Individual Details

Richard was born 1661, 7m, 29d. Marsden MM Register. The 7th month in 1661, was September. Digital image on Ancestry - birth recorded, Monthly Meeting of Lancaster, Lancashire. He died at St. Michaels, Talbot Co, MD, circa June 1721
"on the 29th day of the 7th month 1661 Allis the wife of Richard Ratclife did beare a son & they called his name Richard"

Richard came from Liverpool to Maryland on the "Submission" in 1682. They were bound for the Delaware River or elsewhere in Pennsylvania. However, the Captain, James Settle, claimed to not know his exact location and one researcher speculated he had landed in Maryland where he would receive head-money for each new immigrant. However, the ship's logs revealed storms and considerable damage to the ship. The passengers were unloaded at Choptank, MD, 10 Nov 1682.

http://www.tsdar.org/chapters/BrazosValley/ships.htm
Individual Ships of Penn's Fleet and their passengers
The Submission
November 2, 1682, James Settle, master, one of Penn's fleet.
Randall and Allis Blackshaw and family: Phebe, Sarah, Abraham, Jacob, Mary, Nehemiah and Martha
Robert Bond
Roger and Eleanor Bradbury and family: Jacob, Martha, Jospeh, Sarah and Roger
Elizbaeth Breadbury
James and Jane Clayton and children: James, John, Joshua, Sarah, Mary and Lydia
Jane and Margery Maude
Allis Dickenson
James and Ann Harrison, Agness Harrison
Ellis and Jane Jones and family: Barbary, Dorothy, Mary and Isaac
Jane Lyon
Joseph Mather
Marjory Mede, Jane Mede
Phineas and Phebe Pemberton and children: Abigail and Joseph
Ralph Pemberton
Richard Radcliffe
Joseph Steward
Lydia Wharmby

The Captain's Log survives and has been copied.
Michael Tepper, ed., "The Sailing of the Ship 'Submission' in the Year 1682, With a True Copy of the Vessel's Log" in NEW WORLD IMMIGRANTS: A CONSOLIDATION OF SHIP PASSENGER LISTS & ASSOCIATED DATA FROM PERIODICAL LITERATURE, vol. 1 (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1988) pp. 235-238.
http://familytree.ratcliffs.net/submission.htm
There were 49 passengers on board, many of them members of six families. The passenger list shows Richard Radclif, age 21 - he seems to have traveled alone although the Harrison & Pemberton families from Lancashire were aboard, as well as several other singles.
The log states that they were bound to Pennsylvania. They went aboard at the Port of Liverpoole 1682, 5th of the 7th m [September]. James Settle was Captain, the mate was Samuel Rigg; there were 9 other crew members. Abraham, age 10, son of Randolph Blackshaw, died at sea. On the same day they were struck by a storn that staved in part of the boat and broke the mast. There were two days when the captain noted great schools of Porpoises following the boat. The log is mostly a weather report. When they were within 80 leagues of land, the captian noted smelling the pines. The voyage took 58 days.

Richard transferred his membership in the Society of Friends to the Third Haven Monthly Meeting in Talbot Co, MD in 1682. He was witness to numerous marriages and his own marriage is recorded there.

Richard and Mary Caterne first announced their intentions to marry at the Third Haven Monthly Meeting, 1690, 12m 6d. Richard was required to write to a Friend in Pennsylvania, Henry Baker, and get from under any entanglement for the account of marriage with Henry Baker's daughter. Apparently James had lived for a short time with his older brother James in Bucks Co, PA. Church records in the town of St. Michael's indicate they had at least eight children.


