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 43
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45
526
HISTORY OF CECIL COUNTY.
before. Browning had prepared tomb-stones for his parents' graves, but when near his death he requested his wife to have the people that attended his funeral place them for hearth-stones in a new brick house which was not quite fin- ished. A small unpretending brick house which John Churchman built in 1745, is now standing about a mile north of the Brick Meeting-house. He died in 1775 and left but one child, George, born in 1730, a dignified elder of the Society of Friends, and probably the most popular and extensive surveyor of the county in his day. George mar- ried Hannah, daughter of Mordecai and Gainor James, in 1752, and died in 1814, leaving a numerous family. His son John, the philosopher, born 1753, lived unmarried, " was an eminent surveyor and geometrician ; he executed a map of the peninsula between the bays of Delaware and Chesapeake, in 1778; was the author of a magnetic atlas in 1790, and other works of a similar character, which brought him into prominent notice among learned men in Europe and this country, with whom he maintained an extensive correspondence on scientifie subjects. He twice visited Eu- rope, where he received much attention and was honored with an election as a member of several learned societies. He died at sea, in 1805, on his last return voyage from St. Petersburg."
The Churchmans might be termed a family of surveyors, as the calling was exercised by the two Johns, father and son ; by George, son of the second John; and by John, Mica- jah and Joseph, sons of George.
THE DEFOE FAMILY.
Written expressly for the History of Cecil County by Mrs. Mary E. Ireland.
WHILE many perhaps can boast of celebrated ancestors, few can trace back to a more distinguished source than the Trimble's ; they being lineal descendants of Elizabeth, neice of Daniel Defoe.
527
HISTORY OF CECIL COUNTY.
From Elizabeth, who came from England in 1718, down to her relatives of the present day, all the family with a few exceptions have lived within two miles of Brick Meeting- house, Cecil County, Maryland ; all worshiped in the meet- ing-house which gave the village its original name, and all, when called upon to pay the debt of nature, have been brought for interment to the burial-ground attached to this meeting-house.
In order to explain how it was that Elizabeth, neice of Daniel Defoe, and ancestor of the Trimble family, happened to settle in this part of the New World, it will be necessary to go back to the year 1705, when Daniel Defoe, on account of his persistent writing upon the exciting subjects of the times, was compelled to seek an asylum under the roof of his widowed sister, Elizabeth Maxwell, in the city of London.
Three years before, he had sent forth his, "Shortest Way with Dissenters," for which he had suffered the pillory, fine, and imprisonment. It was on account of this article that the government offered £50 for the discovery of his hiding place. The proclamation as tradition informs ns, was worded very nearly thus :
" Whereas Daniel Defoe, alias De Fooe, is charged with writing a scandalous and seditious pamphlet, entitled the 'Shortest Way with Dissenters.' (Ile is a middled-sized, spare man, about forty years old, of brown complexion and dark brown colored hair, but wears a wig: a hook nose, sharp chin, gray eyes, and a large mole near his mouth; was born in London, and for many years was a hose-factor in Freeman's yard, Cornhill, and now is owner of the brick and pantile works near Tilbury Fort in Essex ;) whoever shall discover the said Daniel Defoe to one of Her Majesty's Secretaries of State, or any of Her Majesty's justices' of the peace, so he may be appre- hended, shall have a reward of €50, which Her Majesty has ordered immediately to be paid upon such discovery."
528
HISTORY OF CECIL COUNTY.
On his release he was again imprisoned for his political pamphlets, and through the influence of Lord Oxford, was again liberated; but in his sister's house, secure from his political and pecuniary assailants, he continued to send forth his barbed arrows with impunity. A small room in the rear of the building was fitted up for his private study, and it was there that his sister's only daughter (named for herself, Elizabeth), who was five years of age when her uncle came to live with them, received her education under his teaching; and it was there that "Robinson Crusoe" was written, one year after his niece had left her home and him. Perhaps the comparative isolation he endured suggested the wonderful narrative to his mind.
The Defoe's were all members of the Society of Friends, and attended a meeting designated by the odd name of " Bull and Mouth," which was often mentioned in the early annals of the society.
At eighteen, Elizabeth contracted a matrimonial engage- ment, which was peremptorily broken off by her mother. This caused an alienation from all her friends, and she privately left her home and embarked for America. Being without funds, she bargained with the captain to be sold on her arrival, to reimburse him for her passage. Accordingly, in the autumn of that year she, with a number of others, was offered for sale in Philadelphia, and Andrew Job, a resident of Nottingham, now in Cecil County, Maryland, happening to be in the city at the time, bought her for a term of years, and brought her to his home.
