Vachel Denton (1695-1752) was a prominent merchant and civic leader in colonial Maryland. He held a variety of positions of leadership, serving as clerk of the Secretary’s Office and Provincial Court from 1718 to 1732, sat for multiple terms in Maryland’s Lower House, and served briefly as Mayor of Annapolis.

As to Denton’s peculiar Christian name (pronounced like Rachel), its origins are found in his family tree, as the surname of his paternal grandmother, Letitia Vachell, the wife of Thomas Denton (1638-1695) of Warnell Hall, Cumberland, England, and daughter of Thomas Vachell (d.1658) of Coley Park in Reading, Berkshire. In 1721, Vachel Denton married Anne, the daughter of John Brice (d.1713), a prominent Annapolitan. Though the couple had no children, the name Vachel survived for many generations.

Indeed, the name first came into vogue on 20th October 1726 when Vachel Dorsey, the second son of John and Honor (Elder) Dorsey, was born in Anne Arundel County. Whether Vachel Denton was young Dorsey’s godfather, or simply a close friend of the family is unknown. That said, what is certain is that the name grew to surprising prominence from this point forward.

By the time of Maryland’s 1783 Tax Assessment, over two dozen men with the first name Vachel were scattered across Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Cecil, Dorchester, Queen Anne’s, Talbot, and Washington Counties, with more certainly unaccounted for in the schedules as non-property owners. Among these was Lieutenant Vachel Dorsey of Hartley’s Additional Continental Regiment. Another man, no longer living by 1783, was Captain Vachel Denton Howard of the Fourth Continental Dragoons, who died during the war in the spring of 1778. These two men were first cousins, and nephews of the first Vachel Dorsey (b.1726).

The name’s popularity continued to be documented in census records, as 23 Vachels were enumerated in the 1790 Federal Census for Maryland, and that number jumped to 27 by 1840, and by the time of the 1850 Census (when all the individuals in a household were enumerated) there were 56 Vachels living in Maryland. That said, the name began a decline soon thereafter, dropping to 33 in 1900 and to only 10 in 1950.

Perhaps the Vachel of greatest note was the famous American poet, Vachel Lindsay (1879-1931), and though a native of Illinois, it is likely of no surprise that his lineage, too, can be traced back to the Dorseys of Anne Arundel County. Indeed, his great-grandfather’s name was Vachel Dorsey Lindsay (1773-1855).