CANN FAMILY DATA EXCHANGE

From the obscurity of time emerges a certain Sir Thomas Cann, the High Sheriff of Gloucester County who was Knighted by King James, 1, in theearly 1600s. (Dictionary of National Biography. Brown)

Another controversial figure of the turbulent times was John Cann, a noted preacher, teacher, translator and printer of the Bible, and author of many religious treatises. The most famous of which was; "A Necessityof Separation from the Church of England." He preached a Reformed Baptist faith, and after the death of John Hubbard, Cann was chosen their leader in London. Afterastormy year or so he was banished to Amsterdam for preaching against theEstablishedChurch of England, where he succeeded Henry Ainsworth as pastorof the EnglishIndependent Church. The calendarof State Papers, June 9, 1641,shows thatJohn Cann was granted an exclusivelicense for seven years "To printa Biblewith Annotations, being his own work, and that no man unless he beappointedby him, may printhis said notes, whether already printed, or tobe printed."It isinteresting to note that this is among the earliest of copyrights.(fromthe book John Cann of Delaware).

Rev John Cann's grand son, John Cann arrived in Newcastle Delaware in1675 on the ship Griffin with a group of Quakers seven years before thearrival of William Penn. John Cann's house in New Castle still stands.His estateand farm is now the Delaware Park Raceway. He was one of the early governorsof Delaware. He and his sons were the second largest landowners in Delaware.

In the colonies were other Canns but they are not as well researched or documented as John Cann of Delaware. William Cann settled on an Island in Salem, Mass. Harbour in 1628. His ancesters migrated to Nova Scotia  afterthe revolution and were involved in Ship building etc. Jane and CateCann arrived in Kent County Maryland in 1665. In 1623, in early Virginia,Canns were found. At time Maryland did not exist. It was Virginia. Therewere traders and settlers in that area before the Marylanders arrived.One place was at Port Tobacco on the Potomac River. It was a Indian tradingpost long before the whites came. No history is found about it before the Marylanders arrived. They took over houses that were already there and used local English pilots to guide the ships to these existing ports. "Cannvania"was name of an estate near Port Tobacco. The new settlers had decree fromthe king granting them tittle to all lands. They used force take over their"legal" property andto convert all to the Roman Catholic Religion,Indian and whites alike. Ifyou didn't convert you died or fled into thebush. Many conflicts have beendocumented.

Before the Catholics arrived, Puritans had settled in on the Severn River (also name of river near Cann home in England). The Catholics attacked the Puritans. The Catholics were beaten. The Canns were also at the headwaters of the Seven River near Indian Landing, another old Indian trading place. James Cann sold his mill (near present FortMeade) in 1755 to Richard Snowden. Then, the Canns began to make their way to early Baltimore. Bandigo CannofAnne Arundel County was in the timber business in the late 1700s.He andhissons may have transported lumber to Baltimore during its early buildingboom.

I began this study to find out who my great grand father was. None ofmyfamily seemed to know. My father put on his fathers death certificate thathis father's parents names were unknown. After searching the records forthreeyears I found them and many others. I will gladly to share these withwhoeveris interested, and in the hopes that others might have more information.SoI hope that you will be able to compile your family names and dates andsendthem and add more to the Cann family history. The more study I do andthemore answers I find only give me more questions to answer.My great grandfather Benjamin B Cann was only 11 years old when 12 unarmed citizens werekilled near his home in Baltimore by federal troops on April19, 1861. Learningthis added to my question list not only about Benjamin but also about theCivil War. His grandfather James Cann, a publisher from Kent County MD, diedin a ship wreck in 1812near Baltimore.

I hope you will find all of this as interesting as I have. If you know others that are interested please copy and share it with them. My motiveisto obtain more information on the Cann family. There are thousands of namesin the data and dates back to 500 AD, however there are many gaps.I willduplicate all information on disks as it is easier and cheaper to distributethan any other method and will allow you to print out and addto the information.Please send me your Cann information so that I may add that to the data base.Ifyou would like copies on disks please requestit. Money donation to helpwithpostage, cost of copying, and research expenses is appreciated but required.My apologies to those who do not or can not operate computers. Hopefully,you will find someone to do thatfor you or at some later time it can be published in book form. Thanks for your help. Freely copy any of the material for Cannfamily members.  Rights for any other use or for profit or commercal use is reserved and strictly forbidden .  God bless you all and may you all truely experiance His loving touch in your life..  Howard.

Test your church