| Vol. 2, No. 1 | History of Harford and Baltimore Counties | February 1992 |
"Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations: ask thy father, and he will shew thee, thy elders and they will tell thee."
Deuteronomy 32:7
You probably all know that this is a one man operation (if there were more of us there would probably be more pages) and sometimes I get my nose stuck so far into the research and typing that I just plain forget.
I was working so hard trying to put the December newsletter to bed (wow! real journalism talk) that I <+$><+!><+">plumb forgot<-"><-!><-$> to wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year - so here goes:
There now, I feel better, how about you?
By the way - those of you who go through this paper looking for spelling errors (and I know some of you do - my son would tell you to 'get a life') should know that my word processing program has a spelling checker in it - but I make up words from time to time and some and some of them do slip by.
And - there are those who love to pick on my grammatical style. So I actually spent some bucks and bought (a little drum roll, please) a grammar checker. It checks it all; punctuation, double words, trite phrases, bad English, etc. But it doesn't know everything. It took me almost three hours to try and convince the darn thing that 'plumb forgot' was perfectly good English.
Sometimes it's fun to guess just where, when and why certain tracts got their names. No doubt the state of mind of the purchaser at the time he 'laid his money down' can be learned from the name he gave the tract.
I don't think there is any doubt about the feelings or thoughts behind "Long Fought and Dear Bought", "Hard Struggle", "Little Worth", "Henry's First Attempt" or "Orchard and Spring" - I have some trouble with "Cuckold Makers Point" but, it is fun to guess.
I suppose that Mr. Ogg was 'religious' or maybe not but he had some 'religious' friends that gave him that nickname so he applied it to his property.
At any rate, Og (one 'G'), King of Bashan is mentioned 21 times in the Bible from Numbers through Psalms - Old Testament stuff.
Interestingly, at least for me. Ogg is a form of the English surname Hogg. I come from a long line of 'em (on my mother's side). Some of my relatives tried to pronounce it in so that it sounded 'genteel' but it's just plain HOGG.
"Ogg, King of Bashan" lies along the south side of the West Branch of Winters Run at the place where it crosses MD Route 165 (Baldwin Mill Road) and it wasn't patented by anybody named Ogg.
It was patented by Thomas Bond.
A common warrant was issued from His Lordship's Western Shore Land Office on October 27, 1719 for 250 acres of land, granted to Thomas Bond, out of His Lordship's Reserve.
Maryland was divided into two parts. If you look at a map you'll see why. Everything dealing with land east of the Chesapeake Bay was controlled by the Eastern Shore Land Office and everything west of the Chesapeake Bay by the Western Shore Land Office.
So Thomas went to the Western Shore Land Office in 1719 because he had found some unpatented land on Winters Run that he liked and he wanted it.
He and the clerk determined the approximate location, approximate acreage, rent per acre, length of the lease, etc, etc, etc. He paid the Land Office (Lord Baltimore) the required caution money. The Land Office found no objection to his claim and issued a warrant for 250 acres.
A warrant was an official notice giving permission to a surveyor to find, locate, survey and lay off any vacant (unpatented) land for the applicant.
Thomas Bond took his warrant to the local surveyor, John Dorsey, Deputy Surveyor under Thomas Addison, Surveyor General. It was Dorsey's job to determine how many acres, up to 250, could be patented.
Dorsey surveyed the land, found out that only 200 acres were vacant and sent a Certificate to the Land Office to that effect. The Certificate contained a description and metes and bounds and a plat of the property in question. Thomas's certificate reached the Western Shore Land Office in June of 1720.
The Land Office reviewed the Certificate, notified the appropriate people in the area of the property and sat back and waited (typical) to see if there were any objections. If anyone disputed Thomas's claim it Chancery Court for a decision. In this case there were no objections - I found no Chancery Court records.
So, with a clear lease, the Patent was issued by the Western Shore land Office to Thomas Bond in June, 1726 for 200 Acres of land to be known by the name of "Ogg, King of Bashan".
................ and it only took 7 years
Warrant, Certificate, Patent. the whole process could take more than ten years if there were objections.
A Warrant was an application for land as well as official notice to the surveyor. It listed the amount of land the applicant would like to have and told the surveyor to proceed with his work.
A Certificate was from the surveyor to the Land Office listing how much land actually existed
A Patent was the official lease or deed to the property from the Proprietor (Lord Baltimore) to the applicant.
Thomas Bond must have been very sure that he would get his patent because before it was issued he sold the property, and the Land Office approved the sale (remember that in this time period it was no an actual sale only a transfer of lease, Lord Baltimore owned the land).
Henry Witherall, Gentleman bought "Ogg, King of Bashan" from Thomas Bond, Planter on 8 March 1723. Henry married Ellinor Presbury on December 20, 1724.
Henry Witherall. Gentleman sold "Ogg, King of Bashan" to John Roberts and his wife Mary (nee Kembal) Jackson (widow of Thomas Jackson) 7 Sept 1726. John died two years later in 1728.
John and Mary Roberts sold it to Edmund and Mary Talbot - March 9, 1726. Edmund died November 15, 1731 and his wife Mary married John Taylor.
On March 9, 1732, William Talbot (son of Edmund and Mary and husband of Mary Roberts, daughter of John and Mary Roberts) got "Ogg, King of Bashan" from John Taylor, his stepfather, with the provision that Mary Taylor (his mother) could live there for the rest of her natural life.
April 1752, James - the firstborn son of William and Mary (Roberts) Talbot - inherited "Ogg, King of Bashan" by his father's will.
June 6, 1753, James sold his part of the tract to John Chalk.
Straight so far??
