#52 Ancestors 2019 Week 39 Map It Out: The Evolution of Kequotan's Choice, Anne Arundel County MD

Kequotan’s Choice

Kequotan’s Choice is a property which shows up several times in the Scrivener family. For this research project, I have chosen to trace it from its original patent in 1663 through the early nineteenth century when it left the Scriveners. The name Kequotan’s Choice sounds like it might be of native American origin, but I do not know why this name was chosen for the property. The spelling of the tract name shows considerable variation over time.

On 6 May 1663, Stephen Benson, a carpenter, was granted a patent for 300 acres in Anne Arundel County, lying in the branches of Herring Creek. (1) The tract, called Kequotan Choice, was granted to Benson because he had transported Eliza Benson, Mary Smith, Daniel Rosse and Mary Clarke to Maryland. The patent contains the following description of the property:

Begin in the woods at a marked oak, said oak being the NW corner tree of a parcel of land laid out for William Ayres and the NE corner of a parcel surveyed for Samuel Chew and running west by the land of said Chew 150 perches to a marked white oak; bounded on the West by a line drawn north until it intersects a parallel to the land of John Burrage; bounded on the North by said parallel and Burrages’s land; on the East with the headlines of William Selby’s land and others from the creek; on the South with Chew’s land.

The metes and bounds are not exact enough in the patent to draw a plat of the property, but its general configuration is suggested in Figure 1. 

Anne Arundel County deeds record the sale of the property by Stephen Benson to George Simmons and Faith Wilson (alias Gongoe) on 7 February 1667, for 4000 pounds of tobacco. (2) The deed gives the same metes and bounds as the original patent. I do not know the connection between Simmons and Wilson, although I suspect there must be one if they are buying property together. Possibly siblings? Despite the sale of the property, Anne Arundel County deeds of 1669, 1672, and 1682, mention Stephen Benson’s property, Kecoughton Choice, as a boundary of Robert Paca’s tract, Daun or Dan, also indicated in Figure 1. (3)

George Simmons’ will of 1679 leaves his dwelling plantation, presumably Simmons’ half of Kequotqan’s Choice, to his son George George Symons, who is not yet 18 years of age. (4) Faith Gongo’s will of 1693 divides her 150 acres of the tract among three of her four daughters. (5) Mary Trevitt, wife of Robert, Ann Gongo and Faith Gongo each receive 50 acres. The fourth daughter, Lois, the wife of Christopher Vernon, and the widow of Lewis Evans,(6) did not inherit any of the property, probably because her two husbands between them owned most of the property surrounding Kequotan’s Choice.

Robert Trevitt died about 1698 and his wife then married Peter Tibbido and had several children—Mary, born 14 March 1703; Joseph, born 15 January 1706; and Faith, born 12 July 1708, as shown in the Register of St. James Parish. (7)

The St. James Register likewise records that Ann Gongo married Samuel Gushard on 2 November 1704 and had several children—Hannah, born 30 October 1704; Elizabeth, born 28 February 1705; Anthony, born 17 June 1708; George, born 19 July 1710; Ann, born 11 December 1713; and Mark, baptized 29 April 1716. (8) Samuel Gushard’s burial is recorded on 26 September 1733. (9)

Faith Gongo, according to the St. James Register, apparently had several children out of wedlock: Elizabeth, born 10 March 1698\9; and Samuel (whose father is listed as Samuel Guichard—her future brother-in-law?) born 3 April 1700. (10) Faith later married Richard Hall of Calvert County and had several children with him: Faith, born 12 October 1704; John, born 2 August 1705; Richard, born 1 October 1708; and Sarah, born 28 December 1710. (11)

On 8 May 1705, a special warrant was granted to George Symons of Anne Arundel County and Faith Wilson, also Gongo, of the same county who was then married to Richard Hall to resurvey the tract laid for Stephen Benson called Kicketon’s Choice and to include surplus land.(12) The property was located in Anne Arundel Manor; in the resurvey, it included 432.5 acres.

The metes and bounds given in the resurvey are as follows:

Begin at a cedar post near the branches of Herring Creek also the NW corner tree of William Ayres’ land and the NE corner of Samuel Chew, running from said post with Chew’s land by a line drawn West 210 perches to a pair tree planted where the original white oak bounded stood and from the pair tree North 368 perches to ye land of John Burrage where now is planted another pair tree; then with Burrage’s line ESE 186 perches to the headline of a tract called Marshes Seat, then with said tract S 28 perches to a locust post, being placed where exterior tree of said Marshes Seat stood, it also being the westernmost boundary of a tract of land called Town or Parker’s Land belonging to the orphans of Lewis Evans of Anne Arundel County and running with said Towne or Parker’s land from said locust post SSE 271 perches to the West by South line of said Ayres. The with said land by a straight line to the first cedar post.

