Ancestors

Mareen Duvall

Mareen Duvall was a Huguenot, one of the French Protestants who left France under persecution. J. D. Warfield, in his 1905 history of the Anne Arundel families, calls him "this fleeing immigrant from Nantes, about 1650." He came to Maryland as one of the hundred and fifty settlers brought over by Col. William Burgess. He settled near Burgess on the south side of South River, in Anne Arundel County, and "became one of the most successful merchants and planters of that favored section." The land records of Anne Arundel and Prince George's Counties show him holding a large estate.

In 1689 Protestant Maryland rose against the government of the Lord Proprietary, Lord Baltimore, who held the colony as his own grant from the Crown. Mareen Duvall was among the men who stood by the Proprietary. Col. Nicholas Greenberry, writing to Governor Copley, named him among "the Jacobin party, whose mysterious meetings he could not solve." The word was then used for supporters of the deposed King James. Greenberry's complaint, as Harry Wright Newman quotes it, was that "their Rendezvous was at Darnalls, Chews, Dorseys, and one Marieen Duval."

He married at least three times. "It is not known who were his first wives," Warfield wrote. One of them was "closely allied to the celebrated John Larkin, a neighbor and enduring friend of Mareen Duvall." A wife named Susannah was the mother of his son Mareen the younger and was dead by 1694. His last wife, Mary, survived him. Which wife was the mother of his son John is not known.

He made his will on 2 August 1694 and it was proved on 13 August, so he died within those eleven days. To his wife Mary, his executrix, he left part of the 600 acres called Middle Plantation for her life, "and she is not to be molested by any of testator's children." His son Lewis received 300 acres of Middle Plantation, the part on which his eldest son Mareen was living, and was to inherit his stepmother's portion after her death. His daughter Eliza received 375 acres called Bowdell's Choice in Calvert County. His son Benjamin received 200 acres of Howerton's Range in Calvert County, and his daughter Catherine the rest of it. To "son Mareen, the younger, son of late wife Susannah" he left 300 acres called The Plains in Calvert County. His daughter Mary received 320 acres of Marley's Grove and 300 acres of Marley's Lot in Anne Arundel County. His youngest daughter Johanna received 311 acres of Larkin's Choice and 200 acres of Duvall's Range. His son John received five shillings. His daughter Eliza, the wife of John Roberts, and his son Samuel received personal goods.

The will closed with its arrangements for the family. "Sons John and Lewis and son-in-law Robert Tyler to assist wife in executorship. Sons to be of age at 18 yrs. and daus at 16 yrs." The witnesses were William Roper, William Goodman, Richard Cheser, Jervis Morgan and Clement Davis. "The will of Mareen Duvall is an intelligent one," Warfield wrote.

He left twelve children, five of them already married. Mareen the elder married Frances Stockett, daughter of Thomas Stockett. John married a daughter of William Jones Sr. Lewis married Martha Ridgely, the only daughter of Robert Ridgely of St. Inigoes, in 1699. Samuel married Elizabeth Clarke in 1687, and Benjamin married Sophia Griffith in 1713. Mareen the younger, who "seemed to be his favorite," married Elizabeth Jacob, daughter of Capt. John Jacob. His daughter Eliza married John Roberts of Virginia. Catherine married William Orrick in 1700. Mary married the Rev. Henry Hall, the English rector of St. James Parish, in 1701. Susannah married Robert Tyler, and Johanna married Richard Poole in 1703.

His widow Mary married twice more. She became the third wife of Col. Henry Ridgely, and later the wife of the Rev. Jacob Henderson, the commissary of the Church of England in Maryland. The commissary was the Bishop of London's deputy over the colony's clergy. "Together they built old Trinity, or Forest Chapel, near Collington, in Prince George County," Warfield wrote.

If Mareen Duvall is in your family, start your own tree.

Cite: Heirology, "Mareen Duvall (d. 1694)", https://heirology.com/ancestors/mareen-duvall-1694-5a693a.