Lloyd, Edward II (1671-1719), planter, merchant, and politician, was born 7 Feb 1671 at Wye House, Talbot County, Maryland, the eldest of the three sons and seven daughters of Col. Philemon Lloyd (c.1646-1685), planter, merchant, and politician, and his wife Henrietta Maria Neale Bennett (1647-1697), daughter of James Neale and his wife Ann, and widow of Richard Bennett. His father was born in Virginia but emigrated to Maryland in 1649; his mother was born in England and emigrated to Maryland in 1660.
Lloyd was well educated, but there is no evidence as to the manner of his education. His father's will, written when Lloyd was nine, included a bequest to "my children's schoolmaster." Because Lloyd's grandfather was then living in London, and because Lloyd was made his principal Maryland heir, it is possible that Lloyd was sent to England in the care of his grandfather for some of his schooling.
Upon his father's death in 1685, Lloyd inherited his "White House and Woolman Neck land" (acreage unspecified). In 1696, his grandfather, Edward Lloyd I, left him the family's Wye River residence and its associated land, as well as uncultivated land in a nearby county. Lloyd received an additional two hundred and fifty acres the following year from his mother's estate. These lands, and others Lloyd subsequently acquired on his own, he devoted to the production of tobacco, Maryland's staple crop. Like his father and grandfather before him, Lloyd exported his own and neighbors' tobacco to England and imported English goods for sale in the colony. He also traded with Barbados, where markets existed for his livestock and grains.
Lloyd was also the third generation of his family to play an extensive political role at both the county and provincial levels. He was named a justice of the Talbot County court in Oct 1694 and served on the bench until Aug 1701. By 1698 he was a colonel in the county militia, a position he held until 1707, when he was named major general of the Eastern Shore militia, an "extraordinary title" (Land, 124). In Mar 1698 Talbot voters elected Lloyd to the General Assembly's lower house, where he served until 1701, when he received an appointment to the governor's council, or upper house. Lloyd remained a member of that body until 1716.
On 1 Feb 1704 Lloyd married Sarah Covington (1683-1755), daughter of Nehemiah Covington and his wife Rebecca Denwood of Somerset County. Lloyd was raised as an Anglican, although his mother was a devout Roman Catholic; his wife was a Quaker but their children were also raised as Anglicans. Lloyd and his wife had five sons and one daughter, all but one of whom survived their father.
When Governor John Seymour died in 1709, Lloyd, as president of the council, served as acting governor until the arrival of the new governor, John Hart, in 1714. Lloyd is credited with making a strong, albeit often unsuccessful, effort during his tenure to defend the royal prerogative against determined local interests which found their voice in the lower house. Lloyd and the council attempted to maintain Seymour's policies, but the lower house eventually prevailed on issues such as judicial procedures and regulation of the tobacco trade, the latter in particular a matter of great importance to the colony's planters. The lower house accused Lloyd in 1716 of having taken a double salary as both councillor and acting governor but dropped the charge after his death in deference to his widow. Despite the accusation against Lloyd, the Lord Proprietor directed in a Mar 1719 letter to Governor Hart that if Hart were absent from the province or died, Lloyd was to be the keeper of Maryland's great seal and was to administer the government. Perhaps Lord Baltimore hoped that Lloyd would defend his prerogative as diligently as he had defended the queen's.
Lloyd died on 20 Mar 1719 and was buried in the family burial ground at Wye House, Talbot County. He left an estate of at least seven thousand acres of land in four Maryland counties and personal property valued at 8,846.7.7 current money of Maryland and 108,283 pounds of tobacco. The personalty included seventeen indentured servants, thirty slaves, two vessels, and 1,765 in credits on accounts with London merchants. Lloyd had inherited extensive lands, substantial wealth, and social and political prominence from his grandfather and father and greatly augmented all of those inheritances before passing them on to the next generation.
