USA > Delaware > Colonial mansions of Maryland and Delaware > Part 6
USA > Maryland > Colonial mansions of Maryland and Delaware > Part 6
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Governor Horatio Sharpe, of Maryland, whose sixteen years of office covered that eventful period when independence was brewing, was born in Yorkshire, in 1718, one of a numerous and celebrated family. His eldest brother, John, who died while he was in Mary- land, was one of the guardians of Frederick, Sixth Lord Baltimore. Another brother, Gregory, was a dis- tinguished Oriental scholar, Master of the Temple and chaplain to Frederick, Prince of Wales, and is spoken of by Boswell in his Life of Johnson in the following words :
He, Johnson, went with me one Sunday to hear my old master Gregory Sharpe preach at the Temple. In the prefatory prayer Sharpe ranted about liberty, as a blessing most fer- vently to be implored and its continuance prayed for. Johnson observed that our liberty was in no sort of danger; he would have done much better to pray against our licentiousness.
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It was through Gregory Sharpe's influence that Horatio Sharpe received his appointment as proprietary governor of Maryland. Prior to this time, he had served against the French as captain in Brigadier-General Powlett's regiment of marines, and as lieutenant-colonel of foot in the West Indies. In 1753, he arrived in - Annapolis, as duly chronicled by that leisurely custodian of news, the Maryland Gazette, of Annapolis, and took up his duties in energetic fashion.
Some historians have credited Governor Sharpe with first suggesting the famous Stamp Act, which led to the separation of the colonies from the mother country. In a communication of 1754 to Lord Baltimore, in England, in commenting on the difficulty of raising money from the colonial assemblies to carry on war against the French and Indians, he suggests that this end be brought about by " imposing an equal poll Tax, or by a Duty on the importation of Spirituous Liquors and Wines, or an excise on such as may be either im- ported or made on the Continent, or by a Stamp Duty or something similar on Deeds and Writings. It would, I conceive, be proper for the Law to order the Enrollment of all Deeds of Bargain and Sale and to invalidate all Deeds of Trust, unless they be also properly stamped and enrolled, as well as Deeds of Sale in the Provincial, or county clerk's office, where, I apprehend, the Stamp or Seal might be lodged." This outlines concisely the first Stamp Act of 1768, whose
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repeal and subsequent re-enactment in modified form set the colonies ablaze. In 1768, Sharpe was replaced by Sir Robert Eden, who had married the proprietary's sister. He now took up his residence permanently at Whitehall, which had hitherto been only his country home, and from then until 1773 devoted himself to planting, gardening, and living the life of a simple country gentleman. In this year he returned to Eng- land, where he died in 1790, leaving Whitehall to his old associate and faithful friend, John Ridout, Annapolis, who married Mary Ogle.
The grant of land on which Whitehall was built was purchased by Nicholas Greenberry, of Annapolis, in 1680, from William Fuller, of Virginia, son of Capt. William Fuller, its first surveyor. At his death in 1697, Greenberry left it to Charles, his son, who died in 1713, leaving Whitehall to his wife during her lifetime, to descend at her death to Saint Margaret's parish for the support of a minister. Mrs. Greenberry, the widow, married Col. Charles Hammond, Treasurer of the Western Shore. She died, records the Maryland Gazette, " Saturday night, February 25, 1769." Prior to her death, however, and that of her husband, who survived her three years, the tract of land had been purchased by Governor Sharpe, who secured a special act of legislature to set aside the provisions of Mr. Greenberry's will.
After the death of its second owner, John Ridout,
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the old mansion passed to his son, Horatio, who married Rachel Goldsborough, of Cambridge, Maryland, and from Horatio to Horatio's son, John.
John Ridout, son of Horatio, had the following chil- dren: Horatio, Samuel, Eliza, Rachel, and Ann Ogle.
Whitehall remained in the hands of this branch of the Ridout family until 1895, when it was purchased by Mrs. W. G. Story, of Washington City, wife of Gen. W. G. Story, U. S. A.
In the graveyard at Whitehall, lie generations of the Ridouts and their connections. Among the names to be found there are those of: John Ridout, of Horatio, 1793-1868; Weems Ridout, 1818-1881; Mary Ridout Winchester, 1812-1894; Prudence O. Ridout, 1834- 1909; Horatio S. Ridout, 1822-1851; Samuel Ridout, 1824-1856; Meliora Ogle Ridout, 1858-1907; Hester Ann Chase Ridout, 1817-1888.
