Author Archives: susantichy

Another resource: “Our Black Ancestry” networking site

Through fellow members of Coming to the Table, I recently learned of Our Black Ancestry, a site that includes an interactive data base for people researching various African-American surnames. Just click on the Surnames tab at the top to reach directions for how to use the site. Also recommended: post your inquiries on a RootsWeb forum for the county where your ancestors lived. CTTT’s home page reads:

Coming to the Table provides leadership, resources and a supportive environment for all who wish to acknowledge and heal wounds from racism that is rooted in the United States’ history of slavery.

New regional chapters are forming, and a national gathering takes place every year. Assistance can include mentoring and support for descendants of the enslaved and descendants of enslavers who are searching for linked ancestors. For those who can’t travel to a meeting, monthly conference calls on a variety of subjects can help connect you to this community.

Priscilla Gray & Her Descendants, in bondage to Maryland Magruders for 150 years

For at least a year I have been promising to compose a page about Priscilla Gray and her descendants. Priscilla was a mulatta “born of a white woman,” indentured as a servant to Sarah Magruder, widow of Samuel Magruder (d. 1711). Technically, Priscilla was a free woman, because her mother was a free white woman, but long periods of indenture imposed on both mothers and their illegitimate children kept women like Priscilla in virtual slavery for years, sometimes for life.

In 1727 Priscilla was convicted for the same crime her mother had committed–bearing an illegitimate mixed-race child–and sentenced to seven additional years of servitude to Sarah Magruder. Her child was sentenced to 31 years of servitude. It was rare in Prince George’s County, in those years, for a woman to be prosecuted more than once for the crime of “mulatto bastardy.” Priscilla, her daughters, and other women held in bondage by the Magruders and families with whom they intermarried seem to have comprised a majority of the repeat offenders. In all, Priscilla bore seven children and served an additional 35 years of bondage for the “crime” of childbirth. Her daughters–each of whom was held in servitude to the age of 31–suffered the same fate, their terms of service extended with the birth of each child. Some of Priscilla’s daughters and other descendants did manage to survive long enough to obtain their freedom; others not. Slaves named Gray were named and manumitted in Magruder wills right up to 1860, the eve of Emancipation.

There are many gaps in my information on the Gray family. I hope in future to fill some of those gaps; but for now, here is what we know about Priscilla Gray and her legacy. If you are an African American descended from Priscilla, please get in touch, and teach me more about your family’s story.

New gateway page to the McGruther/Magruder heartland

Hi friends. It’s been a long time since I updated the site, and for that I apologize. I have had some messaging back and forth with a few of you, though, so Magruder-land was never far from my thoughts. In fact, I spent a week in Perthshire in June, where I had the great pleasure of meeting both Don McGruther and Hugh and Margie Rose. Hugh and Margie very kindly hosted myself and a friend at Trian House for lunch, before Hugh took us for a tour around Glen Artney and nearby sites. His knowledge of Drummond history was a plus for me. The next day Don drove up from his home near Glasgow to answer some of my McGruther history questions and to drive us around to some sites I’d not seen on earlier visits, including Drummond Castle Gardens and the Drummond chapel at Innerpeffray Library.

With Don McGruther, under a stormy sky at Craigneich. Photo: Brandon Moore-McNew, June 2014.

While in Perthshire, we were fortunate to stay at The Arch House, headquarters of Grace Notes Scotland, a nonprofit founded by Margaret Bennett to conserve and pass on the traditional cultures of Scotland, both Gaelic and Scots. The Arch House occupies part of what once was the stable block at Dunira Estate, west of Comrie–a unique and beautiful place.

The Arch House, Dunira Estate, Perthshire. Photo Susan Tichy, 2014.

The Arch House, Dunira Estate, Perthshire. Photo Susan Tichy, June 2014.

When I got home I had good intentions about getting right to work on this site…but instead spent the rest of the summer in a place with limited access to the internet–yes, there still are such places–so I’m just now trying to catch up.

So today I’ve made a new gateway page to the McGruther/Magruder Heartland, and made updated pages about sites in Glen Artney, Directions to Belliclone, etc., outgrowths of that page. Hugh Rose’s beautiful photos are also now part of that family of pages. My own photos will be coming soon. The gateway page includes a historical summary, so you can figure out where you want to visit and why.

Maybe all you need to know is how beautiful it is in June…

Glen Artney from Hugh & Margie's garden, Trian House. Photo: Susan Tichy, 2014.

Glen Artney from Hugh & Margie’s garden, Trian House. Photo: Susan Tichy, June 2014.

A visit to Historic St. Mary’s City, Maryland

Finally (!) I have finished and published a page about St. Mary’s City & the Founding of Maryland. Undoubtedly, it will be corrected and expanded as time goes on, but here’s a chance for a virtual visit. Many thanks to my friend Peggy Yocom for her beautiful photographs.

Still to come: a page on the Godiah Spray Plantation, replica of a typical 17th c Maryland plantation. (Forget Gone with the Wind–it’s more like Daniel Boone.)

A visit to Magruder’s Landing…and a glimpse of Anchovie Hills

Patuxent River, Magruder's Warehouse site. Photo: Margaret Yocom, 2013.

Patuxent River, Magruder’s Warehouse site. Photo: Margaret Yocom, 2013.

Last weekend, a friend and I made a quick trip to southern Maryland, visiting Magruder’s Ferry and Historic St. Mary’s City, site of Maryland’s first colonial capital. I’ve made a page for photos and snippets of history on Anchovie Hills & Magruder’s Tobacco Landing in the Maryland section.

Coming soon: St. Mary’s City.

African American McGruders/Magruders in Frederick County, MD

Pat Magruder has been researching African American descendants in Frederick County, MD, and has found several households, some using the McGruder spelling. She posts her finds on the African American Magruder Descendants Facebook Group, so if you are interested you may want to join that group. Here are her recent posts–

I found a Zeddrick Magruder 73 years old in 1870 and his wife Harriet in Frederick City Maryland African American.

More Mcgruders, Magruders found in Urbana Frederick County , Md. Rueban Mcgruder 1870 census- 25 years old black male. Boarder of Sarah Nailor also black.

Rezin Magruder , white male , age 30 in Frederick City, 1860 census, had an entire African American family named Baton. Charles,his wife Mary and 6 children. Zaddock Mcgruder and wife Priscilla. 1860 census. He was 65 years old. Frederick City. African American. Some of the spelling of Magruder changed to Mcgruder in other census.
 
Hope this info helps someone.