Mary Perkins (1615-1700) was born in England and came to Massachusetts in 1630 with her parents, John Perkins and Judith Gater, my 9th great-grandparents in the line of Helen Colby Myers, through Mary’s brother, Abraham Perkins. The Perkins line is traced back to King Henry III of England in several published sources, although the connection is not without controversy.

Anyway, Mary Perkins (Bradbury), when she was in her 70′s, was caught up in the Salem Witch hysteria. This quote is from the Perkins Family page of The New England Colonists Web:

On May 26, 1692, Mary [Perkins] Bradbury was named as a tormentor of Mary Walcott, Mercy Lewis, and Ann Putnam, Jr. She was arrested by Constable William Baker when she was 70 years of age [sic - she was more like 77]. Her husband, Captain Thomas Bradbury, was disliked by Suzanna Martin for his suspected tampering with her father’s will.

On August 9, 1692, Mary’s accusers depostions were taken. Suzanna Martin, enemy of her husband, was already hanged on July 19, 1692.

Mary was supposedly seen signing the Devil’s book. Other enemies were John Carr and his niece Anne Putnam, Jr. John Carr desired to marry Mary Bradbury’s daughter. Mary did not agree to his wants, since she thought her to be too young to marry. Later on, John Carr died in 1689. Mary Walcott and Ann Putnam, Jr. told the court that Uncle John appeared to them in a sheet as a spectre and told them that Mary Bradbury had killed him. John’s brother William, on the other hand, felt that John Carr had died of natural causes.

On Saturday, September 10, 1692, Mary [Perkins] Bradbury was sentenced to hang. Most of the testimony against Mary came from the Endicotts and the Carrs. The Carrs were the brothers of Mrs. Ann Putnam, Sr …

Another source, The Family of John Perkins of Ipswich, Massachusetts, by Geo. A. Perkins, M.D., Salem, 1882, quotes Mary’s answer to the indictment:

“I plead not guilty. I am wholly innocent of such wickedness through the goodness of God that hath kept me hitherto. I am the servant of Jesus Christ, and have given myself up to him as my only Lord and Saviour, and to the diligent attendance upon him in all his holy ordinances, in utter contempt and defiance of the Devil and all his works, as horrid and detestable; and have endeavored to frame my life and conversation in accordance with His holy word and in that faith and practice, resolve, by the help and assistance of God, to continue to my life’s end. For the truth of what I have to say as to the matter of practice, I humbly refer myself to my brethren and neighbors that know me, and to the searcher of all hearts, for the truth and uprightness of my heart therein, human frailties & unavoidable infirmaties excepted, of which I bitterly complain every day.”

118 friends and neighbors of the Bradbury’s signed a letter of testimony upholding Mary’s innocence and good character. But the court convicted her anyway, and sentenced her to be hanged on September 22, 1692. Back to The New England Colonists Web for the not-so-tragic outcome:

After Mary’s sentence a group of her supporters broke Mary Bradley [sic] out of jail. One of her accusers, Samuel Endicott, was said to have left home around the same time as she broke out of jail. He never returned. Seven years later he was still not found and was declared legally dead.

By Saturday, January 14, 1693 (four months later), Mary Bradbury was still in hiding, fearing that if she came back she would be charged for Samuel Endicott’s murder.

On Friday, May 12, 1693, Mary Bradbury rejoined her family and lived another seven years, until her death in 1700. By 1693, most prisoners were set free and the “Witch Hunt” was over.

Other sources state that bribes were paid to secure her release. Perkins (1882), states that Mary died of natural causes in 1693, instead of 1700.

Next: Stephen D Myers, new-found cousin.

Catherine, wife of George Eichelberger
Mary Myers
Charlotte, wife of John Eikert
Miranda Myers
Lawrence Madison Fout Myers
Thomas Jefferson Myers
Josephine Myers

So there you have it – the proof I was looking for that I have been studying the right person: Micheal Myers, the “blacksmith of Myers Ford,” is positively the brother of Philip Myers. A million thanks to Paul and to RAOGK. Apparently, Madison Myers dropped the leading name when he removed to Pennsylvania, perhaps in deference to his uncle Lawrence, who, although deceased by then, was a prominent figure in the local community.

