Mary Hall – stories of Then

Rachel Weldon

Collateral

A series of financial transactions between Richard W. W. Bowie and others in the 1850s shows Bowie in debt and using Rachel and her children, whom he enslaved, as collateral for his debt.

Richard W. W. Bowie’s father had died in 1839, and his inheritance was controlled by his mother until her death in 1852. Bowie married the same year; joining in matrimony to Elizabeth L Waring, the daughter of Marsham Waring.

In 1852, Richard W. W. Bowie signed an indenture on account of having borrowed $500 from Septimus I Cook. To secure the loan, he sold the legal authority to enslave Rachel (about 30 years old) and her four children: Elizabeth, 10 years old, Mary, 8 years old, John, 6 six years old, and Sophy about three years old to William Holtzman, who secured the loan. (ON 1:157) Holtzman was a merchant living in Vansville District.

In 1854, Richard W. W. Bowie signed another indenture on account of having borrowed $1200 dollars from James T. Perkins. He secured the loan through the conveyance of Rachel (32 years old), Catherine (12), Sophy, (6) and Edward (4). and a “boy” by the name of Isaiah (18) to Richard D Hall, a planter, also residing in Vansville. (ON 2:148)

Name	Age in 1852 Indenture	Age in 1854 Indenture
Rachel	30	32
Catherine/Elizabeth	10	12
Mary	8	–
John	6	–
Sophy	3	6
Edward	–	4

Baptismal Records

The same year that Bowie mortgaged the family to Hall, Rachel had a child baptized by the priests of White Marsh. Baptismal records for White Marsh prior to 1853 perished in the fire, and the baptism in 1854 is the first after the fire.

In August 1854, the priests of White Marsh baptized Philomena, the daughter of Eduard Weldon and Rachel Galloway. Rachel was recorded as property of Richard Bowie.

In May 1856, the priests baptized Ann. Elis Welden, the daughter of Eduard Welden and Rachel Galloway. Rachel was again marked as property of R. Bowie.

In July 1859, the priests baptized Anne Maria, daughter of Edward and Rachael Weldon, at Mr. Bowie’s residence.

In April 1863, the priests baptized Mary, daughter of Rachel and Edward Weldon at Rob. Bowie’s residence.

Waring’s Purchases

In March 1857, Richard W. W. Bowie sold the family to Marsham Waring, his father-in-law for $2000, most likely allowing him to maintain possession of the family at his estate for the use of Waring’s daughter, Elizabeth L. Bowie. (CSM 1:538) This transaction was not secure a debt, rather was a bill of sale, in which he sold the legal authority to enslave Rachel, age 35, Catherine, age 13, Sophia, age 7, Edward, age 5, Philla, age 3, and Elizabeth age 1. The Bill of Sale does not mention her husband Edward Welden; it is unclear who enslaved him, as priests did not consistently record the father’s slaveholder.

Name	Age in 1852 Indenture	Age in 1854 Indenture	Age in 1857 Bill of Sale
Rachel	30	32	35
Catherine/Elizabeth	10	12	13
Mary	8	–
John	6	–
Sophy	3	6	7
Edward	–	4	5
Philla (Philomena)			3
Ann Elizabeth			1

In February 1859, Richard W. W. Bowie was paid $3000 by his brother Walter W. W. Bowie to relinquish claim to land described in the 1839 will of his father, Walter Bowie, particularly “Locust Grove”. (CSM 3:117)

Then, in the same month, Marsham Waring purchased the lot and parcel of land “known as part of Darnall’s Grove” and called “Locust Grove”, for $15,190 from Walter W. W. Bowie. (CSM 3:538) The Daily Exchange, a paper out of Baltimore, reported the sale.

In Waring’s 1860 will, he directed that the farm “Locust Grove” go to his son James Waring, “for the use and benefit of my beloved daughter Elizaebth L Bowie [Richard W. W. Bowie’s wife], the plantation which I purchased of Walter W. W. Bowie” In his inventory, the people enslaved by Waring were organized by estate and 9 people were named as laboring on Locust Grove: Anna, 22, George, 4, Mary 15, Sam, 35, and Rachel 28, Catherine, 16, Edward, 8, Eliza, 8, and Maria, infant. Rachel and her children made up the bulk of the people named on the estate.