These boundaries produce a plat of the property as shown in Figure 2. 

On 23 June 1714, Anne Arundel County Deeds show the sale of 50 acres from Richard Hall and Faith his wife, to Samuel Gushard. (13) That deed describes how the property was originally divided among the three sisters, shown with broken lines in Figure 2.

The other half of the property, meanwhile, passed to another generation of the Simmons family. George Simmons will of 1720 does not name his property, but it mentions only one son—George—who is not yet 21. (14) I assume that George inherited the land. The will was witnessed by Samuel Guichard and William Vernon, indicating that Simmons still lived in the area where Kequotan’s Choice was located, Guichard and Vernon being the neighboring land owners.

The Rent Roll of 1724 shows George Symons owning 150 acres of Kirketon’s Choice, Samuel Guichard owning 100 acres in right of his wife, and Peter Tibedan owning 50 acres in right of his wife, the daughter of Ann Gongo. (15) (I think this last was an error, since Peter’s wife was actually the daughter of Faith Gongo.)

The next official mention of Kequotan’s Choice occurs in Mary Tipitoe’s will of 1744, when she leaves 50 acres of the tract, lying near Herring Creek, to her son Joseph. (16)

In 1753, Catherine Evans Clark Thornbury, the daughter of Lois Gongo Evans Vernon, and the granddaughter of Faith Gongo, purchased 164 acres of Kirketon’s Choice from her cousins Anthony and Mark Guishard, then living in Baltimore County. This amounted to two-thirds of Faith’s original purchase. (17)

Catherine Thornbury’s will of 1768 left Kirketon’s Choice to her grandson, John Scrivener, the son of William Scrivener and Elizabeth Clark. (18) George Simmons will of 1769 left his piece of Kequotan’s Choice to his son John, (19) who in 1771 traded property with his brother, Knighton Simmons. (20)

In June 1772, John Scrivener, Knighton Simmons, and Joseph Tipitoe worked a three-way deal in which Knighton Simmons bought John Scrivener’s 166 acres of Kirketon’s Choice and also Joseph Tipitoe’s 50 acres. Simmons then gave the 50 acre piece to John Scrivener. This transaction left all of Kequotan’s Choice except one 50-acre parcel in the hands of Knighton Simmons, a descendant of the original owner. (21)

After Knighton Simmons’ death, however, 160 acres of the tract was sold at a Sheriff’s sale to pay Simmons’ debts. Thus Anne Arundel County Deeds record Francis Scrivener’s purchase of a part of Kicketton’s Choice in 1796 for L200. (22) Francis was a cousin of the John Scrivener who had earlier owned the property, and I strongly suspect, Knighton Simmon’s brother-in-law. I believe that Francis Scrivener married Elizabeth Simmons sometime between 1771 and 1776, although I have not been able to prove this conclusively. Francis had previously bought Evans Purchase, the property next to Kequotan’s Choice and was thus Simmons’ nearest neighbor. Francis also named his third son George, a name that does not appear prior to this in the Scrivener line. Naming patterns suggest that George was named for his maternal grandfather, in this case, possibly George Simmons.

Francis Scrivener died shortly after his purchase of Kicketon’s Choice and left both that property and Evans Purchase to his son George Scrivener. (23) George’s property was managed for him by his older brother John until George came of age in 1805. George quickly ran into financial difficulty and sold the property back to his brother. George died about 1810, deeply in debt. George’s creditors brought suit, claiming that the earlier sale had been a ruse to avoid paying them, (24) and John Scrivener ended up selling off Kirketon’s Choice to George’s creditors. (25)

In Figure 3, I have attempted to show the position of this tract on a modern map. 

