USA > Delaware > Colonial mansions of Maryland and Delaware > Part 14
USA > Maryland > Colonial mansions of Maryland and Delaware > Part 14
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the brothers lost his mind. The value of the gold thus unearthed is unknown, but with it the surviving brother purchased Sharpe's Island, which then contained about seven hundred acres. To-day, not more than twenty acres survive the unremitting attack of the waters of the Chesapeake.
Like many another colonial home of Maryland, Plain Dealing has its ghost. An owner of the mansion, according to the tale which obtains, fell from the upper story over the carved railing into the hall, breaking his neck, and leaving a stain of blood upon the floor which even the passage of the centuries has not erased. After his death the house was neglected, and began to go to ruin. Its handsome panelling and carving began to decay; its walls crumbled and became moss-covered; its spreading roof showed signs of advancing age; the old furniture became covered with dust; the old portraits of patrician men and women, with powdered wigs and once-immaculate ruffs, became stained and mouldy, while from the wet cellar came dank, miasmic airs as from a tomb. The family burying ground, just across the lawn upon the banks of the creek, became a tangled mass of weeds, trees and underbrush, while the vaults cracked open and their ghostly occupants stalked at will-an ideal setting in truth for ghostly visitants, but to enhance this, the neglected old dwelling became the abode of " Katie Coburn, the witch." This witch, the
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last of her line known in Talbot County, was aged, de- formed and hideous. Children fled at her approach and negroes were terror-stricken at the very mention of her name. The threat that " Katie Coburn will get you if you don't look out " had a salutary effect on the be- haviour of the former, and the latter were in constant fear of being hoodooed by a wicked glance from her " evil eye." Negroes wore charms to counteract her spells-rabbit foot and what not-and it may be assumed they did not crowd upon the heels of "Katie Coburn, the witch," as she walked the highway.
Not far from Plain Dealing there was a farmer whose cows pastured near the old Chamberlaine burying ground. One afternoon the boy whose duty it was to drive the cows home, had to go near the lonely spot, and beheld to his amazement a stranger there-a man, tall, stately, and attired in the fashion of a bygone period. The man spoke to the boy; the latter fled. The story was dismissed as the idle fancy of a child. Again and again the lad saw the same strange visitant, until at last he spoke to him, and in response saw him walk to a cer- tain spot in the burying ground and look downward, stamping his foot. This performance was gone through several evenings between the boy and the silent spectre. On one occasion the spectre led the boy-now no longer afraid of him-into the deserted old home and pointed to a portrait on the wall. The boy saw that his guide
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was strangely like the portrait. Leading the lad back to the graveyard, the spectre pointed downwards and stamped his foot as before. As it was growing dark and the cows had already gone homeward, the boy suddenly decided to go also and lost no time in so doing. Still they laughed at his story, but then came the rumour that "witch Katie " had not only disappeared from Plain Dealing, but no trace of her was to be discovered in the surrounding country. The boy had not seen her since the coming of his strange acquaintance of the graveyard. At last, so impressed were the parents of the boy with the story of the strange visitor-daily seen in the gloaming and now become the talk of the neighbourhood-that the father accompanied his son one evening to investigate the phenomenon.
" There he is, father. See, he has gone to the same spot and is pointing to the ground," exclaimed the boy.
The father was unable to see, but he was impressed with the look and manner of his son, and replied:
" Well, my son, we will see what the ghost is pointing out to us."
The spectre was seen no more, but the family of the boy to whom the spectre had revealed himself grew suddenly rich. According to the legend, they belonged to a noble family in England, who, having been de- frauded of their inheritance, came to America to seek a home, and that this ghost, one of their ancestors, had
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enriched them by pointing out the treasure, discovering himself (for some unknown reason) only to the lad.
Since 1735 Plain Dealing has been in the possession of but three families, the Chamberlaines, the Locker- mans, and the Hardcastles. Gen. E. L. F. Hardcastle, the present owner, bought the farm in 1856, and built the present substantial and beautiful addition to the original mansion. The original part of the house built in 1735 forms the rear part of the building as it stands to-day.
