An Enslaved Community: Tracing Ancestors from 1867-68 Slave Statistics in P.G. County, part 2

If you are descended from a formerly enslaved person declared in 1867-68 by Edward Magruder, Lewis Magruder, Thomas B. Beall, or Henry Phillips, here is some information that may help trace your family back another generation or two. My project is to identify the multiple pathways by which an enslaved person might have become the property of a particular Magruder or related slaveholder in the statistics, and thus provide more directions for your search.

This page includes two downloadable files: a transcription of the Prince George’s County Slave Statistics, and a database of people enslaved by this extended family. I have also provided links to most of my sources.

  1. Intro to the Slave Statistics
  2. White family relationships
  3. Probate records of the four key estates
  4. People they enslaved
  5. Analysis
  6. Where else could Lewis Magruder, Edward E. Magruder, Henry Phillips, or Thomas Birch Beall have acquired slaves?
  7. Runaway ads & arrest warrants
  8. Post-Emancipation
  9. All people declared by Lewis & Edward Magruder, Henry Phillips, & Thomas Birch Beall
  10. Other family members of Edward & Fielder Magruder, Sr.

Intro to the Slave Statistics

In a law passed in 1867, the Maryland General Assembly complained that “under the Military of the United States, a large number of slaves owing service to loyal citizens of Maryland, were induced to leave their owners and enlist in the military service of the United States.” Hoping that the federal government would repay the state’s loyalty to the Union and compensate its citizens for the human property lost, the General Assembly ordered that a record be made of all slave owners and those they had held in slavery as of November 1, 1864, when the new state constitution took effect. Neither the federal government nor the state ever compensated the enslavers.

These records are far from complete. Declaration was voluntary, and was not open to citizens who could not demonstrate that they had remained loyal to the Union. Even so, these records—created primarily in 1867 and 1868 and known as the Slave Statistics—are the most extensive and accessible evidence available of slaves and enslavers at the time of state emancipation. Lists of the enslaved include age (as of 1864), sex, physical condition and term of servitude for each individual. The schedules also indicate those who enlisted or were drafted into the Union Army, and sometime provide the regiment.

There are at least three places to search the Slave Statistics.

  1. Declarations are included in the online index of Prince George’s County Freedom Records, which also include Certificates of Freedom and records of manumissions–a good place to start, because they are cross-indexed by name of the formerly enslaved, as well as the original indexing by slaveowner;
  2. A downloadable PDF transcription (see below), providing quickly accessible–printable and searchable–list of every name declared by a single enslaver and others with the same surname; or
  3. Scans of the original declarations as recorded by the Commissioner for Slave Statistics, and available on the MSA website..

Scans of the originals should always be consulted once you have zeroed in on your targets. You can check accuracy of the transcriptions, look for descriptive or other detail about an individual, and occasionally find a name that was missed in the transcriptions–as I did in this cluster of four related slaveowners. Each declaration had to be corroborated by two witnesses who could confirm its veracity. Make note of those names, as most are relatives and all are close associates of some kind.

The original declarations can be searched on the Maryland State Archives (MSA) website in this record series:

PRINCE GEORGE’S COUNTY COMMISSIONER OF SLAVE STATISTICS
(Slave Statistics)
1867-1869
CE157

CE157-1 is the index to CE157-2 through CE157-5, containing the bulk of the records, created in 1867-1868. You will see filings by slaveowners themselves, by relatives representing them, and by the executors or administrators of estates. In CE157-2 you will find Lewis Magruder on p. 36; Edward Magruder on p. 38; and Henry Phillips on p.19. Thomas Birch Beall is in CE157-5, on p. 272.

The last entry on the MSA list, CE157-6, contains an additional 36 pages of declarations made as late as 1869 and not included in the index. There appear to be some duplicate or amended filings there, so be sure to check this document for the name of any enslaver you are interested in. Some declarations by attorneys representing more than one estate are also filed here, so take the time to browse these pages.

Here is the downloadable PDF transcription. Like most 19th c. records, this document groups surnames that begin with the same letter, but is not fully alphabetized–you won’t even find all entries of a given surname listed together, so keep scrolling. And, as usual, it is organized by name of the enslaver. Unfortunately, the PDF cuts off the columns for condition, term of enslavement, and military enlistment, but you will find names and ages, as well as the election district where the slaveowner lived–useful in putting together relationships among the enslaved, as well as the owners, and for searching old maps. Thomas B. Beall appears on page 24, the two Magruders on 92, and Henry Phillips on 113. One name, William Brown, is missing from Lewis Magruder’s list.

