The names William and Edward Lanham are often associated in both church and land records in Maryland. The most unusual record is an entry in the parish register of King George's Parish, also known as Saint John's, in Piscataway, Prince George's County, Maryland. This entry is structured in a very odd way in that it admixes children of both William and Edward Lanham. It is confusing to read and open to interpretation. It also appears to contain at least one error. I have viewed and transcribed the original entry and am attempting to recreate it below as best I can.
From page 257 Register of King George's Parish (Church of England) 1689-1801
William Lanham & Alice Tolburt were joyned in Holy Mattrimony ye 15 January Ano 1720
Joseph & Benjamin son to yav borne ye 18 October 1721
John son to yav borne ye 12 December 1723
Sarah dau to yav borne ye 11a 4 May 1735*
(Note: Appears added right below.)
John Lanham son of Edwd born 30 Dec 1722
Nottley son to ya above born 11 October 1724
Mary daughter to ya above born 29 January 1726
Josias Lanham son to ya above born 2 September 1728
Susana daughter to ya above born 7 May 1731
Edw Lanham son to ya above born 28 February (nearly illegible) 1732
Sarah daughter to ya above born 4 May 1735*
* I read this as 4 May 1735, but Helen Brown read it as 9 May 1735. I would think she is correct after reading the handwriting for the entire record.
The condition of the register did not allow for a photocopy and the above is transcribed from my own handwritten notes. The record was not easy to read and I may not have transcribed things correctly. However, the critical elements such as, names and dates are as they appeared in the original entry. Most of the published transcribed lists of entries from this record that researchers use, such as the 1979 Prince George's County Historical Society publication are a summary list of names and dates and are not concerned about the layout of particular entries.
However, the layout of this entry is important. The anglican priest for some reason grouped William and Edward together. He lists a child Sarah twice once under William and again under Edward with the same birth date. I would think that it is unlikely that these are two children who happen to be born on the same day and were given the same name. It is likely that this is an error.
I hope that I correctly transcribed the word "son" after the William & Benjamin entry, but it has been so long ago that I did not recall being struck at the time by the fact the my transcribed word was singular rather than plural. It is too bad that the priest did not mention Edward's marriage date or wife's maiden name in the entry in the fashion he did for William Lanham. I do not know if there might have been a reason or this is just an omission. The oldest son in Edward's family was born December 1722. It is likely that Edward was married about a year prior to that date plus or minus three months, allowing for normal fertility of his spouse. Notice that William was married January 15, 1720/1721 (The new year being in March under the old calendar.). It appears that they had twins on October 18, 1721. That would be about nine months. Another very odd thing is the huge gap in the birth order of William's children. We have John in 1723 and no other child listed until Sarah in 1735. Perhaps any children born in those years died young and were not listed or some other circumstance explains this. Our records on William are rather sparse. William and Edward jointly patented a tract of land called "Lannum's Delight" in Prince George's County, Maryland. On December 7, 1724 William Lanham sold his 90 acres to Thomas Wilcoxon. William's wife, Alice Lanham gave up her dower rights. Following this sale there are no certain mentions in Maryland records of this William Lanham for a period of time until he appears again in such records as his 1764 deposition. They are some researchers who theorize that he might have moved out of Maryland to Virginia and later returned. This is an area that needs more documentation.
