Henry Darnall III (abt. 1705 - aft. 1783)

Born about 1705 in Prince George's County, Maryland

Ancestors

Descendants

Died after 1783 after about age 78 in Europe [uncertain]

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Biography

Grand Parents:

Henry Darnall + Eleanor Hatton ::William Digges + Elizabeth Sewell

Parents

Henry Darnall 1682 -- 1711

Anne Digges 1685 -- 1750

1729 Henry Darnall, II deeds a number of tracts, totaling around 1,500 acres, to his son, Henry Darnall III. Included in the transaction are 300 acres of His Lordship's Kindness containing the dwelling house of Henry, III - the first mansion house on the property.

1735 On August 2nd, a deed of trust is executed between Henry Darnall, III and George Talbot, the 14th Earl of Shrewsbury, and John Talbot covering His Lordship's Kindness and its house. The deed is made in consequence of Darnall's prior marriage to Anne Talbot, the niece and ward of the Earl in order to guarantee her dower right in the estate should her husband predecease her, and to assure its decendency, after her death, to the couple's eldest surviving son. The exact date of the marriage is still unknown.

1740 Henry Darnall III's plantation and mansion are being referred to as "Poplar Hill" by this time.

1744 Henry Darnall, III is appointed Attorney-General of Maryland after publicly renouncing his Catholicism. It would soon become apparent that while publicly swearing allegiance to the King and Church of England, Darnall continued to privately practice Catholicism.

1744 to 1756 During much of Henry Darnall, III's tenure as attorney general of the Maryland colony the members of the Lower House of the Assembly were in an uproar over what they maintained to be his "closet" Catholicism. His accusers cited Darnall's sending of his children to Catholic schools in Europe and rumors of his allowing Catholic mass to be said in his house as evidence for their charges. Eventually Lord Baltimore and the Governor Horatio Sharpe were so pressured by the Assembly to get rid of the "closet" Catholic Henry Darnall, III that the Governor asked him to resign as attorney general. However, Darnall resisted until he was able to secure for himself the less visible but rather lucrative customs post of Naval Officer of the Patuxent. He was sworn in as Naval Officer of the Patuxent in 1755 and then resigned as Attorney General of Maryland in 1756.

1761 Henry Darnall, III is accused of embezzling nearly to 1,000 pounds in his position as Naval Officer. He, along with his principal heir, Henry Darnall, IV mortgage Poplar Hill to Charles Carroll of Annapolis (one of the sureties for the performance bond given when he assumed office) before fleeing the colony for Europe to avoid being placed on trial.^[1]

Census Records

In 1776, he was enumerated with two white women and 106 slaves.^[2]

Sources

1. ↑ Poplar Hill on His Lord's Kindness: Chronology of Darnalls
2. ↑ Maryland Census, 1776:Maryland, U.S., Colonial Census, 1776: Kinard, June, ed. Maryland, U.S., Colonial Census, 1776 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2000. Original data: Taken from Maryland Colonial Census, 1776 held by the Maryland State Archives. Ancestry Record 4247 #169

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