0-pg-sl-stats-transcribed-copyDownload

You should explore all the online resources at the MSA, including Flight to Freedom: Beneath the Underground Railroad, Legacy of Slavery in Maryland.

Once you have the name or names of enslavers, check land ownership maps at the Library of Congress. Here is P.G. County in 1861. These maps were commercial projects, and landowners had to subscribe to be included, but they will usually show at least the major landholders. Edward “Ed” Magruder shows up in Bladensburg, District 2. Lewis lived near him, but apparently didn’t pay to be included. Their brother, Fielder Magruder Jr., shows in two locations on either side of the rail line southeast of Bladensburg and near the District line. Thomas B. Beall is north of them, in District 1, Vansville, just southwest of Beltsville. Henry Phillips is not shown.

White family relationships

Edward E. Magruder (1827-1891) & Lewis Magruder (1822-1897) were brothers, sons of Fielder Magruder Sr. (1780-1840) and Matilda Magruder (1789-1849).

Another brother, Fielder Magruder Jr. (1814-1888), owned slaves before the war and lived beyond 1864, but did not file for compensation. A fourth brother, William T. Magruder, was a Confederate officer killed at Gettysburg.

However, their sister, Susannah Beall Magruder, married Henry Phillips (1804-1876), and a first-cousin, Jane Beall Magruder, married Thomas Birch Beall (1818-1879). Beall and Phillips both filed in 1867. Jane was the daughter of Fielder Sr.’s brother, Edward Magruder (1778-1842).

These four men–Edward E. Magruder, Lewis Magruder, Henry Phillips, and Thomas Birch Beall—acquired slaves from the estates of four family members: Fielder Magruder Sr. (d. 1840); his wife Matilda Magruder (d. 1849); Fielder’s brother Edward Magruder (d. 1842); and Oliver Barron Magruder (d. 1852), who was Edward’s son and Jane Beall Magruder Beall’s brother.

Of the four, only Edward Sr. (d.1842) left a will, but all their estate inventories and sales have survived. The amount of detail provided by appraisers and executors varies, but for Oliver and for Fielder Sr. we have the names of those who purchased slaves from their estates.

An early death like Oliver’s (at age 32) was surely traumatic for his family, and for slaves whose families and friendships were shattered by dispersal. For those of us trying to reconstruct the families and movements of enslaved people, however, such a death is a gift. By creating a set of records that fall midway between the death dates of generations—in this case, just ten years after the death of Oliver’s father and twelve years before state Emancipation in 1864—it increases the chance of finding the same people in more than one record.

Probate records of the four key estates

Fielder Magruder Sr., d. 1840, intestate

Edward Magruder, d. 1842

Matilda Magruder, d. 1849, intestate

Oliver B. Magruder, d. 1852, intestate

People they enslaved

The first page of this spreadsheet includes basic information for all the people enslaved by this extended family–around 100 individuals–including all the people claimed in 1867 by Edward E. Magruder, Lewis Magruder, Thomas B. Beall, and Henry Phillips. For each person there is an entry for each event I can document. This results in redundancy, but also allows you to sort by name, then date, to compare and track individuals over time.

I would not ordinarily add further redundancy by creating a “purchased” event in addition to a “sold” event. I did so here because nearly all named purchasers were family members, so creating those lines allows you to sort by enslaver, then date, to get a picture of the number and names of those enslaved by each family member.

On the second page, labeled “Flow,” I arranged a few of the enslaved into possible through-lines from the four key estaates to the 1867 declarations. This page functions as a chart and should not be re-sorted. Be sure to scroll down to the lower section. The identities and relationships presented here range from “possible” to “highly likely.”

Analysis

In these four estates—falling close together, in 1840, 1842, 1849, and 1852—we catch a glimpse of a small and fairly cohesive enslaved community, with most being members of the Wright, Semmes, Crawford, Edmondson, and Brown families. Individuals bearing other names might also be related, though less obviously.

The gap between the dates of these estates and the end of slavery in Maryland ranges from just 12 to 24 years—easily bridged within a lifetime. This makes it likely, for example, that two boys named Elias and George, purchased from Edward’s estate in 1842 with no ages provided, are identical to Elias Wright and George Wright listed by his son-in-law, Thomas Birch Beall, in the 1867 declarations.

