USA > Maryland > Talbot County > History of Talbot county, Maryland, 1661-1861, Volume II > Part 1
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ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY
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Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2016
https://archive.org/details/historyoftalbotc02tilg
Verytruly yours Oswald Tilghman. -
HISTORY OF TALBOT COUNTY MARYLAND 1661-1861
COMPILED PRINCIPALLY FROM THE LITERARY RELICS OF THE LATE SAMUEL ALEXANDER HARRISON, A.M., M.D.
BY HIS SON-IN-LAW OSWALD TILGHMAN EASTON, MD.
IN TWO VOLUMES VOLUME II
BALTIMORE WILLIAMS & WILKINS COMPANY MDCCCCXV
COPYRIGHT. 1915, BY OSWALD TILGHMAN EASTON, MD.
806-11 -12-1-9)
1304312
DEDICATION
To the memory of Talbot's local annalist, the late
SAMUEL ALEXANDER HARRISON, A.M., M.D.,
and to the many descendants of the Worthies of Talbot, scattered, as they are, throughout the United States and in foreign lands, these Memoirs are respectfully dedicated.
It is the earnest hope of the compiler of these pages that a thoughtful perusal of them may inspire in their readers a sincere desire to emulate the virtues of the early Worthies of Talbot, for love of ancestors and veneration for their memories ennoble a people who cherish them.
OSWALD TILGHMAN.
25,00
PREFACE
It is a reproach to Talbot County that no one has, heretofore, ever seriously and earnestly attempted the task, dutiful, profitable and plea- sing as it is, of the recovery and preservation from the oblivion into which they have fallen, or are falling, of the memories of those incidents that illustrate, and of those characters that adorn, our local annals. We owe it to this beautiful county of ours, to which we are all attached by so many ties of affection and interest, that we should revive and per- petuate recollections of all that has transpired upon this, our natal soil, and of all those worthies, who by their labors in the several depart- ments of life, have made it the pleasant abode that it is for us, and shall be for those coming after us.
That narrow patriotism, which limits itself to the county, state or section, is not to be encouraged, if it excludes or weakens that broader patriotism that embraces the whole nation; but a love of one's immediate home lies at the foundation of this broader love of country, of which one of the chief duties and obligations is the keeping alive those local traditions of events and persons which strengthen that love of country, and which serve, in a very appreciable degree, as materials for its gen- eral history. A study of our local history may not be the nobiest occupation of the mind; there may be grander subjects for contempla- tion than the petty occurrences of a vicinage, or the careers of the respectable mediocrities of a county. There may be matters of inves- tigation more profitable, perhaps, than neighborhood antiquities and family genealogies, but let it not be supposed that these are so insignifi- cant as to be unworthy of attention. Be assured that he who will give up a portion of the time which is dissipated in less useful occupations, to these pursuits, will, at least, find this advantage, that he is laying the very best foundation for the study of the larger and more momentous history of his country. Indeed, no one can thoroughly investigate the annals of his own county without becoming well grounded in general history; nay more, without making a most fitting preparation for the study of the very philosophy of all history, for such is the concatenation and relation of events in all times and places, that the social move- ments in one county, or section of a country, at any period, can hardly be comprehended without a knowledge of the progress of society in other countries; and it is from the correlation and coordination of such
V
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PREFACE
minutia that the science of history is evolved. But beside the obliga- tions of patriotic duty, and beside the solicitations of intellectual profit, there is a further inducement to pursue a study of our local history and that is, the pleasures which such a study affords. This study min- isters in some indirect but very positive way to that strongest of in- stincts-a love of life; for it, as it were, prolongs our consciousness . backwards, gives us a kind of reminiscence of all the past and enables us to live.over again the years that have flown by. An ancient Latin poet has truly said "Hoc est vivere bis, vita posse priori frui" (This it is twice to live, to be able to enjoy the life of the past). He who be- comes thoroughly possessed with the spirit of historical and anti- quarian research, particularly research into local history and antiquities, feels himself insensibly carried back into the times, and transported to the places to which his research relates. The dead revive, occupy their old homes, frequent their old haunts, display their old garbs, prac- tice their old follies, vent their old passions, or exhibit their old virtues.
