Holliday
compiled and copyright by MJP Grundy, 2002
Nicotiana tabacum, from Chambers's Encyclopædia: A Dictionary of Universal Knowledge for the People
(Phila.: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1885), 9:462.
Holliday
This is not intended to be the definitive Holliday family genealogy; its purpose is to explore only those individuals from whom our particular family line descends. Bold face type indicates individuals who are ancestors of our direct, many-branched family, whether or not they are Hollidays. Their lines are posted, too, and linked to this one.
This page is still under construction, and needs help to build around the "brick walls" that seem to block me from further data about this family.
The family of Paoli Bond, who changed his name to John Robert Holliday, needs further exploration and explanation. What is the connection between him and the individuals described on this web page? Have I gotten bits of information belonging to one man confused and attached to the other? For example, who was the John Robert Holliday who was buried at the age of 55 in St. Thomas Parish on 7 July 1798?[1] Was the John Robert Holliday of this web page the father of Paoli Bond?
If any reader has corrections or additions to this particular segment of the Holliday line, I would appreciate hearing from you via e mail to
.
The sources from which this page was researched can be accessed by clicking on the bracketted blue numbers, or you may see all the citations together at the bottom of this page. The full citation will be written the first time a particular source is given. After that a shortened form will be used.
First Known Generation in Maryland
James Holliday1, appeared in the Maryland records with his marriage in 1721 and his death in 1722/3. I have been unable to discover from whence he came, or who his parents were. The record is complicated by the presence of a Col. James Holiday, longtime Treasurer of the Eastern Shore and resident at "Readborne Iron Chest", who seems to have no connection with our Holliday family.[2] If any reader can shed light on "our" James's origin and parents, I would be very grateful.
Our James Holliday married on 30 October 1721 Sarah Molton. She was born 3 May 1705, the daughter of Matthew and Ann, in St. George's Parish, Baltimore County.[3] Less than three months later their first child was born. As we have seen in our own lifetime, the incidence of pre-marital conception and the social consequences of it change over time. At this period in the eighteenth century it was not particularly unusual or considered to be a grave breach of propriety.
The Hollidays apparently attended St. George's Anglican church in Baltimore County, Maryland. The denomination changed its name to Protestant Episcopal during the American Revolution, in order to distance itself from the British.
James died a little more than two years after his wedding, on 19 January 1722/3. His death is recorded in the St. George Parish register. Sarah posted an administrative bond 2 April 1723, assisted by Matthew Molton (her father or brother) and Joseph Eng[land?], to settle her late husband's estate. If I interpret the record correctly, his estate amounted to £5.16.6 on 6 August 1723. Sarah married a second time Abraham LAKE, on 31 March 1725, and they had two daughters.[4]
Sarah married a third time, Immanuel JONES, and they had three children.
Children of James and Sarah (Molton) Holliday: (for Sarah's other children see her page)
i. Robert Holliday2, b. 6 Jan. 1721/2; d. late 1745; m. Achsah RIDGELY.
ii. James Holliday was the secondary beneficiary of his brother's estate, if Robert's widow and posthumous child died. There is a portrait of James HollydayII in the Maryland Historical Society. He was b. 1722 and d. 1786; m. Susanna (__). This James lived in Queen Anne's County and is described in the Museum's label as an English-trained lawyer who attended the Maryland convention that ratified the Constitution in 1788, which is two years after our man's reported death. My assumption is all of this is some other guy, further complicating the task of sorting out this particular Holliday family.
Second Generation in Maryland
Robert Holliday2, the son of Sarah (Molton) and her first husband, was born 6 January 1721/2, and died shortly after 2 December 1745. He was a very young boy when his father died, and his mother remarried. With her second husband, Abraham LAKE, Sarah had two daughters. She had three more children by the man who became her third husband, so apparently young Robert was sent to his Molton grandparents' home. In March 1736 his grandmother, Ann Molton, was indicted for bringing him up "in a bad manner".[5] No further details are provided in the court record.
Robert married Achsah RIDGELY, daughter of Col. Charles and Rachel (HOWARD) Ridgely. Achsah was born 22 April 1729. It is interesting that wealthy and prominent Col. Ridgely should give one of his daughters to be married to someone from such a background as Robert.