Where ages are provided in the probate records, the line of identity through to 1864 can be classed as highly likely, if not certain. These include four people purchased from Fielder Magruder Sr.’s estate in 1840–

  • Martha Ann Brown and Tobias (Toby) Edmondson, purchased by Henry Phillips and still in his possession in 1864, along with Martha’s apparent children, Wesley and Richard Brown;
  • Harriet Semmes, purchased by Fielder’s widow Matilda; sold from Matilda’s estate in 1849, with one child; found in possession of their son Lewis in 1864, along with Ellen Semmes, born about 1849, who likely was that child; and
  • Mary Crawford, also purchased by Matilda in 1849, with one child; sold from Matilda’s estate with three children; found in Edward’s possession in 1864, with a number of apparent children and possibly grandchildren, including three–Samuel, Henry, and Fillmore–born 1849 or before, though none was born before 1840.

Where ages are missing in the probate records, equating individuals is more hypothetical–the latter record could be for a family member with the same name–but even hypotheses are useful, as in the identification of children of Martha Brown, Harriet Semmes, and Mary Crawford, or the possibility that John Williams (declared by Thomas Birch Beall) or William Wright (declared by Lewis Magruder) might be traceable to the estate of Edward Magruder in 1842.

My identification of Kitty Semmes (b. 1819), declared by Edward E. Magruder, is a combination of near certainty that she is the Kitty he purchased from the estate of his cousin Oliver in 1853, and a strong possibility that she came originally from the estate of Oliver’s father, Edward Sr., in 1842. I also look at the estimated age for Joe Semmes, declared by Edward E., and suspect that he might be the young child sold with Kitty in 1853.

Of course we cannot see the full picture. We don’t know who might have come and gone in the years between records—children born and died, or family members sold. Those we see here would have had additional family scattered among other enslavers—Magruders, their relatives, and neighbors. Unique surnames in these lists could be the result of the random sales and transfers of enslaved people over time, but we should also consider “broad marriages,” to people from neighboring farms. (Remember those maps? Can you identify neighboring slaveowners and find their records?) Runaway ads often identify the slaveowner of a fugitive’s spouse.

For all these reasons we have to look carefully, and not be too quick to draw conclusions. For example, if Harriet Wright is the wife of either Elias or George, Alice and Ann at a glance look like their daughters, though the girls’ surnames are missing, and if Thomas Birch Beall was accurate about their ages, Alice was only twelve years younger than Harriet. This raises as many questions as it answers, but at least we have an enduring association of Elias and George, and a surname to look for.

Another name pops up immediately, William Wright, declared in 1867 by Lewis Magruder. According to Magruder, he was 30 in 1864, giving him a birth date of around 1834. He could be the William purchased by Lewis Magruder eleven years earlier, in 1853, from the estate of his cousin, Oliver B. Magruder. Ten years before that, a boy named William was purchased by an unnamed buyer from the estate of Oliver’s father, Edward Sr. If that buyer was Oliver, it is possible all three records refer to the same person, William Wright. If George and Elias were his brothers, he was separated from them at age eight, then traumatized again at eighteen when Oliver’s sudden death led to another move, this time to Oliver’s cousin, Lewis.

This is plausible, though by no means proven, in part because Lewis Magruder also declared another William to have been his property in 1864.

William Magruder, eighteen in 1864, is the only person surnamed Magruder known to have been enslaved by this extended family, which suggests that his father may have been one of the white Magruders. If his father was Oliver Magruder or one of his brothers, he could be the William in Oliver’s estate. Just as plausibly, his father could have been Lewis Magruder himself. Of the women Lewis owned in 1864, and declared in 1867, only Harriet Semmes, born about 1830, was old enough to be William’s mother.

It is worth noting that I have not found a single manumission by any slaveholder in this family.

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Where else could Lewis Magruder, Edward E. Magruder, Henry Phillips, or Thomas Birch Beall have acquired slaves?

Matilda Magruder’s father

Matilda Magruder, mother of Lewis & Edward, was the daughter of Dr. Jeffrey Magruder of Montgomery County. He died in 1805, creating a 35-year gap between his probate and that of his son-in-law, Fielder Magruder Sr., who died in 1840. Matilda lived till 1849, 44 years after her father’s death. Four people in Fielder’s inventory were born before 1805, but their names are not found in Jeffrey’s inventory. His list did include two unnamed children, who could be among those recorded later.

  • James 37 ($160), Dick 32 ($280), Bill 16 ($280), Sam 12 ($185), Harry 11 ($185), Isaack  or Jack? 9 ($155), Little James 5 ($90), Willson 2 ($50) Hannah 45 ($80), Mary & child 35 ($185), Dinah 37 ($130), Eve & child 30 ($210), Sal 15 ($180), Poll 12 ($10), Lydia 11 ($135), Nel 6 ($100).
  • Montgomery County, Register of Wills; Accounts, Inventories, Wills, Vol. E (1802-1807), pp. 371-373, Inventory of estate of Jeffrey Magruder (1806); digital images FamilySearch.org (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-9TBG-SHGC?i=215&wc=SNYH-ZN5%3A146535001%2C146582201&cc=1803986

Lewis & Edward Magruder’s father-in-law

Lewis & Edward married two sisters, daughters of Thomas Noble Wilson & Sarah Phillips, of Montgomery County, Maryland. In 1845 Lewis married Susan Evelyn Wilson, and in 1851 his younger brother Edward married Susan’s young sister, 19 year-old Laura Wilson. (I have not yet discovered if/how Sarah was related to Henry Phillips.)

Thomas N. Wilson died in September 1862. His will focuses on his extensive land holdings, leaves all personal property to his wife, and does not mention slaves, but his estate inventory included seven enslaved people: Old Sam (valued at $25), Hanson ($400), Erasmus ($200), Eliza ($200), Sarah & child ($350), and Fanny ($150). The latter could be Fanny Smith, born about 1850, listed in 1867 by Lewis Magruder. None of these people were listed by Edward Magruder.

Thomas Birch Beall’s family

Thomas Birch Beall got his start in life from the generosity of his uncle, George Beall, who died in 1834. He bequeathed to Thomas a 440 acre farm near Beltsville, as well as the residue of his personal estate after specific bequests were subtracted. The earnings of the farm and the proceeds of the sale of his personal property were to be invested by his executor and conveyed to Thomas on his 20th birthday.

George did not bequeath to Thomas any enslaved people. Fifteen were left to his wife, Deborah: Rachel, Nat, Jerry, Marshall, Charles, Basil, Coty? Delilah, Fanny, Airy [or Anny?,] Rachel, Harriet, Peggy (“now living in Montgomery with Dr. Duvall”), Eliza and old Fanny. One old man, Sam, was to have his freedom and, if necessary, be supported by another nephew, John Beall. The remainder were to be manumitted, provided they emigrated to Liberia. The will was constructed to make emigration the best of their options.

Item, I will and bequeath unto my negroes hereafter named not already disposed of, their freedom on the condition that they shall emigrate to Liberia, to be sent thither by my executor so soon as it can be effected. Charles, Henry, Isaac and Jim and Basil now in Washington [illegible]. Old man Sam to have his liberty and remain here, my nephew John Beall shall support him provided he shall live not to be able to maintain himself. It is my wish that, if any of the aforesaid servants should refuse to go to Liberia, that such so refusing, shall be sold at public sale, and the proceeds shall be equally divided among those who have gone and may hereafter go. It is also my will that my executor shall give all and each of them a good suit of clothes, a good narrow axe and grubbing hoe, to be paid for out of the estate.

I have not yet found sales from George Beall’s estate, nor have I identified any records that tell us who, if anyone, actually took ship for Africa. If any of the slaves were sold, it is possible that some may have been purchased on Thomas Birch Beall’s behalf. However, at some point the court replaced the executor named in the will with a court-appointed administrator, and accounts he filed over several years suggest that terms of the will may not have been carried out. Income from the hiring out of slaves owned by the estate run for at least nine years, through 1843, while expenses include “coffins for two old servants,” and a bill for “sundry work done for the servants of the estate.”

As well, there were expenses for “advertising for the deceased’s Representatives” in both local and “western” newspapers. Whoever they were looking for apparently was not found, for when final cash distributions were made, half went to Lucy Barrett and half to “the other not known.” Accounts also include expenses for defending a suit brought by “the heirs” in Chancery Court. I have not seen the court record, but Chancery courts dealt almost exclusively with land issues, rather than,, say, contestation of the manumission of slaves. More research needs to be done to uncover the fate of the 22 people named in George Beall’s will.

