USA > Maryland > Cecil County > History of Cecil County, Maryland, and the early settlements around the head of Chesapeake Bay and on the Delaware River, with sketches of some of the old families of Cecil County > Part 16
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This brings us to the troublesome time of the Revolution, when the people of this country were no doubt thinking more about defending the towns they already had than they were of building others, and Ensor met with no better suc- cess than his predecessors. Joseph Ensor and wife were the parents of at least three children, the oldest of whom bore the Christian name of Augustine Hermen, and was accidentally killed, while celebrating his twenty-first birthday, by being thrown from his horse while fox hunting, on January 28th, 1781. His other son, whose name was Joseph, was an idiot, with probably still less sense than his grand-aunt, Mary Hermen. He is said, by old residents of the Manor, whose parents were well acquainted with him, to have been very fond of dogs, and to have always been accompanied by several of them. He had a habit peculiar to many simple- minded persons of wandering about in an almost nude con- dition, without any definite object in view, and frequently slept in fodder houses, which were rude structures much in vogue in those days, built of poles and covered with corn fodder. Frequently in the mornings, after spending a night in one of these houses, he would awake, and finding the dogs had left him, in search of food, he would call them in stentorian tones and a curious nasal twang that could be heard for a long distance. Simple though he was, he knew that he was lord of the Manor, or at least the heir of one-
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fourth of it, and it is said he would often draw a circle round him on the ground with his cane, and defy any per- son who disputed his right to the title to cross it. Joseph Ensor's other child, Mary, married Colonel Edward Oldham, who was an officer of great bravery and much distinction, and who served in the Continental army under General Greene, in the campaign in the Carolinas.
The time of Ensor's death is uncertain, but it occurred about the close of the Revolutionary war. He lived on the Manor for some years previous to his death, and was prob- ably buried there. Peter Lawson is believed to have oc- cupied the Manor house near Bohemia Ferry, as before stated, at the time of his death. In 1791 he sold one un- divided third part of his share of the Manor to Richard Bassett and Dr. Joshua Clayton for £2,300. ] He had previously sold to Bassett a plantation on the Manor, con- taining 450 acres, for the small sum of twenty shillings. Aslip of paper, to be seen among the Hermen papers, in possession of the Maryland Historical Society, contains several mem- orandums, among which it is stated that he was at that time "deranged in his understandings," which is not strange, considering that the greater part of his life seems to have been spent in litigation.
Richard Bassett, the reader will recollect, had received a gift of one thousand acres of the Manor from Mary Law- son, which in addition to the portions purchased from Lawson, probably was equivalent in extent to the share of Mary Lawson.
About the close of the Revolutionary war Charles Car- roll instituted legal proceedings to foreclose his mortgage upon Joseph Ensor's share of the Manor. But the Manor had never been divided, and Ensor, who was then dead, had during his lifetime continually resisted a partition of it. Part of it being in Delaware, it is easy to comprehend the difficulty of foreclosing a mortgage under such circumstances, but the legal talent of that day was equal to the emergency, and accordingly, in 1780, the legislature of Maryland passed
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an act empowering the Court of Chancery to appoint two commissioners to act in conjunction with two others to be appointed by the Court of Chancery of Delaware (the legis- lature of which State passed a like act in 1790) to divide the Manor between Peter Lawson, Charles Carroll, Joseph Ensor, Esq., his guardian, and Edward Oldham, and Mary, his wife, whose approbation and consent to this method of settling the dispute had been obtained. Stephen Hyland and Tobias Rudolph were appointed by the court of Mary- land and Isaac Grantham and Robert Armstrong by the court of Delaware. These gentlemen caused the Manor to be accurately surveyed, and found that it contained about 20,000 acres. They divided it into four parts, two of which they assigned to Peter Lawson. One-fourth part they gave to Charles Carroll, and the other to Joseph Ensor and Ed- ward and Mary Oldham, to be held by them in severalty, except the share of the Oldhams. These proceedings were ratified and confirmed by the courts of the respective States, and the litigation that had lasted for more than half a cen- tury was ended, as was also the legal existence of Bohemia Manor, that had continned for a period of one hundred and twenty-eight years. Charles Carroll sold his share in 1793, for £9,827 10s., to Joshua Clayton, Richard Bassett and Ed- ward Oldham, who were then in possession. It contained 3,931 acres, and was bounded on the north by Back Creek and embraced a portion or all of that part of the Manor that was in Delaware.
