USA > Delaware > Colonial mansions of Maryland and Delaware > Part 12
USA > Maryland > Colonial mansions of Maryland and Delaware > Part 12
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The tragedy of Ariana Calvert's life is one of the most pathetic stories connected with the historic old
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mansion. She loved a young man who had been re- ceived at her father's house, but was not looked upon with favour as the daughter's prospective husband. Trusting to time to soften her father's heart, she waited patiently, and the father, on his part, tried by every indulgence to turn the thoughts of his daughter from her lover. She was sent to Annapolis for a visit and in the company of her brilliant sisters to every fête in town and country. Many suitors pressed their claims for her hand but for all she had a gentle refusal. She began to fade and droop and her health broke down. Her father died and her mother, seeing that her child was facing death, gave her consent to the engagement. But it was too late. The fine spirit had been tried too long, and death bore it away.
The issue of George Parke Custis and Eleanor Cal- vert (the first wedding in the Calvert house) was: Eliza Parke, born August 21, 1776, married, March 20, 1796, to Thomas Law, secretary to Warren Hastings in India, and has descendants-Martha, born December 31, 1777, who married, January 6, 1795, Thomas Peter a wealthy merchant of Georgetown, D. C., and has descendants, many of them in Washington; Eleanor Parke, born March 21, 1779, who married, February 22, 1799, Major Lawrence Lewis, and has descendants; George Wash- ington Parke, born April 30, 1781, who married Mary Fitzhugh, of Arlington, Virginia, whose daughter, Mary Randolph Custis Parke, born October 1, 1806, married,
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HH
P
RIVERDALE Built by George Calvert, in 1802
MOUNT AIRY
June 30, 1831, Robert E. Lee, commander-in-chief of the armies of the Confederacy.
By her marriage to Dr. Stuart, Eleanor had seven children, four of whom married, leaving a large descent.
George Calvert, the only other son of Benedict to have issue, built, in 1802, another beautiful homestead at Riverdale, Maryland, about sixteen miles north of Croome, more magnificent in size and decoration than Mount Airy; and this place, which is more accessible by rail to visitors than the older homestead, is often mis- taken for that other dwelling house. His children were: Caroline Maria, born July 15, 1800, who married Thomas Willing Morris, of Philadelphia; George Henry, born January 2, 1803, who married, May, 1821, Elizabeth Steuart, and died without issue, May 24, 1889; Marie Louise Calvert; Rosalie Eugenia, born October 19, 1806, who married Charles Henry Corter; Charles Benedict, born August 23, 1808, who married Charlotte Augusta Norris; Henry Albert; Marie Louise, Julie, born January 31, 1814, who married Dr. Richard Henry Stuart; Amelia Isabelle. The homestead at Riverdale remained in the family until December 5, 1904, when it, too, was sold at auction, the purchaser being its present occupant, W. T. Pickford, a prominent business man of Washington.
The children of Edward Henry Calvert and Eliza- beth Biscoe, his wife, forming the last generation of Calverts at Mount Airy, were: Benedict; George, who
13
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married Sarah E. Hungerford; Edward Henry, who married Mary Powell; Charles Frederick; Washington Custis, who married, first, Sophia O. Mulliken, second, Elizabeth S. Randolph; Cecelius Baltimore; John, who married Julia Stockton Rush; Elizabeth; William B., who married Mary Harriet Hughes; Araminta; Octavius Augustus; Juliana; Eleanora Adela. John Calvert had two children: John Calvert, of Philadelphia, whose son is Cecelius Baltimore Calvert, of Philadelphia, and Madison Rush Calvert. Roberta Lee Calvert, the youngest daughter of George, married T. C. Judkins, and lives in San Francisco. She has a son, Robert Cal- vert Judkins.
Interesting recollections of Mount Airy have been written by Mrs. Eleanora Calvert Wilson, daughter of William Calvert, and who spent her childhood at the old place.
My father, William, the youngest of these nine sons, was the first to bring his young bride, according to the custom of the day, to this old house, and here my sister and I were born, and still another generation of little girls chased the butterflies from flower to flower, hunted the birds in their nests, and the woods sent back the echoes of merry prattle and joyous song once more. We were not so decorous and well disciplined, I fear, as the former generations of little people had been, for we had so many indulgent uncles to spoil us.
Hand in hand they would walk with us through the orchard every morning gathering for us the choicest fruits, such delicious peaches, grapes, pears and great, red-cheeked apples !