BEVERLY SOMERSET COUNTY, MARYLAND DENNIS
EVERLY, the old homestead of the Dennis family, is on the Pocomoke River, Somerset County, on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, about six miles from Pocomoke City. The original estate, which con- tained over 1,600 acres, extending beyond what is now the Virginia line, at present contains only 500 acres. It was first patented in 1664 by Dan- nock Dennis during the reign of Charles II. The estate has been in the possession of the Dennis family for nine generations, extending over a period of more than two hundred years. The present owner is James Teagle Dennis, of Baltimore and the Green Spring Valley, Maryland, who is a lineal descendant of the original owner. Prior to Mr. James T. Dennis's possession, the place was owned by Arthur C. Dennis, of Winnipeg, Canada; Alfred P. Dennis, of Pocomoke City, Maryland; and Samuel K. Dennis, of Baltimore, and was occupied by their mother and sister.
Beverly is well situated and has a commanding out- look upon the water of Pocomoke Sound, half a dozen miles to the south. A straight, broad avenue, flanked by red cedars, leads out from the front of the house through orchards and cornfields for nearly a mile to the country
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road at the eastern edge of the plantation. The velvet lawns, the beautiful river terrace, the stately pines and cypresses rising above a well-kept garden, materially enhance the natural beauty of the site.
The present dwelling is the second of the ancient manor houses, and was erected about 1774 by Susannah- Dennis. The first was destroyed by fire in the early part of the eighteenth century. The house is of the familiar Georgian model and contains much carving. So typical of Maryland colonial homes was it considered that it was reproduced in outline on the silver service presented some years since to the cruiser Maryland by the state for which the battle-ship was named.
The interior woodwork of the house is of heart yellow pine. The wainscoting, staircases and window seats are wrought out by hand in the style of the middle of the eighteenth century. The iron porch on the west side of the house, overlooking the river, is of a style rarely seen out of England, whence it came. The front porch (facing the main entrance on the east), with its great white columns and its wide upper veranda, is in the con- ventional type of the period in which it was built. A colony of nearly one hundred slaves was contained on the plantation until the Civil War, and the marks of the self-centred, self-supporting character of the ante- bellum days are strong upon the old Beverly estate. There is still an old smoke-house, in which for more than two centuries, extending down to the present date,
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the family meats have been smoked, and remnants of the old negro quarters, the "ship-yard lot," the "saw- bit lot," the " tan-yard lot " and " blacksmith lot " exist. In the old carriage-shed a coach of the Louis Quinze period, with iron steps, leather straps and seats for lackeys, still stands. This is one of the picturesque old coaches of early days and was drawn by six richly caparisoned horses driven by pompous darkies in magnificent liveries.
There is a family graveyard and two negro burying grounds. In the former, nine generations of the dis- tinguished Dennis family have been laid to rest, and here, also, may be seen the handsome tomb, with its quaint lettering, of Susannah Dennis, who was the first mistress of the present Beverly homestead.
SOTTERLY ST. MARY'S COUNTY, MARYLAND BOWLES-PLATER-BRISCOE-SATTERLEE
NE of the most historic places in Maryland is Sotterly, the Plater mansion in Saint Mary's County, O on the Patuxent River. Through its purchase in 1910 by Herbert L. Satterlee, of New York- whose wife was a daughter of the late financier, J. Pierpont Morgan-the old homestead has singularly enough come into the hands of one who is not descended from the family of its builder, but who is descended from the family from which the English seat of the family of its builder took its name. Sotterly, in other words, derives its cognomen from " Sotterle," the seat of the Plater family in England; and this Plater seat in England was long years ago purchased from the Sotterle family of which Mr. Satterlee to-day is an American descendant. Needless to say, it is finely maintained and in its present hands is a magnificent example, indeed, of the fine dwelling house of the early colonial period of the nation's history in a cavalier sec- tion of the provinces.
The house is of frame with brick foundation, gables, and porches and a flagstone colonnade. It is in the shape of a capital letter Z and is one and a half stories
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in height with a steep roof, surmounted by a cupola and pierced with triangular capped dormer windows. From cellar to foot of the hill below the house leads a secret passageway of brick.
The rooms are large and airy on the first floor but low and sloping on the second. Throughout the house is a great deal of fine panelling and in the parlour, in particular, is to be found a quantity of delicate carving, the ornamentation of the alcoves here being especially fine. The doors of the parlour are of solid mahogany, swung on solid brass straps extending about two feet out from the frame.