A

Research by Anne Scrivener Agee 1992

Sources:

• 1. Patents L5 F458
• 2. Anne Arundel County Deeds WT#1 F237-8
• 3. Anne Arundel County Deeds IH#1 F268, 273; IH#3 F123
• 4. Anne Arundel County Original Wills Box S F41
• 5. Prerogative Court Wills L2 F262
• 6. Anne Arundel County Testamentary Papers Box 10 F57, Administrative Bond 27 June 1698
• 7. St. James Register P28 #16; P32#6; P37# 7
• 8. St. James Register P47#17; P32#4; P30#11; P36#7; P44#6; P39#14; P49#16
• 9. St. James Register P60#2
• 10. St. James Register P19#14; P20#7
• 11. St. James Register P37#4,5,6; P41#15
• 12. Patents L DD#5 F713
• 13. Anne Arundel County Deeds IB#2 F158
• 14. Prerogative Court Wills L16 F182 14 June 1720
• 15. Anne Arundel County Rent Roll, Herring Creek Hundred
• 16. Anne Arundel County Original Wills Box T F16
• 17. Anne Arundel County Deeds RB#3 Vol 2 F634
• 18. Anne Arundel County Original Wills Box T F30
• 19. Anne Arundel County Original Wills Box S F40
• 20. Anne Arundel County Deeds IB#3 F111
• 21. Anne Arundel County Deeds IB#3 F314-318
• 22. Anne Arundel County Deeds NH#4 F456
• 23. Anne Arundel County Original Wills Box S F21
• 24. Chancery Court 5701 April Term 1810
• 25. Anne Arundel County Deeds WSG#2 F116

#52 Ancestors 2019 Week 40 Harvest: Marlboro Tobacco Market

Tobacco was an important crop in Maryland almost from the first days of its settlement.  Southern Maryland was covered in tobacco, gathered on to sticks in back-breaking hand labor, dried in barns, packed into giant hogsheads and rolled to the nearest port for shipment back to England. In 1775,  Virginia and Maryland shipped 100 million pounds of tobacco worth more than $4 million, about 75 percent of the total exports from these two colonies.

Maryland tobacco was especially prized for its slow-burn and smooth taste.  The "free-burning" Maryland tobacco was the only kind that could be used "as is," without blending.  In modern times, European cigarette makers reportedly used up to 85 percent Maryland tobacco in their products.

My grandfather, Paul Summers, was among the many thousands of Maryland farmers who relied on tobacco farming to make a living for his family. I have vivid memories of his barns filled with sticks of tobacco drying out over the winter for sale in the spring. A 60 to 80 pound stick would weigh only a couple of pounds once it dried out.

In the late 1930's, having suffered through the Great Depression, my grandfather and a few other farmers, developed a new idea for selling tobacco that they hoped would re-invigorate the market for their product. They opened a local auction house--the Marlboro Tobacco Market--where farmers from the five "tobacco counties"--Anne Arundel, Calvert, Prince George's, Charles, and St. Mary's--would bring their baskets of leaf to the auction floor for sale to the highest bidder. This "leaf market" lowered the hauling costs and got payment to the farmers faster. Paul Summers was the general manager of the Marlboro Tobacco Market from its opening in 1939 to his death in 1970.  My uncle, Hill Summers, became the manager after his father. 

Buyers had complained that the old system of buying in hogsheads forced them to take a chance on an unseen product.  They might get some very good tobacco mixed with a lot that wasn't so good.

In this new loose-leaf market, farmers brought in "burdens" of tobacco and displayed them on the floor of the market in huge oaken baskets where buyers and inspectors could handle them, sixty to a hundred pounds in a stack. An auctioneer (chanting the nearly unintelligible sing-song language of bidding) moved down the long aisles and tickets with bids were placed on top of the baskets and the grower decided whether to accept the bid or try for resale at a higher figure. If he accepted the bid, he could take the ticket immediately to the office and get his check.

After a bid was accepted, the "burdens" were packed into hogsheads and shipped to the factories of the winning bidder.

The farmers hoped that this new method of auction sales would help Maryland regain its pride of place among tobacco growers.  And for a time, that seemed to be true. In the first auction in 1939, the Marlboro Tobacco Market sold more than 632,000 pounds of tobacco for over $98,000, an average of about 16 cents a pound.  In 1942, according to the Sun, farmers were elated by a high price of 50 cents per pound.  About 30 million pounds of tobacco were sold that year in Maryland. By 1948, the Marlboro Tobacco Market sold 1/6 of the Maryland crop.

By 1971, even though tobacco prices were up to about 80 cents per pound, and sales seemed good, farmers were not making much money because of the higher costs of the difficult hand labor and the increasing costs of their equipment, as well as competition from increased job opportunities in other fields. Many farmers dropped out of the market. At the time, the head of the Maryland Tobacco Authority insisted that the Surgeon General's report from the mid-60's had "no appreciable effect" on Maryland tobacco sales, but it seemed that the handwriting was on the wall and the once-lively auctions gradually died out by the early 2000's with just a few buyers and elderly farmers selling their crops.

