I think I may have found a reference to our Cornelius Carmack (1681) which
predates all other records we have on him. I believe we have only found a
few references to Cornelius in the very early 1700's in Cecil County
Maryland. I found a reference to a Cornelius Micormack in the Archives of
Maryland 1658-1662, Vol 41, Chapter Provincial Court of Maryland Proceedings
(page 563). This document are the Provincial Court Proceedings (from what I
can gather it is a transcript much like todays court stenographer).
The particular reference states the following (spelling and punctuation are
exactly as in the document):
"March 21th 1661 Cornelius Micormack aged twenty yeares or thereabouts
sworne & Examined Sayth That aboute a yeare before his Master Greenhill dyed
upon discourse between the said Greenhill & Wm Thompson he this depon' heard
his M' Greenhill say that if he could but once see Mr Piles payd Soe that he
might cleare that plantacon for his Child he did not care whether he lived
or dyed or words to that Effect and further sayth not
Jurat coram me L Barbier Cornelius Micormack his + marke"
Obviously this does not prove that this is our Cornelius but it is highly
likely that it would either be him or possibly his father. This proceeding
is relative to a land dispute in St Mary's County Maryland between John Pile
and John Greenwell. Apparently Pile sold land to Greenwell (his names is
spelled Greenwell and Greenhill throughout this document) and claims that
Greenwell did not pay for the land before Greenwell died. Thus he reclaimed
the land.
I'm hoping that this may lead us to new areas of research. It looks like
Cornelius was an indentured servant to Greenwell due to the language (e.g.
Master Greenhill). Maybe there is a way to find more information regarding
Greenwell's property in St Mary's County which would lead to additional
information.
If anyone has any thoughts or ideas on this please let me know. Also, if
anyone wants an electronic copy of this proceeding I can email it.
dale