Family:Ephriam Skiles and Rachel Skiles (1)

EPHRAIM SKILES was born March 2, 1719 in Cecil County, Maryland. In 1892 a Miss Lucy H Harrison copied birth record from "Marriages, Births and Deaths" in ST. Stephen's Parish in Cecil County. The record shows JOHN to have been EPHRAIM's father. EPHRAIM married a woman named RACHEL about 1740. Children: AGNES, WILLIAM in 1749 or '50, JOHN, JENNY, ZUCHEL (EZEKIEL?) , ADAMAJEHL, JOHN in 1741 and EPHRAIM JR. and a daughter whose name is unknown. By 1751 the family lived in a part of Frederick County, Maryland, that is now Washington County. Brumbaugh's "Maryland County Records" Shows in Volume I, on page 26 that EPHRAIM SKILES signed a lease dated June 13, 1762, agreeing to pay annual rent of 1/2/5 for 122 acres in "his Lordship's Manor Conegocheuque," Fines were due totaling 2/8/10 and the "incumberance of live and age" was given as 21 years. It was further noted that "this lot lies almost without the minor line." There is some confusion about which EPHRAIM enlisted in the Army in 1776. Some researchers say it was EPHRAIM Sr., then about 57 years old. But EPHRAIM Jr., was old enough the next year to marry a 17 - year - old girl, so it's likely that it was EPHRAIM Jr., who enlisted. Washington County records show that EPHRAIM SKELES, EPHRAIM SKELES Jr. and WILLIAM SKELES signed the oath of allegiance to the Revolutionary government. On October 15, 1785, EPHRAIM gave a deposition in a land dispute and this document was introduced in the Washington County court on November 28. EPHRAIM gave his age 66 and said that about 34 years earlier, when Salisbury Plains was surveyed, the boundary in dispute was adjacent to EPHRAIM's plantation. Frederick County records show no land transactions in EPHRAIM's name, so perhaps his plantation was recorded in the Old Prince George's County records, which have not been searched.