MDSTMARY-L Archives

From: Pat Doster <>
Subject: [MDSTMARY-L] John Shercliffe
Date: Mon, 11 Nov 2002 10:19:35 -0500
References: <BBEAIHLAOKHBEHFGJLJHIEEGCGAA.lreno@erols.com><000b01c28789$95fdc220$3d7c0ad0@default><5.1.0.14.2.20021110190450.00b2fe20@girltech.cs.rice.edu>

Marcella: It's been a few years since I sat in local library and read vols. of "Maryland Archives;" but, my memory is my anc, Thomas Spalding, acted as "over-seer" for John Shercliffe. The Spaldings had been connected to Crowland Abby in East Anglia for centuries, and I'm fairly sure were literate when others weren't.

If a man were illiterate when he first came to colony, why couldn't he have become literate after he was here for awhile, taught by a priest, his wife, his "factor," lots of possibilites. Thomas Spalding was "nephew" of Jno. Shercliffe. The last Spalding in England lived in Wissett, Suffolk. Mrs. Lally said Jno. Shercliffe may have been the youngest of 4 sons of the Shercliffe family of Whitly Hall, Ecclesfield, Yorkshire. I don't know how much truth might be in that statement, but Whitly Hall sounds gentry class, so sons would be literate, right?

Signing a document with letter "S" didn't mean the person was illiterate, it meant he used a wax seal and stamped it with a signet ring. I first saw this on a Maddox will - and the wax seal was still in place! Other folks on this board have probably had the same experience.

Re John Shercliffe:
Find Mrs. Spalding Lally, Balto, Md., family history. She said he first came to Va. 1638 on ship "Unity" from Isle of Wight transported by Mrs. Mary Throughton. I find her name on a very early map of SMCity. Mrs. Mary Throughton, widow, immigrated to SMCo in 1638 at same time John Shercliffe was transported. (Early Fam. of S. Md, Vol 3:232).

Further, I have never let the transportation dates bother me because I realize that years *after the person came into the Province, someone claimed headrights for them. Keeping track of when the actual date of the ancestral entry into Md. is difficult because Skordas' dates from Land Office records may not reveal what actually happened. Let's face it, you are not going to get an exact date if several people claimed headrights using different dates.

John Shercliffe producing a suit of clothes?
Maybe he had an indentured servant who was a tailor, and charged for his services.
I've never read that Shercliffe had sewing skills, but then need meets must, right?
No skill could be overlooked in the beginning, if you needed something you made it, right?
With forests of good oak and walnut, the settlers imported furniture from England?
Why? Because of taxes on about everything used on the farms.

Poor land management? Hey, price of tobacco went up and down. Tobacco economy was in a depression late 1600. Ever read "Tobacco Coast? Lots of men didn't recover. If you couldn't get money for your crop, what could you do? What Geo. Washsington did, borrow from your English factor.
Crowberry, I think the name was in Md. Borrow and wait for price to go up.

I teach my genealogy students to never make assumptions about their ancestors, especially the 17th C. progenitors who didn't have much to start with. Just paying rent to the Calverts must have been stretched the family budget to its limits. If the Washingtons and Jeffersons could go temporarily bankrupt, why couldn't the Spaldings and Shercliffe. <g> I'm sure they could and did!

Pat Doster in N.C.

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