The Husbands of Jane Kemp

...she condemns ye evil action of being married by a priest to a man out of ye profession of Truth ~ From Third Haven Quaker Records

Chesapeake Bay

a little backstory

Our grandmother Jane Kemp (6GGM), had extremely bad luck in the husband department. She survived three of them before she died sometime after 1746. To continue her story, we must go back in time to two of our grandfathers, Robert Knapp (8GGF) and Lewis Clothier (7GGF). Lewis was the father of Jane's first husband, Robert Clothier (6GGF) and Robert Knapp was Robert Clothier's grandfather.

Robert Knapp came from England to Maryland ca. 1658. According to the extensively researched The New Early Settlers In Maryland by Carson Gibb, Robert Knapp "...by 1658 transported himself, AEmilia, his wife, & Susanna (7GGM), his daughter..." The only other record listing Grandpa Robert is one that states he was "In Maryland by 1679, when 50 acres on the north side of the mouth of Choptank River were surveyed for him."

The land that Robert had surveyed, according to his will, was called Poplar Neck. The map below shows the the approximate location of Poplar Neck (red marker) in relation to Tilghman Island (blue marker) where Jane Kemp was born.

It's very possible that Robert also purchased land on Tilghman Island, though it's doubtful he ever lived there. According to The History of Talbot County by Samuel Alexander, the original surveys of this island in 1661 show that one man owned the entire island. That survey, however, lists this property at only 1500 acres. A later survey of the island found that it is actually 1,847 acres. The author believes that the 347 unaccounted acres belonged to Robert Knapp and that is why the strait that separates the island from the mainland is called Knapp's Narrows.

Knapp's Narrows ~ Tilghman Island Maryland ~ Photography by Bill Cannon

Note: This land on Tilghman Island is not mentioned in Robert's will so, if he ever owned it, he must have sold it before his death.

Blue = Robert Kemp Red = Rebert Kemp's Bolton Purple = Knapp's Narrows Green = Robert Knapp

Knapp's Narrows divides Tilghman Island from the mainland

Everything else we know about Robert Knapp comes from his will. He left the bulk of his small estate to his wife and two grandchildren so we can safely infer that he had no children of his own living at the time of his death. In his will, he refers to his wife as Elizabeth which is different than the "AEmelia" of the immigration records. Two probable explanations come to mind. One is that his wife's name was Amelia Elizabeth and she was called by her middle name. The other is that his first wife Amelia died and he later he married Elizabeth. Both are common and distinct possibilities.

Robert's will was witnessed in 1680 and proved after he died in 1682. We have no record to show when wife Elizabeth died but it was sometime after 1682 because she is mentioned in Robert's will.

the Clothiers

It appears that our grandfather Lewis Clothier's (7GGF) only bit of fortune in the New World was to marry Robert Knapp's daughter, Susanna (7GGM). Other than one small blurb in The New Early Settlers In Maryland, Lewis stayed completely under the radar. The only official record refers to him as "Settler(s) Cloaher, Clother, Lues Transported by 1665." The date of 1665 had to have been well after he actually arrived Maryland.

From Lewis' father-in-law Robert Knapp's will we can piece together a timeline. We know that Lewis and Susanna had two children born before 1680 because both children are mentioned in Robert's will. That means that the marriage most likely took place ca. 1675. As Susanna was not mentioned in her father's will, we can safely assume that she died soon after her second child was born, probably around 1678.

We know that Lewis Clothier was alive in 1680 because he is mentioned in Robert's will as the father of Robert's two grandchildren. After that, he falls completely out of sight. We have no idea when or where he died. His two children, however, were a little more fortunate.

Lewis's children Robert and Mary Clothier, were both quite young when their grandfather Robert Knapp died. With no other apparent heirs, Robert left to his"Grand Child Robert Cloathier Son to Lewis Cloathier fifty acres of Land Called by the name of Poplar Neck..."

Robert's Knapp's bequest to his granddaughter Mary was quite different but it was a common practice in the day to forgive debts in a will. "...to my Grand Child Mary Cloathier Daughter To Lewis Cloathier two Thousand Pounds of Tobacco which the said Lewis Cloathier is Justly Indebted to me..."

