Richard Lemaster I ¹⁰²

  General Notes:

The oldest son of Abraham Lemaistre appears to have been Richard Lemasters. Richard was not mentinoed in Abraham's will, it is assumed, because Richard had been given "Toombett" next to his father's acreage near Zekiah Swamp, when he was five years old, and it was to become his home for fifteen years later. There are precedents in both Maryland and Virginia of fathers securing land grants for underage sons, the purpose behind such practice being to circumvent the British custom of promogeniture. The omission of Richard Lemaster form his father's will, though understandable, is unfortunate for genealogists since no other documentation has been found to prove conclusively that Abraham Lemasters was Richard's father. However, careful scrutiny of records in St. Mary's and Charles counties during the latter 1600's reveals the presence of no other adult Lemaster male except Abraham. It is, therefore, a reasonable conclusion that Richard Lemasters was the son of Abraham Lemasters because there was no other Lemasteres around who could have been his father.
Richard Lemaster married Martha Dennis around 1690. Martha is believed to have been the daugthter of Jean and Lysbet Denys who fled France in 1685 when the Edict of Nantes was revoked and settled in Somerset County, Maryland, as John and Elizabeth Dennis. There is no record of the marriage, but on April 11, 1752, Thomas Jameson testified before the Charles County court in a dispute over a corner of Betty's Delight that Richard Lemasters and John Dennis, Jr. were "brothers." (Jameson meant by this statement that Richard and John were Brothers-in-law in modern parlance.) Land records also show that on John Dennis woned a plantation which adjoined Betty's Delight. This John Dennis may have been either the father or John Dennis Jr. The name was called Tennison in land records.
Richard and Martha (Dennis) Lemaster started their married life in St. Mary's co., Maryland, in the area claimed also by Charles Co., Maryland. When the matter was settled, their land was in Charles county. Both counties are at the tip of Maryland which is bounded by Chesapeake Bay.
As a married man, Richard was termed a "Carpenter". He also made several land transactions, some of them were repeated in more than one source.
Martha died between 1713, when her name appeared on a land deed, and 1723, when her name was absent from a land deed of that date.
In the settlement of Virginia, Tobacco was not merely the money crop, but was money, it being the medium of exchange. lt's value in relation to the English pound was fixed by the House of Burgesses, as was it's quality and the amount of production. (Early day crop allotments?)
Richard was able to purchase "Betty's Delight", for 5,000 pounds of Tobacco, in 1727 from his brother John, who had inherited it. Perhaps it was because John had produced no male heirs, that he was willing to sell the land to Richard, who willed the land to his son John. John sold it to one Abraham Hargess in 1747, thus removing Lemaster's ownership of "Betty's Delight" after sixty years of occupancy.
All of the children of Richard and Martha Lemasters remained in the Charles County area during the early part of their lives, but following the French and Indian War (1754-1763) several of them migrated farther west in Maryland and south across the Potomac River into Virginia.
Richard lived until after 1735. His will or grave have not been found.

Richard married Martha Dennis, daughter of Jean Denys and Lisbet, about 1694 in St Mary's Co., Maryland. (Martha Dennis was born about 1670 and died 1713 OR 1723 in Charles Co., Maryland.)