How well I remember old " Aunt Polly," the octogenarian
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negress who had nursed or assisted in the nursing of these other little girls, often reducing us to order by saying:
" My little misses never did so; they were little ladies."
" So are we, Aunt Polly," we would indignantly reply.
" Then you must behave like them," was always Aunt Polly's strong argument. She was at that time too old for actual service, so with a silk cloth in her hand she passed from room to room removing any dust that had settled upon the handsome mahogany furniture. Occasionally, Aunt Polly would doze and mechanically rub one spot for a long time. Coming upon her sometimes at these moments we would mischievously startle her by asking, " Why, Aunt Polly, what are you doing? " Recover- ing her consciousness quickly she would put additional force into her labour and answer with great placidity, "Just a little fine polishing, Honey."
Sometimes we would quietly slip the cloth from her hand and conceal it before awakening her and enjoy her look of amaze- ment when she couldn't find it. "Oh, Aunt Polly, you were asleep that time," we would say. "Well, Honey, I do think I must have been," she would reply with one of her placid smiles.
My grandmother would have liked to have her remain in her quarters, and would have cared for her, but poor old Aunt Polly was so afraid of being considered " old and worthless " that she would not consent to it.
Old Neale, too, the coachman, could not tolerate the idea of having to give place to a younger man. "Why, I 'members the day when that boy was born," he said indignantly. Grand- father tried to comfort him by telling him that the new coachman would never be quite so fine as he had been. At this the old man straightened himself up in spite of his bent shoulders and a smile passed over his face as he said, " Well, Massa, there is sumpin' in dat."
By her marriage to Charles Steuart, Elizabeth Cal-
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vert, daughter of Benedict, had issue: George Calvert; Benedict; Edward Henry, who married Mary Wilcox; and Dr. Charles (Steuart) who married Ann Fitzhugh Biscoe, and a descendant of whom in Baltimore is Mr. Richard D. Steuart.
Perhaps it is the ghosts of the ancients whom we have considered that trouble Mount Airy to-day, for ghosts there are, the present owner will tell you. There is the time when with her husband Mrs. Duvall drove back from Washington, one dark night, and found a solitary horseman in the garb of a hundred years ago calmly sitting his horse in front of the door, at the end of the long aisle of trees. By the dim light of the stars they saw him inspecting them with a gaze, as if to say " What do you here?" and then he vanished. Again Mrs. Duvall has been awakened in the night by a ghostly woman's figure, which one midnight put its cold hands around her throat. There is a room above the dining- room in which no lamp will burn, the strongest, most in- geniously constructed lamp going out meekly the moment you cross the threshold with it. Doors open and shut without cause. Beds sag and creak with no human being on them.
Many of the colonial mansions of Maryland are larger than Mount Airy, many of them have more elaborate ornamentation, for this place has neither size nor elaboration to commend it, yet few have its charm. Its chief feature is a wing, considerably older than the
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FIREPLACE IN DINING-ROOM
THE SIDEBOARD
IMPRESSIONS OF MOUNT AIRY
MOUNT AIRY
body of the house-used as a hunting lodge by one of the early Lords Baltimore, tradition tells us-a long, low structure with dormer windows and a hip-roof, made of immense old English brick laid all with the ends out, the walls being nearly two feet thick. From the centre rear of this the main part of the house takes its de- parture. This main portion is simply a two-story edifice with two large pillars in front which support a gallery. It contains merely a hall, staircase and two rooms at the end opposite the wing. A cellar runs beneath the main building connecting with the more ancient cellar beneath the old hunting lodge or wing. In the former is a wine vault with high, arched ceiling; in the latter, an entrance to a secret passageway, which has not been explored in the memory of man. This passageway leads through the old foundation walls, five feet thick, to a point of exit, it is believed, near the old bowling green. The main body of the house is of brick covered with plaster ; the wing is of brick exposed.
The approach to the old mansion is one of its greatest charms. The road leads straight from the gate about two hundred yards through an avenue of overarching old linden trees to a circle of box, immediately in front of the more modern portion of the house. To the right, lies a garden designed by Major L'Enfant, the designer of the plan for the city of Washington. Just a few steps from here, on a terrace overlooked by, and fronting on, the wing of the house, is the old bowling green, now
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a tennis court. There is more terracing in other parts of the grounds, and Major L'Enfant's garden containing many rare shrubs and flowers, is even to-day a very beautiful retreat.
