Eleventh Generation

1964. Mareen DUVALL⁴ was born on 20 January 1630 in Nantes, Loire-Atlantique, Pays de la Loire, France.³ He died on 5 August 1694 at the age of 64 in Middle Plantation, Anne Arundel County, Maryland, BCA. http://www.firstfamiliesofmaryland.org/stories-of-a-few-qualifying-ancestors
MAREEN DUVALL (1630-1694)
Mareen Duvall was born around 1630 in Laval, a town in Upper Brittany located in Northwestern France about 40 miles east of Rennes.

The French government’s oppression of Huguenots most likely led to Mareen Duvall’s emigration from France to Maryland. He came to the Province of Maryland in the 1650s and on January 22, 1659 Mareen Duvall’s first land patent, called Laval, was granted to him. The exact text reads as follows: “Do hereby grant unto the said Marin Duvall a Parcell of Land called Lavall lying on the West side if the Chesapeake Bay, and on the West side of…South river, and on the Westermost branch of said river near the head respecting the land of John Freeman toward the north Beginning at a marked oak by a branch.”

This proof for his Breton heritage is supported by the fact that Mareen Duvall titled the first land patented to him “Laval.” This naming of tracts of land after ancestral estates or native parishes was practiced by early Maryland settlers. The colony officially assigned a distinctive name to each tract of land with the Patentee choosing the distinctive name under which it was enrolled. Although the system was officially discontinued after the American Revolution, many of these names have survived to present day. Even into the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, deeds often mentioned the various names of the original land grants including that of “Laval.”

On December 16, 1664, Mareen Duvall received his second land grant called “Middle Plantation” for 600 acres. This land was located in the political division of South River Hundred. By assignment, Duvall received 250 acres from John Ewen, 50 acres from Thomas Parsons, and by assignment of a warrant, 300 acres from Andrew Skinner. Mareen Duvall built a house on the property and was described “as luxurious and courtly as any of the manors of the English gentry.” The plantation is identified by a historical marker.

In 1683, the Maryland General Assembly appointed Mareen Duvall “Commissioners for the Advancement of Trade.” As such, Mareen was responsible for “buying and purchasing of the aforesaid Towne Lands Parts and places of now owners and possessors of the same as for the surveying and laying out of the said Ports Townes & places aforesaid & making & staking out the several Lotts to be laid out in the said Townes.

Within 35 years, Mareen Duvall became a prominent landholder and merchant. His land holdings included not only property in Maryland but also property in Charleston, South Carolina where one of his descendants, Stephen Duvall, was a Captain in the South Carolina Navy during the American Revolution and died in British captivity. Duvall had purchased sizeable tracts of land, including Catton, later known as Belair. Rising in status to a successful planter and merchant, by the time of his death, Mareen Duvall had acquired, by assignment and purchases, nearly 3,000 acres of land and an estate worth in excess of £1,400. He died in 1694 and his third and final wife, Mary Stanton, administered his substantial estate.

Mareen’s will was probated in about the time of the removal of the Capitol from St. Mary's to Annapolis. He left his third wife Mary a vast estate. His heirs, in order mentioned in his will were: his wife, MARY, who inherited a life interest in "Middle Plantation" with the remainder at the death of his stepmother; daughter ELIZABETH, who received £150 and 375 acres called "Bowdel’s Choice" in Calvert County; son BENJAMIN, who received £150 and 200 acres, which was one-half of "Howerton’s Range"; son MAREEN "the younger", who received £150 and 300 acres called "The Plains" in Calvert County; daughter MARY who received £150 and 320 acres called "Morley’s Grove" and 370 acres called "Morley’s Lott"; daughter JOHANNA, who received £150 and 311 acres called "Larkins Choice" and 200 acres called "Duvall’s Range", both located in Anne Arundel Co.; son JOHN who received 5 shillings, all wearing apparel and a silver tobacco box. John was appointed co-executor with his brother, Lewis, and his brother-in-law Robert Tyler; son SAMUEL, who received 5 shillings; son MAREEN "the elder", who received 5 shillings; and daughter SUSANNA, who received a silver tankard.

One can easily reconstruct the family of Mareen Duvall. The older children, who had already made their way, received little in the way of money or land. These were the children of his first wife: JOHN, LEWIS, SAMUEL, SUSANNA and MAREEN “the elder”. It is also know he had a daughter named ELEANOR, who received nothing in the will, perhaps she was also from the first wife. To explain naming two sons MAREEN in the will, it was common in those times to have sons with the same name, born of different wives, who were many years apart in age, probably to ensure passage of the name. Hence MAREEN “the elder,” born about 1662, and MAREEN “the younger,” born about 1680. MAREEN "the younger,” along with his full siblings ELIZABETH, BENJAMIN, MARY and JOHANNA, inherited land and money in their father Mareen’s will. They were obviously children of his second wife.

Mareen’s widow, Mary, married second Colonel Henry Ridgely Sr., as his third wife. She was later to become the wife of Rev. Mr. Henderson, the commissary of the Church of England. One of Mareen’s wives was closely allied to John Larkin, a neighbor and enduring friend of Mareen. Of his children, MAREEN "the Elder,” also called "Marius", by his mother-in-law, married Frances Stockett, daughter of Thomas Stockett. He was ancestor of John Pearce Duvall who was a member of the Virginia House of Delegates and Virginia Senate for a number of years. Capt. JOHN Duvall, who held a large estate, married Elizabeth Jones, daughter of William Jones, Sr. Of Anne Arundel County. SAMUEL Duvall married Elizabeth Clark, in 1687; SUSANNA married Robert Tyler and was the ancestress of Brigadier General Bradley T. Johnson, CSA; LEWIS Duvall married Martha Ridgley, only daughter of the Honorable Robert Ridgely, of St. Inigoes, in 1699.

Other notable descendants include U.S. Presidents John Tyler, Harry S. Truman and Barack Obama, American Vice-President Dick Cheney, U.S. Associate Supreme Court Justice Gabriel Duvall, Confederate Brigadier General Bradley Tyler Johnson, Wallis Simpson (for whom Edward VIII gave up the throne), actor Robert Duvall, and billionaire Warren Buffett. Mary Parren BOUTH and Mareen DUVALL were married before 1660.

1965. Mary Parren BOUTH was born in 1634 in Normandy, Nantes, France.³ She died in 1673 at the age of 39 in Middle Plantation, Anne Arundel County, Maryland, BCA.

Children were: