----------, Eleanor (b. )

Source: (Individual)
Abbreviation: Maryland Genealogies
Title: Maryland genealogies: A Consolidation of Articles from the Maryland His
torical Magazine (Baltimore, Maryland: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1
980)
torical Magazine
torical Magazine. Baltimore, Maryland: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1
980.

Data:
Text: "Smith Family of Calvert County," by Christopher Johnston, pp. 373-386.

Given Name: Eleanor

Change: Date: 9 Feb 2003

Source: (Individual)
Abbreviation: Maryland Genealogies
Title: Maryland genealogies: A Consolidation of Articles from the Maryland His
torical Magazine (Baltimore, Maryland: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1
980)
torical Magazine
torical Magazine. Baltimore, Maryland: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1
980.

Data:
Text: "Smith Family of Calvert County," by Christopher Johnston, pp. 373-386.

Given Name: Richard

Death: 1688

Change: Date: 9 Feb 2003

Given Name: Elizabeth

Change: Date: 9 Feb 2003

Given Name: Richard

Death: 1719

Change: Date: 9 Feb 2003

Given Name: Elizabeth

Death: 1725

Change: Date: 9 Feb 2003

Given Name: Thomas

Change: Date: 9 Feb 2003

Given Name: Elizabeth

Change: Date: 9 Feb 2003

Given Name: Thomas

Change: Date: 9 Feb 2003

Given Name: John

Death: 1676/77

Change: Date: 9 Feb 2003

Given Name: Elizabeth

Change: Date: 9 Feb 2003

Given Name: Thomas

Death: 1684

Change: Date: 9 Feb 2003

Given Name: Alice

Death: 1698

Change: Date: 9 Feb 2003

Given Name: Jonas

Change: Date: 9 Feb 2003

Given Name: Rosa

Change: Date: 9 Feb 2003

Note: Wessell Alricks lived in New Castle, Delaware, where in the public records he is sometimes referred to as a goldsmith and sometimes as a gentleman.

In 1724 he complained to the governor that the ferry across the Delaware River was very irregularly kept and in July of that year the governor granted a patent, giving "Wessell Alricks and his heirs the sole keeping of said ferry, also license to transport passengers, horses, cattle and goods over the Delaware from New Castle to Salem, within the bounds of New Castle, Kent and Sussex upon Delaware, for such fees, rewards, profits, benefits, perquisites and advantages as may accrue during such time as the service may be satisfactorily performed."

He was Sheriff of New Castle County, resigning the office in 1700, when Governor William Penn appointed the man he suggested as his successor.

Source: (Individual)
Abbreviation: NYGBR
Title: New York Genealogical and Biographical Record

Data:
Text: "Peter Alricks, of the Amsterdam Colony" by George Hannah, July, 1893, pp. 125-132.

Source: (Individual)
Abbreviation: NYGBR
Title: New York Genealogical and Biographical Record

Data:
Text: "Genealogical Notes Relating to Peter Alricks and His Descendants" by Dr. J. G. B. Bulloch and Arthur Adams, July, 1913, pp. 226-233.

Source: (Individual)
Abbreviation: Horle
Title: Craig W. Horle, et al, Lawmaking and Legislators in Pennsylvania: A Bio
graphical Dictionary
graphical Dictionary
graphical Dictionary.

Given Name: Wessell

Death: ABT 1730 probably New Castle, Delaware

Change: Date: 9 Feb 2003

Note: Pieter Alrichs was one of the earliest settlers in what is now the state of Delaware. The city of Amsterdam took over the little colony established by the Dutch West India Company on the shores of the Delaware River in the late 1650's. It is the only instance of a European city having its own colony in the new world. They named it New Amstel, after a suburb of Amsterdam, and appointed Jacob Alrichs as the first city director. Alrichs, a wealthy man from an "influential and aristocratic" Dutch family, was the uncle of Pieter Alrichs, the founder of the Alrichs family in this country. Nothing is known of Pieter's early life, but he was well-educated, speaking and writing English as well as Dutch. He also learned the language of the local Indians well enough to communicate and negotiate with them, an ability that would prove very useful and remunerative to him.

