Holbrook line: George Bussey 1654-1693

As is often the case, we don't know much about this early Maryland ancestor.  That's why it's doubly important to capture the few things we can, and be glad for those few tidbits.  I'm finding different locations for George's birth, which basically means that documentation, if available, is not accessible.  We know that his parents were George and Anne Keene Bussey, and we know that George and Anne were in either Virginia or Maryland when George, the subject of this post, was born in 1654.  Most likely they were already living in Maryland, for there are records for George Senior at about the time George Junior was born, both land and court records.  

We know that George Senior had land on the North side of the Patuxent River, and that George Junior had at least 100 acres on the main branch of Parkers Creek.  Parkers Creek is in Calvert County, on the edge of Chesapeake Bay, and most of it is protected land.  So if we want to know what George's home was like when he lived there, current pictures of the location can give us an idea (and so could a dream trip to visit!).  The land was beautiful, and there would certainly have been an abundance of sea food available, but it was also marshy and it was frontier land so there would have been many wild animals about, which could be both bad and good. 

George married Anne Williams, daughter of William and Susan Wooten Williams, probably about the same time he had the land surveyed in 1679.   (Alert:  Some trees show what I consider a doubtful tree for William Williams; he was probably not of the Hugh Williams family to whom he is often attributed.  At least, I haven't found the connection.)  George and Anne had at least six children during their marriage.  I found one reference indicating that George was a Baptist, but he would have been required to support the nearest parish church (Church of England) which was Christ Church, in Port Republic.  It was founded in 1672, before George and Anne were married, and is still an active congregation.  

Like all of our ancestors, George lived in what to me is an interesting time and an interesting place. He died in 1692 and his wife remarried to a Mr. Evans.  We don't know whether the only land record I've located was his only land, or whether, like his father, he had one or more servants, or possibly he held slaves.  I'm hoping that the land he had was productive enough that he was able to support his family without help, but I don't know that.  His father had to pay a fine in tobacco, so it's possible that George Jr. also farmed that crop.

Again, we have more questions than answers about George, and Anne, and their lives.  What killed George at the age of 39?  Was it hard work, an epidemic, an accident?  We may never know, just as we may never know whether we went on any military missions.  But we know that he made a life in America and started a family that continues on to this day.

The line of descent is:

George Bussey-Anne Williams

Edward Bussey-Martha Evans

Edward Bussey-Mary, widow Pendergrass

Sarah Bussey-Benjamin Amos

Elizabeth Amos-Robert Amos

Martha Amos-Peter Black

Elizabeth Black-Isaac Hetrick

Mary Alice Hetrick-Louis Stanard

Etta Stanard-Loren Holbrook

Gladys Holbrook-Richard Allen

Their descendants