Ancestoral implications

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This is a recreation of one of the original ships, the Dove, to bring the first colonists to Maryland
in 1634. My Richard Brightwell (later to become Captain of the Horse Rangers of Prince George's County and grandfather of William Kinnick who served in the Revolutionary War), entered America in 1663 as an indentured servant on a ship very much like this one.

These ships could both cross the Atlantic and sail up many of the rivers off the Chesapeake Bay and
load up on hogsheads of tobacco as well as leave off settlers and manufactured goods from England.

Records say that Richard Brightwell was brought to Maryland by Captain Thomas Trueman.

After serving his time as an indentured servant, he earned his freedom, and acquired land, married,
and had five children who reached adulthood. He also worked for the state and county government
as early as 1674, as a Ranger. As settlers moved inland, the local Indians were less friendly
than they had been in the St. Mary's area. Rangers, both on foot and on horseback, "ranged" out
along the frontier to report Indian activity and assist settlers they met along the way.
When Prince George's County was created in 1696, Captain Richard Brightwell was appointed
one of two Captain of the Horse Rangers, for the county, patrolling the western and
northern frontiers, from the Potomac River on the west to the Patuxent River on the east.

Although Richard Brightwell patented several parcels of land, he died just a few years later,
leaving five young children, three sons and two daughters, under the oversight of his friends,
William Watson and Thomas Greenfield, then Sheriff of Prince George's County, a common practice.

Richard Brightwell married, Katherine, one of five sisters. Katherine, along with her mother,
Elizabeth, and sisters, lived at Poplar Hill, a plantation owned by one of the sisters, Mary,
by way of her late husband, John Boague, who had patented the land in 1666.
Richard moved there and they began their family at Poplar Hill.

Their family included Richard, Peter and John Brightwell. They also had two daughters,
one whose name we do not know, and Elizabeth, who became the mother
of William Kinnick. His father, Jasper, died in 1733, when William was 14 years old.
In the Prince George's Orphans Court, he chose his uncle, John Brightwell as his guardian.

It appears that shortly after William reached the age of majority, he and his brother,
also named Jasper, served in the War of Jenkin's Ear.

On their return to Maryland, they spent the rest of their years in Charles County,
about five to ten miles south and west of Poplar Hill, in the Bryantown area.