James A. Bayard afterwards married the only daughter of Richard Bassett, and in this way came into possession of that part of the Manor that his descendants still own.
Peter Lawson's will was proved in 1792. He claimed one- half of the Manor and devised the bulk of his estate to Rich- ard Bassett, who was the executor of his will, and directed that he should "support and maintain Mrs. Mary A. Lawson with everything that is necessary during her natural life, or pay her or the person who may take and provide for her as above, the sum of £100 annually in gold or silver."
CHAPTER XIII.
The Van Bibbers-They settle on Bohemia Manor-Their mill-John Jawert marries Casparus Hermen's widow-Keeps Elk Ferry-Wild stock-Rangers-Collection of the King's revenue-Wild animals- Trade with England-Bill of lading-Slave trade-The Jesuit mission at Bohemia-The Cross Paths-James Heath, the founder of Warwick- Bohemia a port of entry-Ancient eross-Father Mansell-Peter Atwood and other Jesuits-The Jesuit school-Efforts to suppress the Jesuit mission-Labors of the Jesuit Fathers.
PROMINENT among the early settlers of Bohemia Manor were two brothers, Isaac and Matthias Van Bibber. Their father, Jacob Isaacs Van Bibber, was a Hollander, and was one of the first settlers of Germantown. His sons, the two brothers before mentioned, were natives of Holland, and were naturalized in Maryland in 1702. Previous to coming to Maryland they had been engaged in merchandizing at Philadelphia. In 1702 Mathias Van Bibber bought part of John Moll, Jr.'s land, which the reader will recollect was the easternmost of the four necks which comprised the Labadie Tract. Two years afterwards he bought another portion of the same tract, and in 1708 his brother Isaac bought 130 acres of it, which he and his wife Fronica sold to Matthias, in 1711, for £150, which, it is stated in the deed, had been expended in the erection of a mill then occupied by the said Isaac. This mill was located upon a branch of the Bohemia, called Mill Creek, on the site of what was formerly known as Sluyter's mill, every vestige of which has long since dis- appeared, even the land once covered by the dam now being cultivated. This is the first mill mentioned in the history of that part of the county. It was built a short time before the date of the deed.
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Matthias Van Bibber appears to have been fond of the acquisition of land, for in 1714 he purchased St. Augustine Manor of Ephraim Augustine Hermen for £300. This Manor was directly east of Bohemia Manor and was separated from it by an old cart-road, which was known then and for many years afterwards as the " Old Choptank Road." It was originally an Indian path that led from the Choptank River along the dividing ridge between the two bays, probably far up into Pennsylvania, but was laid out and cleared from the head of St. George's Creek to the Chester River, twelve feet wide, for a cart-road, in 1682, by Casparus Hermen and Hugh MeGregory, who were appointed for the purpose by the court. The road had been used so little that it was then overgrown with young timber and its location was doubtful, consequently the boundaries of the Manor were unknown. Van Bibber claimed that the road from the head of Elk to the head of Bohemia, which ran near the head of Back Creek, was the boundary between the two Manors. Whereupon Hermen obtained a commission from the court to ascertain the eastern boundary of Bohemia Manor, and in this way to settle the dispute. The commis- sioners, who were John Dowdall, Captain Benjamin Pearce, Francis Mauldin and William Dare, met in September, 1721, and after taking the testimony of several witnesses, fixed the location of the Choptank Road, and thus ended the dis- pute. The alienation fee claimed by the Proprietary of Maryland was paid when the sale of St. Augustine Manor was consummated, showing that it was then claimed as part of Maryland. Matthias Van Bibber also became the proprie- tor of Van Bibber's Forest, which was patented to him in 1720. This was a large tract of land in the Third district, near Mechanics' Valley, containing $50 acres. In addition to this he owned another tract, which is described in his will as his plantation at the head of Elk. It was located a short distance southeast of the mansion of Hon. J. A. J. Creswell. Matthias Van Bibber was for a long time chief justice of the
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county and occupied that responsible position when the court-house was built at Court House Point.
