The story of the Loftin family really begins, for sure, with the death of the widow Frances in 1722. Any number of Internet family trees say she was the widow of John Loftin but none bother to say how that is known for sure. A man named John Lofting died in Charles County and his estate inventory was filed 22 Mar 1718. So it would make sense that the widow Frances Loftin who then died in 1722 with a son John and several other grown children, could well have been John’s widow. But I have examined his estate inventory and other Charles County records and there is nothing specific that proves the connection. But since I have no better idea of who Frances’ husband was, I’ll call him John.

There are some Internet trees that say her father was John Jenkins, a rather notorious figure apparently. But all of these early families of Charles County are barely documented and people may be grasping at straws in stating some of these relationships. So I have not actually put John Jenkins in my tree. But her name may have been Jenkins.

I have a copy of her will and am unable to make out the name of her daughter but in the abstract of wills on MD Calendar of Wills on Ancestry.com, it is given as Onah or Oriah.

Frances Loftin was the mother of Ruth who married Francis Brown. The proof of this is her will. She was a widow of Charles County and her will dated 11 Oct 1722 and proved 20 Nov 1722. She named son John, a minor, daughter Onah (or Oriah), nephew William Jenkins and sons-in-law Francis Brown and John Newman.

Whether the name of her husband was John is not proven but is a good possibility. And there is also a good possibility that Frances’ maiden name was Jenkins. The evidence for this is that she mentioned nephew William Jenkins in her will and that William Jenkins was said to be her next of kin when her estate was administered and she was named as the next of kin of Philip Jenkins when his estate was administered. Now a woman’s nephew could be the son of her brother (which is what is being assumed here) but could also be the son of her married sister or even the son of a sibling of her husband. But it is the multiple “next of kin citations” that suggest she really was maiden name Jenkins.