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ICANT CHANGES IN LAND BETWEEN FIRST ELEC-
TION AND DEATH: sold 234 acres in Talbot
County between 1719 and 1720; purchased 700
acres in Dorchester County, 1720/21. ADDI-
TIONAL COMMENTS: inherited ca. 2,200 acres in
Talbot County from his father, but sold it to his
brother before his first election. WEALTH AT
DEATH. DIED: between December 28, 1721, and
February 13, 1721/22, probably in Talbot County.
LAND, at least 700 acres in Dorchester County.
EDMUNDSON (EDMONDSON), JOHN (?-
1697/98). BORN: probably in Ireland. IMMI-
GRATED: in 1658 from Barbados as an indentured
servant to John Home, a merchant of London,
England. RESIDED: in Calvert County; Talbot
County after 1664. MARRIED Sarah, daughter of
William Parker (?-1673/74). CHILDREN. SONS:
John (1666-1687), who married Susannah (1673-
1685), daughter of Bryan Omealey; James (1670-
1702), who married in 1691 Magdalen (?-1739),
daughter of John Stevens (?-l 692); William (1677-
1702), a justice of Talbot County in 1701, who
married Sarah (?-1702), daughter of William
Sharpe (ca. 1655-1699); Thomas Edmondson (?-
ca. 1721/22), who married in 1699 Mary Grason;
and Samuel (1684-1704). STEPSON, NATURAL
SON, OR SON-IN-LAW: Abraham Morgan. DAUGH-
TERS. Sarah (1665-?), who married William John-
son, of Radcliffe, England; Grace (1668-?); Hen-
rietta Maria (1671-?); Martha (1673-?); and
Elizabeth (?-1709), who married in 1695 William
Stevens, Jr. PRIVATE CAREER. EDUCATION: liter-
ate. RELIGIOUS AFFILIATION. Quaker. SOCIAL STA-
TUS AND ACTIVITIES: helped to establish a library
at Third Haven, Talbot County. OCCUPATIONAL
PROFILE: indentured servant, who was free by
1663 when he served as John Home's attorney in
the Provincial Court; owned a corn mill in the
1660s, which he sold by 1671; a merchant from
1664 until his death (served as a factor for An-
drew Cooke, of England, 1677, and later for Josias
Beale and Thomas Legge); called John Edmund-
son & Co., 1689 (a firm trading with Barbados);
one of the most active land speculators in Mary-
land and Delaware, buying and selling over 68,000
acres. PUBLIC CAREER. LEGISLATIVE SERVICE:
Lower House, Talbot County, 1676-1682 (Ac-
counts 3; Trade 5), 1686-1688, Associators' Con-
vention, Talbot County, 1689-1692; Grand Com-
mittee of Twenty, 1690-1692; Lower House,
Talbot County, 1692 (dismissed from the 1st ses-
sion, because as a Quaker would not subscribe to
the required oaths), 1694 (dismissed from the 1st
session, because as a Quaker would not subscribe
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to the required oaths). OTHER PROVINCIAL OF-
FICE: justice, Provincial Court, 1691-1692.
STANDS ON PUBLIC/PRIVATE ISSUES: strong lob-
byist in the 1680s for dispensation of oaths for
Quakers; active supporter of the Protestant As-
sociators' revolution in 1689, but lost his eligibility
for offices with the establishment of the royal gov-
ernment; he was the object of much controversy in
the Talbot County elections of 1692 and 1694,
because the freeholders insisted on returning him
as a delegate. WEALTH DURING LIFETIME. PER-
SONAL PROPERTY: owned the ship Holly Mer-
chant, 1689. LAND AT FIRST ELECTION had pa-
tented over 12,000 acres. WEALTH AT DEATH.
DIED: will probated on March 9, 1697/98. PER-
SONAL PROPERTY: TEV, £387.13.3 sterling (in-
cluding 18 slaves). LAND: over 7,450 acres.
EDWARDS, BENJAMIN (1753-1829). BORN: on
August 12, 1753, in Stafford County, Virginia.
IMMIGRATED: ca. 1777 from Virginia. RESIDED: in
Montgomery County, ca. 1777-ca. 1800; Nelson
County, Kentucky, ca. 1800-1829. MARRIED by
1775 Margaret, daughter of Ninian Beall, Gent.
(?-1790), of Montgomery County. Her brothers
were Andrew (?-by 1777), who never married;
Charles (?-by 1790), who married Tabitha Beall.
Her sisters were Susannah, who married Alexan-
der Catlett; Eleanor, who married Zachanah Of-
futt; Ruth, who married Charles Gassaway; Mary,
who married John Watkins, Jr.; and Rachel, who
married Hardage Lane. CHILDREN. Probably five
sons and five daughters, including SON: Ninian
(1775-1833), who studied medicine and law; was
elected to the Kentucky legislature; served as a
judge of the General Court, Circuit Court, Court
of Appeals, and chief justice of Kentucky; was
appointed governor of Illinois by President Madi-
son in 1809; elected to the U.S. Senate from Illi-
nois, 1818-1824; elected governor of Illinois in
1826. PRIVATE CAREER. EDUCATION: literate. RE-
LIGIOUS AFFILIATION: obtained a tract from his
brother-in-law for "a Society of Christians called
Baptists"; his wife's father donated land to the
Baptists out of "natural love, good will and affec-
tion." OCCUPATIONAL PROFILE: planter, by 1784;
merchant in Georgetown, Montgomery County,
1790. PUBLIC CAREER. LEGISLATIVE SERVICE:
Lower House, Montgomery County, 1782-1783,
1783, 1784. OTHER STATE OFFICE: Constitution
Ratification Convention, Montgomery County,
1788. LOCAL OFFICES: trustee of the poor, Mont-
gomery County, in office 1789; associate justice,
Circuit Court, Montgomery County, appointed
1793. OUT OF STATE SERVICE: representative, U.S.
303
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