New Post
Search
Help[Surname] Re: Silkwood name origin
in reply to a message by Mel
So here's what I've found, I did a deep dive on Ancestry.com.
Margaret Silkwood was aboard a prisoner's ship called the Forward from Middlesex, England bound for Maryland from September 1725 to December 1725. She is notated as being 14 years old, and travelling alone. Often, if folks were sentenced of some crime, be it petty or severe, they were deported to the colonies in America.
I thought to myself, "Why would a 14 year old girl be deported alone to Maryland?" I looked in the ship's log, and there is no crime notated next to her name. Many of the other passengers are notated with their crimes next to their names.
I dug a little deeper and found that she had been wed to a William Dayes in 1723 in London, in a clandestine marriage. She would have been 12 at the time. This was forbidden, as at the time, one would have had to have parental consent and/or been over the age of 21 to be married at that time in London. I went back and checked the ship logs for a William Dayes. He was not on the register.
It's possible that she could have been pregnant with illegitimate children and that William Dayes was perhaps otherwise engaged with another woman or wife, and he had her shipped off to the colonies to relieve himself of the burden of having to care for his child bride.
Or, less salaciously so, perhaps he followed her afterwards to Maryland on a different voyage. But the fact that she was on a prisoner's ship doesn't bode well for their marriage, two years after they were wed.
Anyway, there's a solid link from the Silkwood name from England to Maryland and perhaps also Virginia, as they are quite close to one another.
Happy researching!
Margaret Silkwood was aboard a prisoner's ship called the Forward from Middlesex, England bound for Maryland from September 1725 to December 1725. She is notated as being 14 years old, and travelling alone. Often, if folks were sentenced of some crime, be it petty or severe, they were deported to the colonies in America.
I thought to myself, "Why would a 14 year old girl be deported alone to Maryland?" I looked in the ship's log, and there is no crime notated next to her name. Many of the other passengers are notated with their crimes next to their names.
I dug a little deeper and found that she had been wed to a William Dayes in 1723 in London, in a clandestine marriage. She would have been 12 at the time. This was forbidden, as at the time, one would have had to have parental consent and/or been over the age of 21 to be married at that time in London. I went back and checked the ship logs for a William Dayes. He was not on the register.
It's possible that she could have been pregnant with illegitimate children and that William Dayes was perhaps otherwise engaged with another woman or wife, and he had her shipped off to the colonies to relieve himself of the burden of having to care for his child bride.
Or, less salaciously so, perhaps he followed her afterwards to Maryland on a different voyage. But the fact that she was on a prisoner's ship doesn't bode well for their marriage, two years after they were wed.
Anyway, there's a solid link from the Silkwood name from England to Maryland and perhaps also Virginia, as they are quite close to one another.
Happy researching!
1