Molton

compiled and copyright by MJP Grundy, 2002
Nicotiana tabacum, from Chambers's Encyclopædia: A Dictionary of Universal Knowledge for the People
(Phila.: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1885), 9:462.

This page explores what little information I've been able to discover about Matthew Molton (d. 1725) and his daughter, Sarah (b. 1705) who married James Holliday. I am hopeful that readers may be able to help me fill in some of the missing information about the lives and immediate families of these individuals. If you have documentation, I would be very grateful if you would e mail me at kwg at po.cwru.edu, substituting the familiar @ for "at".

To see the sources for the information provided here, click on the blue bracketted numbers or scroll down to the bottom to see all the citations and notes.

First Known Generation

Matthew Molton¹ was in Baltimore County by 1705; he was listed as taxable that year in Spesutia Hundred. Unfortunately I have not yet been able to discover where and when Matthew was born, or how and when he got to Baltimore. Matthew married Ann ____, who may have been the widow of someone named COLLINS.[1] The IGI offers 1704, in Baltimore, as the date and place of their wedding. I have not yet discovered the names of their parents.

In May 1720 Matthew purchased 100 acres called "Wood's Close" from Thomas and Martha MITCHELL.[2]

The Moltons apparently attended St. George's Protestant Episcopal Church.[3] Somewhat surprisingly, I haven't been able to find any information about this church on the web. I assume it was an Anglican church when the Moltons attended, and changed its name to "Protestant Episcopal" at the time of the Revolution.

Matthew died in Baltimore County 15 April 1725, leaving a will dated 10 April 1725, probated 20 July 1725. In it he bequeathed 10 acres at the western end of "Wood's Close" to his "son-in-law" Francis COLLINS. He bequeathed to his daughter Sarah LAKE personalty, which was to go to her son Robert Hollyday [sic], at her death. He also gave Robert personalty belonging to his father, James Hollyday. Matthew named his wife Ann as executrix, leaving her the residue of the estate during her life. After her death it was to be divided equally between their sons Matthew and John. The two boys were also given personalty.[4] The label "son-in-law" was used in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries to not only mean the husband of one's daughter, but also to indicate the son by a former marriage of one's spouse. Although I have only seen an abstract of the will, and not the original, the reference to Francis Collins doesn't really seem to me to imply the husband of a possible daughter named Ann. Apparently there was an Ann who married a Francis Collins in Northampton, Pennsylvania, and they had five children between 1725 and 1735/6.[5] However, "Northampton" was the original name of the tract that ended up as part of Charles Ridgely's "Hampton" in Baltimore County. My assumption is that it was the latter area to which reference was made, not the as-yet-unfounded county in Pennsylvania. I eagerly await documentation to prove whether or not the people in Pennsylvania are part of our Matthew Molton's family. I have not been able to find additional information on Francis Collins, other than a bewildering number of IGI references, most without sources given. The most interesting may be Francis Collins, a Maryland planter, who died 5 January 1716.[6] This would be too late for his widow to marry Matthew Molton in 1704, but he could be a son of the widow Ann.

In 1750 Ann Molton was listed as owner of 100 acre "Wood's Close".[7] I don't know what happened to Francis Collins's 10 acre part of it.

Children of Matthew and Ann Molton:[8]

1. Sarah Molton², b. 3 May 1705; mar. 3 times.


2. Matthew Molton, b. 24 Aug. 1709.


3. John Molton, b. 19 Feb. 1715.

Second Known Generation

Sarah² Molton, daughter of Matthew and Ann (__) Molton, was born 3 May 1705. She married 30 October 1721 James HOLLIDAY.[9] He died 19 January 1722/3, leaving her with two very small sons. It seems probable that she returned to live in her parents' home.

Sarah was married for a second time on 31 March 1725 to Abraham LAKE.[10] When her father wrote his will 10 April 1725, he referred to her as his daughter Sarah Lake.[11]

Sarah "Leak" was indicted for bastardy in June 1731. She eventually married the father of the child, Immanuel JONES, and had two more children by him.[12] I have not yet discovered the date when Abraham Lake died, or when Sarah married Immanuel Jones, or if he, too, was indicted.

Perhaps her oldest son was left with his grandmother, because in March 1736 Ann Molton was indicted for bringing up Robert Holliday in a "bad manner".[13] Unfortunately I do not know what behavior caused this indictment, nor what happened to it.

