Working on Wednesday: William Richardson (? - 1697) Planter & Quaker Minister

My most recent research has brought me very far up the family tree to William Richardson, my maternal eighth great grandfather.

[Extract from "Descendants of Richard & Elizabeth (Ewen) Talbott of Popular Knowle, West River, Anne Arundel County, Maryland."

Ida M. Shirk, author; Genealogical Publishing Com, 2009.]

 I wasn't able to find a creditable birth date for William but he has to have been at least 5 years younger than his bride, Elizabeth Ewen Talbott who already had four children by her first husband. She and William had eight children - four sons, William*, Daniel, Joseph (died as a child) another Joseph, & four daughters, Sophia Elizabeth, Sapphira, Elizabeth, and Sarah.

As you can see from the extract above, William was an ardent Quaker and monthly and weekly meeting of the Friends were held in his house in the West River.** He served as a member of the Lower House of the General Assembly of Maryland in 1678. He's described as a friend of William Penn who visited him in 1682.**
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[Maryland State Roads Commission Marker-photo found on Waymark.com]

 He died in 1697 leaving a substantial estate. I'll cover his will and probate in a future post.



*I descend from William Jr.

[Ancestry.com]

**The West River Quaker Meeting was the most important Meeting in the Chesapeake region and the site of the first gathering of all the Quakers in Maryland.
***The purpose of the conference referred to by the road marker was to set the boundary between Maryland and Pennsylvania.

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