Robert was a surgeon in Maryland. Surgeons were not physicians in the eighteenth century, and medicine had not yet become a profession. However, perhaps as an indication of Robert's increasing prestige, while a deed in 1744 referred to him as a surgeon, one almost two years later identified him as a physician. Marking him as a learned man and also as one aspiring to upper class culture, Robert's library contained twenty-four books, one of the twenty-five largest collections in the colony in the period from 1700 to 1776. It included history, a Bible and prayer book, a Latin testament, twelve volumes of Steele including The Tattler and The Spectator, but no medical books.[6]
As usual, we can find traces of Robert's dealings in the real estate records. On 12 January 1744 John BOWEN (Bowers?) conveyed to Robert Holliday, surgeon, 100 acre "Goshan". On 1 June 1745 he acquired 140 acre "Spring Garden" from John WOOD. On 11 September 1745 Charles CARROLL of Annapolis conveyed to Robert Holliday, physician, lots 2, 3, and 4 in Baltimore Town.[7]
Robert signed his will on 2 December 1745 in the presence of Lyde GOODWYN, his wife's brother-in-law, and two other men. It was probated 2 October 1747. In it he bequeathed all "sums and sums of money Book Accounts, notes of hand and bonds, lands, tenements, goods, chattels, and estate whatsoever" that he owned at the time of his death to his "loving wife Achsah Holliday" for her life. The real estate included two lots in Baltimore Town, number two and three, and a plantation called "Goshen Resurveyed" along with its "Stock and Servants", provided that "Goshen Resurveyed" be given to the child, be it son or daughter, born to his wife when he or she came of age, along with one lot, number four, in Baltimore Town. If the child died without heirs, then when Achsah died, everything was to go to James Holliday, his "dearly beloved Brother". His father-in-law, Capt. Charles Ridgely, was named sole executor. That all seems quite straightforward, except that there is a note on the will dated 2 October 1747 that although all three witnesses swore to the will, "Achsah Holliday, the widow declars she will not abide by it." I do not know what her objection was, or what happened. The estate was finally administered in 1756 by Col. Charles Ridgely, her father.[8]
Achsah married secondly John CARNAN, by whom she had three or four children. She married thirdly Daniel CHAMIER. Achsah died 12 March 1785.[9] In her will, dated 18 June 1785, Achsah left "all those lands lying in Baltimore County, called New Hibernia, and the resurvey thereon, called Jotham, devised to me by my husband Daniel" to her son John Robert Holliday. Her daughter Prudence GOUGH was left Achsah's gold watch, chains and seals, four silver goblets, and £500. Her daughter Elizabeth ONION got £1,000, "part of which is to build and furnish a dwelling house". Her son Charles Ridgeley CARNAN received "the house and lot in Baltimore Town with all the buildings thereon, subject to the payment of £500 to my grandson, Daniel Chamier Holliday" when he turned 21. The three younger children were to divide one ninth of her "land and stock of the Northampton Company" (an iron furnace venture). Significant monetary bequests were made to other grandchildren: John Holliday, Sophia Gough, Achsah Chamier Holliday, Sarah Brook Holliday, Christiana Sim Holliday, and Elianer [sic] Addison Holliday. Smaller amounts were left to niece Pleasance COLEMAN, and to Frances ASBURY (the Methodist preacher), William GILL, John FANNING, Michael ELLIS, John KENNEDY, and Nicholas DORSEY. There was additional property she carefully apportioned among her children and a few other heirs: her husband's estate in Great Britain, a tract of 350 acres called "Contentment" in Ann Arundel County, and "all the rest of my estate in America". A codicil 8 August gave her horses and carriage and household furniture at Perry Hall to her "daughter Gough" and three men. Mourning suits were to be given to Pleasance COLEMAN, Hannah FEW, Elizabeth REFFEW, and Mary REFFEW. The will was proved 19 December 1785. The executors were her sons John R. Holliday and Charles R. CARNAN, and her son-in-law Harry Dorsey GOUGH. On 12 October 1786, "the executors appointed in the will being absent from the State, the Court at New York appointed Richard Dallon to administer the estate."[10]
Posthumous child of Robert and his wife Achsah (Ridgely) Holliday:
i. John Robert Holliday3, b. 1745/6; d. 1800; m. Eleanor Addison Smith.Children of John and Achsah (Ridgely) Holliday Carnan:
2. Prudence Carnan, m. 2 May 1771 Henry "Harry" Dorsey GOUGH (ca. 1745-1727/8). They had 13 children, including a daughter Sophia Gough, who was bequeathed £500 by her grandmother Achsah (Ridgely) Holliday Carnan when Sophia came of age.
3. Charles Ridgely Carnan, aka Charles Carnan Ridgely, b. 1760; d. 1829; m. 1782 Priscilla DORSEY (1762-1814), youngest daughter of Caleb and Priscilla (HILL). Uncle Capt. Charles Ridgely, having no children, bequeathed "Hampton" to Charles Ridgely Carnan if he changed his name to Charles Carnan Ridgely, which he apparently did. Thirteen children.
4. Elizabeth Carnan, m. Thomas Bond ONION.
5. Rebecca Carnan; presumably d.y.[11]
Third Generation in Maryland
John Robert Holliday3, posthumous son of Robert Holliday, was born in early 1746 in Baltimore County, Maryland, and died in 1800. He is presumably the John Robert Holliday for whom 400 acre "Goshen" was surveyed in Baltimore County on 5 September 1747, as part of the settlement of his father's estate.[12] In 1750 Robert's heirs owned the 400 acre "Goshen Resurveyed" and three lots in Baltimore Town.[13]
John Robert married about 1770 (?) Eleanor Addison SMITH, daughter of Walter and Christian (SIM) Lee Smith. Eleanor was born in 1752, and died 8 July 1798. They were members of St. James Protestant Episcopal Church in Baltimore, and four of their daughters' births and one daughter's marriage were recorded there.[14]
John was High Sheriff of Baltimore County in 1770, at the age of 26. Alternatively, he served in 1773-74.[15]
John Robert Holliday served as Quarter-master of Gun Powder Upper Battalion, Baltimore County in the Revolution. He was commissioned 10m/12/1776. [Information is from the application of Charles Barrett Carroll for admission to the National Society, Sons of the American Revolution, District of Columbia Society, examined and approved June 17, 1948. Facsimile application on ancestry library, accessed 4m/2/2013.]
