Bramel DNA: Our Link to Medieval Times

Research of the Bramel ancestral lineage had hit a brick wall. The paper trail ended, and it seemed is if we would never find our link back to the motherland. But as new technology emerges, so do new clues.

Over the past decade, the popularity of DNA testing among curious genealogy enthusiasts has exploded. The most popular test, sometimes called "family finder," reliably identifies matches as distant as fourth or fifth cousins along any of our ancestral branches. From there, it's not so difficult to determine the common ancestor as far back as say a great-great-great grandparent. This test also offers an estimate of our origins, which in our case confirms the strong ties back to England.

But what if we have already identified those "family finder" ancestors and want to explore even further back in time? The Bramel paternal line is certain as far back as my sixth great grandparents; they are William and Margaret Bramhall (various spellings), who settled in Charles County, Maryland in the mid to late 1700's. Their descendants settled in Kentucky and then spread out across North America. But any connection researchers have made between this William Bramhall and his forefathers remains purely speculative at this time.

Vernon Bramel ethnicity estimate

Why Ask "Y"?

I decided to invest in a different type of DNA test this time in an effort to expand the research. The Y chromosome is passed down from father to son through the generations, almost unchanged. Girls get two X's and boys get an X and a Y. So by submitting a Y-DNA sample, I was hoping that distant relatives in England with a similar last name had also participated in the same test. The service I selected is Family Tree DNA, and I used my father's sample, even though I'm pretty certain he and I would have the same results. I selected a test of 37 different markers, which is more expensive but also more precise than the 12-marker and 25-marker options. It also provides the opportunity to upgrade in the future to the 67-marker or even the 111-marker comparisons for a greater degree of confidence. But for now, 37 markers is plenty.

The initial results have been very satisfying. At the 37-marker comparison, we match up with 51 other participants in the study, and more are sure to be added as more participants join in. They all match within what is described as a "genetic distance of four," which at the 37-marker level is as far off as a match can be and still be considered a match. Normal mutations occur randomly every few generations, which means the score of a marker passed from a father to a son can change by a point here or there. If two of the markers are off by one point, then that would be a genetic distance of two. Generally speaking, the smaller the genetic distance between two matches, the fewer generations there are between the two matches and their common ancestor.

Liverpool Bramhills and Epworth Bramhills

Before the Bramels relocated from Maryland to Kentucky a couple hundred years ago, our surname was spelled "Bramhall" along with many other variations in official records. People in colonial and pioneer times weren't so interested in minor details like spelling. Within our list of DNA matches at 37 markers, there is only one with the Bramhall spelling. There is also a Bromwell and a Bromell. The most popular spelling within our matches is "Bramhill," with four occurrences. If we compare at the 12-marker level, there are more variations, including one Broomall and three Brimhalls.

We all share a common ancestor!

One of the great features offered by Family Tree DNA is the ability for matching participants to contact each other. Within a few days of our results posting, I received a message from William Bramhill of Colchester, a town in the county of Essex in southeast England. Will has done extensive research back to his most distant known ancestor born about 1790, a gentleman by the name of Thomas Bramhill. Will seems to be the primary keeper of research for a branch they call the Liverpool Bramhills. Since we have a genetic distance of four with Will, chances are that our common ancestor is still quite a few generations prior to that era.

Then a message arrived from Peter Bramhill, a much closer match with a genetic distance of just one. Peter descends from a different grouping known as the Epworth Bramhills. Will writes, "you look to have a more recent link with the Epworth Bramhills, which would put your ancestors over towards Nottinghamshire (Ollerton) and Lincolnshire (Epworth / Isle of Axholme). It is very likely that they all came from Bramhall Hall and Cheshire originally but the family was already well spread out by the 1650s."

It's important to note that England is a pretty small place with an area roughly the size of Alabama. If you add in the rest of the United Kingdom (Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland), then it's still only the size of Michigan. So a migration from Bramhall Hall to Epworth is about like traveling from Tuscaloosa to Montgomery.

Will adds that, "The Epworths have traced their family back to the 1700s and a ferryman on the river Humber in the east of England." With this new information, the odds are much better that we'll one day know the identity the first Bramel in America.

Bromwell of Dorchester County, Maryland

The Bromwell match on our list traces to an ancestor named Levin Lake Bromwell, born 1805 in the northern Dorchester County, Maryland community of Tobacco Stick. This is Maryland's Eastern Shore, along the Chesapeake Bay, and it is of particular interest to me since my ancestors from the Bramhall line had settled just across the bay in Charles County, Maryland, near the town of Benedict on the Patuxent River. I was able to trace the Bromwell line further back to Jacob Bromwell, born about 1700, in Talbot County, the next county north of Dorchester. In the southern end of Dorchester County, many generations of a Bramble family have roots, but to date, I have not been able to make a paper or DNA connection to this family.

Tobacco Stick, Maryland, on the Little Choptank River

According to Family Tree DNA's analytics, there is a 91.3% chance that the Bromwell match and I have a common ancestor within 12 generations. This makes sense considering the proximity of the two families in early Maryland. The earliest possible Maryland ancestor I have discovered is William Bramall/Brumile who arrived around 1650 and owned a plantation in Calvert County, between the Chesapeake Bay and the Patuxent River. There is now strong speculation that these Maryland Bromwell and Bramhall families may have descended from this William Bramall. I have included a link at the end of this article to my stories about the Bramall Plantation.

Way Back Before Surnames

Not surprisingly, there are dozens of other names on our list of matches. People did not use surnames before Medieval times. Once they came into fashion, generally between about the twelfth and fifteenth centuries, people tended to take the name of their occupation or of the place where they lived.