The stairway is of mahogany and the balustrade and newel post are of an ingenious filigree which, family tradition tells us, was devised by a mechanic named Bowen who was one of the " King's seven year con- victs." He was purchased by the builder of Sotterly and liberated for his devoted work here.
James Walter Thomas, the historian of Saint Mary's County, says :
In the front yard of Sotterly formerly stood two small square buildings with cone-shaped roofs. The one stood at the garden gate and was used as a wine and smoking room; the other stood immediately opposite, and was used as the office of the Collector and Naval Officer of the Patuxent District. The former of these is now at the foot of the yard, opposite the old " Gate Lodge," the other is in the barn-yard, flanked by a series of sheds and used as a granary.
Sotterly was erected about 1730 by James Bowles.
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For a number of years it was known as Bowles' Separa- tion, as the ground on which it stood was originally part of Fenwick's Manor, one of the earliest grants of land in the province of Maryland, and was " separated " from it for Bowles. At first it contained 2,000 acres, but this number has long since dwindled to the present. comparatively modest limits of the estate. After no long time James Bowles died, and his widow married the Hon. George Plater, one of the most important men of the province. James Walter Thomas says:
The Hon. George Plater was a member of the Assembly and Attorney General of Maryland as early as 1691, and from 1692 to 1720 was the Collector of Customs for the Patuxent.
Governor George Plater, only son of Hon. George Plater, and heir of Sotterly, was born in 1736, and was educated at William and Mary's College. In 1760 he visited England, where he was introduced by letters from Governor Horatio Sharpe. He seems to have made an agreeable impression while there upon Lord Baltimore, who shortly after indicated to Governor Sharpe his desire to have him associated " in the affairs of the Province," and with which he soon became so prominently connected. He married Ann Rousby, the only child of Col. John Rousby, of the once famous and beautiful estate on the Calvert side of the Patuxent, known as Rousby Hall. Mrs. Plater enjoys the reputation of having been a woman possessed of rare personal beauty and stately elegance. Her rich patrimony, added to the already large estate of her husband, enabled the occupants of Sotterly to live in courtly style, and in full keeping with their distinguished position, as is clearly attested by the will of Governor Plater and the inventory of his estate. Governor George and Ann Rousby Plater left two daughters, Ann and Rebecca ( whose fame for beauty and accomplishments have lived
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to the present day), and three sons, George, Thomas, and John Rousby Plater. Ann Plater married the distinguished jurist and statesman, Philip Barton Key, and Rebecca married General Uriah Forrest, of the Maryland line; George, eldest son of Governor George Plater and heir of Sotterly, married, first, March 9, 1795, Cecelia B. Bond, of Southampton, and second, March 22, 1798, Elizabeth Somerville. He died in 1802, leav- ing by his first marriage George, who inherited Sotterly and lost it, and by his second Ann Elizabeth Plater, who married her cousin, John Rousby Plater. Judge John Rousby, second son of Governor George Plater, married Elizabeth Tuttle, of Annapolis, Maryland. He died in 1832.
There is an interesting story told of Ann Rousby, who was the wife of Gov. George Plater. Mrs. Rousby, the mother, became a widow at twenty, and as mistress of a fine estate and proprietress of many personal charms as well, was much sought after in marriage. Among the most ardent of her wooers was a Colonel Fitzhugh, of Virginia, who was leaving Rousby Hall one day when he espied Mrs. Rousby's infant daughter asleep with its nurse near the water side. He approached the sleeping child and took it in his arms, and before the startled mother, who had followed his movements with wonder- ing eyes, could guess what he was about, had held the infant far out over the water.
" If you do not promise to marry me, I will drop this child into the current," he said.
The distracted mother gave the promise asked and not long after became the bride of Colonel Fitzhugh. The infant whose tiny life was the battlefield of two
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wills was that Ann Rousby who became the wife of Governor George Plater.
Early in the nineteenth century, after more than a hundred years of possession, Sotterly passed from the Platers and until its purchase by Mr. Satterlee belonged to the family of Dr. Walter Hanson Stone Briscoe.
A descendant of the Platers of Sotterly is Mrs. Kirby Flower Smith, of Baltimore, wife of Prof. Kirby Flower Smith, of Johns Hopkins University, whose great-great-grandfather was John Rousby Plater.