In 1760 the larger North Hampton holding of the Ridgely family was divided to separate off a portion called "Epsom" for Achsah. It is now the Goucher College campus. John Robert owned "Epsom" from 1772, and no doubt built the mansion which at one time was 90 feet long. The earlier section had been built before the 1770s, and was in the general vicinity of the Goucher College library. That the family was wealthy is indicated by a reference in the newspaper. On Monday, 19 March 1790 "the seat of John Robert Holliday" was the scene of a marriage between Robert TURNBULL of Petersburg, Virginia and Mrs. Sarah BUCHANAN.[16]
The census schedules for Baltimore County outside of the City for 1800 are lost. Surprisingly John Holliday does not seem to be in the 1790 census, although there were men of that name in Anne Arundel, Cecil, and Frederick Counties.
John R. Holliday did appear in the 1798 tax list of Back River Upper Hundred, which specified his holdings. There were 29 enslaved people and three different tracts. "Goshen Resurveyed" contained 470 acres and five buildings: a log dwelling house, 12 by 12 feet; two "log Negro houses", each 16 by 24 feet; a log hen house, 12 by 12 feet; and a log barn, 20 by 30 feet. "Northampton" was also 470 acres, with five buildings: two log stables, each 16 by 24 feet; another log stable, 16 by 16 feet; a frame barn, 16 by 20 feet; and a log still house, 16 by 24 feet. John also owned part of "Ford's Choice", with 101 acres and eleven buildings. It sounds like this was where John and his family resided. The main building was a two-story stone house, 24 by 53 feet with a separate, two-story stone kitchen, 24 by 40 feet. The other buildings were presumably slave quarters: a stone house, 16 by 16 feet, a log house, with the same dimensions, and two old log and frame houses measuring 16 by 20 feet each. Rounding out the plantation was a frame meat house, 16 by 16, and two log hen houses, each 12 feet square.[17]
John Robert apparently speculating in land, as many others were doing after the Revolutionary War had ended. On 15 December 1789 he sold 41.5 acres, part of a tract called "Gotham", for £150 in specie. "Gotham" was in the Bachman Valley, in what was then Baltimore County, although later the County boundary moved east and a new county, Frederick, was carved out. The Revolutionary War with its terrific inflation of "continental" paper currency had only ended six years earlier, so the terms specified hard money, specie, and denominated in solid British pounds. However, the buyer, Christopher Knippel, didn't have that kind of cash on hand, so he bound himself to make four payments, and agreed that John R. should hold the deed until all the money had been paid. Eleven years passed and John Robert died. Twenty-two more years went by, and Christopher still owed $30. In the spring of 1822 Christopher needed to borrow $200, and he put up the 41.5 acres of "Gotham" along with several other parcels of land as collateral. But George Reinhard, the lender, insisted on having a clear deed to the "Gotham" tract. So it is possible that Christopher paid the remaining $30 out of his newly borrowed $500. In any event, the court paper work listed all the heirs of John Robert, and a note from executor Daniel C. Holliday, with an additional note to Mr. R. B. Taney, that Daniel had directed Christopher and a second man, Christopher Ross, to call on Taney to get their titles from the county court. assuring him that the heirs all agreed to this arrangement. Presumably this is Roger B. Taney, later the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court who wrote the infamous Dred Scot decision and other cases (Prigg v. Pennsylvania and Moore v. Illinois) buttressing slavery. It is possible that the $30 had to be split among all the heirs, and this is why their names were included, but this is not clear to me. Christopher didn't actually finish his payment to George Reinhard until 1845.[18]
In his will dated 22 June 1800, John listed five daughters under the age of 21, to whom he gave his houses and lots in Baltimore City, and a bed for each to be chosen by Mrs. GOUGH, John R.'s half-sister Prudence). Eldest son John Robert Jr. was to be given "Epsom" and "Ford's Place" after he paid $3,000 for the use of his brother Harry G. to be educated at Carlisle, Penna. [Dickinson College?] If John Robert Jr. did not pay the $3,000 to Harry, then only half of "Epsom" and the buildings would be his, while the other half plus all of "Ford's Place" were to go to Harry. The third son, Daniel C. was to pay Paoli Bond $100 and receive "my plantation near Rister's Town". His "black hipshothen mare" was bequeathed to Catherine BOWEN. James DALL and his three children were given a mourning ring. Various enslaved Negroes were given to the children as well. Executors were his brother-in-law General Charles RIDGELY and friend James CARROLL.[19] Papers relating to John Robert Holliday's estate, 1800, are now archived with the papers of James Carroll in Box 9 of the Carroll-Maccubbin Papers, 1644-1888, in the Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore. I have not seen them. Whatever James Carroll's role in settling the estate was, he and General Charles RIDGELY both refused the executorship. In 1804 the task fell to the second son, Daniel C. Holliday.