In 1725 Elizabeth Maxwell became the wife of Thomas Job, son of Andrew, and now being happily settled, she wrote to her mother and uncle, giving them the first infor- mation of her whereabouts. As soon as possible a letter came from her uncle, stating that her mother was dead, and that a large property, in addition to her mother's furniture, had been left to her by will, in case she should ever be found alive. An inventory of the goods sent accompanied
529
HISTORY OF CECIL COUNTY.
the letter, and especial attention was solicited for the pre- servation of such articles as he had used in his private study, "as they had descended to the family from their Flemish ancestors, who sought refuge under the banner of Queen Elizabeth from the tyranny of Phillipe." He also apologized for the condition of two chairs, the wicker-scats of which he had worn out and replaced by wooden ones. One of these chairs is in the possession of James Trimble, and the other, which belonged to his brother Joseph, was, after his death, presented by James to the Historical Society of Delaware, in Wilmington, because it was in that city that the last thirty years of the business part of Joseph Trimble's life was spent.
All the letters received from her uncle were carefully pre- served by Elizabeth until her death which occurred on the 7th of September, 1782, at the age of eighty-two. One of her grandsons, Daniel Defoe Job, living near her, was al- most constantly in her society. She took delight in relating recollections of her early days ; of how she used to bother her uncle, meddling with his papers, until he would expel her from his study.
Daniel spoke of his grandmother as a little, old, yellow looking woman, passionately fond of flowers, and retaining her activity of mind and body until the close of her life. Another of her grandsons, also named Daniel JJob, died at a very advanced age, within my remembrance, and his funeral was the first I ever attended.
There was an Andrew Job, brother of this Daniel, a bachelor, who became a hermit, and for more than fifty years lived entirely alone. The greater part of that time his home was in a forest belonging to his estate, about two miles from Brick Meeting-house. Ilis little habitation consisted of two rooms, one above and one below, and I do not know that he ever left it during that time. He is said to have been very tall in youth, but when I saw him he was upward of eighty, and stooped much. His hair and beard
HII
530
HISTORY OF CECIL COUNTY.
were long, and of a reddish hue, and though he was so old, but slightly gray. He scorned the style of clothing worn by men, and winter and summer was robed in a blanket, his only covering. Although a man of abundant means, he would not leave his retreat to provide the neces- saries of life, and since he would have but little to do with his relatives, they engaged some one in whom he had con- fidence to take his groceries to him. His wheat and corn he ground himself, by pounding for a long time, my father, whom he had known for many years, went twice a year to take him such things as he required. I accompanied him once when a child, and was kindly treated by the recluse. I remember that he gave me a drink of eider manufactured by himself, by pounding the apples, and squeezing the juice through his hands. The goblet in which he presented it was a huge gourd, and he stirred the sugar in with his fin- gers. Children, as a general thing, are not very fastidious, and I am glad to remember that I did not slight the old man's hospitality.
After we had left him and gone through the woods to the road I found I had forgotten my sun-shade, which was about the dimensions of a good-sized saucer. I was loth to leave it behind me, and at the same time a little afraid to return for it; but my father re-assured me, and very gin- gerly I wound my way back to the door, where Andy stood, holding it with a helpless expression of having something left upon his hands that bid fair to prove a burden. He handed it to me in perfect silence, and I received it at arm's length, in the same lugubrious manner. He did not as a general thing take kindly to visitors; they bothered him coming to see him out of curiosity, and when he caught sight or sound of them he hastened in doors and refused them entrance. He evinced but little curiosity as to the do- ings of the great world around him, from which he had withdrawn ; though intelligent, he conversed but little, and that in a subdued tone, scarcely intelligible to me unaccus-
531
HISTORY OF CECIL COUNTY.
tomed to it. He was upright and honorable in his dealings with my father, and seemed desirous of giving as little trouble as possible.