Today, the Marlboro Tobacco Market is no more. I can remember visiting there as a child, hearing the auctioneer and smelling that rich, earthy aroma.  In its later years, the market became as well-known for the annual Antique Show that filled the huge space every fall as for its tobacco auctions.


Update:  My cousin Scarlett Sasscer gave me this picture of her father, Wally Sasscer working his first job at the Marlboro Tobacco Market.  He is sitting at the scale where the burdens of tobacco were weighed. 

#52 Ancestors 2019 Week 34 Tragedy: The Tragic Death of Celestia Gwynn Belt

My 3X great-aunt, Celestia Gwynn, died tragically in a house fire at age 86.

Celestia was the fourth of eight children of John Hilleary Gwynn and Ann Eliza Dyer of Prince George's County MD, born in July 1826. Her brother, Andrew Jackson Gwynn, was my 2X great-grandfather.  She married Stephen Belt, the son of Benjamin Belt and Margaret Hilleary, in Washington DC in November 1846.

The couple spent most of their married life farming in Prince George's County.  Stephen won prizes at the county agricultural fair for his hogs and attended meetings of the Patuxent Planters Club on topics such as how to make tobacco farming more profitable.

Late in life, Stephen became more or less an invalid, and in 1902 went to spend the winter in Baltimore with the Edelen family, Celestia's sister Emily having married Walter Edelen.  Stephen died suddenly at the Edelen's on 10 March 1902.  And here is where Celestia's life took a drastic turn for the worse.

Just a few hours after her husband's death, Celestia fell  down the front steps of the house on her way to church, sustaining a compound fracture of her thigh, from which she never really recovered.

She spent the remaining 13 years of her life as an invalid, living with her sister Emily's family in Baltimore and getting around only with the help of crutches.

On the evening of March 22, 1915, Celestia apparently knocked over a candle next to her bed and set the bedclothes on fire.  She was unable to rouse anyone or get herself out of the bed and died in the fire.

There were three other women in the house at the time, Celestia's sister, Emily Edelen, and Emily's two granddaughters, Mary and Carmelite Edelen. According to the news accounts, Carmelite smelled smoke and went out to the hall only to see her great-aunt's room engulfed in flames and the fire within minutes of cutting off the stairway.  She roused the other two women and they escaped in their nightclothes to a neighbor's house.  Carmelite stayed long enough to call the fire department and Mary ran down the street to pull the fire alarm.

The three women ended up staying at my great-grandmother's house (Louise Gwynn Scrivener) who was a niece of Emily and Celestia and lived nearby.  Carmelite became a lifelong friend of her cousin, my grandfather, Frank Scrivener, and I knew her as an elderly lady who played poker and drank whiskey with my grandfather.  She was a character in her own right who was the secretary to a wealthy man and loved betting the horses among other things.  She often told us about her friends who were "fabulously wealthy and beautifully connected. "

Celestia was buried beside her husband at Mt. Carmel Cemetery in Upper Marlboro.  They had no children.

#52 Ancestors 2019 Week 36 School Days: Baden Agricultural High School

Worried that the big cities were stealing away their children, the good citizens of Prince George's County decided to build an agricultural high school designed to "awaken in its pupils a just appreciation for the many advantages of country life."  My maternal grandparents, Paul Francis Summers and Theresa Evalina Sasscer, were among the first students of Baden Agricultural High School.

Baden Agricultural High School, built in 1912 at a cost of $13,000, was the first agricultural high school in Southern Maryland. The Annual Report of the State Board of Education in that year touts the new building as "a fine example of modern school architecture," constructed of "thoroughly waterproofed concrete" with maple floors and woodwork.  The report also noted how "inordinately proud" the local community was that the architect and builder of the school were local men, J. Howe Rawlings and Walter S. Young, respectively. "Who can claim more for one community?" 

As the local newspaper bragged: "The passer-by looks more than once, so attractive in design and esthetics in its harmonious colors is this three-story concrete structure."  The editor went on to rhapsodize the well-equipped laboratory, the domestic science classroom (where samples were dispensed) and the considerable library.  The school even boasted a piano! "Do you wonder at our boastful spirit?"  
 