There are some interesting unresolved issues arising from the settlement of John Robert's estate. "Epsom" was supposed to go to the eldest son, or to be split between him and the youngest son. The latter, Harry, died in 1801. Documents filed in the court, in October 1817, listed all the heirs and noted that "Hollidays & Lewis reside out of the Estate".[20] I take this to mean that the two surviving sons and the daughter married to Samuel Lewis, lived somewhere else, while the four remaining married daughters and their husbands and families lived at Epsom. However, this doesn't seem quite right, because two years later, Charles Carnan Ridgely, Jr. owned "Epsom" at the time of his death in 1819, when it passed to his sister Harriet, the wife of Henry Banning CHEW. The Chew family lived there until the house burned down in 1894. In 1921 Goucher College purchased 421 acres of the Epsom estate, but waited for twenty years before building on it. Students discovered on the campus a small spring house, which has been restored, the retaining wall of a lime kiln, and the foundation of a barn matching the dimensions of the 1798 Tax Assessment.[21]
Children of John Robert and his wife Eleanor Addison (Smith) Holliday:[22]
i. John Robert Holliday, b. ca. 1771?; d.y.
ii. Sarah Brook Holliday, b. 1772; d. before 1803; mar. 20 Nov. 1794 in St. John's Parish, Baltimore Co., James DALL, as his second wife. After Sarah's death, he m(3) 17 Feb. 1803 Sarah's cousin, the widow Eleanor (Ridgely) Laming. James d. Sept. 1808. He was born in Boston Mass. moved to New York City then arrived in the City of Baltimore in 1781 where he amassed a fortune. Sarah appeared in her grandmother Achsah (Ridgely)'s will and inherited £200; Sarah was mentioned as the mother of 3 children in the 1822 list of her father's heirs. But she was not included in her father's will of 1800. Had children:[23]a) Eliza Bradford Dall, twin, b. 5 Nov. 1795; m. Dr. Allen THOMAS of "Dalton", Howard Co., Md.;iii. Achsah Chamier Holliday, b. 1777; m. 5 Nov. 1795 in Garrison Forest, Baltimore Co., Thomas Johnson BEATTY; in 1785 her grandmother Achsah (Ridgely) Holliday Carnan Chamier bequeathed her £500 and a diamond ring when she came of age. As I have found no further mention of her, I assume she died relatively young, unmarried or without surviving issue, before her father wrote his will in 1800. On the other hand, she may be the mother of Paoli BOND and d. at or soon after his birth. Paoli was raised by Richard Bond, but later changed his name to Paoli Holliday. Any reader with information that might aid in solving this mystery is invited to e mail me.
b) Eleanor Addison Dall, twin, b. 5 Nov. 1795; m. George COOK of "Hazelwood", Howard Co., Md.;
c) William Henry Dall b. 23 March 1797; d. young.
d) John Robert Dall, b. 1 Nov. 1798; d. 5 May 1851; m. Meliora Ogle BUCHANAN 23 Feb. 1819. They lived at "Dalton", Washington Co., Md. John was described as 19 years old in 1822 when listed as one of John Robert Holliday's heirs.
iv. John Robert Holliday4, b. 12 April 1779; m. 17 Feb. 1802 Mary Burrows STONE; d. 21 Aug. 1826 in Louisiana.
v. Eleanor Addison Holliday, b. 1780 in Baltimore Co.; d. 25 Sept. 1834 in Baker's Creek Plan, Hinds Co., Miss.; m. 27 May 1802 in St. James Protestant Episcopal Parish, Balt., John YEISER; he d. 16 Sept. 1826 in Brazos River, Texas. She inherited £200 from her grandmother Achsah (Ridgely). They had children:[23a]a) Eleanor Addison Yeiser, b. 15 May 1803 in Balt. Co.; d. 9 May 1870in Carroll Parish, La.; m(1) 23 Feb. 1836 Maj. Samuel NEILL; m(2) Samule William MONKS; had at least one child with each husband.vi. Daniel Chamier Holliday, b. ca. 1781; d. 24 Mar. 1819 in Richland, Miss. Not in the 1810 Mississippi census, or at least not as a head of household. He inherited £500 from his grandmother Achsah (Ridgely), to be paid to him when he came of age by his uncle Charles Ridgely CARNAN. If Daniel died before he was of age and without issue, then the money was to go to his brother John.
b) Henry G. Yeiser, b. 15 June 1804 in Baltimore Co.; d. 10 Sept. 1829 in New Orleans.
c) John R. Yeiser, twin, b. 15 June 1804 in Baltimore; d. 16 Aug. 1823 in New Orleans.
