Who was John Wathen of Southern Maryland?

John Wathen was a seventeenth-century carpenter who left England in 1670 and settled in Southern Maryland, where he raised a family whose descendants would spread across the American frontier. If you are a Wathen or Warthen with roots in Maryland, Kentucky, or Indiana, there is a strong likelihood that your family history begins with him. In September 1670, John left Bristol, England and crossed the Atlantic aboard the Francis & Mary, arriving in Maryland as an indentured servant. There, he would put down roots, raise a family, and become the ancestor of thousands of Wathens throughout the United States.

The Journey to Maryland

Bristol was one of the busiest port cities in England during the late seventeenth century. The docks bustled with activity as commodities like tobacco and sugar made their way out of the New World into the Old. Tattered posters along the cobblestone streets promised an exciting opportunity to “adventurers,” young men and women who were brave enough to cross the Atlantic and settle in the English colonies. England at the time was experiencing high levels of unemployment, as many in the lower and middle classes of society struggled to find work. Colonies like Maryland, however, had a great need for able-bodied laborers to help work plantations and settle the New World.

Most colonists couldn’t afford to pay their own passage from England to America. To earn their fare, they would sign a contract, or “indenture,” committing themselves to serve a master for several years in exchange for travel and provisions. John signed an indenture on September 10, 1670, promising to serve Hugh Thomas in Southern Maryland. While most indentures lasted four or five years, John’s contract was for three years, likely reflecting his skills as a trained carpenter and wheelwright.

From Servant to Settler

Land was plentiful in colonial Maryland, and indentured servants were entitled to claim fifty acres of land after completing their term of service. In 1674, John requested the land that was due to him from Governor Calvert for the completion of his service to Hugh Thomas. There’s evidence that John Wathen conducted business and owned land in both St. Mary’s County and Charles County.

We don’t know who John’s parents were, but there is some evidence that he was from Herefordshire, England. Once John completed his own indentured servitude, he paid for the transportation of four individuals from Herefordshire, suggesting that he was from the same area. One of those individuals – Susanna Brayne – seems to have become his wife.

After paying for the transportation for these four settlers, John received 200 acres in Port Tobacco, Charles County from the governor in 1701, naming the plantation “Wathen’s Adventure.” John also purchased two plots of land in Newport, Charles County.

The Carpenter at Newport

Beginning in 1701, we also find evidence that John Wathen had been hired as a carpenter to work on King and Queen Anglican Church in Newport, Charles County, Maryland. The Newport Church on which he worked stood near the present-day Trinity Church in Newport, which wouldn’t be built until 1751.

We know about John’s work on the Anglican Church because John didn’t get paid – John complained to the Maryland General Assembly in 1701 that the parish had not compensated him for the work he had completed. A handwritten bill by John Wathen can still be found in the Maryland State Archives.

The Faith of John Wathen

Though John was hired to work on King and Queen Anglican Church in Maryland, there is very little reason to doubt that he himself was a Catholic. Catholicism was officially outlawed in England, John’s place of birth, but pockets of resistance continued in remote areas like Herefordshire. Nonconformists or “Recusants” – from the Latin recusare, “to refuse” – would not submit to the Church of England, occasionally suffering fines and other punishment for their convictions when caught. For example, St. John Kemble (1599 –1679), a Catholic priest who lived at the same time as John Wathen, was born and martyred in Herefordshire, England. Others outwardly participated to varying degrees in the Church of England while privately holding Catholic convictions.

I have found no original records to prove the religious beliefs of John Wathen, but a survey of his descendants provides strong evidence: The many Wathens documented in the earliest generations were, almost without exception, Catholics. If the words of Jesus are to be trusted – “each tree is known by its own fruit” (Luke 6:43 RSV2CE) – then we can be confident that John himself was of the same faith, at least by the time he was raising his children in Maryland.

The fact that John Wathen named his son “Ignatius” gives further evidence of his faith: Ignatius was a distinctively Catholic name in colonial Maryland, often given as a sign of one’s religious identity. St. Ignatius of Loyola was the sixteenth-century founder of the Society of Jesus, also known as the Jesuits, whose missionary priests were zealous in their defense of the Catholic faith. Although Queen Elizabeth I banned the Jesuits in England, they continued their work there in secret. Jesuit priests then openly served throughout Southern Maryland from the earliest days of the colony. In an era when religious tensions were high, Catholics were much more likely than Anglicans to name their children after the well-known Catholic St. Ignatius.

It is very likely that John Wathen had some connection to the congregation that would become St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Newport, Charles County, Maryland. The Catholic community, established about 1674 by Franciscan Fr. Basil Hobart, is situated on part of a 400-acre tract of land named St. Thomas. John Wathen purchased plots of St. Thomas from Thomas Sympson in 1676 and 1704, suggesting that he was connected to the fledgling Catholic parish.

The Descendants of John Wathen

John signed a will in Charles County, Maryland on February 28, 1705. The will reveals the names of eight children: John Jr., Ignatius Sr., James, Hudson, Henry, Judea, Jane, and Ann. John left the plantation on which he lived to his wife Ann Wathen for the duration of her life, and afterward to his son John Jr. and his heirs. He devised the tract Wathen’s Adventure in Port Tobacco to his son Ignatius, and his land and houses “in the town called Newport” to his son James. To his children Hudson, Henry, Judea, and Jane, he left 10,000 pounds of tobacco each, to be paid in annual installments beginning one year after his death. To his daughter Ann, he left 4,000 pounds of tobacco, to be paid beginning in the second year following his death.

Within a few generations, John Wathen’s descendants had spread far beyond Southern Maryland. Some moved into Montgomery County and Frederick County, where the family name increasingly appeared as “Warthen.” Others joined the great Catholic migration into Kentucky, and later into Indiana, Missouri, and beyond.

Among John’s descendants were farmers, carpenters, shoemakers, Revolutionary War soldiers, priests, nuns, educators, and – famously – bourbon distillers. Though their lives differed greatly, they shared a common origin in one man’s decision to cross the Atlantic in 1670.

For more information

To learn more about John Wathen and his many descendants, see my books:

• The Wathens of Southern Maryland (2023), which traces the families who remained in St. Mary’s and Charles Counties down to the present day.
• Wathen’s Adventure (newly released), which explores John Wathen’s life and the first four generations of his descendants, following them as they moved beyond Southern Maryland into Kentucky, Indiana, and Missouri.

Together, these books aim to preserve the history of a family from Southern Maryland for future generations.