Colonial Maryland

The Gaithers & Duvalls

Puritan settlers on the South River, a French Huguenot who arrived as an indentured servant, and a slow move south to North Carolina.

Donald's grandmother Gertrude Joyce Gaither 1895–1983 ("Grandma Hartman") came from a family that had been in America since the 1600s. Her Gaither line goes back to Anne Arundel County, Maryland, near Annapolis. Through a marriage in 1719 it also goes back to Mareen Duvall, one of Maryland's best-known early settlers.

The Gaither line

From Donald back to the immigrant John Gater.

1. The starting point of this family historyDonald Eugene Norman 1947–2026born Plymouth, Wayne, Michigan, USA; died Tavares, Lake, Florida, USA
2. Donald's motherJoyce Oleana Hartman 1927–1986born Durham, N.C.; died Elk Rapids, Mich.
3. Donald's grandmotherGertrude Joyce Gaither 1895–1983born Winston-Salem, Forsyth, North Carolina, USA; died Durham, North Carolina
4. Donald's great-grandfatherWilliam Henry Jackson Gaither 1862–1932born Davie, North Carolina, United States; died Middlefork, Forsyth, North Carolina, USA
5. Donald's 2nd great-grandfatherElijah Gaither 1816–1863born Iredell County, North Carolina, USA; died North Carolina, USA
6. Donald's 3rd great-grandfatherZachariah Gaither 1772–1843born Leftout, Anne Arundel, Maryland, USA; died Rowan County, North Carolina, USA
7. Donald's 4th great-grandfatherBenjamin Gaither 1744–1788 cautionborn Left Out, Anne Arundel Co, Maryland, USA; died Leftout, Anne Arundel, Maryland, USA
8. Donald's 5th great-grandfatherJohn Gaither 1720–1751born Abington, Anne Arundel, Maryland, United States; died Abington, Anne Arundel, Maryland, United States
9. Donald's 6th great-grandfatherJohn Gaither 1677–1739born Abington, Anne Arundel, Maryland, United States; died Abington, Anne Arundel, Maryland, USA
10. Donald's 7th great-grandfatherCapt. John Gaither 1646–1702 cautiondied All Hallows Parish, Anne Arundel County, Maryland
11. Donald's 8th great-grandfatherJohn Gater / Gaither 1599–1652 cautionborn England; died Anne Arundel County, Maryland

Maryland to North Carolina

The Gaithers stayed in Anne Arundel County for well over a century. Zachariah Gaither 1772–1843 was born at a place the tree calls "Leftout", Anne Arundel County, in 1772 and died in Rowan County, North Carolina in 1843. His son Elijah Gaither 1816–1863 was born in Iredell County, North Carolina in 1816. The family stayed in that part of the state: William Henry Jackson Gaither was born in Davie County in 1862, and the tree has Gertrude born in Winston-Salem in 1895 (her obituary calls her a native of Davie County). She married Charles Edward Hartman of Nyack, New York, and their daughter Joyce married Robert Charles Norman.

The first Gaithers

The family tree had merged two men into one. The records show a father and a son:

1. John Gater / Gaither 1599–1652, the immigrant (about 1599 – by November 1652). A John Gater, 36, is listed on 26 July 1635 to sail from London on the Assurance, with a Joan, 20, and a John, 15. He took up 800 acres in Virginia in 1638 and was one of the Puritans of Lower Norfolk County, who in 1640 agreed to help pay for their church. Around 1649–50 he joined the Puritan move north to Anne Arundel County, Maryland, where he died by late 1652. compiled
2. Capt. John Gaither 1646–1702 (born by about 1646, buried 12 November 1702 at All Hallows). With Robert Proctor he surveyed Abington in 1663, patented in January 1663/4: 875 acres at the head of the South River. He paid his share of the 1678 levy for the war against the Nanticoke, and was styled "Captain" by 1696. He married Ruth Beard 1659–1719. record

A hard fact. Capt. John Gaither died without a will, and the inventory of his estate, taken in 1703, lists five enslaved Africans. Slavery was part of this family's life in colonial Maryland, and a family history should say so plainly. compiled

The tree's birth date for Capt. John (26 January 1642, Lamberhurst, Kent) has no source and has been left off. The names "John DuVall Gaither" and "John Gaither IV" for his son are modern inventions; this site just calls him John Gaither (1677/8–1739).

