From: mlake at melake.erols.com (Marshall Lake)
Date: Sat, 27 Jul 2002 12:54:13 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: LAKEs in Early Maryland

Baltimore Sun
10 Apr 1904

SIDE-LIGHTS

The Lake Family
  John Lake of Irby, who married the daughter of ------ Osgodby, had a son,
Richard Lake of Irby, whose first wife, Anne, daughter and co-heir of Edward
Wardell of Keelby, was the mother of Edward Lake, Chancellor of the Diocese
of Lincoln, a staunch adherent of King Charles I, fought for his sovereign at
the battle of Naseby, in recognition of which services he was knighted and
granted a coat of arms, being an additional augmentation. Sir Edward Lake
was given the privilege of naming his successor to his title and estates.
He died in the middle of the seventeenth century and was succeeded by his
grandnephew, Sir Bibye Lake, subgovernor of the African Company.
  Tradition says that the founders of the Lake family in Maryland left
England as the result of religious persecutions following the death of the
Martyr King.
  Those who arrived in the Province after this event were John Lake, who
came in 1658, and George and John Lake, who arrived three years later,
and were probably brothers.  The name, however, appears much earlier in
the Maryland records, as in 1637 Robert Lake, planter, an inhabitant of
the Isle of Kent, figured in the court proceedings relative to Claiborne's
rebellion two years earlier.  It is therefore probable that he arrived with
the party of first settlers on the Ark.
  From the many large land tracts patented to the Lake emigrants who settled
in the lower part of Dorchester county one section bears the name of "Lake's
district," which is still peopled with descendants of the first settlers.
  Rev. Charles Lake, of Dorchester county, whose name appears in the records
as having conducted the services at "the church in Dorchester Parish" in the
Colonial period 1739-40, left that county to become the rector of St. James'
Parish, in Anne Arundel.  He died in the latter county in the year 1764,
leaving his books, papers, etc., to Rev. Samuel Keene and Mr. William Keene.
  The men of the Lake family rendered conspicuous service in the Revolutionary
War, as well as in both church and civil life in the Colonial period.
  Capt. Henry Lake, son of Henry Lake, Sr., was commissioned captain of
a company of Dorchester county militia in 1776.  Some years later he was
appointed judge or justice of Dorchester county, and in the year 1797 the
important office of High Sheriff of the county was bestowed on him. Capt.
Henry Lake married Rhoda Jewett in the year 1762 and had, among other
children, a handsome daughter named Lovey -- a name suggestive of the
winsomeness which, added to her high spirit, made her a great belle. An
interesting family tradition, in which Lovey was the heroine, tells of her
defiantly resisting the attempt of a British soldier to take off her silver
shoe buckles.  It appears that the marauding party set fire to the Lake house
to revenge the pretty Lovey, who, however, not only extinguished the fire,
but made her escape through a back window, never stopping until she reached
her father's company of soldiers, who put the British ruffians to flight,
glad to escape in their boats without their fair prisoner.  The mother
of this daughter of the Revolution also suffered in the cause, receiving
a bayonet wound in the arm while resisting the capture of her husband.
The interesting Lovey, or, more properly, Lavina Lake, became the wife
of John Stewart McNamara, an officer in the Revolutionary War, and left
numerous descendants.
  Two of Capt. Henry Lake's children married into the Barnes family, two
married Slocums, while others formed alliances with the Keenes and Muirs.
  The wife of Gov. Thomas Holliday Hicks was a great-granddaughter of
Capt. Henry Lake, the High Sheriff and Justice of Dorchester county.  Another
great-granddaughter of this distinguished Revolutionary officer became the
wife of the late Mr. Benjamin F. Cator, one of the founders of the firm of
Armstrong & Cator.  Other direct descendants intermarried with the Hooper,
Henry, Eccleston, Craig, Mister, Phillips, Dail, Noble and Medford families.
  George Lake, the son of Capt. Henry Lake and his wife, Rhoda Jewett Lake,
became a captain of the Dorchester county militia in the War of 1812-14 in
the Forty-eighth Regiment, Maryland Detached Service, Colonel Jones command.
During an engagement with General Ross, men at Honga River in the year 1814
Capt. George Lake had his horse shot from under him.  This gallant officer
married Catherine Boyne, a descendant of the distinguished old family of
Ireland, she being the daughter of Dr. Boyne, of Dublin.
  The names of "Washington," "Augustus" and "Bushrod" indicate an
intermarriage with the family of the first President.
  Besides the various officers of the Revolutionary Army and the War of
1812-14 many of the Lake men fought in the Confederate Army during the Civil
War, and the list makes a remarkable showing for one family, all springing
from the old Maryland fighting stock:
  Robert Pinkney Lake, M. D., surgeon in the Army of Northern Virginia.
  Capt. Levin Lake, quartermaster, Mississippi regiment.  He served
throughout the war and rendered distinguished service in furnishing Gen.
Joseph E. Johnston's army with food supplies at Atlanta and Rome, 1864.
  Capt. Gabriel Perry Lake, Mississippi Cavalry.
  Richard Pinkney Lake, second lieutenant Capt. R. E. Wynne's company,
Mississippi Cavalry, and second lieutenant in command of a brigade at the
close of the war.
  Capt. James Rushrod Lake, aid-de-camp on the staff of Gen. Bushrod Johnson.
  Augustus Washington Lake, private in Fifteenth Mississippi Regiment,
wounded at the battle of Shiloh.
  Edwin B. Lake, son of Capt. Levin Lake, lost his life in Texas on an
expedition to capture a Federal gunboat.
  Levin Lake, Jr., aid-de-camp on the staff of General Early's Army of
Northern Virginia.
  Walter S. Lake, ordnance sergeant Seventh Tennessee Regiment, with General
Jackson's escort.
  Craig Lake, member of Maryland regiment, killed in Virginia.
  Albert Crawford Lake, Charles Henry Lake, George Lake and George W.
Lake, Jr., privates in Stanford's Battery.  Also many descendants of Capt.
Henry Lake of other names were conspicuous in the various wars.
  Among the many descendants of the Revolutionary officer and High Sheriff
of Dorchester county may be mentioned Mr. Chas. Lake, who has for the past
25 years been clerk of the County Court; Mr. Edwin S. Lake, Mrs. L. D. T.
Noble, Mrs. William H. Medford, all of Cambridge, Md.; Mr. Richard P.
Lake, of Memphis, Tenn.; the children of Hon. William A. Lake, member of
Congress from the Fourth Congressional district (1856), having removed to
Vicksburg, Miss., some years previously; Mr. George Cator, Mrs. Henry Harian,
of Baltimore, and many others in Maryland and throughout the South.