In 1839, Thomas Birch Beall married Jane Beall Magruder, daughter of Edward and his second wife, Teresa Ann Barron. The 1840 census shows them in Vansville District, Prince George’s County, with no children and eight slaves: one female 24-35, two females 10-23, three females under 10, one male 10-24, and one male under ten. Just two people are engaged in agriculture. Because no ages were recorded  in George Beall’s probate records, it is impossible even to guess if any of these people came from his estate.

In 1850 Thomas Birch Beall had five slaves, four of whom could be matches for those counted in 1840, plus a girl born about 1842. By 1860, there were seven slaves, but their sexes and ages are a poor match for the 1850 slave schedule; there appear to be just two people who were there ten years before.

Thomas’ father, Ninian Beall V, died in January 1856. A long-time resident of Georgetown, District of Columbia, his obituary says he had lately been living in Montgomery County. The 1850 census confirms that, showing him in Rockville, Maryland. (His name is mis-transcribed on Ancestry as Mirian Beall; you can search for that or for his last wife, Rachel Beall.) I have not located probate for him in either Washington or Montgomery counties.

Runaway ads & arrest warrants

In April of 1853, a woman named Kitty removed herself from Edward Magruder’s farm. He placed an ad in the Baltimore Sun, describing her as 30 years old, five feet tall, and “very black.” This likely was the Kitty he had just purchased from the estate of his cousin, Oliver B. Magruder, whom I have identified as Kitty Semmes. Some runaways were making a bid for freedom; others just longed to see family on other farms and were willing to bear the consequences. Kitty taking off so soon after the dispersal of people from Oliver’s farm suggests the latter–or a strong aversion to her new situation. http://slavery.msa.maryland.gov/html/mapped_images/mnpage15569.html

Jerry M. Hynson’s District of Columbia runaway and fugitive slave cases 1848-1863 (Heritage Books, 2012, pp. 111-113) includes six people who “absconded from the service” of Lewis Magruder, and one from his brother, Fielder Jr. In May of 1862, the month after Emancipation in the District of Columbia, Lewis requested D.C. arrest warrants as fugitive slaves against William Wight [sic], Elizabeth Dorsey (a.k.a. Taylor or Burr), Ellen Simms, Jane Simms, and Harriet Simms. Many in Maryland hoped D.C. emancipation would signal the end of their own enslavement, and some ran to the District in pursuit of that hope. These five were presumably recovered by Magruder, as their names appear among those he declared in 1867, as does a sixth runaway, William Henry Burns. As proof of his ownership of Elizabeth Dorsey, Magruder presented a bill of sale showing that he purchased her from Bernard M. Campbell in Baltimore, on 1 December 1857, as a term slave to be free in 1878. (Prince George’s County Court, Land Records, 1859-1860, Liber CSM 3, p. 568, MSA CE 64-6).

In December of 1861, Fielder Magruder Jr. advertised Anthony (Tony) Crawford as a runaway. In 1862, Tony was either still at large or had run again, as Magruder requested an arrest warrant for him in Washington. Fielder Jr. lived past Emancipation, but did not file for compensation in 1867, so we can’t look at those lists for evidence that Tony Crawford did or did not make good his escape. In 1870, an Antony Crawford, 35, was living in Spaldings District of P.G. County, but lacking any record of Anthony’s age in 1861 or 1862, it’s impossible to speculate.

Post-Emancipation

An extensive search for post-emancipation records is beyond the scope of this page, but a few are worth noting.

Mary Crawford kept many of her family together. She lived in Bladensburg District with Andrew Crawford, her husband or brother, and six of her apparent children–Samuel 28, Milton 20, John 14, Albert 12, Delia, 7 and Harriet 5. In 1864, Edward E. Magruder stated that Samuel had been drafted, but ran away before reporting for duty. Deserters and draft dodgers often changed their names, making them nearly impossible to trace after the war, so I was relieved to see Sam back with his family a few years later. However, two daughters, Kitty and Fanny, are missing from this household, and another son, Milton, has replaced Fillmore in the birth order. All the Magruder brothers and many of the people they had enslaved stayed in the Bladensburg area after the war. On the census, the Crawford residence is just three dwellings away not from Edward Magruder, but from his brother, Fielder Jr.