When Mount Airy was sold in 1903, the many treasures which it contained were sold at an auction room in Washington. Among other things disposed of were a portrait supposed to be by Van Dyke, of Charles, fifth Lord Baltimore, in armour ; a portrait of Benedict Leon- ard Calvert, fourth Lord Baltimore, who married Lady Charlotte Lee, granddaughter of King Charles II; a portrait of Benedict Calvert; a portrait of Eleanor Cal- vert in riding habit; other paintings; a set of silver, consisting of one coffee pot, two mugs, a set of casters and two small waiters, all bearing coat-of-arms and crest, and sent to Benedict by his father as a wedding present; and many other things of smaller value.
The present owner of Mount Airy, Mrs. Tillie R. Duvall, is an artist and musician by training, and is known to many in these arts. She was married in 1908, about five years after she had moved into the place, to Percy M. Duvall, of Croome, Prince George's County. One child, a girl, has blessed this union. The Duvalls have open house, and many friends from nearby Wash- ington keep them from getting lonesome with the ghosts and solitudes of the old home.
BELAIR PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY, MARYLAND OGLE-BOWIE-WOODWARD
HE most magnificently main- tained survival of the Georgian era of building in Maryland is unquestionably Belair, the old Ogle estate, now the occasional home of William Woodward, Esq., of New York City. Its present owner spares no pains to preserve the flavour of the olden time which clings around the beautiful struc- ture and, at the same time, has so added to the building and grounds that the place is one of the most splendid in Maryland. It is situated in Prince George's County, not far from Bowie Station, a point on the Pennsylvania Railroad.
The house is situated on the crest of a hill, as were most of the mansions of the colonial period in Mary- land, and commands a wide view. However hot and still the day may seem in the countryside around there is always a breeze stirring in its wide halls. As it stands to-day, it consists of a central building with wings, but the wings are a latter addition by its present-day owner, though in such perfect harmony with the rest of the building have they been fashioned that one needs must be told this fact to believe it. The grounds around the house are terraced and from the main doorway extends
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a mile-long aisle of great trees, memorials of an early day, indeed.
This approach to the front of the house Mr. Wood- ward has improved by an extension which carries it for a mile or more farther through his estate, so that now one drives for nearly two miles from the entrance to the place over a finely ballasted and smoothly topped road- way before one at last swings into the long, straight stretch between mammoth trees which leads to the old mansion itself.
The front and rear doorways of the house are simple but graceful, and the interior woodwork, while not elaborate, is beautified with carving. The stairway ex- tends to the left from the front door and leads to a cool and well-disposed second floor. The outlook from the rear of the house is very fine, leading the eye over the old bowling green and the green terraces which lend dignity to this side of the house.
Belair belonged in the early part of the eighteenth century to Hon. Benjamin Tasker, who was one of the most important men in the then Province of Maryland. His daughter Anne, at the age of eighteen, married Governor Samuel Ogle, a captain of cavalry in His British Majesty's service, who had received from the Lord Proprietary a commission as Governor of Mary- land, dated September 16, 1731. Belair was given to Governor Ogle and his bride by Benjamin Tasker, and
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CENTRAL PORTION OF BELAIR Built in 1741
BELAIR
there the Ogles lived in princely style, their town house at Annapolis claiming their presence only during the social season. The estate then consisted of 3,600 acres. The mansion was spacious and elaborate for those days. It is said that six hundred acres were thrown into a park, and fallow deer were seen about the woodland. Belair had its race track, its kennels, and life was planned in every particular on the basis of the gentry of England. The Ogles lived as befitted their station, and drove to and from Annapolis, a distance of about twenty miles, with four-in-hand and liveried outriders, as has been noted from letters still in existence. Such was the early condition of the plantation, and it must have remained much the same during the next century as is evidenced by the condition of the house and grounds, and especially the long avenue of tulip trees immediately in front of the house which constantly added to the beauty and dignity of the landscape. Originally there must have been ninety-six of these trees planted on a straight ave- nue of five hundred yards leading to the house, in four parallel rows, making two turf-covered lanes over which the rider (and a very occasional vehicle) would ap- proach. There are thirty-two of these now giant tulips remaining, one of the larger ones measuring over twenty feet in circumference, and with a height of more than ninety feet.
