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From: "Linda Reno" <>
Subject: Biographical Sketches
Date: Tue, 1 Jun 2004 11:08:44 -0400


Yes folks, another project. I've been hard at work all weekend extracting data from the "Tercentenary History of Maryland" about people whose roots laid in St. Mary's County. I need you to either develop a biographical sketch for members of your families or others, using the one below as an example. There were histories printed throughout the U.S. in the 1880s and later that can be researched to see if you can find anyone from St. Mary's being mentioned. Just recently, I found one on Luke Edgar Barber who left here in 1835 and moved to Little Rock, Arkansas where he served as chief of the Supreme Court. They don't need, however, to have achieved fame and/or glory, we'd just like to know about them. These biographies will be posted as a part of a new project at Genweb.

Linda Reno

John Douglas Freeman




Colonel Freeman was born in Charles County on April 16, 1800. He was the son of James Freeman (son of Nathaniel Freeman and Eleanor Douglas) and Eleanor Douglas (daughter of John Douglas and Eleanor Howard), who were first cousins.



He was educated in Georgetown, D.C. He married Eleanor Ann Semmes, daughter of General Bennet Barton Semmes. He was elected to the Maryland Legislature and is said to have originated the law to protect the property of married women, commonly known as the "Cousin Law." In 1854, he sold his property in Charles County and moved to St. Mary's County where Colonel Freeman died on August 20, 1891 at his residence, "St. Winifred's" on St. Clement's Bay. He was an ardent southerner and had three sons in the Confederate army.



Source: Extract from Tercentenary History of Maryland, Vol. II, p. 14. S. J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1925.



NOTE: A portrait of Col. Freeman is included.



Additional information:



John Douglas Freeman and Eleanor Ann Semmes were married in Washington, D.C. on August 19, 1823.



Children (all born in Charles County): James B., 1824-1825; John Douglas, Jr., 1826-1854; George M., 1828-1849; James B., 1830-after 1850; Richard J., 1832-1850; Ann, 1834-1834; Ann Josephine, 1836-1900/1913; Lewis, 1838-after 1860; Robert Marshall, 1840-1913; Bernard, 1832-after 1925, Augusta, GA; Ernest M., 1846-after 1913, Baltimore; and William M., 1848-after 1870.



1/24/1851: Death. On Tuesday, the 21st inst., at her residence in Indian Town, near Port Tobacco, Charles County, Mrs. Jno. D. Freeman, aged 46 years, leaving an affectionate husband and seven children to mourn her loss. (Daily National Intelligencer, Marriage and Death Notices, 1854-1854, Pippenger).



Robert Marshall Freeman d. at his residence, St. Winifred's on 4/14/1913. Son of Col. John Douglas Freeman and Eleanor Ann Simms, b. at Indiantown, Charles Co. on the plantation of Col. Freeman in the year 1840. He enlisted in the beginning of the Civil War in the 21st VA Infantry. Survived by a widow, Mrs. Cecelia Harrison Freeman; one son, Robert Harrison; and one daughter, Eleanor Ann Freeman; also two brothers: Bernard and Ernest M. Freeman of Baltimore. He was a brother of the late Mrs. Josephine Plowden of this county. (The Enterprise, 4/19/1913).



Robert Marshall Freeman was a member of Mosby's Rangers during the Civil War (Chronicles of St. Mary's).



Submitted by: Linda Reno, 5/29/2004

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