Ruth Beard

Ruth's maiden name was Beard. Two records settle it together: her father Richard Beard's will (1675, proved 1681) leaves land to "dau. Ruth and her sons", and in a court case of 1716–17 her nephew Neale Clarke calls John Gaither "his Uncle". The name "Morley" that appears in older books was a mistake, made in 1905 from a 1672 will that names John Gaither only as its executor. After Capt. John died, Ruth married Francis Hardesty in 1703/4, which is where "Hardesty" comes from. She was buried in 1719. The tree's birth date for her, 1654 in Lower Norfolk, has no source; she was probably born in Maryland, around 1659.

Capt. John and Ruth's children, from the All Hallows parish register, were John (1677/8, Donald's ancestor), Ruth (1679, who married John Warfield and was the ancestor of Wallis Simpson), Benjamin, Rachel, Edward, Mary, Rebecca and Susannah.

Richard Beard: the Quaker boatwright who heard the thunder

Richard Beard ?–1681, Ruth's father, came to Maryland in 1650, probably from Virginia's Eastern Shore, "as a free adult with his wife and two children", and settled in South River Hundred. He was a boatwright and planter, and he couldn't read or write. Even so, he sat in the Maryland Assembly in 1662–64 and again in 1666. record

He had become a Quaker by 1657, and a letter written that year tells how. Working in the woods, Beard asked God to show him the true way, and to show it "by thunder". At that moment, the letter says, came a clap of thunder so great it broke a tree. After that, Quaker meetings were held at his house on the South River. True to his faith, in 1660 he refused to swear the oath of a grand juror.

He died in 1681 owning nearly 1,500 acres, with names like Beard's Habitation, Poplar Neck, Timber Neck and Indian Range. His son Richard drew the first map of Annapolis, and his daughter Rachel married five times.

Sources: Edward C. Papenfuse et al., A Biographical Dictionary of the Maryland Legislature, 1635–1789 (Archives of Maryland, vol. 426), "Beard, Richard"; Robert Clarkson's 1657 letter, as quoted in J. Reaney Kelly, Quakers in the Founding of Anne Arundel County; Maryland Calendar of Wills, vol. 1; F. Z. Saunders, Gaither family pages; J. D. Warfield, Founders of Anne Arundel and Howard Counties (1905). An English ancestry for Richard Beard in Rottingdean, Sussex, with a "Sir Thomas Beard", appears in online trees but has no evidence behind it and has been left off.

The Robins family of Virginia's Eastern Shore

Richard Beard's wife, Rachel Robins 1631–1681, was baptised in London on 20 November 1631, at St Mary Magdalen, Milk Street. (The tree's "1626, Cheriton, Northamptonshire" mixes up two places: Cheriton is in Northampton County, Virginia.) Her father, Edward Robins 1604–1641, came from Long Buckby, Northamptonshire, where he was baptised in 1604. He married Jane Puddington Cornish Robins 1612–1674 in 1630 and became a merchant on Virginia's Eastern Shore, dying there in 1641. His brother was Col. Obedience Robins, six times a member of Virginia's House of Burgesses and a member of the governor's Council. compiled

The world they lived in: Puritans on the Severn

The Gaithers and Beards were part of a wave of Puritan settlers who left Virginia around 1649, when that colony pressed them to conform to the Church of England. Maryland, with its 1649 Toleration Act, let them in, and they founded a settlement called Providence, where Annapolis stands today. On 25 March 1655 the Puritans defeated Maryland's governor, William Stone, at the Battle of the Severn. No record shows our ancestors in the fight, but it was the world they lived in.

Abington

In 1663/4, Capt. John Gaither and Robert Proctor patented the land that became Abington, between the Severn and South Rivers near Crownsville, Anne Arundel County. Abington Farm was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on 13 September 1984. The main house there today dates from about 1840. It is not the Gaithers' colonial home.

Sources: National Register listing 84001328; Wikipedia, "Abington Farm". Abington Farm is private property.

Which John is which?

There are several John Gaithers in a row, and the family tree numbers them differently from the Society of John Gaither Descendants. The John Gaither born in 1677 is "John Gaither IV" in the tree but "John Gaither III" in the Society's records. This site uses plain names and dates to avoid the confusion.

The Duvall connection

On 20 August 1719, John Gaither 1677–1739 married Elizabeth Duvall 1687–1770, the widow of Benjamin Warfield and a granddaughter of Mareen Duvall. The Norman family descends from this marriage, through their son John Gaither (1720–1751). Elizabeth's tree name, "Duvall Warfield", reflects both of her marriages. Donald's line comes through her Gaither children, so there is no Warfield ancestry in it.