Children of Sarah (Molton) and her first husband James Holliday:[14]

1. Robert Holliday, b. 6 Jan. 1721/2; m. Achsah RIDGELY; d. late 1745.


2. James Holliday.

Children of Sarah (Molton) Holliday and her second husband, Abraham Lake/Leek:[15]

3. Mary Leek, b. 31 Jan. 1725;


4. Grace Leek, b. April 1731;

Children of Sarah (Molton) Holliday Lake and the man who became her third husband, Immanuel Jones:[16]

5. Cordelia Jones, b. 7 Nov. 1728;


6. Ann Jones, b. 30 Jan. 1734;


7. Immanuel Jones, b. 13 mar. 1737;

The story continues with the Holliday and Ridgely families.

If you have additions or corrections to this web page, I would be delighted to hear from you. Contact me via e mail at kwg "at" po.cwru.edu just substituting the familiar "@" for "at".

See some other colonial Maryland families that link one way or another with these Moltons:
Addison,  Bale,  Brooke,  Browne,  Dent,  Dorsey,  Ely,   Hall,  Hatton,  Holliday,  Howard,  Isaac,  Norwood,  Owings,  Randall,  Ridgely,  Sim,  Smith,  Stone,  Tasker.  Warfield.  and Wilkinson. 

Go to the index of Other Lines that are included in this website (not all of them have been posted yet).

Go to the Paxson home page.

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Notes and Sources

The full bibliographical citation is given the first time a source is mentioned, but is not repeated each time that source is cited. Scroll up til you find the first mention and there you will find the complete citation.

1. Robert W. Barnes, Baltimore County Families, 1659-1759 (Balt.: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 1989), p. 453, which cites as the sources, William N. Wilkins, "Baltimore County Tax Lists . . ." for 1705, typescript, Maryland Historical Society. The IGI gives the wedding, with no mention of their parents.



2. Barnes, Baltimore County Families, 1659-1759, 453, citing Balt. Co. Land Records Liber TR#DS:175.



3. Barnes, Baltimore County Families, 1659-1759, 453, citing Register of St. George's Protestant Episcopal church, HR Original Register, pp. 21, 26, 41, and 45; and MHS transcription, pp. 204, 209, 229, 230.



4. Jane Baldwin, comp. and ed., The Maryland Calendar of Wills, 23 vols. (Baltimore: Kohn & Pollock, Publishers, 1904), 5:199.



5. Rootsweb page of Diane Lockman, Feb. 2004. Northampton wasn't separated from Bucks County until 1752, and the earliest church records I have found there so far are from the Moravians beginning in 1742. On the other hand, "Northampton" was the name of a tract that included iron deposits, that eventually became part of the large holdings of Charles Ridgely in Baltimore County.



6. IGI, film #183521, page 869, ref. # 30345. See also Jourdan, Early Families in Southern Maryland, 7:252.



7. Barnes, Baltimore County Families, 1659-1759, 453, citing Balt. Co. Debt Book for 1750, mms in Calvert Papers, Maryland Historical Society, p. 42.



8. The three children's names are from their father's will. On her Rootsweb page Diane Lockman lists a first child, Ann, born in 1703 in Maryland. This daughter is not given in Barnes's list, Baltimore County Families, 1659-1759, 453. The IGI also supplies birth dates.



9. Barnes, Baltimore County Families, 1659-1759, 453, citing Balt. Co. Admin. Acc. HR Liber 3:13; Register of St. George's Protestant Episcopal Church, pp. 40-41.



10. Barnes, Baltimore County Families, 1659-1759, 453, citing Balt. Co. Admin. Bonds HR Liber 3:243.



11. Baldwin, The Maryland Calendar of Wills, 5:199.



12. Elise Greenup Jourdan, Early Families in Southern Maryland, 7:253.





13. Barnes, Balt. Co. Families, p. 453, citing: Balt. Co. Court Proceedings Liber 1A:1.










15. Jourdan, Early Families in Southern Maryland, 7:253.





16. Jourdan, Early Families in Southern Maryland, 7:253.

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If you have additions or corrections to this web page, I would be delighted to hear from you. Contact me via e mail at kwg "at" po.cwru.edu just substituting the familiar "@" for "at".