Isaac Van Bibber's will was proved in 1723. He left three sons, Jacob, Peter and Isaac, and three daughters, HIester, Christiana and Veronica. Matthias Van Bibber's will was proved in 1739. He left four sons, Jacob, Adam, Matthias and Henry, and four daughters, Sarah, Rebecca, Christiana and Hester. He bequeathed his land at Head of Elk to his son Jacob ; his dwelling plantation, which was part of the Labadie Tract, to his son Adam ; Clifton, in Middle Neck, he devised to his sons Matthias and Henry, and his part of St. Augustine Manor to his daughters, Sarah and Rebecca.
Henry Van Bibber, brother of Isaac and Matthias, came to Cecil County about 1720. His will, which was written in Utrecht, is to be found among the records of the Orphans' Court, and being a literal translation from the original Dutch is probably the most curious document in the archives of the county.
These members of the Van Bibber family were contem- poraries of the grandson of Augustine Hermen, and proba- bly occupied a more conspicuous place in this part of the history of the county than any other family then residing in it. The descendants of these Van Bibbers intermarried with the Petersons and acted a conspicuous part in the his- tory of St. Augustine Manor. They continued to hold some of the land there as late as 1840, when Henry Van Bibber, of Virginia, sold it to Robert Cochran, father of J. P. Coch- ran, late governor of Delaware, who vet owns it.
Dr. W. C.Van Bibber, of Baltimore, and his brother, Thomas E. Van Bibber, the distinguished author of the "Flight into Egypt," are descendants of the Van Bibbers of Bohemia Manor, many members of which were noted for their pat- riotism in the Revolutionary war. Their grandfather, Isaac Van Bibber, was commercial agent of the colonial govern- ment in the West Indies at that time. He was a son of one
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of the three Van Bibbers who have been referred to as being among the early settlers on the Manor.
John Jawert, who was surveyor of the county in 1707, married the widow of Casparus Hermen. He is believed to have lived at Germantown before he came to Bohemia Manor. He was one of the justices of the quorum, that is to say, he was one of the number of justices specially commis- sioned to hold courts, which at that early day appear to have been somewhat like the ancient English courts leet. These justices were frequently called commissioners. In 1714 Jawert and his wife relinquished their right to the Manor brick house, which they occupied in common at that time with Ephraim Augustine Hermen, the son of Casparus, in consideration .of which he was to build them a house "five and thirty feet long and 20 feet wide, with two chim- neys and two windows." The house was to be plastered, and in addition to it they were to have the use of one hun- dred and fifty acres of land. The Manor brick house re- ferred to is the old brick house which was built by the foun- der of the Manor, on the bank of the Bohemia River, and which, with its contents, including many valuable paintings, were afterwards destroyed by fire.
Jawert's will was proved in 1726. No real estate is men- tioned in it, and he is believed to have left no children. He was keeper of Elk Ferry, between Elk Neck and Court House Point, in 1720, and was accused of leaving it to the manage- ment of negro slaves, who neglected it. The citizens of the county, after much trouble, had him removed, and Herman Kinkey, who kept a tavern and had a plantation on the Elk Neck side of the river, was appointed in his place. In 1713, Jawert purchased a large tract of land from his stepson Herman, called Town Point Neck or "Jawert's Delight," for £33. This land was adjoining the tract upon which Port Herman now stands.
At this time the stock of the early settlers was allowed to run wild in the forests, and after the lapse of years became
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very plentiful. The county was very sparsely settled and but little of it was under cultivation, and much of it being covered with the original growth of timber, which afforded shelter for these animals, they increased very fast. It was customary for the owners of this stock to mark it in some way, commonly by making a number of slits, notches or holes in one or both the animals' ears. This custom was recognized by an act of the legislature, which provided for the registration of these marks among the records of the county. Some pages of the record books are yet extant in which are to be found the names of the marks used by our forefathers. A swallow tail, which appears to have been made by shaping the end of the ear like the forked tail of that bird, was one of the favorite marks. The under-keel which was made by cut- ting a long oval strip from the ear, was another; a number of notches, slits or holes, and every conceivable combination of under-keels and swallow tails are among the number of recorded marks. As early as 1687 George Talbot, it will be remembered. speaks of the wild horses and neat cattle upon Susquehanna Manor, and in 1705 the Quaker preacher, John Churchman, speaks of the trouble he experienced from wild horses enticing away the colt which accompanied the mare upon which he rode while upon an errand for his father. Many of these cattle and horses were unmarked and ran wild in the forests, and owing to the fact that some of the land was yet in the possession of the lord proprietary, he claimed them as his own.