A part of Belair in the late seventies fell to the
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ownership of Governor Bowie, of Maryland, and finally to his sons, and some partition had by that time been made, when in the later years of the last century Mr. James T. Woodward, of New York and Maryland, purchased the estate and added to and improved it, as has also his nephew, William Woodward, who inherited it from him and now owns it. The Woodwards are from Anne Arundel County, but James T. Woodward's mother was a Magruder, of Prince George's County, and a substantial portion of what is now comprised in Belair is old Magruder land.
Belair has to-day its own pack of hounds, and thoroughbred colts are seen grazing on its meadows.
Among the many distinguished men of Maryland none were of more distinguished lineage than Samuel Ogle, builder of Belair. The family was of old Saxon stock. This member of it received from the Lord Pro- prietary his commission as governor of the province of Maryland in September, 1731, and took oath of office in Annapolis in December of that same year. In 1741 he married Anne Tasker, who was but a child of nine years when he arrived in this country. Though there was this great disparity of age between Ogle and his wife, the marriage was, none the less, a happy one. Two of Anne Tasker's sisters, Elizabeth and Frances, married, respectively, Christopher Lowndes, forebear of the late Governor Lloyd Lowndes, of Maryland, and
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BELAIR, FROM THE TERRACE
Antall:
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MAIN STAIRWAY, BELAIR
BELAIR
Robert Carter, of Nominy Hall, Virginia. Her maternal uncle was that Thomas Bladen who was Governor of Maryland from 1742 to 1747 and of whose daughter Lord Chesterfield wrote as follows in a letter to his son: " Our friend, Harriet Bladen, with a fortune of 20,000 Pounds, is to be married to the Earl of Essex."
Benjamin Ogle, son of Samuel Ogle, became Governor of Maryland in 1809, and his son of the same name was the last Ogle to live at Belair.
Belair was the country home of Samuel Ogle and his Bladen bride. The town house in which they had their entertainments during " the season " is that quaint little old structure in Annapolis which stands at the corner of College Avenue and King George Street and is familiarly known in the ancient city as the Ogle House. A beautiful box-bordered walk and an arched doorway which no passerby fails to admire are almost all that remain of its one-time glories, yet its gardens were once very beautiful and its presence is always dignified by the flavour of the names with which it has been associated. Here, moreover, in 1840, Governor Benjamin Ogle, son of Samuel, died.
So great a lover of horses was Samuel Ogle that he built his stables in Annapolis beside the front walk of his house, so that he might always stop and see the animals upon which he lavished so much affection when- ever he left or entered his home. He also imported from
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England the celebrated horse, "Spark," a gift from Lord Baltimore, to whom the horse had been presented by Prince Frederick, father of George III, of England. This stable has long since been torn down, but its exist- ence will probably never be forgotten by those who know the traditions of Annapolis. The Ogle House is now a boarding-house for officers of the navy who are stationed at the Naval Academy hard at hand, and is part of the estate of the late Rear-Admiral Porter, U. S. N., retired.
BLAKEFORD QUEEN ANNE'S COUNTY, MARYLAND DE COURCY-BLAKE-WRIGHT-THOM
LAKEFORD, the old De Cour- cy homestead, is situated on Queenstown Creek, an estuary of the Chester River, Queen Anne's County, Maryland, and is notable for its antiquity, the dignity of its interior and its beautiful gardens which have attracted sightseers from sleepy little Queenstown-across Queenstown Harbour from the old mansion-for many generations.
The approach to the house is by a finely planned drive which leads through a magnificent stretch of wood- land trees. This forest has been used by the Maryland Forestry Board as an example of a perfectly tended woods. One passes beyond these trees and comes to another ancient grove. Here is situated Blakeford.
Blakeford has a charming outlook over the waters of the Chester River, which in the early days was its means of communication with the rest of the world. The house faces the river which runs northwest here, and is one of the largest homesteads on the eastern shore of Mary- land. It consists of a main structure and a wing. The walls are of masonry covered with clap-boards, and the whole construction of the house is one of great substantiality.
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The interior of the mansion is very delightful. It is divided through the middle by a hallway which con- nects with another hall extending to the side of the house, which has no wing, so even on the hottest day there is an air stirring in Blakeford when the three outer doors are open. The dining-room is heavily panelled and the main hall contains arches, yet the whole character of the interior of the house is very simple and without elaboration of detail.
