Re: 1799 Chancery Papers in Maryland mentions Gorrell
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In reply to:
1799 Chancery Papers in Maryland mentions Gorrell
11/06/01
Andrew Kelly was a son of Alexander Kelly, and brother to Robert, Jane, Elizabeth, Ann, Martha, and Rachel.
Ann Kelly married William Gorrell in 1779. He was apparently the son of Abraham and Isabella. They had several children. Martha married his brother James. Rachel married William Smith, and Jane married Andrew Hall.
I think that Elizabeth Kelly married Abraham Gorrell, father of William and James, as a second wife, and they had a family. Abraham and Isabella (whose surname may NOT have been Kelly) may not have had a happy marriage; they were living apart from at least 1775 to 1783 (when Isabella shows up alone on a tax list). This assumes, of course, that they were married in the first place.
Isabella was the mother of John, William, Joseph, Thomas, James, Esther, and Hannah Gorrell, and perhaps others including Robert. She may have been dead by 1790, when Abraham is living next to his sons. Abraham married Elizabeth Kelly before 1792. Seems a bit odd that he would marry his sons' sister-in-law, but who knows. Maybe she was a widow when they married.
The only other Abraham Gorrell in Harford Co. was William's son, who appears to have married Elizabeth Carroll in 1806. Elizabeth Kelly Gorrell is a widow on the 1810 census with children, which fits with Abraham Sr. dying between 1800 and 1810.
There is a lot of confusion about this family, but I think it's clear that the William Gorrell who married a Van Metre WAS NOT the William who married Ann Kelly. Therefore, the VA/WVA William Gorrell wasn't the son of the Harford Gorrells. Isabella's son William was 21 in the 1776 census.
Robert Gorrell is linked to Isabella's sons Joseph and William. Robert was a taxpayer in Susquehanna Hundred in 1775 (also the residence of Isabella, Abraham, and Robert's father in law Thomas Smith), and he was the security for the bachelor Joseph Gorrell (who was about 19), probably because Joseph was living with him. In 1776, Joseph is back with Isabella. In 1783, William Gorrell owns land in the same tract as Thomas Smith, and Joseph too owned some of Smith's land (a different tract) when he (Joseph) died around 1791. Deeds should be checked to see whether they bought this land from Robert after he moved to PA.
There don't seem to be any other Gorrell families in the vicinity in the mid-late 1700s.