The first instance of our surname traces back to before 1086 and to a manor in East Cheshire known as Bromale. An early proprietor of the manor became known as Matthew de Bromale. The property was passed down through several generations of his descendants while other Bromale relatives spread across Cheshire and much of England. Eventually, there was a generation without a male heir at the manor; Alice de Bromale, daughter of Geoffrey de Bromale, married John de Davenport in 1350. They inherited Bramall Hall and it remained in the Davenport family for over 500 years. While it has been rebuilt and renovated over time, the Tudor style Bramall Hall still stands today as a historic landmark and museum near the city of Stockport south of Manchester.

Bramall Hall in the 1920s

Some of those other family names on our match list can be traced back to locations in East Cheshire not far from Bramall Hall. Carrington (three matches plus one Carr), is also a place name just ten miles west of Bramall Hall. Similarly, there are five matches with the name Higginbotham (different spellings), and four matches named Royal (including Ryall and Riley). The Higginbotham line traces back to Otwell Higginbotham who died in nearby Stockport about 1560. We share a common ancestor with each of these matches, but from Medieval times, the days before surnames became established.

Links:

Some descendants of William and Margaret Bramhall left Maryland and settled in Kentucky: The Church That Bramel Built

Here's a link to my research about the Bramall's who arrived in North America around 1650: Bramall Plantation of Calvert County, Maryland

Anyone interested in participating in the Y-DNA project, check out: Bramhall Y-DNA Project

Here's a link to research topics surrounding Bramhill ancestry:

bramhill.ca

Sgt. Lewis Chaplin - Little Bighorn and Beyond

Among the most interesting characters to have been discovered in the course of my genealogy research is Lewis Chaplin. His brother was my great-great grandfather, which makes Lewis my 2nd-great granduncle officially. The two brothers were orphaned at a young age, so there were no Chaplin stories that survived the generations. Research was further hindered by an inexplicable change in the spelling of the surname. But through persistent efforts and a few lucky hunches, our Chaplin descendants now have a tale to share.

In 1875, Lewis Chaplin enlisted in the U.S. Army at Seneca County, Ohio at the age of 21 years with the rank of "Private." He reenlisted several times before his retirement in 1903 with the rank of "Color Sergeant." Upon his retirement, Chaplin settled in the fishing town of Saratoga, Wyoming. The town of about 500 residents straddles the North Platte River, with a bridge connecting the east side of town to the west side. It features a natural hot spring, the iconic Wolf Hotel, and spectacular views of the Sierra Madre Range. In addition to the operation of a ranch, Chaplins's retirement years were a time for visiting with friends, going on trapping expeditions, and prospecting for precious metals in the mountains. In the wintertime, he vacationed in the warmer climates of Southern California, Arizona, and Florida. He remained in Saratoga until the early 1920's at which time his health began to decline. He went to Washington, D.C. for his final months and was cared for at the Soldiers' and Airmen's National Home, a retirement facility for veterans. He died there on November 2, 1922 and was laid to rest at the National Cemetery on the adjacent grounds.

Paying my respects at Soldiers' and Airmen's National Home Cemetery

Obituary from The Saratoga Sun, November 1922

While researching his military career, I was surprised to stumble upon my granduncle's name in a number of historical publications. Most notably is the role his unit played at Little Bighorn, infamous as the site of General Custer's Last Stand, and then combat with the Nez Perce people at the Battle of the Big Hole. Later, he was involved in the Spanish-American conflict and Philippine-American War. Of note, Chaplin claimed to have enlisted in the Union Army at the age of 16 during the final months of the Civil War in 1865. This would set his birth year as 1849 or earlier and contradicts research placing the arrival of his father to America at 1851 and Lewis' date of birth at 1853. Child soldiers are known to have participated in the Civil War, typically in noncombat roles, running errands at the enlistment camp and such. Perhaps this would be an accurate characterization of his involvement in that particular event.

In the early years of his enlisted service, Lewis Chaplin is assigned to Company I of the Seventh Infantry. In the Spring of 1876, the Seventh under the command of Colonel John Gibbon at Fort Shaw in the Montana Territory is ordered to Fort Ellis for participation in a campaign to address hostilities with the Lakota Sioux. Since the discovery of gold in the Black Hills in 1874, the U.S. Government has been unable to contain the influx of prospectors who have flooded into the region in direct violation of the 1868 Treaty of  Fort Laramie, which had set aside the region for Indian use. Mining towns like Deadwood spring up in the Black Hills, land considered sacred to the Sioux. They become increasingly agitated by the infringement upon their land and their customs, often ambushing and sometimes murdering the settlers in retaliation. In early 1876, when negotiations with Sioux leaders break down, President Ulysses S. Grant gives the order for the Army to secure the Black Hills and to force the submission of the Lakota Sioux.

Colonel Gibbon's so called "Montana Column" of 400 men departs Fort Ellis on March 30th with orders to keep the Sioux from crossing the Yellowstone River. They march up and down the river without incident. By June, scouts identify the location of a large Indian encampment on the banks of the Little Bighorn River, a tributary of the Yellowstone. The Montana Column receives orders to join forces with the Dakota Column, about 570 strong, under the command of General Alfred Terry, who had marched westward from Fort Abraham Lincoln in the Dakota Territory. Terry and Gibbon meet on June 22nd. They plan to attack the village with the two columns from opposite directions at the same time, with General George Custer leading a clockwise march to reach a point east of the Indian camp in four days. Gibbons' troops, along with General Terry, would backtrack and attack from the west. Private Lewis Chaplin is a member of this group.

