When We Were Greers, Part VIII

by Glenn N. Holliman

The Troubled Marriage of John, Sr. and Sarah Day Greer

My generation's 7th great grandfather, John Greer, Sr. was born about 1688 along the Gunpowder River in Joppa, Maryland. He married Sarah Day, b 1686 in Baltimore County, at St. John's Parish, March 4, 1704.

John Greer, Sr. inherited the 75 acres that Arthur Taylor had given James Greer and Anne Taylor, and seems to have traded this land and others, buying and selling acreage around the Joppa area, a land speculator if you will. For example, in 1718, he sold land which stood above Nicholas Day's plantation and near to an Indian cabin. An interesting tidbit of history has made it through the centuries - in 1738 John Sr. was bitten by a rattle snake above the mouth of the Long Green River.

St. John's Episcopal Parish moved several times in its history. Both John Greer, Sr. and John Greer, Jr. would be married in the parish. As Joppa Town deteriorated, Edward Day, a descendant of our Day ancestors, built a new St. John's. Ironically, another set of my 7th GGPs were married at St. John's - Samuel and Mary Harrod Stansbury on April 1, 1761. All you Stansberys, please make a mental note. We can trace the Stansbery line from Maryland to Tennessee and beyond.

He was evidently snake bit in marriage also. According to vestry books in Baltimore County, our John Greer Sr. found himself admonished for co-habitating unlawfully with one Chloe Jones. While no date is given, he claims to have married Cleo. They had four children, evidently born out of wedlock.

My generation's 7th GGM, Sarah, went to live with a son, Aquilla at the Chilimara Plantation in Maryland, and later she remarried one Obadiah Pritchett. We are not sure when Sarah died - sources differ but her name is on no legal deed releases after 1747. Greer family compilations put her death between 1742 and 1747.

John Greer, Sr. with his second family of children immigrated west and south. They were living in Onslow County, North Carolina in 1752 when John died at the age of 72. One source states there were debts and the four new, minor children, were bound out to pay off his debts after his death.

The will states he left twelve pence sterling to his six sons and three daughters. However, to John Greer, Jr. (my generation's 6 GGF), Sr. left his Negro man, Jack, and two hunting guns. John Sr. may have been a gunsmith, as he left his gun stock tools and all tools to his 'Dearly Beloved Wife Cloe Greer', who was also the executrix. This court was held at Johnston on the New River in Onslow County July 1752. This is the first time human slavery emerges in a direct ancestral will of the Greers.

(Most of the above was taken from Genealogy.com under the name of John G. Greer. Sources include land, rent and court records in Baltimore County, Maryland. The Greer family history, starting on the Gunpowder River in Maryland has been well researched. Google the names, and one can spend many hours sorting through the materials. Beware, as is normal in genealogy, not all dates and names agree.)

When We Were Greers Part VII

by Glenn N. Holliman

The Lord of Lag

My lords and ladies of the MacGregor Clan, before we begin to move forward in the American colonial period, I wanted to share some pictures I found on line of our Greer ancestry in Scotland. North of Dumfries, Scotland is a small village named Dunscore. Move east a few miles (one can do this on a Google map) and lo and behold standing next to a farm house are the remains of the manor house, a quasi-castle of the Lord of Lag, the Greer family from which James Greer, my generation's 8th GGF, immigrated in the 1670s. His father (9th GGF) was Sir James Grier, a descendant of the MacGregor clan. See October 22, 2010 posting.

The remains of Lag Tower, 1790 print. The remains of the tower and 'castle' look dramatic in this 220 year old print. Remember the facility was constructed no later than the 1400s.

Below is a decidedly unromantic picture of the remains taken from a Google street map in 2007. Note the red farm equipment in front of the castle. A barn and farm house are to the right of this photo. You can locate this yourself. Go to Google Maps and drill down to to Dunscore, Scotland, about 7 miles northeast of Dumfries. Move your little 'yellow man' a few miles east over Holm Road. Look to the right (south), and you will spot this ruin below. This was and is an isolated part of the world. Many long, cold dreary nights; perhaps that is why our ancestors perfected Scotch!

Update, a few years later, this writer visited Lag and wrote further about this ancestor.

When We Were Greers, Part VI

by Glenn N. Holliman

What do we know of our Day ancestors?

(Continuing the series of ancestral families of G.W. and Frances Wilson Osborne)

Sarah Day, my generation's 7th Great Grand Mother (7th GGM), was born 1686 in Baltimore, Maryland and died March 1758 in same county. She married John Greer, Sr. (7th GGF) March 4, 1704 in Joppa, Maryland at St. John's Episcopal parish. Her father was Nicholas Day (8th GGF), 1635 abt in Wales, England - 1704 in Baltimore, and mother Sarah Lowe (8th GGM). The couple married in 1684 in Baltimore Co., Maryland. Sarah was the daughter of William Lowe. This trail through the woods at Joppa, Maryland leads down to the Gunpowder River. Imagine if you can, wharfs, dray men, live stock and thousands of hogsheads of tobacco being loaded in ocean going cargo ships. Now a grown up river side with only a few monuments to mark the ghost town. Photos October 2010 by the author.

Nicholas Day's father was named also Nicholas Day (9th GGF) and mother was Sarah Cox (9th GGM). The birthplaces of these 9th GGParents are unknown but they married in Maryland.

These ancestors were farmers raising tobacco, and most likely corn and livestock. Their lives centered about the Gunpowder River and the town of Joppa.

In this photo below one observes the silted Gunpowder River. On this site in the first half of the 1700s were wharfs, perhaps as many as a hundred lining the river. This particular location is located precisely in the center of the western edge of Old Joppa. It is difficult to envision what was once here - one of the premier ports of the Western Hemisphere in its day. This is an Eastern ghost town!