Thanks to
Harvey Theberge (see bottom of this page), James' & Sarah's Greenage's
4th great-grandson, for the following, 26 May 2016:
(paraphrasing
Harvey's email) I ran across a collection of documents on Ancestry that
I had not seen before - Delaware Land Records 1677-1947 - and have found
several interesting leads regarding the residences and relationships of
some members of the Greenage family in the first half of the 19th century.
I believe that the following information provides compelling evidence
for the identification of James and Sarah Greenage as the parents of Benjamin
and John Greenage, and possibly of Sherry Greenage and Mariah Ann Greenage
Miller.
In 1814 and
1816 James Greenage (Grinnage in the 1816 deed) of Kent County
DE purchased two parcels in a tract called "Fords Chance" in
the immediate vicinity of Hartley, DE, totaling 100 acres. The 1814 purchase
from two Toomy families of Talbot County, Maryland is for a parcel of
91 ½ acres and the 1816 purchase from Samuel Wright of Queen Anne's
County, Maryland is for a parcel of 9 acres. The Toomys are described
as free persons of color, while James Greenage is not characterized as
to race - which usually indicates he was regarded as colorless. One very
interesting aspect of the deeds for James' purchases is his name appearing
repeatedly in 1814 as "James Greenage/Grapevine"
and in 1816 as "James Grinnage Grapevine". What
is meant by the addition of "/Grapevine" is not known
but preliminary research indicates that it could be an instance of a known
Native American surname.
On December
18, 1823 Letters of Administration on the estate of James Greenage ("Grindage"
in the document) in Kent County were granted to Sarah Greenage ("Grindage"
in the document), with surety provided by James Thompson. On that same
date in Kent County, John Greenage purchased 47 acres in "Colonel's
Quarter Addition" from John Lurty (who appears immediately next to
James Greenage on the 1820 census) and made payment on that same date
as attested to by James Thompson. In both of these documents, the Greenages
are not characterized as to race.
1823
Letter of Administration for estate of James Grindage (red
underline, right side page).
1823
Letter of Administration typewritten
1823 deed page 1
1823 deed page 2
1823
deed typewritten
Of considerable help in locating the tracts mentioned above were two maps
and accompanying narrative in a book entitled "The 250th Anniversary
of the Town of Hartly" which includes an 1833 map by Stephen B. Lewis.
I found it most helpful in reading the maps from the Hartly book to print
the two pages and lay them side by side.
Most of the references to the Greenage properties are in the upper right
quadrant of that joined map. Those references include a clearly defined
area identified as "John Greenage's Land" and a larger area
identified as "Fords Chance, Belonging to the heirs of Grinnage".
The fact that James Greenage died in 1823 and his widow Sarah was alive
in 1830 (and probably 1833) would explain why that parcel of land would
reference "the heirs of Grinnage" rather than a specific person.
An 1868 map of Dover Hundred also shows the land of J. Greenage (John
Greenage) just above Arthursville (Hartly's name at that time) near the
upper far left corner on that map of Dover Hundred.
The names of the owners of the adjacent parcels, as shown on those
maps, match the names of Johns neighbors in the 1830-1860
censuses and those neighbors include Sarah
Greenage in 1830, Benjamin Greenage and family in 1840, Benjamin and Rachel
(Miller) Greenage (in 1850), and James and Harriet (Cork) Greenage (in
1860) - Benjamin's house apparently occupied by James after Benjamin and
Rachel moved to Little Creek Hundred, where they appear in the 1860 census.
Although I did not find a record for the acquisition by Benjamin of the
property he acquired near
John in Hartley, the record of John's sale (as administrator) of Benjamin's
property in 1866 (recorded 1867) substantiates that Benjamin did indeed
own that property near John's tract - the property that was purchased
by James Greenage/Grapevine in 1814 and 1816.
