Wilkinson

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 tells the story of William Wilkinson (d. 1663) and his twice-married daughter Rebecca (d. 1726), their families, and a few ancestors. I am hopeful that readers may be able to help provide more information about them. 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".

English Ancestors

The Wilkinson family was centered in the West Riding of Yorkshire and Westmorland. The region was populated with sturdy, independent farmers who had a curious mix of conservatism and radicalism. With geographically huge parishes that often were poorly served by absentee priests, and far-flung manors unable or unwilling to exert the same close control as in the more densely populated south, people could more easily express their dissatisfaction with tithes and rents. The Pilgrimage of Grace of 1536 was more a tenant's revolt than what has sometimes been seen as a pietistic attempt to restore the old Catholic religion. The issues raised then were still alive more than a century later when they provided fertile ground for Quakers. The area became the seedbed for Friends in 1652. Thomas and Agnes Wilkinson of Dent, and Elizabeth and her father Richard Wilkinson of Garsdale became Friends, as did John Wilkinson (formerly a "priest") who, with John Story, later was embroiled in a controversy with George Fox and other Friends' leaders.[1] The familial connection -- if any -- between these Friends and our established church Wilkinsons is not yet clear.

The first documentable man in our line was the Reverend Gabriel Wilkinson^A, who was born in 1576 in Yorkshire, and graduated from Merton College, Oxford. Familysearch offers the undocumented name of Margery for his wife. Gabriel left the dales of his birth and served as vicar of Woodburne, Buckinghamshire, until his death 17 December 1658. His son William¹ followed his career as clergy in the Established Church.[2]

Immigrant Generation

William Wilkinson¹ was born in 1603 or 1612, the son of Gabriel Wilkinson. He died in 1663 in St. George's Hundred, Maryland. William went to college, but there seem to be two different accounts. In one he matriculated at Magdalen College on 9 June 1626 at the age of fourteen, and received an A.B. 3 February 1629/30 and an M.A. 25 October 1632. In the other he matriculated at Brasenose College 2 November 1621 at the age of eighteen, and was awarded an A.M. 26 October 1624.[3] As I have not been able to search primary sources, I can only assume there were two different young men, and I am unclear which one was "ours".

Within three years of his graduation he had married Naomi HUGHES and settled in Virginia. Familysearch, the LDS website, supplies her last name, along with a birthdate of 1616 in England, and death in 1634 in Norfolk County, Virginia. As usual, no sources are given, so take it as a suggestion rather than as fact. On 20 November William received 700 acres in "Linhaven, commonly called Chisopeian River" opposite Capt. Adam THORROGOOD whose daughter later married a DENT. William served in the Lynnhaven Parish in Princess Anne County from 1635 to 1637.[4]

After William's first wife died, he married secondly the widow Margaret BUDDEN, who had a young daughter, Eliza.[5]

After fifteen years in Virginia, William emigrated to Maryland. On 10 October 1650 he applied for 900 acres and for permission to bring in his daughters Mary, Rebecca, and Elizabeth; his now wife Margaret and her daughter Elizabeth Budden; and three servants, William WARREN, Robert CORNISH, and Anne STEVENS. He was a preacher and planter, a minister who was involved in the trade of the Province. William received a special warrant for 1000 acres on the Eastern Shore. However, he settled on the western shore at Chaptico in what later became King and Queen Parish in St. Mary's County.[6]

The Reverend William Wilkinson was the first Anglican clergyman to be accredited to, and to officiate in Maryland. He probably first led worship services at Trinity Church in St. Mary's City. It had been built in 1642, before there was a clergyman for it. He became the first rector at Poplar Hill, three or four miles due west of St. Mary's City, on the Potomac River. The existing building, now called St. George's, was erected in 1750 some fifteen feet south of the original church. It has recently been repaired and restored.[7]

Although writers with an Anglican sympathy generally extol William's memory, a nineteenth century Roman Catholic writer commented that he "reflected no credit on his profession." No particulars were offered in support of the statement, although apparently several of the few Anglican priests in Maryland at the time were involved in alcoholism, and one was a bigamist. William was indicted and tried separately in 1659 as an "accessary" to Robert HOLT, a cooper of St. Mary's County, on trial for bigamy. It appears that in his ministerial function William was involved in counselling over the disintegration of the Holts' marriage. The wife confessed to bearing two children with another man, and refused to be reconciled to her husband. So William drew up and witnessed a paper containing "a release of all claim of marriage" for Robert, and officiated at his second wedding. This clearly violated civil law, if not church law. But because of the heated sectarian passions, Robert and his second partner requested an all-Protestant jury. When twelve Protestants could not be found, the case was held over till the next term. But a few days later a general pardon was proclaimed from Richard CROMWELL, son of the deceased Great Protector.[8] It may have been this incident to which Shea referred.