But more important than the design was the purpose of the school.  According to Principal, W.R.C. Connick:

The establishment of this school is the beginning of a movement by the people of the community to conserve one of their most valuable assets--their boys and girls. The proximity of the large cities of Baltimore and Washington has for years caused such a steady draining away of the young people that it had become imperative that something be done to stop it. Believing that the chief cause of this exodus is the character of the education that is given to their children--fitting them for the city's workshop and the city's office instead of adapting them to the environment of country life--the more progressive spirits of the community asked and received from the General Assembly a bond issue...for the erection of a school, the dominant aim of which would be to awaken in its pupils a just appreciation of the many advantages of country life.

In addition to following the Course of Study adopted by the State Board of Education, Baden Agricultural High School aimed to "equip its boys for the successful solution of the problems of farm life" and to inspire and cultivate in its girls an interest in and love for the highest sphere of women--homemaking."  Baden aspired to be the social and intellectual center of its community, emphasizing the dignity and importance of labor and above all, "to waken an enthusiasm for the glorious privilege of living in God's out of doors."

 This photo is the class of 1916, when both my mother's parents were students there.

My grandfather, Paul Francis Summers is in the back row, fourth from the right next to the girl with the bow. My grandmother, Evalina Sasscer, is seated in the middle row on the left end of the bench in a white blouse with a bow. Grandfather's sister, Ruth Summers, is the girl in the dark dress.

I think my grandparents absorbed the ideals of the school.  Paul Summers went on to found the Marlboro Tobacco Market, a new idea for selling single-leaf tobacco.  He and my grandmother raised nine children on their farm, and if my mother, who cultivated a large garden until she was almost ninety, was any evidence, they all enjoyed the "glorious privilege of living in God's out of doors."

Paul Summers also played on the school's baseball team.  In this photo from 1915, he is in the back row on the far left.

Finally, I found online a wonderful picture of the horse-drawn wagon that served to carry students to Baden Agricultural High School in the early 1900's.  I haven't identified any relatives for sure in this picture, but I think that might be my grandmother seated in the wagon, second from the left.

Here is the graduation program for 1916 that includes both of my grandparents.

#52 Ancestors 2019 Week 35 At Work: Lettie Marshall Dent, First Woman Superintendent of Schools

My cousin, Violetta Marshall  "Lettie" Dent, was the first female superintendent of schools in Maryland and until 1980, the only female superintendent of schools in the state.

Lettie, the youngest daughter of Joseph Hugh Dent and Frances Lillia "Fannie" Dent, was born in Newnan, Coweta County GA 7 March 1894. She attended St. Mary's Female Seminary in St. Mary's County, MD, graduating in 1911.  (Followed a few years later by her cousin and my grandmother, Elizabeth Dent.) Here is her picture at May Day 1911.

She went on to Western Maryland College in Westminster MD, graduating in 1915 with cum laude honors.

After college, she became a teacher in St. Mary's County Public Schools and by 1928 was the principal at River Springs Elementary school.

At that time, the superintendent's position became open and a member of the school board encouraged Lettie to apply.  She did and was appointed at age 34  to the position which she held for the next 30 years, retiring in 1957.

"Miss Lettie," as she was known, took a very personal interest in the schools she supervised.  Sometimes, in lieu of meetings, she would take School Board members on a tour of the one of the 48 schools in the county so they could see first-hand what was happening in the schools. She also had a reputation for personally selecting new teachers hired in the county.

Certainly Miss Lettie's tenure as superintendent was not without challenges.  In her first decade, she had to deal with the effects of the Great Depression as she struggled to find resources for the schools.  During and after World War II, she dealt with enormous growth in the system as many military-connected personnel and their families moved into the county.  In her last years as superintendent, the system was dealing with the enormous changes brought by the movement to integrate the schools.

In the 1950's, the county built consolidated schools that drew in students from the old one-and two-room school houses, but these schools were still segregated. In 1956, the N.A.A.C.P brought suit against her and the St. Mary's Board of Education on behalf of 66 black children,  claiming that the schools provided for these children were inferior to those provided for white children and that the county had no plan in place for integrating the schools, despite a Supreme Court ruling directing integration.

A judge at the time described the county this way: "St. Mary's County is the southernmost county in Southern Maryland, slow to change. Its traditional pattern has been disturbed during the last fifteen years by the establishment of Patuxent Naval Base.  Serious problems exist with respect to school facilities and transportation."

