Amelia (Emilia) Jones Calvert

Connected Post: Richard (Dick) Jones & Mary (Polly) Jones | Old Age

This post explores the possibility of Amelia (Emilia) Jones Calvert as a daughter for Richard and Mary Jones. She was first found in a White Marsh baptism record with the surname Jones and a documented connection to the Waring estates, which is where Richard and Mary Jones were enslaved, suggesting she was a relation.

White Marsh Baptism

In 1831, Amelia (Emilia) Jones, wife of George Colbert [Calvert], had their daughter Mary Rachel baptized by the White Marsh priests.  The priests recorded George as property of James Belt, Marsham Waring’s father-in-law, and recorded Amelia (Emilia) Jones as property of Marsham Waring. 

George Calvert [1794]

James Belt had purchased Chelsea, a tract of land from another branch of the Belt family and conveyed it to his two daughters, Violetta Lansdale Belt and Eleanor Belt. Violetta married Marsham Waring and Eleanor married Dr. Benjamin Lee.

Most likely James Belt purchased the legal authority to enslave George from Cornelia Lansdale, his sister-in-law, in 1826, when he satisfied two mortgages. (see Prince George’s County Land Records, AB 4:308; accessible through mdlandrec.net).  

George is also listed in James Belt’s 1832 Inventory (PC 2:20) as 38 years old [1794].  At 38, George had outlived the expectancy of most enslaved people and would be roughly 70 years old by the time of Benjamin Lee’s death in 1863 and Marsham Waring’s death in 1860; he is not listed in either inventory.

Indirect clues from Waring’s Inventory

In Marsham Waring’s 1860 Inventory,  George (II) Calvert, age 38 [1822] and Daniel Calvert, age 25 [1835] are listed.  When enslaved adults were partnered, any children usually stayed with the mother and the estate she was held captive on, until the enslaver chose to sell the child and/or the mother.  As Amelia was indicated property of Waring, it is probable that George (II) and Daniel are Amelia and George’s sons living with her on Waring’s estate. Additionally, their birth years bookend the baptism of Mary Rachel. The identification of George (II) and Daniel as probable sons, allows us to begin to identify a likely age range for Amelia along with the identification of George (I) Calvert.   

To begin, George’s ages in Belt’s inventory provides us with an upper limit to her age. Taking into consideration the life expectancy rates of enslaved people and its impact on the age of the partners in the union, then we can also predict the likelihood that Amelia was younger than George. She was likely not older than 38 (George’s age in the 1832 Inventory) and was more likely to be 5-10 years younger, suggesting an upper age of no more than 28-33 years old.

Her child-bearing years suggest a lower limit for her age. Women’s child-bearing years are roughly between the ages of 15 to 45, meaning that Amelia was most likely between 15 and 45 years old when she had the three identified children. If she was the father of George (II), then she would have been at least 15 years old in 1822, and therefore no younger than 24 in 1831, suggesting that she was between 24-33 at the time of birth for Mary Rachel.

As a result, this allows for an estimated birth year range of 1798-1807, which in turn places her within Mary (Polly) Jones’ child-bearing years, which places her as a likely daughter of Richard and Mary Jones.  

Amelia is possibly listed in the 1860 Marsham Waring Inventory as Amelia, age 50 [1810]. 50 may be an estimated age (allowing for a few years either way, this places the age on the upper limit of range.

In the inventory, she is listed near Daniel Calvert, her son, and Michael Jones, her likely brother, reinforcing the possibility that she is Amelia Jones Calvert of the 1831 baptism.