to vouch for his innocence. After this scandal, Wright went rapidly downhill. As his obituary noted, "the handsome, well-dressed lawyer became a seedy drunk and a pitiful wreck." "His name became a proverb for debauchery."

Marie Robinson Wright divorced Hinton in 1886 and she went on to become a renowned writer for the New York World, a contemporary of Nellie Bly, famous for her explorations of Central and South America.

The divorce apparently spurred Wright on to reform.  In 1887, he spoke at a meeting of the Young Men's Prohibition Club declaring that he had stopped drinking, regained his health and was all in on the cause of prohibition. (Atlanta Constitution, 4 November 1887.)  He married for a second time in 1888 to May Bowen and had a daughter Lucille with her. Hinton left Atlanta for Chattanooga with his wife and daughter and was initially well-received there, according to the local paper, because of his seemingly excellent credentials and his imposing physical appearance:

"He had a large massive form, weighed nearly 220 pounds and was nearly six feet tall. His smooth-shaven face was lighted up by a pair of bright, intelligent black eyes and his head was covered with a heavy mass of black hair that had a decided tendency to curl. He was apparently about 40 years old and was a suave, chatty, and not uninteresting conversationalist."  (Chattanooga Daily Times, 24 November 1889)

But, alas, Wright swindled his landlady and several other citizens and fled the city.  He was arrested in Atlanta, Chattanooga, Birmingham and elsewhere on various criminal charges. By 1889, the newspaper reported that he weighed nearly 300 pounds and was no longer practicing law. .

Hinton Wright's redemption came late in his life.  A friend induced him to attend a tent revival outside Atlanta, suggesting that the alternative was commitment to an asylum because he was in such bad shape.  Wright's agreed to attend the revival and his conversion there became the talk of the town.  He vowed to become an evangelist himself and began preaching against the evils of drink.  "I know," he said, "that if I serve God half as well as I have served the devil, I will be successful as a Christian." As one newspaper noted, "Wright is a man of great natural ability . . . and it is predicted that he will be a singularly successful evangelist." (Memphis Appeal-Avalanche, 10 May 1891)

Wright returned to the practice of law and spent the next year or so preaching revivals, exhorting others to avoid the "rocks and quicksand" that he encountered in his own checkered career. In his obituary, the Atlanta Constitution reported that he was often seen at the police station trying to help some poor fellow out of trouble.  That became his religion: aiding others.

He died in August 1892 at Marietta GA.  As the Constitution dramatically reported: "Just as a new life of usefulness and honor was spreading before him beauteous with promise, Hinton Wright was touched by the chill finger of death and his career was abruptly ended."