The price of a bastard child...
Dec. 7th, 2010 09:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dee_burrisHe was first generation off the boat.
If her year of birth is accurate, she was 15 years old. They lived in Somerset County, Maryland, when Maryland was still an English colony. She was the daughter of John and Susanna (MNU) Johnson.
Peter Callaway - Peter I, as we Callaway descendants affectionately refer to him - was my 8th great grandfather.
His parents, Edmund and his unnamed wife, sailed from England to Virginia Colony, landing on 11 May 1639. Peter was born about 1640.
They married on 26 March 1667 in Somerset County - probably in a hurry.
But not quick enough.
On 28 May 1667, they were called before the County Commissioners to answer to their charges.
Yeah, I have trouble reading it, too. So we'll let the Maryland State Archives transcribe, at pages 671-672.
Think of it. Those were the days when tobacco was used for currency.
That wasn't the end of it for Elyzabeth. She was indentured to a man named Thomas Ball as part of her "punishment," which meant she would not have been able to live with Peter as his wife until her time of indentured servitude was over. (This is noted in the Somerset County Judicial Records of 1671-1675.)
So it makes sense that their recorded children are:
Sarah Callaway, born 4 Nov 1676;
Anne Callaway, born 23 Jan 1678;
Peter Callaway II, born 15 Apr 1681; (my 7th great grandfather)
John Callaway, born 1685;
Jane Callaway, born 1686; and
William Callaway, born 14 Mar 1689.
And what of the bastard child? No one knows. It would have been customary to give the child born in those circumstances to Thomas Ball also - who would have been at liberty to keep him/her until the child reached adulthood. Or not.
In any event, Callaway researchers have not been able to locate that child in any historic records.
Maybe that's why it was also reported that Elyzabeth exhibited some strange behavior, notably wandering in the marshes where the Indians lived.
I have my own thoughts about that.
If her year of birth is accurate, she was 15 years old. They lived in Somerset County, Maryland, when Maryland was still an English colony. She was the daughter of John and Susanna (MNU) Johnson.
Peter Callaway - Peter I, as we Callaway descendants affectionately refer to him - was my 8th great grandfather.
His parents, Edmund and his unnamed wife, sailed from England to Virginia Colony, landing on 11 May 1639. Peter was born about 1640.
They married on 26 March 1667 in Somerset County - probably in a hurry.
But not quick enough.
On 28 May 1667, they were called before the County Commissioners to answer to their charges.
Yeah, I have trouble reading it, too. So we'll let the Maryland State Archives transcribe, at pages 671-672.
Think of it. Those were the days when tobacco was used for currency.
That wasn't the end of it for Elyzabeth. She was indentured to a man named Thomas Ball as part of her "punishment," which meant she would not have been able to live with Peter as his wife until her time of indentured servitude was over. (This is noted in the Somerset County Judicial Records of 1671-1675.)
So it makes sense that their recorded children are:
Sarah Callaway, born 4 Nov 1676;
Anne Callaway, born 23 Jan 1678;
Peter Callaway II, born 15 Apr 1681; (my 7th great grandfather)
John Callaway, born 1685;
Jane Callaway, born 1686; and
William Callaway, born 14 Mar 1689.
And what of the bastard child? No one knows. It would have been customary to give the child born in those circumstances to Thomas Ball also - who would have been at liberty to keep him/her until the child reached adulthood. Or not.
In any event, Callaway researchers have not been able to locate that child in any historic records.
Maybe that's why it was also reported that Elyzabeth exhibited some strange behavior, notably wandering in the marshes where the Indians lived.
I have my own thoughts about that.