According to the first black member of the St. Mary's School Board, appointed in 1955, Miss Lettie was against integration of the schools and even threatened to resign when a black man was appointed to the Board,  However, she did not resign and integration proceeded slowly, but fairly peacefully.  In August 1956, the School Board announced that it would begin voluntary integration in the next school year.  Four black students applied for transfer to white schools, but none actually attended the next year. In 1958, the year after Miss Lettie's retirement, two black students attended the formerly all-white Great Mills High School.  The local paper reported that "race barriers crashed silently as two Negro youngsters quietly took their place in class.  Except for a cluster of out-of-town reporters, it seemed like any other opening day at Great Mills." Thus St. Mary's County became the 15th of Maryland's 23 jurisdictions to integrate the public schools.

 Miss Lettie retired from her position 31 December 1957.  At the time, her salary of $6500 was the lowest superintendent salary in the state. After her retirement, Lettie married Arthur Page Gough, a widower and road contractor.  She survived her husband by almost 20 years, dying in 1982 at a nursing home in Lexington Park at age 88.

St. Mary's County honored the memory of Lettie Marshall Dent by naming an elementary school in Mechanicsville in her honor.

#52 Ancestors 2019 Week 31 Brothers: Step-Sibling Marriages in the James Weems Family

Weems Crest

There is an interesting pattern of intermarriages in the family of Mary Skinner and James Weems of Calvert County MD.

Mary Skinner, the daughter of Dr. William Skinner and  Elizabeth Mackall, was born in Calvert County MD about 1701. She was married four times.

She married first before 1720 Robert Wheeler of Calvert County, the son of Roger Wheeler and Elizabeth Gibson.  Mary and Robert had two children: Elizabeth Wheeler ca. 1720 and Roger Wheeler ca. 1727.

Robert Wheeler died about 1728, and Mary married secondly Captain Joseph Wilkinson of England about 1730. Mary and Joseph Wilkinson had two children: Joseph Wilkinson Jr. and Elizabeth Wilkinson.  Captain Wilkinson died at sea on his way to England in 1735.

Mary married thirdly Thomas Crompton of Calvert County MD about 1738.  Mary and Thomas Crompton had four children: Ann Crompton, Thomas Crompton Jr., Mary Crompton, and Catherine Crompton. Thomas Crompton died in Calvert County MD in 1745.

Mary married fourthly James Loch Weems of Calvert County MD in April 1746. Mary and James had no children together, but James had six children from his first marriage aged 6 to 16 still living in his home.  Together with the eight children from Mary's three marriages, that made for quite a full house at the Weems plantation.

That propinquity led to three marriages among the step-siblings, connecting all three of Mary's previous marriages to the Weems family.

Susanna Weems, James' oldest daughter married Roger Wheeler, Mary Skinner's oldest son sometime before 1750.  Susanna and Roger had four daughters: Mary Wheeler, Elizabeth Wheeler, Sarah Weems Wheeler, and Anne Weems Wheeler. Both Roger and Susanna died before 1763, so the four girls were raised by their grandfather Weems, which later led to a series of lawsuits trying to straighten out their inheritance.  But that is a story for another time.

William Loch Weems, the second son of James, married his step-sister Elizabeth Wilkinson about 1756, as indicated in the settlement of her father's estate.  Elizabeth died shortly after the marriage, having no children, and William married secondly Amelia Chapman of Charles County.

John Weems, James' third son married his stepsister, Catherine Crompton, as the first of his four wives and the mother of five of his twelve children. Actually, I am not 100 percent certain that his wife was Catherine.  His son, John Crompton Weems, merely says that he married Miss Crompton, with whom he had grown up:

     "My grandfather's youngest son, my father John Weems, married a  Miss Crompton of Calvert             County. My grandfather James Weems, having married their mother, Mrs. Crompton, as his fourth     wife, [Actually, this is an error. James was Mary's fourth husband. ]the children , my father and           mother being quite young were brought up to call each other brother and sister. After their marriage     they built and settled at Weems Forest in Calvert County and had a large family. . . ."

However, looking at the family naming patterns in later generations, there are quite a few Catherines and Catherine Cromptons in the line, which makes me feel pretty safe in assuming that John Weems married Catherine Crompton rather than Mary or Anne.

Mary Skinner Wheeler Wilkinson Crompton Weems died in Calvert County MD in 1769.  James Loch Weems died at the home of his son William Loch Weems in Prince George's County MD in 1781.