The Dyson Beginnings in Colonial Maryland

Dyson shield - Azure the sun party sable and or (blue ground with sun black and gold)

I've been writing about our grandfather Frank W. Raney's maternal grandfather Whitman Dyson's line. I'll go back now to our immigrant ancestor, Thomas Dyson (1657-1709/10), probably born at Morton Underhill Manor in Inkberrow, Worcestershire, England, in which the Dyson family held an interest, a Thomas Dyson dealing with what was left of a diminished estate as late as 1685. He was our 8th great-grandfather.

Inkberrow is directly right of the city of Worcester (the darker area in the middle) and nearly to the border.

 He was of an old and "good" family and married  Ann Walford (1666-1711) in Inkberrow parish church in 1685. 

Inberrow Parish Church (north side)

They arrived in Colonial Maryland about 1694 with at least one son, also a Thomas. Most early colonial settlers of Maryland and Virginia were from southern England, the merchant ports of Bristol, Southampton and London being handy.

Thomas Dyson paid his and his family's transport, and so was given 50 acres headright per person, settling in 1694 on Dyson's Chance (60 acres) and St. John's (115 acres) in Charles County. 

Charles County, Maryland

The wide Potomac River flowed near his property, ships to carry his tobacco back to England mooring near his doorstep. Thomas Dyson had about 15 years to establish himself. When he made out his will in 1702, thinking he was about to die, he bequeathed 55 acres of St. John's and part of Dyson's Chance to Thomas Jr.; to his son John (birth date unknown) he gave 100 acres of Swan Hill (he'd recently acquired) and the remainder of Dyson's Chance. He eventually died about January 1709/10 (the year not changing over until March in those times, so a slash between years was often used to indicate the winter months). This family belonged to Trinity Parish, Newport, Charles County, an Anglican parish.

It was son Thomas Dyson, Jr. (1688-1759), who accumulated land and wealth and children. In August 1706, while living at the home of Henry Norris, Abigail Diamond was charged and convicted in Charles County of having a bastard child; she made an oath that Thomas Dyson, Jr. was the father. He didn't marry her. He did marry Sarah (surname uncertain) in 1707, who likely came from a well-off planter's family, since they tended to marry their own kind, the bride bringing with her a dowry of tobacco or land. In 1726 he recorded a deed from "John Noe of Charles County, planter, to Thomas Dyson of Charles County, planter, for 4500 lbs of tobacco for a tract of land, being part of a tract called Lomley in Charles County . . . lying on the south side of the main swamp that falls into Piles Fresh [an inlet where a ship could anchor], containing 125 acres. Also, one other tract of land, contiguous to the aforesaid tract, called the Timber Swamp, bounded by the main run of the White Oak Swamp . . . a Great Swamp, containing 46 acres." Most land sales at that time were bartered for tobacco. 

Thomas, Jr. had six sons and three daughters and was generous to them all. He purchased part of Swan Hill (apparently earlier sold off by his brother John) in 1732 and 25 acres of Nevitt's Desire from a planter named Amery for 8000 lbs of tobacco. His second son, Thomas Dyson III (1715-758) married Maryann Maddox (1718-1784) in 1740 (our 6th great-grandparents), but predeceased his father by a year, dying in 1758. It was to his grandson Maddox Dyson that Thomas Jr. left part of Swan Hill and part of Nevitts Desire, where Maddox and his mother Maryann were then living with his siblings. Maryann's brother had married a Dyson, too. Maddox Dyson may have been the eldest son of Thomas and Maryann, but they had numerous other children in 18 years of marriage. In 1766 Maddox and his mother Maryann sold this inherited land, throwing in 7.5 acres called Concorde, to a cousin Bennet Dyson for 100 pound sterling and "other consideration." Maddox Dyson, our 5th great-grandfather, moved to what became Montgomery County, Maryland.

Montgomery County, Maryland

A look back at Maryann's Maddox's forebears. Her grandfather Cornelius Maddochs (Maddox) (1661-1705) (our 8th great-grandfather) was born in Eastbourne, Sussex, England.

Eastbourne, Sussex, England

He arrived in Maryland in1680, his ship sailing up the Chesapeake and into the Potomac River, where it docked at Port Tobacco. There he became an ambitious merchant, acquiring land and active in Charles County community activities. The following was noted in Minutes of Maryland Assembly: "Cornelius Maddocks merchant was allotted 1800 pounds of tobacco in payment by the Maryland Assembly for public expenses." 

Port Tobacco was a thriving port a short way up the Port Tobacco River from the Potomac, a shipping thoroughfare to the Chesapeake Bay

A few years later Cornelius courted and married Mary Smallwood (1670 Port Tobacco -1736 Port Tobacco), daughter of Colonel James Smallwood and Hester Evans Smallwood (our 9th great-grandparents). Mary was between 15 and 18 when they married. Records show James Smallwood made gift of "one cow and one mare" to his daughter "Mary Maddocks."  I'll do a future blog on the Smallwoods, a Maryland First Family. Cornelius and Mary (Smallwood) Maddocks had six known children, the last born after his death in 1705 when he was forty-four. One of these children was Benjamin Maddox (1693-1770), our 7th great-grandfather, who did very well for himself, married a woman named Frances (1695-1784) and had 13 children by her. He was probably buried in the Christ Church Cemetery at Port Tobacco.
 

Grounds of Old Christ Church

Benjamin's daughter Maryann Maddox married Thomas Dyson III (our 6th great-grandparents), who died young, leaving her to rear Maddox Dyson and numerous other children. 

 Maddox Dyson (1744-1820), our 5th great-grandfather, had four children with Jean (Turner Swann) Dyson (1736-1778), including Aquilla in 1769 and Bennet Dyson (1768-1840), our 4th great-grandfather. In the special census of 1776 Maddox was living  at Sugarland Hundred in Montgomery County with wife Jean (formerly the widow of John Swann). His mother Maryann (age 56) lived with them, their four children, two Swann children of Jane's, and one Negro woman, Prilly, age 56, who had to keep house for this large family.
 

Sugarland Hundred bottom right (now a heavily populated area just above the D.C. line.

In 1778, Maddox signed the Oath of Fidelity, swearing allegiance to the new government of Maryland.

"The Oath of Fidelity was instituted by Laws of Maryland 1777, Chapter 20, An Act for the Better Security of Government. Every free male 18 years and older was required to subscribe to an oath renouncing the King of England and to pledge allegiance to the revolutionary government of Maryland. Those already engaged in military service were assumed to be loyal."

It was a risky proposition. There was little likelihood the American colonies would win independence. On the other hand, a man placed himself in some danger by not signing it, singled out as a loyalist by neighbors who did sign. 

The oath stated that,"Persons expected to take the oath who did not do so were required, for the rest of their lives, to pay triple the ordinary tax on real and personal property. They were forbidden to exercise and practice the trade of merchandise or to practice the law, physic or surgery, or the art of an apothecary, or to preach or teach the gospel, or to teach in public or private schools, or to hold or exercise within this state, any office of profit or trust, civil or military, or to vote at any election of electors or senators, or of delegates to the house of delegates. Oaths were to be administered by the magistrates of each county before March 1, 1778. One list of those who subscribed to the oath was to be kept at the county court and another sent to the governor and Council in Annapolis."

 In 1777 Maddox was in the 3rd Company of the Upper Battalion of Montgomery County troops of the Maryland Line. Having found that information early in my research, I've been unable to discover more about his service. His first cousin, Thomas Andrew Dyson, seven years younger than Maddox, served with the Maryland troops in the Continental Army from 1776 until November, 1783, ending the war as a lieutenant. Read the 2nd Regiment's history HERE Thomas Andrew Dyson also became an original member of the Society of the Cincinnati of Maryland along with Dyson 4th cousin Major General William Smallwood. HERE

Major-General William Smallwood, portly but brave.

