Ronald A. Cofiell (cofiellra@aol.com)3253
934 Quintara Street
San Francisco, California 94116-1265

Revised 5 May 2006

Hester Enloes of Baltimore County, Maryland, daughter of Hendrick and Christiana, probably was born by 1665-1667, based on the birth of her son John Fuller, Jr. about 1682-1683 and her marriage about 1681-1683. Hester apparently married three times as described below.

This writer believes that Hester married (1) John Fuller by 28 August 1682, when Hendrick Inloes [her father] of Middle River conveyed "The Swallow Fork" to him ("Baltimore County Land Records of 1682," by Louis Dow Scisco, Maryland Historical Magazine, Vol. 31, 1936, as reprinted in 1995). That date corresponds to the estimated year of birth of Hester's first child (John Fuller, Jr.). On 19 July 1687 John Fuller of Middle River conveyed "The Swallow Forke" to Henry Enloes, Jr. [her brother]; the bond of the same date obligating John Fuller, innholder, for tobacco as security was witnessed by Hendricke Enloes [her father] (Baltimore County Land Records 1665-1687, p. 93, reprinted from MHM). In August Court 1687 John's wife "Easter" [Esther according to another source] consented (ibid.). (Both instruments were witnessed by Andrew Andersone, who purchased land from Lewis Barton in 1709. Hester's sister-in-law Elizabeth, widow of Abraham Enloes, and Elizabeth's husband John Ensor signed the inventory of Barton's estate as the approvers in November 1716.)

On 20 May 1688 Fuller and wife Easter conveyed "Fuller's Outlet" to Robert Benger ("Baltimore County Land Records 1687-1699," abstracted by Richard B. Miller, Ph.D., Maryland Genealogical Society Bulletin, Vol. 28, no. 4, Fall 1987, p. 373). That was less than a year after Fuller had patented that tract (Land Office: Patent Record, Book IB &IL#C, pp. 304, 305, Maryland State Archives). (In November 1691 Benger and wife conveyed it to William Wright, Hester's future husband. Fuller and wife Hester guaranteed the sale.) In November 1688 John Fuller, planter of Gunpowder River, assigned to his son John Fuller one heifer; the conveyance was a deed of gift (Baltimore County Land Records 1665-1687, p. 93). (The year of that deed was not in error; there were four papers dated after 1687 that "were interpolated in the sequence at later dates.") On 1 March 1692 [1692/93?] John Fuller and wife Hester conveyed two tracts of land to Thomas Heath (Baltimore County, Maryland Deed Abstracts, by Robert Barnes, Westminster, Maryland: Family Line Publications, 1996, p. 217). On 6 March 1693/94 Fuller and wife Hester conveyed land to Edward Jones (Maryland Genealogical Society Bulletin, Fall 1987, p. 382). On 8 November 1695 Fuller's wife Hester conveyed land to Thomas Heath, being the same land ... which was conveyed on 5 June 1695 by John Taylor to Fuller (ibid., pp. 385, 386).

Some researchers have stated that John Fuller died in 1699, which might be true. John Fuller, Senr. and John Fuller, Junr. were in the 1699 tax list for the North Side of Gunpowder Hundred of Baltimore County, but the specific date that list was compiled is unknown. In the Baltimore County Allowances of November 1699, "John Fuller" was allowed 200 pounds of tobacco for "one Wovles [sic] Head English [as opposed to Indian] Killing" (Baltimore County Tax List 1699-1706, by William N. Wilkins, Baltimore, 1950, p. 11; booklet available at Maryland Historical Society under call # MF137.B2W6). It may have been John Fuller, Jr. who was granted the allowance, with the appellation of "Jr." not needed if the father was then dead. (That possibility is somewhat reinforced by the son, as "John Fuller," being granted another allowance for one wolfe's head 2 years later.) In the original book, the pages listing the allowances immediately follow the pages listing the taxables. In any event, John Fuller [Sr.] died by 6 March 1700 [1699/1700], when the inventory of his estate was filed (PREROGATIVE COURT (Inventories and Accounts) Book 11B, pp. 15-17, Maryland State Archives citation). The appraisers were named as Francis Dallalude [Dallahide] and William "Right" (Abstracts of the Inventories and Accounts of the Prerogative Court of Maryland 1685-1701, by V.L. Skinner, Jr., Family Line Publications, 1992, p. 75, showing the date of 6 March 1699 recorded as Old Style format as explained on p. iv). Moreover, on 24 March 1700 [probably 1699/1700] Hester Fuller, widow, conveyed personal property to her son John, and live stock to her son Henry "who is not yet 18" ("Baltimore County Land Records 1700-1713," abstracted by Dr. Miller in his continuing series, Maryland Genealogical Society Bulletin, Vol. 29, no. 2, Spring 1988, p. 154). (That document implies that John was the elder son and was then at least age 18; moreover, it discounts as another son Stephen Fuller, who was born about 1685 and who was first shown as a taxable in 1701, in the North Side of Patapsco Hundred.) The 1700 tax list for the North Side of Gunpowder Hundred showed: "At ye Widdow Ffullers" John Fuller and John Peters [names listed immediately below hers, followed by three other names at the end of the tax list] (Baltimore County, Maryland, Tax List, 1699-1706, by Raymond B. Clark, Jr. and Sara Seth Clark, Washington, D.C., 1964, p. 9). (An examination of the 1700 tax list transcribed by Wilkins in 1950 might verify that Fuller and Peters were living at the Widow Fuller's residence. In lists for other years, Wilkins consistently indented to indicate the taxables living in the same household or on the same property.) At the October Court, 1700, Jno. Fuller's estate was appraised by Francis Delahyde and Wm. Right. The name Hester Fuller appears in the inventory of John Wright, planter, who died by December 1701.

