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5 - The Veazey Family of Cherry Grove

In the previous tale I gave the ancestral lineage for the paternal side of Nancy Ann Price's father, Veazey Price. We don't know much about her mother's side, the Bartons, but the maternal ancestors of Veazey Price are well documented.

John Veazey

Veazey Price is a descendent of John Veazey, born in Essex, England, in 1647. They are said to be from an English family of Norman descent. The name "Veazey" could derive from a plant known as vetch in English or vesce in French. The lands where the plant grew came to be known as the "Veacey" lands. The name itself has many spellings including Veazey, Veasey, Veasie, Vesey, Veazie and Vezey. 

John Veazey was granted a tract of land in 1670 bordering the Bohemia and Elk Rivers in what is now Cecil County. This land later became known as "Veazey's Neck" and sat adjacent to "Veazey's Cove". This, along with subsequent land patents, would become the family's ancestral home and is still to this day known as "Cherry Grove". Although no gravestone or marker is known to exist it is likely that John Veazey is buried on the family homestead.

Cherry Grove historical marker
Cherry Grove, ancestral home of the (De) Veazeyy family.

The Price family lands sat directly south west of Veazey's Neck, so we know that the Price and Veazey families were, in fact, neighbors. 

We also know that both families resided within the North sassafras Parish and had associations with St. Stephen's Church. John Veazey was elected a warden of St. Stephen's on January 14, 1698. It is safe to say that both families attended services together and were likely well acquainted.

Relative locations of Price and Veazey Plantations
Relative locations of Price and Veazey Plantations

Descendents

George Veazey, the second son, was born to John and Martha Veazey in 1686. He too became a church warden and vestryman of St. Stephen's. He married first Alice Ward on November 19, 1708 and then second Katharine Beard in 1716.  One of his daughters by his second wife, was Eleanor Veazey, born on July 7, 1728.

Eleanor Veazey, granddaughter of John Veazey the immigrant, married Thomas Price II, grandson of William Price the immigrant.

Somewhere in Cecil County, possibly in Cherry Grove, Nancy Ann Price's father, Veazey Price, was born in 1746. And that is how the surname Veazey became a somewhat unusual first name - one that would appear again a few times in future Tracy lineages.

The marriage of Veazey Price to (Nancy) Ann Barton was recorded in St. John's Parish in nearby Baltimore County, on October 19, 1769. At some point the couple had relocated from their ancestral lands in Cecil County across the Chesapeake to Baltimore County. 

Movement of Veazey and Eleanor Price
Movement of Veazey and Eleanor Price

In the 1850 US Federal Census, Nancy Ann Price's age is recorded as 74, which would place her birth in the year 1776. Charles Crain gives us the date of March 27th - less than four months from the Declaration of Independence - and the place as Harford County (created from the eastern part of Baltimore County in 1773). By the time that the Revolutionary War was over she was only five years old. That means that she would, effectively, grow up to only know the United States as a free and independent nation.

Now that we know a bit more about Nancy Ann Price's family history we can turn our attention back to her husband, John Tracy. He is a far more elusive character.

Sources

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