He first appears in the historical record on a deed buying land from the Indians signed on June 7th, 1659. His uncle was childless and he may have inherited from him when the uncle died that year. Certainly, he always appeared to have plenty of money. In 1660 he was appointed to command a small fort on the Hoerekill (literally Whore's Creek) with the rank of ensign. The following year he was sent to negotiate a commercial treaty with the English colony of Maryland and did so successfully. Later he travelled with the governor of New Amstel to the Netherlands to negotiate with Amsterdam for more support, which was granted.

Soon he was in charge of all trading with the Indians (principally for furs) and received a commission of twenty-five per cent on all trade with them. He brought over ten employees from the Netherlands to work the land granted him by Amsterdam and was described in the document as a "free merchant and commissioner for the City of Amsterdam on the South River," as the Dutch called the Delaware. He soon had a flourishing plantation and built a boat large enough to carry cargo to Nieuw Amsterdam.

In 1664, the English attacked and took over the Dutch colonies in North America and Alrichs moved temporarily to the now renamed New York City after most of his property was seized as the spoils of war by the new English governor. Here he married Maria Wessell, whose family had settled in New Amsterdam from Utrecht. He took an oath of allegiance to the new English government and was soon flourishing once again, and eight slaves belonging to him that had been seized were returned. In August 1672 he was named "Bayliff and Principal Civill Magistrate at New Castle . . . for the year ensuing."

The following July, the Dutch retook the colony and appointed Alrichs as Chief Magistrate after he swore allegiance to the Dutch. When the colony once more, and now finally, returned to English rule the next year, the new English governor, Sir Edmund Andros, did not reappoint Alrichs, but he was back in the good graces of the English government by September, 1677, when he was appointed a justice.

When William Penn became the proprietor of Pennsylvania, which then included Delaware, Alrichs was among those who officially greeted him in New Castle on October 27th, 1682, and he promptly swore allegiance to Penn's government. He was elected to the Pennsylvania Assembly the following year and the year after that to the Provincial Council of Pennsylvania. He last attended a council meeting in Philadelphia on May 13th, 1697, and died shortly thereafter.

Alrichs, while always willing to serve whatever government happened to be in power, was obviously a very able man, one whose talents were indispensable. Among his numerous possessions at his death were eighteen slaves.

Source: (Individual)
Abbreviation: NYGBR
Title: New York Genealogical and Biographical Record

Data:
Text: "Peter Alricks, of the Amsterdam Colony" by George Hannah, July, 1893, pp. 125-132.

Source: (Individual)
Abbreviation: Horle
Title: Craig W. Horle, et al, Lawmaking and Legislators in Pennsylvania: A Bio
graphical Dictionary
graphical Dictionary
graphical Dictionary.

Given Name: Pieter

Death: 1697 probably New Castle, Delaware

Change: Date: 9 Feb 2003

Note: James Forbes was a merchant, in partnership with George Maxwell from 1757 to 1762. He also owned about a thousand acres in St. Mary's County, Maryland.

He was a justice in Charles County from 1770 to 1777. He served in the lower house of the legislature for Charles County, in 1777-1778 and was appointed as Commssioner of Tax for that county the same year. On Dec 22 1777 he was elected to fill a vacancy in the Continental Congress and was reelected to that body in Nov 1778 and Dec 1779, dying the next year in office. He was buried at Christ Church, Philadelphia.

Source: (Individual)
Abbreviation: Papenfuse
Title: Edward C. Papenfuse, et al, A Biographical Dictionary of the Maryland L
egislature, 1635-1789 (Baltimore, Maryland: Johns Hopkins University Pr
ess, 1979, 1985)
egislature, 1635-1789
egislature, 1635-1789. Baltimore, Maryland: Johns Hopkins University Pr
ess, 1979, 1985.