He kept no money about him, but gave orders upon those who had his property in trust. He, himself, kept control of his forest, and not a stick did he allow any one to cut from it. He lived in this way until a log, falling out of his fire- place, set his house on fire, and burned it down, when he was compelled to live with his two nieces, and his nephew, children of his brother Daniel, who were of middle age and unmarried. Here he remained eleven years until his death, which occurred on the first day of April, 1863, in the ninety- second year of his age. In him were conspicuous the characteristics of the Defoc family, from Daniel down to the relatives of the present day, remarkable longevity, a dispo- sition to remain unmarried, or to marry late in life, and the indomitable independence of spirit which was so prominent in the character of Daniel Defoe, and his mece Elizabeth.
Ile was very discontented for several years after he left his solitude ; however, as years and infirmities wore upon him, he became more reconciled ; but until the time of his death he occasionally spoke of going off' again to live by himself.
It is a subject of regret that no likeness of him is in ex- istence. A traveling photograph gallery once stopped for a short time in the road opposite his nephew's house. Andy took great pleasure in looking at it, and remarked that " it would be a nice little house for a man to live alone in, if it was off the wheels ;" but no persuasion could induce him to enter it.
Joseph and James Trimble, whose mother was a great- great-neice of Daniel Defoe, lived at that time in a beautiful romantic place, half a mile from the village. Joseph was a bachelor; he was very eccentric, and made his home with his brother James, who was married, but childless.
Joseph Trimble's career was rather unusual, and a short account of it might be of interest and advantage to young
532
HISTORY OF CECIL COUNTY.
men starting out in life. Without any external influence respecting economy, he commenced at an early age to put his little earnings out at interest, taking good care to secure ample endorsements, mostly three freeholders. He never made a dollar by speculation, worked at moderate wages, farming, etc., never bought any land, and was not remark- able for constitutional strength, and at the age of eighty- two left an estate of over fifty-two thousand dollars, princi- pally among his neices and nephews, and there was every evidence that he enjoyed life as fully as others. Like his maternal ancestor, James Trimble, was passionately fond of flowers, and his beautiful garden and green-house of choice plants were a great attraction to the rural neighborhood. When a boy on his father's farm, he was often detected scru- tinizing the curious formations of " weeds " and their flowers, instead of attending to his duty, having (ashe told me once) " some reason to remember it."
At the age of about twenty, the novelty of his tastes had reached Dr. Darlington, of West Chester, who sent him a copy of his " Florula Cestrica," then just out. This was the first intimation he had ever received that there was such a study as systematic botany, and it is needless to dwell on the enthusiasm with which he entered into what was to him a new world. From this time until near the death of Dr. Darlington in 1863, a correspondence was maintained be- tween them. The Dr. wished specimens of the natural growth of everything in Chester County for subsequent edi- tions of his work, in which he noticed some of James Trim- ble's contributions, a number of them being new to him.
Packages of these dried specimens are most likely yet in public collections in Philadelphia and West Chester, and at one time James prided himself on being able to designate by its botanical name each " wild " plant he met with in Cecil and Chester counties.
James Trimble gave the land, laid out the lots, and planted the shrubbery for the cemetery at the Brick Meeting- house, to which he gave the name of his farm, and "Rose
541
HISTORY OF CECIL COUNTY.
troops were in Stirling's rear. He heard the ominous firing behind him and fell back to find himself surrounded. There was but one thing to do, to cross the Gowanus marsh and creek where both were at their broadest, to the Ameri- can lines on the other side. Tradition says that Captain Ramsay could not swim and that he owed his life on this day to his unusual height, which was six feet three inches. By throwing his head back he kept the water from entering his nostrils and thus crossed the Gowanus Creek in safety.
Perhaps a ray of light may be thrown upon Ramsay's character by an extract from his testimony, given Septem- ber 21st, 1776, before a General Court-martial of the line on the Heights of Harlem, before which Ensign Macumber was tried for plundering and mutiny. Captain Ramsay deposed :
"I saw a number of men loaded with plunder. I went up to them, and told them they had been acting exceedingly wrong.
Ensign Macumber had at this time a knapsack full on his shoulder, out of which stuck two waxen toys, which I took old of, and jested with him on his having such a pretty sort of plunder."* Ramsay's company, on September 27th, 1776, consisted of one captain ; one sec- ond-lieutenant; twosergeants; one drum and fife; twenty-one rank and file, present, fit for duty ; four sick, present ; twenty- four sick, absent ; seven on command ; total fifty-six. Want- ing to complete ; one drum and fife ; eight privates. Novem- . ber 21st, Samuel Chase wrote to the Maryland Council of Safety, that Ramsay was in Philadelphia, and in December he was absent from his command on leave of absence.
