Kimmel Godwin (b. circa ? - d. circa 1834?)
MSA SC 5496-051242
Property Owner, Queen Anne's County, Maryland
Biography:
In 1774, Kimmel Godwin was living in Caroline County with his wife, Mary. A deed from that year described "Kemuel Godwin" as a planter.1 He had moved to Delaware by 1779.2 He then moved to Pennsylvania. In August 1810, the Philadelphia Monthly Meeting of Friends granted Godwin a certificate to remove to the Third Haven Monthly Meeting in Easton, in Talbot County, Maryland.3
During the War of 1812, Kimmel Godwin served as an ensign, and later as a 2nd lieutenant, in Maryland's 14th Regiment of the infantry. British forces captured Godwin at Detroit, and sent him to Halifax as a prisoner of war. He returned to the U.S. aboard the Matilda transport cartel in May or June 1814, and was promoted to 1st Lieutenant in August. He became ill in March 1815, and was honorably discharged on June 15, 1815.4 He had achieved the rank of captain by 1824.5
In 1816, Godwin purchased 100 acres of land in Caroline County, where he worked as the county tax collector.6 Prior to 1820, he was a master mason at Washington Lodge No. 59, in Denton, Caroline County. In 1820, Godwin was serving as a master mason for Union Lodge No. 63, in Church Hill, Queen Anne's County.7
In 1827, Godwin worked with William Temple and James McDonough to "alter, change, and put in good order all that part of the public road and divisional line between Queen Anne's and Caroline Counties from the village of Bullock-Town (now Templeville), to the Delaware line."8 By 1830, he was living near Sudler's Crossroads in Queen Anne's County.9 That year, the slave Isaac escaped from Godwin's farm, possibly heading toward relatives in Philadelphia.10
Kimmel Godwin stopped appearing in Centreville's assessment lists after
1833.11 He may have died intestate, since no references to a
will have been found in Queen Anne's or Caroline County indices.
1. CAROLINE COUNTY COURT, (Land Records), Liber A, Folio 47, [MSA CE 94-1]. Kemuel Godwin to Magor Fountain, August 1, 1774.
2. CAROLINE COUNTY COURT, (Land Records), 1774-1786, Liber A, Folio 337, [MSA CE 94-1]. Kimwell Godwin to Linsey A. Breeding, March 3, 1779.
3. William Wade Hinshaw, Encyclopedia of American Quaker Genealogy, Vol. 2 (Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 1999). 534.
4. War
of 1812, Prisoner of War Records, 1812-1815, for Kimmel Godwin, Ancestry.com.
Harrison
Scott Baker II, American Prisoners of War Held at Halifax During the
War of 1812: June 1812 - April 1815. Vol. I (Westminster, MD: Heritage
Books, 2008) 29.
William Matthew
Marine, The British Invasion of Maryland, 1812-1815 (Baltimore,
MD: Society of the War of 1812 in Maryland, 1913) 297.
Francis B.
Heitman, Historical Register and Dictionary of the United States Army,
Vol. 1 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1903) 461.
5. MARYLAND STATE PAPERS, (Scharf Collection), Council to Capt. Kimmel Godwin [MSA S1005-65-8314].
6. CAROLINE COUNTY COURT,
(Land Records), Liber L, Folio 596, Clement R. Chance to Kemmel Goodwin,
December 11, 1816.
CAROLINE COUNTY
COURT, (Land Records), Liber Q, Folio 163, [MSA CE 94-16], Kemmel Godwin
to Arthur Connely, October 4, 1828.
U.S.
Census Bureau (Census Record, MD) for Kimmel Godwin, 1820, Caroline County,
District 2, Page 349 [MSA SM61-75, M 2067-1].
CAROLINE COUNTY
REGISTER OF WILLS, (Administration Accounts), 1817-1827, Liber JY D, Folio
292, [MSA C459-5], Estate of James Carty Sr., April 5, 1824.
7. Edward T. Schultz, History of Freemasonry in Maryland, of All the Rites introduced into Maryland, Vol. 2 (Baltimore, MD: J.H. Medairy & Co., 1885) 363, 365.
8. Frederic Emory, Queen Anne's County, Maryland: Its Early History and Development (Baltimore, MD: The Maryland Historical Society, 1950) 533.
9. "100 Dol. Reward," Centreville Times and Public Advertiser 15 January 1831: 3.
10. Ibid.
11. QUEEN ANNE'S COUNTY LEVY COURT,
(Assessment List), 1829-1851, Description: Centreville, [MSA C1350-1],
Kemmel Godwin, Part of Lot 34, North (1829-1833).
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