Let’s hope that this will help lead us to the parents of Michael (and of Philip, Lawrence, and Henry), German immigrants to Maryland whose names have yet to be uncovered. Unless, of course, they are Valentin and Teresia Meyer of the Mainz church records. That would be lovely, as I traced at least five generations of their ancestors, back to around 1600. But see this post for the problem with that notion.

Stay tuned.

Forty Fort cemetery, PA

Madison F. Myers was born in Maryland, and removed to the Wyoming Valley (PA), where he married Harriet Myers, daughter of Philip Myers, and also his cousin, according to Genealogical and Family History of Wyoming and Lackawanna Valleys … Therefore, Madison’s father must be Philip’s brother.

My first post about Michael Myers’ gravestone drew a comment to the effect that Madison F. (Fout) Myers was indeed the son of that particular Michael Myers and Elizabeth Fout. Although I have yet to document this from an authoritative source, circumstantial evidence continues to accumulate. As today’s example, note the first and second name of Madison and Harriet’s first child:

Martha, the name of Harriet’s mother, and Elisabeth (Madison’s mother). It appears that the rest of the children were named not after ancestors, but prominent public figures, including Jenny Lind, the Swedish opera star who made her famous tour of the U.S. in 1850, the year of the fourth child’s birth.

Besides these four, who all died in early childhood, there were at least two other children, Franklin Benham Myers (also buried at Forty Fort), and William Penn Myers, whose name I found as a co-plaintiff with brother Franklin, in a lawsuit in 1889. By the way, F. Benham Myers, as his tombstone is inscribed, was the grandfather of Dr. Charles E. Myers, author of a relatively recent (1993), popular history of the Wyoming valley, presented as the biography of a leading pioneer there, our common ancestor Thomas Bennet.

More on this thread as it can be uncovered.

Mike pointed out that in the 1850 census, in the Creagerstown district of Frederick County, MD, an Elizabeth Myers, age 77, was counted as head of a household. This age puts her *close* to the birth date of 1770 given on the gravestone for Elizabeth Fout Myers. Also in the household is Mary Myers, age 48, listed on the stone with birth date of 1803. Only one year off in the case of Mary, three years for elderly Elizabeth; there can be little doubt these are the ones. The 1850 census was the first to include names of all household members, instead of only the head of each household. But I tracked the census entries back through 1840, 30, 20, 10, and 1800, and the numbers per age bracket match up pretty well. More on the census data in a moment.

To further cement the connection, Mike found a land sale on MDLandrec.net that ties it all together. As usual, click on the image to enlarge.

This deed was issued to George Layman, who bought the land from Mary Myers on 30 Aug. 1851, for a price of $468. The description includes exactly the seven parcels that Michael purchased between 1793 and 1810! Mary, you may recall, is included on the aforementioned gravestone. Besides cementing the relationships, the deed is encouraging to me personally; it indicates that I found all of the correct land transactions, and no spurious ones.

But the censuses (censi?) also reveal something I was wishfully thinking was not the case: the family owned slaves To be specific, one (plus one “free Negro”) in 1800, two in 1810, three (plus one “free Negro”) in 1820, a high of six in 1830 (remember, the farm and business were now being managed by a widow and adult daughter, who were also apparently supporting an orphan girl), five in 1840 and 1850. I’ll have to cede the moral high ground on that one.

The next problem (I’m hoping not too hard) is to tie the 1810-1830 census data, which show a boy of the right age bracket, to Madison F (Fout?) Myers, who removed to Pennsylvania, and married his cousin Harriet Myers. If that is successful, it will lead back to a harder job, one that I have been “on” for some time: to identify the father (and/or mother) of Philip, Lawrence, Michael, and Henry Myers.

