We’ve written stories about three of our ancestor family pairs – Jarvis/Webb, Teply/Kloppenberg, and Gallagher/Riley. We’re exploring one more family pair – Cheney and Maninger.
In our last series, we followed our Maninger family from 1700s Germany to 1920 Kansas.
Now we’ll turn to stories of our Cheney family.
In this series, we’ll follow the Cheney family from their arrival in colonial Maryland in the mid-1600s, tracing their path through land grants, settlement records, and family trees. Their legacy begins on the banks of the South River, in a province founded on religious tolerance and new beginnings.
Cheneys were early immigrants
Of all the ancestor families we’ve researched, the Cheneys are our first immigrants to North America. They were among the earliest settlers of Maryland.
By 1650, the Cheneys were living along the South River near Chesapeake Bay in the British colony of Maryland.
A History of Anne Arundel County, Maryland
The Province of Maryland
Queen Henrietta Maria
On June 20, 1632, King Charles I of England granted a charter for the province of Maryland to Cecilius Calvert, Second Lord Baltimore. King Charles named the province Mary-land in honor of his Queen Henrietta Maria.
Ark and Dove – 1633
On November 22, 1633, two ships, Ark and Dove, set sail from England with 200 settlers, bound for the new province of Maryland. On board was Leonard Calvert, appointed by his brother Cecilius Calvert, Lord Baltimore, as governor of the new territory.
Lord Baltimore intended for the province to protect the rights of Roman Catholics as well as Protestants and all other religions.
In the last paragraph of his instructions, Lord Baltimore commanded his Governor and his Counsellors, “In fine, they be very careful to do justice to every man without partiality.
This broadside was circulated in 1649, when Maryland’s assembly passed the Toleration Act, which decreed that no Christians should be persecuted for their faith.
Indeed, so broad was the charity and knightly the chivalry of Lord Baltimore’s government of Maryland, that, so long as he and his heirs were in power in the Province, there is not known or recorded one case of religious persecution of any character, not only of professed christians, but neither of Greek or Gentile, Jew or Barbarian. The only place in all the wide, wide world, where religious freedom was encouraged and religious liberty established, Maryland became “The Land of the Sanctuary.”
A History of Anne Arundel County in Maryland – Elihu S Riley – 1905
First landing of Leonard Calvert in Maryland – March 1634
The Ark and the Dove arrived in Chesapeake Bay in March 1634, traveling about 30 miles up the Potomac River. Governor Calvert bought land from the Indians, paying in axes, hatchets, rakes, and cloth.
St. Mary’s
On the right bank of the Potomac River they laid out the town of St. Mary’s. It would be Maryland’s first capital and first town.
By 1650, four counties had been formed: St. Mary’s, Charles, Kent, and Anne Arundel.
Anne Arundel County was named for Lord Baltimore’s wife, Lady Anne Arundel. That’s the county that Richard and Charity Cheney settled in.
Richard and Charity Cheney
Richard and Charity Cheney arrived in Anne Arundel County around 1650, seventeen years after the colony was chartered.
We don’t know where they immigrated from. Searching online, there are conflicts, misinformation, and poor scholarship concerning Richard and Charity Cheney’s backgrounds.
Some sources claim they came from England, even identifying their parents. I can’t validate the claims. There are many different versions, discrepancies, and conflicts of original sources and evidence.
There’s also circumstantial evidence they came from Virginia. Many of the newly arrived Maryland settlers were fleeing religious persecution in Virginia.
Ten Puritan families from Virginia settled in the area that would later become Annapolis, about seven miles northeast of the Cheney’s South River location.
Two Cheney neighbors in Maryland, William Burgess and William Cockes, came from Virginia. William Burgess was a merchant who transported other settlers. Cockes was from a prominent family in Virginia. The Cockes family had even transported a Robert Cheney from England to Virginia in the 1630s.
I’ll leave it to you and future researchers to solve this issue. We’ll take up the story as Richard and Charity Cheney arrive in Maryland.
South River
Like most other new immigrants, the Cheneys settled along one of the many rivers and inlets that fed Chesapeake Bay. They located on the South River, about seven miles from the Bay.
Headrights
Lord Baltimore laid out attractive terms to grant land to new settlers in Maryland.
Those who transported themselves or others received land grants, known as headrights. “Transporting” someone meant paying for and arranging the passage of that person to the Maryland colony.
Many people came to the colony as indentured servants, agreeing to work for a certain time period to pay off their passage and debts to the person who transported them.
For most of the period from 1633 to 1681, the headright reward was 50 acres of land per person transported.
To claim the land, the person who transported the others had to provide the names of those transported and obtain a patent or certificate from the governor or local court.
The Headright incentive for granting land attracted many, including those seeking refuge from religious discrimination. Puritans from Virginia arrived. Quakers from England came. Catholics from England were protected, and of course Protestants arrived.
The Cheney headright
Since they had transported two people (themselves) into the Province, Richard and Charity Cheney were each due 50 acres of land.
The process for obtaining land consisted of three steps:
Warrant – Request a survey for the land parcel
Survey – A survey of the requested land
Patent – A return of the warrant and survey, vouching ownership of the land
Warrant
Here is the warrant whereby Richard and Charity Cheney claimed 100 acres.
Warrant – Richard and Charity Cheney demand 100 acres – 1657
Survey
Here is the survey script for the land, which Richard and Charity named “Cheney Hill.”
Survey Return – Richard Cheney – Cheney Hill – 1658
Survey Return – Richard Cheney – Cheney Hill – Transcribed
Patent
Here is the land patent, with partial transcription.
Land Patent – Richard Cheney – Cheney Hill – 1659
Cheney Hill Location
Here’s the Cheney Hill land patent overlaid on a contemporary map.
Location of Cheney Hill
Richard and Charity Cheney had arrived in Maryland and claimed their land along the South River. With their 100-acre grant at Cheney Hill, they began a new chapter in a colony still finding its footing.
In the stories ahead, we’ll explore what life held for the Cheneys in this new world—how they built, endured, and passed on a legacy that still echoes through our family tree.
Timeline
Sources:
Family Tree diagrams – Ancestry.comand Mark Jarvis
Image – The First Settlers of Anne Arundel County – A History of Anne Arundel County in Maryland – Elihu S Riley – 1905
Map – composite showing Maryland and surrounding provinces – Mark Jarvis
Family Nibbles 
Very fun reading. Thanks for sharing. It’s interesting to note th
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Hi Beth,
Your comment got truncated. I’m curious what you found interesting to note… Please send again.
Thanks
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