DEEP FALLS ST. MARY'S COUNTY, MARYLAND THOMAS
OT far from the village of Chaptico, Saint Mary's County, Maryland, is the quaint Thomas homestead, Deep Falls, now the summer home of James Walter Thomas, lawyer, of Cumberland, Mary- land, and historian-author of " Chronicles of Saint Mary's County." Somewhat fallen to frayed ends in later years, Deep Falls has recently been restored in the smallest detail, to its condi- tion when new, by its present master.
In a proprietary grant of March 26, 1680, the estate of Deep Falls is spoken of as " Wales," but shortly the name became that which it bears to-day. The house was erected by Major William Thomas about 1745 and has never passed from the hands of descendants of the builder.
To approach Deep Falls one drives through a beauti- ful wooded avenue. The house itself is situated on an eminence which commands a fine view. In appearance it is like an English country dwelling-house, its most distinguished feature being the group of great chimneys which tower above its roof-line. It is sixty feet long and forty feet deep and has wide piazzas, front and back, running its whole length, supported by massive pillars.
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It is a large, double two-story frame building with brick foundation. While the whole effect of the old mansion is that of massive simplicity, yet it is so well proportioned in all of its parts that it is not without grace.
In the rear of the house are five terraces, each one hundred feet long and ten feet deep, which lead to the - plateau below, where is an old-time garden of Queen Anne design filled with beautiful old flowering shrubs and bushes. On either side of the house are broad lawns made picturesque by gentle undulations and rich and varied foliage. Not far from the house is the graveyard dedicated to family burial for more than a century and a half, and containing within its limits the successive generations that have lived and passed away at Deep Falls.
The interior of the house does not contain a great deal of ornamentation, and bears out the character of the simplicity which marks the outside, but it is distinguished by the staircase which leads off from the main hall at the rear, its point of departure being signalized by a beautiful arch. The sides of the stair are panelled and carved; the newel posts are of maple with rosewood tops surmounted with an ivory knob.
This William Thomas, builder of Deep Falls, was the son of John Thomas, Charles County, where he was born in 1714. He removed early in life to St. Mary's County and resided there until his death. He was a delegate to the Revolutionary Convention in 1775, and
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a member of the Committee of Safety for St. Mary's County in the same year. He married Elizabeth Thomas, daughter of Thomas Reeves, and died at his residence in March, 1795, leaving four sons and a daughter.
Thomas Thomas, first of his name in Maryland, was one of the early settlers on the Patuxent River, there being a survey made out for him-known as Broad Neck -in 1651. In 1671 he died, leaving amongst other items " 2 pewter dishes, 1 pewter Bason, 3 poringers, 6 spoons, 1 Dutch pott and pott hookes and 1 dish," to his daughter Grace. Others of his children fared equally well.
James, eldest son of Thomas, was born in the year in which his parents came to Maryland. He died in 1701, and left among other children a son John, who was the father of William Thomas, builder of Deep Falls.
William Thomas, son of William, who inherited the homestead, was born at Deep Falls and became a very prominent man of his time. He held the commission of major in the Maryland line of the Continental Army, was member of the House of Delegates of this state, and for twelve years previous to his death, in 1813, was President of the Maryland Senate. He was a prominent freemason, and was elected in June, 1799, Grand Master of Maryland. He married in 1782 Catherine Boarman, daughter of Mary Brook Boarman, and through an inheritance of his wife acquired the historic
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estate of De La Brook in St. Mary's County. He died at De La Brook on the Patuxent, leaving Deep Falls to his eldest son, James, from whom it has descended to its present owner.
James Thomas, son of William, inheritor of Deep Falls, was a physician and was educated at St. John's - College, Annapolis. In 1883 he was elected Governor of Maryland. He married his cousin, Eliza, daughter of Major William and Elizabeth Thomas Coates.
In the graveyard of Deep Falls may be deciphered the following inscriptions among others:
In memory of Maj .- Gen. James Thomas, Ex-Governor of Maryland, born March 11, 1785, died December 25th, 1845, aged 60 years, 9 months and 14 days. This Monument is erected as a tribute of affection by his children.
Green be the turf above thee, Friend of my better days; None knew thee but to love thee, None named thee, but to praise.
Richard Thomas, born June 20, 1797, died Oct. 30th, 1849. He was long a member of the Legislature of Maryland, and for many years President of the Senate with unanimous applause, standing always honorably high in public confidence and private affection.