On the third day, the Gibbon command marches 28 miles through hot and dry mountain terrain. Scouts are sent ahead into the night and early morning. They bring back grim news that Custer's command has been completely annihilated. The Gibbon command reaches the large deserted Indian village on June 26th. They discover 58 wounded on the hilltops above the flood plain, some of those who had branched off under Major Reno's command. None who remained with General Custer survive the slaughter. The initial count is 194 dead soldiers but that figure is later increased to 259.

The troops are tasked for the remainder of the day with moving the wounded soldiers down from the hills and providing proper care. The next day, they bury the dead and construct litters from timber for transporting the injured. Chaplin and the others from Companies H and I are assigned to carry the litters on their shoulders for several miles. Travel is slow and tedious, but on the 30th, they reach the mouth of the Little Bighorn, where the steamship Far West is awaiting their arrival.

Many of the Sioux flee to Canada to evade retaliation by the United States. In February of 1877, the U.S. annexes the Black Hills, essentially ending the Sioux War. The Seventh Infantry returns to Fort Shaw in the Montana Territory, but by July, they are once again called upon. This time, it is an uprising of the Nez Perce tribe in Idaho.

Traditional Nez Perce lands includes a wide swath in and around the Bitterroot Mountains in present day Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington. Their land shrinks after a treaty with the U.S. in 1855, but only slightly. However, white settlers pressure the government for use of the pristine ranch and grazing lands there, and when gold is discovered in 1860, more settlers arrive illegally by the thousands. Again, the government is unable to ebb the influx. In 1869, the Nez Perce are forced into a treaty forcing them into a reservation, giving up 90% of their land. Many of the chiefs refuse to sign. These "non-treaty" Nez Perce and the whites engage in acts of vengeance against each other resulting in numerous deaths.

Tensions increase in 1876 and 1877. General Oliver Otis Howard is tasked with ending the resurgence and establishes an ultimatum for the non-treaty Nez Perce to retreat to the reservation. A group of warriors stage a raid to avenge family murders, and four white men are killed. The chiefs hastily make plans to flee east to Montana to avoid retaliation from Howard's troops and to seek help from their friends there, the Crow. Nez Perce bands combined, about 250 warriors, 500 women and children, and 2,000 heads of horses and other livestock, begin the long trek in June of 1877.

After a few skirmishes with the Army in Idaho, the Indians escape over the mountains along the Idaho-Montana border to cross at Lolo Pass. Howard sends word to Fort Shaw for Gibbon to head them off. Gibbon's Seventh Infantry catches up to the Indians on August 8th at their camp of 89 tipis on the North Fork of the Big Hole River. They decide to lay in wait in the hills overnight and execute a surprise attack at first daylight. The Nez Perce believe they are far ahead of General Howard. But they are unaware of the imminent ambush by the Seventh Infantry, 161 men in total plus 45 volunteers who joined up with them along the way.

Private Chaplin under Gibbon's command at Big Hole

Gibbon believes that once they surround the camp, the Indians will simply surrender. But the attack begins prematurely when a volunteer fires the first shot. The warriors quickly rally after the initial shock and fight back valiantly. The soldiers attack indiscriminately, and many women and children are killed or wounded, in addition to warriors.

In the end, losses are heavy on both sides. The Army suffers 29 dead and 40 injured, two of which die later. Gibbon himself has been shot in the leg. Lewis Chaplin is not listed on the casualty report, but four of his comrades from Company I are among those killed. Among the Nez Perce, it is estimated that between 70 and 90 are killed, but only about one-third of those are warriors; the remainder are women and children. During the sniper battle that lasts into a second day, the Nez Perce hurriedly dismantle their camp, with no time to properly bury their deceased, and relocate some 18 miles to the south.

Depiction of the Battle of the Big Hole

General Howard's much larger battalion arrives in the days to follow, and the pursuit of the Indians continues through Yellowstone Park and through Montana. The Nez Perce receive no support from the Crow Nation and continue their escape. Eventually, some make it into Canada, but most surrender at Bear's Paw Mountain, just 40 miles short of the border. In less than four months, they have trekked 1,700 miles in their remarkable quest for refuge. But instead, they are put on trains and transported to Fort Leavenworth in Kansas and then to what is now Oklahoma.

Back east, sentiment is mixed with regard to the Indian Wars, some sympathetic to the plight of the indigenous people and others believing that coast to coast expansion by the U.S. is justified and inevitable. But a career soldier does not have the luxury of choosing his wars, and as an expert marksman, one can imagine that Lewis Chaplin witnessed and carried out some very sordid deeds.

For Private Chaplin, the remainder of his tour of duty in the Great Plains is relatively dull as the Indian Wars are winding down. But his marksmanship earns him the honor of representing his unit in the Army's annual rifle competitions. One of many prize-winning performances is memorialized in the General Orders and Circulars, Adjutant General's Office, 1884:

Fifth place in the whole Army? Not bad!

After his initial enlistment in Ohio, Lewis reenlists at least five times. On each enlistment, his home is "Seneca County, Ohio." He is small in stature, described as just under five feet and five inches. He has black hair, blue or grey eyes, and a dark complexion. For much of the decade of the 1880's and into the 90's, he is stationed at Fort Washakie, Wyoming Territory, where his rank is "Sergeant." He's there when Wyoming gains her statehood on July 10, 1890 and long enough overall that he yearns to make it his home upon retirement.