William died in August 1663 in what was later King and Queen Parish, St. Mary's County. He signed his will 29 May 1663 in the presence of two illiterate witnesses. It was probated on 21 September that year. In it he mentioned Eliza BUDDEN, daughter of Margaret Budden, his last wife (presumably deceased), two grandsons: William DENT, eldest son of his daughter Rebecca, and William HATTON, eldest son of his daughter Elizabeth. He bequeathed half of his property, real and personal, to each of his sons-in-law, reflecting the legal fiction of femme covert that a married woman was subsumed into her husband; they were one person in the eyes of the law, and that person was, of course, the man. A married woman could not own land in her own right. Thomas Dent and William Hatton were also made executors.[9]

Children of William and his first wife Naomi (Hughes) Wilkinson (may be incomplete, order uncertain):[10]

1. Elizabeth Wilkinson², m. William Hatton (d. 1712), whose sister Elinor Hatton m(1) Thomas Brooke and are our ancestors.


2. Rebecca Wilkinson, d. 1726; m(1) Thomas Dent; m(2) John Addison.

Daughter of Margaret (Hughes) Budden Wilkinson by her first husband:[11]

1. Elizabeth Budden, d. 1673/4, unmarried.

Second Generation

Rebecca Wilkinson², daughter of William and Naomi, was born in Virginia, and died in 1726 in Maryland. She emigrated to Maryland with her father and his second wife in 1650. Rebecca married first, in St. Mary's in 1660, Thomas DENT.[12]

Between 1658 when he arrived in the Province, and 1676 when he died, Thomas paid the transportation for at least 75 people, thereby gaining their 50 acre headrights. Thomas had a political career as justice, sheriff, and coroner of St. Mary's County, alderman in St. Mary's City, and member of the Provincial Assembly. He died in 1676, leaving Rebecca a wealthy widow.

Rebecca had remarried, by 1677, John ADDISON. A decade later the family moved to Charles County. John, too, was a justice and coroner, but for Charles County. He was deeply involved in partisan politics with the Protestant Associators' cause when William and Mary assumed the throne of England and Lord Baltimore was dispossessed of his Province. John died between November 1705 and April 1706 while on a business trip to England. He left Rebecca an even wealthier widow.

Rebecca died in 1726. She signed her will in Prince George's County on 5 November 1724, and it was probated 20 August 1726. Alexander CONTEE, John HOWARD, and Mary DELIHUNT testified to it. She left £20 to her son Thomas. To her grandchildren by her daughter Barbara, namely Lucy, Baker, and Thomas BROOKE, she left £200 to be divided equally among them. If they all died, it was to go to her grandson Benjamin Brooke. The residue of the estate was left to Barbara, who was named Executrix.[13] The unusual inequality of the bequests makes one wonder about the family dynamics. Presumably her estate at the time of the death of her second husband was considerably more than the £220 mentioned in her will. It is particularly curious because her estate was valued at only £20.3.3, obviously not enough to cover her bequests. Thomas Addison was her only kin to approve the valuation. Had other children already received significant settlements? Had her daughter's husband squandered Rebecca's fortune with gambling or other misuse of funds? I have not yet found answers to these speculations.

Children of Rebecca (Wilkinson) and her first husband, Thomas Dent (order uncertain):[14]

1. William Dent³, b. ca 1660; d. 1704; m (1) Elizabeth FOWKE (d. 1698/9), daughter of Gerard Fowke, or Foulke (1625-1669); m (2) Sarah BROOKE, daughter of Thomas3 Brooke (ca. 1659-1730/1). Sarah m (2) Philip LEE, son of Richard Lee of Virginia. Both his fathers-in-law served in the Md. legislature, as did William. William was an Anglican, as was his second father-in-law; Gerard Fowke was Protestant. We are descended from Thomas3 Brooke through Sarah's sister Mary. William inherited "Westbury Manor" and part of the land at Nanjemoy in Charles Co. from his father. On 16 Oct. 1694 his 1571 acre "Friendship" was listed on Lord Baltimore's Rent Rolls.[15]


2. Thomas Dent, inherited the remainder of the land at Nanjemoy in Charles Co. from his father.


3. Peter Dent, b. ca 1665; d. 1710/1; m (1) Elizabeth BALLARD, daughter of Charles (d. 1682) and widow of John KING; m (2) Jane PITTMAN (b. 1689), daughter of Joseph GRAY (d. 1724). Jane m (2) John SCOTT. Peter served in the Md. legislature, as did his second father-in-law, Joseph Gray. Peter was a Protestant.[16] He inherited "Gisborough" and "Brothers' Joint Interest" in Charles County, equally with his brother George.


4. George Dent, d. 1702. He inherited from his father "Gisborough" and "Brothers' Joint Interest" in Charles County, equally with his brother Peter. d.s.p.


5. Margaret Dent, m. 26 May 1681 Edmund HOWARD (d. 1713) in Somerset Co. She inherited one acre in St. Mary's Co. from her father.[17]


6. Barbara Dent, b. 1676; m. Thomas BROOKE, the father of her brother's second wife.

Rebecca (Wilkinson) Dent and her second husband, John Addison had one son:[18]

1. Thomas Addison, b. 1679; d. 1727; m(1) Elizabeth TASKER; m(2) Elinor SMITH.

To continue the story of this family, go to the Dent page and the Addison page.