After Waring’s Death

In May 1862, Catherine Weldon, the daughter of Edward and Rachel, fled to the District with other people from the Waring estates. She is named in the affidavit that James Waring took out. The month prior, in April 1862, the District had abolished slavery and those enslaved in the neighboring jurisdictions fled to the freedom it promised along with the Federal Troops who offered a modicum of protection against slave patrols and slave catchers. Many named in affidavit and their extended family are found in the records of the freedmen’s camps (see Jones Family Group and Stewart Family Group posts). Records connected to Catherine have yet to be located. Though in February 1867, Rachel Weldon is recorded as receiving a nominal amount from a Freedmen Bureau’s agent in the District.

In April 1867, the priests of White Marsh baptized Edward, the son of William Franklin and Catherine, his wife. Martha Sprigg, a woman formerly enslaved by the Warings, sponsored the baptism. Martha’s son, Daniel, was baptized the same day. Edward was likely named for her brother and father.

In 1870, Edward and Rachel Weldon were living in the District of Columbia, in Ward 6 with their son Edward. Both Edward’s are working as laborers. City Directories place them near Lincoln Park. In 1880. the census records Edward and Rachel at 328 Ninth Street SE with their grandchildren. Rachel died in October 1884 and was buried at Mt. Olivet Cemetery. Edward died in 1889 and is also buried at Mt. Olivet.

In 1870, Catherine and William were living in Queen Anne District in the vicinity of Collington with three children and in 1880 they were living in the vicinity of Bowie. FrankWeldon, age 48, is living in their household. He is perhaps an older brother or uncle of Catherine.

Rachel’s Family Group

Rachel partnered with Edward Weldon. The extended Weldon family had multiple baptisms recorded in the surviving White Marsh Baptismal records and many were connected with the Mary Hall estate. In the 1861 Inventory of Mary Hall’s estate, two elderly people are named: Frank and Becky. Based on their age in the inventory, they were born around 1790. In 1822, a priest of White Marsh baptized Catherine, daughter of Francis “Welden” and Becca Sprig. The name Catherine would also be used by Edward and Rachel suggesting a relationship between the Weldons enslaved by the Bowies (Edward Welden and his children) and the Weldons enslaved by the Hall family (Francis Weldon and his children)

Two direct sources provide two possible names for Rachel’s family: Galloway and Mahoney. The Baptismal Records lists Rachel as Rachel Galloway in 1854 and 1856 baptisms of her children. This source most likely had either Rachel or her enslaver providing the name for her family, and therefore directly knowledgeable about her family connections. The second source is a death record for Catherine Franklin, who died in Dec 1911, almost thirty years after Rachel. Her son listed his grandparents, and Catherine’s parents as Edward Weldon and her mother as Rachel Mahoney.

Mahoney is connected with a family with direct ties to White Marsh, as Charles Mahoney had sued John Ashton, manager of White Marsh for his freedom in the 1790s. William G. Thomas wrote a fascinating book about this suit and others, called A Question of Freedom: The Families Who Challenged Slavery from the Nation’s Founding to the Civil War. The Hall Family was descended from Benjamin Hall who is said to have taken possession of Ann Joice after she was illegally denied freedom at the end of her indenture. The Mahoney family was descended from Ann, and three Mahoney’s were named in the will of Francis Magruder Hall in 1826. Francis Weldon and Becca Sprigg were named by Hall as well in his will. The death record that connects Rachel to this family group is from a less reliable informant than the informant of the baptism records due to the nature of memory. Based on depositions given by the members of the Mahoney family during their freedom suits, their family passed on an oral tradition of how they were related to Ann Joice, which may have continued after the end of the freedom suits.

The family name Galloway has fewer baptisms than Mahoney or Weldon. In 1832, the priests baptized Charles, the son of Patrick and Henrietta Galloway who was enslaved by Robert Bowie. The sponsor was Kitty from White Marsh. Seven years earlier, a Charles Galloway escaped the captivity of Mary Weems living in Prince George’s County. He was described as a mulatto man about 21 years of age with relations in the city of Washington. Mary Weems, who advertised for Galloway’s return, may be Mary Margaret Hall who married James William Loch Weems and the grandmother of Walter W. W. Bowie and Richard W. W. Bowie. Mary Margaret Hall and Francis Magruder Hall were siblings, and therefore likely to partner their enslaved young adults.

