Lloyd papers

The Lloyd family

The Lloyd family settled in Maryland in the 17th century when Edward Lloyd I (c. 1650-c. 1695) came to America and built the first Wye House on the Wye River. He married Alice Crouch and they had a son in 1646 named Philemon I (1646-1685). In 1668 Edward Lloyd I returned to London and left his Maryland assets to Philemon I, who married Henrietta Maria Bennett. Their eldest son was Edward Lloyd II (1670-1718) who inherited the Lloyd fortune and married Sarah Covington. Their third son was Edward Lloyd III (1711-1770) who married Ann Rousby.

The eldest son of Edward Lloyd III and Ann Rousby was Edward Lloyd IV (1744-1796). He managed the Lloyd fortune and was active in Maryland politics. From 1771 to 1776 he served in the lower house of the General Assembly. He held a seat on the Assembly’s Executive Council from 1777-1779 and served as a State Senator for the Eastern Shore from 1781-1791. He also served as a delegate to the Congress of the United States in 1783 and 1784. He was one of Talbot County’s representatives at the Constitutional Convention of 1788. During his lifetime Wye House was burned in 1781 and he had it rebuilt during the following years. In 1767 he married Elizabeth Tayloe (1750-1825) of “Mount Airey,” Virginia and they had seven children.

Edward Lloyd V (1779-1834) was the only son of Edward Lloyd IV and Elizabeth Tayloe. At the time of his death he was the wealthiest of the Lloyds of Wye. He was deeply involved in politics and many of his efforts were directed toward reducing suffrage restrictions and reforming the judicial system. He served as a Democratic-Republican delegate to the General Assembly, a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, as Senator and was later elected as Governor of Maryland. In addition to his political activities Edward Lloyd V was also active in agriculture. He was the largest wheat grower in Maryland, assisted in the formation of the Farmers’ Bank of Maryland and served on the Board of Directors of its Easton branch. In 1797 he married Sally Scott Murray (1775-1854), the daughter of Dr. James Murray of Annapolis. They had a loving marriage as is evident from the letters that Sally Scott Murray wrote about Edward Lloyd V upon his death. They had seven children and they were also the guardians of James M. Nicholson. Upon her death Sally freed several of her slaves.

Edward Lloyd VI (1798-1861) was the eldest son of Edward Lloyd V and Sally Scott Murray. Instead of receiving a scholarly education as his ancestors did, he received agricultural and plantation management training through an apprenticeship. By receiving that training he was able to handle problems resulting from industrialization, soil exhaustion, cyclical depressions and population fluctuations. While many of his neighbors went bankrupt, Edward Lloyd VI prospered. However, his resources were depleted from bad investments in lands in Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi and also by Maryland’s “direct tax.” He served as a Presidential Elector for Martin Van Buren in 1836 and 1840 and in 1850 he was elected to the Maryland Senate. In 1824 he married Alicia McBlair (1806-1838). They had four children and were the guardians of J. Murray and Charles T. Lloyd.

Edward Lloyd VII (1825-1907) was the eldest son of Edward Lloyd VI and Alicia McBlair. He attended Easton Academy and graduated from Princeton in 1847. Unlike his father he was politically oriented. He served in the Maryland Militia at the time of the Mexican-American War and was made captain of the staff of General Tench Tilghman. He was elected as a Democratic delegate to the lower house of the General Assembly and was also a member of the Maryland Senate from 1874 to 1882 and from 1890 to 1894. Edward Lloyd was also managed the Lloyd estates and was one of the most successful farmers in Talbot County.

In 1851 Edward Lloyd VII married Mary Howard Lloyd (1831-1923). She was a descendent of both Francis Scott Key and John Eager Howard. Her parents were Charles Howard and Elizabeth Phoebe Key Howard. Edward and Mary had nine children. She was educated, cultured, refined and family oriented as is evident from the many letters between her and Edward Lloyd VII, her mother, father and brother McHenry Howard Lloyd. Mary and Edward had eight children. Upon Edward’s death in 1907 Mary became the mistress of Wye House.

Commodore Edward Lloyd VIII (1857-1948) was the eldest son of Edward Lloyd VII and Mary Howard Lloyd. He entered the Naval Academy in 1874 and after his graduation served as a cadet midshipman for two years before he was commissioned. During the Spanish-American War he was aboard the cruiser USS Chicago. He was also on board the USS Enterprise, the U.S. flagship Pensacola, USS Santee, USS Constellation, and USS Essex. He had several tour duties in Europe, Africa, Asia and South America. He was also an instructor at the naval Academy for a time. In 1910 he was promoted to captain of the Wabash and later retired the following year. During World War I he returned to active duty and commanded an Annapolis stationed ship named the Reina Mercedes. In 1887 he married Elizabeth Robinson, the daughter of chief justice John M. Robinson. Edward’s and Elizabeth’s eldest son was Edward Lloyd IX.

