As I search the records of my ancestors I notice that there are times I get quite frustrated. The records before 1750 are confusing and rarely are women even mention. Maryland genealogy is the most frustrating for everyone is fighting to be related to a certain group of people. Why even do the genealogy, I thought, since for hundreds of years no one yet has figured out the people of Colonial Maryland? So many people have researched Colonial Maryland so why should I give it a try?
I was reading a biography on Chaucer and then I realized that history, including family history is never dead. The book is written by a Chaucer scholar and in the preface he explains that he thought all of the information on Chaucer was aready found and the biographies were already written by the 1960s. As the years went on, mistakes have been found, years were seen as incorrect and new discoveries just in the past 40 years have opened up new information on Chaucer. I also did some reading on the Pipe Rolls of England. Officially the records begin in 1130. Recently, however, more rolls were found back to 1124 opening up new information.
So that is why family history must continue. New items might be found, and common stories passed down through the generations will be seen as myths. Reading the biography of Chaucer gave me new hope. I plan to start back over with the Maryland genealogy with what I know as fact and research the gaps that currently have been filled with myth.
This is what I know
Alexander Magruder had a wife named Sarah. They were good friends with the Bealls, Clagetts, and Taylors among others. Alexander died in 1677. He had sons named James, John, and Samuel. Sons Alexander and Nathaniel and a daughter Elizabeth had a different mother named Elizabeth. He was a Magruder who lived on Drummond lands in Scotland not a MacGregor that we can see at this time.
Samuel also married a woman named Sarah. After Samuel’s death, Sarah was still active in her comunity and appears in court several times. There are business transactions (with slaves) between herself and several other prominent men in Prince George’s county. I just read one between Sarah and Thomas Clagett concerning the birth of an illegitimate child by one of her servants. Thomas Clagett received the child in his care. Sarah and Samuel Magruder’s children married into the prominent families of Maryland and her daughter married the son of Col. Ninian Beall. Her grandchildren by this daughter were very dear to her. She also cared for another granddaughter, Sarah Clagett. I just found records showing that her mother Mary Magruder Clagett had died and her father, George Clagett was in prison. (for debt?) Sarah Clagett is mentioned in Sarah Magruder’s will.
Sarah and Samuel Magruder had a son named Ninian Magruder named after his family’s good friend, Ninian Beall. He married Elizabeth Brewer who is related to the Brewers, Ridgely’s, and possibly the Howard’s and the births of their children are well recorded. They had a son, Samuel. Samuel Magruder married Margaret Jackson and granddaughter of an Alexander Beall who so far I cannot connect to Col. Ninian Beall. This continued the Beall/Magruder friendship.
They had Joseph Magruder who name has passed down through my family. He married Catherine Fleming who was related to John Burgess. They had Catherine Magruder who married Thomas Watkins. They had Joseph Magruder Watkins who lived in Tennessee. Joseph Magruder Watkins married Margaret Linster whose mother was a Campbell. They had Annie Watkins who married William Tucker. They had Joseph Magruder Tucker who married Ida Majors. They had Frances Tucker who married Charles (Keith) Lee. They had Charles Lee Jr my father. He named one of his sons Joseph.
I also found other ways of connection. Joseph Belt married Ninian Beall’s daughter Hester who was the sister-in-law to Elizabeth Magruder daughter of Sarah and Samuel Magruder. Jospeh Belt’s mother was Elizabeth. This Elizabeth remarried a Lamb. Their daughter married Nicholas Watkins the grandfather of Thomas Watkins who married Catherine Magruder.
My grandfather Charles Lee might also have a connection to the Maryland families. There is a theory he might be related to the Keene family who later came to Virginia. Also, there is a theory that Moses Tucker was from Prince George’s County before moving to Virginia. There might be another connection to a Maryland colonist John Neville, but I think that has been now disproved. Our Nevilles first show up in Virginia not Maryland. If there are anymore family in Maryland, I do not know. We haven’t gone back that far in all of our lines. (Moses Tucker being an example)
