The Letter of the Law
Or
How “New Holland” passed out of the Keepers Family
[The narrative below is contained in a letter from Mrs. Russell A. Miller to Merle C. Keepers, dated November 9, 1982.]
On or before 1853, the heirs of Joseph Keepers, Jr., through his son Isaac Keepers, began what turned out to be a long, tedious and futile struggle to recover 300 A that was left to Joseph Keepers Jr. by his grandfather William Keepers by a will of 1756, if Clara Keepers, wife of William Keepers, should remarry. In his will William Keepers referred to the land as “New Holland.” This land was found to lay in Carroll County, Maryland, a county taken from Baltimore County in 1836. The tract lay about thirty miles form Baltimore and seven miles from Westminster, near a certain Krider’s School in 1918. The heirs who were trying to recover the land were first the children of Isaac Keepers (grandchildren of Joseph Keepers Jr.), mainly a daughter of Isaac Keepers, Sarah A. Keepers, who married Augustus M. Marshall in 1833 in Ross County, Ohio, and second a daughter of Augustus M. and Sarah A. (keepers) Marshall, Julia B. Marshall who married Alex Lamont about 1870.
Many lawyers were consulted and efforts were continued until 1897. Copies of the correspondence between the Marshalls and various lawyers were apparently sent to Clara Keepers Moody, daughter of William Vaine Keepers, by Julia Marshall Lamont in or about 1914 and these copies were sent by Mrs. Moody to William Maxwell Fuller in the 1930’s, along with other information Mrs. Moody had gathered.
The case to recover the 300 A tract was based on the will of William Keepers, proved in 1757, which left “New Holland” to his wife Clara “with a provision she never marries and what is left at her decease to be left to my grandson Joseph Keepers, son of Joseph Keepers Sr.” Clara Keepers did remarry, a man according to family tradition named Phillip Sawyer, and the Marshalls, as descendants of the grandson Joseph Keepers Jr., believed the land should come to them.
What was eventually discovered in Maryland land records showed that William Keepers had never actually owned the 300 A tract called “New Holland.” The land was surveyed for one Adam Lynn (Linn) on 10 August 1752, and at some point, 1752-1756, was transferred to William Keepers whose first wife may have been Susanna, daughter of Adam Lynn. However, Adam Lynn had neglected to apply for a patent, which should have been done within five years of the original warrant. Therefore, William Keepers willed land to which by 10 August 1757 he had no legal right. When Clara Keepers discovered this fact, she applied for a patent in her own name and on 29 September 1758 she received a patent for the 300 A tract, the land to be called henceforth “Clara’s New Holland.”
When Clara married Phillip Sawyer is not known, but since the land was legally hers, the marriage would not have necessitated that the land be forfeited to Joseph Keepers Jr. or his heirs. Clara was unscrupulous but within the law.
[Note: The Keepers family members referred to in this letter can be found in either Group 3 or Group 6 in the genealogy. JKK]
[TOP] | Home | Name Index | Spouse Index | The Groups | Vignettes | Miscellaneous | Wills&Documents |