The 1870 census provides circumstantial evidence linking the three Wright men. William Wright and his wife Charlott lived in Bladensburg with their children, Ann and Charles. Elias Wright, born in Maryland, appears in Washington, D.C., Ward 3, Dwelling #2304, with his wife Sarah or Sallie, and a recorded age of 33, making him five years younger than expected. However, his three children are named Charlotte, George, and Willie. George is more difficult to pin down, as the Maryland census shows two black men named George Wright and born in 1840–one in Baltimore, one in Montgomery County.

An association with the Magruders, albeit indirect, is suggested by the proximity of C.F. [Charles Francis] Cummins, a white man in the boot & shoe trade, in Dwelling #2309, just five entries from Elias and Sarah. In 1874, the city directory shows that Sarah Wright, “wid Elias,” lived at 916 O Street, NW, with the Cummins family just around the block at 903 N Street, NW. https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/1032873641:2469

Cummins was the brother-in-law and sometime business partner of Fielder Montgomery Magruder (1828-1898). Fielder Montgomery as he is called, to distinguish him from his uncle and cousin, was Edward Magruder’s youngest child, making him Oliver Barron Magruder’s brother, Edward E. & Lewis Magruder’s first cousin, and Thomas Birch Beall’s brother-in-law. In 1867 he was one of the witnesses who confirmed Beall’s declaration in the Slave Statistics. He engaged in the boot and shoe trade, both wholesale and retail, throughout the 1860s, often in partnership with various relations. There is no evidence he ever owned slaves, though it’s possible that enslaved shoemakers worked in the wholesale side of the business. I know little about the Cummins family, but they seem to have been middle-class tradesmen, not part of the slaveowning class. Mary Ann Cummins and Fielder Montgomery Magruder are my third great-grandparents.

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All people declared by Lewis & Edward Magruder, Henry Phillips, & Thomas Birch Beall

Underlined names can be found in probate records of the four key estates & are charted on the “Flow” page of the downloadable spreadsheet.

Names with * can be found in bills of sale in the PG County land records, and also appear on the spreadsheet.

Declared by Lewis Magruder
w/ approx. birth years
 
William Henry Burns 1845

William Brown 1845

*Elizabeth Dorsey 1846
a.k.a. Taylor or Burr

Henry Crawford 1839

William Magruder 1846

Ellen Semmes 1849 (sometimes Sims)

Harriet Semmes 1830

Jane Semmes 1851

Margaret [Semmes?] 1846

Fanny Smith 1850

William Wright 1834





Declared by Edward Magruder
 
William Bowie 1854

Albert Crawford 1857

Betty Crawford 1853

Delia Crawford 1859

Mary Crawford 1825

Fanny Crawford  1851

Fillmore Crawford 1849

Harriet Crawford 1861

Henry Crawford 1847

John Crawford 1855

Samuel Crawford 1845

Joe Semmes 1854

Kitty Semmes 1819

Ann Smith 1845
Declared by Thomas Birch Beall
 
John Williams 1826

Alice Wright 1858

Ann Wright 1861

Elias Wright 1842

George Wright 1840

Harriet Wright 1846		Declared by Henry Phillips

David Semmes 1848

Martha Brown 1822

Wesley Brown 1844

Richard Brown 1853

Tobias Edmondson 1829

James Edmondson 1842

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Other family members of Edward & Fielder Magruder, Sr.

Haswell Magruder (~1736-1811)
+ Charity Beall

  • Esther Beall Magruder, b.1764
    + James Moran
  • Edward Magruder (1778-1842), see below
  • Sophia Magruder (1771-1864)
    + Adam Crawford or Crauford (1767-After 1836)
  • Fielder Magruder (1780-1840), see below
  • William Washington Magruder (1773-1822)
    + Elizabeth Hilleary (1780-1857), m.1796
    William was a small farmer. Censuses 1800-1820 show he never owned more than three slaves and, oddly, all were children under 14. His estate inventory included Othey, age 5, and Marier, age 7. During the war, William & Elizabeth’s son Haswell was confined in the Old Capitol Prison for plotting against the Federal government. Tradition says he escaped hanging through the efforts of his daughters–Jane, who pleaded before the court, and Mary Caroline, who secured an interview with the Secretary of State. He was imprisoned at Ft. Delaware until pardoned in 1865. Alfred Magruder, another of William & Elizabeth’s sons, was murdered in 1840 by his uncle, Clement T. Hilleary.
  • Prince George’s County, Register of Wills, Wills, Liber TT 1, p. 40, Will of Haswell Magruder (1811); digital images FamilySearch.org (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33SQ-GT1L-2HV?i=25&wc=SNYC-92W%3A146535401%2C147204001&cc=1803986
  • Prince George’s County, Register of Wills, Inventories, Liber TT 1, pp. 409-410, Inventory of Haswell Magruder (1811); digital images FamilySearch.org (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33SQ-GT18-NLX?i=230&wc=SNYH-L2S%3A146535401%2C146949901&cc=1803986)
  • Ben 55 ($150), Nace 34 ($300), Jerry 18 ($300), Matilda 16 ($250), Minty 8 ($120), Mary 4 ($100), Harriott 18mos ($60), named in the inventory, are included in the spreadsheet, though the 29-year gap before the 1840 death of Fielder Sr. decreases the chance of finding continuity. It is possible this Nace is the same as “old man Nace” in Fielder ‘s estate. At 16, Matilda is not old enough to be the mother of Minty and Mary.
  • I have found no record of sales from Haswell’s estate, neither in ledgers nor in the original (loose) estate papers.
  • On 14 Dec 1789, Haswell gave two enslaved children to two of his own children: 7 year-old Dick to William Magruder; 5 year-old Nancy to Sophia Magruder. On 14 Nov 1792, he gave 8 year-old Bachelor to his daughter Hester Magruder.

