I spent a good portion of this afternoon at the Maryland State Archives. My expectations were low, and those expectations were met. Nothing on Anthony Murray. What’s interesting is that there is pretty much only one Murray family in Dorchester at that time, descendants of William Vans Murray who immigrated from Scotland in around 1716 and served as a doctor in Maryland. His three sons, Dr. Henry Murray, James Murray and David Murray would all have been potential fathers of Anthony based on their ages, but no Anthony Murray shows up in the records as a descendant of these men.
Here’s a thought: When my brother, Craig, took a DNA test to see which of two Scottish Murray families we descended from, it showed neither. We all were pretty shocked to find out we weren’t genetically Murrays. What did show up was the name “Lee” as an ancestor. Sooooo, when I was looking through the records of Dorchester, Maryland in the mid 1700s and came across a William Lee living about 10 miles away from the Murrays, I thought, “Hmmmm. Did William Lee do some visiting to Mrs. Murray? Did William Lee and his wife abandon a child that the Murrays raised?” Either way, if one of these is true, Anthony would definitely not appear in any Murray will – which he does not.
I know, this is a lot of speculation, but with so few Murrays in Dorchester, it’s not difficult to draw conclusions.
What I also discovered was that Dr. William Murray owned and gifted his children his slaves in his will. Learning that kind of made me sick. I try not to pass my modern-day morals on past behaviors, but slavery, in my mind is and was inexcusable. One of the Murray boys was also listed as “merchant” which living in Dorchester, it’s very possible he would have been a slave merchant. More disgust. While I’d like definitive answers, I’m glad not to see Anthony’s name in the will of William Murray.
Returned to the beautiful campspot and took the pooches for a long walk in the forest. It was nice to give them some outdoor time.
Tomorrow, I’m off to the Dorchester Historical Society. It’s a 90 minute drive, but I’m here to discover, so off I go.
10/18/2024