d) Daniel Holliday Yeiser, b. 15 Sept. 1806 in Baltimore; d. in 1854; bur. in Brazoria, Texas; m. Charlotte Walcott 18 May 1837; she was a temperance advocate; 3 children.
e) Frederick W. Yeiser, b. 4 July 1808 in Baltimore; d. 20 Apr 1834. f) Archibald Lee Yeiser, b. 6 May 1810; d. 17 Oct. 1872; m. 17 July 1835 Eliza Jane McRAVEN; 5 children.
g) George Washington Yeiser, b. 23 Dec 1812; m. Sarah M. OLIPHANT; in 1850 census in Sabine, Texas.
h) Prudence Gough Yeiser, b. 10 Mar. 1816; d. 16 June 1893; m. 2 Sept. 1832 Walter STROTHER, and had a daughter; m(2) Jesse M. WEEKS, and had a son.
i) Charles Ridgley Yeiser, twin, b. 10 Mar 1816; d. 4 July 1844; m. Jane McRAVEN; had 1 daughter.
j) Mary Lee Yeiser, b. 16 June 1818; m. 23 Oct. 1833 Thompson STROTHER.
k) Christiana C. Yeiser. b. 23 Apr. 1824; d. in 1833 in Baker's Creek Plan, Hinds Co., Miss.
l) Eliza Lewis Yeiser, twin, b. 23 Apr. 1824.
vii. Christiana Sim Holliday, b. Feb. 1781; d. 5m/2/1823; m. 3m/4 or 9/1802 in Baltimore Christopher CARNAN. He was b. 7m/19/1780, and perhaps was related to her grandmother's second husband. Christiana inherited £200 from her grandmother Achsah (Ridgely). [Her dates are from the application of Charles Barrett Carroll for the National Society, Sons of the Am. Rev., District of Columbia Society, examined and approved June 17, 1948. Facsimile application on ancestry library, accessed 4m/2/2013. Children's names from www.MidMdRoots.com]a) Charles Carnanviii. Prudence Gough Holliday, b. 1 Aug. 1785 in St. James Protestant Episcopal Parish, Balt.; m. 20 or 27 Sept. 1802 James CHALMERS.
b) Eleanor Carnan
c) Robert Carnan
d) John R. Carnan
e) Catherine Carnan
f) Sarah G. Carnan
g) Christopher R. Carnan
h) Daniel H. Carnan
i) Prudence G. Carnan
ix. Elizabeth Carnan Holliday, b. 22 Dec. 1786 and registered in St. James Protestant Episcopal Parish, Balt.; m. 10 Dec. 1808 in Baltimore Samuel W. LEWIS; [Children's names from www.MidMdRoots.com]a) John R. Lewisx. Mary Lee Holliday, b. 15 Aug. 1788 and registered in St. James Protestant Episcopal Parish, Balt.; d. 8 July 1845; m. 2 Oct. 1809 William LEE. [Children's names from www.MidMdRoots.com]
b) Daniel S. Lewis
c) Eleanor A. Lewis
d) Charles R. Lewis
e) Mary Lewisa) Mary D. Leexi. Rebecca Ridgely Holliday, b. 1790 and registered in St. James Protestant Episcopal Parish, Balt.; d. before 1800.
b) Eliza H. Lee
c) Eleanor A. Lee
d) Mary G. Lee
e) Thomas S. Lee
xii. Henry Gough Holliday, "Harry", b. 15 July 1791; d. 31 Oct. 1801.
Fourth Generation
John Robert Holliday4, born 12 April 1779 in Baltimore County, Maryland, was the eldest surviving son of John Robert Holliday and his wife Eleanor Addison (Smith). He died 21 August 1826 at "Belle Grove" in Louisiana. On 18 February 1802 he married Mary Burrows Stone, second daughter of William and Hannah (Owings) Cockey Stone. Mary was born 23 November 1780 in Baltimore County, and died 23 September 1818 in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana.
It is somewhat curious that John Robert was not included in his grandmother Achsah (Ridgely) Holliday's 1785 will when all his siblings who had been born before Achsah's death were included with quite handsome bequests.
Apparently there was some difficulty with John Robert's execution of his father's will. The youngest son, Harry, died intestate in 1801, so his father's estate should have been divided into seven parts. A Chancery Paper in 1804 stated that the deceased's brother-in-law General Charles RIDGELY and friend James CARROLL refused the executorship, so administration was granted to the second son, Daniel C. Holliday. John R. Jr. did not pay the estate's debts nor provide for his brothers and sisters as the will directed. However, his older sisters Christiana and Eleanor resided with him at "Epsom Dorons" [sic], presumably at his expense, from their father's death until their marriages, and Eleanor and her husband John YEISER stayed on for six months after their marriage. Elizabeth, Mary, and Harry also stayed. The other page of the administration summary is missing. One implication is that there wasn't enough money to cover all the bequests. This would not have been uncommon with the financial arrangements of the time. Planters essentially lived on credit from one another and from their British factors until accounts could be settled once a year when the harvest was sold. Estates often did not have adequate resources to fund every bequest. The case was settled by agreement, with the three older daughters getting lots 4, 8, and 9, the two daughters who were still minors getting the other lots.[24] Whether or not John's relations with his siblings were amicable or strained is not stated.