By the end of the 1890's, Chaplin is transferred to the Eleventh Infantry. In 1898, the Spanish-American War breaks out. Chaplin's unit trains in Mobile, Alabama and is then sent to Tampa for transport to Puerto Rico. The Eleventh Infantry sees combat at the Battle of Silva Heights in the Puerto Rico Campaign.

The Eleventh is then called upon for an overseas mission, this time to the Philippines in 1901. Spain had ceded the Philippines to the United States at the conclusion of the Spanish-American War under the 1898 Treaty of Paris. But hostilities between Filipinos and occupying American troops percolate for a few years, a conflict known as the Philippines-American War. Lewis Chaplin is one of a very select group of special forces tasked with the capture of Emilio Aguinaldo, leader of an insurgent group of guerilla fighters. Under the command of Brigadier General Frederick C. Funston, who develops plans for a deceptive sneak attack on Aguinaldo, the mission is successfully carried out by four officers, six veteran scouts, and 78 Filipinos of the Macabebe tribe loyal to the U.S. For more about this operation, follow the link at the end of this article.

In 1903, Sgt. Chaplin returns to the U.S. pending the processing of his application for retirement, as reported in the Army and Navy Journal, March 14, 1903:

I first researched Lewis Chaplin over a decade ago, but only recently did I learn of his burial in Washington, D.C. So I took the short trip there from my Baltimore home to pay tribute. The cemetery is adjacent to the grounds where the Soldiers' Home is located, a beautiful site just three miles north of downtown Washington. As I reflected on his amazing life, it occurred to me that I'm probably the first relative to ever visit his grave site. I don't know if he ever returned to Ohio to visit his family during his military career or after his retirement, but it appears that he lost contact. He is named in the will of his grandfather Joseph Hoover who died in 1896, but in it, Lewis' address is "unknown." In his own will, there is no mention of family, only his friends in Saratoga, Wyoming.

My Chaplin ancestral line is my most recent to arrive in America. In 1851, a teenaged carpentry apprentice named Richard Chaplin emigrated to the United States and found his way to Northwest Ohio. Most likely, he is the Richard Chaplin born in 1834 in the town Northleach in Gloucestershire, England. With such a common name, I cannot confirm with complete certainty, however I believe he is the son of Richard Chaplin (1798-1881) and Mary Hooper (1797-1855). I collaborated with a fellow researcher in the U.K., a descendant of Richard's brother Thomas Chaplin, who shared his finding that Richard "came across to the US around 1851 and married and lived there. I think we have the same person."

In Ohio, Richard settled in Seneca County near the community of Watsons Station, six miles northeast of Tiffin, near Fort Seneca. In February of 1853, he married Elizabeth Hoover, a daughter of Joseph Hoover (sometimes spelled Huber) and Catharine Gulmire, and I believe Richard had been working on the Hoover farm. The Hoovers were a large and prominent family in this area of Seneca County, Joseph having been born in Switzerland and his wife in Prussia (Germany). Richard and Elizabeth Chaplin became parents to two boys, Lewis in 1853 (the subject of this article) and Richard in 1858 (my great-great grandfather). Sometime prior to the birth of the second son, the young family had relocated to the Memphis, Tennessee area.

On the 1860 Federal Census, Elizabeth is enumerated with the two boys in Memphis, but her husband Richard is not. She lists no occupation and holds a net worth of $75 in personal effects with the nearest family nearly 700 miles away. The fate of Elizabeth's husband is to this day unknown by researchers, but the general consensus is that he died in 1860 or earlier.

Elizabeth began a partnership with a cabinet maker named George Sharps, a Louisiana native living in a Memphis boarding house who might have been a co-worker of her husband. The couple married, but then Elizabeth became ill in the Summer of 1861. George, Elizabeth, and the two boys returned to Seneca County, Ohio. After a lengthy illness, Elizabeth died in 1862 as reported in The Seneca Advertiser, Tiffin, Ohio:

On the 7th day of Oct., 1862, at the residence of her parents near Watson Station, Seneca Ct., OH, Elizabeth Sharps, wife of George Sharps, after an illness of 14 months. Aged 28 years, 2 months

Eight months after Elizabeth's passing, George Sharps married her younger sister, Lucinda Hoover. The two brothers were presumably living with their Hoover grandparents. George and Lucinda then had a daughter, Minnie Sharps, in 1864. The Sharps relocate to the newly incorporated town of Pierceton in Northern Indiana, where George worked as a house carpenter. Richard Chaplin accompanied his stepfather and aunt/stepmother on this move. The Sharps had two more children in Indiana, Lucinda and Joseph Sharps. The 1870 Federal Census has Richard Chaplin living with the Sharps and attending school in Pierceton. His brother Lewis, on that same census report, is back in Ohio, still living with his grandparents and attending school in Pleasant Township.

The fate of George Sharps after 1870 remains a mystery as of this writing. Likewise, the youngest daughter may have died during early childhood as there is no record of her after 1870. We know that Lucinda returned to Ohio with daughter Minnie and nephew Richard in 1874 and was granted a divorce from George Sharps on the grounds of desertion. Later that year, she married Joseph H. Bricker, a physician in Tiffin, Ohio, but the marriage ended in divorce before the decade's end. She married for a third time in 1885 to Julius Varin in Battle Creek, Michigan, who died in 1901. She moved in with her son Joseph and his wife and daughter in Battle Creek. Joseph died in 1906, Lucinda in 1910.