Edward Beall Magruder 1778-1842
+ (1) Ann Hellen, m.1800, d. before 1813

  • Jesse Hellen Magruder (twin) b.1801)
    + Rebecca Penn, m. 1825
    + Catherine Floyd, m. 1853
    Jesse H. Magruder practiced law in Baltimore.
  • Rebecca D. Magruder (twin) b. 1801 or 1804
    + Peoley or Peasley Brown, m. 1822
  • Dr. Edward R. Magruder, b.1806-1877
    + Mary McKinney, moved to Perry County, Ohio, not in Edward’s will

+ (2) Teresa Ann Barron (1789-1881), m.1813, d/o Oliver Barron & Sarah Wilson

  • Oliver Barron Magruder (1817-1852)
    + Rosanna Deal Crowley, m.1842
  • Jane Beall Magruder (1818-1894)
    + Thomas Birch Beall m.1839
  • Ruth Barron Magruder (b.~1815-d. bef Apr 1852)
    + George Henry Howell, m. 1842
  • Thomas Jefferson Magruder (1823-1891)
    + Sarah Boteler
  • Virginia Teresa Magruder (b.~1820)
    + George Henry Howell (1813 or 1815-1903), m. 1852
    G.H. Howell was a plasterer, born in Charles Co., & living in Baltimore. In the 1850 & 1860 censuses, a free black woman named Laura or Louisa Wright (depending on the transcription) lived in the Howell household as a domestic servant.
  • Fielder Montgomery Magruder (1828-1898)
    + Mary Ann Cummins
    Fielder Montgomery registered for the Union draft in Washington, but did not serve. During the war, his brother, Thomas Jefferson Magruder served three months in the Old Capitol Prison, including two weeks in solitary confinement, for advocating the Confederate cause and refusing to sign the Oath of Allegiance. He was released due to efforts by some of his business associates. T.J. Magruder helped organize the Shoe & Leather Board of Trade, and was one of the family members with whom Fielder Montgomery Magruder was in business in the 1860s.

Fielder Magruder, Sr. (1780-1840)
+ Margaret Magruder (d. 1849), d/o Dr. Jeffrey Magruder of Montgomery County, d.1805

  • Fielder Magruder, Jr. (1814-1888)
    + Ann Truman Greenfield Young
    Fielder Jr. was a slaveholder and lived past Emancipation, but did not file in 1867.
  • Susannah Beall Magruder (1816-
    + Henry Philllips
  • Lewis Magruder (1822-1897)
    + Susan E. Wilson, d/o Thomas N. Wilson & Sarah Phillips of Montgomery County, m.1845
  • Edward E. Magruder (1827-1891)
    + Laura Wilson, d/o Thomas N. Wilson & Sarah Phillips, m.1851
  • William Thomas Magruder (1829-1863)
    + Mary Clayton Hamilton
    At the start of the Civil War, William was a career cavalry officer with fifteen years experience in various western frontier posts. After fighting at First Bull Run and the Peninsula campaign, he came home on leave and resigned his commission in the U.S. Army. Commissioned as a captain in the Confederate army, he was killed at Gettysburg during Pickett’s charge. He was one of just four West Point graduates who switched sides during the war.

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