Probate Records – stories of Then

genetic thread: a DNA connection

A DNA match between descendants initiated an investigation into the probable shared ancestry of two Black individuals living in Prince George’s County after emancipation. Washington Lee, a Civil War veteran, appeared in the Western Branch Neighborhood of Queen Anne District after the Civil War without visible connections to any kinship clusters. In contrast, Maria Matthews, with her husband and children, could be traced to Bel-Air, the Ogle estate situated relatively near Governor’s Bridge. This genetic link between the two individuals suggests a shared ancestry, offering a rare glimpse into the kinship networks formed under chattel slavery in antebellum Maryland.

historical threads: the documentary evidence

Maria Matthews, daughter of Peter Lee

Maria Matthews died in 1903, having lived in Prince George’s County for the majority of her life. Her death certificate identified Peter Lee as her father. This discovery potentially linked Maria Matthews and Peter Lee to Washington Lee, as a shared family name emerged. An elderly Peter (born circa 1800) was listed in the probate records of the Ogle network along with Maria, corroborating the connection between Bel-Air and Maria’s lineal family.

Polly, Wife of Peter

In 1855, Polly, a woman not less than 40 years old, self-liberated herself from William E. Peach. Peach had purchased Polly from the Macgill estate “at her request so that she may enjoy the society of her husband and relatives.” Peach included a certification from Geo. C. Ogle stating that Polly’s husband, Peter, was “anxious that she come home to her master.” Despite Peach’s apparent fulfillment of her request, Polly was not convinced of his purchase and left Prince George’s County, making her way to West River Post Office in Anne Arundel County. Polly had been enslaved on Macgill’s Prince George’s estate, which bordered Bel-Air, where her husband was enslaved. Her journey to West River, in Anne Arundel County, where Macgill’s second estate was situated, suggests the presence of kin in bondage in that location.

Washington Lee, a man of two counties

Washington Lee, a man without readily apparent kinship connections, lived in both Prince George’s County and Anne Arundel County after the Civil War. Marrying Sarah Stewart in Upper Marlboro in 1870, he lived in and around Oak Grove Post Office before moving to Anne Arundel County, near the post offices of Dodon and Harwood, in relative vicinity of West River Post Office. In his waning years, he returned to Prince George’s County to be cared for by his daughter. This combination of Washington Lee’s geographic connections to West River and Queen Anne District, along with the DNA match to Maria Matthews and, presumably, Peter and Polly who also spanned both districts, suggests that Washington Lee was connected with the Lee individuals enslaved on the Macgill estates.

Washington, a boy in the records

A boy named Washington is listed in the probate records of James Macgill. He was held in bondage on Macgill’s Anne Arundel estate near West River, the same area Polly traveled to after her self-liberation from Peach. He was 13 years old in 1844, suggesting a birth year around 1831. His age and location suggest he could be a son or nephew of Polly’s, separated from the Lee individuals who remained in Prince George’s County. Polly’s escape to Anne Arundel County may have been an attempt to reunite with children and kin who had been separated from her in an earlier sale or division of property.

The landscape of southern Anne Arundel County, Maryland, circa 1905. This map illustrates the proximity of key locations in the shared ancestry of **Maria Matthews** and **Washington Lee**, including the areas of Dodon, Harwood, and West River. This geographical context is essential for understanding the origins of their kinship connection.
*Source: U.S. Geological Survey, “Owensville, MD” Quadrangle, 1905, 1918 edition.*

weaving the kinship tapestry

The convergence of genetic evidence and meticulously researched historical records allows for the reconstruction of a probable kinship connection linking Maria Matthews and Washington Lee. The shared 62 centimorgans (cM) between their descendants provides a genetic foundation, supporting the documentary trail that places Maria as the daughter of Peter Lee. Given Polly’s documented status as Peter’s wife, her determined self-liberation to be with him, and Washington’s enslavement on a Macgill estate geographically tied to Polly’s post-escape movements, the evidence strongly suggests Washington Lee was a relative of Peter Lee and Polly. This case illustrates how DNA analysis, combined with a deep examination of fragmented historical records, can contribute to understanding kinship networks that were systematically disrupted and obscured by chattel slavery. It underscores the enduring impact of the institution on individuals and their descendants, and the vital role of persistent research in revealing these crucial connections.

the tapestry of macgill’s estate

The story of Polly is one of resistance against a world designed to commodify her existence. Sold from the estate of her long-time enslaver, she escaped her new owner in a daring attempt to re-stitch the torn fabric of her own kinship community. To understand her actions, one must first examine the complex tapestry of the world that sought to control her.