Because both children were under age when the will was written, the entire estate was left in the hands of their grandmother Elizabeth to be administered when the young Robert turned sixteen and when his sister Mary wed.

Robert Knapp made a final bequest which showed that he must have had a kind heart: "4thly I do give to an orphant (orphan) child called Elizabeth Cadmore, one Cow and Calfe..."

Grandpa Lewis Clothier's date of death is unknown. He left no will nor records of any land that he might have owned. Thanks to his grandfather, however, young Robert Clothier was fairly well set up to marry when he came of age. Somewhere, somehow he met Jane Kemp of Tilghman Island.

Jane and Robert

Jane Kemp (6GGM) and Robert Clothier (6GGF) must have fallen in love. Why else would Jane choose to disobey her father and marry outside of her Quaker faith? The couple married sometime before 1703 when Jane's father Robert Kemp (7GGF) died and Jane was summarily left with only one shilling. That sad tale was covered in the previous post.

But the tale had a happy ending. Only a year after her father's death, Jane's misgivings about what she had done came back to haunt her. The minutes of the Third Haven Monthly Meeting record that:

"on the 5th day of the 5th month, 1703 Jane Clothier Daughter of Robert Kemp brought a writing to this meeting wherein she says she condemns ye evil action of being married by a priest to a man out of ye profession of Truth.  She is advised to go to ye priest who married her and there condemn it before him publicly…"

Shortly afterward, the Friends who accompanied her to the priest to condemn her act reported to the Quarterly Meeting that it had been done “effectually.”  Jane was welcomed back into the fold and husband Robert adopted into the faith as well. The Clothier name is well represented throughout the Quaker Third Haven Meeting books.

Records show three children born to Robert and Jane Clothier, Robert, Jr., Lewis and Mary Jane. The couple and their children may have lived happily at Poplar Neck for a time but, sadly, Robert died sometime before July 1717 at about age 36. Robert, like his father before him, left this world with no record of his death and no will. Jane was left with three children, 12, 9 and 7.

Whenever Robert died, we can be assured that Jane wasted no time finding husband number two. This time she married within her Quaker faith and the lucky groom was our grandfather Thomas Eubanks, Jr. (6GGF).

another back story

Again, a little back story on Thomas Eubanks, Jr.'s family seems appropriate. Not much light has been shed on the lives of our grandfathers Marmaduke Harrison (8GGF) and Thomas Eubanks, Sr. (7GGF) but one thing is clear. Thomas Eubanks, Sr., like Lewis Clothier, made out very well in his choice of a wife.

Quaker records report that that our grandfather Thomas Eubanks, Sr. and his brother Richard (7U) arrived in Maryland as the indentured servants of Marmaduke Harrison. It appears that Marmaduke came from a well-to-do family in Brandsby, Yorkshire, England.

Note: While researching the Harrison family I found another Marmaduke Harrison from Brandsby, probably an uncle of our grandfather Marmaduke. He was boyhood friend and Steward of Provisions for Marmaduke Roydon who, according to Wikipedia, was a "merchant-adventurer and colonial planter." The two friends with the same name traveled the world together.

Not only did our grandfather Thomas Eubanks work off his indenture to Marmaduke, he also scored big by marrying the boss' daughter. It appears that Grandma Martha Harrison (7GGM) was Marmaduke's only living child when he died. In his will, Marmaduke left his entire estate to his son-in-law Thomas Eubanks, Sr. Now that's excellent example of an indentured servant making good!

Marmaduke lived to the ripe old age of 83. He died in 1717, the very same year that his grandson Thomas Eubanks, Jr. (6GGF) also died.

Thomas Eubanks, Sr. outdid his generous father-in-law, living to the age of 86. He died in 1736. When he made his will, he named eight daughters and five sons. He had amassed vast land holdings beyond those left to him by Marmaduke Harrison. Sadly, of course, his son Thomas Eubanks, Jr. did not live to share the wealth. By the time Thomas Eubanks, Sr. died, his son Thomas, Jr. had been dead for nineteen years.

