Individual Details

William married Mary Fellows, daughter of Robert and Sarah Fellows, Third Haven Monthly Meeting, 1719, 9m, 26d. Mary received "Arcadia", 34 acres, from her father's estate. Robert and John Fellows, her brothers, were administrators of the estate. Mary remarried after the death of William, to John James, 1732.

From a distant cousin on 23andMe, email 12 Apr 2012:
William Ratcliff m. Mary Fellows
William Ratcliff m. Susannah Thomas (dau. of Thomas Thomas and Susannah CLOTHIER)
Robert Clothier Ratcliff (b. 1764 MD, d. 1815 LA) m. Elizabeth Fields; Robert Clothier Ratcliff was in Anson County, NC by 1790, Beaufort County, SC by 1810, Colleton County, SC by 1810, and after that to Louisiana; reportedly they left North Carolina due to familial tensions- his family were Patriots, his wife's family were Loyalists; he was a lieutenant of the Louisiana militia at the Battle of New Orleans, wounded in battle, and died a few days later.
Robert Ratcliff (b. 1801 SC, d. bef. 1880 LA) m. Mary LNU
Jane Ratcliff (b. 1833 LA, d. 1917 LA) m. Theophilus Drakeford Blount
Jane named one of her sons Robert Clothier Blount, who also named one of his sons Robert Clothier Blount. The younger one was my great-grandmother's father, and he died in 1965. I find it quite fascinating that they kept a family name, acquired through marriage in the early 1700s, going as a middle name for more than 200 years.


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 Anthony. There was a son named Richard, born 5 Mar 1691/2 - certainly not a twin and probably died young as the will of William's father mentions no son Robert or Anthony. I suspect this is another fraudulent connections probably perpetuated by an old Ancestral file, carried forward by FamilySearch. That there was a Robert who married Mary Touchstone seems to be true - he just may not have been a twin of William. Others give Robert a birth of about 1690 in Sussex, 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.

Birth	15 Sep 1696	Talbot County, Maryland
Marriage	1719	Talbot County, Maryland - Mary Fellow
Death	Bef Oct 1732	Talbot County, Maryland

Spouse	Mary Fellow (1703 - )
Child	William Ratcliff ( - )

Father	RICHARD Ratcliff (1661 - 1721)
Mother	MARY Caterne ( - )
Sibling	Richard Ratcliff (1691 - 1720)
Sibling	James Ratcliff (1693 - 1765)
Sibling	JOHN Ratcliff (1694 - 1771)
Sibling	Jane Ratcliff (1698 - 1720)
Sibling	Samuel Ratcliff (1700 - )
Sibling	Alice Ratcliff (1702 - )
Sibling	Mary Ratcliff (1704 - )