John Robert, Jr. was living in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, at the time of the 1810 census. Presumably he was listed as one of two free white males between the ages of 26 and 45. The other could have been John's 29-year old brother Daniel C. There were also four little boys under the age of 10. Three of the young boys could be John's sons. Was the fourth one Paoli Bond? Mary was presumably the free white female between age 26 and 45. There was also a girl between 16 and 26, and one under 10, presumably his eldest daughter, Eleanor Addison Smith Holliday. There were two additional free persons (perhaps African-Americans) and seven enslaved people.[25]
John Robert went to Mississippi. He owned a house in Richland, now a suburb of Jackson, in Hinds County, Mississippi. When he removed to Louisiana is unclear. It did not belong to the United States until after President Thomas Jefferson's purchase; the territory was formally handed over to the US of A on 20 December 1803. Louisiana was not admitted to the Union until 30 April 1812. However, by the 1820s John resided at his plantation, named "Belle Grove", in Louisiana. An 1837 sketch shows the plantation house was French colonial style with a hip roof with dormers, the whole building surrounded with colonnaded porches on two floors. It had the parlor and bedrooms on the upper floor where floor-length French windows admitted breezes from the Mississippi River. The dining room was on the ground floor. The house was swept away by a flood on the Mississippi River many years ago.[26]
Mary died 23 September 1818. John married for a second time in Kenner, Louisiana, on 21 April 1821 Maria (JONES) Davis, daughter of Robert and Ann Jones, and widow of William DAVIS, Esq., late of Feliciana Parish. They had one son.
John died 21 August 1826 at "Belle Grove".
Maria outlived her second husband. After her death an inventory of the contents of the plantation house of "Belle Grove" was made by the Jefferson Parish Judge on 27 July 1842.[27] Maria's daughter by her first husband, Eliza Davis, married Minor KENNER, who in 1854 helped found the village of Kenner, upriver from New Orleans, and the site of "Belle Grove". The modern city of Kenner, site of the New Orleans international airport, is situated on what was "Belle Grove" and two other plantations. One former boundary of "Belle Grove" is now Hollandey Street, running between the River and the airport. It is probably a corruption of the family's name.[28]
Children of John Robert and his first wife Mary Burrows (Stone) Holliday:[29]
i. Eleanor Addison Smith Holliday5, b. 19 Feb. 1803; d. 22 Jan. 1835 in Baltimore Co., Md.; m. 27 June 1822 James Bonsall PRICE.
ii. William Henry Holliday, b. 7 Mar. 1805; d. 22 July 1813.
iii. John Robert Holliday, b. 10 July 1807; m. Amelia M__.; he may be the John Holliday, aged 16-26, living alone in East Baton Rouge Parish in the 1820 census.[30] Inherited from his uncle Samuel STONE Oct. 1860 $6,000, and slaves Jane aged 15 and Ned aged 7 to be held until they are 35 years old. The Civil War and 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, however, released Jane and Ned sooner than Samuel Stone had anticipated. Nevertheless, he should probably be given some credit for not bequeathing them for lifetime servitude.
iv. Daniel Chamier Holliday, b. 11 May 1810; d. 7 Apr. 1811 in Anne Arundel Co., Md.
v. William Stone Holliday, b. 27 Oct. 1817; inherited $2,000 from his uncle Samuel Stone Oct. 1860.
Child of John Robert and his second wife, Maria (Jones) Davis Holliday:
v. Daniel Chamier Holliday, b. 9 Dec. 1823;
Fifth Generation
Eleanor Addison Smith Holliday5, oldest child and only daughter of John Robert and Mary Burrows (Stone) Holliday, was born 19 February 1803, probably in Maryland, and died in 1835 in Maryland. She was married to James Bonsall Price 27 June 1822. He was the son of Benjamin PRICE and Ruth (KIRK) Price
Family tradition[31] holds that she was sent to the Friends boarding school in West Chester, Pennsylvania. The head master and mistress of Westtown from 1818 to 1830 were Philip and Rachel (Kirk) PRICE.[32] Their nephew, James Bonsall Price, finished studying medicine at the University of Pennsylvania in 1818 and opened a medical practice in West Chester. However, Westtown did not take non-Quaker students, and there is no record of Eleanor Holliday in the list of students.[33] So it must have been some other way than through Eleanor as a Westtown student that James met John Robert Holliday. However the introduction occurred, James Bonsall Price was hired to be the physician on the Holliday plantation in Louisiana. Presumably the three of them sailed to New Orleans. Or, perhaps John Robert had remained in Louisiana and James and Eleanor sailed together.