The whole drama of the dead past is reenacted with all its cast of characters, with all its scenery and appointments, just as the drama of the living-present is now placed upon the stage. What play in the mimic theatre can equal this in vividness, in its realism, in its absorbing interest? He who makes himself a spectator truly lives a double life- a life in the past, and a life in the present, and his years though not multiplied in number, are surely increased in capacity. George Eliot, in her fascinating novel Romola, expresses her reverence for the de- parted, who have left us examples of right living, when she makes blind Bardo say to his daughter Romola, when she had finished reading to him from one of his favorite classics. "It is true, Romola. It is a true conception of the poet: for what is that grosser, narrower light by which men behold merely the petty scene around them, compared with that far-stretching, lasting light which spreads over centuries of thought, and over the life of nations, and makes clear to us the minds of the immortals, who have reaped the great harvest and left us to glean in their furrows? For me, Romola, even when I could see, it was with the great dead that I lived; while the living often seemed to me mere spectres-shadows dispossessed of true feeling and intelligence."
If, good Reader, the perusal of this History of Talbot County should inspire you with an earnest desire to know more of this beautiful county of ours, so dear to us all, to know more of its political contests, its religious conflicts and changes, its progress in education, its industrial mutations and development, its social phases, its advancement in cilvili-
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PREFACE
zation and refinement, and finally of its notable citizens who laid the foundation for all the prosperity of the present, then the years of labor and of patient research expended upon this work by its author and its compiler will not have been spent in vain.
OSWALD TILGHMAN.
Easton, Maryland, 1914.
CONTENTS
PAGE
The Founding of Talbot.
1
The Hundred. 5
The Publick Roads 8
Post Routes in Early Colonial Days 9
Election Districts.
10
Ferries Kept in Talbot in Colonial Days
11
Earliest Land Grants in Talbot. 11 Talbot's First Public School.
13
First Admiral of the Maryland Province. 15
How Elections Were Conducted in Provincial Times 16
List of Talbot Burgesses in the Provincial Assembly. 17
Mails Carried by the County Sheriffs in Early Days
19
Colors of the Militia of Talbot County Provincial Times 20
Clerks of Talbot County Court from 1662 to 1915. 21
The Commissaries General and Registers of Wills of Talbot County from 1692 to 1915.
21
The First Agricultural Society in Talbot.
22
The Indians in Talbot County 30
The Passing of the Nanticokes.
33
An Incident at Troths Fortune, Trial of Poh Poh Caquis.
35
The Stamp Act in Talbot.
40
The Revolution in Talbot. 48
An Incident of the Revolution in Talbot. 133
List of Slave Holders in Talbot in 1790 who owned Ten or More Slaves. 138
The War of 1812-15 in Talbot. 141
191
The Court House
200
The Story of Perdita.
246
Old Parish Lines in Talbot County
271
Old Chester and Wye Churches.
274
White Marsh Church, Saint Peter's Parish.
285 291
The Old Chapel at Kings Creek.
The Old Brick Church on Harrison Street, Easton
294
Methodism in Talbot 297
Saint's and Shrines of Early Methodism in Bayside. 302
Episcopal Churches in St. Michaels, the Old Church and the New. 311
Earliest Catholic Churches in Talbot County. 313
Origin of Talbot Geographical Names 316
Third Haven. 321
The Town and Port of Oxford. 332
The Town of Saint Michaels. 375
Jacob Gibson's Bank. 415
ix
General LaFayette and the People of Talbot
X
CONTENTS
PAGE
Jacob Gibson's Prank.
425
The Schools of Talbot.
435
Early Schools and School Masters. 443
Quaker Schools.
450
The Talbot County Free School. 457
The Charity Working School of Parson Bacon. 477
The Poor House 496
A Cargo of Convicts. 514
The Friends or Quakers. 521
The Islands of Talbot. 531
1
THE FOUNDING OF TALBOT
Talbot County was named for Grace Talbot, the wife of Sir Robert Talbot, by her brother, Caecilius Calvert, the second Lord Baltimore, and the first Proprietary of the Province of Maryland.
This county was originally more than three times its present size, as it embraced the whole of Queen Anne's, all of Caroline, east of the Chop- tank River, and the southeast part of Kent County, including all that territory between the head waters of the Choptank and Chester Rivers, extending eastward to the Delaware line.
The first settlement of white people on the Eastern Shore of the Chesa- peake Bay was on Kent Island. Captain William Clayborne having established a trading post at the southern extremity of this island in 1631, under a grant from Charles I to trade with the Indians along the shores of this bay, which he had pvreiously explored.