Jean B. Russo
SUBJECT'S NAME:
Lloyd, Edward II
MATERIAL USED IN THE PREPARATION OF THE ARTICLE:
1* Edward C. Papenfuse, Alan F. Day, David W. Jordan, and Gregory A. Stiverson, eds., A biographical dictionary of the Maryland legislature, 1635-1789, vol. 2, I-Z (1985), 534
2* Christopher Johnston, 'Lloyd Family,' Maryland Historical Magazine, 7 (1912), 420-30
3* Aubrey C. Land, Colonial Maryland - a history (1981), 111-4, 124
4 Oswald Tilghman, 'The Lloyds of Wye,' History of Talbot County, Maryland, 1661-1861, vol. 1 (1915), 132-228
5 J. D. Warfield, The founders of Anne Arundel and Howard
counties, Maryland (1905, 1973), 8-10, 20-1, 26-9
ARCHIVAL DEPOSITS:
Lloyd Papers, MS.2001, Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore, MD (Limited
material for this subject; primarily land records)
WEALTH AT DEATH:
ca. 7000 acres of land; 8,269.16.3 current money (net) and 79,281 pounds of tobacco (net) (includes 17 servants, 30 slaves, brigantine, sloop, 1,765.15.4 in hands of London merchants, and 33,465 pounds of tobacco produced on 5 plantations in 1719)
Source of data: Biographical Dictionary, 2:535; from inventory
of 1719 and analysis of patents, purchases, and sales of land (inventory
does not include real property).
TITLES:
by 1698-1707 Colonel
1707-1719 Major General
BIRTH AND BAPTISM:
Sex: Male
Birth: 7 February 1671 Talbot County, Maryland
Source: Biographical Dictionary, 2:534; Johnston, 424-5, Tilghman, 1:160
Date from inscription on burial monument (7 February 1670 O.S.). Sources give 1670 as birth date but this must be O.S.
Baptism: unknown
FATHER:
Main name: Lloyd Philemon
Titles: Colonel
Birth date: c.1646 Death date 22 June 1685
Occupation: planter, merchant, politician
MOTHER:
Maiden name: Neale, Henrietta Maria
Alternative names: Bennett, Henrietta Maria, widow of Richard Bennett
Birth date: 1647 Death date: 1697
Source of parents' data: Biographical Dictionary, 2:534
Biographical Dictionary gives father's year of birth as 1646, but relies
on burial monument inscription that Lloyd died in his 38th year;
birth date could thus be either 1645 or 1646 depending on month of birth.
EDUCATION:
educated, but manner unknown
Source of data and comments:
Biographical Dictionary, 2:534, states that Lloyd was "well-educated,
probably in England"--but this is a logical assumption as no documentation
exists to support the contention.
RELIGION:
1671-1719 Anglican
(Mother a Roman Catholic and wife a Quaker)
Source: Biographical Dictionary, 2:534
FIRST/ONLY SPOUSE OR PARTNER:
Main name: Covington, Sarah
Birth date: 1683 Death date: 4 April 1755
Relationship: Married
Date started: 1 Feb 1704 Ended: 20 Mar 1719 by death
Source: Biographical Dictionary, 2:534; Johnston, 425
Date of marriage given by Johnston as 2/1703 with no indication if O.S.
or N.S.; have assumed O.S., as birth date is O.S.
RESIDENCE:
Date, Address:
1671-1719 Wye House, Talbot County, Maryland
Source: Biographical Dictionary, 2:534
Lloyd may have resided in England if he had been sent there for schooling,
but dates for such residence are unknown.
GEOGRAPHICAL/ETHNIC ASSOCIATIONS:
By descent: Wales, if family tradition is accurate
By association: Talbot County, Maryland
DEATH AND BURIAL:
Death: 20 Mar 1719 Wye House, Talbot County, Maryland
Cause of death: unknown
Burial: date unknown, family cemetery, Wye House, Talbot County
Source of data: Johnston, 424; Tilghman, 1:160