Hester (Enloes) Fuller married (2) John Peters probably after the 1700 tax list was compiled, and by the date of the 1701 list (same hundred) when her name was not listed but those of John Fuller [her son] and Peters were (names not next to each other). She married Peters by 20 October 1701 when they and John Fuller [her son] and his wife Sarah [daughter of Thomas Heath?] conveyed land to Wm. Peckett. (Pickett died in June or July 1710, at which time he was owed 678 pounds of tobacco by John Ensor, then husband of the widow of Hester's brother Abraham.) Also in October 1701, John Peters gave power of attorney to his wife Hester Peters and his son-in-law [i.e., stepson] John Fuller (Maryland Genealogical Society Bulletin, Spring 1988, p. 158). In the 1702 tax list (same hundred), Peters' name appears above that of Fuller [his stepson]. (Also in 1702, John Fuller was allowed 200 pounds of tobacco for one wolf's head.) Peters died by the 1703 tax list, which continued to list the name of John Fuller [Jr.] in the same hundred.

Meanwhile, Wm. Wright was residing in South Side of Gunpowder Hundred, where John Fuller [Jr.] was residing by the 1704 tax list. Fuller may have moved there with his mother upon her remarriage; in those days widows soon remarried, and Hester and Wright most likely married by 1704 (or as early as 1703). Hester's children by Fuller [Sr.] were: John who was born about 1682 (if he was at least age 18 on 24 March 1699/1700) or 1683 (in 1699 tax list, North Side of Gunpowder, upon attainment of age 16); and Henry who was born about 1688 (in 1704 tax list, same hundred). John may have attained age 16 in 1698; however, the tax list for that year is not extant.

On 17 February 1704 [1704/5?] "Wright's Forrest" was surveyed for Wm. Wright on the south side of the Great Falls of Gunpowder River. (In 1724 William bequeathed that tract to his son Jacob, born about 1701 prior to William's marriage to Hester. William, Jr. was the eldest son and presumably was also a child by a prior wife.) Hester's child by Wright probably was Christian(a), who was born by 10 December 1707 when bequeathed "one cow calfe after shee com to the Eage of Fourteen years" in the will of Hendrick Enloes, Christiana's grandfather. (Although Hendrick named his daughter Hester "Enloes" rather than Hester Wright, he also named his other daughter Margtt "Enloes" rather than Margaret Durham who had by then married James Durham as her second husband. Hendrick bequeathed one yearling cow to Henry "Galluaa" who was Margaret's son by her first husband, William Galloway.) On 31 August 1709 Wm. Wright and Wm. Farfarr [who also had a daughter named Christiana] were sureties on bond of Elizabeth Enloes, extrx. of Abraham Enloes (Wright's brother-in-law). In September 1709 Wm. Wright signed the inventory of Abraham Enloes' estate.

Hester Wright was still alive in 1711 when she made oath in the will of Wm. Hawkins, Sr. (chart compiled c. 1976 by Bradleigh V./Mrs. John S. Slattery, citing Maryland Calendar of Wills 3:195). According to Baltimore County Families 1659-1759, page 313, he died by 18 July 1711 when administration bond was posted; one of the citations is Jane Baldwin Cotton's will abstracts, Volume III, page 195. According to Index to Baltimore County, Maryland, Wills by Raymond B. Clark, Jr., the will of William Hawkins, Sr. was a nuncupative one found in Baltimore County Wills, Liber 13, folio 215, and proven in 1711. According to O.L. Hough's 1981 research, the nuncupative will was made on 25 March 1711 and proven on 22 June 1711. According to Harry A. Diehl, Hester died after 25 January 1711 (letter to this writer dated 16 December 1995). It appears that the will was made on 25 January 1710/11 or 25 March 1711; a review of both wills (Maryland Calendar of Wills 3:195; Baltimore County Wills 13:215) may be necessary in order to verify which date is correct. In any event, Hester Wright was one of three legatees in Hawkins' will, according to the administration account dated 1 August 1712 (Abstracts of the Inventories and Accounts of the Prerogative Court of Maryland 1711-1713, Family Line Publications, 1994, p. 37, citing Liber 33B, folio 8). The other legatees were Mary Athis [widow of John Athos who died by May 1692?] and Stephen White [his stepson].