Eleanor and James married 27 June 1822 in Baltimore.[34] Eleanor was not a Friend. As James did not acknowledge that he had contravened Friends' principals, and condemned such behavior, he was not in good standing with Friends, who disowned him Ninth Month 1823.[35]
After Eleanor's father's death, she and her husband left the south and removed first to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, then to Baltimore County, Maryland. Eleanor died in Baltimore County, 22 January 1835 soon after the birth of their seventh child. James married for the second time 18 August 1840 Ann JONES. He died 19 January 1848 at his residence in Baltimore County, in his 52nd year.
Children of James Bonsall and Eleanor Addison Smith (Holliday) Price:
i. Mary Elizabeth Price6, b. 7 Apr. 1823; d. 19 Nov. 1856 in Philadelphia; m(1) 21 Oct. 1847 in Baltimore Joseph Brevitt TOWNSEND. Joseph B. Townsend was b. 13 Dec. 1821 and d. 11 Oct. 1896. Three children. After Mary Elizabeth died, Joseph m(2) Adaline Eliza Baker BARTON, daughter of John and Mary Catherine (Kreider) Barton.
ii. Charles Edward Price, b. 8 Oct. 1825; d. ca. July 1826.
iii. Clara Price, b. 1 Nov. 1827; d. in Philadelphia, Penna.; never married. Inherited $500 from her great uncle Samuel STONE, Oct. 1860.
iv. Lucius Duncan Price, twin, b. 29 Nov. 1830 in Philadelphia; d. 23 June 1904; m. 21 April 1852 Anna Maria HAINES. Three children. Inherited $1,000 from his great uncle Samuel Stone Oct. 1860.
v. Ellen Price, twin, b. 29 Nov. 1830 in Philadelphia; d. 8 Jan. 1831.
vi. Samuel Stone Price, b. 14 Feb. 1833 in Baltimore Co., Md.; d. 5 July 1899 in Phila.; m. 1855 Theresa JAMER. Inherited $1,500 from his great uncle Samuel Stone, Oct. 1860. His line descends to Charlotte (Price) Curlin of Auburn, CA.
vii. Martha Ellen Price, b. 9 Jan. 1835 in Balt. Co.; d. 13 Jan. 1835.
Child of James Bonsall and his second wife, Anne (Jones) Price:
viii. Sue Jones Price, b. 12 May 1843; d. 20 June 1868; m(1) 5 Sept. 1867 John Barton PAXTON. One child d. in infancy. He m(2) her niece, Anne Jones Price, daughter of Lucius Duncan and Anna Maria (Haines) Price. Eight children.
The Hollidays and their colonial Maryland relatives and ancestors are described in The Southern Connection: Ancestors of Eleanor Addison Smith Holliday Price. It delves into the social system, economics, religion, and politics that developed in colonial Maryland. The white elite considered themselves the pinnacle of civilization, and their wealth and power were dependent upon a horrifically brutal racist enslavement system. This hardback print-on-demand book provides the context for Eleanor's colonial Maryland plantation elite ancestors. The book is available at lulu.com. The price is the cost of printing and binding, plus shipping. I make nothing on it.
To read the very different story of James Bonsall Price's family, you may want to look at a hard copy book that explores his Quaker ancestors in Chester County, Pennsylvania. It is expanded beyond the data on these web pages with considerable historical context in The Price Family in History. The book is available through lulu.com. Click on the title, then on "preview" to see the table of contents and a few sample pages.
There are some other colonial Maryland families that link one way or another with these Hollidays: Addison, Bale, Brooke, Browne, Dent, Dorsey, Ely, Hall, Hatton, Howard, Isaac, Molton, Norwood, Owings, Price, Randall, Ridgely, Sim, Smith, Stone, Tasker, Warfield, and Wilkinson. All of them are included in The Southern Connection.
Go to the index of Collateral Lines to see other lines included in this website. Not all of them are posted, and they do not connect directly to any of the above colonial Maryland families.
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This page was posted on 1/28/2004, and updated 8m/23/2014.
If you have corrections or additions, please send an e mail to
Citations and Notes
1. Elise Greenup Jourdan, Early Families in Southern Maryland, 7:253.
2. Paul Wilstach, Tidewater Maryland (New York: Tudor Publishing Co., 1945), 131. The Hollyday Papers, 1677-1905, MS. 1317 are at the Maryland historical Society. A catalogue is on the web at http://www.mdhs.org/findingaid/hollyday-papers-1677-1905-ms-1317, accessed 3/26/2012.
3. Robert Barnes, comp., Maryland Marriages, 1634-1777 (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 1976), 88.
4. Robert W. Barnes, Baltimore County Families, 1659-1759 (Balt.: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 1989), p. 333, which cites these sources: Balt. Co. Admin. Acc. HR Liber 3:13; Balt. Co. Admin. Bonds HR Liber 3:243; Register of St. George's Protestant Episcopal church, p. 40, 41.
5. Barnes, Balt. Co. Families, 453, citing Balt. Co. Court Proceedings, Lib. 1A, fol. 1.
6. Barnes, Balt. Co. Families, 333, cites Joseph Towne Wheeler, "Reading Interests of the Professional Classes" Md. Hist. Mag. XXXVI (1941), 299-300.