It appears that this particular Michael Myers was very successful as a self-made entrepeneur (blacksmith and wagon-maker) and a farmer. 168 acres is not a huge farm, but not trifling either. Although Maryland was a slave state, slaves were generally owned by the wealthy English colonist-planters, rarely if ever by the much poorer German immigrant families. Michael may have had employees, perhaps apprentices, to help with his business and farming, but most likely not slaves (*! not so – see later posts).

As best I can tell after several weeks of perusing the land records, these seven parcels plus the lot in Woods Town are the only land in Frederick County held outright by any Michael Myers during that period. However, I did uncover another individual by that name. In an estate settlement of one Christian Shull in 1812, a lot in Frederick Town was conveyed in equal parts to all nine of Shull’s children, one of whom was named as “Margaret Myers of Frederick County, Wife of Michael Myers.”

While this Michael could conceivably be the blacksmith of Myers Ford, he could not be the “gravestone” Michael, who married Elizabeth Fout in 1792 and is buried with her at Mt. Olivet Cemetery. So now we have “Michael-1″(1768-1815), husband of Elizabeth Fout  Myers  as memorialized on that gravestone (and purportedly also the brother of Philip Myers); and “Michael-2,” husband of Margaret Shull Myers (nothing more is known).

Other land transactions of note during this period involve a Michael Myers as a trustee or administrator of several estates. Here is a list of those I found, with dates and names of deceased:

3 Jul 1808 John Carlin
10 Sep 1811 Peter Stimmel
30 Oct 1812 John Rusher
7 Jan 1814 John Rusher
27 Aug 1814 Barnhart Gilbert
9 Dec 1816* John Devilibis *The deed recorded on this date states that Michael Myers was a trustee on 5 June 1815, but had since died, and another trustee, Jacob Cramer, taken over. As we shall see in a moment, Cramer was also administrator of Michael Myers’ estate. While these dates do not prove anything, they at least suggest that this is “Michael-1,” who died in 1815, as indicated on his gravestone.

Now let us review the newspaper abstracts naming a Michael Myers as an appointee of the Frederick County government. Someone by that name was appointed as a Supervisor in 1801 and 1804, Supervisor of Roads (1803; could this have something to do with “Myers Ford?”), Justice of the Peace (1803, 1804, 1810), Estate administrator (1805, 1808, 1809, including two of the deceased named above).  Were these “Michael-1,”  “Michael-2,” or a combination of the two, and perhaps others? No convincing evidence, but from my humble deductions, Michael-1 is the stronger candidate. I am also currently leaning toward Michael-1 for the Myers Ford blacksmith, for a couple of reasons already stated. While we are reading  the “news,” don’t forget the article of 9 Mar 1816, naming Jacob Cramer as Administrator for the estate of Michael Myers.

Next question: When Michael the blacksmith died, whether it was in 1815 or some other year, what became of his land at Hunting Creek? I have scoured the index for transactions involving Jacob Cramer, and found several, but none for any of that particular land, and none involving an estate of Michael Myers. I will appeal to Mike Pierce for help, yet again.

Perhaps I am getting too obsessed with identifying a person who is not even a direct ancestor. But I am grasping hard after his parents (who are), and this is all I have to go on, so far.

]]> http://olelarsonsfolks.net/Blog/2011/01/08/two-michaels-michael-myers-part-5/feed/ 0 http://olelarsonsfolks.net/Blog/2011/01/05/trouble-in-woods-town/ http://olelarsonsfolks.net/Blog/2011/01/05/trouble-in-woods-town/#comments Wed, 05 Jan 2011 14:54:07 +0000 George http://olelarsonsfolks.net/Blog/?p=3455 Remember the earliest record I found of land purchase by a Michael Myers? It was in Woods Town (also known as Woodsberry, Woodbury, and today is called Woodsboro). Michael bought lot #4 in 1790, and sold it just a year later, to a “Philip Henry Myers,” which name I chalked up to coincidence. But on 1 March 1799, Michael Myers bought the same lot again, not from its owner, but from the sheriff of Frederick County!

The land was seized in a court-issued “writ of Fieri Facias,” which is a seizure of property to satisfy a debt. The writ was issued against not “Philip Henry Myers,” but “Henry Myers,” and Michael along with him. (My mentor, Mike Pierce, thinks that including Michael may have been an error, but there may be more to it.)

