Greathouse of Baltimore County, MD

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1768, May - Petition To Move Court House

Petitions For And Against Removeal Of The County Seat Of Baltimore County From Joppa To Baltimore Town, 1768

Your petitioners therefore humbly pray Your Excellency and Honours, will be pleased to take the premises into consideration and pass a Law for Disposing of the Ground and Materials of the present Court-House and Prison of this County, and for the Purchasing Ground, and Building a Court House and Prison, for the said County, in the Town of Baltimore aforesaid, for the Courts for the said County to be held in the said Court-House, and that the same be directed to be made staunch and convenient, and well constructed against the Danger of Fire, as to Your Excellency and Honors shall seem meet.

And Your Petitioners will ever pray, &c.

The Baltimore Petitions relative to the Removal of the Court House, signers:

Petition No. 2 [This petition was the English form.]

"Son of Harmon Greathouse"

Petition No. 38 [This petition was the English-German form.]

Johannes Grothaus
John Greathous

Footnotes:

1) The broadside petition forms, printed by Nicholas Hasselback of Baltimore, fall into three groups - two of these groups were printed in English alone, and one group in both and English and German. Petitions 1-28 and 35-36 were English form no. 285. Son of Harmon Greathouse signed Petition No. 2, English form no. 285. Petitions 29-34 and 38 were English-German form no. 287. Johannes Grothaus and John Greathous signed Petition No. 38, English-German form no. 287.

2) Regarding suffrage or the right to vote or petition the government about public matters in Maryland... on 3 Jul 1776, within 8 years after this petition to move the courthouse in Baltimore, MD was signed in 1768, it was:

"Resolved, that all freemen above twenty-one years of age, being freeholders of not less than fifty acres of land, or having visible property in this colony, to the value of £40 sterling at the least, and no others, be admitted to vote for representatives to serve in the said convention for the said counties and districts, and the town of Baltimore aforesaid ... provided such person shall have resided in the county, district, city or town, where he shall offer to vote, one whole year next preceding the election."

3) If the signers of this petition were "of lawful age" twenty-one or over, then each signer of the petition would have been born about 1747 or before.

4) The "Son of Harmon Greathouse" may have been under the "lawful age" twenty-one, but old enough, probably as the eldest son, to sign the petition as a representative of his father. If the "Son of Harmon Greathouse" was "of lawful age" twenty-one, at the time, then he would have probably signed his own name. If "Son of Harmon Greathouse" was age 18-21, then he would have been born between 1747 and 1750.

5) If "son of Harmon Greathouse" was age between 18 and 21, old enough to sign as representative for his father, then his father, Harmon Greathouse would have been between 18 and 21 years older or over 21 years older, so born between 1726 and 1729, or before 1726.

6) If footnotes 3, 4 & 5 above were the case, then the following would be plausible:

• Harmon Greathouse, born between 1726 and 1729, or before 1726.
• "Son of Harmon Greathouse", born between 1747 and 1750.
• Johannes Grothaus, born about 1747 or before.
• John Greathous, born about 1747 or before.

Sources:

Maryland Archives, Proceedings and Acts of the General Assembly, 1766-1768, Vol. 61. Online: Page 528, Son of Harmon Greathouse; Page 563, Johannes Grothaus and John Greathous,

Maryland Archives, Online: http://www.msa.md.gov

Maryland. Convention, Proceedings of the Conventions of the providence of Maryland, held at the city of Annapolis, in 1774, 1775, & 1776, J. Lucas & E. K. Deaver, 1836. Original from Harvard University, Digitized Sep 11, 2006. Page 184, Right of Suffrage Resolved by Maryland Convention, 3 Jul 1776. View @ Google Books