7. Robert Barnes, Baltimore County, Maryland Deed Abstracts, 1659-1750 (Westminster, Md.: Family Line Publications, 1996), 85, 194, and 230.
8. Transcript of the will from Charlotte Price Curlin. See also, Barnes, Balt. Co. Families, p. 333, cites Balt. Co. Admin. Acc., Liber 5:289; Balt. Co. Admin. Bonds, Liber 3:247; Md. Will Books, HR 25:163; Robert W. Barnes, The Green Spring Valley, v. 2 Genealogies, p. 7. See also Newman, Anne Arundel Gentry, 3:100.
9. Barnes, Balt. Co. Families, p. 333.
10. "Abstracts of Wills on File in the Surrogate's Office, City of New York", from Liber 39, page 296, in Collections ofThe New-York Historical Society for the Year 1905, Vol. 38 (1906), 74-76. The images is on google.books, http://books.google.com/books?id=rlIOAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA74&lpg=PA74&dq=%22John+Robert+Holliday%22&source=web&ots=LTRGuOHVVX&sig=0OCSiWgN7eKprPodkZNor-lFGTU&hl=en#PPA74,M1, seen 4m/5/2008. I am indebted to Adean Clawson for bringing this to my attention.
11. My thanks to Charlotte Curlin, April 2008, for this daughter.
12. Peter Wilson Coldham, Settlers of Maryland, 5 vols. (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 1995-96) vol. 3: 1731-1750; 3:113.
13. Barnes, Balt. Co. Families, p. 333, cites Balt. Co. Debt book for 1750, mms in Calvert Papers, MHS, p. 73.
15. Elise Greenup Jourdan, Early Families in Southern Maryland, 7:253.
16. Newspaper Gleanings 1786-1790 (WRHS). BMJ.
17. George J. Horvath, Jr., The Particular Assessment Lists for Baltimore and Carroll Counties, 1798 (Westminster, Md.: Family Line Publications, 1986), 36.
18. I am indebted to Adrean Clawson for not only sending me images of the court documents, but helping me interpret them correctly. E mails 3/ and 4/2008.
19. Will, shortened and edited by Dr. Carson Gibbs, Annapolis, MD, 1989, from Charlotte Price Curlin. The mare presumably had a dislocated hip, or one hip lower than the other. The significance of this bequest eludes but intrigues me.
20. Frederick County, Maryland, Land Records JS, page 491-2. My thanks to Adrean Clawson for these images, e mail 3/31/2008.
21. "Goucher Library News", Vol. 26 (May 1981) at http://meyerhoff.goucher.edu/library/Friends/v26/v26.htm, seen 3/31/2008.
22. Information from Charlotte Price Curlin, IGI, and John Robert Holliday's will. Some of the daughter's marriage dates from "Maryland, Marriages, 1666-1970" on FamilySearch, accessed 4/19/2013.
23. My thanks for the information on the children from Adrean Clawson, e mail 3/27/2009.
23a. For Eleanor and her family, see www.tmason1.com/pafg380.htm#7237, accessed 1/23/2014. It has sources noted.
24. First page of a typescript copy of Chancery Paper 1120 (1804), from CPC.
25. U.S. Census, Anne Arundell Co., p. 457, microfilm roll 14. WRHS.
26. Transit Riders' Digest, vol. XXVII, no. 18 (Apr. 23, 1979) published by New Orleans Public Service, Inc. For an interesting view of the Louisiana Purchase and the choices that resulted in the extension of an exploitative plantation system of cotton, sugar cane, and slavery rather than independent, relatively equal and free "yeomen farmers", see Roger G. Kennedy, Mr. Jefferson's Lost Cause: Land, Farmers, Slavery, and the Louisiana Purchase (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003).
27. An account of the inventory, but not a complete listing, is in Transit Riders' Digest, vol. XXVII, no. 18 (Apr. 23, 1979).
28. Transit Riders' Digest, vol. XXVII, no. 18 (Apr. 23, 1979).
29. From the family Bible of James Bonsall Price and Eleanor Addison Smith Holliday, courtesy Charlotte Price Curlin.
30. "The Family Bible of James Bonsall Price and Eleanor Addison Smith Holliday", 43. Xerox copy from Charlotte Price Curlin.
31. Recounted by Franklin D. Edmunds in his The Paxton, Welsh & Price Ancestry of Anne Price Paxton Edmunds Paxson (bound typescript, 1942), 120.
32. History of Westtown, 94-101.
33. A Brief History of Westtown Boarding School with a General Catalogue of officers, Students, Etc. 2nd. ed. (Phila.: Printed by Sherman & Co., 1873).
34. "The Family Bible of James Bonsall Price and Eleanor Addison Smith Holliday" (Philadelphia, M. Cary, 1816), 43. (photocopy from Charlotte Price Curlin).
If you have any corrections or additions to this particular segment of the Holliday line, I would appreciate hearing from you via e mail to
the noxious weed:
a source of wealth for this family
and justification for the "necessity" to enslave fellow human beings
