Allen line: Hugh Kinsey 1592-1667

Hugh Kinsey is another one of those "really" ancestors who reminds me that no, I'm not entirely of sturdy New England stock.  This line goes back to early Maryland and before that, Virginia, when the land was being newly explored and settled, relations with native Americans were tense, and life was hard, even though the winters may have been milder than those of much of New England. 

Hugh was baptized February 16, 1592 at Oldhaugh, Cheshire, England.  This is a new location for me, so I tried to Google it and found only other people who were born there.  My best guess is that this was a small farming community and that the reason for leaving here may have been economic. 

Hugh married Margaret Coulton in England (lots of sources say Margaret Johns but that appears to be incorrect) in 1632 and they had six known children together, (one died young) but not until Hugh was middle aged.  Margaret was reportedly baptized in 1611 so Hugh was enough older that he may have had an as yet unlocated first marriage.

Hugh and brother Robert were in Virginia by 1655, settling in Rappahannock and later Lancaster County, Virginia. Hugh was already over 60, and life was hard in the new land.  It gets a little complicated here.  Hugh inherited from his brother Robert in 1656 and mortgaged those 500 acres, later selling them to the mortgagor in London because he couldn't make the payment.  It's not clear why he needed to sell; did he have trouble financially because he had become (or perhaps always was) a Quaker?  A group of Quakers from Lancaster county did emigrate together, to the area on the Patapsco River where Hugh settled.  He brought two of his children over from England in 1662, and about the same time, acquired 100 acres of land along the river.  The 100 acres probably represented headrights,  meaning Hugh had paid the transportation costs and brought new settlers in to the area. 

Hugh is seen as a witness to various land transactions in the 1650's and 1660's, but seems to have not generated much other paperwork.  He did leave a will dated May 6, 1667 in Anne Arundel County, leaving bequests to grandchildren and the estate to his wife, until her death when it was to go to his living children and grandchildren.  I've not located anything saying what the value of the estate was. 

It's likely that Hugh's estate was not large.  As far as we know, he had just the 100 acres, and that was not enough to support a family.  If he was a Quaker, he probably had suffered both religious and economic persecution in Virginia.  But he was free and had had opportunities in the New World that he would never had had in England, and he may have felt that the opportunity was worth the risk, even for an older person.  He contributed to the building of America, and for that I am grateful.

The line of descent is:

Hugh Kinsey-Margaret Coulton
Sarah Kinsey-Abraham Clark
Elizabeth Clark-William Wilkinson
Jane Wilkinson-Edward Corbin
Mary Jane Corbin-Samuel Lane
Lambert Lane-Nancy Anderson
Nancy Ann Lane-William McCoy
Vincent McCoy-Eleanor Jackson
Nancy McCoy-George Allen
Edward Allen-Edith Knott
Richard Allen-Gladys Holbrook
Their descendants.