Born in Virginia
Daughter of [father unknown] and Margaret Saywell (Unknown) Finch
Wife of
Richard (Blount) Blunt
— married
1655 (to 1656) [location unknown]
Wife of
Charles Ford
— married
1657 (to 1657) [location unknown]
Wife of
John Washington
— married
about 1659 (to 1661) [location unknown]
Wife of
Henry Briggs III
— married
about 1661 in Surry, Colony of Virginia
Descendants 
Mother of
Thomas Blunt, Richard Washington, Marie Briggs, Henry Briggs IV, Charles Briggs, Samuel James Briggs and George Briggs
Died
at about age 46
in Surry, Virginia
Profile last modified
| Created 9 Jun 2011
This page has been accessed 5,574 times.
Biography
Mary was born in 1655 at an unknown location. She was the daughter of John Flood and Margaret (Saywell) Flood. Mary Flood was married four times between the ages of about 19 and 26. Her fourth and final husband lived the longest and, in fact, survived her. She was in her early 40s when she died, leaving behind seven children, from a 22-year-old to a two-year-old toddler. Mary died at the age of about 46 on 5 July 1681 in Surry, VA, USA.
Mary's husbands were: (1) Richard Blunt (1616 - 1656), with whom she had one son, Thomas Blunt (1656 - 1709); (2) Charles Ford (d. 1657), Surry County coroner; (3) John Washington (1623 - 1661), with whom she had one son, Richard Washington (1660 - 1725); and Henry Briggs (1635 - 1686). She and Briggs had at least five children: Henry, Jr. (1662 - 1739); Charles (1664 - 1730); Marie (no dates); Samuel (1673 - 1737); and George (1676 - 1699).
Mary Flood (widow) entered into this prenuptial agreement with John Washington:
"John Washington, a merchant of Surry County, Virginia, entered into a prenuptial agreement with the widow “Mary Ffoord” dated November 15, 1658: Bee it known unto all men by these presents, yt whereas a Contract of matrimony is agreed upon between mee Jno Washington, & Mary Ffoord widow, I ye sd Washington ffor divers good Causes & Considerations, mee thereunto moving doe before ye Celebration & Slemnization thereof, by these presents Ingage & oblige my self, my heires, executors, Administrators or Assignes, to give & deliver, or Cause to be given & delivered unto Robert Stanton Clarke, ffeoffe, in trust, one mare ffilly, of one year old, to & ffor ye sole use & behoofe of Tho: blunt, sonne of ye sd Mary, his heires executors, Administrators & assigns, with male & female Increase ffor Ever, wch ad mare ffille is to be delivered as above sd ye day yt ye sd Tho: Blunt shall attain to ten years of age, in Surry county, & further I ye sd Jno Washington Doe hereby oblidge my self, to acknowledge this my reall & voluntary act, & deed, in ye next Court, to be holden ffor ye County of surry, & to have it recorded accordingly, in ye sd Court records, witt: my hand & seal Dated ye 15th day of 9ber stilo Anglia ano: domeni 1.6.5.8.
- Signed sealed & delivered in ye presence of us – Jno Flood
- Ben: sidway Edmund Shipman
- Jno Allam Tho: fflood
- John Washington (sealed in red wax)
- (Copy Teste: S.B. Barham, Jr. Clerke.)
Surry Co., Virginia, Records. Order Book 1, 126 [1]
Sources
- Southside Virginia Families, Vol I. page 104 et seq. [2]
- A Précis of the accomplishments of some early Virginia settlers On-line Database. Provo, UT: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2004.[3]
- U.S. Find a Grave [4]
- U.S. and International Marriage Records, 1560-1900 [5]
- Assorted Information [6]
- Historical Southern Families. Volume XIII
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DNA Connections
It may be possible to confirm family relationships with Mary by comparing test results with other carriers of her mitochondrial DNA. However, there are no known mtDNA test-takers in her direct maternal line. It is likely that these autosomal DNA test-takers will share some percentage of DNA with Mary:
It may be possible to confirm family relationships with Mary by comparing test results with other carriers of her mitochondrial DNA. However, there are no known mtDNA test-takers in her direct maternal line. It is likely that these autosomal DNA test-takers will share some percentage of DNA with Mary:
-
~0.78%
Nora Guthrie
:
Family Tree DNA Family Finder, FTDNA kit #28331
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Rejected matches › Rose Mary (Flood) Deir › Mary (Flood) Shoults (abt.1796-1873) › Mary (Flood) Ryan › Mary Ford (abt.1828-1892) › Mary (Yelling) Briggs (abt.1643-1684)
Featured Female Poet connections: Mary is 9 degrees from Anne Bradstreet, 21 degrees from Ruth Niland, 25 degrees from Karin Boye, 25 degrees from 照 松平, 12 degrees from Anne Barnard, 29 degrees from Lola Rodríguez de Tió, 20 degrees from Christina Rossetti, 14 degrees from Emily Dickinson, 26 degrees from Nikki Giovanni, 17 degrees from Isabella Crawford, 18 degrees from Mary Gilmore and 14 degrees from Elizabeth MacDonald on our single family tree. Login to find your connection.