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 Wilkinsons:
Addison,  Bale,  Brooke,  Browne,  Dent,  Dorsey,  Ely,   Hall,  Hatton,  Holliday,  Howard,  Isaac,  Molton,  Norwood,  Owings,  Randall,  Ridgely,  Sim,  Smith,  Stone,  Tasker.  and Warfield. 

Go to the index of other families 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

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. David Boulton, Early Friends in Dent: The English Revolution in a Dales Community (Dent: Dent Family History Circle, 1986), 14, 16-20ff, 57, 64.



2. Harry Wright Newman, To Maryland From Overseas: A Complete Digest of Jacobite Loyalists Sold into White Slavery in Maryland, and the British and Continental Background of Approximately 1400 Maryland Settlers from 1634 to the Early Federal Period with Source Documentation (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc. 1985), 181; Harry Wright Newman, The Maryland Dents: A Genealogical History of the Descendants of Judge Thomas Dent and Captain John Dent who settled early in the Province of Maryland (Richmond, Va.: The Dietz Press, Incorporated, 1963), 7-8.



3. 1603 is suggested by Edna Agatha Kansly, Directory of Ministers and the Maryland Churches They Served, 1634-1990 2 vols. (Westminster, Md.: Family Line Publications, 1991), 2:366. Pedigrees of Descendants of Colonial Clergy, says "possibly 1612", 674. Newman, The Maryland Dents, 8; Frederick Lewis Weis, The Colonial Clergy of Maryland, Delaware and Georgia Publications of the Society of the Descendants of the Colonial Clergy, No. 5 (Lancaster, Mass.: Society of the Descendants of the Colonial Clergy, 1950), 69.



4. Newman, The Maryland Dents, 7-8; Pedigrees of Descendants of Colonial Clergy, 674.



5. Newman, The Maryland Dents, 8.



6. Newman, The Maryland Dents, 8; Gust Skordas, The Early Settlers of Maryland: An Index to Names of Immigrants Compiled from Records of Land Patents, 1633-1680, in the Hall of Records, Annapolis, Maryland (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1968), 505, citing Liber 3, folio 62; Lib. 4, fol. 5; and Lib. ABH, fol. 49; George Lynn-Lachlan Davis, The Day-Star of American Freedom, or the Birth and Early Growth of Toleration, in the Province of Maryland . . . . (New York: C. Scribner, 1855), 146; Weis, The Colonial Clergy of Maryland, Delaware and Georgia, 69.



7. Newman, To Maryland From Overseas, 181; Percy G. Skirven, The First Parishes of the Province of Maryland, Wherein are given Historical Sketches of the Ten Counties & of the Thirty Parishes in the Province at the time of the Establishment of the Church of England in 1692 (Baltimore: The Norman Remington Company, 1923), 9; Kansly, Directory of Ministers, 2:366; Robert E. T. Pogue, Yesterday in Old St. Mary's County, 4th ed. (Bushwood, Md.: author, 1985), 316-17. There is a photo of the 1750 church on p. 317.



8. John Gilmary Shea, The Catholic Church in Colonial Days (New York: John G. Shea, 1886), 84; Raphael Semmes, Crime and Punishment in Early Maryland (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press, 1938), 205-6, citing Md. Arch., 41:149-51, 228-230, 243, 244, 258, 259, 528; Davis, The Day-Star of American Freedom, 155.



9. Jane Baldwin, comp. and ed., The Maryland Calendar of Wills 23 vols. (Baltimore: Kohn & Pollock, Publishers, 1904), 1:.26. His eldest daughter is incorrectly named Barbara.



10. Edward C. Papenfuse, Alan F. Day, David W. Jordan, and Gregory A. Stiverson, A Biographical Dictionary of the Maryland Legislature, 1635-1789 (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1979) 2 vols., 1:265, 423.



11. A Biographical Dictionary of the Maryland Legislature, 1:265, 423.



12. Pedigrees of Descendants of Colonial Clergy, 674.



13. George Norbury MacKenzie, Colonial Families of the United States of America: in which is given the history, genealogy and armorial bearings of colonial families who settled in the American colonies from the time of the settlement of Jamestown, 13th May, 1607, to the Battle of Lexington, 19th April, 1775 6 vols. (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 1996, orig. 1912) 1:6; Maryland Calendar of Wills, 5:229.



14. A Biographical Dictionary of the Maryland Legislature, 1:100, 265.



15. A Biographical Dictionary of the Maryland Legislature, 1:100, 266, 326; Hester Dorsey Richardson, Side-Lights on Maryland History with Sketches of Early Maryland Families 2 vols. (Baltimore: Williams and Wilkins Company, 1913), 1:307.




16. For more on Peter and his second father-in-law, see A Biographical Dictionary of the Maryland Legislature, 1:264-65, 371.




17. Pedigrees of Descendants of Colonial Clergy, 338.




18. A Biographical Dictionary of the Maryland Legislature, 1:100.

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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".