The Hobson line comes from an Irish background. However, the Hobson line in Joseph Jobson (1786-1828) connects into the Talbott line through Rebecca Talbott (1784-1859) which traces back into the early Talbott's of Maryland. These were all part of a tight-knit Quaker community. We can trace lineage back to a Richard Talbott (1625-1663), born in England and died in Anne Arundel MD, who married an Elizabeth Ewen. We thought for awhile that Richard was the son of Robert Talbot and Grace Calvert, daughter of George Calvert, 1st Baron Baltimore. However it does not appear that is the case. It is still a line steeped deep into early Maryland history. - Richard Talbott (1625-1663) - John Talbott (1660-1707) - Joseph Talbott (1706-1800) - John Talbott (1735-1809) - Rebecca Talbott (1784-1859) who married Joseph Jobson The Talbotts are all part of a tightly-knit cluster of 17th-century Maryland colonial families, centered on the **West River / Herring Creek Quaker settlement** in Anne Arundel and Calvert Counties. This is one of the best-documented colonial Quaker communities in Maryland. **The core intermarried cluster** - **Talbott** — Richard Talbott I was granted 260 acres in Anne Arundel County by 1659 (patent purchased 1656); some researchers connect him to a Richard Talbott baptized in 1629 at Gnosall, Staffordshire, though no Maryland source directly confirms an English birthplace. His son Richard Talbott married Elizabeth Ewen, and their estate "Poplar Knowle" (later "Tulip Hill") became a Talbott family seat. - **Ewen** — Richard Ewen held land on Herring Creek adjoining Richard Bennett and Richard Talbott. His estate, "Ewen Upon Ewenton" (later "Cedar Park"), and his daughter Elizabeth's marriage into the Talbott family (and later, as a widow, into the Richardson family) make Ewen one of the anchor names of this settlement. - **Mears** — Sarah Mears (b. 1673, Calvert County) married John Talbott (son of Richard); their descendants carry both surnames through the Calvert County branch of the Talbotts. - **Birckhead** — Elizabeth Birkhead, daughter of Abraham Birkhead, married Joseph Talbott (1706–1800), tying the Birckhead family into the same web. - **Thomas** — Samuel Thomas's father was a founder of the Herring Creek and West River Meetings in Anne Arundel County, and Thomas daughters married into the Brooke family, which later founded Sandy Spring Meeting in Montgomery County — a useful lead if your line moves that direction. - **Hance / Sewell / Johns / Kinsey / Talbot** — A single 18th-century will (a Hance ancestor) shows all of these names in one household: bequests to daughter Elizabeth Johns, grandson Kinsey Hance, land "where Peter Sewell lived," and a grandson Benjamin Talbot — direct documentary proof these families were interlocked by marriage and neighboring land. - **Scarborough** — Elizabeth Scarborough Ewen (widow of Richard Talbott, daughter of Richard Ewen) remarried William Richardson Sr. in 1667 at West River — meaning Scarborough is actually a Ewen/Talbott maternal line, not a separate unconnected family. - **Harrison** — Anne Harris(on) married into the Richardson line (parents of Joseph Richardson, who married Rebekah Johns), keeping the pattern of tight Quaker intermarriage going another generation. - **Billingsley / Hutchins** — Both are standard names in the same Anne Arundel/Calvert Quaker orbit; Hutchins appears in the same probate records as the Hance/Talbott estate settlements above (a Mary Hutchins is referenced as predeceasing her husband before his 1773 will). **The institutional backbone** The relevant Quaker meetings were West River Meeting (est. 1655) and Herring Creek Preparative Meeting, both in Anne Arundel County, with Clifts Meeting in Calvert County (est. 1662) also central — Sandy Spring Monthly Meeting's own records describe it as successor to meetings at Clifts, Herring Creek, and Indian Spring, spanning 1658–1992. The couples in the direct line: Richard Talbott + Elizabeth Ewen — the "Poplar Knowle" pairing. Richard was patented 260 acres in Anne Arundel County by 1659; Elizabeth was daughter of Richard Ewen of "Ewen Upon Ewenton" (now Cedar Park). [John Talbott] + Sarah Mears — Sarah Mears (b. 1673, Calvert Co.) married into the next Talbott generation. A dedicated study exists on this exact pairing: Ernest C. Allnutt's "William Allnutt and Wife Sarah (Mears) Talbott, Widow of John Talbott of Calvert County, Maryland" — worth tracking down directly, since it traces her as a widow after Talbott and into a second marriage. [Daniel Talbott] + Elizabeth Birkhead, daughter of Abraham Birckhead — ties your Birckhead ancestor into the Talbott line at the next generation down from Richard/Elizabeth. Abraham Johns + Margaret Hutchins and Benjamin Hance + Mary Hutchins — these are almost certainly sister marriages. I found direct documentary confirmation of the second pairing: Ailene W. Hutchins' Hunting Creek Hundred (1992, p. 319) records that in 1711, at the house of Richard Johns, Benjamin Hance and Mary Hutchins announced their first intention to marry — Quaker meetings recorded marriage intentions twice before the ceremony, so this is a first-rate primary-type citation already sitting in a compiled secondary source. The fact that the intention was announced at Richard Johns' house strongly suggests Richard Johns is directly related to your Abraham Johns, and that the Johns/Hutchins marriage was arranged in the same social circle at the same time. Rebecca Billingsley — married into one of the above lines (not yet confirmed which from what I've found); Billingsley is a well-documented Calvert County surname (see the Calvert County surname list, which places Billingsley alongside Hance, Johns, Hutchins, Sewell, Kinsey, and Talbott as recurring intermarried names in that same county).