Jane and Thomas

The story of Jane Kemp (6GGM) and Thomas Eubanks, Jr. (6GGF) is an exceedingly short one. When her husband Robert Clothier died, "Jean Clother, widow" married Thomas Eubanks, Jr. They were married ca. 1719. Together they had one daughter, Jane Eubanks (5GGM), born in 1720. There are no records showing how or where Thomas and Jane lived. Jane might have had a dower's right to "Poplar Neck" which her first husband Robert Clothier (6GGF) had inherited. It's possible that they lived there.

In 1721, there was obviously a little trouble in paradise for the couple. From the October 26 Third Haven Monthly Meeting records:

. . .complaint being made to this meeting that Thomas Hubank, Jr. who married the widow & relict of Robt Clothier hath abused sum of the oprhans of the sd. Robt Clothier. . .

Jane's children with Robert would have been about 16, 12 and 10 at the time. I can find no follow up to the complaint but Thomas died a year and a half later. In his will, Thomas left "To wife Jane, extx., entire estate during life; at her decease to dau. Jane."

In an interesting side note, Thomas' sister, our aunt Lidia Eubanks (6A), married a man named Abell Grace. Their marriage intention was published in the Quaker Third Haven meeting of July 14, 1709.

The couple had a number of children before Abell's death in 1723. Lidia's oldest son Abell, Jr. (1C7X) would have been about 13 at the time his father died. It appears that Abell, Jr.'s grandparents on his father's side wanted to take custody of him. Lidia took them to court:

At the March Court held for Talbot County, 1724, the petition of LIDIA GRACE was heard. She stated that she was a widow, left with a great many children and (was) in a low condition. (That) the old grandfather GRACE covets the said son of ABELL GRACE and the said mother (Lydia) desires the same (the son), being of years, to help with the younger (children) that I now have in my possession - and desires to know now whether the grandfather or grandmother have liberty to take the said child with the submission of LIDAY GRACE.

The Court ordered the grandfather to deliver the orphan to the petitioner (his mother Lidia Grace.)

Lidia later remarried and had a whole slew of children with her new husband.

In another twist to the story, our cousin Abell, Jr. married our cousin Rachel Kemp (1C7X). Rachel was the daughter of Jane Kemp's brother, William (6U) and Thomas Eubanks' niece, Martha Eubanks (1C7X).

And now back to our poor grandmother Jane. For her, it was two husbands down and one to go.

Jane and Tristram

The lengthy saga of the Thomas family in Maryland will be dealt with in depth in our next post. But the marriage of Jane Kemp and Tristram Thomas (6GGF) is noteworthy for creating the grandaddy of all our genealogical rarities. Jane had the unique distinction amongst all of our multitudinous grandmothers to be the only one to have three husbands, each of which was our grandfather. Using the tree below as an illustration, we'll see if we can simplify.

Everyone on the tree above is our grandparent. Intermarriage amongst the families is what caused this unusual situation, but not one of the married couples is related by blood. Jane and her three husbands produced the final union of William Thomas and Rachel Roe.

1) Robert Clothier and Jane Kemp (top row) had a daughter, Mary Jane Clothier (middle row). She is our 5th great-grandmother.

2) Thomas Eubanks and Jane Kemp (top row) had a daughter, Jane Eubanks (middle row). She is also our 5th great-grandmother.

3) Tristram Thomas (top row) and his wife Sarah Stephens (6GGM) (not shown) had a son, Stephen Thomas (middle row). He is our 5th great-grandfather.

4) Tristram Thomas and Jane Kemp (top row) married (a third marriage for both of them).

5) Tristram's son Stephen Thomas married Jane's daughter Mary Jane Clothier (middle row). Together they are our 5th great-grandparents.

6) Stephen Thomas and Mary Jane Clothier (middle row) had a son, William Thomas (bottom row). He is our 4th great-grandfather.

7) Jane Eubanks married John Roe (middle row). They had a daughter, Rachel Roe (bottom row). She is our 4th great-grandmother.

8) To complete the cycle of weirdness, William Thomas married Rachel Roe (bottom row). Together they are our 4th great-grandparents.

And there you have the story of Jane Kemp and her three husbands.

Note: William Thomas and Rachel Roe's daughter, Jane Thomas, married Thomas B. Covington (3GGF). Their son, James Wall Covington (2GGF), made the trek with his family from North Carolina to San Bernardino, CA where James' son, Stephen Wall Covington (GGF) married Esther Parrish (GGM).