In 1715 an act was passed by the legislature in reference to these animals, which provided for the appointment of an officer in each county where they prevailed, whose duty it was to capture this wild stock. He was called the ranger, and was appointed by the governor and council upon the recommendation of the justices of the quorum in the county where he resided. His compensation was one-half of the stock he captured. John Ryland is the first person men- tioned in the records of the county as ranger. In 1722 he
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petitioned the court to be discharged from the office; but the court not having appointed him, rejected the petition. In 1724 Thomas Johnson presented a petition to the court, stating that he was a person of "good name, fame and re- pute," and prayed the court to recommend him for ranger of the county, which they did.
A fragment of book two of the original land records of the county, containing forty-seven leaves, is yet extant, in which is to be found the copy of a power of attorney from "Peter Coode, commander of his majesties' advice boat, the Mes- senger, attending the province of Maryland," to John Fowke, then belonging to the said advice boat, authorizing him to "collect from all persons in Maryland or any of the terri- tories thereunto belonging, be ye same in any manner of ye production of the growth of ye said province, as tobacco, Indian corn, peas, beans, and all manner of cattle whatso- ever for and in my name but to his own proper use." This document was given in 1701, and bears upon its face evi- dence that the collector of the king's revenue was farming out the emoluments of his office. A detached leaf of another book contains an account of the receipts of taxes for part of the year 1696. Among the items in it are the following:
" Received of Mr. James Couts, for importing seven hun- dred and fifty-two gallons of rum, £28 118. 6d.
" Received of John Smith, for 124 gallons of rum, $4 13.3.
" Received of Capt. Deane Cook, for exporting of 30 cubbs, 30 bears, 100 deer skins, 100 racoon, 30 fox and cat, and 10 fishers, £1, 18s. 9d.
" Received of Matthias Clements, for import of two negro boys and one woman, £3.
" Received of Col. Wm. Pearce, for import of two negro men, £2.
" Received of C'apt. Wm. Surting. for export of 12 racoon, 14 fox, 2 otter, and 2 muskrat skins, 28. 31d."
The tax levied upon the skins exported from the province was for the support of free schools, the act for the establish - ment of which was passed in 1695.
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HISTORY OF CECIL, COUNTY.
The foregoing is only a small part of the account, but it serves to show the character of the exports and imports of the county at that time. The great staples of importation were rum and negroes; the staple articles of export were skins of animals, which were still abundant, and tobacco. What kind of a " varmint" the fisher was has not been as- certained. His hide, however, appears to have been valuable, else it would not have been exported. As late as 1724 Ben- jamin Allen prays the court for an allowance due him for one wolf's head and thirty-eight squirrels' heads which had been omitted in the levy for that year. The same year Cor- nelius McCormack prays to be allowed for eighty-six squir- rels' heads and a large number of crows' heads. These ani- mals were so numerous and destructive for a long period, that the legislators of the colony set a price upon their heads for the purpose of keeping them in subordination. This served a good purpose, for money was scarce and squirrels and crows were plenty, and the taxpayers were allowed to pay their taxes in squirrels and erows' heads, which was a great advantage to them, as well as to the commonwealth. In 1680 wolves seem to have been very plenty in the adjoin- ing county of New Castle, for the court ordered "fifty wolf pits or houses to be made," and enjoined the constables to see that they were well baited and tended.
From 1700 to 1720 Bohemia Manor and the country as far south of it as the Sassafras River, far exceeded the other portions of the county in wealth and importance. Tobacco, the great staple of the colony, was extensively cultivated there, and yielded a large return to the planters. The land, but little of which had been cultivated long enough to become impoverished, was well adapted to the production of wheat, some of which was raised, though probably not in very large quantities. The tobacco was packed in hogsheads for ship- ment to England, and the inspectors were obliged to see that each hogshead contained a specified amount. If a hogshead fell short they were enjoined to " prise " it-that is, to pack
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or press it by means of a " prise " or lever -- till it would con- tain the maximum quantity. From this custom the in- spection houses came to be called prise houses. The name is yet applied to a few old buildings on the Sassafras River.
