New Wathen Information from New Town

As I mentioned in a previous post, important local Jesuit records have now been digitized and placed online. Among these many manuscripts, I’ve recently discovered a list of 480 names[i] that may contain clues about the ancestry of James Hanson Wathen, whose parents have been a puzzle to genealogists for about a century!

The list that I’ve been found is newly digitized, but it’s not entirely new: The late local historian Edwin Beitzell included it in his massive book The Jesuit Missions of St. Mary’s County, Maryland, describing it as a 1794 list of parishioners from St. Inigoes. There are thirteen Wathens on the list: Ann, Ann, Ann, Ellen, Elizabeth, Henry, Ignatius, James, Leonard, Mary, Mary, Thecla, and William.[ii] There is a lot of overlap between these names and the names of the children of Ignatius Wathen Sr. (c. 1679 – 1757), one of the five sons of the colonial settler John Wathen: Wearing (also known as James), Henry, William, Lydia, Henrietta, Mary, Elizabeth, Leonard, Ignatius Jr., John Baptist, Susannah, Eleanor, Sarah, and Ann.[iii]

When I was researching for The Wathens of Southern Maryland: Their Genealogy & History, I had a very hard time understanding how the Wathens on this list could have been in the congregation of St. Inigoes in 1794. Here’s why:

• William (Ignatius², John¹), who married Elizabeth Mattingly, died in St. Mary’s County in 1784. He had a son also named William, who married Hester Whittier, but William Jr. is known to have lived in Charles County, not St. Mary’s. There is no known William Wathen who would have lived near St. Inigoes in 1794.
• Leonard (Ignatius², John¹), who married Ann Mattingly, served in the St. Mary’s County Militia in 1777, but swore the Oath of Allegiance in 1778 in Montgomery County, where he died in 1782. There is no known Leonard Wathen who would have lived near St. Inigoes in 1794.
• Ignatius (Ignatius², John¹), whose wife was named Susannah (last name unknown), served in the Maryland Flying Camp from St. Mary’s County in 1776, swore the Oath of Allegiance in 1778 in Charles County, but moved by 1783 to Montgomery County, where he died in 1804. There is no known Ignatius Wathen who would have lived near St. Inigoes in 1794.
• Henry (Ignatius², John¹) died in Charles County in 1762. Another relative, Henry Hudson Wathen Jr. (Hudson², John¹), whose wife was Anne Langley, died in St. Mary’s County near Newtown, not St. Inigoes, in 1774.[iv] Their son, Henry Hudson Wathen III (Henry Hudson³, Hudson², John¹) was overseer of the plantation at Newtown, not St. Inigoes, from 1794 to 1796. There is no known Henry Wathen who would have lived near St. Inigoes in 1794.

These puzzles led me to wonder: Is this list of names in Beitzell’s The Jesuit Missions of St. Mary’s County, Maryland really a 1794 census of St. Inigoes parishioners, or has the original document been misinterpreted?

To make a long story short, I spent a couple of weeks proving that the original Jesuit document was not written at St. Inigoes (near Ridge) in 1794 but was written at Newtown (near Leonardtown) between 1765 and 1772. Catholic records from before the Revolutionary War are rare, which makes this a big find! Details of the evidence are supposed to be published in the summer edition of The Chronicles of St. Mary’s, the journal of the St. Mary’s County Historical Society.

Based on this list, we can be confident that the following Wathens were part of the Catholic congregation of Newtown sometime between 1765 and 1772 : James Wearing (Ignatius², John¹), perhaps with a wife; William (Ignatius², John¹) and his wife Elizabeth; Leonard (Ignatius², John¹) and his wife Ann Wathen; Ignatius (Ignatius², John¹) and his wife Susannah (perhaps nicknamed Ann); and Henry Hudson (Hudson², John¹) and his wife Anne.

Here's why this is important for the genealogy of James Hanson Wathen: One generation after this list was written, James Hanson Wathen was an active member of the Catholic congregation at Newtown. Assuming that James Hanson was raised in the Newtown congregation, it’s likely that his parents are among the 13 Wathens listed in this document! Was one of the five Wathen men on this list the father of James Hanson Wathen?

Here’s is some relevant information about the five Wathen men on this list of Newtown Catholics:

1. Y-DNA test results indicate that James Hanson Wathen was not a descendant of Hudson Wathen (John¹). Henry Hudson Wathen Jr. (Hudson², John¹) is therefore not the father of James Hanson Wathen.
2. I’ve seen no original record of James Wearing Wathen being married or having children, but it’s possible.
3. William Wathen left a will that named his children, and James Hanson Wathen was not listed among them.
4. Leonard Wathen left a will that named his children, and James Hanson Wathen was not listed among them.
5. Ignatius Wathen Jr. was married with children, but he died without a will that named his children.

As I continue to research the Wathen family and receive the results of additional Y-DNA tests, I’ll be looking for more clues. After a century of research, the origin of James Hanson Wathen still remains a mystery… for now.

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[i] Maryland Province Jesuits, Documents from St. Inigoes; image copies, Georgetown University, Digital Georgetown (http://hdl.handle.net/10822/1085594 : accessed 21 February 2024), Archives of the Maryland Province of the Society of Jesus, Series 04: Records of the Houses, Subseries 4.10 St. Inigoes and Ridge (St. Mary's County, Md.), 1767 - 1985, “Sacramental Records (1 of 2),” images 2 to 11 of 27; citing Box 144; Folder 2, Archives of the Maryland Province of the Society of Jesus, Georgetown University Manuscripts, Booth Family Center for Special Collections, Washington, D.C.

[ii] Edwin W. Beitzell, The Jesuit Missions of St. Mary’s County, Maryland (Abell, Maryland: self-pub., 1976), 98.

[iii] Charles County, Maryland, Will Book 5 : folio 91; consulted as "Maryland Register of Wills Records, 1629-1999," images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-9YMZ-6RQ : 20 May 2014), Charles > Wills 1752-1767 vol 5 > image 69 of 214; Hall of Records, Annapolis.

[iv] St. Mary’s County, Maryland, Will Book TA 1 : 675; consulted as Maryland Register of Wills Records, 1629-1999,” images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33SQ-GYTT-9LSN : 20 May 2014), St. Mary’s > Will books 1733-1776 vol TA1 > image 721 of 794; Hall of Records, Annapolis.  “Hutson Wathan,” is listed in a 1774 entry of Fr. James Walton’s memoranda book among the “Nomina Mortuorum,” i.e., names of the dead. See James Walton, S.J., Memoranda Book, unnumbered page; image copy, Georgetown University, Digital Georgetown (http://hdl.handle.net/10822/1078234 : accessed 21 February 2024), Archives of the Maryland Province of the Society of Jesus, Series 5: Records of the Maryland Mission, 1638-1958, “Memoranda Book, James Walton, S.J.,” image 103 of 158; citing Box 169; Folder 2, Archives of the Maryland Province of the Society of Jesus, Georgetown University Manuscripts, Booth Family Center for Special Collections, Washington, D.C.