Mary Bowden was born in Westmoreland County Virginia. I have documentation 
stating that she was born in the house of William Monroe, to Mary Monroe 
(who is listed as his servant). From reading court documents I found that my 
ancestor was born on February 20, 1730 in Westmoreland County. Her mother, 
Mary was taken to court and charged with bastardy, and amazingly was 
acquited. The court more or less stated that Mary could not be guilty of 
bastary, since it was against the law for her to marry a white man. I have 
come to the conclusion that Mary Bowden was related to the Monroes.  I 
recently learned that the mother of Mary Monroe, was born in the house of 
the Monroes. William Monroe was the grandfather of President James Monroe, 
and my ancestor was Williams granddaughter.

When Mary Bowden was indentured to the Washingtons' she was living in the 
house of Thomas Chilton. The Chilton's and Monroes have a relationship 
(named in each others wills etc.), related, and my guess is Mary's parents 
were deceased. She was seven years old when her indenture started, and 
almost fifty when it ended.

Anita

>From: Nathan Murphy <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: Discussion of research and writing about Virginia history         
>      <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: search for Gov. Spotswood's wife
>Date: Fri, 2 Feb 2007 22:45:54 -0700
>
>Anita,
>
>This is a very interesting story, I've seen it discussed on this list 
>before. Do you know if Mary Bowden was a servant imported from Europe?
>
>Nathan W. Murphy, MA, AGŪ
>www.immigrantservants.com
>
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