in progress...
With special thanks to Jim Moore of DE.
The first appearance of the Webster Family in East New Market occurred in 1811 when Thomas Webster purchased a house that has since become part of the Tilghman Andrew House at 11 Railroad Avenue. The next year, Thomas Webster purchased an L shaped lot that had frontage on the south side of Railroad Avenue and the east side of Main Street. This L shaped lot surrounded the corner lot. The Railroad Avenue portion is now the site of the Dr. J.R. Phillips house at 9 Railroad Avenue. The Main Street portion was once the site of the Old Trading Post, but is now a dirt parking lot.
According to his gravestone, Thomas Webster was born in 1756 and died on 9 February 1813. He first married Elizabeth Cassidy on 21 December 1785. By this marriage he had two children:
(1) Nancy Webster was born around 1786. She married James James Layton on 5 October 1803 and had two children, Thomas Layton (c. 1804), and Collay Layton (1807-1808). After she died on 23 August 1807, her sister married her widower.
(2) Margaret Webster was born around 1787. She married her brother-in-law, James Layton, after her sister passed away. She had 5 children, Ann Layton (1810-1827), Mary Elizabeth Layton (1814-1840, m. William Collison 1828), Elizabeth Layton {1816-1823), Margaret Layton {1818-1845, married Francis Hayward 1836), and James Bennett Layton (1821-1853, m. Martha Ann Taylor 1847).
During the June 1787 term of the Dorchester County Court, and again in 1788 , Lovey Benston successfully sought child support from Thomas Webster. No other records of this relationship or the child have been found. Elizabeth Cassidy Webster may have died or may have divorced Thomas Webster around this time period. On 23 June 1795, Thomas Webster remarried to Rachel Beach.