Beall - Willett - Simmons - Phelps
Our many times great great grandfather
was Edward Willett, who died in Maryland in 1744. His wife was Tabitha and
from a deed indent in Maryland I have recently unearthed the following romance,
Tabitha was the " Lady Tabitha " daughter of an English Nobleman1.
She was affianced to a man of her own class a Nobleman whom she did not
love. So the night before the wedding she eloped with her true love Edward
Willett, and came over to Maryland with him on a ship that was just sailing
for the Colonies in 1685.
The will of Edward Willett was dated
June 18th 1743 Prince George County Maryland and was probated Feb. 11th
1744. In this he devises his landed estate Bealcroft and Beallington to
his various sons, Ninian, Edward, John, William and James and gives his
Pewtweres [sic] molds to his son William and Making William his executor.
Now the son William was our ancestor.
He married Mary Griffith and their daughter Verlinda married Samuel Simmons,
son of Richard Simmons Susaniah Pottinman all of Prince George County Maryland.
Samuel Simmons and Verlinda had a
daughter, Tabitha, who married George Phelps in Nelson County Ky. and came
to Madison County to live.
George Phelps and Tabitha Simmons
had the following children: Samuel who married Tabitha Taylor, Anthony,
Sallie who married a Deatherage, Verlinda who married a Williams, Lucy who
married a Winburn, and Patsy who married a Simmons.
From Samuel all the Phelps are descended
from Sallie, Verlinda and Patsey, the Deatherage, Simmons and DeJarnette
are descended.
In a deed filed in Prince George Co.
Maryland in 1701 Edward Willett styles himself Pewterer. He is joined by
his wife.
In a book on old English Pewter, its
makers and marks by H. H. Cotterall, page 337, the following statement is
made. London recorede Touches 409 and 412 (LOndon Touch Plate) which he
had leave to strike. He had completed his apprenticship [sic] and was preparing
to open shop But no further record of him appears in the London Guild.
I think our Edward Willett was undoubtedly
the Edward Willett who patented his Touch Plate in London in 1685, and his
elopement with the Lady Tabitha accounts for his disapearance from the London
records.
Col. F. F. M. Beall in his book on
the [B]eall and allied families states the Edward and Tabitha Willett arrived
in Maryland in 1685 on the ship which brought the Rev. Nathiel [sic] Taylor
and his Scotch Colony. Col. Beall does not give the source of his information.
Edward Willett was clerk of the St.
Pauls Parish, Chesterton, Md. 1692.
In that day only prominate citizens were Magistrates,
and the fact that he signed the message to the King -- which was a State
Document, indicates his prominence and respect in which he was held by the
State of Maryland.
We have great reason to be proud of our Willett
ancestry even if Edward did have to elope with the Lady Tabitha.
It is through Samuel Simmons, who married Verlinda
Willett that we go back to Col. Ninian Beall.
But the fact that Edward Willett was a magistrate
makes us eligible for the Colonial Dames.
We have three lines back to Col. Ninian Beall.
All proved by records and accepted by the Virginia Society of Colonial Dames.
The old gentleman has descendents by the score, many of them distinguised
[sic]. Col. F. F. M. Beall of Chevy Chase is one of them throught a son.
We go back through three daughters. One married John Pottinger (Mary) one
married Richard Simmons (Rachel) one married Edward Willett (Tabitha). Their
descendents intermarried repeatedly. He founded the Presbyterian Church
in Maryland and and was Commander in chief of the Colonial Forces in Maryland.
His son George built Bellevue now Dumbarton House owned by the National
Society of Colo9nial Dames. Col. Ninian Beall patented a tract of land called
the rock of Dunbarton on which Georgetown, Washinton, D. C. now stands and
Dunbarton House is called for this original grant. He came to Maryland from
Fifeshire Scotland. He was quite a card.
This from letters of Mrs. Minerval Phelps Jennings
of Jacksonville Florida.
Cousin Katie Coperton said when she took a trip
East last simmer she stopped in Washington and went out to Georgetown D.
C. She visited the grave of Ninian Beall in the churchyard of St. Johns
Episcopal Church there. If I ever get to Washington again there is so much
of new interest I want to see, for the winters I was spending there I had
never heard of Col. Ninian Beall and my Aunt lived almost in Georgetown
and we often went over there.
J.P., did you ever hear of the old pewter tea pot
in your family: Cousin Minerva has tried so hard an old piece of pewter
or old silver tea spoons with Edward Willett's name and touch plate on it.
Would your mother know. Nothing would make Cousin Minerva happier than to
locate such a piece. Not that she wants it exept a picture to put in her
history. Also it would be a most valuable piece as a Metropoliton Museum
piece she said.
Mae Phelps Mason
Jan. 5, 1940
Note added: Copy of letter written to J. P. Simmons by his
cousin Mae Phelps [marked out: Rankin] Mason
Notes from readers:
1. The "Lady Tabitha" was actually Tabitha Mills, daughter
of William Mills, who was born in Scotland, but who had made his way to
the Colonies by 1659. His wife was Tabitha Hilliary. Tabitha was born after
William's death in 1676, in Calvert County, Maryland. This definitive information
was submitted by Phebe Morgan, who
is researching the Willett family, March 4, 2001. So the story of "Lady
Tabitha" partakes more of fantasy than of fact. Phebe also contributed some
photos of William Mills' land, including one of the original boundary marker
at right. Click here for more photos,
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