Source: (Individual)
Abbreviation: Eisenberg
Title: Gerson G. Eisenberg, Marylanders Who Served the Nation: A BIographical D
ictionary of (Annapolis, Maryland: Maryland State Archives, 1992)
ictionary of
ictionary of. Annapolis, Maryland: Maryland State Archives, 1992.

Source: (Individual)
Abbreviation: CD
Title: William C. Marye, Colonial Dames ancestor chart, prepared for Margaret M
. Steele, Jan. 3, 1916
. Steele, Jan. 3, 1916
. Steele, Jan. 3, 1916.

Given Name: James

Death: 27 MAR 1780 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Change: Date: 18 Feb 2003

Note: The search for absolute documentary proof that Jane Smith, daughter of Charles Somerset Smith and his second wife Margaret Smith, was the wife of James Forbes, has not yet been successful. However, the circumstantial case that this is so is very, very strong. Its essential points are as follows:

1) Jane Smith is named in her father's will of 1737 as the last and thus presumably youngest of his five daughters. She appears nowhere else in the historical record, making it very probable that she died at a young age.

2) There is no record of a wife for James Forbes, but he must have had one as he had two sons and there is no reason whatever to suspect that they were not born in wedlock. This would indicate that his wife, too, must have died very young.

3) James Forbes was closely associated with Charles Somerset Smith, Jr. They bought and sold land together and owned adjoining pews in the Chapel of Ease at Benedict, where Forbes was a merchant. Smith named Forbes as his attorney to handle his affairs in Maryland when he journeyed to London in 1760, a document in which he referred to Forbes and his fellow attorney Henry Tubman, as "my worthy friends."

4) Forbes's two sons were named John Forbes (presumably named for Forbes's father) and Charles Somerset Smith (presumably for his maternal grandfather).

5) In the Sothoron Cemetery at The Plains, St. Mary's County, Maryland, where John Forbes, father of James Forbes, and John Forbes, son of James Forbes are buried is a grave stone marked, "Here lies interred the Body of Jane Forbes who departed this Life the 23d day of September 1758 in the 24th year of her age." As James Forbes had no siblings named in his father's will, this is almost certainly James's wife. She is the perfect age to have been the youngest child of Charles Somerset Smith, and to have borne a child on Mar 19th, 1757 (the birth date of John Forbes, the younger), borne a second child and died in September, 1758, perhaps in giving birth to this second child.

Thus the chronology, the social relationships, nomenclature, and lack of references to either Jane Smith and the wife of James Forbes all indicate that Jane Smith and the wife of James Forbes were one and the same.

Given Name: Jane

Death: 23 SEP 1758

Change: Date: 9 Feb 2003

Source: (Individual)
Abbreviation: Papenfuse
Title: Edward C. Papenfuse, et al, A Biographical Dictionary of the Maryland L
egislature, 1635-1789 (Baltimore, Maryland: Johns Hopkins University Pr
ess, 1979, 1985)
egislature, 1635-1789
egislature, 1635-1789. Baltimore, Maryland: Johns Hopkins University Pr
ess, 1979, 1985.

Given Name: John

Death: 26 JAN 1737

Change: Date: 9 Feb 2003

Note: Dryden Cheseldyne, named for her grandmother, was left the plantation Dryden, named for her grandmother, in St. George's Hundred in St. Mary's County. It contained 483 acres and included "horses, cattle, chattels, etc. and one Negro maid called Beso."

Source: (Individual)
Abbreviation: Papenfuse
Title: Edward C. Papenfuse, et al, A Biographical Dictionary of the Maryland L
egislature, 1635-1789 (Baltimore, Maryland: Johns Hopkins University Pr
ess, 1979, 1985)
egislature, 1635-1789
egislature, 1635-1789. Baltimore, Maryland: Johns Hopkins University Pr
ess, 1979, 1985.

Source: (Individual)
Abbreviation: Beitzell
Title: Edwin Warfield Beitzell, The Cheseldine Family (Washington, D.C., n.p.
, 1949)
, 1949.

Given Name: Dryden

Death: 1760

Change: Date: 9 Feb 2003