The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1936-07-02
Continued from last week)
The Townshends

were of Norman-Saxon origin, having
come from England in 1920.
Walter DeHavill, one of the gener-
ais of William the Conqueror, was
granted as part of the spoils Of the
conquest, large estates in the neigh
borhood of Norfolk. He married a
Saxon princess, Mathilde, through
whose influence the name was trans
lated into the equivalent Townshend,
or townholder, the sufix "hend" be-
ing abbreviated from the Saxon verb
henden-to hold, the family name thus
becoming Towrshend-a number y:
towns being located on the family es-
tates in both Normandy and Eng
land.
In England the late Marquis of Lon
don, Raynham County, Norfolk, re-
tanned the "h" in their name, but gen
orally the modern spelling without
the ''h" is used.
The pioneers of the family were
Richard, of jamestown, Va, 1920;
William, of Boston, Mass, 1884; John
Henry and Richard, of New York,
in 1712; Samuel, who was born in
London in 1714, and came to Prince
Georges county Md, in 1876. His
son Leonard Townshend, married
Sarah E. Young, in 1889. Their only
heir was Singleton, early settler, in
Allegany county, who married Cath
crime Belt, of Frederick, and settled
at what is now Hoyes. They are the
grandparents of the present genera
ton residing with US.
Leonard Townshend, an early mer-
chant Of Oakland, married Tabitha
Hoye, whose only descendants are liv-
ing in the City of Washington.
The Dranes Came In 1900
The Dranes also came from Eng
land. James Drane, the first permanent
settler at Accident, was born in Prince
/ Georges county, Maryland, in 1779.
He was commissioned second lieuten-
ant in the Ninth Battalion of his
county, and married Priscilla Lamar,
descendant of Marion Duvall, French
Huguenot, as was also her father,
Thomas Lamar.
Accident was a wild country in 1900.
1t was near the bear dens and favor
lite resort of the animals, because of
the towering rocks filled with crew
asses on both sides of the stream that
bears their name.
William Drane, who died at the age
of ninety-four in Phoenix, Arizona,
used to tell of ferocious bear that
came from the woods one day when
the men were absent. His mother,
Priscilla, shot the animal and a COL
ored woman finished it with an axe.
In those days the Dranes' nearest
neighbors were William Waller Hoye,
at Grab Tree Bottom; Meshack Brown
ing, the pioneer hunter, and later the
McHenrys. George Washington Drane
married Eliza Hoye in 1921. They
went to Missouri. Marien Drane mar
ried Mary Ann Hoye in 1924. 1t is his
daughter Maria Lamar Drane, of Nc
Henry, by his second wife, who is the
last of her race in this region in this
year of our Lord 1886.
When Lord Baltimore colonized St.
Mary's county ne wrote his cousin Sir
James Anthony Drane to come over
and join his colony. But Sir James,
being advanced in years, replied that
he was too old to embark on so haz-
ardous an enterprise, but was sending
his nine sons, who in due time arrived
and settled in Upper Marlboro, in
Prince Georges county, Md.
The Ridgeley Family
Eli Ridgeley came from a family
famous in Colonial and State history.
Born in Frederick county, he was an
early settler on the Shawnee War"
tract, three miles south of Grants
vile on the old road from Grantsville
to Bittinger. This land had been sur
veyed for Paul Hoye in 1774. The In
dian name which Paul Hoye gave to
this tract refers to the war then N
progress between the Virginia Colo
nists under Governor Dunmore and
the Shawnee Indians and their allies
under Chief Cornstalk. The original
Shawnee War" tract occupies the top
of Ridgeley Hill. It's elevation of 2617
feet commands a magnificent view
of Negro Mountain, Manadier Ridge
and the valley north.
The Ridgeley plantation furnished in
abundance food for the family, slaves
and stock, besides tobacco that was
taken to market over the old National
Pike.
Eli Ridgeley's only son William,
who had married Catherine Hoye, died
soon after his father, and the man
agement of the plantation fell upon
the two unmarried sisters, Isabel and
Rebecca, who in addition to the man.
agement of the farm, raised five chill
Gren of their deceased sister. Mrs