The Chancery Court Records of 1821 yield a new perspective of Hampshire County, VA/WV. In addition to the Green Men of Maryland that we have been exploring we find a series of records that shed light on a new intersectionality between the Green Men of Maryland and someone named Peter Babb. The obvious answer wasn’t the correct one in this case.

This story first comes through in a lawsuit filed by Peter Babb against James Williams in Hampshire County, VA/WV. The Chancery Court was a specialized court that dealt with equity cases rather than common law matters. It focused on resolving disputes related to trusts, estates, property rights, and other equitable issues. Note that it did NOT have Frederick County, VA as part of its jurisdiction.

We pick up the trail with an entry on 23 Nov 1821 and carry it through to the end of the proceedings on 22 Apr 1822. Part of the text is difficult to read, so it is hard to understand exactly what has happened. But it appears that Peter won his case.

Digging a Little Deeper

Digging a little deeper we find another suit that Peter filed against a Thomas B. Overton on 07 Dec 1818. Mr. Overton did not show up for the proceedings and thus Peter won his suit and Mr. Overton was ordered to pay Peter’s expenses for the suit.

Additionally, Mr. Overton had to forfeit over 10,000 acres of land. Here is a summary of the tracts involved:

Number of Tracts	Acres	Location Notes
1	4,400	Frederick Co. Includes Copper Springs on Back Creek
1	400	Frederick Co.
17	200 272 308 310 422 288 400 406 351 189 200 188 400 400 220 320 340	Hardy Co.
19	10,014

A Rabbit Hole

As I mentioned previously, there is no one by the name of Peter in the Green Men of Maryland tree. For that I first looked to Hampshire’s parent, Frederick County, VA.

This is a story of a Peck of Peters.

In Frederick County alone, we have:

Peter (1-2-3)
Peter (1-2-2-2)
Peter Jr (1-2-2-2-5)
Peter (1-2-2-2-5-7)

I started down this road, but as I worked to include the various court documents, I kept seeing things that were hard to explain. They didn’t quite jibe with what we knew about the Frederick County Babbs. One document that would have pulled everything together, instead blew it all apart.

You’ll note that there was an immense amount of land in Hardy County, and I stared at Census Records with who groups of Babbs that weren’t in the tree. I had but a single person in the tree who was living in Hardy County. I was befuddled.

One of the Census records listed the Babb as being born in Pennsylvania. To which I shouted an obscenity! Instantly, I knew my mistake.

Finally, an Answer!

There is a lineage of Babbs that I don’t discuss very often, known as the Bavarian Babbs (aka Blue Panters of Bavaria). Their tree had been spun off into its own sometime back due to size constraints in Family Tree Maker. That problem no longer exists, but they had never been brought back into the fold. I’ve been bitten by this before. The Blue Panthers are known to us because they migrated to Pennsylvania from Bavaria (go figure).

Checking their tree, I was rewarded with matching people and places. The family had a significant presence in Hardy County, which was even documented in Jean A. Sargent’s Babb Families of America.

So, I’ve merged them back in with the Big Tree, which just leaves the Barbados lineages separate at this time. I would like to bring them in, but their tree is so fragmented at this point that people will just disappear into the ethos of 42K other Babbs. Once we have matured that tree, we will work to bring the two together. This is the same thing I did for the England research for the longest time. It was only once I was able to track the Lions of the Sea across the Atlantic that I brought them together.

I’ll be sorting this out over the coming days and will have additional info on this departure from our Green Men storyline.

As to who Peter is, he is the son of Johannes Babb & Anna Maria Reil. Peter was born 04 Feb 1772 in PA and died between 27 Jul-10 Sep 1822 in Hardy Co, VA/WV. His number in the tree is 6-1-3.