Hester may have been alive on 7 May 1713 when Wm. Wright and James Durham [second husband of Hester's sister Margaret] were sureties on the bond of John Fuller [Jr.], administrator of Nicholas Herbert. Hester had died by 5 September 1714 when William Wright married Juliana Benbow. In June 1714 Hester's nephew, Henry Enloes, son of her late brother John, was bound to William Wright ("Children in Baltimore County, Maryland, Court Records, 1682-1721," by Robert W. Barnes, National Genealogical Society Quarterly, Vol. 69, no. 4, December 1981, citing Baltimore County Court Proceedings, Vol. IS#B, p. 505). (On the same date, Henry's brother Abraham was bound at age 13 to Charles and Hannah Simmonds, whose first child George was born the following month. George's second wife was Elizabeth Fuller.) Wright appears to have been a neighbor of Henry's father in the 1699, 1700 and 1701 tax lists for the Middle River/South Side of Gunpowder Hundred. Henry presumably had inherited "Swallow Fork" from his father about 1702. It is interesting to note that Henry sold "Swallow Fork" a few months after William Wright died; at one time, that tract had been in the possession Hester's first husband.

Hester's daughter, Christiana Wright, married Jas. Ditto by 9 March 1723/24 when named as Christiana Ditto in her father's will. (However, some abstracts of that will show her name as Christiana Wright.) In the opinion of this writer, she was not the mother of James Ditto's son William (born c. 1712-1713 according to descendants), but she was the mother of James' son Abraham. (Note that Abraham was a prominent name in the Enloes family; Abraham Ensor who was born about 1728 may have been named after Hester's nephew, Abraham Enloes.) The latter son was baptized on 14 September 1718; St. John's Parish register shows "Abraham Ditto, son of Jeames Ditto" without identifying the mother. That may have been an oversight on the part of the parish scribe. If Abraham had been born (probably in 1718) prior to James' marriage to Hester, he most likely would have been given the surname of Wright and identified only as the son of Christiana Wright. (Although Abraham's Gunpowder Manor lease showed his age as 50 as of March 1767, many of those leases misstated ages by a year or more. Also, his wife Mary's age of 45 should have been shown as 44, based on this writer's belief that she was born on 21 January 1722/23, in St. John's Parish, the daughter of John Boyce and Elizabeth Jephs.)

James Ditto was born by 1684 (1700 tax list North Side of Gunpowder Hundred), and it is plausible that he had an earlier marriage by about 1712 when he was at least age 28. Christiana might have been born as early as 1703 based on two considerations: 1. Hester, her mother, might have been widowed by John Peters as early as 1702, after that year's tax list had been compiled. (Peters may have been gravely ill in October 1701 when he had given Hester and his stepson power of attorney.) 2. Hester could have married William Wright in 1703, after that year's tax list had been compiled. Christiana's marriage to James Ditto in late 1717 or early 1718, at about age 14 or 15, is plausible considering the mores and customs of that time.

"Christian Ditter" married (2) Thomas Gadd on 22 January 1732/33 and bore Margaret Gadd on 28 March 1734, possibly at age 29-30. (Origin of the Ditto Families in Maryland and Kentucky, by W. Lester Richards, 1980, page 7, gives Christian's surname as Dittor, and the marriage date as 21 Jan. 1733, citing page 66 of St. John's Parish register.) Thomas died on 13 December 1738. Administration bond was posted on 19 February 1738/39 by Christiana Gadd with William Gadd [the deceased's brother?] and William Ditto [Christiana's stepson?]. Thereafter, on 25 March 1743, Christiana Gadd conveyed livestock, two feather beds and furniture to "my loving son Abraham Ditto" (ibid., p. 8, citing Baltimore County Land Records, Liber TB#C, folios 195, 196). There is no record of any conveyance or bequest by her to William Ditto. That is an indication that William (James Ditto's older son) was not Christiana's son, but rather her stepson.

Hester probably was the stepmother of Mary Wright who married Samuel Watkins by 1715. The inventory of his estate [dated July 1743?] was signed by Abraham Enlow [probably son of Hester's brother Abraham] as one of the "relations" (letter to this writer from Allender Sybert, 29 May 1984, citing Inventories 28:421). In August 1743 administration bond was posted by Samuel Watkins [Jr., son of Samuel and Mary] with Abraham Ditto and William Demmitt. Abraham Ditto's relationship is somewhat convoluted; this writer has tentatively identified him as the son of Christiana (Wright) Ditto, half-sister of the deceased's wife.

In summary, Hester Enloes married (1) John Fuller about 1681-1683 and had two children by him; she married (2) John Peters about 1701 and had no known children by him; and she married (3) William Wright about 1703 and had by him at least one child, Christiana, who may have been born about 1703-1704. Hester (born by 1665-1667) died after January or March 1711 (new style) and before September 1714. 3