Jean Turner Dyson might have died in 1778, although an older female is listed in Maddox Dyson's 1790 census for Montgomery County. After that 1790 census Maddox moved to York County, South Carolina and appears in its 1800 census. York County was cotton country.

 York County in upcountry South Carolina

 What factors pushed him into moving south? At the end of the American Revolution Maryland planters owed thousands of pounds of tobacco and money to English and Scottish merchants. Trade had halted during the war and it didn't pick up afterward. The English barred American trade with the West Indies and over-production satiated European demand. The economy sank into a severe depression in 1785.

After arriving in South Carolina, Maddox Dyson married a woman named Elizabeth and had three children with her. When he died about 1816 in York County at about 73, he left his estate to this second wife and her children, leaving nothing to his four adult children by Jean. His will was brief, giving no hint of the size of his estate; he states that if his widow remarried, she was to have nothing, everything to be sold and held for the children. 

His son Aquilla (our 5th great-uncle) had moved with his father to York County. In the 1800 census he was single and owned three slaves. In 1810, he had a wife, Malinda Harris (born 1779 North Carolina - died 1859, Madison County, Tennessee), two sons and a daughter under 10, and 14 slaves. in 1820 his family had increased by 2 additional children and his slaves now totaled 26. In 1830 there were 8 in his family and 39 slaves. By 1840 Aquilla had moved everything, including his slaves, to Madison County, Tennessee. In the 1840 census his family at home numbered 9 and he owned 63 slaves, 28 laboring in agriculture, 2 in manufacturing, which intimates a lot of house slaves and/or child slaves. 

Madison County, Tennessee

Aquilla died four years later. I was so curious about this ever-so-great uncle, I spent hours locating the hand-written inventory of his estate, but was unable to find his will. He owned 1607 acres in Madison County, Tennessee, some of it "good bottom land". His inventory included: 60 Negroes; 16 horses; "upwards" of 200 head of hogs; 35 head of cattle; 6 oxen; 35 head of sheep; 2 wagons; 1 cart; "about" 15 ploughs; a "parcel" of axes and other farm equipment; grindstones; sawmill equipment; 1 spinning machine and looms and other spinning wheels; "a parcel of bacon sufficient to do the estate until Dec."; "old corn enough to do until Nov"; 20 bushels of wheat; "20 acres of corn and a parcel of oats and fodder"; beds; 1 secretary, 1 sideboard, 2 bureaus; 1 candle stand; 7 portraits; 7 Windsor and 7 split bottom chairs; 2 tables; 1 bookcase containing 45 volumes with some other books. He possessed silver tableware, wine glasses, 2 decanters; 25 head of geese, poultry (uncounted), and two guns. If I interpreted it correctly, his estate was valued at over $12,000.00 (most in the value of his slaves). 

Aquilla Dyson tombstone, Methodist Cemetery, Madison County, Tennessee

As for Aquilla's brother and Maddox's son, Bennet Dyson, our 4th great-grandfather, he remained in Montgomery County for the 1800 census with his wife, Elizabeth Warman (1770-1825), three sons and two daughters, four of them ten or under. Elizabeth Warman Dyson descended from old planter families, her forebears arriving in Maryland in the 1660s. When he left Maryland with his family, Bennet Dyson settled in Henderson County, Kentucky (which became Union County).

Union County, Kentucky

In 1810 his family numbered nine, including son William Hill Dyson, born back in St. Mary's County, Maryland in 1801. In 1820 in Morganfield, Union County, Kentucky, his family still numbered nine (some having left home, others having been born). By 1830 his wife was dead and most of his children grown; his family was only himself, a daughter and a young son or perhaps grandson. And then he disappears from the record. He never owned slaves. His son William Hill Dyson (1801-1870) married Alice Julian (1806-1860) and moved with her Methodist minister father and his family to Warrick County, Indiana, and had Whitman Hill Dyson(1836-1914), our great-great grandfather, he of three wives.