Ruth (Unknown) Beall (abt. 1652 - abt. 1713)

Born about 1652 in Calvert County, Province of Maryland

Wife of Ninian Beall — married 1669 in Calvert County, Province of Maryland

Descendants

Died about 1713 at about age 61 in Prince George's County, Province of Maryland [uncertain]

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Ruth (Unknown) Beall resided in the Southern Colonies in North America before 1776. Join: US Southern Colonies Project Discuss: southern_colonies

Biography

Name and Parents

We know that Ninian Beall married a woman named Ruth. No credible documentation has been found regarding her birth place or parents. (See Research Notes.)

Please do not add information to this profile from sources such as ancestry.com, geni.com, or other sources which do not provide credible documentation. These are not considered appropriate sources for pre-1700 profiles.

1650 Birth and Parentage

Ruth is known only as the wife of Ninian Beall. No details have yet become available regarding her birth year, her birth name, or her parents.

Based on a statement of Ninian's in 1669 that he is now a married man, if she were aged 17 at the time her birth year would be 1652.

1669 Marriage to Ruth Unknown

Ninian Beall's land transaction on 20 Sep 1668 must have been one of his last as a bachelor, for in 1669 he stated, "I am a married man." ^[1]

His known wife was named Ruth. ^[2]

1706 Land Sale

On 28 Jun 1706 Ninian & Ruth sold 70 acres of Lewis Poynt in Prince Georges County to son Charles of Prince Georges County.

Ruth is mentioned in 1706 when "Col. Ninian and Ruth his wife deeded Negroes to sons Charles, Ninian, Thomas, John, George, and daughters Esther...[and] Jane. ^[1] Abstract of this transaction from Prince Georges County Land Records 185a-186a, Research of Nancy Pearre Lesure includes daughters Mary and Rachel but not Jane.

1714 Death

Ruth was living on 12 Sep. 1713 when she acknowledged a deed with her husband, but probably died before Ninian wrote his will. ^[3] Earlier writers assumed she had died by 1704 when she did not join her husband in his deed of gift to the Presbyterian congregation, and were apparently unaware of the 1713 deed. ^[4]

Children

See the list on her husband Ninian's page.

Research Notes

Was Ruth Unknown actually Ruth Moore?

A long history of secondary sources have identified Ruth's family name as Moore, but when evidence is sought to document this, it has not yet been found.

Sources Asserting her birth name as Ruth Moore

The Beall Genealogical News reports that in 1668 Ninian married Ruth Moore b. 1652, daughter of Richard Moore , planter and barrister of Calvert County and Jane (Foster) of Calvert County. ^[5]

George Norbury Mackenzie's Colonial Families of the United States of America, published in 1913, provides a wealth of documented detail on other facets of Ninian Beall's life, but when it comes to his wife simply states without source that she was Ruth Moore, daughter of Richard and Jane Moore, barrister, of St. Mary's County, Maryland. (See attached photo.)

Fielder M. M. Beall writing in 1929 ^[6] gives her dates as 1652-1707 and her last name as Moore. daughter of Richard Moore, Barrister of Saint Mary's County, and his wife Jane. No good sources have been found to confirm this. Regrettably, Fielder Beall's work, which has many errors, provides no documentation for this.

Caleb Clarke Magruder's 1937 article on Ninian Beall cites documents in support of other facts about Ninian Beall's life but with respect to Ruth simply states, "His wife was Ruth Moore, daughter of Richard Moore, barrister, of Calvert County. ^[4]

These historic sources have been followed unreflectively by popular genealogies on the internet.

Ruth's surname at birth is sometimes shown as Moore by Find a Grave ^[7] No original sources have been found to confirm this.

An Ancestry site ^[8] shows "Ruth Polly Moore" born in Calvert, Maryland, United States and died in Montgomery, Montgomery, Maryland, United States. The Ancestry site appears unaware that there was no United States before 1776. More importantly, in this time period, "Polly" was a nickname for "Mary", not for "Ruth."

