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 44
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537
HISTORY OF CECIL COUNTY.
COLONEL NATHANIEL RAMSAY.
Written for the History of Cecil County by Isaac R. Pennypacker.
JAMES RAMSAY emigrated from Ireland* and settled upon a farm in Drumore Township, Lancaster County, Pennsyl- vania, at an early age, and by the cultivation of his farm with his own hands, he provided the means of subsistence and education for a numerous family. He was a man of intelligence and piety, and early sowed the seeds of knowledge and religion in the minds of his children. His wife was Jane Montgomery, said to be a descendant of Roger de Montgomery, the Norman who went with William the Con- queror into England.
William, the eldest of their three sons, was graduated at Princeton College, in the class of 1754, licensed by the As- sociation of Fairfield East, Connecticut, November 25th, 1755, and was received into the Abingdon Presbytery, and ordained and settled as pastor of the Fairfield church, May 11th, 1756. He died November 5th, 1771, and the tomb- stone erected to his memory testifies to his genius and elo- quence, his faithfulness as a pastor, and the esteem in which he was held by the members of his church.t
David, the youngest son, born April 2d, 1749, was gradu- ated at Princeton College in the class of 1765. Many stories are told of his remarkable intelligence when a mere boy. Ile early attracted the attention of the celebrated Dr. Rush, of Philadelphia, where he studied medicine, and delivered an address in Latin at the time of his graduation by the medical college. He settled in Cecil County, Maryland, but in a little while removed to Charleston, South Carolina, where for many years he practiced medicine, and where he wrote the numerous histories and biographies which are still regarded as reliable authorities. He was an ardent advocate of the cause of the colonies in their contest with
* Rupp's Lancaster Co., page 295.
+ " Princeton College, Eighteenth Century."
538
HISTORY OF CECIL COUNTY.
the mother country; was a member of Congress, and at one time, in the absence of the president, presided over its delib- erations. Numerous sketches of his life have been printed, and his published works speak for themselves.
Nathaniel Ramsay, the second son, was born May 1st, 1741. He was graduated at Princeton College with the class of 1767. On Thursday, March 14th, 1771, on repeat- ing and signing the test oath and the oath of abjuration, he was admitted to the bar of Cecil County. In 1771 he mar- ried Margaret Jane Peale, a sister of Charles Wilson Peale, the portrait painter. He signed the Declaration of the Freemen of Maryland; was a delegate from Cecil County to the Maryland Convention of 1775, held at Annapolis. He was, with Charles Carroll, of Carrollton, and others, one of the committee to devise the best ways and means to pro- mote the manufacture of saltpetre; and was also one of the committee appointed to receive all proposals relating to the establishment of manufactures of any kind within the province, and report their opinion thereon.
On Monday, January 1st, 1776, the convention reported resolutions that 1,444 men with officers be raised in the pay and for the defense of the province, and that eight com- panies of the troops, consisting of sixty-eight privates each, under proper officers, be formed into a battalion; and on the next day William Smallwood was elected colonel ; Francis Ware, lieutenant-colonel ; Thomas Price, major; Mordecai Gist, second major; and Ramsay was elected captain of one of the companies of the battalion. A few days afterwards (on Sunday, January 14th) he was assigned to the captaincy of the fifth company, of which Levin Wunder became first lieutenant; Alexander Murray,second lieutenant; and Walker Muse, ensign. At the same time the pay of a captain was fixed at $26 per month ; a major, $33} ; lieutenant-colonel, $40, with $20 for expenses ; and colonel, $50, with $30 for expenses. It was ordered that commissions issue to the officers, and recruiting orders, as to the character of the re- cruits, to the captains. The uniforms decided on were
539
HISTORY OF CECIL, COUNTY.
hunting-shirts of various colors. Five companies of the battalion were ordered to be stationed at Annapolis.
On January 17th, a new election was ordered for a repre- sentative from Cecil County in Ramsay's place, whose seat would become vacant on his acceptance of a commission in the regular forces of the province. February 10th, 1776, the Maryland Council of Safety wrote to Ramsay requesting him to purchase one hundred and forty yards of country cloth at about Ss. per yard and linen from 2s. Ad. to 2x. Sd. fit for hunting shirts for his company.
On Saturday, July 6th, 1776, the convention ordered Col- onel Smallwood to take his battalion at once to Philadelphia and put himself under the Continental officer then com- manding to be subject to the further orders of Congress. On July 10th, the troops at Annapolis embarked in high spirits to the Head of Elk and thenee marched to Phila- delphia, where they arrived on the afternoon of July 16th.
One who saw the regiment march down Market street, wrote : "They turned up Front street until they reached the Quaker meeting-house called the Bank Meeting, where they halted for some time, which I presumed, was owing to a delicacy on the part of the officers, seeing they were about to be quartered in a place of worship. After a time they moved forward to the door where the officers halted and their platoons came up and with their hats off, while the soldiers with recovered arms marched into the meeting- house. The officers then retired and sought quarters else- where. The regiment was then said to be eleven hundred strong and never did a finer, more dignified, and braver body of men face an enemy. They were composed of the flower of Maryland, being young gentlemen, the sons of opulent planters, farmers, and mechanics. From the Col- onel to the privates all were attired in hunting shirts."- Abraham Clark, writing to Colonel Dayton from Philadel-
* Scharff's Chronicles of Baltimore, page 266.
540
HISTORY OF CECIL COUNTY.
phia, August 6th, 1776, said that the Maryland regiment was the finest he ever saw.
The battalion left Philadelphia, Sunday, July 21st, in twelve shallops for the Jerseys .* It was still at Elizabeth- town August 4th, and complaint was made of the provisions issued at Philadelphia. From New York, Washington wrote August 12th, that " Colonel Smallwood's battalion got in on Friday." There it was incorporated in Stirling's bri- gade. Work for the Maryland soldiers was at hand. The battle of Long Island occurred on August 27th, 1776. The raw American soldiers might well have been excused had they all fled in dismay as the Connecticut troops did. But in their first battle the Marylanders were to show that their martial appearance did not belie their soldierly qualities. This was the first fight in which the Americans met the British in the open field and Stirling's brigade, in which were the Marylanders, opposing Grant's advance, formed the only line of battle preserved by the Americans on that day. A letter dated New York, September 1st,t says: "The com- panies commanded by Captains Ramsay and Scott were in the front and sustained the first fire of the enemy when hardly a man fell. The Major, Captain Ramsay, and Lieu- tenant Plunket were foremost and within forty yards of the enemy's muzzels when they were fired upon by the enemy who were chiefly under the cover of an orchard save a few that showed themselves and pretended to give up, clubbing their fire arms until we came within that distance when they immediately presented and blazed in our faces ; they entirely overshot us, and killed some men away behind in the rear." For four hours Sterling's brigade withstood the fire of the enemy's musketry and artillery. By that time Miles and Sullivan had been surrounded and the British
* Pennsylvania Packet, July 22d. Diary of Christopher Marshall, page 85.
+ Memoirs Long Island Historical Society, Vol. II., page 489.
543
HISTORY OF CECIL COUNTY.
of the Maryland line crossed the river and skirmished with and drove the Yagers .*
Ramsay was with the army at Valley Forge during a por- tion of the memorable winter of 1777-78, where Colonel Ramsay and Mrs. Ramsay occupied a log hut facing to the south in which the officers of the army and especially those of the Maryland line were accustomed to congregate. A portion of the line being ordered to Wilmington, