William Bladen (1673 - 1718)

Born 27 Feb 1673 in Steeton, Yorkshire, England

Ancestors

Husband of Ann (Van Swearingen) Bladen — married 1695 in Anne Arundel Co. Maryland

Descendants

Died 9 Aug 1718 at age 45 in Annapolis, Anne Arundel, Maryland

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Biography

Birth

William Bladen, born at Steeton, Yorkshire, on 27 February 1673, was the son of Nathaniel Bladen of Hemsworth, Yorkshire, England, and Isabel Fairfax, daughter of Sir William Fairfax of Steeton, Yorkshire.^[1][2][3] Nathaniel and Isabel had six children - two sons and four daughters.^[1][4][5]

Notable Events

William Bladen, Esq., immigrated as a free adult to Maryland in 1690 and settled in St. Mary's County, then in Annapolis, Anne Arundel County.^[1] It is possible that William traveled with Governor Lionel Copley, whom he may have known in England, as Copley came from the same area in Yorkshire as did William and his well-connected family.^[6] Possibly as a result of what may have been an earlier relationship with Lionel Copley and/or the fact that William studied Law at the Inner Temple in London,^[3][6] in 1692, Copley, then Govenor of Maryland, hired him to manage his legal and business affairs.^[1][3][6]

Success followed this most ambitious of men, as William served as Clerk of the Lower House from 1695-1698, while also serving as Clerk of the Maryland Assembly from 1695-1697. From 1698-1703, William was Register of the Admiralty Court and Clerk of the Council from 1698-1716. From 1699-1700, he was Clerk of the Prerogative Court and Secretary of Maryland in 1701. He also served as Attorney General of Maryland from 1704 until 1718 and Commissary General of Maryland in 1708 until his death, among other positions and businesses often held concurrently.^[1][7][8] During these active years, William established a short-lived printing business,^[9] and moved on as contractor for various public works (none of which he completed, to the dismay of government oversight committees), including the new State house in 1708.^[10] Finally, as Attorney General, William lost 58% of his criminal prosecution trials - a fairly high percentage in an age when grand juries heard only prosecution witnesses.^[11][12][13]

Marriage

William married Ann Van Swearingen in 1695, daughter of Garrett Van Swearingen and Mary Smith, his wife (see research note).^[1][14] This marriage caused some controversy, as Ann was Catholic at a time when interfaith marriages were frowned upon by Protestants of the Anglican Church, of which William was a member. This issue was resolved, however, when the priest who performed their nuptials produced a marriage license from the minister of the Protestant William and Mary Parish, as well as the Act for the Publication of Marriages of 1692, which required that they be married according to the liturgy of the Church of England.^[15][16] The resolution of this issue may indicate that William and Ann had two ceremonies, both Anglican and Catholic. The controversy did not damage William's career. The marriage proved both lengthy and fruitful. Together, William and Ann had the following issue:

• Col. Thomas, Governor of Maryland, who may have married Barbara, daughter of Sir Theodore Janssen;^[1][3]
• William;^[1][3]
• Christopher;^[1][3]
• Martin;^[1][3]
• Anne, who married Benjamin Tasker in 1711;^[1][3] and
• Priscilla.^[1][3]

William further proved his loyalty to the Protestant cause, when, following the death of Queen Mary II on 28 December 1694, the Catholics plotted to assassinate William III, with the intent of returning James II to the throne of England.^[17] In response, on 2 December 1696 William, along with 566 officials and military officers, signed a declaration of allegiance to William III.^[17]

Death

On 7 August 1718, William Bladen died intestate in Annapolis, Maryland.^[1][3] He was interred in the cemetery of St. Anne's Church in Church Circle, Annapolis, on 9 August 1718.^[18] At the time of his death, he had nine servants and 26 slaves, he owned approximately 15,745 acres of land, and following payment of his debts, his personal property was worth at least £1,646.^[1][3][19] His widow, Ann, was still living in August of 1719.^[1]

Research Notes

In C. Ashley Ellefson's, William Bladen of Annapolis, 1673?-1718..., arguments are presented that strongly refute the unsourced pedigrees of Charles Henry Browning in Americans of Royal Descent and Papenfuse's claim in A Biographical Dictionary of the Maryland legislature 1635-1789 that stated that William Bladen married Letitia Loftus.^[3][20] Ellefson's arguments are based in part on George Stokes's statement in Some Worthies of the Irish Church, that Letitia married a William Bladen of the Irish branch of the Bladen family, son of the "King's printer here in Dublin all through the reigns of Charles I, Cromwell, and Charles II."^[21][22] Additionally, Letitia's proposed birth date between 1652 and 1664 would have made her a decade or two older than William Bladen, the subject of this profile. Moreover, while William Bladen and several generations of his family lived in Yorkshire, England, Letitia and her family had lived in Ireland since the reign of Elizabeth I.^[22]

For a full account of Ellefson's arguments against the alleged first marriage of William Bladen to Letitia Loftus, see William Bladen of Annapolis, 1673?-1718: The Most Capable in all Respects or Blockhead Booby, pages 269-273.^[23]

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14} Douglas Richardson. Royal Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, 5 vols, ed. Kimball G. Everingham (Salt Lake City: The author, 2013), Vol I, p. 380, BLADEN 18.
2. ↑ C. Ashley Ellefson. William Bladen of Annapolis, 1673?-1718: The Most Capable in all Respects or Blockhead Booby (Cortland, NY: Archives of Maryland, 2007), Vol. 747, p. 266, (WebLink msa.maryland.gov).
3. ↑ ^{3.00 3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.05 3.06 3.07 3.08 3.09 3.10 3.11} Edward C. Papenfuse. A Biographical Dictionary of the Maryland legislature 1635-1789. Vol. 426, p. 136, (WebLink Archives of Maryland Online).
4. ↑ Clements R. Markham. Life of Robert Fairfax of Steeton, Vice-Admiral, Alderman, and Member for York (London: Macmillan and Co., 1885), p. 33, (WebLink Internet Archive).
5. ↑ Randolph W. Tayloe. The Tayloes of Virginia and Allied Families (Publisher: Not given, 1963), p. 92, (WebLink FamilySearch).
6. ↑ ^{6.0 6.1 6.2} C. Ashley Ellefson. William Bladen of Annapolis, 1673?-1718: The Most Capable in all Respects or Blockhead Booby (Cortland, NY: Archives of Maryland, 2007), Vol. 747, pp. 42, (WebLink msa.maryland.gov).
7. ↑ C. Ashley Ellefson. William Bladen of Annapolis, 1673?-1718: The Most Capable in all Respects or Blockhead Booby (Cortland, NY: Archives of Maryland, 2007), Vol. 747, pp. 49, 50, (WebLink msa.maryland.gov).
8. ↑ C. Ashley Ellefson. William Bladen of Annapolis, 1673?-1718: The Most Capable in all Respects or Blockhead Booby (Cortland, NY: Archives of Maryland, 2007), Vol. 747, pp. 72, 73, (WebLink msa.maryland.gov).
9. ↑ C. Ashley Ellefson. William Bladen of Annapolis, 1673?-1718: The Most Capable in all Respects or Blockhead Booby (Cortland, NY: Archives of Maryland, 2007), Vol. 747, pp. 105, 106, (WebLink msa.maryland.gov).
10. ↑ C. Ashley Ellefson. William Bladen of Annapolis, 1673?-1718: The Most Capable in all Respects or Blockhead Booby (Cortland, NY: Archives of Maryland, 2007), Vol. 747, pp. 117, 118, (WebLink msa.maryland.gov).
11. ↑ C. Ashley Ellefson. William Bladen of Annapolis, 1673?-1718: The Most Capable in all Respects or Blockhead Booby (Cortland, NY: Archives of Maryland, 2007), Vol. 747, pp. 179, 180, (WebLink msa.maryland.gov).
12. ↑ C. Ashley Ellefson. William Bladen of Annapolis, 1673?-1718: The Most Capable in all Respects or Blockhead Booby (Cortland, NY: Archives of Maryland, 2007), Vol. 747, p. 152, (WebLink msa.maryland.gov).
13. ↑ C. Ashley Ellefson. William Bladen of Annapolis, 1673?-1718: The Most Capable in all Respects or Blockhead Booby (Cortland, NY: Archives of Maryland, 2007), Vol. 747, p. 251, (WebLink msa.maryland.gov).
14. ↑ John W. Jordan. Genealogical and Personal History of Western Pennsylvania (New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Co., 1915), Vol 1, pp. 159, 160, (WebLink Internet archive).
15. ↑ C. Ashley Ellefson. William Bladen of Annapolis, 1673?-1718: The Most Capable in all Respects or Blockhead Booby (Cortland, NY: Archives of Maryland, 2007), Vol. 747, p. 52, (WebLink msa.maryland.gov).
16. ↑ C. Ashley Ellefson. William Bladen of Annapolis, 1673?-1718: The Most Capable in all Respects or Blockhead Booby (Cortland, NY: Archives of Maryland, 2007), Vol. 747, p. 80, (WebLink msa.maryland.gov).
17. ↑ ^{17.0 17.1} C. Ashley Ellefson. William Bladen of Annapolis, 1673?-1718: The Most Capable in all Respects or Blockhead Booby (Cortland, NY: Archives of Maryland, 2007), Vol. 747, p. 53, (WebLink msa.maryland.gov).
18. ↑ Helen Ridgely. Historic Graves of Maryland and the District of Columbia, with the Inscriptions Appearing on the Tombstones in Most of the Counties of the State and in Washington and Georgetown (New York: The Grafton Press, 1908), pp. 4, 5, (WebLink Internet Archive).
19. ↑ C. Ashley Ellefson. William Bladen of Annapolis, 1673?-1718: The Most Capable in all Respects or Blockhead Booby (Cortland, NY: Archives of Maryland, 2007), Vol. 747, p. 240, (WebLink msa.maryland.gov).
20. ↑ Charles H. Browning. Americans of Royal Descent (Baltimore: Clearfield Company, Inc., 1911), 7th ed., p. 44, (WebLink Google Books).
21. ↑ George Thomas Stokes. Some Worthies of the Irish Church (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1900), p. 58, (WebLink Internet Archive).
22. ↑ ^{22.0 22.1} C. Ashley Ellefson. William Bladen of Annapolis, 1673?-1718: The Most Capable in all Respects or Blockhead Booby (Cortland, NY: Archives of Maryland, 2007), Vol. 747, pp. 271, 272, (WebLink msa.maryland.gov).
23. ↑ C. Ashley Ellefson. William Bladen of Annapolis, 1673?-1718: The Most Capable in all Respects or Blockhead Booby (Cortland, NY: Archives of Maryland, 2007), Vol. 747, pp. 269-273, (WebLink msa.maryland.gov).

