Whether it be humorous, sad, romantic, about frontier living, wartime, or just daily life, send me their stories and I will post on this page.

**MARY JENKINS SURRATT'S ANCESTORS, MARRIAGE, AND CHILDREN

Mary Elizabeth Surratt was born Mary Elizabeth Jenkins. The Prince George's County marriage records show that her father and mother were married on January 4, 1821. Her father was Archibald Jenkins, then in his 40s, a farmer and minor county official who had connections with the powerful Calvert family. Archibald Jenkins's father was Zadoc(k) Jenkins, who died December 18, 1811. He was a tenant farmer on a portion of the 7,000 acre Calvert property known as "His Lordship's Kindness," then owned by Edward H. Calvert.

When the Jenkins estate was being settled in 1812, Edward H. Calvert swore that Zadoc Jenkins still owed him rent for two years--6,000 pounds of tobacco. Archibald Jenkins continued to have dealings with Edward H. Calvert and, from bits and pieces, he probably stayed on the same Calvert land farmed by his father. Ultimately the Jenkins family purchased some of this land. Today, most of this Jenkins land would be within the boundaries of Andrews Air Force Base, on the Clinton side, just off Old Alexandria Ferry Road.  Mrs. Surratt's mother was Elizabeth Ann Webster, 26 years of age at the time she married Archibald Jenkins. Her father was James Gibbs Webster, at one time an overseer for Edward H. Calvert.

The first child of the Jenkins-Webster marriage was John Zadoc Jenkins, named for his grandfather Jenkins. He was born February 2, 1822, as shown on his stone in Mt.Olivet Cemetery in Washington. The second child was Mary Elizabeth Jenkins. A family record shows that she was born in 1823, but the month and day are not given and are not known. From a variety of sources, it has been concluded that she was born in May or June of 1823. The third child was James Archibald Jenkins, born in 1825.

Then tragedy struck. The father, Archibald Jenkins, died in the fall of 1825, according to the papers relating to the administration of his estate. Little Mary Elizabeth Jenkins, just over two years of age at the time, probably did not remember her father. The widow was not one of those helpless women who could not cope. A picture of her indicates that she was highly competent. She conserved her husband's estate, which included eleven slaves and more in dispute, bought land and managed well. Mrs. Jenkins outlived her daughter by almost thirteen years, dying on June 8, 1878, aged 84. She is buried in a well-marked grave in the little cemetery at St. Ignatius Catholic Church on Brinkley Road in Oxon Hill.

Archibald Jenkins was undoubtedly a Protestant, although no church record for him has been found. Elizabeth Ann Webster Jenkins was Episcopalian, as shown by records in St. John's Parish. Her father, James Gibbs Webster, was baptized at the Broad Creek Church on April 17, 1768. John Z. Jenkins, the first child of the Jenkins-Webster marriage, was married  in the same St. John's Parish to Mary D. Ridgeway on April 13, 1843, as shown by the church records.  James Archibald Jenkins, the third child of the Jenkins-Webster marriage, remained Protestant all of is life (if he had a religious preference). He died around September 1, 1903, almost illiterate, a dissolute old man with a common-law wife. He is buried in an unmarked grave in back of Bell's Methodist Church in Camp Springs, Maryland. He was not a model citizen....

On August 6, 1840, John H. Surratt and "M. Elizabeth Jenkins" took out a license to be married in the District of Columbia. he was 27, she just 17. We do not know where the marriage ceremony was performed. It appears that they were married at St. Peter's Catholic Church near the Library of Congress in Washington. This assumption is based on several other assumptions, since the marriage records for that period at St. Peter's are  missing....

As a matter of geography, St. Peter's would have been the most likely Washington church for the couple to go to for the ceremony. John Surratt lived with the Neales, just across the Eastern Branch of the Potomac (now known as the Anacostia River) in what was then known as Washington County. Young Mary lived with her widowed mother about five miles farther down, across the District line in Prince George's County.

A survey of the baptismal records for the 1840s shows that all three of the resulting children of John and Mary Surratt were baptized at St. Peter's Church: Isaac Douglas Surratt, born June 2, 1841, as baptized on July 7, 1841; Elizabeth Susanna Surratt, born January 1, 1843, was baptized on December 10, 1843, and John Harrison Surratt, listed as "...3 years onthe last of April," was baptized on September 20, 1847. (Actually, he was born on April 13, 1844.) The fact that Mrs. Surratt brought each of her three children to St. Peter's Church for baptism is persuasive. One can speculate that the couple was married there, but there is no proof....

