Dear Posey Folks, I read with interest this controversy mentioned by Rick Sanders and Micheal Allison and others about the "Posey Myths". I had to laugh because it is so similar to the controversy in my Rigg line about the "prevailing myth" around origins. We have/had the "Charles Rigg-and-Mary-Townley-shipboard-romance-story" in our line which goes like this: "Once about a time there was a (read "beautiful") young girl, born into a noble family named Townley, who's given name was Mary. One day, while riding her horse on the grounds of the (read "vast") Townley estate, her horse ran away with her. A (read "handsome") commoner named Charles Rigg, who lived in her "shire", and was riding through the woods that day, saw the runaway horse and the (read "damsel in distress") stopped the runaway. Thus Charles and Mary met and romance blossomed. Because of Charles's class status, Mary's father, Sir John Townley, disapproved of the romance and forbid them to marry. Charles Rigg and Mary Townley ran away to America, in opposition to the father's wishes. They were married onboard ship and the records were listed in a courthouse near the shore where they landed. The courthouse, unfortunately, burned,leaving no record of this marriage. They settled in (Virginia) and raised a "large family of boys". Mary Townley named her first son, Townley, after her surname." An early ancestor of mine in the Rigg line is Townley Rigg. As it turns out, Townley's father and mother are Thomas Rigg and Mary Peel of Charles County, Maryland. As it turns out, they are related to a long string of Thomas Riggs that stretch back in Charles County to maybe as early as 'ante 1675" or before. We have still not found the "Townley connection" yet, but there are Townley connections in early Charles County in the period we are looking at. Up until recently, almost everybody in the Rigg genealogical research circles believed this myth. Myself and a few others had our suspicions and continued to try to "bust this myth". It so clearly looked to me like a fairy tale. If I have a chance this weekend, I will tell my story of how I believe this myth devolped and the hold it took in the family. I understand Rick's frustrations only too well. It has taken all the time we have since we found the new material to make a dent in this myth. My guess is that it is still on a number of web sites. The story of how it devoloped is more interesting than the tale itself, I think. All the best, Charlotte Rigg Nugent