The gardens of Blakeford extend upon two sides of the grounds surrounding the house, and contain many rare shrubs and flowers, making the place at all seasons a veritable bower of delight. They contain, in addition, an all-the-year-round summer-house, a very ingenious sort of erection which is unique in Maryland, and probably in the rest of the United States as well. It consists simply of two intersecting brick walls set at right angles to each other, so that no matter at what position of the sky the sun may be in, no matter what hour of the day, there is always a side of the summer- house which is in shade. The brick walls of which it is constructed have had vines trained over them and have comfortable benches built into them at their bases.
The De Courcy (or Coursey) family has been identi- fied with the history of Maryland since the very earliest days of the colony. In 1654, for instance, we find that one " Henry Coursey, Clark " examined certain papers concerning William Claiborne who, with Richard
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ALL-THE-YEAR-'ROUND SUMMER HOUSE
FROM THE EAST
BLAKEFORD
BLAKEFORD
Bennett, was appointed by Parliament in 1651 Com- missioner " for the reducing of Virginia and Maryland to their due obedience to the Commonwealth of Eng- land." This "Henry Coursey, Clark " was a man of great prominence in the province, was chief judge of Kent County, and covered himself with glory on the field of battle and in the councils of state. In his trans- actions with the Five Nations at a congress in Albany, New York-1677-his conduct was so creditable as to elicit the commendation of the Governor and Assembly.
Henry Coursey lived at "My Lord's Gift," on the opposite side of Queenstown Creek from Blakeford. It is said that, in recognition of the distinguished services he had rendered the government, particularly in con- nection with a treaty he had recently made with the Iroquois Indians, the Governor offered him as much land as he could cover with his thumb on the map of the province spread before him. According to the story, Col. Henry Coursey placed a blunt thumb at a point on Queenstown Creek and rolled it over, thus describing an imprint, representing some sixteen hundred acres. Hence the name, " My Lord's Gift."
These two homesteads were taken up at practically the same time-more than two and a half centuries ago-My Lord's Gift, as we have seen, by Henry Coursey; Blakeford by his brother William. The name of the original patent for Blakeford was "Coursey's Neck." Major William Coursey, the patentee, in time
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sold to a Mr. Blake, who had the place resurveyed and added thereto two tracts, Long Run and White Banks. The three combined were known as " Blake's Fort," so called from the old fort at the southwestern end of the place on the Chester River. This name in time became Blakeford, the change being facilitated, no doubt, by the fact that there was a ford across Queenstown Creek, or Coursey's Creek as it was then known, used as a means of communication between the two Coursey estates.
The old place remained away from the family of its founder for two generations until through the marriage of Mary Tidmarsh De Courcy-grand-niece of Col. Henry Coursey, Major William Coursey, patentee of Coursey's Neck, and granddaughter of Col. Henry Coursey, patentee of My Lord's Gift-to Judge Solo- mon Wright, of another distinguished Maryland family, who purchased Blakeford from the Blake heirs, it came to its own again.
Judge Wright was a member of the Maryland Con- vention of 1771-1776; member of the Assembly, 1771- 73-74; member of the Association of Freemen; Judge of the Provincial Court; special Judge for the Eastern Shore during the Revolution, etc., etc. He was ap- pointed judge of the first Court of Appeals of Mary- land, upon the formation of the state, and served in this capacity until his death in 1792. His son Robert, thirteenth Governor of Maryland (1806-1809) and
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twice reelected, was born at Blakeford, November 20, 1752.
Robert Wright was educated at the public schools, studied law, and, having been admitted to the bar, prac- tised first in Chestertown and later in Queenstown, Maryland. He served as a private in Capt. James Kent's company of " Minute Men " against Lord Drum- mond's Tories of the Eastern Shore of Virginia, Febru- ary, 1776. Later he was a captain of a company in the Maryland Line and fought with distinction in a num- ber of important engagements, notably the battle of Brandywine. In 1801, he was elected to the United States Senate, but resigned from that august body in 1806 when elected Governor of Maryland. During his first term much excitement was occasioned by the pas- sage of the Embargo and Enforcement Acts; he pre- sided at a meeting held at Annapolis to endorse the administration. At this meeting were passed resolu- tions asking President Jefferson to reconsider his deter- mination to decline a renomination. Although Mary- land's export trade had been grievously crippled by the passage of the Embargo Act, the Governor and the Legislature still endorsed the administration.
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