Person:Thomas Ford (63)

Arrival in Maryland

The earliest Thomas can definitely be placed in Anne Arundel County is 17 November 1659 when the tract Fordstone was surveyed for him.^[2] There was a servant “Thos Ford,” transported to Maryland “before June 1652” listed among those William Ayres claimed land for transporting to the colony on 5 Oct 1653.^[3] The land granted to Ayers was located near Herring Creek where Thomas subsequently obtained land and was inherited by Ayers daughter Anne (Ayers) Chew, whose son married one of Thomas’s granddaughters.^[4] Considering the proximity of the Ford lands to those of the Ayers and Chews and the subsequent intermarriage between their descendants it seems plausible Thomas Ford was the servant “Thos Ford” transported to Maryland prior to June 1652. It is possible he arrived in Virginia before being transported to Maryland since Ayers was a resident of Nansemond County, Virginia, as late as January 1651/52.^[5] None of Ayers land grants in Virginia mention the transportation of a Thomas Ford but he could have easily purchased Thomas’s contract from someone else. If that was the case then he could be one of several Thomas Fords listed as headrights in the Virginia patents in the years preceding 1652.

Like the majority of indentured servants, he was probably in his mid to late teens when he bargained his labor for transport to the colonies. The contracts varied in length but usually fell between four and seven years. William Ayers as his “master” was responsible for providing food, clothing and shelter. At the end of the contract Maryland law provided for “freedom dues” consisting of clothing, tools, food and before 1663 the right to 50 acres of land: all items necessary to transition from servant to productive settler. The right to land did not include the cost of the survey. It was not unusual for a former servant to wait to get his land until he had saved enough money to cover the fees associated with the process.^[6] The seven year gap between Thomas’s arrival and the survey of his first land grant was probably spent completing the terms of his contract and then working to obtain the funds necessary to secure title to the land allotted by his “freedom dues.”

Land Acquisition and Other Records

As mentioned earlier the tract Fordstone was surveyed for Thomas in November 1659. This was the first of seven tracts he owned at one time or another that when combined totaled around 1940 acres. These plantations were:

• Fordstone, 120 acres at the mouth of the West River, surveyed 17 November 1659
• Dinah Fords Beaver Dam, 400 acres near Herring Creek, surveyed 27 November 1662
• Goury Banks, 600 acres near Herring Bay, surveyed 17 July 1663
• Repulta, 300 acres on the Susquehanna River in Baltimore County, purchased 13 December 1670
• Fords Folly, 170 acres near Herring Creek, surveyed 2 September 1675
• Rockford, 300 acres on the Susquehanna River in Baltimore County, surveyed 10 June 1679
• Holloways Increase, 54 acres near Herring Creek, granted 8 October 1679^[7]

Thomas and his wife Elizabeth sold Fordstone in May 1670 and part of Dinah Fords Beaver Dam in November 1677.^[8] He also sold half of Goury Banks to his son-in-law Robert Fittins/Fittings in September 1675.^[9]

Aside from his land transactions little else is known about Thomas’s later life in Anne Arundel County due to the destruction of the county records by the 1704 State House fire; however a few references to Thomas survive amongst the state records of Maryland.^[10] In June of 1679 he participated in two inquisitions post mortem, one of which was for his recently deceased son-in-law Oliver Holloway. In both cases the lands of the deceased were returned to the Proprietorship “for want of an heir” however the widow of Oliver Holloway, Thomas’s daughter Dinah, was allowed her dower.^[11] Beyond his participation in these inquests, Thomas was involved in two military expeditions against the Nanticoke tribe: the first in November 1678 and the second in September 1681. He was paid a total of 300 pounds of tobacco for his service.^[12]

Death and Identification of Children

Thomas died by 25 Oct 1682 when the appraisal of his estate was filed. His will, mentioned in a 1716 deed, is lost and the only surviving document related to his estate is the appraisal.^[13] Despite the loss of his will there are several surviving documents identifying his children though perhaps not all. Land records identify all of his known children and indicate James inherited all his real estate establishing he was the eldest son. These deeds are further substantiated by James’s will which left bequests to his brother John and his sister Elizabeth.^[14]

A Note About His Wife

That he was married to a woman named Elizabeth is not in doubt. She signs two deeds with him in the 1670's and in one case releases her dower right. It is unclear if she was Thomas’s only wife. It is possible he was previously married to a Dinah/Diana and she was the namesake of Dinah Fords Beaver Dam as opposed to his daughter of the same name. If Elizabeth was his second wife then she appears to be the mother of all his children accept Dinah/Diana since estimates place their births from 1670 to 1678 a time period almost completely bracketed by the two deeds she signs.^[15]

Footnotes

1. ↑ Skinner, V. L. Abstracts of the inventories and accounts of the Prerogative Court of Maryland. (Westminster, Maryland: Family Line Publications, 1992-)
   45, 1992.

