The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1885-12-11
misIellallenns.
PRETTY BETTY MARTIN.

A Famous Maryland Belle who Gave
Rise to n PrOverbiaI Expression.
Chicago Current.
| Perhaps one-third OF the persons who have
read and quoted the traditional couplet-
! Pretty Betty Martin, tiptoe fine,
| Couldn't find husband to suit her mind
are fully persuaded 10 their own minds that
the said Betty Martin is myth-a fictitious
character, to be RELOCATED TO the society OF
| the old woman who swept the cobwebs out
| of the sky, or the respected dame who, with
her numerous and perplexing family, inhabi,
| ted the historical shoe. She has doubtless
been regarded as the type of excessive and
morbid fastidiousness who so exaggerates de-
feet as to leave all excellence unappreciated
She has been cited for generations as an adj
moniton to yonng ladies who are esteemed
by their guardians and matrimonial advisers
as too "choice" in the selection of husband,
and a warning TO those candidates for mat
rimony who are rapidly approaching the
borderland which trenches so closely upon
the desolate and frozen plains of old maiden
hood
And yet Betty Martin was no myth-no
ideal of feminine capriciousness or hayward
and shortsighted procrastination, but WON
an of flesh and blood, who not only found
one husband to suit her mind, but was wooed
and married a second time, and her descend
ants at this day form numerous and influ
entail family connection in Maryland aud
Virginia, while few have emigrated to the
States of Pennsylvania Kentucky, Texas and
California.
She lived to the advanced age of 10 years,
was able TO walk about her house the day
before her DEATH and up to the last hour of
her life retained such bIilliancy of eye and
freshness of complexion as to confirm all the
traditions concerning the extraordinary
beauty of her youth. Five generations of
her descendants sat at table with her during
day upon which she breathed her last II
grandson of the sixth generation, DR.. William
Middlemore Dallam, was born.
A brother of the Dnke of Marlborough
married a Mrs. Smith, who had at that time
an only son, William Smith, whom the step
father took under his special care. He sent
him on visit to America, where he remain
ed some years, after which time he returned
to England. After short sojourn in the
mother country, he again took passage for
America, and, by remarkable coincidence,
Betty Martin and Richard Dallam-two per-
sons with whose destiny he was to be con.
nected-embarked at the same time and on
the same vessel.
Inc parents OF Delty Marun maue lnelr
new home in Maryland where they already
possessed large tracts of land William
Smith owned Blenheim and Richard Dalam
The Cranberry, two of the handsomest estates
in the new country. For years the beautiful
Betty was reigning belle, and such constant
and undiminished homage and admiration
did her beauty compel, and so numerous
were reflections of suitors from both the old
and new country, that the well known cou
plet is said to have originated with devoted
and persistent but disappointed admrer,
"who loved not wisely but too we'll" The
| successful wooer at last appeared in the per-
| son of Richard Dallam.
Two distinguished grandsons of this union
| were Governor Paca, of Maryland, and Gov.
ernor Caswell, of North Carolina. After the
| death of Richard Dallam Lis widow, still sur
| passingly beautiful, accepted the hand of
William Smith, of Blenheim, Il sutton who
| had loved her before her first marriage, and
whose loyal heart never swerved from the al
| legiance of its first love.
| At the death of her second husband Will
| liam Smith, the estate of Blenheim, an entail
ed property, passed to the eldest son, William
Smith, and the widow returned to The
Cranberry, the Dallam homestead, where she
died in the year TITS Among her descend.
ants of the seventh generation are Judge
Henry Clay Dal!am and John Paca Dallam,
of Baltimore.