Archives of Maryland
(Biographical Series)

Arthur T. Jones (b. circa 1786 - d. 1849)
MSA SC 5496-050751
War of 1812 Claimant, Kent County, Maryland

Biography:

Born around 1786 or 1787 in Chestertown,1 Arthur Tilghman Jones was the only child of Major Richard Ireland Jones, an English immigrant,2 and his wife Susanna Carroll Tilghman.3 Arthur Jones married Anna Maria Chew Hollyday,4 with whom he had six children: Ann Eloise/Eloisa (b. 1813), Arthur Tilghman (b. 1814), Maria Susanna (b. 1817), William, Alfred, and possibly a fourth son, Richard.5

By 1810, Jones was living at a property called Kennersley or Kinnersly in Queen Anne’s County, which he had inherited from his mother.6 His widowed father lived nearby. Meanwhile, overseer Joel Smith managed another property, Swan Point, about twenty-five miles away. Smith resided there with his wife Elizabeth Sugar and oversaw thirty-six slaves.7

On August 30, 1813, Jones' friend J.T. Hemsley wrote to inform him of British raids near St. Michaels.8 On September 16, 1814, when Jones was at home at Kennersley, a small British boat stopped at Swan Point under a flag of truce. According to Jones' deposition, the vessel had arrived from one of the ships that “had just come down the Patapsico river after attacking Baltimore.” Eight of Jones’ slaves left on the boat despite Joel Smith's attempts to prevent them. The slaves who escaped were Jacob Murray, Delilah Murray, George Horner, Abraham Lyles, John Chambers, Hannah Lyles, Elijah Lyles, and Polly Chambers.9 The entire British fleet had left Swan Point the following day.10

Jones experienced increasing financial difficulties following the War of 1812, mainly due to his spending habits. In The Hollyday and Related Families of the Eastern Shore of Maryland, James Bordley Jr. wrote that

Arthur was a prodigal spender, and it was not long after his marriage that he was seriously involved financially. He mortgaged his home, the sheriff sold his wife’s inherited slaves, [and] he tried to buy his father’s life interest so he could—and finally did—sell “Kinnersly.” ...By 1820 he had exhausted his resources and was in debt to the extent of seventy thousand dollars.11
As a result of Kennersley's sale, Jones was living at Swan Point in Kent County by 1820.12 He still owned fifty-eight slaves, but from 1821 to 1822 he sold a total of nineteen slaves to Ringgold Nicols of Kent County, Austin Woolfoth of Baltimore County, and James Barroll of Baltimore County.13 Jones' children, Alfred and William, died around that time from tuberculosis, followed by their mother in 1823.

Jones died in a Philadelphia mental institution in 1849.14
 


Footnotes

1.     James Bordley Jr., The Hollyday and Related Families of the Eastern Shore of Maryland (Baltimore, MD: Maryland Historical Society, 1962) 204.

2.     Maryland General Assembly, November 5, 1798 - January 20, 1799, Session Laws. Available through Archives of Maryland Online, Volume 653, Page 19.

3.     Bruce H. Harrison, The Family Forest Descendants of Lady Joan Beaufort (Kamuela, HI: Millisecond Publishing Company, Inc., 2005) 739 and 979.
        George Washington Doane, Colonial Families and Their Descendents (Baltimore, MD: Press of the Sun Printing Office, 1900) 26, 27, 29, and 34.
        Maryland Historical Society, Maryland Historical Magazine, Vol. 1 (Baltimore, MD: J.H. Furst Company, 1906) 284.
        George A. Hanson, Old Kent: The Eastern Shore of Maryland (Baltimore, MD: John P. Des Forges, 1876) 248 and 254.
        “Kennersley,” QA-3, Maryland Historical Trust, Inventory of Historical Properties. www.mdihp.net.

4.     Harrison 979 and Bordley 204.
        "Anna Maria Chew Hollyday (Mrs. Arthur Tilghman Jones)," Painting Collection of the Maryland Historical Society, Maryland ArtSource. http://www.marylandartsource.org/artwork/detail_000001481.html. Source no longer available.

5.     Bordley 169 and 203.

6.     Claim of Arthur T. Jones, Case 731, Case Files, compiled ca. 1827 - ca. 1828, documenting the period ca. 1814 - ca. 1828, *ARC Identifier 1174160 / MLR Number PI 177 190,* National Archives, College Park.
         Bordley 169 and 203.

7.     Maryland Genealogical Society, Maryland Genealogical Society Bulletin, 32.1 (1979): 53.

8.     Thomas More Page, "Lloyd Tilghman and Sherwood Manor," Maryland Historical Magazine 74.2 (1979): 173-174.

9.     Claim of Arthur T. Jones.

10.   Frank R. Mullaly, "The Battle of Baltimore," Maryland Historical Society. 54.1 (1959): 100.

11.   Qtd. in Bordley 203-205.

12.   U.S. Census Bureau (Census Record, MD) for Arthur T. Jones, 1820, Kent County, District 1, Page 1, Line 16 [MSA SM61-75, M 2067-1].

13.   KENT COUNTY COURT, (Chattel Records), 1820-1823, Liber WS 2, Folio 189, [MSA C1035-13]. Arthur Jones to Ringgold Nichols, May 10, 1821.
         KENT COUNTY COURT, (Chattel Records), 1820-1823, Liber WS 2, Folio 426, [MSA C1035-13]. Arthur Jones to William Palmer, September 16, 1822.
         KENT COUNTY COURT, (Chattel Records), 1820-1823, Liber WS 2, Folio 428,  [MSA C1035-13]. Arthur Jones to Austin Woolfoth, September 18, 1822.
         KENT COUNTY COURT, (Chattel Records), 1820-1823, Liber WS 2, Folio 436, [MSA C1035-13]. Arthur Jones to James Barroll, September 28, 1822.

14.   Bordley 203-205.
 

Researched and written by Rachel Frazier, 2011.

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