The servants' burying ground is not far from the master's graveyard and is situated at the base of a great linden tree which was standing, no doubt, before the old mansion was built.
MONTPELIER
LAUREL, PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY, MARYLAND
SNOWDEN-JENKINS-TAYLOR-BLAKEMAN- PENDLETON-VON SCHRADER
HE traveller, one hundred years ago, on the old Annapolis-Wash- ington post-road, would have seen a very beautiful homestead near present-day Laurel, Prince George's County, Maryland. This was Montpelier, home of Nicholas Snowden, just over the county line from Anne Arundel County to Prince George's County and about halfway between the terminal cities of this much- traversed means of communication. Certainly he might have alighted and broken his journey, for the mansion-then an "old " house, as houses are familiarly reckoned-was one of the very hospitable homes of the state, with a long tradition of good living and comfort, and had sheltered many men, famous and humble alike. George Washington had spent nights there, even before the Annapolis-Wash- ington-post road was built, before the guest was our great, austere "Father of His Country." And to-day, the old homestead still throws out protecting arms-though not over descendants of those who called it into being-as hospitable and as fine as when it was
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built. Beautifully preserved against the attacks of time, and finely maintained by its present owners, it is a splendid memorial of the days of the proprietary in Maryland.
The old post-road still stretches over hill and through the reedy marshes of the Patuxent Valley in which Montpelier is situated but, except for occasional stretches, it is not kept up and is but rarely travelled. About three or four miles farther along its course, you come to the site of Birmingham, another (and the original) Snowden stronghold in this part of Maryland which, after standing two hundred years, was burned (by a vandal's act, it is thought) in 1891.
Montpelier is situated on a hill-top and originally overlooked thousands of acres of its owner's land. Though the present estate does not go into great figures it is yet comfortably large. The house is of the familiar Maryland Georgian type of central building with wings; but it differs from others of its kind in two peculiar features-the roof line and the shape of the wings. The former is pointed, the lines of the roofs of wings and central building converging to a single upper focal point. While this sounds rather extrava- gant, the effect is very attractive. The wings them- selves are semi-octagonal in shape, with the half octagon to the front, this and the Hammond House in Annapolis being the only colonial mansions in Maryland having such a distinction.
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In front, and to the south side of the house, is the garden, one of the place's great charms nowadays. It has been splendidly kept up and the old English box has reached a gigantic height, forming long, shady lanes cool even in the hottest summer day. The major part of it is laid out in the form of a cross with circles on the arms. The trunk of the cross is a walk leading to the front door, where there is a large porch extremely com- fortable, though, undoubtedly, the addition of recent years. The garden contains a very quaint suminer- house where, tradition asserts, Major Herbert courted his bride, one of the Snowden daughters, and which might very well have been the setting for many senti- mental interludes.
The back of the house has a great deal of charm, chiefly because of the beautiful doorway which graces the central portion of its expanse. The door now bears a von Schrader coat-of-arms and knocker in place of the old knocker it bore in early days, but in all other aspects the back of the house is much as it must have been a hundred years ago. Ivy frames the windows and was so thick when its present owners acquired the property that, literally, cart-loads of it were cut off and carried away. At the corner of the right wing of the house, is a great bell on a high post, used in old days to call the field hands up to the great house when the master wished to speak to them. A circular driveway completes the picture.
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4.ยช
REAR VIEW, MONTPELIER c 1740
MONTPELIER
Interiorly is found a very elaborately carved mantel in the dining-room, beautiful panelling in the sitting- room, a simple and elegant mantel in the parlour, many cupboards let into the walls at odd places, includ- ing a fine china cupboard, and huge wrought-brass door hinges and latches,-the only existing instance of the use of wrought-brass for these purposes in colonial Maryland. The arrangement of the rooms is simple -- a broad hall from front to back of the building, the stairs set off from the middle of the hall and running with it, and the rooms symmetrically disposed on either side. Words fail to describe, however, the brightness and cheeriness of the whole interior of the old mansion, especially of the hall on a summer's day with both big doors open, the wind sweeping through and a view here, of the quaint old garden, and, there, of the gravelled driveway, the ancient dignified trees and the blue dis- tance of hills beyond. One of the great charms of Montpelier is its trees, as it is blessed with an abundance of magnificent old oaks.