A couple of things here get my neck hairs standing up. First, the name, of course. If the individual who bought this lot from Michael eight years earlier was named not “Philip Henry” but “Henry,” it tantalizingly suggests that these were indeed the brothers Michael and Henry Myers, brothers also to Philip and Lawrence Myers, who were settled by this time in Pennsylvania. The name in the 1791 deed, “Philip Henry Myers,” may have been a clerical error, or perhaps brother Philip of PA may have been involved somehow in the purchase.

Here is what Mike Pierce said about the 1799 transaction:

This is a case of the somewhat unique Maryland system of Ground Rents. When Joseph Wood conveyed the property in 1790, it was not a a real sale. The land was “assigned” to Michael Myers who then had to pay annual “ground rent” of 7 shillings, 6 pence forever. He never really owned the land, only what he built on it. This is the system today in much of Baltimore.

In WR 11:177, 7 May 1792, Joseph Wood transferred all his ground rents in Woodberry Town to Adam Creager, who then had the right to collect them. I suspect that Henry Myers didn’t pay the rent, so Adam Creager took action ( I presume through his lawyer David Lynn). From the deed in WR 10:297, it would seem that Philip Henry Myers was responsible for paying the rent, but the writ maybe incorrectly also names Michael. Anyway, Michael came up with the money to pay the back rent and regained ownership.

Since the current deeds do not mention a ground rent, I presume they were extinguished by being purchased by the property owner some time ago.

These ground rents are continuing to cause trouble when people think they buy a property and don’t know about the rent and then lose their home. The Maryland legislature passed new laws last year to correct this, but the land owners have filed lawsuits to block the new law.

So, this is what it looks like: 212 years ago, shoemaker Henry Myers didn’t pay his rent; then blacksmith Michael Myers intervened, to “save” the home. Sure sounds like brothers to me. Here is a section of the topog map showing the close proximity of Woodsboro, Creagerstown, and Michael’s property at Myers Ford. Click on the image to enlarge.

After this transaction, Michael continued buying pieces of land at Hunting Creek. Next post, we will see how the pieces all fit together.

Michael Myers continued to purchase land in the Hunting Creek area. He must have been a pretty successful blacksmith/wagon builder. When he purchased the first parcel in Lisbon, he paid about 9-1/2 pounds. Two years later he paid 470 pounds for the adjacent 94 acres. If I am not mistaken, 470 pounds was a lot of money in 1795, especially for a blacksmith. Perhaps there was dowry money?

In 1796, Michael bought about 12 acres on Little Hunting Creek, a tributary that empties into Hunting Creek about three miles from the mouth. Further research shows that this land was actually on the main branch of Hunting Creek, very near his parcels at Lisbon. More significantly, on 26 May 1797, he purchased a 12-acre portion of  “Hampton Plain,” a tract that lies on the west bank of the Monocacy, at the mouth of Hunting Creek.

Aha! Now we have a precise location for at least one piece of Michael’s land. Mike Pierce, a Maryland land specialist who has been helping me through “Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness,” looked up a topographic map from 1911 at mytopo.com; here is a close-up of the mouth of Hunting Creek:

Eureka! Just yards from the stream’s mouth is a river crossing named “Myers Ford,” a name that had stuck for at least a century after Michael Myers lived there. It makes sense that a wagon maker would set up shop near a river ford, where wagons would be vulnerable to damage. Perhaps Michael even took part in maintaining the crossing, which may have been a formidable job. I may be able to connect this thread later. As icing on the cake, there is also “Shyrocks Mill,” obviously a variant spelling on the surname of the individual from whom Michael bought those first two parcels, Christian Shriock.

A repeated caution, there is no strong indication yet whether or not this is the same Michael Myers who briefly owned a lot in nearby Woodsberry, nor whether either one of them is my 4th great grand-uncle. More work is ahead. Next: Problems for Henry Myers in Woodsberry– Michael to the rescue.

Happy New Year!