When Lord Baltimore's colonists settled at Saint Maries near the mouth of the Potomac River in 1634, they claimed, in the name of the Lord Proprietary, authority over Kent Island, including Clayborne's little trading settlement, and the contest for its possession and control led to numerous conflicts between Clayborne and Lord Baltimore, even after the report and order of the Committee of Trade and Planta- tions, which, on the 4th of April 1638, had decided in favor of Lord Baltimore's claims. To show the authority of Lord Baltimore over this territory a commission was issued to John Langford as Sheriff for the Isle of Kent, on the 7th of February 1637-38 (Md. Arch., 1, 361; 3, 62). The establishment of the shrievalty usually implies the exist- ence of a county, and this date has been adopted as the date of the erection of Kent County.
In the commission appointing Richard Thompson and William Lud- dington commissioners on the 2nd day of August, 1642 (Md. Arch., 3, 105), the territory is spoken of as the "Isle and County of Kent." This is apparently the first definite calling of Kent County as such.
Prior to the establishment of Baltimore County in 1659, and Talbot County in 1661, the scattered inhabitants living along the Eastern Shore of the bay apparently transacted their business either at Kent Island or at St. Mary's City.
With the erection of these two new counties, the jurisdiction of Kent appears to have been limited to that part of the Eastern Shore about
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2
HISTORY OF TALBOT COUNTY
Eastern Bay, while Talbot exercised jurisdiction over the growing set- tlements about the mouth of the Choptank. No exact limits then separating these two counties can be given, as the order or act by which Talbot County was erected, has never been found. The first sugges- tion of Talbot's western limits are found in the proclamations of the Governor appointing landing places for vessels during the years 1667 to 1669. From these it would appear that the northwestern boundary of Talbot passed along the eastern shore of the Front Wye northward to the head of Harris Mill Branch, and thence down Tanyard Branch, and possibly, up Langford's Bay toward Worton Creek on the bay shore. To the west of this line would be Kent County with its county court held on Kent Island until 1686, when it moved to New Yarmouth on Grays-Inn Creek. To the east would be Talbot to the eastern limits of the province. The earliest reference to the founding of Talbot ap- pears in the temporary appointment of Mr. Moyses Stagwell, as Sheriff of Talbot County, February 18, 1661-62, upon which date there were also appointed commissioners (Md. Arch., 1, 425; 3, 448). Richard Woolman was the first Burgess from Talbot in the Provincial Assembly in 1662. The only exception to this generalization that Eastern Bay was the dividing line, appears to be with regard to Poplar Island, which originally contained 1000 acres, and was joined to Kent County accord- ing to the following enactment passed the 24th of September, 1657 (Md. Arch., 1, 361).
It is enacted and declared in the name of his highness the Lord Pro- tector of England, etc., and by the Authority of this present General Assembly, That the Island commonly called Poplars Island lying near unto the Island of Kent be adjoyned unto the County of Kent, and from thence forth be of all persons so accounted and taken to be
Subsequently, by proclamation recorded in the Kent County Land Records, Liber A No. 1, p. 54, and dated June 21, 1671. "The north- east side of Chester, as far as the bounds of Talbot County were formerly on that side," was added to Kent County, "as also Poplars Island, and do hereby require that the Sheriff of Talbot County presume not to recover any quitt rents from the inhabitants living and residing upon the places above specified, they being within the County of Kent."
From this, it is evident, that Poplar Island had become a part of Talbot County in 1661 upon the erection of this county.
The first sharp statements of the boundary line between Talbot and Kent, occur in the Act passed May 22, 1695, which enacted
3
THE FOUNDING OF TALBOT
That from and after the twenty-third day of April next (1696), after the ends of this present sessions of Assembly, the Island of Kent shall be added to and made part of Talbot County and deemed, reputed and taken as part thereof, and that part of Talbot County lying on the north side of Corsecia Creek running up the main eastern branch to the head thereof and thence with a course drawn east to the outside of the province shall be the Southerly bounds of the County of Kent, and on the north by the County of Cecil, any Law, Statute or usage hereto- fore to the contrary notwithstanding. By this Act Kent Island,
which had given the name to the County was removed from its juris- diction to Talbot, while what is now the northern half of Queen Anne's County was taken away from Talbot and given to Kent. Baltimore County which was erected in 1659, only two years before Talbot, ex- tended around the head of the Chesapeake Bay and as far south as the north east branch of Chester river, across which branch a ferry con- nected East Baltimore County with Talbot County. In proof of the assertion that Talbot County did extend beyond the head waters of Chester River, reference is here made to a deed from Mathew Tilghman Warde and Mable Warde, his wife, (who lived at Rich Neck Manor now (1912), the handsome country-seat of Henry H. Pearson, Jr.), to John Salter of Kent County dated June 16, 1701 recorded in Liber 9 Folio 126, one of the Land Record books of Kent County, "for all that tract of land called 'Ward Oake,' formerly granted to Mathew Warde by letters patent under the great seale of this Province of Maryland, bearing date 5th day of January 1672, situate lying and being formerly in Talbot County now in Kent Co. and on the north side of Chester River containing four hundred acres of land, more or less."
