Since Constant is one of the more rare surnames to be found, it is worth investigating the family of John Constant of Baltimore County, Maryland in the 1720s.

First, there is this entry in the church records of St. George’s Parish, Baltimore County [today, in Harford County], Maryland. The ink is faded, but it is an entry for “Children of John Constant & Susannah his Wife.”

Unlike in the Thomas Brashier entry, there is no date of marriage for the couple, which, to me, implies that they married in another town or parish.

Margaret Constant/ce was Born March ye 30th – 1722
Susannah Constant/ce was Born May ye 3 – 1724
John Constant Born August the 14 – 1725
William Constant was Born May ye 22 – 1727

There are only a couple more references to the Constant family found in the 1700s in Maryland.

Margaret Constance married William Brown, St. George Parish, Baltimore County, Maryland on 31 December 1740. Is this the daughter of John and Susannah, born in 1722? It seems like it could be, given the scarity of the name. She would have been 18 years old and, certainly, not an unusual age for marriage.

Did this couple migrate to the Carolinas with the Brashers? William and Margret Brown only appear in the marriage records. There are no children born to them recorded in the parish records, nor are their deaths recorded. That seems to indicate that they left the area.

One William Brown left a will dated 9 February 1772 in Rowan County, North Carolina [Will Book A:19] the same area where the extended Brasher family settled. Yes, William Brown is an extremely common name, but this man’s widow was named Margaret and one of their children was named Constant, which is what made me wonder if this might be the correct couple.

William and Margaret had children: Charity Robison, William, James married Jane (MNU), Constant Wynn, Hannah Elliott, Susannah, Elizabeth and Margaret. He also named granddaughter Margaret Brown, child of his daughter Susannah.

What more is known about William Brown of Rowan County? Well, he is called ‘planter’ when he received a land grant of 411 acres in Rowan County on 11 May 1757.

This fits with the missing 20 years of Thomas Brasher’s life after he left Maryland and surfaced in North Carolina in 1762.

Much later, in the 1790 census, Richard Constant is enumerated in Baltimore, Baltimore, Maryland (1 male +16, 1 male -16 3 females). Edward Constant is found in Patapsco Lower Hundred, Baltimore County (1 male +16, 2 females). John Constant is also in Patapsco Lower Hundred (4 males +16, 1 male -16, 4 females).

There are also two Constants in North Carolina. William Constant is living in Randolph County (3 males +16, 3 males -16, 5 females) and Edward Constant is in Rutherford County (1 male +16, 3 males -16, 6 females).

Furthermore, there are tax lists which include the name of William Constant in Rowan County, 1762, Anson County, 1763, Rowan County, 1768 and Randolph County, 1779.

Finally, there are two Revolutionary War patriots from Virginia listed in the DAR Patriot Index. John Constant Sr., born c1725 and died in December 1810, Fleming County, Kentucky. The other man is John Constant Jr., born c1750, Virginia, and died before 20 October 1788 in Bourbon County, Kentucky. This might be a father and son and John Sr.’s birth year fits that of John constant born in St. George Parish exactly.

There are also several Constants in New York, but they don’t appear to be related at this point, so will be set aside for now.

Next, I would love to learn more about the Constant family, so my next step is to create a Constant FAN club, using FamilySearch full-text capabilities.