Holbrook line: John Merryman 1678-1749

I don't have enough information to write a blog post about this ancestor, so this will be more like a placeholder, for now.  John Merryman is one of our early Maryland ancestors, he owned land, he married and had children, and that's about most of what I know about him.  There are other things we can speculate about.

John Merryman was the son of Charles and Mry Haile Merryman.  He was born in either Lancaster County, Virginia, where his parents married, or Baltimore County, Maryland, where they moved about the time of his birth.  We don't know why his parents moved but perhaps it was for religious freedom.  Also, this was about the time of Bacon's Rebellion in Virginia and perhaps they felt safer there.

John married Matha Bowen, daughter of Jonas and Martha Henchman Bowen, on December 30, 1702.  He already owned land on the north side of the Patapsco River, because he is taxed there starting in 1699.  He was left two parcels of land by his father, and acquired more as he matured.  The location of the land and the number of parcels he owned, plus the history of the other families I've reviewed for these posts, makes me speculate that he was a slave-owner.  He likely grew tobacco as at least one of his crops, and that depleted soils rapidly so that farms had to be kept in rotation.  This land was more or less directly east of what is now Fort McHenry in what is now Baltimore.

John and Martha had at least eight children.  Three sons are named in his will, and five daughters are mentioned but not named.  It is possible, even probable, that there were other children that didn't live to adulthood. We believe he was Anglican, as some of the family record's are at St Paul's Parish.  He wrote his will in 1746 and died July 17, 1749. 

That is what I know about John.  He is not a man who has been thoroughly researched, but surely there is more to be found about him.  I looked diligently for an inventory for John, but either it is misfiled or is lost.  I would love to know what his estate was worth, and more particularly, I'd like to settle the question of whether he owned slaves, and how many there were. This family was early and important in the area so there should be more information to be found.  If you know where and what it is, please contact me!

The line of descent is

John Merryman-Martha Bowen
Martha Merryman-Alexis Lemmon
Alexis Lemmon-Rachel Stansbury
Sarah Lemmon-Abraham Hetrick
Isaac Hetrick-Elizabeth Black
Mary Alice Hetrick-Louis Stanard
Etta Stanard-Loren Holbrook
Gladys Holbrook-Richard Allen
Their descendants