A portion of that winter seems to have been spent by him in Baltimore. He belonged to the Whig club of that city, the members of which took an oath "to detect all traitors." William Goddard published, on February 25th, an article in the Maryland Journal, congratulating the Americans on the terms of peace offered by General Howe. Goddard
* Force's Archives, Fifth Series, Vol. II., page 500.
A
542
HISTORY OF CECIL COUNTY.
says that on March 3d, Colonel Ramsay and Mr. George Trumbull ealled at his house, and on behalf of the Whig elub, demanded the name of the author of the offensive article. On the next evening Ramsay, in company with other members of the elub, some of them bearing side arms, called on Goddard and demanded that he should attend the meeting of the club, and compelled him by force to do so. The club ordered Goddard to leave the town the next morn- ing by twelve o'clock. Goddard disobeyed the order and says, that on March 25th, Commodore Nicholson, Mr. David Poe, Colonel Nathaniel Ramsay and others, took possession of his printing office, abused his workmen, seized upon him, dragged him down stairs and carried him to the tavern where the Whig elub usually met, and he was given until night to leave the town and county, and informed that his person was unsafe. From other testimony it seems that come preparation had been made to tar and feather Goddard. At all events, the Legislature declared the action of the Whig elub to be an infringement of the Declaration of Rights, and called upon the Governor to issue a proclama- tion, calling upon all persons usurping the powers of gov- ernment to disperse, and on April 17th, Governor Thomas issued such a proclamation .*
According to the arrangement of the seven battalions of Maryland Regulars on March 27th, 1777, which were under Brigadier-General Smallwood, Mordecai Gist was Colonel of the Third Battalion, and Nathaniel Ramsay, Leiutenant- colonel.
General Samuel Smith says in his autobiography, t that at the battle of Chad's Ford, September 11th, " General Kny- phausen had been detached and displayed a force of about five hundred men opposite to Chad's Ford. Colonel Ramsay
* Scharfl's Chronicles of Baltimore, page 157.
| Dawson's Historical Magazine for February, 1870.
533
HISTORY OF CECIL COUNTY.
Bank Cemetery " is at this time one of the most beautiful places of burial to be found in the country.
He was also a warm advocate for temperance, and the eloquent address which he delivered upon that subject at a meeting near the Brick Meeting-house, will long be remembered.
In my childhood the walk to his place of a pleasant sum- mer evening was too lovely to be forgotten. On passing up the one street of our village, and leaving the houses behind us, we ascended a gentle slope crowned by the Friends' meet- ing-house, looking in the evening light, surrounded by its willow and poplar sentinals, solemn and majestic, the very embodiment of peace and repose.
Six roads meet near the meeting-house, and taking the left hand one we turned abruptly round past the old oak tree, and ancient log school-house, then through the woods belonging to the meeting-house, following a narrow brown path, fringed on each side by wiry grass, and leading across a stile into the most fragrant of pine woods. Here the evening breeze whispered and sighed, and the soft turf was carpeted with wild strawberries, and tiny wild flowers ; then we climbed over another stile into another woods which gently descended to a "run," crossed by the most rustic of little bridges, the air redolent with the perfume of wild-flowers, and echoing with songs of the oriole and lark. Their large old-time stone house, faultlessly clean inside and out, surrounded by lovely grounds, had an ancient, stately grandeur seldom seen in this changeful country. Their home was a sweet, quiet, restful place, and they were never too busy to entertain even children with the names and properties of their floral treasures.
Kind and indulgent as was Mrs. James Trimble, whose maiden name was Hannah Mendenhall, I remember that we children always stood a little in awe of her, and our very best company manners, were put on when in her pres- ence, but with James and his flowers, we were perfectly at
534
HISTORY OF CECIL COUNTY.
home, and free as air to roam where we pleased, and we never left his lovely gardens without a fragrant memento presented by his kind hand.
One great curiosity to the little folks, was three distinct foot-prints on one of the rafters in the garret of his house. Whose were they, and how they came there, was the mystery. His idea was, and no doubt he was correct, that while the house was in progress of building, over one hundred years before, and while the smooth rafters were lying on the ground, some one, perhaps an Indian, stepping in some in- dellible fluid had walked on the rafter. They are the prints of a large flat foot, bare, each toe showing separately and distinctly, and each print as far apart as a tall man would naturally step.