   The appraisel of his estate was filed on the 25 October 1682, indicating he had died prior that date

2. ↑ Maryland Rent Rolls: Baltimore and Anne Arundel Counties, 1700-1707, 1705-1724, (Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 1976), p. 142
3. ↑ Maryland Patents, Liber ABH: 347-348, FHL microfilm 0013064. During the colonial period Maryland operated under the headright system. Anyone who paid the transportation costs of themselves or others into the colony had the right to claim fifty acres per head, thus the term headright. This document is William Ayers’s request of land for those individuals he transported to Maryland and includes not only his servants but also himself, his deceased wife, his current wife, and his daughter.
4. ↑ Rissell, Donna V., First Families of Anne Arundel County, Maryland, 1649-1658, 2 volumes, (New Market Maryland: Catoctin Press, 1999), vol. 1, pp. 2-3. Rissell gives an account of Ayers history and his land records.
5. ↑ Needs Source
6. ↑ Morgan, Kenneth. Slavery and Servitude in Colonial North America: a short history (New York: New York University Press, 2001), pp. 8-24.
7. ↑ Maryland Rent Rolls: Baltimore and Anne Arundel Counties, 1700-1707, 1705-1724, (Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 1976), pp. 14, 117, 118, 130, 142. Baltimore County, Maryland Land Records, Liber IR PP: 115-117, digital image, Maryland State Archives, MDLandRec.Net ( http://mdlandrec.net: accessed 3 Nov 2009); Anne Arundel County, Maryland, Land Records, Liber WH 4: 179-184, “James Fflord/Fford to Arthur Scrivens,” 13 Nov 1688, digital image, Maryland State Archives, MDLandRec.Net ( http://mdlandrec.net: accessed 6 Nov 2009).
8. ↑ Anne Arundel County, Maryland, Land Records, Liber WH 4: 1-4, “Thomas Ford to James White,” 23 May 1670; Anne Arundel County, Maryland, Land Records, Liber IH 3: 28-31, “Thomas Fford to John Farr,” 13 Nov 1677
9. ↑ Need Source
10. ↑ The Anne Arundel County Clerk’s office was located in the State House and remained there after it was rebuilt until the first quarter of the nineteenth century when a separate court house was built for the county. The seventeenth century deeds that survive today were rerecorded to preserve the chain of title.
11. ↑ J. Hall Pleasants, ed., “Proceedings of the Court of Chancery February 16, 1668/69 to October 16, 1679,” Archives of Maryland, vol. 51, pp. 262-269. An inquisition post mortem, also called an escheat, is not the same as a coroner’s inquest, or the medical post mortem carried out after a death. A post mortem (Latin term meaning “after death”) is an inquiry into the lands (real estate) of the deceased. The purpose was to discover what income and legal rights were due to the Crown (the King) or in this case the Lord Baltimore, Proprietor of Maryland. Real estate passed to the eldest son however if there were no sons then it was divided evenly between the surviving daughters. If there were no surviving children then the land returned to the Crown. These lands were subject to dower rights as seen in Oliver Holloway’s case.
12. ↑ William Hand Browne, ed. “Proceedings and Acts of the General Assembly October 1678–November 1683,” Archives of Maryland, (Baltimore, MD: Maryland Historical Society, 1889), vol. 8, pp. 87, 96, 208, 209.
13. ↑ Anne Arundel County, Maryland Land Records, 1712–1718, (Miami Beach, Florida: T.L.C. Genealogy, 1993), p. 70; Skinner, Abstracts of Inventories of the Prerogative Court of Maryland 1679-1686, p. 45
14. ↑ Anne Arundel County, Maryland Land Records, 1712 – 1718, p. 47. The chain of title clearly identifies Dinah as a daughter of Thomas: Jane Baldwin Cotton and F. Edward Wright. The Maryland Calendar of Wills, 16 vols (vols 1-8 1904-1928, reprint Westminster, MD: Family Line Publications, 1988 –1995), vol 2, p. 251; Dodd, Abstracts of Land Records Anne Arundel County, vol. 1, pp. 131, 132; Anne Arundel County, Maryland Land Records, 1700 – 1702, (Miami Beach, Florida: TLC Genealogy, 1993) p. 8; Anne Arundel County, Maryland Land Records, 1712 – 1718, pp. 26, 70. John Davis, Baltimore County, Maryland Deed Records, four volumes, (Bowie, Maryland: Heritage Books, Inc., 1996-1997), vol. 1, p. 262.
15. ↑ Anne Arundel County, Maryland, Land Records, Liber IH 3: 28-31, “Thomas Fford to John Farr,” 13 Nov 1677, digital image, Maryland State Archives, MDLandRec.Net ( http://mdlandrec.net: accessed 5 Nov 2009); Anne Arundel County, Maryland, Land Records, Liber WH 4: 1-4, “Thomas Ford to James White,” 23 May 1670, digital image, Maryland State Archives, MDLandRec.Net ( http://mdlandrec.net: accessed 5 Nov 2009).