The notations
on the 1833 survey had been applied at the time the map was created for
reading & rotating on handheld paper. Reading 4 N-E-S-W views on a
computer presents a problem, thus the 4 views are given here below:
1833
survey showing Greenage land view 1
1833 survey showing Greenage land view 2 (rotated)
1833
survey showing Greenage land view 3 (rotated again)
1833
survey showing Greenage land view 4 (rotated yet again)
1868
MAP - Greenage land marked in red.
Based on
known and presumptive birth years for Greenage family members, let's try
to sort out the (unnamed) members of the Greenage families as they appear
in the census records for Dover Hundred in 1820-1840. Some of these mappings
of (unnamed) family members listed in the census records with known individuals
in the several Greenage families adds further support to the conclusion
that James and Sarah Greenage/Grapevine were the parents of John and Benjamin
Greenage.
1820
James Grinage (page 15 of Little Creek Hundred Census, said page contains
this and a few other entries for Dover Hundred):
1 male aged
between 26-44 - James
1 female aged between 26-44 - Sarah
1 male aged between 15-25 - probably John (b. ca. 1805)
1 male aged less than 14 - probably Benjamin (b. ca. 1810)
1 male aged less than 14 - possibly Sherry (b. ca. 1813)
1 female aged between 15-25 - possibly Mariah Ann Grinage Miller (b. ca.
1803), wife of John Hughes Miller
1 female aged less than 14 - Unknown child
1830
Sarah Greenwich (living at the same location as shown for James Grinage
in the 1820 census)
1 male aged between 24-36 - unknown male
1 female aged between 36-55 - Sarah
1 female aged between 55-100 - perhaps the widowed mother of either Sarah
or James
There are also 4 white males listed in this household, but it was probably
a mistaken duplication of the identically aged 4 white males listed in
the next-door household of Samuel Powell - which interestingly contains
a listing for a free colored male aged between 10-25, possibly an entry
for Benjamin Greenwich who may have been "farmed out" to Mr.
Powell to help lighten the load on widowed Sarah.
1830 John Greenwich (4 households
from Sarah)
1 male aged between 10-26 - John (b. ca. 1805)
1 male aged less than 10 - John and Ann's unnamed son
1 female aged between 10-26 - John's wife Ann
1 female aged less than 10 - perhaps the Sarah who was married to James
Seeney in 1844, marriage bond
image
1
&
image 2
, who was perhaps the same James Seeney mentioned in Benjamin Greenage's
estate settlement - Benjamin's land described as being "in tenure
of James Seeney".
1840 John Greenage (same location
as 1830)
3 males aged less than 10 - probably John Jr. (b. 1831) and Samuel (b.
1832), and one other unknown son
1 male aged between 10-24 - probably same unknown male child as in 1830
1 male aged between 24-36 - John (b. ca. 1805)
1 female aged less than 10 - probably Melissa (b. ca. 1832)
1 female aged between 10-24 - perhaps Sarah who married James Seeney
2 females aged between 10-24 - unknown children of someone else (since
the 1830 census for John listed only one female child less than 10)
1 female aged between 36-55 - perhaps the mother of the unknown children
listed above
1840
Benjamin Greenage
(next door to John - keep in mind that census takers did not follow
a specific predefined route that would be the same from census to census
- so Benjamin's house being "next-door to John's in 1840 does not
mean it couldn't be the same house as Sarah's in 1830 which was 4 doors
from John's house)
3 males aged less than 10 - probably Benjamin (b. 1836), Josiah (b. 1837)
and James (b. 1838)
1 male aged between 24-36 - Benjamin (b. ca. 1810)
1 female aged less than 10 - unknown child
1 female aged between 24-36 - Benjamin's wife Rachel
1 female aged between 24-36 - unknown female
1 female aged between 55-100 - either Benjamin's mother Sarah or, if Sarah
died before 1840, his grandmother - the same widowed mother of either
Sarah or James as listed in Sarah's 1830 census record
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