But, time has changed much that was so pleasant ; the march of improvement has levelled the pine woods. I doubt if the orioles, feeling the change, make the woods as in days gone by, melodious with their ringing notes. James Trimble and his family years ago removed to Pennsylvania, where Joseph died and was brought for interment to the burial-ground attached to the meeting-house, where my ancestors worshiped with Elizabeth Maxwell and her family.
Owing to many of the Jobs living unmarried, and others moving to the southern and western States, the race is well nigh extinct at Nottingham. The family of Jacob Job a reputable citizen and farmer and great-grandson of Elizabeth Maxwell, are all of that name, now residing in Cecil County. The wife of Nathan Griffith of Brick Meeting-house, was a grandniece of Andrew Job the Hermit who was a grandson of Elizabeth Maxwell, consequently their descendants are distantly related to the Defoe family.
THE HARTSHORNE FAMILY.
THE founders of the Hartshorne family, of Cecil County, the members of which took an active part in public affairs
535
HISTORY OF CECIL COUNTY.
a century ago, settled in this county in the carly part of the last century. The father of Jonathan Hartshorne purchased two tracts or messuages of land, one called Cornucopia, and the other Spotswood, of Thomas Hampton, containing together about four hundred acres, and, which, after the close of the Revolutionary war, were patented by the State to the family as situated in New Connaught Manor. This property is now owned in part by W. E. Gillespie, and lies a mile or two east of West Nottingham Presbyterian church, of which the Hartshornes were members. They were an athletic and hardy race of people. Some of them are known to have emigrated to Ohio in the carly part of the present century. Jonathan Hartshorne, who married Ann Glasgow, is the first of the name of whom any reliable information has been obtained, and who besides being an agriculturalist, had a tannery to which he gave his attention. He died in 1785, leaving five sons : John, Joshua, Jonathan, Benjamin, and Samuel; and three daughters, Elizabeth Patterson, Rebecca Mccullough, and Mary Hartshorne who married a Mr. Cresswell.
John Hartshorne married Miss Agnes Miller, but died, leaving no children. He espoused the cause of his country in the war of the Revolution, and on the 6th of January, 1776, was elected major of the Susquehanna Battalion of Maryland militia, of this county, by the provincial conven- tion. There is reason to believe that neither the Susque- hanna, nor any other of the battalions of militia of this county, were ever called into active service, and in 1777, or the next year, he joined the 4th Regiment of Maryland volunteers. He was commissioned adjutant of that regi- ment January 25th, 1778. He was also commissioned lieu- tenant in the same regiment, to rank from May 21st, 1779. In the summer of 1782 he was engaged in recruiting, but in the fall of that year joined the army and served until the close of the war. Joshua died a bachelor, as did also Samuel. Benjamin removed to Clearfield County, Pennsylvania,
536
HISTORY OF CECIL COUNTY.
where he left numerous descendants. Jonathan, as well as John, was a surveyor and in the latter part of the last cen- tury assisted in laying out the public road from Rowland- ville to the State line. A copy of the plat of that road which he made, may be seen among the records of the commis- sioners' court at Elkton. It is well executed and indicates that he was master of his profession. He married Mary Gillespie, of Cecil County, and left three sons, John, James Gillespie, and Joshua; and two daughters, Mary Ann, and Margaret Eliza, who, some years after their father's death, removed with their mother to Pennsylvania and settled on a farm, near Cochranville, where Eliza now resides, who with her brother Jonathan alone survives.
James married Harriet Henickson, of Chester County, and left three children, Charles, Augustus, and Elizabeth Walton.
Joshua, the second of that name, was educated at West Nottingham Academy, then under the care of the Rev. Dr. James Magraw. On removing with his family to Chester County he engaged in merchandize. In 1839 he was elected to the lower House of the Pennsylvania Legislature, and served one term. In 1844 he was elected a member of the Board of Public works and served three years, during the last of which he was president of the board. He subse- quently engaged in the iron business at Baltimore, where he resided many years, and at this time having retired from business, resides at West Chester, Pennsylvania. In 1846 he married Martha K. Rogers, daughter of Isaac Rogers, of Harford County, Maryland, and has five children, Mary R., Caroline F., Ann H., Alan S., and Walter R. Adam R. Magraw, a grandson of Rev. Dr. James Magraw, married his second daughter (Ann Hartshorne), and they now reside on the old Magraw homestead, adjoining West Nottingham Presbyterian church.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.