Benjamin Duvall (abt. 1692 - 1774)

Born about 1692 in All Hallows Parish, Anne Arundel, Maryland

Ancestors

Husband of Sophia (Griffith) Duvall — married 1713 in Anne Arundel County, Maryland [uncertain]

Descendants

Died 1774 at about age 82 in Anne Arundel County, Maryland

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Biography

Benjamin Duvall was a son of a Huguenot emigrant (1540-1790).

Benjamin Duvall was born about 1692 at Middle Plantation, All Hallows Parish, Anne Arundel, Maryland.^[1][2] He was the youngest son of Mareen "the Emigrant" Duvall and his second wife, Susannah Brasseur.^[3]

His inheritance by his father's will was "Howerton's Range", then in Calvert County. (For a full transcription of his father's will, see Last Will and Testament of Mareen Duvall). A rent roll of Lord Baltimore shows that "Howerton Range" of 400 acres, lying in Patuxent Hundred, was surveyed May 17, 1670, for John Howerton on "ye west side of a branch of the Patuxent River at ye northernmost bounds of land of Gabrl Parrott". About 1707 Benjamin Duvall "an orphan" held 200 acres and William Orrick held the remainder. ^[4])

After the destruction by fire of the recorded deeds of Anne Arundel County,^[5] Benjamin Duvall "came into Court and produced a conveyance of John Larkin to Mareen Duvall". The instrument proved that John Howerton had transferred "Howerton's Range" in 1671 to John Larkin, of Anne Arundel County, Innholder, who on October 20, 1683 conveyed the tract for 7,000 lbs. tobacco to "Mareen Duvall, Merchant."^[3]

On January 13, 1713, Benjamin married Sophia Griffith in Anne Arundel County, Maryland.^[6][7]. They had seven children - Susannah, Sophia, Benjamin, William, Mareen, Charles, and Sarah. (Newman lists only six children, and notes a "tradition" that there was another daughter named Sarah who married Amos Simpson; other sources, such as the Alabama Surname Files, list all seven, including Sarah and Amos.)^[3][8]

In 1720 Benjamin petitioned the Council to release his entail on "Howerton's Range" in exchange for other lands. It was set forth in the petition that Mareen Duvall by his last will and testament had devised to his son, Benjamin, 200 acres or a moiety of 400 acres of Howerton's Range to be held of the heirs of his body, and inasmuch as the land was then worn out, timber destroyed, and it would be to his advantage to exchange with Robert Tyler, of Prince Georges County, for 150 acres of land called North West Corner, being a portion of "Darnall's Grove". On March 9, 17 20/1, the exchange was made, In 1719, Benjamin was Constable of Patuxent Hundred, and in 1733, he appears as a tithable of that hundred, according to the tax list for that year. ^[3]

No court administration of his estate has been found; he probably died before the Revolutionary War. According to his grandson, Judge Gabriel Duvall, he died in 1774.^[3][9]

Sources

1. ↑ Edmund West, comp.. Family Data Collection - Births [database on-line]. Link
2. ↑ Edmund West, comp.. Family Data Collection - Births [database on-line]. Link
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4} Newman, Harry Wright (1952). Mareen Duvall of Middle Plantation. Washington, DC. 1952. Page 472-3. Link
4. ↑ Prince Georges County Rent Rolls, p. 107, MD Historical Society as cited in Newman.
5. ↑ The courthouse was destroyed by fire in 1704, with the loss of all but three court record volumes. Deeds before 1699 were lost, but there are five volumes of re-recorded deeds.
6. ↑ Yates Publishing. U.S. and International Marriage Records, 1560-1900 [database on-line]. Link
7. ↑ Yates Publishing. U.S. and International Marriage Records, 1560-1900 [database on-line]. Link
8. ↑ Ancestry.com. Alabama, U.S., Surname Files Expanded, 1702–1981 [database on-line]. Link
9. ↑ Edmund West, comp.. Family Data Collection - Individual Records [database on-line]. Ancestry Record 4725 #4028811