Acknowledgements

Magna Carta Project

This profile was re-reviewed for the Magna Carta Project by Pam Lohbeck, finishing in July 2023.

William Bladen is listed in Magna Carta Ancestry as a Gateway Ancestor (vol. I, pages xxiii-xxix) in a Richardson-documented trail to Magna Carta Surety Baron William de Mowbray (vol. I, pages 211-214 BLADEN). That trail is in need of further development against the project's checklist and is set out below.

See Base Camp for more information about identified Magna Carta trails and their status. See the project's glossary for project-specific terms, such as a "badged trail".

Magna Carta Trails

Unbadged Richardson-documented trail to Mowbray (MCA I:211-214 BLADEN):

Gateway Ancestor William Bladen (trail pending/re-reviewed 22 July 2023)

1. William is the son of Isabel Fairfax (trail pending/R&A 13 September 2023)

2. Isabel is the daughter of William Fairfax (trail pending/R&A 10 August 2023)

3. William is the son of Philip Fairfax (trail pending/R&A 13 September 2023)

4. Philip is the son of William Fairfax (trail pending/R&A 9 October 2023)

5. William is the son of Gabriel Fairfax (trail pending/R&A 11 November 2023)

6. Gabriel is the son of William Fairfax (trail pending/R&A 10 December 2023)

7. William is the son of Elizabeth Manners (trail pending/needs development)

8. Eliabeth is the daughter of Robert Manners (trail pending/needs development)

9. Robert is the son of Joan Ogle (trail pending/needs development)

10. Joan is the daughter of Maud Grey (trail pending/R&A 8 January 2024)

11. Maud is the daughter of Joan Mowbray (badged/100% 5-star)

12. Joan is the daughter of John de Mowbray (badged/100% 5-star)

13. John is the daughter of John de Mowbray (badged/100% 5-star)

14. John is the son of John de Mowbray (badged/100% 5-star)

15. John is the son of Roger de Mowbray (badged/100% 5-star)

16. Roger is the son of Roger de Mowbray (badged/100% 5-star)

17. Roger is the son of Magna Carta Surety William de Mowbray