1. Donald's 5th great-grandfatherJohn Gaither 1720–1751born Abington, Anne Arundel, Maryland, United States; died Abington, Anne Arundel, Maryland, United States
2. Donald's 6th great-grandmotherElizabeth Duvall 1687–1770born All Hallows, Anne Arundel, Maryland, United States; died Anne Arundel, Maryland, United States
3. Donald's 7th great-grandfatherCapt. John Duvall 1660–1711born Laval, Mayenne, Pays de la Loire, France; died Anne Arundel County, Maryland, United States of America
4. Donald's 8th great-grandfatherMareen Duvall 1625–1694born Nantes, Departement de la Loire-Atlantique, Pays de la Loire, France; died Middle Plantation, Anne Arundel, Maryland, United States

Mareen Duvall, the emigrant

Mareen Duvall 1625–1694 was a French Huguenot, a Protestant, who came to Maryland as an indentured servant. He arrived on 28 August 1650, bound to a man named John Covell. After serving his time he claimed land in 1659. Robert's notes record his tracts "Lavall" (1659/60) and the Middle Plantation on the South River (1664). He died in August 1694 at Middle Plantation, Anne Arundel County. Sources don't agree on when or where he was born. Dates from 1625 to 1635 are given, and both Nantes and Laval are named.

Another hard fact. When Mareen Duvall died in 1694, the inventory of his estate listed at least 18 enslaved people. Like the Gaithers, the Duvalls built their fortunes partly on enslaved labor.

His son Capt. John Duvall 1660–1711, the eldest according to Robert's notes, is Donald's direct ancestor. By family tradition he was left behind in France as a boy and came to Maryland around 1678. family tradition

Sources: Wikipedia, "Mareen Duvall"; WikiTree Duvall-144; Robert's research notes (Society of Mareen Duvall Descendants).

The Gaither cousin who cost a king his crown: Wallis Simpson

Wallis Warfield Simpson (1896–1986) was born Bessie Wallis Warfield, a Maryland Warfield. King Edward VIII gave up the British throne on 10 December 1936 so he could marry her. They married in France on 3 June 1937 and became the Duke and Duchess of Windsor.

Her family and ours meet at Capt. John Gaither 1646–1702 and his wife Ruth Beard 1659–1719. Their son John Gaither 1677–1739 is Donald's ancestor. Their daughter Ruth Gaither 1679–1728 married John Warfield in 1696/7, and Wallis descends from her:

1. Ruth Gaither (1679–1728) & John Warfield
2. Richard Warfield & Marian Caldwell
3. Seth Warfield (1723–1805)
4. Benjamin Warfield (1755–1829) & Ariana Dorsey
5. Daniel Warfield (1783–1867) & Nancy Ann Mactier
6. Henry Mactier Warfield (1825–1885), a Baltimore merchant
7. Teackle Wallis Warfield
8. Bessie Wallis Warfield, later Wallis Simpson, Duchess of Windsor

That makes Wallis Donald's seventh cousin once removed, through the Gaithers. She isn't related to us through the Duvalls: Wallis's Warfields don't descend from Elizabeth Duvall's first husband, Benjamin Warfield, and Donald's line comes through Elizabeth's Gaither children anyway.

Sources: Wikipedia, "Wallis Simpson"; WikiTree (Warfield-1, -2, -4, -5, -6, -8; Gaither-3, -4); Find a Grave memorials for Ruth (Gaither) Warfield and Seth Warfield; J. D. Warfield, Founders of Anne Arundel and Howard Counties (1905). These are compiled genealogies, not original records. not yet checked against original records

Famous cousins through Mareen Duvall

Mareen Duvall has a huge number of descendants, and a few of them are famous. We descend from his son Capt. John Duvall. The people below come from other children of Mareen's where the line is known, so they're distant cousins, not people in our direct line.

Sources: Truman Library genealogy; FactCheck.org, "Are Obama and Cheney related?"; W. A. Reitwiesner, "Ancestry of Barack Obama"; Ancestry.com blog on Obama and Buffett; Wikipedia, "Gabriel Duvall", "Robert Duvall" and "Mareen Duvall"; PBS NewsHour.

Other colonial lines

DNA A DNA match whose tree goes back to Zachariah Gaither 1772–1843 (1772–1843) supports the Gaither line at that point. Another match descends from Jacob Crater 1801–1890 and Sarah Weisner 1805–1844, which supports the Crater and Weisner lines. These are supporting evidence, not proof. (Matches are living people and aren't named here.)

Gertrude Gaither's ancestry also includes Virginia and North Carolina families such as Comer, Taylor, Crater, Weisner, White and Crews. You can find them in the name index.

For the family's Revolutionary War, Civil War and World War records, including Thomas Comer and Benjamin Gaither, see Military Service.