It is generally thought that John Harrison Surratt was the father of only three children. But there was a fourth. In looking at the baptismal records at St. Peter's Church, one finds the following entry:...... July 7, 1840 Mass Baptism John William Harrison, son of Caroline Sarath, born 13th of June 1838. Sponsor: Catherine McNamee. Van Horslaigh. It is doubtful that John Surratt brought this child to be baptized. The mother, who gave the name Caroline Sarath, must have done it--accompanied by a neighbor, Catherine McNamee, as a sponsor. The explanation for this baptism can be found in the District of Columbia records. On November 18, 1840, some four months after he married Miss Jenkins, Caroline Sanderson had John Surratt put under bond on a bastardy charge. He was to pay the maintenance of an illegitimate male child. The Sandersons were neighbors out on Oxon Run. What the recently married Mrs. Surratt thought about this is not on record, but she must have known about it.

**This Mary Elizabeth Jenkins Surratt is the same Mary Surratt who was hanged for aiding Johm Wilkes Booth after his assination of President Abraham Lincoln.

This information is a copy of "The Story of Mary Surratt: A Lecture Delivered Before the Docents of the Surratt House, " August, 1977.  See the Surratt Home Museum Page, maintained by Chris Witherspoon, clwspoon@wam.umd.edu

William Jenkins  Feb. 28,    --RACCOON, in Laurel County, Kentucky
Wm. Jenkins the 14 year old boy who was sentenced to the penitentiary at the last term of our circuit court for stealing, has been pardoned by the Governor. The Governor seems to have taken a great liking to the boy, and  we hope he will take him into the bosom of his own family and raise him up and not afflict the people of this place any more with him, for we know that it was not at their solicitation that he was pardoned.
Reprinted with permission of the Laurel County Historical Society to the KYLAUREL-L@rootsweb.com  Mailing List and forwarded to me by GFS Bacaz of the AOL Genealogy Forum Staff.

George JENKINS shot and killed himself while scraping the ice off his windshield..Since the ice storm of the previous night had deposited such generous amounts of ice on his car wuindows, and he had broken the ice scraper he normally used, Mr. Jenkins proceeded to scrape at his windshield with the butt of his trusty shotgun!  Unfortunately, the inclement weather also caused treacherous footing, and Mr. Jenkins slipped while doing so, causing his hand to slide down the barrel and hit the trigger.  Memorial services will be held next week!
Source of this article was through several "forwards" of AOL Email....being forwarded to me by Tammy Hamilton. (Thanks Cousin Tammy!)

War of JENKINS Ear (1739-1741),  England.  Backed by public opinion, Parliament forced the war with Spain despite the opposition of the Prime Minister, Sir Robert Walpole. The war saw little action and most of it was aimed at Spain's holdings in the Carribean.  One of the most fervent in stirring up support for the war was a Captain Robert Jenkins, who made it a practice to exhibit his ear,  which he claimed had been cut off by Spanish jailers during his imprisonment for smuggling in the West Indies.  Jenkins merely failed to mention that this atrocity had taken place eight years before the war began!
Source of this article is the Encyclopedia International.

Jacob JENKINS, Gr-Gr-Gr-Gr-Grandfather of this researcher, was in Jefferson Co. Tennessee, near Dandridge......on the South side of the French Broad River when Indians attacked and killed a lad and a woman who were down by the river washing clothes.  They were found stuck in the throat like hogs, the skin taken entirely off their heads, and their bodies left naked.  As a burial party of friends took the remains to a burial grounds about 3 miles away, Jenkins and a Cunningham man rode ahead as "scouts" for protection.  About 50 Indians fired on the two men.  Cunningham was killed and scalped and was found by the burial party who eventually buried him, along with the other two, in the same grave.  Jenkins received several bullet holes in his clothes and was struck with a blow from a war club, but when his horse was struck by a shot fired by the Indians, it dashed down a precipice saving the life of Jenkins.
From an article in the Macon County Times,  8/31/1950     Submitted by GJenk32888@AOL.com

John JENKINS, on June 9, 1851 at Sydney cove near San Francisco, Ca., walked into a merchants store, picked up a small SAFE and carried it to a boat at a nearby wharf and coolly rowed out into the bay. The alarm was given and word spread fast of the theft.  A number of merchants and townspeople pursued Jenkins and overtook him as he threw the safe overboard.  He was brought back to town, duly tried by a jury and condemned to be hanged.  This impromptu Vigilance Committee wasted little time in carrying out the sentence, for Jenkins was hanged the same night at 2 AM.
Source of this article was the Museum of the City of San Francisco at:   http://www.sfmuseum.org/hist1/vi

John JENKINS, born in Bourbon Co., Ky. in 1820 married Susan Emeline LUKE in 1838. Susan's parents were John B. and Mary Luke.  About 1855 John  and the Luke Family moved to Indiana.  After settling in, John decided to go back to Kentucky to get some things they had left behind.  A neighbor of John's in Indiana asked John if he would bring HIS wife back with him because he had left her in Kentucky!  John DID, but it was a long trip and the other man's wife was pregnant! About 4 years after returning to Indiana, the neighbor's wife "sat the child over the fence and told John he could raise it now"!  (Hmmmmm??)
From the JENKINS Mailing List submitted by: MHJenks@AOL.com