Family Notes
Index
Family Note: Descendants of John Wheeler
Generation No. I
1. JOHN' WHEELER was born 1630 in England, and died 1693 in Charles Co, Md. He married MARY (UNKNOWN) WHEELER WFT Est. 1644-1677.
Notes for JOHN WHEELER:
John Wheeler was 21 years old in 1651, when he left England for the Colony of Maryland. John was a Roman Catholic, and it is probable that he left England to escape the persecution of Catholics following the end of the English Civil War when Oliver Cromwell beheaded the Catholic King Charles I in 1651.
John arrived in Maryland in January, 1652, on the ship "Thomas and John", under the command of Captain William Mitchell. John had traveled from Debtfordshire to London, where he boarded the ship. He may have been an indentured servant, since the ship contained about a dozen indentured servants who had contracted for a period of time (usually seven years) of labor in exchange for payment of their passage to the Colonies. John may have paid for his own passage, however, as no record exists of his having worked as an indenture in Maryland, and he purchased a land warrant for 100 acres from Walter Hall in June 1654, something an indenture could not have done. It is not known if John brought a wife with him, or married after his arrival, but he did have a wife, Mary (or perhaps Marie), and one son by 1654.
John was obviously a good farmer and business man, as his estate and his importance grew rapidly. Raising tobacco, cattle, and hogs, in 1658 he rented, for seven shillings per acre, 350 acres from Robert Cole on the northeast branch of the Nanjernoy River. He continued to acquire land to the degree that between 1654 and 1688 he had accumulated 3,293 acres of land in Charles County, Maryland, this at a time when the average small planter owned only about 100 acres. Because of his prosperity, he was appointed a Gentleman Justice of Charles County on May 30, 1685, by the Royal Governor. As a Justice, he served as one of the twelve judges of the county court.
John was also very active in the Charles County Militia. He was the Ensign (2nd Lieutenant) in Captain James Longworth's Company in February, 1661, participated in operations against hostile Indians in 1666, became Captain in June, 1676, and Major in June, 1679. On June 28, 1692, the Charles County Court ordered "Major John Wheeler being very much old and very much inabled through a wound he received in the Country's service...is therefore removed from all tax rolls...for the future."
John had a number of servants, but it is not possible to tell whether they were indentured or slaves. He probably had a combination of both. The only ones specifically known are Dorothy Hinks, age 10, Sam Gaskoyne, age 15, John Morton, age 20, Bridgett, age 18, and William Davis, age 13. These persons could have been indentured to John, or some could habe been the children of his other sevants or slaves. It was not uncommon for children to be indentured, as among the requirements of the person accepting an indenture contract was to feed, clothe, teach a trade, and educate the indenture, in exchange for the indenture's work for the specified period of time of the contract.
Obviously because he could not write, John used a distinctive mark instead of a signature on all documents he signed, up to and including his will, which was probated on January 8, 1694. His mark was ..........
Source of the above information, and most of the data on John Wheeler's descendants through Thomas Wheeler, Jr, 1734-1770, is Walter V Ball's book "John Wheeler, 1630-1693, of Charles County, Maryland, and Some of His Descendants", published privately by the author in Chevy Chase, MD, in December, 1966. I was able to get a copy of the book through Interlibrary Loan from Jones Memorial Library, 2311 Memorial Ave, Lynchburg, VA, 24501.
Children of JOHN WHEELER and MARY WHEELER are:
i. John WHEELER. JR. b. 1654: d. WFT Est. 1655-1744