The foundations of the mansion were laid some- where between 1740 and 1770 by Thomas Snowden, son of Richard (the " iron-master," as he styles himself in his will), son of Richard, son of Richard the Immi- grant. We cannot be sure of a more definite date be- cause the first formal division of the Snowden lands in Prince George's County was not made until 1790, when a deed of partition inter partibus was recorded,
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MONTPELIER
Interiorly is found a very elaborately carved mantel in the dining-room, beautiful panelling in the sitting- room, a simple and elegant mantel in the parlour, many cupboards let into the walls at odd places, includ- ing a fine china cupboard, and huge wrought-brass door hinges and latches,-the only existing instance of the use of wrought-brass for these purposes in colonial Maryland. The arrangement of the rooms is simple- a broad hall from front to back of the building, the stairs set off from the middle of the hall and running with it, and the rooms symmetrically disposed on either side. Words fail to describe, however, the brightness and cheeriness of the whole interior of the old mansion, especially of the hall on a summer's day with both big doors open, the wind sweeping through and a view here, of the quaint old garden, and, there, of the gravelled driveway, the ancient dignified trees and the blue dis- tance of hills beyond. One of the great charms of Montpelier is its trees, as it is blessed with an abundance of magnificent old oaks.
The foundations of the mansion were laid some- where between 1740 and 1770 by Thomas Snowden, son of Richard (the " iron-master," as he styles himself in his will), son of Richard, son of Richard the Immi- grant. We cannot be sure of a more definite date be- cause the first formal division of the Snowden lands in Prince George's County was not made until 1790, when a deed of partition inter partibus was recorded,
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and so there are no records. This seems a curious circumstance from several standpoints; for one thing, it points to the fact that the family, which had been seated in this country for over a hundred years, lived in entire amity up to this time without recourse to law or courts for disposition of its affairs. Perhaps the fact that, up to a late date, the Snowdens were Quakers may explain the quiet conduct of their affairs over their own hearth-stones.
Montpelier was built by the aforesaid Thomas, born 1722, died 1770, and was greatly added to by his son, Major Thomas, of the Maryland line. The elder Thomas, tradition tells us, was sober, simple in tastes and something of a recluse, while the son was more fond of the bright things of the world. Thomas, the elder, built the substantial central portion of Mont- pelier. Thomas, the younger, added the beautiful wings and the interior decoration of the whole.
This Thomas Snowden, the younger-better known . as " Major " Thomas, from his services during the Revolution-was born in 1751, at Montpelier, and died in 1803. He married Ann Ridgely, a great heiress, and after his wedding was so plentifully supplied with this world's goods that the members of the Quaker congregation of which he was a part, forbade him to come to meeting. To placate them, he liberated one hundred negro slaves and was then allowed to worship with his brethren. Says Lawrence Buckler Thomas,
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the faithful chronicler of the Thomas family and its connections, of Major Thomas Snowden:
He lived at Montpelier which was on the great Northern and Southern Post-road, and entertained great numbers of people who were then continually passing upon it, and in accord- ance with the hospitable customs of the day, would not hesitate to stop at his residence for the night. Washington, himself, once spent the night there, and the bed in which he slept is still preserved.
Ann Ridgely Snowden, the devoted wife of Major Thomas Snowden, died thirty-one years after her husband, on Good Friday of 1834, having had issue: Richard, who married Eliza Warfield; Thomas, a bachelor; Mary, who married Col. John Carlyle Her- bert, of Walnut Grange, Virginia, and whose great- granddaughter, Mrs. Carlyle Herbert Hooff, lives at Oaklands; Nicholas, who married Elizabeth Warfield Thomas, and inherited Montpelier; and Caroline, who died unmarried.
Nicholas, the next owner of the old home, was born at Montpelier, October 21, 1786, and died March 8, 1831. His wife, Elizabeth Warfield Thomas-to whom he was married October 7, 1806-died at Avondale, Maryland, June 16, 1866. He left the following chil- dren: Ann Elizabeth, who married, first, Francis M. Hall, second, Charles Hill; Louisa, who married Col. Horace Capron, and made her home in Chicago; Julianna Maria, who married Dr. Theodore Jenkins,
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of Baltimore, and inherited the homestead; Adeline, who married Walter W. W. Bowie; Edward, who married Mary Thomas Warfield; Dr. De Wilton, who married Emma C. Capron; Henry, who married Mary Cournan; Elizabeth, who entered a convent in George- town, D. C .; and Emily Roseville, who married Charles C. Hill. Descendant sons and daughters of these unions have taken prominent places in many states.