That first German settlement, named Monocacy (same as the nearby river), was razed in an Indian raid during the French-Indian War, and the village of Creager’s Town was platted on an adjacent site afterward. By Revolutionary times, the area was occupied by a great many German-Americans, including the family of young Philip Myers, his parents(?) and siblings.

Other than “along the wagon road,” I have been unable to pinpoint the exact location of Lisbon, although I do have a surveyors description and diagram of its boundaries, dated 1761.

I drew the boundaries of Michael’s parcels myself from the surveyor’s descriptions, as no diagrams were provided. The course of the road was not given, except that it touches some or all of the western boundary of Michael’s lots.

So, what evidence is there that this is the same Michael Myers who bought and sold a lot in Woods Town in 1790-91? Not much, but there are a couple of indicators. First, the geography and timing is good. This land is only a few miles from Woods Town, and Michael may well have rented it for a couple of years before he bought the first parcel.

Second, when Michael sold his town lot, the document identified him as a blacksmith. “So what?” you may ask. The 1793 and 1795 documents say nothing about his occupation. But remember the newspaper item in the (Frederick) Maryland Gazette dated 22 Nov. 1797: “Michael Myers, 2 miles from Creager’s Town, Hunting Creek, Fred. co., selling waggons [sic] of all dimensions.” The skills of a blacksmith would be essential for a wagon-builder in those days.

“Hunting Creek” posed a bit of a problem. A list of streams in Maryland turned up none with that name. Finally, with the help of my “Random Acts” angel, Mike Pierce, I found it, arising in the mountains west of Thurmont, running through that town, then to the south. It crosses “Old Frederick Road” about two miles south of Creagerstown, the very location where the paper said Michael was selling wagons.  Here is where the Old Frederick Road crosses Hunting Creek. The image is about one mile wide.

Oh, and there is one more vital event in this time period: the marriage of Michael Myers and Elizabeth Fout on 06 Oct. 1792. One comment to my post about the gravestone said that they were the parents of Madison Myers, who married Harriet Myers, his cousin (daughter of Philip Myers). If Madison’s parents’ names can both be verified, it would prove that the “gravestone Michael” is Philip’s brother.

But is the buyer of this land at “Lisbon” also the “gravestone Michael?” More probing is needed. Maybe some of the later land transactions will shed some light.

You may recall a gravestone in Frederick Town of a Michael Myers (1768-1815), whom at least one casual anecdote indicates is the Michael we are seeking. I searched MDLandrec.net for Frederick County documents naming any Michael Myers, with dates approximating the “gravestone” Michael’s adult life. So far, I have only studied the first four (out of more than ten I have found; I have yet to search from 1803 to 1815). From here on, when I say “Michael Myers,” I mean any of them (if there were indeed several).

The earliest transaction is dated 1 Mar. 1790, when Michael Myers purchased a lot in Woods Town from the original grantee of the entire area, Col. Joseph Wood. Woods Town is now known as Woodboro, a village several miles north of Frederick, and just east of Creagerstown. The price for this lot was six pounds, plus an annual rent of 7 shillings 6 pence to be paid Col. Wood “forever.” It seems that it was a common practice to charge a purchase price plus an annual rent for a town lot.

The next transaction is the only one so far discovered in which Michael Myers sold any land. After only a year, in 5 Oct. 1791, Michael “flipped” his lot in Woods Town, selling it for 18 pounds and change (plus the same rent to Col. Wood). Presumably, he built a house or made other improvements to treble its value. The buyer’s name – get this – was Philip Henry Myers! How coincidental that the Michael Myers we are looking for had one brother named Philip and another named Henry. I won’t let this coincidence spin me like the last one did. While it is possible (and could be significant) that Michael was somehow related to Philip Henry, it would appear they were not brothers.

There is an interesting detail in this 1791 transaction, one that is not included in the few other documents I have studied so far. Here, Michael Myers’ occupation is given, as “Blacksmitti” [sic].  This will assume some importance in connecting him with the next documents, even though his occupation is not stated in them.