Meanwhile, with his return to Ohio from Indiana in 1874, Richard Chaplin was reunited with his brother Lewis, but only briefly. Lewis enlisted in the Army a year later in 1875, and this might be the last time the brothers were together. For the duration of his teen years and as a young man, Richard lived with his uncle, John Albert Hoover, a Civil War veteran, helping out on the Hoover farm.

A strange thing happens in our family history about this time. Richard's version of the surname changed from Chaplin to Chapman. The change first appears on the 1880 Federal Census which has him living with John and Fanny Hoover and their three children, Laura, Ellis, and Francis:

• Name: Chapman, Richard
• Age: 22
• Relationship: Boarding
• Occupation: Farmer
• Birthplace: Tennessee
• Father's Birthplace: England
• Mother's Birthplace: Ohio

Whether this change was intentional or accidental is open to speculation, but it's one of many surname alterations I've discovered in my family tree. For the remainder of his life, he was known as Richard Chapman or R.H. Chapman. If Lewis Chaplin ever tried to reach out to his brother in Ohio, this might have made that quest a bit more difficult.

Many of the individuals named in this article are recorded in the family Bible of John Albert Hoover, whose name was passed down for at least four generations and who still has descendants in and around Old Fort, Ohio.

On February 9, 1881, Richard Chapman married Clara Voorhies. For a time, they operated the farm of Clara's father, Andrew Voorhies, in Sandusky County just east of Bettsville. I wrote a story about the Voorhies branch of the family tree in a previous article, and there is a link to it at the end of this post.

Richard and Clara (Voorhies) Chapman
Bettsville, Ohio

Richard and Clara had three children but only one, Harry Raymond Chapman, my great grandfather, lived to adulthood. After the turn of the century, the Chapmans moved a a few miles to the south into Seneca County, not far from another Chapman farm occupied by Homer and Nettie Chapman (see the link to their story below). Harry began a courtship with their daughter, Edna "Mertie" Chapman, my great grandmother, and they married in 1914.

Harry Raymond Chapman (1886-1918)
son of Richard Chapman, nephew of Sgt. Lewis Chaplin

Harry and Mertie, my great grandparents, had two daughters, Eleanor in 1915 and my grandmother Winnie in 1918. My grandmother was just seven months of age when her dad died in December of 1918 during the Spanish Flu pandemic. Sadly, most of the stories of our Chaplin heritage died along with Harry and his parents, complicating our research efforts.

Clara Voorhies Chapman died in 1926 and Richard Chapman spent his widower years living in nearby Bettsville until his death in 1934. I wonder, did he he know of his brother's death in 1922 in Washington, D.C.? Did they ever correspond? Probably not. It saddens me to know that Lewis Chaplin had so many amazing stories to tell but, in all likelihood, no family members ever heard them. Today only a handful of descendants in our Chaplin line in America remain, those of us who descended from Eleanor Addis and Winnie Jeanette.

Winnie Chapman Jeanette and Eleanor Chapman Addis,
great granddaughters of Richard Chaplin

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Special "thanks" to Lynda Dicken Heilman, also a descendant of Joseph Hoover, for contributing research to this project!
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Check out more here: Clara Voorhies Family Bible
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More here about Homer and Nettie Chapman
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An account of the Aguinaldo mission here: A Desperate Undertaking: Funston Captures Aguinaldo

Bramall Plantation of Calvert County Maryland

Note: See DNA project links at the end of this article.

A couple hundred years ago, my family's name evolved to "Bramel" from it's original spelling of "Bramhall." My branch of this family settled in Maryland before migrating to Kentucky around 1814. A few years ago, I spent a couple days at the Hall of Records in Annapolis researching my ancestral story from the early days of Maryland in an attempt to link us back to Europe.

The Bramhall story in North America appears to have begun with William Bramall / Bramhall, who arrived in Maryland from England in 1651.  While other Bramhalls arrived in Maine three decades later, it is unknown to what extent, if any, they relate to the Bramhall of Maryland who is the subject of this article.

William Bramall made the long voyage across the Atlantic with his wife Mary and his son Luke. It seems that they initially settled in St. Mary’s County and later relocated across the Patuxent River to Calvert Couny. A second son, Richard, was born either during transit or shortly after the family’s arrival in Maryland. A third son, Charles, was born within their first few years in Maryland. These are the only children of William and Mary mentioned in archived records.

Early Maryland records include a number of spelling variations in the surname, often using different variations within the same legal document. These variations include Bromwell, Bramwall, Bromall, Bramall, and Brumile, among others; but evidence exists to remove any doubt that these records refer to the same person and the same family.

Settlement of Maryland

Maryland was originally established as one of just two proprietary colonies in North America, the other being Pennsylvania, meaning it was owned and governed by an individual. The first proprietor was George Calvert, born in Yorkshire, England, about 1580, of a family of some wealth and social position. His parents were probably Catholic, since there were numerous recorded instances of summonses and fines against the family for non-conformity to the Anglican religion. The Calverts appear to have abandoned Catholicism around 1590, which enabled George Calvert to attend Trinity College, Oxford, and to rise to a position of prominence in the court of James I. He was knighted in 1617, and in 1619 he became principal Secretary of State.

In 1624 Calvert announced that he had become a Catholic, which disallowed him from continuing in public office. However, for his past services King James rewarded him with the title of Baron of Baltimore. Calvert, who had purchased land and financed the dispatch of a group of settlers to Newfoundland in 1620, then turned his full efforts and resources toward the colonization of America.

