Billy, I am cc the Lenoir and Greene lists on this because of the Cowards. There were two Coward families in Greene - Edward out of Bertie, far as I know. THe other one was William Coward who married Ann Griffin of Craven Co. Ruth Fentress and I did a lot of work on the early family of Bertie years ago trying to hook up our William to that line and we couldn't. Allen has also done work on this family and Ray has published a book on the Griffin family out of ESVA. We don't have a good handle on William's birth, but he started having children by 1746 more or less. There is one entry in the Cross Indices from William Sr to William Jr ca 1750 to 1754 and our assumption is our William was the son of a William but that is not proven. THe William we can find in Bertie of the same age also had a wife Ann but they stayed in died in Bertie so there is just no fit. As I recall, Talbot Co is a burned County - naturally. This Richard Coward would not be the father of William of Dobbs unless Richard had another son not mentioned in his will but I wonder if there is a family connection especially since Charles Markland ended up in Dobbs. Thanks for the information - this gives us another place to look when we get back on the Cowards. Martha At 02:41 AM 10/26/01 EDT, you wrote: >Martha, I stumbled upon this will last night. > >The will of Richard COWARD of Bristol, England and county of Talbot, MD. The >will date is unreadable but a endorsement states that date was June 11, 1722. > >Son: John Coward >Daughters: Mary & Ann >Wife: Sibella >Witnesses: Charles Markland & Fran. Cook > >The will is pretty nigh unreadable but I think I got the facts that the >children were under-age. Charles did marry an Ann Coward (don't have the >source handy) so I suspect that these two were the parents of the Dobbs >County Charles Markland. > >Best of wishes, > >Billy > >