Shawhan Family History
Parish register entry · St. Paul's Parish, Kent County, Maryland

Marriage of Darby Shawhan and Sarah Meeks

20 November 1707

What it says

The register records the marriage of Darby Shawhan and Sarah Meeks on 20 November 1707. Clerks of the period spelled the surname many ways; this is where "Shawhan" first appears.

Why it matters

This is the earliest confirmed record of Darby in North America. Everything before it — his birth, his parents, his crossing — is reconstruction.

Marriage in the early Chesapeake usually meant a man had finished any term of service, could support a household, and was accepted by the community. By 1707 Darby was all of those things. Two years later he bought land at Shad's Hole.