467. William Thomas⁶ Purnell (John⁵, William⁴, John³, Thomas², Thomas¹) was born in DE July 25, 1805. William died December 16, 1873 in Worcester Co., MD. His body was interred in Worcester Co., MD.

He married twice. He married Henrietta Smith about 1830. (LDS Ancestral File shows her as Henrietta Brown)

He married Henrietta Zipporah Spence in Worcester Co., MD, August 20, 1844. Henrietta was born in Worcester Co., MD 1819. Henrietta was the daughter of John Selby Spence (Dr.) (Senator) and Sally "Maria" Purnell. Henrietta died November 6, 1893 in Worcester Co., MD. She is buried at St. Pauls Cemetery, Berlin, and dates are from headstone. Leslie P. Dryden, Dryden Family & Descendants, Alamo, TX, 1999) Henrietta Purnell, 29, with William M. 2, and Maria L. age 1, are shown in 1850 census in house of Zadock P. Spence, her brother, in Worcester County. William was named in his father's 1831 will. William studied law and entered the diplomatic service. He later served in the Maryland Legislature and the 1864 Constitutional Convention of MD. In 1870, he was shown as a farmer in the Berlin district. (Leslie P. Dryden, Dryden Family & Descendants, Alamo, TX, 1999; Suzanne B. Hurley, Ocean City Lifesaving Museum; Melanie Ayres Merryweather, Genealogy of the Purnell Family, p.13) He is buried at St. Pauls Cemetery, Berlin, MD and his headstone shows birth year as 1806. His children and grandchildren are traced by Melanie Ayres Merryweather in Genealogy of the Purnell Family, p. 13.

William Thomas Purnell and Henrietta Smith had the following children:

798 i. Josephine⁷ Purnell was born 1831. Died young. (LDS Ancestral File)

799 ii. Charles T. Purnell was born 1833. He married Clara Bentron. Daughter of S. R. Betron. (Polk Family & Kinsmen)

William Thomas Purnell and Henrietta Zipporah Spence had the following children:

800 iii. Louise Purnell was born 1837.

801 iv. William M. Purnell was born 1848.

802 v. Maria Louise Purnell was born 1849. Maria died 1918 in Snow Hill, Worcester Co., MD.

803 vi. Clayton J. Purnell was born in Worcester Co., MD October 12, 1857. Clayton died 1933. He married May McCullough 1889. He was a practicing attorney in Snow Hill and served as an examiner of public schools between 1886 and 1891. He helped organize the First National Bank of Snow Hill and was one of the promoters of the Pocomoke City National Bank. His home was at Church and Martin Streets in Snow Hill opposite the home of Gov. John Walter Smith. (Paul Baker Touart, Along the Seaboard Side, p. 359)

804 vii. John Purnell was born in Worcester Co., MD about 1859.

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