The two diagrams below show the relationships visually. The first shows the connections between the slaveholders. The second diagram shows the family connections of Edward and Rachel Weldon as constructed from direct and indirect evidence, and the estates they were were associated with.

Mary Weems died in 1849, and the 1850 inventory of her estate shows a family group that may be Rachel and children born prior to the surviving baptismal records of White Marsh. (PC 1:384) Rachel, age 30, would have an estimated birth year of 1820, similar to Rachel Galloway’s age given in the multiple Bowie transactions. Additionally, she had a daughter, Catherine, age 5, would would have an estimated birth year of 1845. The 1857 Bill of Sale between Bowie and Waring had an age of 13 for Catherine which would result in an 1844 estimated birth year. Additionally, the oldest daughter, Henny, may have been named for Henrietta Galloway, the mother named in the 1832 baptism, an inferred relative of Rachel.

Samuel and Sophia Crawford

In the 1863 Inventory of Benjamin Lee‘s estate, Sam, age 24, is listed two names below the name of Davy and Kizzy. No other details are recorded for him. The estate’s appraisers noted that “Owning to the unsafe conditions …. produced by the war” that raged on, they could not provide a market value for the people they commodified, marking only each person as $100, giving no other indication of health or skill. In October 1864, the Civil War Draft called the name of Samuel Crawford, “slave of the estate of Benj Lee”; based on the birth years of his children, he likely did not get called up.

And in 1870, after the Civil War ended and the nation began the slow arduous work of reconstructing an economy based on a strict social hierarchy, Samuel Crawford, age 35, was living between Buena Vista and Mitchellville, two small mercantile communities among the plantations of the “Forest of Prince George’s County.”

Crawford lived near the convergence of Woodmore Road with Mt. Oak Road at Church Road near the estates of Mary Hall and James Mullikin, white landowners who had connections with some of the richest men in Prince George’s County, that derived their wealth from the labor of the enslaved and near Lee’s newly purchased Stewart Farm.

Samuel Crawford is living with his wife, Sophia Crawford, age 30 and their four children, Mary, age 8, William, age 5, Washington, age 3, and Charles age 1. Also living with them is Peter, age 10, not listed chronologically with the other children, suggesting a different relationship than biological.

Through the next three decades, Samuel would labor in the fields of Queen Anne District, renting his farm and providing for his family. He died in October 1906 from chronic gastritis. His son provided the information for the Certificate of Death, naming Sophia as his wife and David Crawford as his father. After his death, Sophia and many of their children migrated north away from Queen Anne District and Prince George’s County to Delaware.

White Marsh Baptisms

Sophia died a few decades later in 1930. At the beginning of the Great Depression, Sophia Crawford lived in New Castle, Delaware, where she was living with her son, Edward. He gave the name of her parents as Wash. Dorsey and Mary Dorsey of Maryland for the death certificate.

The Evening Journal ran an obituary for her: “Former Slave Dead at Age of 104”

Life as a slave in Maryland, the Civil War and freedom which followed it, were vivid memories of Mrs. Sophie Crawford, who died last evening, at the age of 104 years, at the home of her son, James E. Crawford, 1017 Church Street. She had not been ill, but gradually weakened until she died.

She was born on April 19, 1826 on the estate of the late Mr. and Mrs. F. M. Hall in Prince George county, MD., and spent her life as a slave there. Sophie Dorsey married Joseph Bell when she was eighteen years old. Two sons that marriage, Gabriel Bell of Uniontown, PA., and Peter Bell of Baltimore, still survive her. Joseph Bell was killed in the Civil War. In 1865, she married Samuel Crawford. Eleven children were born to them, six boys and five girls. Of these children, John L. Crawford, Michael C. Crawford, and James E Crawford, all of this city, survive her.

The old colored woman had been reared a Catholic and since coming to Wilmington in 1911, was a member of St. Joseph’s parish. She was very devout and counseled her children to be temperate in all things.

Funeral Services will be held on Monday from her home. Solemn requiem mass will be said in St. Joseph’s Church and internment will be in Cathedral cemetery.
The News Journal, Wilmington, Delaware, 6 Jun 1930, page 39

The article notes her former enslaver. Mrs. F. M. Hall, or Mary Hall, was part of the Hill family, descendant from the Darnalls and other Catholics connected with the Calvert family, who had shaped much of Maryland’s culture and economy. Mary Hall, the widow of Francis Magruder Hall, had inherited a vast estate not only from her husband, but both of her parents, Clement and Eleanor Hill.