"John Washington, a merchant of Surry County, Virginia, entered into a prenuptial agreement with the widow “Mary Ffoord” dated November 15, 1658: Bee it known unto all men by these presents, yt whereas a Contract of matrimony is agreed upon between mee Jno Washington, & Mary Ffoord widow, I ye sd Washington ffor divers good Causes & Considerations, mee thereunto moving doe before ye Celebration & Slemnization thereof, by these presents Ingage & oblige my self, my heires, executors, Administrators or Assignes, to give & deliver, or Cause to be given & delivered unto Robert Stanton Clarke, ffeoffe, in trust, one mare ffilly, of one year old, to & ffor ye sole use & behoofe of Tho: blunt, sonne of ye sd Mary, his heires executors, Administrators & assigns, with male & female Increase ffor Ever, wch ad mare ffille is to be delivered as above sd ye day yt ye sd Tho: Blunt shall attain to ten years of age, in Surry county, & further I ye sd Jno Washington Doe hereby oblidge my self, to acknowledge this my reall & voluntary act, & deed, in ye next Court, to be holden ffor ye County of surry, & to have it recorded accordingly, in ye sd Court records, witt: my hand & seal Dated ye 15th day of 9ber stilo Anglia ano: domeni 1.6.5.8.
Signed sealed & delivered in ye presence of us – Jno Flood Ben: sidway Edmund Shipman Jno Allam Tho: fflood John Washington (sealed in red wax) (Copy Teste: S.B. Barham, Jr. Clerke.)
I won't get into a big argument about Mary Flood since my research of her existence is fairly cursory. There is limited first-source material available. I'd love to see the actual document referred to that was supposedly misread as Flood instead of Ffoord. I know from looking at handwritten wills from that period that the script can be hard to decipher. I see that Boddie, who is not always accurate, says that Mary was a daughter and the text of "A Precis of the Accomplishments of Some Early Virginia Settlers" also states that she was a daughter and provides a family tree. (I can't seem to paste images here) The problem, of course, is that there is minimal hard evidence to go by, and much of what is repeated is based on conjecture about the relationships among a very small universe of people in Virginia at that time. I guess it is better sometimes to go with "we don't know" rather than "it's quite possible," or even "it appears likely."
All the best, Brian Rose
My descent from John Flood, Sr is via Elizabeth Flood (his daughter or granddaughter?) and Nicholas Smith (Smith-39623). When I connected with this branch on WikiTree I noticed that the Elizabeth Flood who was married to Nicholas Smith is Flood-231, daughter of John Flood, Jr (not Fludd-4, daughter of John Flood, Sr). If this new assignment is correct then my 8th great grandmother is Margaret Finch (Saywell-9), not Fortune Jordan (Jordan -231). Because of a genetic analysis that I will address shortly, I suspect that Flood-231 and Fluud-4 are the same person with the spousal assignment of Flood-231 and the parental assignments of Fluud-4. If they are really two separate people, then I suspect that Fluud-4 should have Nicholas Smith as spouse instead of Flood-231.
Genetic Analysis: Among my FTDNA matches are 4 individuals with Flood and/or Jordan ancestry who share with me a small segment on chromosome-10. These segments range from 2.07 cM (centa-Morgan) to 3.47 cM. They are too small for triangulation, but given my selection crtteria and their small sizes it is highly unlikely that they would not all match my maternal branch of Ch-10 (the branch that includes my Flood/Jordan ancestry). If that is the case then this commonly shared segment should be inherited from a common shared ancestor. Among my matches is one individual (Indv 1) whose pedigree tree includes John Flood, Sr and Fortune Jordan. This suggests that the segment in question comes from either John Flood, Sr or Fortune Jordan (provided our two pedigrees don't intersect in some other position). Another of the matches (Indv 2) descends from Arthur Jordan (Jordan-2932, Fortune Jordan's brother) and does not include any Flood surnames in their tree. That would suggest that my segment comes from Fortun Jordan (provided that the trees of my FTDNA matches are correct). I will henceforth call this segment the Jordan segment. Two other individuals (Indv3 and Indv 4) according to their trees descend from John Flood, Sr and Margaret Finch via their daughter Mary (Flood) Briggs (Flood-75). This would seem to invalidate my segment assignment to Fortune Jordan until, that is, one realizes that Mary Briggs was also married to John Washington (Washington-1017) and their son Richard (Washington-366) married Elizabeth Jordan (Jordan-3394), the niece of Fortune Jordan. If Indv 3 and Indv 4 both also descend from Richard and Elizabeth (which is indeed the case) then their possession of the Jordan segment under study is explained. Now this genetic data that I have just described is understandable only if I am descended from John Flood, Sr and Fortune Jordan (a descent via John Flood, Jr would not include any Jordan genes) , hence my suspicions regarding Flood-231 and Fluud-4. I will wait for the reactions of other profile managers before proposing a merger of these two individuals. If anyone would like to see more details of my genetic analysis they may email me at [email address removed] and I will respond with individual identies and graphics (it seems that I cannot paste a graphic in this comment).
UPDATE: After a series of email exchanges with Paul Gierzewski (thanks Paul) and further genetic analysis, I have been able to justify my possession of the Jordan segment without having Fortune Jordan in my pedigree. I still support the merging of Flood-231 and Fludd-4 but the change of parental assignment of Flood-231 is no longer compelling (ie eliminate Fludd-4).
edited by Dudley Miller
WikiTree says she's not a direct Ancestor of George & if the category meant another president, I didn't see any on the descendancy trees I looked at, but you might want to check me on that.
Cheers, Liz