After receiving encouraging reports from the settlers, Lord Baltimore took his wife and forty more settlers to Newfoundland in 1628. There he saw the hopeless condition of the settlement

and the difficulties of farming in such a cold climate, and after spending a brutal winter there he abandoned the project and returned to England in 1629. On the return trip he stopped in Virginia, which had sustained an English settlement since 1607, and where he had hoped to resettle his colony. Their refusal to submit to Protestant conformity made his group unwelcome there, but Calvert was able to explore the Chesapeake Bay, where he found an abundance of promising unsettled land. Back in England he petitioned King Charles I for a land grant north of the Virginia settlements.

Permission for the Chesapeake Bay settlement came two months after George Calvert's death in 1632, and leadership of the colonization effort passed to his son Cecilius Calvert, the Second Lord Baltimore. The charter granted to Lord Baltimore gave him almost regal powers in the new colony, including the appointment of all officials, control of the courts, militia, feudal manors, trade, taxes and custom duties, and ownership of all the land, which was in turn used to attract colonists and investors.

The first Maryland settlers left England in 1633 on two ships, the Ark and the Dove, led by Governor Leonard Calvert, who was subsequently appointed Royal Governor of the new colony by his brother Cecilius Calvert, Lord Baltimore. Passengers

Leonard Calvert

included both Catholic and Protestant settlers along with two Jesuit priests and two Brothers. With stops in Barbados and other Caribbean islands and at Point Comfort, Virginia, they sailed up the Chesapeake and landed at St. Clements Island, about 25 miles up the Potomac River. After negotiating with the local Indians, who were friendly, and exploring the area, they decided on the location of their first permanent settlement, St. Mary's City, on the St. George River. They celebrated mass to mark the formal possession of the colony on March 24, 1634. The area originally acquired from the Indians correlated roughly with present day St. Mary's County, Maryland.

Replica of The Dove, St. Mary's City, Maryland

By 1642, the taxable-age (12 and over) male population of St. Mary's County had reached 225, of which 173 were free and 53 indentured servants. Males outnumbered females by four to one. Most lived on manors or individual farms spread along the various navigable creeks and rivers emptying eventually into the Potomac River. The majority lived in one-room houses, maintained vegetable gardens and livestock for food, and raised a cash crop providing yearly incomes of two to three hogsheads of tobacco, valued at 8 to 15 pounds sterling. In the early years, farm animals were acquired from Virginia, but the Maryland settlers soon became self-sufficient in that regard. With few fences, livestock roamed free, and were identified by clipped ear marks. Livestock theft was a serious offense, possibly punishable by death.

As the settlements spread, they were divided into regions called "hundreds," originally intended to incorporate about one hundred families. In the early years the colonists were concentrated mainly in St. George's, St. Michael's, St. Clement's and Mattapanient Hundreds. St. Mary's City, the site of the provincial government, consisted of about 10 residences, a mill, a forge, and a Catholic chapel. Government and court functions were carried out in the Governor's or Secretary's residences until the 1660's, when the first state house was built.

Cary Carson's Drawing of St. Mary's City 1634

Bramall Plantation

William Bramall was apparently a man of some means. During the decade of the 1650’s, he sponsored a number of immigrants who could not afford the trip from England to America. Those who were initially sponsored by William include Francis Douglas, Thomas Bouges, Joseph Delvines, and John Cassell. Additionally, no fewer than four men were sponsored between 1652 and 1656, and at least a few more before 1660. These men agreed to work for William as payment for transportation to the new colony, a practice known as indentured servitude. 

To promote the settlement of the Colony, English citizens who agreed to relocate to the Province of Maryland were granted free land there, and those who paid the way for others qualified for even more land. Lots of 100 acres were assigned to individual colonists paying their own way, and for those financing groups of colonists, manor lots of 1000 acres were given for each five men transported and equipped. Annual rents were paid to the Lord Baltimore, proprietor for the Colony. The land grant system continued until 1684, after which land was purchased directly.

Original Land Grant from Maryland State Archives

William Bramwall appeared before the Provincial Court in Saint Mary’s on November 20, 1656 to enter his rights to land. A parcel of approximately 500 acres was surveyed by Robert Clark along the Patuxent River on the north side of Hunting Creek. This would become the plantation known simply as Bramall (or Bromall in some records). Annual rent of ten shillings sterling in silver or gold or commodity would be paid in St. Mary’s to the Proprietor, either in full or in two equal installments during the Feast of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary and at the Feast of St. Michael the Arch Angel. This area, a peninsula between the Chesapeake Bay and east of the Patuxent River, did not become known as Calvert County until 1658. From 1654 to 1658, it was called Patuxent County, and it was originally settled in 1650 as Charles County, not to be confused with the present-day Charles County on the western banks the Patuxent River.

Site of the Bramall Plantation, Calvert County, Maryland

Life for early settlers was difficult and laborious.  Those who came as indentured servants were bound in service for a specified number of years, typically five. Six days per week of 10 to 14 hours work were required.  Corporal punishment was allowed, although mistreated servants were entitled to a hearing in court. Upon completion of the indenture, many of the servants worked on for wages or by sharecropping to acquire additional capital in the form of tools and supplies needed to farm the 50 acres to which they were entitled.