Connected as she was to the wealthy Catholic landowners, she also had connections to the White Marsh Jesuit Plantation near Priest’s Bridge in Queen Anne District along the Patuxent River. The priests of White Marsh baptized many of the Catholics living in Queen Anne District, both the white landowners and those they enslaved. The Jesuits kept records of their baptisms, noting often who enslaved the mother of the baptized child. Due to a fire in 1853, earlier records are incomplete with mostly only those from around 1820 preserved. “White Marsh Book 3” kept the records of the baptisms after 1853 and the fire. Among them, Samuel and Sophia Crawford had four children baptized and their sacrament recorded in the records of the Jesuit Priests.

In 1862, one year after the death of Mary Hall, Sophy Dorsey and Samuel Crawford had their daughter Marg. baptized. Sophy’s sister, Rosanna, sponsored the child. No enslaver is noted.

In 1865, as the Civil War drew to an end and after Maryland ended slavery, Saml. and Sophia Crawford had their son, William Henry, baptized. Harrietta Mitchell sponsored the child.

In 1868, Jas. Washington, the son of Sam. Crawford & Sophy, his wife, is baptized. Harriette Hall is the sponsor. The baptism occurred at Dr. Belt’s, a relative of Benjamin Lee. The same day, Sophy Crawford sponsored the baptism of Jas. Henry, the son of Philip Hall and Harriette, his wife, who had stood as sponsor for their children.

In 1869, Charles, the son of Samuel Crawford & Sophia Dorsey, his lawfull wife was baptized. Lowis [sic] Wood sponsored the baptism.

No record of their marriage has been found.

The four children baptized at White Marsh are the same four children listed in the 1870 census. Another White Marsh record provides clarity for the relationship of Peter, age 10 in the census.

Her obituary notes eleven children for Samuel and Sophia, six boys and five girls. Reviewing the 1870, 1880, 1900, and 1910 census, this does not seem to be accurate.

1870 Census: 1 girl and 3 boys
1880 Census: 2 additional girls and 2 additional boys, for 3 girls and 5 boys total
1900 Census: 2 additional boys, for 3 girls and 7 boys, for 10 total.

The 1900 census also marked 13 children total which would account for the 3 boys with Joseph Bell (see below) and 10 children from Samuel, with seven children living. The 1910 census also marked 13 children total with 10 children living.

Peter Dorsey Bell

In 1859, three years before the death of Mary Hall, Peter was baptized, the son of Joseph Bell and Sophia Dorsey, illeg.; the baptism was sponsored by William Weldon and the baptism occurred “at Mrs. Hall’s.”

Peter is the step-son of Samuel Crawford and the son of Joseph Bell and Sophia Dorsey. While marriage was not legally recognized by the state between enslaved people, and while slaveholders did not often recognize the rights of those partnered, the records of White Marsh show that Mrs. Hall had permitted and perhaps even encouraged a Catholic blessing for the unions of those enslaved by herself and her neighboring Catholic slaveholders. This suggests that the union between Joseph and Sophia Dorsey was not one sanctioned by Mary Hall or the other white slaveholders, though Sophia viewed it as a legitimate partnership.

Another record, in 1858, records the baptism of Gabriel, son of Sophey “of Mrs. Hall’s”. No father was listed. In 1880, there is a Gabriel Beall living in Queen Anne District who was estimated to have been born in 1858.

In Mary Hall’s 1861 Inventory, Sophy, age 24, is listed with her parents, Dorsey, 45, and Mary 40, and their family group is listed with Peter, age 1, and Gabriel, age 3. There is also a Michael age 5, suggesting that Sophy may have had another son, named Michael. She would later name another of her sons with Samuel Crawford, Michael.

Joseph Bell was enumerated by Geo. A. Mitchell in the 1867 Compensation Lists submitted to the Prince George’s Commission on Slave Statistics. Mitchell owned land on the east side of Collington Branch near the Mullikin’s and Halls. In the 1870 census, Mitchell was marked as a Merchant and Farmer and it is his name that was given to the community that grew after the war with the establishment of the railroad nearby. The article notes he was killed in the Civil War; a service record has yet to be located for him.