Good Deed for the Week: Abraham Pennington, Indian Trader

Occasionally I like to highlight items of interest I have found in deed books. Today, I present the following good deed:

Warranty Deed

Abraham Pennington to William Cox for £50
160 acres known as "Pambrook"

Cecil County, Maryland

Executed April 13, 1724

Recorded July 7, 1724 in Deed Book 4, page 91

Circuit Court Records of Cecil County, Maryland

In 1724, my 8x-great-grandfather Abraham Pennington sold a 160-acre plantation in Cecil County, Maryland known as "Pambrook" to William Cox for £50. I found the deed recording this transaction while perusing Cecil County's magnificent online records system in the winter of 2018. Several things about it immediately stood out to me.

The two-page 1724 deed from Abraham Pennington to William Cox.

First, Abraham is identified in this deed as "Abraham Pennington of Cecil County in Maryland, Indian Trader." The purchaser, William Cox, is identified as "Province Merchant." Today it would be downright weird to include a person's occupation on a deed, but it was apparently much more common in colonial America. Between 1714 and 1733, Abraham Pennington is identified in five separate deeds in the records of Cecil County. In these deeds, he is recognized respectively as "Indian Trader," "Planter," and "Yeoman." This gives us the impression that Abraham's status in his community was an independent farmer who also engaged in trade with groups of Native Americans.

This is a fascinating fact about my ancestor. It tells me that he was probably very familiar with the Indian tribes in the area, and that he was on good enough terms with them that he conducted trade with them. Although I don't know what he was trading, he likely swapped manufactured goods for furs or skins. When his grandson Jacob Pennington spied on the Cherokee during the American Revolution, did he do so in this familiar guise of second-generation Indian trader? 

A portion of a page of Jacob Pennington's claim to the State of South Carolina to be paid for the 214 days he served as a spy for the American army against British-allied Indians in 1779.

According to the FamilySearch wiki pertaining to Native Americans in Maryland, the Shawnee maintained a presence near the Susquehanna River in Cecil County from the 1690s until the 1730s. This group was likely the source of Abraham's trade, and their departure from the area in the 1730s seems to have coincided with his own departure for Virginia at about the same time.

In recent years, a myth has circulated that Abraham's son or grandson married the daughter of a Cherokee chief. It is important to note, however, that I have never found any documentary evidence that the Pennington family has any Native American ancestry. One particularly interesting examination of these claims was published by the Bureau of Indian Affairs in 2010, when a local group of Native American enthusiasts attempted to use the alleged Pennington Cherokee connection to help earn the status of a Federally-recognized tribal entity. That BIA report can be read in its entirety here, including its in-depth examination of the Pennington claims of Indian descent.

But back to this week's good deed. The land, itself, offers another intriguing mystery. The 160-acre tract is unique in that, similar to the estates of the aristocracy in England at the time, it had a name: "Pambrook." The deed is specifically for, " a certaine parcell or tract of land Situate lying & being in Cecil County and commonly called or known by the Name of Pambrook being the now dwelling Plantation of the said Abraham Pennington." 

Today there is a property known as Pembroke Farm in Cecil County. It is listed on the Maryland Historical Trust. Pembroke Farm is a pleasant two-story farmhouse which is believed to have been built in 1798 by members of the Graham family, some forty years after Abraham Pennington's death in South Carolina. While I can't say for sure that Abraham Pennington's "Pambrook" was the same as the modern Pembroke Farm, the possibility is exciting, and it makes me want to pay a visit to the home one day. I can say for sure that spelling is no issue, and was much more subjective in the 18th century. It is also interesting to note that Abraham sold a separate 160 acres on Saw Creek to a man named John Graham in 1733, after Abraham moved to Virginia.

Abraham moved further south, finally settling in Berkeley County, South Carolina, where he died in 1755. His grandsons became some of the earliest white settlers of Lawrence County, Tennessee, where I was born and raised. The Penningtons established a firm foothold on the Buffalo River near Henryville in Lawrence County by 1818, and their descendants in the area are numerous today.