Aug, 1753 - Thomas Bond sold it to his friends: John Chalk, Stephen Roberts and William Talbot.
But, how can this be? you ask.
I don't know for sure - I believe that the land was never sold, just leased and sub-leased.
In 1753 Thomas Bond 'took charge' of the property again and 'sold' it back to the guys, his friends, who had been using it for the past few years.
23 January 1754 - Stephen Roberts sold part of his part to William Amos Jr.
6 June 1754 - Stephen sold another part of his part to John Chalk (21 acres).
6 June 1754 - Stephen sold the rest of his part to William Amos Jr. (18.5 Acres).
I can find no record of land transfers of "Ogg, King of Bashan" until after Harford County separated from Baltimore County. I think that it all took place through wills and estates.
The 1783 Harford County tax list gives the following people as residing on (but not necessarily owning) "Ogg, King of Bashan"; Edward Bonley, George Chalk, John Chalk, Matthew Talbot and David Whitehead.
For those that didn't - I put several queries on the local computer bulletin board for the 22 that wrote and called - two faxed the info - and got very good (and fast) answers.
As some of you found out it didn't cost you anything to try. Those of you that got responses got them within 48 hours.
It beats the heck out of sending stamps, envelopes, FGS's and explanations. Then waiting several weeks to see if anyone will respond.
Granted, not every query got a response - but then not every letter gets one either - this is easier, cheaper, faster and a lot more fun. I like hobbies were you have fun.
By the way, there are files that I can download (get from other computers by telephone modem and put on mine) that give addresses for genealogical help in Germany, France, Canada, England, Poland, etc.
The one for German help is kind of neat (I have to get rid of this grammar checker). It gives information, names and addresses of some German genealogical societies, as well as sample letters in German and English which you can copy and send asking for information, etc. Somebody went to a lot of work on this one.
In order to respect the wishes of those who would still like to use me as a 'clearing house', I will print the name and address only if asked.
Seek surname of Ann, wife of William AMOS (c.1690 to 1759) who built the original Mt. Soma in the early 1700's.
Seek surname of Hannah, wife of William McCOMAS and mother of Hannah McCOMAS, 1st wife of William AMOS, the Quaker Minister.
Seeking parents and siblings of Sarah V., wife of Andrew J. DECKER She died October 17, 1865, age 25 years, 8 months 21 days, in Kewaunee County, Wisconsin but was born January 26, 1840 in Harford County, MD. and probably married here also. but no records can be found
Seeking parents of George GRAY b. 1750 northeastern MD; m. Sarah HAILE 1776 near Baltimore, Land grant in Washington Co., TN.
Birth or baptism records for Elizabeth HOWARD, b. 1776 in or near Baltimore, MD; m. John LEECH (LEACH) 11 Dec. 1795.
Anyone else researching HARRIS families of Maryland? Sarah Harris m. Henry BENNINGTON 1720 Harford Co. Other related names about 1740: GAINER, WILSON, BARTON. Ties to York Co., PA; Washington Co., PA; Washington Co., MD.
Need any information about Elizabeth WALTON who m. c1780 Thomas WALLIS of Harford Co. MD. They were later members of Pennsdale Meeting, Lycoming Co. PA
Need information on a Elizabeth VOGAN married to Thomas MONTGOMERY Jr. date ?? She died sometime after Oct 1821.
Looking for the wife of Thomas MONTGOMERY Sr. born circa 1710 died before 20 Dec. 1785 lived in Deer Creek Upper Hundred Gunpowder.
Trying to find out anything about Robert LAUGHLIN and his daughter Elizabeth who listed her place of birth as MD in the 1850 census of Bourbon Co. Kentucky.
Is anyone out there doing any work on the surname STRAWBRIDGE?
Looking for information on the George RAHLL family of Watervale Road, Fallston, MD. He died 14 June, 1891.
Can anyone help me find info on Asael POULSON who was listed in the 1783 tax list of Harford Co. Bush River Upper and Eden Hundreds.
Looking for information on Michael KELLY born 1820, died 1895.
Seeking info on John Robert STEELE, b. 23 Nov. 1783, m. Nancy HOWLETT. The 1820 census shows them in Harford Co., MD.
In Harford County at the Bel Air branch, behind the information desk, in the last file cabinet, in the bottom drawer - are rolls of microfilm for every Harford County census through 1900 except, of course 1890, which burned.
In the top drawer of the same file cabinet are microfilm rolls of the Aegis from it's inception to today - all quite readable, few issues missing.
There is a microfilm reader and a reader/printer. Since there are only two machines, the staff limits the time of use to 1/2 hour per person (but only if someone is waiting to use them). I have used them all day sometimes with out interruption.
Any way if you can't find the film or the readers, ask the information lady, she's real nice.
If you are a member of the NGS you can become a member of CIG (whether you have a computer or not) by just asking - there is no charge.
By the way - the NGS convention is in Jacksonville Fla. this year - April 29 to May 2. Come on down and listen to me talk. Next year it's in good ole Baltimore, MD.
The Maryland Genealogical Society's Genealogical Seminar is March 13 & 14 in Westminster, MD. I helped work on the schedule for that one also. It looks like it's going to be a good one, mainly 'cause I'm gonna be one of the speakers there too (I got rid of the grammatical checker).
Make check or money order payable to E.C. Smith, Inc. Mail to "Time after Time", E.C. Smith, Inc. 3818 Belmont Drive, Jarrettsville, MD 21084
Back issues are available for $2.50 each. - Vol. 1 No's 1,2,3,4,5&6.
Queries are accepted from anyone and are currently free of charge.
Your comments and suggestions are welcome.