Dr. James Macgill, heir to his uncle of the same name, presided over a sizable estate in Prince George’s County in the 1830s. His 740+ acre plantation was stitched together from various land tracts along present-day Annapolis Road, a significant crossroads in the Vansville District (later Queen Anne District). The estate was bordered by massive operations: the Jesuit’s 2,000-acre White Marsh plantation, the Ogle family’s 2,000+ acre Bel-air estate, and the Bowie family’s 570+ acre Locust Grove. An 1828 tax list documents the human dimension of this operation, enumerating the 34 people Dr. Macgill enslaved: six elders, eleven adults, four adolescents, and thirteen young children under the age of eight.

The 1828 Levy Court Road Survey details the estate’s strategic location, providing access to the Patuxent River and placing it in direct proximity to the Ogle’s Bel-air plantation—the community where Polly’s future husband, Peter, was enslaved.

Road No. 1 [now-Annapolis Road]: Commencing at the Priests Bridge on the Patuxent, thence through the White Marsh Plantation; then through Bel-air, thence through the plantation of Dr. James Magill by the Forest Chapel, thence by Magruders Tavern…

Road No. 3: …across Collington Branch, thence with the plantations of William Ogle, James Magill, and Walter Bowie…

Using details from the 1828 Levy Court Road Survey, Martenet’s annotated 1861 map details the route of the area’s primary artery (present-day Annapolis Road), an economic corridor connecting the adjacent plantations of Macgill, Ogle (Bel-air), and the Jesuit’s White Marsh.

Married to Julia Ann Compton in 1829, Macgill also owned property in Anne Arundel County near West River Post Office and Samuel Carr, the husband of Mary Compton. The property was situated in the First District along the road that led to Mount Pleasant Ferry, connecting Anne Arundel to Prince George’s County closer to Upper Marlboro, the county seat. The estates wove together the family’s interests across two counties, creating a broader and more complex tapestry of land and human property.

the Snag: the death of the patriarch (1840)

A decade after his marriage, Macgill’s impending death created a snag in the tapestry of his estate, and he composed his last will and testament, dividing his real and personal property among his wife and three born children, while making provisions for his unborn child. Like his uncle, he dictated how the fabric of his estate was to be cut and divided, specifically naming different mother-child family groups and directing the heir who would acquire four family groups, with a third being conveyed to Macgill’s wife as her right of dower, and the unnamed “balance” going to James P. Macgill.

ripped threads of kinship

Macgill’s division in his will ripped the threads of kinship among the community enslaved on his estates. While he nominally kept mother-child groups together, Polly and her children were divided from her larger extended family. As the wife of Peter, she became part of the larger Lee family group, and with Macgill’s will, she was separated from Harriet Lee and her children, Daniel, Oswald [Osborn], Caroline, Ann, and Amelia, who, while unnamed in the will, were named in the inventory and much later in the 1867’s Compensation List of Septimus J. Cook, the second husband of Julia Macgill. Whereas, Polly and her children were conveyed to Thomas Macgill, the oldest son, who would also receive a sizable portion of the Prince George’s estate through provisions of the 1833 will of the older Dr. James Macgill. Polly, Peter, their children, and the family of Harriet Lee were the threads that gave the plantation its texture and life. Macgill’s death subjected these threads to immense strain. They were stretched thin across counties, torn from one another, and tangled with new and unfamiliar threads.