The planters in the southern part of the county at this time shipped their tobacco directly to England, and were supplied with slaves (many of whom they owned) by slave traders, who carried cargoes of tobacco from the Chester and Sassafras rivers and the upper part of the Chesapeake Bay to London and Liverpool, and then visited the coast of Guinea and procured cargoes of slaves, which they disposed of to the planters when they returned for another cargo of tobacco.
The old record books of the county, a few of which are yet extant, contain many allusions to the commercial transac- tions of this period. Bills of lading, notices of freight, and bills of exchange, for some reason, were recorded, and are to be found in the old books, sandwiched between indentures of servants and deeds for land.
The planters in the southern part of the county not only shipped their tobacco from the wharves of the county, but they also shipped some of it from the South River, which name was still applied to the Delaware, as the following bill of lading will show, which is inserted in this connection to indicate the changes that time has wrought in instruments of this kind :
" BILL OF LADING.
"Shipped in good order & well conditioned by Mr. George Huddleston on his proper accompt & Resque in & upon ve good ship Vesilla, whereof is master under God for this present voyage James Bradly & now riding at anchor in South river, and by God's Grace bound for London, to say 3 Hhds of Md. Tobacco, being marked & numbered as in ye margin & are to be delvrd in ve like good order and well conditioned at ye afd. port of London, danger of ye sea
M
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only excepted. Mr. Micajah Perry & Co. Merchts in Lon- don or the assigns, he or they paying freight for ye said goods after ye rate of £15 per ton, & Maryland duties, with primage & average accustomed. In witness whereof the master or purser of ye said ship hath affirmed to two Bills of Lading all of this tenor and date ye one of which two bills being accomplished ye other to stand void & so God send ye good ship to her destined port in safety. Dated in Md. Nov. 20th, 1705.
"Quantity recorded but quality unknown. Marked (C. H. Nos. 1, 2, 3.)
" JAMES BRADLY."
At this time and for years afterwards a law was in force obliging the masters of all vessels carrying goods from Maryland to ports in England to publish their freight ; that is, to give notice of the rate they charged per ton, and to record it in the records of the county. This law existed, or at least this custom was observed, as late as 1744, for in that year Captain Henry Elves published his freight £9 sterling per ton. His ship was in Sassafras River, which indicates that the direct trade with England existed at that time. The following notice of freight is from among several others of like tenor. It shows that the direct slave trade between the Sassafras River and coast of Guinea existed at the time it was written :
"For London Directly, July ye Sth, 1705. This is to give notice to all gentlemen, merchants & others, that ye Dorsett, barkentine, John Hayes Commander, mounted with Tenn guns, navigated with Twenty men, Burmudas bilt, prime Saylor, Lately arrived from giny, now Riding att Worton Creek, will be Reddi to take in goods by ye 12th of this Instant for Sixteen pounds per Tunn, and will depart in sixteen days If convoy is gon without Compinni.
" JOHN HAYES."
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England and France were at war at this time, and the owners of merchant vessels were in the habit of arming them in order that their crews might be able to defend themselves against the attacks of the French cruisers. Sometimes a fleet of merchant ships would be accompanied by an armed vessel for their protection, but the Dorsett no doubt was engaged in the slave trade, and had brought a cargo of slaves to this county and disposed of them to the planters near where she then rode at anchor.
The archives of the Order of the Society of Jesus, now in possession of the faculty of Loyola College, in Baltimore, show that the Jesuit mission near the head of Bohemia River, was founded by the Rev. Thomas Mansell, and that he lived there in 1704. Two years afterwards, July 10th, 1706, he obtained a patent for a tract of land containing 458 acres. This land had never been patented and was granted to him upon the usual terms, under the name of Saint Xaverus. It is worthy of note that the records of the Society call him Mr. Mansell only, and do not mention his Christian name or title. No doubt this omission was caused by a desire to conceal the character of the enterprise in which he was engaged, owing to the oppo- sition and persecution that the Jesuits then met with, not only in Maryland but in the mother country also.
James III. (so called by the House of Stewart), the son of James II., there is reason to believe, was recog- nized by the Jesuits at this time as the rightful sovereign of England. Certain it is, that a rebellion was inaugurated in Ireland a few years after this time (in 1715) for the purpose of placing him upon the British throne.
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