William Beesley (abt. 1680 - bef. 1715)

Born about 1680 in Maryland [uncertain]

Descendants

Died before 11 Apr 1715 before about age 35 in Baltimore County, Maryland

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Douglas Beezley [send private message]

Biography

WILLIAM BEESLEY/BEEZLEY, of unknown parentage, was born say 1670-1680, possibly though not certainly in Maryland. He died in Baltimore County, Maryland, by 11 April 1715, when Dorothy Beesley, together with William Jenkins, posted a bond of administration for his estate.^[1] William Beesley had apparently married DOROTHY (___), whose identity is unknown but who was perhaps a sister or close relative of William Jenkins. She died after 1725 at an unknown location.

William Beesley lived in Baltimore County, which was created from Anne Arundel County in 1659.^[2] He did not own land, does not appear in tax or church records, and made little imprint in known historical sources. He and Dorothy were perhaps the parents of several children living in St. George’s Parish, Baltimore, in the first decades of the eighteenth century, but these relationships remain unproven. Of the three parishes extant at the time in Baltimore County (St. Paul’s, St. John’s, and St. George’s), St. George’s was located in the northeastern part of the county in an area that is now part of Harford County. It bordered the Chesapeake Bay and Cecil County.

Dorothy Beesley took her oath as administratrix of William Beesley of Baltimore County on 11 April 1715, and she promised to file an inventory of his personal property before 11 July 1715. Both she and William Jenkins signed with their marks in the presence of Richard and Rebecca Colegate.^[3] The inventory of the estate has not survived, and the probate record does not specifically identify Dorothy as William’s widow, though it would appear to be a logical interpretation of the evidence.

Two men named William Jenkins lived in Baltimore County in the second decade of the eighteenth century and died between 1720 and 1721. William Jenkins, who posted bond with Dorothy in 1715, died in Baltimore County intestate in 1720, with Hezekiah Balch serving as his administrator.^[4] He was not the William Jenkins born on 4 July 1675 at Annemessex, Somerset County, Maryland, the son of William and Ann (Studley) Jenkins.^[5] This other William married Sarah Cullen about 1698 and on 2 August 1715, purchased from George Freeland 50 acres on the north side of Deer Creek in Baltimore County. He later died there testate with his will dated 22 November 1720 and proved 2 May 1721.^[6] There is no evidence of a relationship between the two Williams. The question of whether William Jenkins, who posted bond with Dorothy, was, in fact, a close relative and possibly a brother of Dorothy merits further investigation but cannot be proven from extant sources. However, Hezekiah Balch, Jenkins’s administrator, remains a key figure in unraveling a part of the Beesley-Balch-Jenkins connection.

As a widow, Dorothy likely married Hezekiah Balch in St. George’s Parish before November 1717. Balch was born about 1686, and an unreferenced genealogy places his birth in Baltimore County, the only son of Thomas and Agnes (Somerville) Balch.^[7] He died at an unknown location about 1745, though there does not appear to exist either a will or probate record for him in Maryland. He had previously married Martha Ann (Bloomer), who died in St. George’s Parish in January 1716/7.^[8] The place and time frame of Hezekiah’s marriage to Dorothy are consistent with her being the widow of William Beesley, and Hezekiah’s role as the administrator of William Jenkins’s estate links the families together. Hezekiah and Dorothy Balch had three children baptized and mentioned in the St. George’s Parish records: Thomas, born 4 November 1717; Hezekiah, born 6 March 1721; and Mary, born 2 October 1725.^[9]

As a citizen of some means, Hezekiah became the master of Alice Carrington, a female servant and felon transported from England and bound to him in 1726.^[10] She would later give birth to several illegitimate children with multiple fathers, including a daughter Johannah with William Beesley.^[11] The record suggests that this younger William was Dorothy (___) Beesley Balch’s son from her previous marriage, and it would explain how he became acquainted with Alice.

Of the children listed for William and Dorothy (__) Beesley, none are proven. The indirect evidence cited above places William of St. George’s Parish as a probable son of William and Dorothy, since they both lived in that parish and were of age to be his parents. Elizabeth Beezley, who married Edmund Lindsey, was also of St. George’s Parish at the time and of age to have been William and Dorothy’s daughter. The couple would have a son Hezekiah, perhaps named for Hezekiah Balch. The other children, Major and James, are unproven and are placed here tentatively, though they were contemporaries of the younger William in Frederick County, Virginia, at a later period, and Major lived near William in Kentucky.

Sources

SOME BEASLEY FAMILIES OF THE COLONIAL SOUTH

A PRELIMINARY STUDY OF CERTAIN FAMILIES WITH THE SURNAME OF BEASLEY-BEAZLEY-BEEZLEY-BEESLEY IN VIRGINIA, MARYLAND, AND NORTH CAROLINA, FROM THE SEVENTEENTH AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES

By John D. Beatty, CG Fort Wayne, Indiana Privately Published 2014

1. ↑ Robert W. Barnes, Baltimore County Families, 1659-1759 (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1989), 36.
2. ↑ Perhaps, though unlikely, William was one of several creditors of James Wantland, ironmonger, of Anne Arundel County, who was awarded a judgment on 24 December 1714, but more likely this was a London-based creditor. See Rosemary Dodd and Patricia Bausell, Abstracts of Land Records, Anne Arundel County, Maryland (Pasadena, Maryland: Anne Arundel Genealogical Society, n.d.), 3: 104.
3. ↑ “Maryland, Register of Wills Records, 1629-1999, Baltimore County, Administrative Bonds, 1721-1767,” pages 43-44, digital image, Familysearch (www.familysearch.com: accessed 18 July 2014).
4. ↑ Testamentary Proceedings, Liber 4, folio 306. See V. L. Skinner, Abstracts of the Testamentary Proceedings of the Prerogative Court of Maryland (Baltimore: Clearfield, 2008), volume 15 (1719-1721), 126.
5. ↑ Early Vital Records, Somerset County, Maryland, website, page 120 (http://files.usgwarchives.net/md/somerset/vitals/earlyvitals02.txt: accessed 9 September 2014. William Jenkins and Ann Studley married in Somerset County on 25 August 1674, and the couple had, in addition to William, a daughter Elizabeth, born 24 September 1676.
6. ↑ Steven Butler, “Steven Butler’s Family History Website,” website, http://www.watermelon-kid.com/family/bios/jenkins1.htm: accessed 12 July 2014).
7. ↑ David R. Balch, The Balch Family of Maryland: The First Five Generations (No place: David R. Balch, 2010), page 7; digital book, http://www.balchgenealogy.com/1st-5thGeneration.pdf: accessed 12 July 2014.
8. ↑ Ibid, page 9.
9. ↑ Bill Reamy and Martha Reamy, St. George’s Parish Registers, 1689-1793 (Silver Spring, Maryland: Family Line Publications, 1988), 24-25.
10. ↑ Edith Ziegler, “The Transported Convict Women of Colonial Maryland, 1718-1776,” Maryland Historical Magazine, volume 97, no. 1 (Spring 2002): 31, note no. 71.
11. ↑ Ibid.