The Laytons of Maryland (Williamson Line).

From the Fortress of Solitude
Pleasant Grove

Hello Williamsons!
Tonight we will meet a few of our Great Grandparents that first settled in Virginia and then moved to Maryland. This is a new branch of the family with the name Layton.

Relationship Chart
8th Great Grandparents William Layton married Ursula ?
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William Layton Junior married Rachel Nicholson
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William Layton married Priscilla Lofland
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Robert Layton married Rosannah Stafford
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Heather Layton married Magor (Major) Victor
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Elijah Victor married Unicy (Eunice) Hitch
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Whitty Victor married Nancy Morris
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Effie Helen Victor married William Jonathan Williamson
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Charles Williamson married Elda Vercellino and 2nd Elsie Jensen
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Charles Williamson married Luella Williamson
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Us

Of course, there is greater detail with dates on the official family tree (click on the family tree at the top of the right side bar to get to all the names, dates, birth and death locations).

Our 8th Great Grandparent William Layton first appears on records in Somerset County Maryland in 1667. We don’t know whether he came straight from England or from Virginia. One reason for his departure from Virginia into Maryland could come from a court case of January 16, 1666. William confessed to committing “fornication” with Sara, a servant of a so called “Mr. Wise”. On February 18, 1666 William was found guilty and given 20 lashes on his bare back with him also posting bond on good behavior and paying court costs.

On June 12, 1667 William Layton bought Carny’s Chance in Maryland, a 300 acre property. Later William left Carny’s Chance to move north. It’s possible that this move brought William into the company of his future bride, Ursula. There is no record of the marriage but on April 10, 1673 Ursula gave birth to their first daughter Ursula. Their son, our 7th Great Grandfather William was born on March 13, 1675.

William was back in Somerset’s Court in August 1677. Richard Higgenbothem swore that William, along with others,"abused" David Browne, a justice, and his family. This fight involved Brown, Thomas Jones and William Layton. While at Browne’s house Jones ”violently fell upon Higgenbothem to thrust him out of doores and did beate him several blowes”. They then threatened several of the neighbors with a rapier. Browne broke up the fight Jones allegedly “Laid up Browne rending his shirt in pieces and then called him a Scots Rogue," an ethnic insult that appears with some regularity in the Somerset records, indicative of the tension between the Scottish Presbyterians and English Anglicans.

On November 28, 1689 William Layton, along with many others, felt obligated to let King William and Queen Mary know that they remained their loyal subjects by signing an oath of allegiance. The paper also set forth their support for the Protestant religion and disavowed the French and other Catholics that “oppose and trouble us”.

Our story now moves along to William and Ursula’s son, our 7th Great Grandfather William Junior. William married Rachel Nicholson. One interesting character note in the Layton family is something written about our William’s brother’s wife. Thomas Layton, our 8th Great Uncle married Miss Rebecca Turpin. The following was written about her, "A few months ago she was one the height of fashion, but now sees the evil and folly of these things. She is a very happy young woman.” Rebecca was described as a “pattern of piety.” She was one of the holiest women of her age in Maryland; while she fasted, prayed and wept much she was seldom, if ever, seen to laugh. Though in good pecuniary circumstances, she was so self-denying and plain in her dress, that she "wore no other bonnet on holy days and Sundays, other then her white muslin bonnet.”

Remember, the purpose of this history is to introduce you to the people who's DNA operates and governs every cell of your body. The family tree gives you their names, but I'm also interested in their stories. Some of our ancestors have well documented lives, while others have nothing written that survived them. Yet there are many that have brief accounts and historical details that survive. These details may be a sentence or two in length - others longer. Whatever the case, my goal is to compile all these facts, stories and remembrances into one story that tells about our American Dynasty. I tell you this so that at the end of reading you don't ask, "What was the point of that post?" Even if the fact was small and almost hardly worthy of note, it is still a remembrance of someone in our past, someone we all share a kinship with.

Thank you for reading.

Simply,
Victor