Cecil, John Sessell

Notes:

It has been assumed (and debated!) by over 200 years of genealogists that William's sons John and Phillip, given to the Duvalls in 1697/8, are the same men who appear in later PGC records. In the case of John Cecil of PGC, this is supported by several pieces of evidence:

John Cecil, a landowner in Prince George's County, married Elizabeth Sollars in Queen Ann's Parish, PGC in 1718.
Elizabeth's mother was presumably one Ann Sabrett Sullivan Sollars.
John and Elizabeth's children were probably Zephaniah, Samuel W., Sabrett and Thomas. (references for this not cited here).
They may have had sons William and James
Samuel Cecil was William's administrator, assisted by John (possibly William's son and Samuel's father?), Sabrett and Thomas.
Samuel W. Cecil was wed to Rebecca White, who was christened in Queen Ann's parish by Rev. Jacob Henderson, who wed the widow of Mareen Duvall the Immigrant, Mary Duvall Ridgely. It is assumed that Mareen's son, Mareen the Elder, was the one to whom William Cecil bound his children.
Obviously there was close association of all these people. It is possible that the William who died in 1749 was not John Cecil's father but another relative, such as an unknown son of William the widower of 1697/8...but this is speculation. Most genealogists accept that this William was John's father and Samuel's grandfather.

Phillip Cecil was also a landowner in PGC. He wed Elizabeth ?? (probably Gittings) around 1715, and died in March of 1733. According to the accounting of his estate, he left children Susannah, Mary, Elizabeth, John, William, Joshua and Phillip Jr. Phillip was probably the son of William Cecil and the younger brother of John Cecil. However, his widow Elizabeth stated in court that her dead husband had "...no relation to ye deceased in this Province," an assertion which has troubled genealogists for years.

If this was actually Elizabeth Gittings Cecil, she was the daughter of Phillip Gittings and Ann Sprigg, gentry of the area. Some genealogists have speculated that since she was the daughter of a gentleman, she might have been embarrassed by her husband's lowly relatives. However, John Cecil's wife Elizabeth Sollars was the daughter and sister of gentlemen, and John died with a respectable amount of property. William Cecil's estate of about 113 pounds puts him in the middle class of his time. Phillip Cecil's estate left nothing but debts and property which he had purchased from his brother in law. This speculation does not hold up.

However, other lines of evidence do converge to allow the assumption that Phillip and John Cecil were brothers. John's son Samuel and Phillip's daughter Elizabeth Cecil Whitten traveled in the same group to Western Virginia about 1767. The names of the Perre, Dent, Sprigg, Beall, Duvall and Pile families appear with those of Phillip and John Cecil too often for mere coincidence.
Penny Cecil Bloodhart
Twelve Generations Removed from William and Unknown
http://www.charweb.org/gen/whitten/cecil.synopsis.html
John CECIL
BIRTH: 24 DEC 1691, Queen Anne's Par., Prince George's Co., MD
DEATH: 28 JAN 1759, Queen Anne's Par., Prince George's Co., MD
BAPTISM: 31 DEC 1691, Queen Anne's Par., Prince George's Co., MD
Father: William CECIL
Mother: Mary

Family 1: Elizabeth SOLLERS
MARRIAGE: 1718, Queen Anne's Par., Prince George's Co., MD
Zephaniah CECIL
Samuel White CECIL
Elizabeth CECIL
Sabret CECIL
Thomas CECIL
John CECIL
William B. CECIL
James CECIL

Notes
Some genealogies show him as the son Thomas CECIL(d.1662), an engraver of London who came to MD to make maps, and was paid in land. He later returned to England where he died. Supposedly, he was the son of Thomas CECIL(1544-1622), Lord Burghley, who m.1564 Dorothy, dau John NEVILLE. This line is unproven, and the current consensus of Cecil researcher is that John was the son of William, q.v.
Also seen him as the descendent of a Henry CECIL (b.1577), grandson of Lord Burleigh (the Great Cecil).

John married in 1718 in Queen Anne's Parish, Prince George's Co., Maryland. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]