Mehitable (Larkin) Pierpoint (abt. 1668 - 1750)

Born about 1668 in Anne Arundel County, Maryland

Ancestors

Wife of Otho Holland I — married about 1684 in Maryland

Wife of John Pierpoint — married about 1703 in Province of Maryland

Descendants

Died 1750 at about age 82 in Maryland

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Biography

No birth record for Mehitable Larkin has been found. She was probably born in Anne Arundel County around 1668 based on the birth year of her first child and the typical age of marriage of 16 years. She is believed to be the daughter of John Larkin because he made provision for her in a deed when he sold two lots in Londontown to John Baldwin and added a condition that Mehitable Holland must be able to live in the house conveyed for her natural life.^[1] She also gave one son the first name of Larkin.

Occupation

"She was an innkeeper with her first and second husbands, and later alone, in Anne Arundel and Prince George's Counties MD. She was "a remarkable pioneering businesswoman in the Maryland colony". This was "in an era when women had duties instead of rights -- and their primary duties were to marry, bear and raise children, look after the home, and tend the hearth -- Mehitable was an exception."^[2]

1684 Marriage to Otho Holland

No marriage record for Mathithabell Larkin and Otho Holland has been found, but the births of four children are recorded in All Hallow's Parish all together as one entry as follows:

John Hollon son b. 14 AUG 1685 at John Larkins on the Ridge

Elizabeth Hollon dau b. 10 AUG 1689 at John Larkins on the Ridge

Otho Hollon son b. 3 JAN 1692 at London town

Mathithabell Hollon dau b. 19 AUG 1696 at London town

The birth entry for her fifth child is registered first in the parish record:

Thomas Holland son b. 2 FEB 1697/98

The death of Otho Holland is recorded in the same parish records as: Otho Holland innholder of London Towne buried 12 NOV. 1701.^[3]

1703 Marriage to John Pierpoint

The marriage of Mehitable and John Peirpoint has not been found, but it might have taken place around 29 AUG 1703 when John Peirpoint was baptized. The birth of one child is recorded in All Hallow's Parish as follows:

Larkin Pierpoint son b. 12 FEB 1703/04 & bapt. 26 MAR 1704^[3]

Mehitable was forced to go to court on 9 MAR 1707 by the abandonment of her husband. The following document appears among the land records of Anne Arundel County spelled as close to the original as possible:

Whereas Mehittable Pierpoint has shewed to this court her late husband John Pierpoint is removed from this province to forrein pts and has left her without haveing made any provision of a reasonable maintenance for her and her children and thee has by her own industry by takeing care of and nursing sundry sick people at ye countys request and others and also by her honest endeavours by sundry other ways and means gained to herself severall sums and grautities of mony and tob. which are yett due and oweing to her from sundry person who upon pretence of her being ?? one covert refuse to pay her as a person unqualifyed in ye circumestance to give a sufficient discharge whereby ye said Mehittable for want of an expressed warrantt of attorney from her said husband is prevented of ye which is her just due & which ought to adminster some comfortable relief to herself and children towards their mainetenance and likewise shewed ye she is willing to and shall be contracted by her which she owes to any person so ye she may have the priviledge of receiveing debts due to her. It is therefore considered this Mehitable Pierpoint be qualifiyed so far as may be by this court granted to sue for any debts or sumes of mony ye shall be due oweing to her thro her owne industry & also be lyable to be sued by any person for any debt of her own creating in this county court in full and ample manner as if she were a feme sole and she be not answerable for any of her husbands debts out of ye effects she shall by her own industry procure to herself.^[4]

Property

The next time Mehitable appears in the land records she is identified as an inn holder of Prince George's County in a deed dated 14 SEP 1717 in which she conveys to her son, John Holland part of a lot called the reserve located in London Town for £1.10.00.^[5] One year later on 30 DEC 1718, Mehitable Pairpoint and Thomas Holland of Prince George's planter convey to William Nicholson, an Annapolis merchant, the two lots in Annapolis she inherited from her father for £14.^[6]

1719 Purchase of Cattail Meadows

She successfully operated the Queen Anne Inn until 1719 when she was in her mid-50s. With two sons she purchased a small plantation called Cattail Meadows located in what is now known as South Bowie. She continued to supplement the family income by caring for sick indigents for the Prince George's County Court, and her name appeared in Maryland legal records into the 1750s.^[2] (A search of the deeds index for Prince George's County turned up no deed for anyone with the last name Holland or Peirpoint/Pierpoint in the grantee index. Thomas Holland did claim 400 acres by patent in 1725 which may be the land of Cattail Meadows.)

Mehitable was a pioneering woman in colonial times, a single parent who supported her children through her own business enterprise and provided care to the poor long before a public welfare system was established."^[2]

1737 Last mention of Mehitabel Pierpoint in Records

This is the last time she is mentioned in the probate records: Isaac Lansdale (merchant) 14.414 A PG £241.17.2 £20.0.0 Oct 14 1737 The amount of the accounts also included £412.11.0 sterling. Received from: <snip>, John Bateman, James Holland, Mehitabel Pierpoint, Thomas Holland, Larkin Pierpoint, William Holland. Administrator: Thomas Lancaster. ^[7]

Sources

1. ↑ Anne Arundel Deeds Liber Liber WH 4 folio 168
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2} Barbara Ann Fisher and Karl Frederick Edler Jr. Descendancy of Otho Holland (b c1660) and Mehitable Larkin (b c1666). http://edlers.org/pers/AP/10bholl.pdf. Accessed June 10, 2016
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1} Wright, F. Edward, “Anne Arundel County Church Records of the 17th & 18th Centuries” Westminster, MD: Willow Bend Books 2002.
4. ↑ Anne Arundel Deeds Liber WT 2 folio 598
5. ↑ Anne Arundel Deeds Liber IB 2 folio 431
6. ↑ Anne Arundel Deeds Liber IB 2 folio 545
7. ↑

• Stickney, A. B., The Pierpoints of Hertfordshire, England and Ann Arundel County, Maryland, The American Genealogist (1957) Vol. 33, Page 241. "... her oldest Holland child was 18 at the time of her second marriage" to John Pierpoint.