For those who made the voyage to America, the trip was long and miserable, with crowded conditions and frequent outbreaks of various diseases. One of Bramall’s sponsored men, referred to in Provincial Court records as simply Bramhall’s servant, became a key figure in a trial resulting from a bizarre set of circumstances during his voyage across the Atlantic Ocean. Gravely ill and possibly delirious, he suggested that during the rocky voyage over to Maryland another servant committed a variety of heinous acts, including infant murder. He accused Judith Catchpole of murdering her newborn child, secretly wounding people so that they might suffer from an incurable blood loss and committing untraceable surgical procedures that similarly resulted in the death of others while on board ship. Whatever motivations drove the servant to suggest that Catchpole had engaged in such dubious activity, by the time the verdict was delivered that too little evidence existed to indict her, the unnamed servant was dead and virtually forgotten. (Source: Archives of Maryland Online, Judicial and Testamentary Business of the Provincial Court, 1649/50-1657, volume 10, page 456)

Violent crime was rare in colonial Maryland, and yet a case was heard in 1663 over the shooting of Richard Morton by Patrick Due, overseer of William Bromall’s plantation, on the Bromall land. Morton, a resident of Wapping, England in Middlesex County, east of London, was a crew member on a ship captained by Ralph Storye. On March 14, 1662, Storye and his crew sailed up the Patuxent River and into the mouth of Hunting Creek. They landed at a cove on the Bromall property, having been instructed to pick up a hogshead of tobacco for a Mr. Cooke.  One of the crew, Tobias Dunkin, went ashore to the plantation and approached a woman there. She verified that it was the Bromall plantation and that Patrick Due was overseeing the operation.

Dunkin then approached Mr. Due, who confirmed that there was a hogshead of tobacco for Mr. Cooke. Due asked where they had landed, and he became agitated to learn that the crew was near the canoe, as he had worked all morning collecting oysters, which were now housed within the canoe. He feared that the crew would help themselves to the oysters. Dunkin assured him the crew would not disturb the oysters and went to the tobacco house to roll the hogshead to the shore. Due sent a boy who was working for him, sixteen year-old Robert Hobbs, to the shore to warn the crew not to take the oysters.

Then Mr. Due went to secure a shotgun, gunpowder, and buckshot and made his way to the shore, along with his two dogs. Meanwhile, some of the crew members, including Elias Chandler and John Addams, had indeed noticed the oysters in the canoe and decided to help themselves to a snack. The boy, Hobbs, came down the hill from the plantation and asked them what they were doing. Chandler told him not to be angry, that the oysters had not cost anything. The boy replied that it had cost him his labor all morning in collecting them. The crew offered to pay for the oysters they had eaten, Addams tossing a coin to the shore.

Then Mr. Due appeared with the dogs and his shotgun, cursing at the men in the canoe, calling them “sea dogs,” and threatening to kill them. He said he did not want their money and fired at the men, wounding Morton in the arm and chest, and striking Chandler in the cheek. Due then sent his dogs onto the men, chasing them hip deep into the water.

Morton was treated by Stephen Clifton, a surgeon from Calvert County, on the day of the shooting. Clifton testified that Morton had been mortally wounded with buckshot having pierced his lung through the rib cage. Three days later, on March 17^th, Morton was pronounced dead.

A petite jury of the Provincial Court found Patrick Due guilty not of murder, but rather of manslaughter. The key witnesses in the case were interviewed by John Bateman and William Turner. Turner was a neighbor and good friend to William Bramall and his family, and he and his son would become a key figures in the Bramall story.

Bramall Court Records

Early records document several appearances by William Bramhall before the Provincial Court (Source: Judicial and Testamentary Business of the Provincial Court, 1649/50-1657):

Page 424, Court and Testamentary Business, 1655: William Bramhall having been formerly Convicted of Subscribing to a Rebellious Petition, and now againe hath Subscribed another to that effect, It is ordered that the Sd Bramhall Shall be at the Charge of building a pair of Stocks and See it finished within one Month, And that the Sheriffe Shall Cause this order to be performed.

Page 432, Court and Testamentary Business, 1655: John Boone acknowledgeth in Court to Serve William Bramale two yeares.

Page 476, Court and Testamentary Business, 1656/7:The differrence depending between William Bramaell plant and mr John Potts defendt is referred to the next Provll Court.

Page 478, Court and Testamentary Business, 1656/7:Timothy Gunton Sworne and Examined in open Court Saith that mr John Potts was to give William Brammaell 7 barrells of Corne a Share for 4 Shares, and the Said mr Potts did give the aforesaid Brammaell Earnest to bind the game when he bought the Corne and farther Saith not timothy Gunton.

John Merthe Sworne and Examined in open Court Saith that mr Iohn Potts was to give William Bramaell 7 barrells of Corne a Share for 4 Shares and that the Said mr Potts was to Come downe the Munday following to See the Corne; and the Said Brammaell Said he had no accomodation for him, whereupon mr Potts Said he would Send down his man, and gave the Said Brammaell Charge of his hogs which were in the Corn field to the Number of fifteen or Sixteen, and the Said Brammaell replyed he would be more Carefull then formerly he had been, And further Saith not Signum John 0 Merthe.

The Death of Bramall

The three sons of William and Mary became orphaned at a young age. William died in 1660, Mary having preceded him in death. In his last will and testament, dated December 1660, William names all three children as heirs, leaving them his entire estate. Further, he entrusted his “beloved friends William Turner and William Parrott” to settle his estate.