Ann Elizabeth Snowden's second husband, Charles Hill, was the father of Charles C. Hill, who married her sister, Emily Roseville Snowden, and she did not marry the second time until after her second husband's son had married her sister. What relation were her chil- dren by her second marriage to her sister's children? Her husband's children were younger than his grand- children, it is plain; and other aspects of this interesting genealogical problem will be discovered upon reflection.
Julianna Snowden, who married Dr. Theodore Jenkins, was the inheritor of Montpelier, and was a woman of fine intellectual endowment and great strength of purpose. She was married at Montpelier, June 23, 1835, and after her husband's death at the homestead, December 15, 1866, managed the entire large estate. Her children were: Theodore, born April 19, 1838, killed at the battle of Cedar Mountains, Vir- ginia, August 9, 1862; Elizabeth Snowden, Louis William, born June 16, 1842; Francis Xavier, born September 29, 1844, and lives in Baltimore; Mary
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SUMMER HOUSE, MONTPELIER
GARDEN, MONTPELIER .
MONTPELIER
Eliza, born November 5, 1846, and lives in Washington, D. C .; Ann Louisa, and Arthur.
Since the death of Mrs. Jenkins, the beautiful property has passed through many hands. It was left by her will to her children and was, later, in the posses- sion of W. P. Davis and Martin W. Chollar as specula- tive investors until, in 1895, it was purchased by Mrs. Josephine D. Taylor, of New York, for a summer home. In 1900, Lewis H. Blakeman, of New York, acquired the title, from whom in 1906, it went to Ed- mund H. Pendleton, a writer, of New York, who lived there until his death in 1910. In 1911 it was purchased from the Pendleton estate by Otto V. von Schrader, of St. Louis, its present owner, whose family consists of his wife, a married son, Atreus Hargadine von Schrader, and a grandson, Atreus Hargadine, Jr.
In its present hands the old homestead belongs to those capable of understanding its traditions and of continuing them.
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OAKLANDS
(WITH NOTES ON OTHER SNOWDEN HOMES) CONTEE STATION, PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY, MARYLAND SNOWDEN-CONTEE-BOLLING-HOOFF
N the crest of a hill overlooking 0 Contee, Prince George's County, Maryland, stands Oaklands, one of the Snowden homes, now the property of Mr. Charles R. Hooff, a Virginian by birth, whose wife-a daughter of the late Gen. James R. Herbert, C. S. A .- is a descendant of the family which called the solid old homestead into being; though, when Mr. Hooff acquired its title, in 1911, it had passed from the direct line of its founders.
The house is a sturdy brick structure distinguished on the exterior by fine front and back doorways and by the excellence of its brickwork, whose customary mo- notony is varied by the use of heavy, glazed " headers," the secret of the making of which is believed to have passed away. In the rear of the house, which faces west, is a charming, crumbling garden with broken terraces, whence may be had a delightful view of the tree-clad hills from which the estate took its name. The place had gone through various stages of ruin before Mr. Hooff took it in hand, even to having its window weights and the top-soil of the garden sold. For the rehabilita- tion of the home Mr. Hooff has made, and is carrying
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out, extensive plans, all of them based primarily on the desire to have it, when these are finished, as near as possible as it was when it was new.
The arrangement of the house on the inside is simple: a broad hallway from front to back divides it in the middle and there is a small wing to the south in " which there are kitchen, pantry and servants' rooms. An exceedingly sunny and beautiful staircase leads from the hall at the rear, extending half the width of the house. Its entrance and its point of departure from the hall are marked by two graceful, classic arches placed on the transverse and longitudinal lines of the house, respectively. The stair is broken by a landing on which stands a Fairfax clock, a relic of the famous Lord Fairfax, of Virginia, Washington's patron, and one of Mrs. Hooff's maternal forebears. The rooms are notable for their high ceilings and good proportion, the parlour, in especial, being very charming with high- wainscoted walls, and simple cornice. In the dining- room, is a corner cupboard, which takes every feminine heart, and in the sitting-room adjoining are the remains of a secret staircase which led from this room to the master's bedroom above.
In the old days, this sitting-room was used as a card- room and the following story is told of it: It seems that at one period the Lord of Misrule held sway in this house-as he has in almost every old home in Maryland -and during his reign, one evening, a furious and
7
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COLONIAL MANSIONS OF MARYLAND
boisterous game of cards was in progress in this room. High stakes were on, the players were all heated and red with wine when suddenly one of them was summoned away by a message that could not be put aside. His going would mean the breaking up of the game.
