n 1717 at his home, Fifer Largo, near Upper Marlboro,
Maryland. From a description of him in the Records of the Columbia
Historical Society:

... "He had a complexion characteristic of his nationality, with an
unusually heavy growth of long red hair, and was over six feet in
height, powerful in brawn and muscle and phenomenal in physical
endurance."

He had twelve children, six sons and six daughters. In his will is
recorded:

"I do give and bequeath unto my son George, my plantation and tract
of land called the Rock of Dunbarton, lying and being at Rock
Creek, containing four hundred and eight acres, with all the stock
thereon, both cattle and hogs, them and their increase, unto my
said son, George, and unto his heirs forever.

"I do also give and bequeath, unto my said son, George Beall, his
choice of one of my feather beds, bolster and pillow and other
furniture thereunto belonging, with two cows and calves and half my
sheep from off this plantation I now live on, unto him and his
heirs forever."

This son, George, was the eighth child of Ninian Beall. He had a son,
Thomas, who always styled himself Thomas Beall of George; of him we
shall hear more later on. The family was not limited to these, for many
other Bealls, men and women, appear in the annals of George Town.

George Gordon, the other of the two original proprietors of the lands
which became George Town, was also a Scotsman and had a share in a
manufacture at Leith, near Edinburgh, so it is evident that, when he
came to this country, he had means which he invested in Prince Georges
County and Frederick County, Maryland. He held the office of Sheriff of
Frederick County and was a judge of the first County Court.

A deed to Gordon from James Smith, "planter," is dated November 13,
1734. In it, George Gordon is described as "merchant." The tract
conveyed was one hundred acres, known as "Knaves' Disappointment," a
part of three hundred acres called his Rock Creek Plantation. The
consideration was one hundred pounds sterling or about five hundred
dollars.

It is thought that the original Inspection House of George Gordon was
built of logs not far from the mouth of Rock Creek, fronting on the
Potomac, somewhere between 1734 and 1748. The main inspection house was
built later on "the warehouse lot," an acre close to the southwest
intersection of Falls and Water Streets (M Street and Wisconsin Avenue)