Charles Howard Lloyd (1859-1929) was the son of Edward Lloyd VII and Mary Howard Lloyd. He inherited Wye House from his father and he worked as a farmer on that estate. He was a director of the Peninsula Division of the Pennsylvania Railroad. He married Mary Donnell Chesley Lloyd (1865-1943) in 1888 and their letters to one another indicated that they had a loving marriage. They traveled extensively throughout Europe where Mary was able to learn French and German. They had three children whom Charles kept in close contact with despite his frequent travel away from home.

Joanna Howard Lloyd Hughes (1895-1972) was one of the daughters of Charles Howard Lloyd and Mary Donnell Chesley Lloyd. She was educated well as a child and spent much time visiting with her relatives. For a short while, she lived in Munich, Germany. She married Thomas Hughes. One of her daughters was Mrs. Richard Carmichael Tilghman. Several of her grandchildren were Mrs. Emory Taplin, Miss Helen Goldsborough Tilghman, Richard J. Tilghman Jr. and John Addison Tilghman.

The Schiller family

Elizabeth Howard Lloyd Schiller (1897-1993) was a daughter of Charles Howard Lloyd and Mary Donnell Chesley Lloyd. Like her sister Joanna, Elizabeth was educated well as a child and spent much time visiting with her relatives. She married Morgan Burdett Schiller in 1925 and in 1948 they moved to the Wye House. Two of their daughters were Mrs. Margaret Hoffmeir and Blair Schiller. Elizabeth was devoted to the Wye House as a living element of her family’s heritage and American history; therefore, she carefully planned for the future of the property. She was a Red Cross volunteer in the Pittsburgh area, a member of the Mount Vernon Club in Baltimore and a member of Chapter I of the Colonial Dames of America. She was also active in the Junior Board of Memorial Hospital, the United Fund, All Faith Episcopal Chapel, the Harbor Club and the Talbot County Garden Club.

Morgan Burdett Schiller (1893-1973) was a native of New York and later moved to Concord, New Hampshire where he attended St. Paul’s school. He graduated from Yale and became the founder and president of the American Tubular Elevator Company in Pittsburgh. He later retired as a steel executive. He was an amateur astronomer, had a great interest in boxwood and was active in charitable organizations. He was also on the board of the Memorial Hospital in Easton and held a chair in the Maritime Museum in St. Michael’s. He married Elizabeth Howard Lloyd Schiller in 1925 and in 1948 they moved to the Wye House when he became the owner of the estate. Upon his death in 1973 his wife Elizabeth became the owner of Wye House.

The Key family

The Key family was closely connected with the Lloyd and Howard families. The family also had connections with such famous people as Henry Clay and John Quincy Adams. Francis Scott Key (1780-1843), who is famous for writing the ‘Star Spangled Banner,’ was the son of John Ross Key and Phoebe Ann Dagworthy Penn Charlton. He attended school at St. John’s College at Annapolis. He was a lawyer, scholar, poet and philanthropist. In 1802 he married Mary Tayloe Lloyd who was the eldest child of Edward Lloyd IV and Elizabeth Tayloe Lloyd. They had eleven children and their eldest child Elizabeth Phoebe Key married Charles Howard. One of their sons John Ross Key married Virginia Ringgold Key whose grandfather was Judge George Hay.

The Howard family

The Howard family had a close connection with the Lloyd and Key families. Joshua Howard was the first member of the family to settle in America. He arrived in Maryland in 1687 where he established “The Forest,” which was close to Baltimore City. He married Joanna O’Carroll and had a number of children. One of his sons was Cornelius Howard who married Ruth Eager. Cornelius and Ruth were the parents of Colonel John Eager Howard in (1752-1827). He served during the Revolutionary War and Congress awarded him with one of its only eleven military medals for his conduct at the Battle of Cowpens. He married Margaretta “Peggy” Oswald Chew in 1787.

Charles Howard (1802-1869) was the son of John Eager Howard and Margaretta Chew. He was a city collector, one of the first police commissioners appointed by the Legislature on the organization of the police board of Baltimore and was the mayor of Baltimore at the start of the Civil War. He held strong southern sympathies for the South during the Civil War, which caused him to be arrested by Federal authorities and incarcerated at Fort Warren for a year and a half.

In 1825 Charles Howard married Elizabeth Phoebe Key (1803-1894), the daughter of Francis Scott Key. She was distinguished for her literary ability and she owed much of that to her early education, which she received mostly from her illustrious father. She held strong Southern sympathies during the Civil War. She aided the destitute in various sections of the South after the war and was one of the prime movers and organizers of the great charity fair held in Baltimore at the end of the war for the relief of Southern sufferers. Elizabeth and Charles had eleven children together, however, only five survived. One of their children was Mary Howard Lloyd who married Edward Lloyd VII in 1851.