The next two transactions (dated 1793 and 1795) show Michael Myers buying two parcels of a certain tract of rural land, named “Lisbon,” just a few miles from Woods Town. We will look at those more closely in the next post.

By the way, this is hard work, and is going to take some serious time. To begin with, the website (MDLandrec.net) is slow, unintuitive, and rather difficult to search. Then, when the document images are found, they are no cinch to read. At least they are in English; but for example, look at the surveyor’s description of the first parcel of “Lisbon” that Michael bought, only 1-3/4 acre in size:

Still, I am having fun. Much more to come about these real estate deals.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

As you may recall, accounts of Philip and Lawrence from the Wyoming Valley of Pennsylvania (where the two “removed” after the Revolutionary War), mention two more brothers, Michael and Henry. No other siblings are mentioned, but that does not prove that none existed. The parents are alluded to, but their names are absent.

Anyway, I took a thorough look at an abstract of newspaper articles from Frederick County.

Unfortunately, that is a misprint; the beginning date of volume 1 is actually 1786. Volume 2 covers 1799-1805. Unfortunate, because the years just after 1768 may have contained references to Philip and Lawrence, who by 1786 were already war veterans living in Pennsylvania. Of course, it is likely that newspapers did not exist in western Maryland prior to that year, or that no earlier copies have survived.

So, all I really could look for were Henry and Michael. I also checked for Valentin Myers, possible name of the father, but found nothing that seemed plausible.

Now, Myers (alt. Meyer, Meier, etc.) is a pretty common name, so there may have been several individuals named Henry and Michael Myers (or alt. spelling) in Frederick county. With that caveat in mind, I compiled all references to Michael(s) and Henry(s) I found in these abstracts,  excluding a couple of unlikely ones from Hagerstown (as opposed to Frederick Town). Here are the more interesting entries:

Nov. 22, 1797: “Michael Myers, 2 miles from Creager’s Town, Hunting Creek, Fred. co., selling waggons [sic] of all dimensions.”  This is quite a good one, since it gives the location of this Michael Myers’ residence. From that clue, I may be able to find land records containing more clues.

Jul. 24, 1802: “Levy Court of Fred co. ‘turned out of office’ a long list of officials appointed the previous year; new appointments in their stead: Supervisors: … Michael Myers …” So now we have a Michael Myers established as a county official. There are several other official appointments of this or another Michael Myers.

Jan. 21, 1803: “Appointments … Justice of the Peace: … Michael Myer” [one of 22 names]

May 27, 1803: “Supervisors of Roads appointed for Fred. co. … Mich. Myers” [one of 47 names]

Jan. 4, 1804: “Appointed Justices of the Peace … Michael Meyer” [one of 33 names]

May 4, 1804: “Commissioners have laid out county into nine election districts (boundaries described) – … Michael Myers …” [one of 4 names - names of commissioners??]

Nov. 15, 1805 : “Michael Myers adm. of Frederick Kahrn, Fred co.” ['adm:' administrator of estate]

While there is no evidence that all these are the same person, the various spellings of the name do not necessarily indicate they were different people either, given the absence of any spelling uniformity in those days. What the abstracts do provide are tantalizing clues that may lead to further, more important discoveries.

There are only a couple of references to Henry Myers, but the first one is definitely a “skeleton in the closet:”

Aug. 2, 1796: “Henry Myers, Fred Town, cautions persons from trusting his wife, Catherine Myers, on his account, as he is determined not to pay any debts of her contracting.” Oooo – domestic strife. And  in the very next issue:

Aug. 10, 1796: “Kitty Myers, Fred Town, answers aspersions cast on her conduct by recent item by Mr. Myers.” Those two articles may not be likely to contain more clues for me, but I would like to read them, just for the scandal value. Finally,

Dec. 30, 1801: “Names of persons, not residents of said co, who are chargeable for 1801 tax on land in Allegany co. (names of tracts and numbers on lots given): … Henry Myers …” That could be another potential land record to search for.

Viewing these microfilms may require a trip to the Maryland Historical Society, but just maybe I can get the articles copied and sent to me. Stay tuned.