From Maryland Quaker Records by Lucy Kate McGhee, online at Ancestry.com:
Vol 3, Part 1, p.36
Whereas Richard Ratcliff of Talbot County in the province of Maryland, sawyer [also transcribed by some as lawyer], and Mary Catherine Caterne, spinster of the same county and province, aforesaid, having declared their intentions of marriage two several times at several meetings, of the people of God called Quakers, in the county aforesaid, which was approved on by those meetings, now these are to certify all people whom it may concern that for the full accomplishment of the intentions aforesaid this 13th of the 3rd month called May in 1691 in an assembly of the aforesaid people of God at their meeting house at Tuccaho Creek in the county aforesaid, Richard Ratcliff did solumnly in the fear of God according to the example of the Holy men of God recorded in the Scriptures of Truth take the said Mary Caterne to be his wife and in like manner she the said Mary Caterne did then and there take the said Richard Ratcliff to be her husband, each of them promising to be faithful one to another, as husband and wife so long as they shall live and we who were present at their taking each other have hereunto set our hands, witnesses unto the same, the day and year above written.
Richard Ratcliff, Mary [her mark] Ratcliff,
John Pitt, Thos. Cook, Samuel Usley, Bazl. Stone, Edward Clark, Wm. Berry, John Baynard, Thos. Alcock, George Pratt, Jon Newman, Jonathan Ary, Thos. Aylor, Richard Hall, Jon Pemberton, James Rdly, Robert Regester, Jon Jadwin, Benj. Parrott, Jon. Wotters, John Esdale, Sarah Pitt, Mary Sockwell, Hannah Jadwin, Sarah Hall, Elizabeth Allcock, Elizabeth Parrott, Mary Goult, Elizabeth Pitt.

1710, Richard Ratcliff bought "Jerusalem", a 400 acre tract in Queen Anne's Co, MD from Charles Hollingsworth and wife Mary. The land originally taken up by John Hollingsworth. It was on the south side of the Chester River, the SE branch of the head of the river. Liber 7, p.147a [part of this deed is missing at the Maryland Land Records online site]

1 Nov 1715, Richard sold 200 acres of "Jerusalem" to Richard Tilghman.

5 Nov 1715, Richard Ratcliff, planter & weaver, bought 170 acres called "Jacob & John's Pasture" from Samuel Cochayne, gentleman, and Anne his wife for 15,000 #'s of tobacco. Richard Carter, late of Talbot Co, merchant, deceased, purchased a tract of John Newman and Jacob Abraham which was afterward divided between John Newman and Thomas Eubanks. Sold by John Newman and wife Joan as the same moiety [half] of 170 acres. Boundaries begin at the line of Thomas Eubanks, descending to a valley on the Mill Branch, East side of the Court Road, by a great marsh and the road side, till it intersects Thomas Eubanks. Signed by Samuel and Anne Cochayne. Wit: Thos. Emerson, W. Clayton, Theodorus Bonner. On the same day the deed was acknowledge by Samuel and Anne Cochayne released her dower rights. Liber 12, p.220

Will of Richard Ratcliff
"IN THE NAME OF GOD, AMEN. I, Richard Ratcliff, of Talbot Co., Md., being at this time in perfect health and sound mind and perfect memory and knowing the uncertainty of this life do therefore make and ordain this my last will and testament upon this eighth day of January in the year of our Lord one thousand, seven hundred and twenty, revoking all other will or wills heretofore made by me and this my last will to stand authentic above them all.
"I give and bequeath my soul to the Almighty God that gave it, hoping that by and through Jesus Christ our Lord his only son to obtain remission for my sins and to find acceptance with Him, and my body buried in Decency at the discretion of my Executors hereinafter named.
"And for those worldly goods that it has pleased the Almighty God to bestow on me, I give and bequeath as follows:
"Item, I give and bequeath unto my son, James Ratcliff, one half of one hundred and seventy acres of land called by the name of Jacob and John's Pasture, next to the main road on the plantation where I now live, to him and the male heirs of his body forever. [The entail "to the male heirs of his body forever" would cause problems among his great-grandsons as late as 1791, as they cleared title to this tract]
"Item, I give and bequeath unto my son John Ratcliff, the other half of that tract of land called Jacob and John's Pasture, and next unto hog neck, to him and his male heirs forever, with one forty foot tobacco house. [John sold his part to his brother James before leaving for North Carolina. John's eldest son Joseph would also have to "break the tail" of this provision, 1775.]
"Item, I give and bequeath unto my son Samuel Ratcliff, part of a tract of land called by the name of Jerusalem, lying in that part of the land that I sold to Col. Richard Tilghman, 100 acres of land to him and his heirs forever.
"Item, I give to my well beloved wife, Mary Ratcliff, the plantation and the moveables, during her life, and after her decease the moveables to be equally divided amongst my three sons and two daughters, That is to say, John, William, Samuel, Alice and Mary Ratcliff.
"I also appoint my wife, Mary Ratcliff, James and John Ratcliff, to be wholly and solely executors of this my estate.
s/"Richard Ratcliff (SEAL)
"Signed, sealed and delivered in the presence of us.
"And: Allen
"Edward E. F. Fish.
"Dominick Cowen
"Item, I give and bequeath unto my son, John Ratcliff, one steel whip saw."
WILLS, Vol. 16, page 484, Hall of Records, Annapolis, Md.; as cited in Clarence Earl Ratcliff, B.S., M.A., RICHARD RATCLIFF OF LANCASHIRE, ENGLAND AND TALBOT COUNTY, MARYLAND AND HIS ANCESTORS AND DESCENDENTS, 1066-1988, (1963; eighth edition privately published by Clarence Earl Ratcliff, 1988), and published on the Internet at URL http://don.ratcliff.net/tree/rr.html.

The inventory of Richard Ratcliff's estate dated 17 Jul 1721 had "next of kin" John Fellows and John Kennedy - indicating the marriages of Alice and Mary to these two men.


Some claim Richard's son William had a twin, Robert or Robert Anthony Ratcliff. The Ratcliff book that cites the births of the children recorded at St. Michael's Church Register, Talbot, MD does not have any sets of twins, nor any son Robert or Anthony. There was a son named Richard, born 5 Mar 1691/2 - certainly not a twin and probably died young. The will of William's father mentions no son Robert or Anthony. However - on Ancestry from a transcript from St Michaels Parish, Talbot, MD, there is the record for "Anthony Ratcliffe, son of Richard Ratcliffe, born 15 Sep 1696 - the same date as William.

That there was a Robert who married Mary Touchstone seems to be true - he just may not have been a twin of William. In fact what I can find about this Robert he had no relationship.

The first four children are recorded as born Anderbies Creek, Talbot Co - there is no longer any place of this name in Maryland. However, there is an Anderby Creek - a hamlet - in Lincolnshire, England.

Found on JSTOR:
The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 29, No. 4 (1905), pp. 427-438
"Register of St. Michael's Parish, Talbot County, Maryland, 1672-1704" contributed by M. Atherton Leach.
Mr Leach points out that this is all of the register that survives prior to 1823.
On p.435, the only entries for Ratcliffe:
Richard Ratcliffe, of Auderbies Creek, had these children: Richard, b. 5 Mar 1691/2. James, b. 6 May 1693.
A footnote states this transcript of the Register was copied twelve years earlier from the time-stained almost illegible original and differs in a few particulars from a later manuscript copy made by and in the possession of the Maryland Historical Society.

Birth	29 Sep 1661	Chapel Hill, Rossendale, Lancashire, England
Marriage	13 May 1691	Talbot County, Maryland - MARY Caterne
Death	1 Jun 1721	Saint Michael's, Talbot County, Maryland

Spouse	MARY Caterne ( - )
Child	Richard Ratcliff (1691 - 1720)
Child	James Ratcliff (1693 - 1765)
Child	JOHN Ratcliff (1694 - 1771)
Child	William Ratcliff (1696 - 1732)
Child	Jane Ratcliff (1698 - 1720)
Child	Samuel Ratcliff (1700 - )
Child	Alice Ratcliff (1702 - )
Child	Mary Ratcliff (1704 - )

Father	RICHARD Ratcliff (1614 - 1675)
Mother	ALICE Rawsthorne (1618 - 1670)
Sibling	Agnes Ratcliff ( - )
Sibling	William Ratcliff (1643 - 1645)
Sibling	James Ratcliff (1645 - 1690)
Sibling	John Ratcliff (1646 - 1650)
Sibling	Isabella Ratcliff (1647 - 1687)
Sibling	Alice Ratcliff (1649 - 1692)
Sibling	John Ratcliff (1657 - 1735)
Sibling	Elizabeth Ratcliff (1659 - 1721)
Sibling	Susan Ratcliff (1663 - 1664)