I'm hesitant to write this blog post because there are major events in John's life that at this point, I'm unsure of. For instance, his birth date is variously given as 1688, 1702, or 1712, in either Anne Arundel County or Prince George's County, Maryland. His parents are variously given as George and Anne Aldridge of Talbot County, and Thomas and Elizabeth Purdy Aldridge of Prince George's County. I've shown Thomas and Elizabeth as his parents, and either the 1702 or 1712 date of March 28, 1712, possibly on the South River in Anne Arundel County. I suspect that once again there is more than one John Aldridge whose records have been confused (not to mention the several who were born and died in England, who seem to have no connection at all to this Maryland family.
John married Elinor (Eleanor) about 1739, but I've not found records to document this. Speculation is that Eleanor may have been a Watkins, or she may have been a Jones. I currently have no opinion at all about her surname or her parents.
Most of what we know about John comes from his will. From that, which was dated November 30, 1750 and yet was proven March 14, 1750, we know that his wife was Elinor and that he had four children. His sons were Thomas, Jacob, and John (no George, notice) and his daughter was Susannah Prather. He owned two parcels of land, one 111 acres called Tucker's Cultivation, and one of 100 acres called Pasquaham which was near Sugar Loaf Mountain. Elinor received the first tract of land, plus all farm animals and personal property, for her lifetime and then the land was to go to Jacob.
The sad thing is-you guessed it-that he was a slaveholder. Elinor was to receive three Negroes-Jenney, Cato, and Valentino. John was to receive on Negro boy called Black, Jacob a Negro boy called George, and Thomas a Negro girl called Momber. The three for Elinor are called "all the rest of my Negroes". so this was apparently a total list, with no differentiation between field and, if any, house slaves. We have no way of knowing whether families were split by this division, but at least they weren't immediately sold out of the family, anyway.
Elinor lived for ten more years as a widow and died in 1760. In her will, she bequeathed Negroes Ozburn and Sarah to John, Valentine and -ed to Jacob, and a Negro woman whose name I can't make out, her son Judah, and the Negro woman Jane to Thomas. Three Prather grandchildren received specific items of personal property and heifers, and the sons were to divide the rest of her property, including livestock. It appears that only one of the Negroes had stayed with Elinor for those ten years. It would be both interesting and painful to know what happened to the others, and how the "new" Negroes came to her.
Because of the slaves and the fact that John owned two tracts of land at his death, we can be fairly sure that at least one of his crops was tobacco. I've not located an inventory which might tell us more. There are a lot of questions about John but this at least will give us places to research, and indicate some answers we still need.
The line of descent is:
John Aldridge-Elinor
Jacob Aldridge-Elizabeth, possibly Soper
John Simpson Aldridge-Mary Lakin
John Simpson Aldridge-Lucinda Wheeler
Darlington Aldridge-Leah Folsom
Harvey Aldridge-Mary Catherine Dunham
Cleo Aldridge-Wilbur Beeks
Mary Beeks-Cleveland Harshbarger
Their descendants
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