Will of William Brumale from Maryland State Archive

William Brumale his will

In the name of God amen. I William Brumale being sick and weak in body do first bequeath my soul unto God that gave it and my body to the earth from whence it came knowing assuredly that I shall arise to meet him and his glory and to my comfort. And having a desire to dispose of my earthly goods I first of all give unto my three sons, Luke Brumale, Richard Brumale and Charles Brumale unto these my three children I do give my whole Estate and land cattle and Premises hereunto and all manner of Household goods and other goods as tobacco now and made or housed or shall be made. Also all manner of debts whatsoever I have a desire that my children may have my Estate divided into three parts unto every child his portion equally and that these my three children may have education it is my desire also. I make and ordain my well beloved neighbors William Parrott and William Turner my true and trusty friends the executors of this my last will and testament and that they may do all and everything according as God shall guide them and that my beloved friends William Turner and William Parrott do pay all debts and of my Estate that can justly be made apart. I William Brumale do freely give unto Joseph Dawkins at the expiration of his servitude one two year old heifer. My will and desire is that my last will and testament may stand in full aforesaid and Vortuo and all other and do be void and of no effect. To the true purpose named where of I set my hand and seal the mark of W. William Brumale.

In the years following the death of William Bramhall of Calvert County, the guardianship of his sons was addressed several times by the Provincial Court.  William Turner apparently died before 1665, and his children, along with Bramhall’s sons, were placed under the guardianship of Dr. John Stanesby.  It seems that one of the sons, Charles, died sometime between 1660 and 1662, as he is not mentioned in any of the recorded proceedings of the Court.  Whoever had guardianship of the boys also held control over the plantation.  At the request of the boys, guardianship was later transferred to Demetrius Cartwright.

Provincial Court Proceedings, 1665-66, Page 159: Att a Court held 10th June 1665 Luke Bromall Choseth for his Guardian Mr Demetrius Cartwright

Att a Court held 24th Aug 1665 att William Turners by the Appointmt of Mr John Stanesby Guardian of Wm Turners Children, and Thomas Bowdell as Administrator of Docter Cliftens Estate and Demetrius Cartwright Guardian of Bromhals Children

Ordered that the Orphants of Wm Bromall and theire estate be deliuered unto John Stanesby (Guardian of Wm Turners Children) for the use of Wm Turner, prouided that hee put's in security the next County Court to performe a uoluntary Order wch Docter Cliften  engaged to performe in the Court for Bromalls Vse att a Court held the 26th August 1664 

Provincial Court Proceedings, 1665, Page 135: (Dec) 18th Demetrius Cartwright desires summons for John Stanesby to appeare next Prouinall Court to answere the sd Cartwrights Complaint Concerning Luke & Richard the orphants of William Bromall

Page 162: To The Right Honnble the Gouernor And Councell

The humble petn of Dem: Cartwright Sheweth

That whereas Luke Bromall was by Order of the County Court the 20th day of June last past, Ordered to Remaine dwell & abide wth yor petr as his Guardian together wth his Brother Richard Bromall, Now soe it is that the said Court an uertue of an Order bearing date the 24th Aug° last past, hath Ordered the Orphants that they shall be under the Guardianship of John Stanesby Chirurgeon and the orphants being thereunto unwilling and hauing a desire that both there Estates and prsons may be under the Guardianship Charge managemt & tuition of yor petr especially the eldest by name Luke being of Capable age of Eleccon in that Case hauing unto yor petr addressed himselfe and made request that he would Vouchsafe the Guardianship and Charge aforesaid, hee therefore doth humble pray that this honnble Court will please to take the premisses into theire serious Consideracons and giue such further Judgmt and determinacon uppon the sd orphants desire and request as may be sutable to law in that Case, And yor petr shall euer pray &c [p. 163] Demetrius Cartwright plt The foregoeing petn wth the Coppyes of John Stanesby defendant the Orders of the County Court entred in fo: 159 being read It is Ordered That the Orphant Luke Broniall doth remaine undr the Guardianship of Demetrius Cartwright and the Estate remaine where it is according to those two foresaid Orders of the said County Court of Caluert John Stanesby preferrs his Bill of Charge being for 300lb tobacco, which was Ordered to be paid out the said Orphants Estate

Bramall / Bramhall / Bramel Lineage 

Richard Bramall lived to adulthood, but not much past that, and his older brother Luke preceded him in death. Richard’s last will and testament is dated April 16, 1676, and the date of his death was recorded as May 3, 1676. In it, he bequeaths 500 acres of land to his wife, Joyce Bramall. In 1679, Joyce remarried to William Turner, probably a son of the William Turner mentioned in William Bramhall’s will. Thus, ownership of the Bramall Plantation went to the Turners.

The fate of this line of Bramhall genealogy is unclear. There is no mention of any offspring in the wills of Luke and Richard, so it is possible that this line ended with their deaths. Still, some researchers have theorized that prior to his death, Richard may have fathered a son with his wife Joyce, possibly named James, and that this is the missing link in our Bramel lineage.

The "Bramel" variation of the surname appears in some early 1700's records in nearby Prince Georges County. Then in 1755, another William Bramhall, my sixth great grandfather, purchased land next to the town of Benedict in Charles County, on the banks of the Patuxent River just across from the site of the Bramall Plantation in Calvert County. No records have been discovered that would definitively link my Benedict line with the William Bramhall who was granted land in Calvert County by the Lord Baltimore in 1656. Could it simply be a coincidence?

Links:

Some of William Bramhall's descendants relocated from Charles County, Maryland to Mason County, Kentucky in 1812: The Church That Bramel Built

UPDATE January 2021: A DNA project has connected the Bramhall line of Charles County to the Bromwell line of Dorchester County. We now have a Y-DNA group for testing male descendants with one of these (or similar) surnames. You can help by joining the project here: Bramhall Y-DNA Project

For general information about our DNA findings to date, check out this article: Bramel DNA - Our Link to Medieval Times