In 1706, when Talbot had enjoyed but 45 years of existence, nearly one-half of her then remaining territory was taken from her and given to the newly created county of Queen Anne's. The General Assembly of 1706 enacted a law entitled,
An act for the dividing and regulating several counties on the Eastern Shore of this province, and constituting a county by the name of Queen Anne's County, within the same province. When this law was enacted there had been already erected on the Eastern Shore the Counties of Cecil in 1674. Kent, 1637, Talbot, 1661; Dorchester, 1669, and Som- erset in 1668. The latter two embraced all the territory south of the Choptank river, while the first three covered the territory north of this river. By the law of 1706 the region between the Sassafras on the north and the Choptank on the south was divided into three counties, the third being the new county of Queen Anne's. This law reads as follows: "From and after the said first of May, 1707, the Island called Kent Island, and all of the land on the south side of Chester river, to a branch called Sewell's Branch, the said branch to the head thereof, and thence with an east line to the extent of this province and bounded on the
·
4
HISTORY OF TALBOT COUNTY
south with Talbot County to Tuckahoe bridge and from thence with Tuckahoe creek and Choptank river to the mouth of a branch falling into the river, called or known by the name of White Marble Branch and from thence with a northeast line to the extent of this province, shall be and is hereby constituted, founded and incorporated into a county of this province by the name of Queen Anne's County and to have and enjoy all right, benefits, privileges equal with the other coun- ties of this Province.
The eastern limits of the province of Maryland remained undefined and unsettled during the years of controversy between the proprietors of Maryland and those of Pennsylvania, who had acquired control of Delaware, until the chancery decision of 1750, and no line was run to indicate its location until a decade later when the local surveyors, who immediately preceded Mason and Dixon, cut a vista along the boundary line, as it now is, in their efforts to establish a true tangent line. The boundary was not marked until 1765, when Mason and Dixon erected the well known monuments which had been imported from England.
The Act of 1706, chapter 3, for the formation of Queen Annes County defines with precision the boundaries of Talbot, which have continued unchanged for over two hundred years. It enacts, "That the bounds of Talbot County shall contain Sharps Island, Choptank Island and all the land on the north side of the Great Choptank River, and extend itself up the said river to Tuckahoe Bridge, and from thence in a straight line to the mill formerly called Sweatman's Mill and thence down the south side of Wye River to its mouth and thence down the bay to the place of beginning, including Poplar Island and Bruffs Island."
After 67 years of existence Queen Anne's was compelled, in 1774, to surrender up about one-half of her territory, which she had acquired from Talbot and Dorchester to the newly organized county of Caroline. This county was named after Caroline Calvert, sister of Frederick, the last Lord Baltimore, and wife of Sir Robert Eden the last colonial Gov- ernor of the Province of Maryland. The uncertainty as to the eastern boundary of the province and the consequent doubt of the validity of titles granted by the Lords Baltimore restrained the early settlers from devoting themselves to the clearing and improving of tracts within the disputed territory, hence the land along the eastern bounds of the province were the last to be settled upon. During the session of 1773 the question of erecting a new county for facilitating the transaction of business in this newly opened country was considered, and the General Assembly, on November 16 of that year, passed the following Act.
5
THE FOUNDING OF TALBOT
Whereas, a considerable body of the inhabitants of Dorchester and Queen Anne's counties, by their petition to this General Assembly, have prayed that an Act may be passed for a division of the said coun- ties, and for erecting a new one out of parts thereof; And whereas it appears to this General Assembly, that the erecting of a new county out of such parts of Dorchester and Queen Anne's will conduce greatly to the ease and convenience of the people thereof: Be it therefore enacted, by the right honorable, the Lord Proprietary by and with the advice and consent of the Governor and the Upper and Lower Houses of Assembly, and the authority of the same. That after the Monday of the second Tuesday in March next such parts of the aforesaid two counties of Dorchester and Queen Anne's as are contained within the bounds and limits following to-wit: Beginning at a point on the north side of the mouth of Hunting Creek in Dorchester County, and from thence running up and with the said creek to the main road at James Murray's Mill, thence by that road by Saint Mary's White Chapel Parish Church to the northwest fork bridge, thence with the main road (that leads to Cannon's Ferry) to Nanticoke river, thence with said river to and with the exterior limits of the aforesaid county of Dor- chester to the exterior limits of Queen Anne's County to intersect the main road that leads from the Beaver-dam caus-way to Dovertown, in Kent County upon Delaware, thence with the said road to the Long Marsh, thence with the said marsh and stream of the branch of Tucka- hoe creek to Tuckahoe bridge, thence with the said creek to Great Choptank river and with the said river to the first beginning at the mouth of Hunting Creek, shall be and is hereby erected into a new county by the name of Caroline County.
THE HUNDRED
On the Eastern Shore of Maryland, in Talbot County, there is an election district which for many years has borne a name whose origin has been a mystery to most of the inhabitants, viz., the district of Bay Hundred. The name of this county subdivision is all that survives of an institution which dates back to the very beginning of the history of the State, so says Dr. Lewis W. Wilhelm in his admirable paper on the "Local Institutions of Maryland" published by Johns Hopkins University in 1885.
The first civil divisions of the infant settlement were called hundreds. Before the county, the town, the manor or the parish were instituted or erected the hundred had been adopted by the freemen of the province as the territorial division most suitable to them in their peculiar iso- lation in the New World. It is an interesting coincidence that the colo- nists of Maryland were led to adopt an institution identical, at least in name, with the institution first framed by bands of Angles and Saxons
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6
HISTORY OF TALBOT COUNTY
upon their arrival in old England, a thousand years before. The hun- dreds in Maryland were in origin a geographical division, and so they continued to remain. A personal hundred, as an association of a hundred families or a hundred soldiers, was unknown in the history of this prov- ince. It was not until writs were issued, in legal form and through regular officers to the freemen, to meet in regular assembly, that the necessity was felt for the separation of the province into civil districts of some kind. These original election districts were called hundreds. Kent Island before it became the Isle of Kent County was a hundred of St. Mary's County. After the province was divided into counties, writs of election were no longer issued to the constables of each hundred, but to the sheriffs of the several counties; but the hundreds still continued to be used as polling places. It is probable that the deputies were still chosen by hundreds and not by counties.
The court proceedings in the early land records of Talbot disclose the fact, that in 1696 just before that part of Talbot County, lying north of Corsica or Coursey's Creek, was given to Kent County, there were nine Hundreds in Talbot County, named as follows:
1. Treadhaven Hundred;
2. Bolenbroke Hundred;
3. Mill Hundred.
4. Tuckahoe Hundred;
5. Worrell Hundred;
6. Bay Hundred;
7. Island Hundred;
8. Lower Kent Island Hundred;
9. Chester Hundred.
After Talbot County was reduced to the present limit by the erection of Queen Anne's County, in 1707, it contained but seven hundreds, viz.,
1. Island Hundred;
2. Tuckahoe Hundred;
3. Kingscreek Hundred;
4. Bolenbroke Hundred;
5. Thirdhaven Hundred;
6. Mill Hundred;
7. Bay Hundred.
An Act of Assembly of the Province of Maryland passed at the session of 1715 "For the appointment of Constables and what relates to their office, and ascertaining what persons are taxable," required, "That the Justices of Peace in every respective county of this Prov-
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THE FOUNDING OF TALBOT
ince, at the first county Court held after Michaelmas, shall appoint constables in each Hundred of their respective counties," (here follows the oath to be taken by such constables).
That every Constable shall, on or before the twentieth day of June in every year respectively, repair in person, to every House or Habitation within his Hundred and there require of the Master, Mistress, Dame or other chief Person of the Family, a true list from under their hands, of all their taxable persons, distinctly to be named; they and every of them have within their respective Families, out of which List the said Constable shall make two fair Lists, under his Hand, and one he shall send to the Sheriff of the County, and the other he shall present to the next County Court to be set up.
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