inn. He married twice and had at least four children,
three of whom survived him at his death in 1663. All of
his children lived to be married and both sons became
landowners.³⁹

   William Browne was only ten years old when Thomas
Cornwallis brought him as a servant on the Ark. If he
was not then a Catholic, Father White probably soon
converted him. He was free by 1642, when he gave his
proxy to Cornwallis instead of attending the General
Assembly. At that time he probably was a tenant on
Cornwallis's Cross Manor. In 1651 he took up land in
partnership with one John Thimbelly. Such "mateships"
were common in early Maryland among unmarried
men, women being scarce.⁴⁰ Brown then married and he
and his wife Margaret sold his share of the land to
Thimbelly. When Thimbelly died in 1661, he willed the
land to the Brownes' daughter Mary. At William
Browne's death in 1665 he was a widower with a second
child, a son John. Because his daughter Mary owned the
land, Browne left all his livestock to his son. Both chil-
dren survived to marry and John also became a land-
owner.⁴¹

   Both Edwin and Browne at first leased land on a
manor, but in 1648, when the proprietor began to offer
former servants rights to 50 acres, they obtained their
service rights.⁴² The land was not free. In order to col-
lect on the proprietor's promise of land, former servants
had to pay fees to surveyors and the provincial secre-
tary before the transaction was complete, and pay the
proprietor a quit rent of two shillings per year. Never-
theless, they owned freehold land, which they could sell
or will to their children without manorial restrictions or
duties.