Mareen "Maruis" the Elder John Eleanor Samuel Susannah Lewis Mareen the Younger Catherine Mary Elizabeth Roberts Johanna Poole Benjamin
Mareen Duvall (1625–1694)[1] was a FrenchHuguenot and an early American settler.
Background
Mareen Duvall was born in 1625, in Nantes, France and was originally named Marin Duval. On August 28, 1650, Duvall emigrated as an Indentured Servant (a contracted servant for seven years) to the English colony of Maryland.
Eventually, he acquired a patent for La Val from the Calvert family who were the first proprietors of colonial Maryland. It was possible that he named the family estate after the county of Laval, an independent county created in the 15th century. This property was on the south side the South River in Anne Arundel County, Maryland.[2] He became quite prosperous and his Middle Plantation in Davidsonville, Maryland and La Val were "as luxurious and courtly as any of the manors of the English gentry."[3]
He died in 1694 and left his substantial estate (which included at least 18 slaves[4]) to Mary Stanton, his third and final wife.[2][5] Then, she administrated said estate. Duvall had purchased sizeable tracts of land, including Catton which was later known as Belair,[6] as well as the Middle Plantation in Davidsonville, Maryland. Combined, he owned several thousand acres in the counties of Anne Arundel and Prince George.[2] Scholars believed that the location of the original house of Middle Plantation was somewhere along the Rutland Road.
^Nitkin, David; Merritt, Henry (2 March 2007). "A new twist to an intriguing family history". The Baltimore Sun. Retrieved 9 October 2020. The inventory of his estate in 1694 names 18 slaves, according to a family history published in 1952.
^ ab
Baltz, Shirley Vlasak (1984). A Chronicle of Belair. Bowie, Maryland: Bowie Heritage Committee. pp. 1–8. LCCN85165028.
^ abcVickers, Hugo (2011). Behind Closed Doors: The Tragic, Untold, Story of the Duchess of Windsor. London: Hutchinson. p. 377. ISBN978-0-09-193155-1.
