Post script: First Generation Covingtons

I found an item about Nehemiah Covington which states that he emigrated to the New World in 1643; if this is correct, he was 15 years old at the time. He may have been following older brothers who arrived during the 1630's. Online entries by various descendants provided these additional details:

Nehemiah was a stonemason, a grist mill stonecutter and builder of grist mills, blacksmith, furrier, and tobacco planter. He lived in Virginia for a number of years, where he signed an Oath to the Commonwealth in 1651, Northampton County, and registered his Owl's Head trademark in the town of Eastville.

Nehemiah Covington I is said to have been a "prominent Quaker." The Quakers apparently encountered religious discrimination in Virginia, whereas the Maryland colony was established with the specific intent of providing religious tolerance. Our ancestor moved his large family (back?) to Maryland about 1662, and the following year acquired a 300-acre tract in Somerset County next to Great Monie Creek that he named Covington's Vineyard. During the 1660's and 1670's he reportedly served twice as county constable, which was probably the equivalent of sheriff.

In 1667, after his first wife died, he married our ancestor Anne Ingram. They had four children together including Thomas Covington, our 7th great-grandfather. Nehemiah died around 1681, outliving Anne Covington by three years, and was buried at Covington's Vineyard.