Jacob Henderson

Jacob Henderson was an Irish clergyman and philologist who emigrated to the colonial Provinces of Pennsylvania, then Maryland, where he became a prominent land owner and church leader.

Life before Maryland Very little is known about Henderson before 1710. On 5 June 1710, he was admitted to the Holy Orders by the Bishop of London, Henry Compton and appointed to the Mission at Dover then part of the Province of Pennsylvania and known as Dover Hundred.

In 1711, he traveled to New York and was apparently disturbed by what he observed in the churches there. In June 1712, he returned to England and described the state of the Church of England in New York and New Jersey as unacceptable, and implicating Governor Robert Hunter. While Hunter wrote a written rebuttal to this assessment, it served to raise Henderson's stature. Duvall had purchased sizeable tracts of land, including Catton, later known as Belair as well as owning Middle Plantation in Davidsonville, Maryland.

In 1696, she married Henry Ridgely. In 1700, Ridgely purchased an additional adjacent to Catton called Enfield Chase. Upon Ridgely's death in 1710, his third wife, now twice widowed, was executrix of the will and received those properties. Mary had previously inherited Middle Plantation in Davidsonville, Maryland when her first husband, Mareen Duvall died in 1694.

After the death of his first wife Mary, Jacob Henderson secondly married Mary (Stanton) on 2 November 1740. who at the time was the widow of Robert Tyler. She was the widow successively of a Mr. Dodd and of Robert Tyler, whom she had married on 12 June 1718 as Mary [the widow] Dodd.

Later voyages to England By this time, Henderson had become good friends with Provincial Governor Samuel Ogle. The distribution to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel was made in two payments. One was for 62 pounds, 17 shillings, 5 pence. The second was for 43 pounds, 4 shillings, and 10 pence. His will had been written on 4 August 1751 and probated on 26 October 1751. His wife Mary (née Stanton) wrote her will on 2 October 1761 and was probated on 18 February 1762 in Prince George's County, Maryland. In her will she styled herself as "widow of The Rivirend Mr. Jacob Henderson, late of Prince George's Co. decd." Among her bequests were ones to her "son-in-law" [step-son] Robert Tyler and to Daniel Stanton, son of my brother Daniel Stanton (my sd. nephew lately living in Philadelphia).