Major William Thomas Sr., died March 25, 1795, a soldier of the Revolution.
William Thomas, youngest son of Major William and Catherine Boarman Thomas, born March, 1793, studied medicine under Dr. Physick in Philadelphia,
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graduated in 1814, and took up his home at Cremona, another beautiful homestead of St. Mary's County, on the Patuxent River. He married Eliza Tubman, grand- daughter of Henry Greenfield Sothoron and Mary Bond, of Chaptico Manor. He died at Cremona, Sep- tember 30, 1849, leaving, amongst other children, John Henry Thomas, who married November 12, 1851, Mary Leiper, and resided at Trent Hall, an old estate devised to him by his maternal cousin, John Truman Hawkins. He died June 15, 1893. In the burying ground at Trent Hall are to be found the tombstones of James Truman, Gent., died August 7, 1672, and Nathaniel Truman, Gent., died March 4, 1678.
The children of John Henry Thomas were: George Leiper Thomas, an attorney of Baltimore; William, who died in 1857; and Elizabeth Snowden Thomas, of Baltimore, present owner of Trent Hall.
COLONIAL MANSIONS OF DELAWARE
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AMSTEL HOUSE NEW CASTLE, DELAWARE VAN DYKE-MOODY-BURNHAM-HAY
HE visitor to New Castle, Dela- ware, who walks up the well- shaded street which bounds the western side of the ancient court square of this delightful little old city will find himself (about a square beyond this commons) in a veritable colony of old houses holding gossip together in stately, old-time fashion. Conspicuous among them is the Amstel House, so known because so christened by its present owners; this is the oldest dwelling-house in New Castle.
Prof. Henry Hanby Hay, the present occupant of this mansion, has spent much of his leisure time, after attending his official duties at Girard College, Phila- delphia, in investigation of the history of his home. He has found that the earliest mention of the homestead in the records preserved in the court-house of his native town is to be found in a bill of sheriff's sale bearing the date of 1745, but from structural architectural peculiarities and other suggestive characteristics he places the date of erection of the house at about 1730. This date and the name " Amstel House," a fanciful cognomen derived from the ancient name of "New Amstel " which New Castle bore in older days, he has
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had carved in a tablet above the door of his home. In construction the house has a great resemblance to Stenton, an old homestead near Philadelphia, whose date of erection is known to have been near that which Professor Hay has assigned to his own domicile. The first occupant of the mansion whose name has been handed down to us of the present day as having lived in it was Governor Nicholas Van Dyke, progenitor of a distinguished line, whose term of office was shortly after the close of the revolutionary war and whose name is associated with many of the great movements of his locality and day.
New Castle, in Governor Van Dyke's day and prior to 1837, indeed, was on the main line of travel between Philadelphia, Baltimore and southern points, and Governor Van Dyke's home entertained many dis- tinguished travellers making their way from one part of the colonies to another. Among these visitors was Lafayette. Washington was a friend of this hospitable patrician also, and was entertained in this old home. In 1774 the enforcement of the Port Bill brought great suffering to many citizens of Boston, Massachusetts. Governor Van Dyke busied himself in raising a sub- scription for the alleviation of the privations of these unfortunates and secured an amount totalling more than nine hundred dollars of United States currency. Exactly fifty years after this-after the terrible fire of April 24, which destroyed a great part of New
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ENTRANCE TO AMSTEL HOUSE c. 1730
AMSTEL HOUSE
Castle, including the home of George Read, the signer, and many beautiful colonial mansions of the city- Boston sent generous pecuniary aid to the victims of misfortune in the little Delaware commonalty and selected Nicholas Van Dyke, son of the governor, to be the distributor of its offerings.
From Governor Van Dyke the homestead passed by purchase to Major John Moody, whose daughter married John Burnham, Esq., and inherited the house. At her death she left it to her son, John Burnham, who was the owner until the year 1900, when it was pur- chased by its present occupants, Prof. Henry Hanby Hay and his wife. Mrs. Hay was a Miss Rodney be- fore her marriage, a native of New Castle, and a great- grand-niece of Cæsar Rodney, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence from Delaware.
The Amstel House is distinguished on the exterior by the heavy roof which far overhangs the pavement. The windows are almost square and very heavily trimmed.
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