Geni ^[9] presents the following information, none of which is documented with any source:

• Surname of "Moore". Daughter of James Moore, Barrister (1622-1654) and Jane Pottenger. No sources are given for these parents. Moore was said to be a "Calvert County lawyer". There was no Calvert County during the period 1622 to 1654.
• Middle Name of "Polly". In this time period, people were rarely given middle names. "Polly" was often used as a nickname for "Mary," not for Ruth.
• Born 1648, St. Mary's Parish, St. Mary's County. Maryland did not establish organized Parishes until 1692. At that time, two parishes were created in St. Mary's County, William and Mary Parish, and King and Queen Parish. ^[10]
• Also married Hugh Robert, who is said to have died before 1668, which would make Ruth a widow at the age of 20 and her marriage to Ninian Beall a second marriage. No source or documentation is presented for this.
• Died in Prince Georges or Montgomery County, Maryland. Montgomery County was not created until 1776.

James Moore as Brother

In 1708 James Moore, age about 62, referred to "his brother Ninian Beale." ^[11]

This record may be the source of claims that Ruth was a Moore, and sister to James. That is no evidence that Moore was her surname. If Ninian Beall and James Moore were "brothers"-in-law it could have been by:

1. Ninian BEALL's wife Ruth being a sister to James MOORE.

2. James Moore's wife Mary being a sister to Ninian BEALL.

3. Their wives being sisters to each other, surname unknown.^[3]

Richard Moore as Father

There have also been claims that James and Ruth were children of Richard Moore and wife Jane. There is no evidence that Richard Moore had children named James or Ruth.

In 1654, [when James would have been about age 8, see above], Jane, widow of Richard Moore, stated she had sons Richard, Roger, and Timothy (but not James). ^[12] Since Richard and Jane had no son named James, even if Ruth was a Moore and sister to James, they would not have been children of Richard and Jane.^[3]

Richard Moore is said to have arrived in Maryland 1652 with Ruth and other daughters but no James Moore.

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1} Nettie Leitch Major, "Ninian Beall (1625-1717) in MGS Bulletin, Vol 20:3 (Summer 1979), pp 214-216,
2. ↑ Prince George's Co., MD land records C:185a-186a, FHL microfilm 0,014,247.Research of Fredric Z. Saunders. Ninian Beall of Maryland Accessed Jan 3, 2018. jhd
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1 3.2} Fredric Z. Saunders. Ninian Beall of Maryland Accessed Jan 3, 2018. jhd
4. ↑ ^{4.0 4.1} Magruder, Caleb Clarke. “Colonel Ninian Beall.” Records of the Columbia Historical Society, Washington, D.C., 37/38, 1937, pp. 17–29. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40067489.
5. ↑ Beall Genealogical news, Volume 11, 1991
6. ↑ Fielder M. M. Beall, Colonial Familes of the United States Descended from the Immigrants...Beall. By the Author, Washington, DC, 1929, page 48
7. ↑ Find A Grave: Memorial #85790583 Entry for Ruth Moore].
8. ↑ Ancestry.com [1] Ruth Polly Moore]
9. ↑ Geni. Ruth Polly Moore Added by: Kevin Lawrence Owens on July 3, 2007. Managed by: James Michael McCullough, Jr. and 69 others. Curated by:Dan Cornett. Accessed Jan 3, 2018 jhd
10. ↑ Percy C. Skirvin. The First Parishes of the Province of Maryland, 1923 (Baltimore: Clearfield Reprint, 1994), p. 108
11. ↑ Debbie Hooper, Abstracts of Chancery Court Records of Maryland 1669-1782, (Westminster, MD: Family Line Pub., 1996), 16. Research of Fredric Z. Saunders. Ninian Beall of Maryland Accessed Jan 3, 2018. jhd
12. ↑ Archives of Maryland 10:395. Research of Fredric Z. Saunders. Ninian Beall of Maryland Accessed Jan 3, 2018. jhd

See also:

• Jeff Carter. Ancestors of Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter. Foreward by President Jimmy Carter. Contains footnotes. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2012. Discussion of Ruth Moore, page 147
• Offutt, William, "Restoring a proper name in Georgetown," Washington Post 20 Nov 2015 edition (accessed : 12 Mar 2020)