In 1790, the Little Creek Hundred census lists two John Siscos. The elder was John Sisco Sr. a very prosperous and literate member of the mixed blood community. He died in 1791 and left an extensive estate to his widow and three children.

This John Sisco was younger and not nearly as prosperous but was called the "son of Ephraim" in census. It is possible that Ephraim and the elder John Sisco were brothers.

On 27 July, 1797 in Kent Co., Letters of Administration were granted on the estate of William Durham, the son of John Durham Sr. . John Sisco is mentioned in the accounts. Sarah Durham, William's sister, was married to a "John Sisco" according to their father's will. It is not clear if she was married to the elder John Sisco who died in 1791 or the younger.

John Sisco was mentioned in the final accounting on William's estate made in 1803. In the same year, the final accounting was made on the estate of William's brother, Isaiah Durham, who died in 1801. In these accounts it says that Isaiah's widow, Mary, had since re-married John Sisco.

The neighbor who signed the marriage bond for the widow, Mary Durham, violently objected to her marrying a "mulatto" and withdrew his bond. It is ironic that Isaiah Durham was not considered a "mulatto" but John Sisco was, when they both came from the same community. It is typical of the changing racial perceptions occuring in DE at the turn of the century.

John was a tenant farmer on an estate called the Bloomsbury Tract. Extensive archeological work had been done on this site and much information has been gleaned about the tenants who inhabited the place. Visit the webpage of Ned and Louise Heite for details about their work on the mixed blood community in Kent Co. (http://home.dmv.com/~eheite/index.html) .

While not as wealthy at the elder John Sisco, this John, his new wife, and their 9 children lived comfortably with many middle class possessions around them. Their declining economic fortunes and the changing racial climate may have contributed to the neighbors sudden objections to the marriage.

The earlier generation of Hansors, Concilors, Siscos, Durhams and Deans had been fairly prosperous landowners. By the 19th century their fortunes had begun to decline as the land grew poorer and estates were split up among larger numbers of children.

In 1814 Letters of Administration were granted on the estate of Amelia Sisco Hansor to John Francisco. Amelia was the sister of George Sisco (d.1814) and William Sisco. It is possible that John was another brother.

I don't know what became of John and Mary. In 1837, William Yates, a free black was sent to Delaware by the American Anti-Slavery Society to investigate the status of blacks in Delaware. While investigating tenant farmers he noted in a letter that many had chosen to leave the state. He stated that "two examples were Benjamin and John Francisco, who in the early nineteenth century sharecropped in Kent Co., where they built up considerable holdings in livestock. Prior to Yate's visit the Francisco brothers had chosen to leave Delaware and invest their money and future in the free state of Ohio."

This is an interesting statement. It mis-identifies Benjamin and John as freed blacks but that is not surprising since Yates was getting his information from others whose perceptions were colored (no pun intended) by the racial prejudices of the time: the assumption that all non-whites were black. What is interesting is that he identifies Benjamin and John as brothers and says they left Delaware for Ohio. We know that Benjamin never made it to Ohio, ending up instead in western PA but we do not know how far west John and Mary went.