This diagram illustrates the legal fracturing of an enslaved community following the 1840 death of Dr. James Macgill. His will distributed specific mother-child groups, including those of **Rachel**, **Sue**, **Sophia**, and **Polly**, among his heirs, pulling the kinship network apart and setting the stage for future sales and separations.

threads of inheritance

The will, far from ensuring a smooth transition, pulled the tightly woven kinship community of the enslaved in three distinct directions. Each heir represented a thread pulling part of the tapestry away from the whole. These distinct lines of inheritance did not exist in isolation; they actively pulled the community apart, a process accelerated by the legal and personal entanglements of the heirs.

the dower of the widow: the cook connection

Under Maryland law, Julia Ann Compton Macgill had a dower right to one-third of her husband’s property. This included the enslaved families Macgill designated for her, most notably Harriet Lee and her children. When Julia remarried to Septimus J. Cook in 1845, her dower portion—including Harriet’s family—was legally absorbed into the Cook household. This single act pulled an entire branch of the original enslaved community away, transplanting them into a new network under a new enslaver.

the son’s portion: the line of thomas macgill

Thomas Macgill’s inheritance was anchored in Prince George’s County. As stipulated in two generations of wills, he received a large portion of the home plantation and legal ownership of Polly and her children. While this provision placed Polly in the community where her husband Peter lived, it rested on the financial acumen of the Magill’s guardians to maintain a sizable estate without need to sell off “assets” This thread represented the patriarchal line of succession from uncle to nephew to son.

the balance of the estate: the line of james p. macgill

The younger son, James P. Macgill, inherited the family’s Anne Arundel County property near West River, along with the “balance” of the enslaved people not otherwise assigned. This act created an immediate geographic fracture in the community, moving another group of individuals to a different county and physically separating them from the kinship network on the home plantation. This thread established the West River estate as a distinct, yet connected, Macgill holding—and created the destination Polly would later seek in her flight.

The division of human property among Julia, Thomas, and James P. Macgill set the stage for further disruption. The fifteen years that followed Macgill’s death were marked by a cascade of events—probate, remarriage, and death—that continued to unravel the fabric of the enslaved community.

unraveling in motion: 1840-1855

Multiple events occurred in the years after Macgill’s death that led to self-liberation of Polly in 1855. First, there was the division of the estate as it traveled through probate, followed by the marriage of Julia Macgill to Septimus J. Cook and her subsequent death in 1846, and the re-division of her estate with her children’s. There were sales to settle the debts of the estate. Ultimately in 1855, Thomas Macgill sold his estate that inherited from his uncle to Joshua T. Clark, a neighbor and Justice of the Peace. It is most likely this sale that prompted Polly to seek ways to weave a new beginning for her family.

Polly’s design: weaving against the grain

The impending 1855 sale of the plantation from Thomas Macgill to Joshua T. Clark likely acted as the final catalyst. In response, Polly leveraged her social capital within the enslaver’s network to reach out to William Elson Peach, her late enslaver’s son-in-law. She initiated her own sale, requesting that Peach purchase her to ensure her continued proximity to her husband, Peter. However, while navigating this arrangement with Peach, she almost certainly utilized her own community’s social networks to connect with individuals who offered an alternative path. The “designing person” mentioned in the subsequent bounty notice suggests Polly was not merely seeking a new enslaver but was simultaneously orchestrating an escape. This was her attempt to gather the scattered threads of her own kinship and find lasting liberty beyond the reach of Peach, Clark, and the unraveling Macgill estate.

Sources

1828 Tax List, Prince George’s County

1828 Levy Court Road Survey, Prince George’s County

Marriage Records, for the Macgill-Compton union (1829) and the Macgill-Cook union (1845)

Maryland, U.S., Compiled Marriages, 1655-1850
Maryland, U.S., Compiled Marriages, 1667-1899

Last Will and Testament of Dr. James Macgill (the elder), 1833, PC 1:1

Last Will and Testament of Dr. James Macgill (the nephew), ca. 1840, PC 1:129

Probate Records, Estate of Dr. James Macgill (the nephew), post-1840, which would include:

Inventory and Sales Records of the Estate (PC 4:43, 57, 299; JH 1:20,107,268, 273)

Land Records, for the sale of the Macgill estate to Joshua T. Clark (ca. 1855); EWB 1:137

Newspaper Bounty Notice for the capture of Polly (1855), Baltimore Sun, newspapers.com

1867 Compensation List of Septimus J. Cook

Category Archives: Probate Records

genetic threads, historical lives: the story of Maria Matthews and Washington Lee