"We would play with the Devil if he took your place," declared the host and his guests with loud oaths.
They were seated in confusion when there came a knock at the door. Entered a tall, slim man whom no one there recognized.
"May I take the vacant place? " he asked.
" Sit down," replied the host, " though we don't know your name."
Again play waxed furious. The stranger played in an incredible streak of luck. Morning came and went and afternoon and evening and still the game went on, each player seeming to be bound to his seat by some irresistible force. At last the unknown had won every dollar of each man sitting at the table and the hypothe- cation of every valuable they possessed. He arose to go but turned at the door to bow farewell. Sharpened by distress, the weary eyes of the men at the table noted plainly the outline of a forked tail beneath the back of his coat as he bent over, and, on his departure, a smell of brimstone clung about the room for a long time.
In each of the rooms of the house, is a broad fire- place set across the corner of the room farthest from the door. This gives an exceedingly homelike atmosphere
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CHINA CUPBOARD
STAIRWAY
OAKLANDS
OAKLANDS
to the house in winter, and, indeed, one of its great dis- tinctions at all seasons is its general air of sunny good cheer. The windows are full five panes across and high in proportion.
Oaklands was inherited by Richard Snowden from his father, Major Thomas Snowden, of Montpelier, which is situated nearby, and to it he took his bride, Eliza Warfield, of Bushby Park, Howard County, when he was married, February 13, 1798. After the death of his first wife, he married her sister, Louisa Victoria Warfield, of Bushby Park-no mean tribute from a man to his wife's family.
The estate extended from the boundaries of Mont- pelier, on the south, well up into the present Howard County, Maryland, and embraced more than two thousand acres. Its master had no children by his second marriage. The issue of the first has begotten a large and active connection. Ann Louisa, the eldest child, who inherited the homestead, married Capt. John Contee; Col. Thomas Snowden, the eldest son, married Ann Rebecca Nicholls and had Sara Rebecca Nicholls, who married Capt. Charles Marshall of Baltimore; Caroline Eliza married Albert Fairfax, of Northamp- ton, Prince George's County, Maryland, father of the late John Contee Fairfax, first of the name after the Revolution to assume the title of Lord Fairfax- the only certified English title in the United States-and grandfather of Albert, present Lord Fairfax; Emily
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Roseville married Col. Timothy P. Andrews, U. S. A., of Baltimore; and Richard Nicholls married Elizabeth Ridgely Warfield.
The children of Ann Louisa Contee, inheritor of the homestead, included eight daughters and two sons: Charles Snowden Contee, who married Betty Bolling; and Richard, who married Anna Bolling, Betty's sister. These sons were the last of the family in a direct line from the builder to occupy the home. In 1878 the place was bought by trustees of the Bolling estate and at the death of Richard Contee's wife, six years ago, it was sold to John Dominick Bolling, nephew of the Bolling sisters. In 1912, it was purchased by Mr. Hooff.
Concerning the origin of the Snowden family in Maryland, we may read to advantage Lawrence Buckler Thomas' notes on the Thomas family :
Richard Snowden, of Wales, who is said to have held a Major's commission under Oliver Cromwell, came to Maryland in the seventeenth century. His son, Richard, is mentioned as a well-known owner of land in Maryland, near South River, in a deed dated October 13, 1679. August 1, 1686, a tract of land called " Robin Hood's Forest," and containing 10,500 acres, was granted to him. He was living October 13, 1688, when William Parker deeds to him certain land for a consideration of 306 pounds. In 1704, he was still living but died soon after that date.
Richard Snowden, son of this Richard, married Mary Waters-of the family of which Dr. Franklin Waters and his sisters, of West River, Maryland, are
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descendants-and became a large land-holder and iron- founder, adding more than ten thousand acres to the large tract of land already his by virtue of inheritance from his father. In partnership with Edmund Jen- nings, of Annapolis, John Galloway and Jacob Cow- man, of Anne Arundel County, and John Pritchard, of London, he built in Prince George's County, on the Patuxent, the first ironworks ever operated in Mary- land. Not far from his forges on the Patuxent and near the present-day city of Laurel, Maryland, he erected his manor-house Birmingham, which stood in fine preservation until 1890, a superb example of early building, when it was destroyed by fire.
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