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A Biographical Dictionary of the Maryland Legislature 1635-1789 by Edward C. Papenfuse, et. al.
Volume 426, Page 494   View pdf image (33K)
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JOH BIOGRAPHIES

1797); and John W., of Prince George's County,
who married Mrs. Lucy Gooding of St. Louis,
Missouri. SISTERS. Rachel, who married ca. 1794
John Woodward of Baltimore Town; Mary (1763-
1821), who married first, Lt. Adam Jamison, and
second, ca. 1801, Samuel Goldthwaite (?-1806)
of Baltimore City; Elizabeth, who married John
Hopkins Fox of "Utopia," Anne Arundel County;
and Anne, who married Thomas Beale Owings.
MARRIED first, on February 1, 1779, Rebecca
Trueman (?-1781). MARRIED second, on Febru-
ary 6, 1789, Ann Eilbeck (1755-1816), daughter
of George Mason (1725-1792) of "Gunston Hall,"
Fairfax County, Virginia, and wife Ann Eilbeck
(1734-1773). Ann was the stepdaughter of Sarah
Brent (1733-1814). Her brothers were George
(1753-1796), who married Elizabeth Mary Ann
Barnes Hooe; William (1756-1757); William
(1757-1818), who married Ann Stuart; Thomp-
son (1759-1820), who married Sarah McCarty
Chichester; John (1766-1849), who married Anna
Maria Murray; Thomas (1770-1800), who mar-
ried Sarah Barnes Hooe; and twins Richard and
James (1722-died in infancy). Her sisters were
Sarah Eilbeck (1760-1823), who married Daniel
McCarty, Jr. ; Mary Thompson (1762-1806), who
married John Travers Cooke; and Elizabeth (1768-
1818), who married William Thornton. CHIL-
DREN. SON: Thomas Rinaldo (1792-1836), who
married Sarah Ann Mason. DAUGHTERS. Ann
Eilbeck (1793-1843), who married Cecilius Cou-
don Jamison; and Sarah (1795-1836), who mar-
ried James Williams. PRIVATE CAREER. EDUCA-
TION, literate. RELIGIOUS AFFILIATION: Anglican,
St. Paul's Parish, Prince George's County. SO-
CIAL STATUS AND Activities: Gent., by 1775; Esq.,
by 1779. OCCUPATIONAL PROFILE: attorney, ad-
mitted to the folio wing courts: Baltimore County,
1775; Prince George's County, 1778; owned a
mill, 1794; farmer, 1794. PUBLIC CAREER. LEGIS-
LATIVE SERVICE: Lower House, Prince George's
County, 1782 (elected to the 2nd session of the
1781-1782 Assembly), 1784 (Claims). LOCAL OF-
FICES: clerk, Committee of Observation, Prince
George's County, 1775; clerk pro tem, Commit-
tee of Correspondence, Prince George's County,
March 1776; churchwarden, St. Paul's Parish,
Prince George's County, 1779-1780; St. Paul's
Parish Vestry, Prince George's County, in office
1782-1783, 1793-1796, 1798-1799; trustee,
Charlotte Hall School, St. Mary's County, in of-
fice 1782-1788, 1793-1803; justice. Prince
George's County, 1782-1800, associate justice,
1804-1805; justice, Orphans' Court, Prince

George's County, 1782-1794. WEALTH DURING

LIFETIME. PERSONAL PROPERTY: 51 slaves and 120

oz. plate, 1790. From 1785 until his death, Rin-
aldo Johnson was in constant financial trouble
due to the considerable sums he owed the state
as a surety for Thomas Williams, collector of the
tax for Prince George's County. When Williams
died in 1784, he left a debt due the state in excess
of £15,000 in uncollected taxes for which Johnson
and Elisha Berry were liable as his securities. As
a result of this financial dilemma, Johnson en-
tered into a marriage contract with his second
wife promising not to sell her personal property
(17 slaves and £1,549.5.8 in bonds) to pay his
debts. Notwithstanding the financial support of
his parents and his wife, and the fact that he
eventually mortgaged or sold all his personal
property to pay his creditors, Rinaldo Johnson
became an insolvent debtor by 1803. LAND AT
FIRST ELECTION: 3,730 acres in Prince George's
County brought to their marriage by his first wife.
Johnson negotiated a number of deeds in order
that he might own these lands as an "estate in
fee simple" rather than an "estate for life." His
wife relinquished her title to all these lands by

1781. SIGNIFICANT CHANGES IN LAND BETWEEN
FIRST ELECTION AND DEATH, purchased ca. 1,326

acres in Prince George's County, 1787-1806, and
8 lots in Baltimore Town; patented 2 lots in Bal-
timore Town, 1793, totaling 9,045 sq. ft. in 1783,
and 60,000 acres on the Red River and Cow Creek
branches of the Kentucky River, Fayette County,
Kentucky, with William Fitzhugh (ca. 1722-1798)
and Richard Graham, ca. 1790. Between 1785
and his death, Rinaldo Johnson either sold or
mortgaged the majority of his Prince George's
and Baltimore County lands in order to pay his
debts. His father purchased some of these lands
and left them in trust for Rinaldo when he died.
After filing for insolvency, his 20,000 acres of
Kentucky lands were divided and sold to pay his
creditors. WEALTH AT DEATH. DIED: on November
12, 1811, in Baltimore City. Interment was in the
family vault at "Pleasant Green," Baltimore
County, November 14, 1811. PERSONAL PROP-
ERTY: TEV, $14,047.72 current money (including
50 slaves, which were later sold by order of the
Orphans' Court to pay his debts); FB, $2,508.15.
Johnson's estate was finally accounted for ten years
after his death, his administrator probably waiting
for the outcome of several cases in Chancery Court
where Johnson was plaintiff. A Chancery decree
of 1819 awarded his estate $31,467.58, but this
decision was further appealed and the outcome

494



 

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A Biographical Dictionary of the Maryland Legislature 1635-1789 by Edward C. Papenfuse, et. al.
Volume 426, Page 494   View pdf image (33K)
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  << PREVIOUS  NEXT >>


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