Ninian Beall

Col. Ninian Beall
* This is reportedly not an image of Ninian Beall, but of Thomas Beall, his grandson.
Born	Birth date 1625 Scotland
Died	Age 92 Maryland
Resting place	Unknown
Known for	Founding Georgetown, Washington D.C.
Spouse(s)	Elizabeth Gordorn, Ruth Moore
Children	Thomas Beall, John Beall, Capt. Charles Beall, Ninian Beall Jr., Sarah, Hester, Jane, Rachael, Col. George Beall, Mary, Thomas Beall, Margery, James Beall
Parents	Father: Dr. James Beall of Largo, Fifeshire, Scotland

Biographical Sketches

Colonel Ninian Beall

The founder of the Beall family in America was Ninian Beall (1625-1717) who came from Largo, a seaside resort in County Fife, Scotland (near Edinburgh). Originally spelled Bealle, now Beall. Ninian Bealle and relatives were zealous Presbyterians at odds with Oliver Cromwell's Puritan England. When Cromwell invaded Scotland in 1650 Ninian Bealle joined the Scots and fought in the Battle of Dunbar. Ninian along with 10,000 Scotish copatriots were taken prisoner. Those captured were ordered on a brutal 118-mile death march: no food, no water, or medical care. Fewer than 1,400 prisoners survived the march and Bealle was a survivor. He was placed into slavery at Northrumbia and eventually packed into the hold of a ship with 149 other Scotsmen and sent to Barbados. After two years in Barbados, still a prisoner, Ninian Beall was transferred in 1655 to Calvert Co., Maryland, (S.E. of Washington D.C. along Chesapeake Bay). He served an additional five years of indentured servitude before being released to live out his life in America.

All Beall’s in America are his descendants. Scharf’s History of Maryland calls him Col. Beall. He became Commander in Chief of all the Maryland forces in the war against the Susquehannock Indians. This history also states that Col. Beall, about 1678, induced Presbyterians to settle in and around the locality where the cities of Georgetown and Washington now are.

Ninian Beall lived to see the establishment of the first American Presbytery. He gave a half acre for the erection of a church. He worked with the Presbyterian leaders of his time. (See Presbyterian Review Vol. 9, 1888 pgs. 380—387). He gave a silver service to the Patuxent Church. Two chalices and a tankard remain at Hyattsville.

Ninian Beall was in service 30 years repelling the Indians, The Maryland Assembly again and again voted him acts of Gratitude. Like Washington he was a surveyor. Georgetown near Washington was founded by him.

Some of the early history of the Beall family is found in EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON by Sallie Somervell Mackall, copyrighted 1899. Mrs. Mackall was a descendant of Ninian Beall. References to the Beall family in chronological order will be found in pages 53, 17, 44, 40, 48, 50, & 54. George Beall 1751 (p. 40), Samuel Beall 1775 (53, 54), Brooke Beall 1788. On page 54 a very romantic picture is drawn of the visits of General George Washington to the Brooke Beall family.

The line from which the Wayne County, Ohio Bealls came includes only Ninian Beall of the persons spoken of in the book, Early Days of Washington*. This direct line is: Ninian, Robert, James, Zephaniah, Reasin.

*The book EARLY DAYS OF WASHINGTON is in the Congressional Library in Washington. (The above is a composite of several writings of the Beall Family history in the possession of Stanley Levers.)

Family

• Husband: Ninian Beall
• First Wife: Elizabeth Gordon , died in Scotland, and only one offspring of this marriage is known to have come to America, their son Thomas.
• Child:
  • Thomas Beall, 1647 - 1730, m. Elizabeth Bateman
• Second Wife: Ruth Moore
• Children:
  • John Beall 1670 - 1711
  • Capt. Charles Beall - 1672 - 1704
  • Ninian Beall Jr. - 1674 - 1734, m. Elizabeth Magruder
  • Sarah - 1669 - 1734 m. Col. Samuel Magruder
  • Hester - m. 1707 to Col. Joseph Belt
  • Jane - m. Col. Archibald Demonston
  • Rachael
  • Col. George Beall - 1695 - 1780 m. Elizabeth Brooke, daughter of Col. Thomas and Barbara Brooke.
  • Mary - m. Andrew Hanbleton
  • Thomas Beall, died in 1708, unmarried
  • Margery, m. (1st) Thomas Sprigg; (2nd) Col. Joseph Belt, her brother-in-law
  • James Beall

Vital Records

Please include date of birth, place of birth, date marriage, place of marriage, date of death, place of death, and place of burial. Other information may be added with the contributor's or editor's discretion.

Birth

• Born 1625 Largo, County Fife, Scotland.

Marriage

• Ninian Beall married Elizabeth Gordon who died in Scotland before Beall came to America.
• Ninian Beall married Ruth Moore in 1633.

Death

• Died in 1717 in Prince Georges County, Maryland.

Burial

• Unknown

Census Records

Include citations for Federal, State, and Local censuses. Abstracts may be included.

Places of Residence

• One of the first settlers of the area now known as Georgetown, Washington D.C. owning nearly 800 acres of land, which he named the Rock of Dumbarton in homage to his home country.

Court Records

Court records may include wills, estates, guardianships, civil and or criminal activity.

Tax Records

These include personal tax (chattel such as horses, cattle, carriages) and real tax (land).

Land Records

List any known property owned by the individual.

Denomination Affiliations

• Presbyterian

Military

• Commander in Chief of all the Maryland forces in the war against the Susquehannock Indians.

Occupations

• Surveyor

Community Involvement

List any involvement with the community.

Documents

• 

  Read this PDF file showing the 1947 research done by a relative that shows the portrait often claimed to be that of Ninian Beall is actually a portrait of his grandson, Thomas Beall.

• 

  Document showing the 1744-1746 Register of Protections from Impressment for Beall's two ships.

References

• Levers, Stanley. "History of the Beall Family" Wayne County Historical Society of Ohio Winter Quarterly Newsletter ANCESTORS Wayne County Genealogical Section of Wayne County Historical Society Vol. 2 No. 1 Jan. 1992: 3.
• Gelders, Ruth Beall. Kim Beall's Beall History Pages, "Colonel Ninian Beall." Last modified 1976. Accessed October 25, 2015. http://www.krystalrose.com/kim/BEALL/ninian1.html
• Battey, George Magruder. "The Mystery of Ninian Beall's Burial Place Remains Unsolved." Records of the Columbia Historical Society, Washington, D.C.. (1940/1941): 161-167.
• Locher, Paul. "The Bealls Wayne County's most famous family no one remembers" Daily Record, Tabloid Insert SEP. 3, 2006: p.2.
• Magruder, Caleb Clarke (1937). Colonel Ninian Beall. Records of the Columbia Historical Society, Washington, D.C., 37/38, 17–29. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40067489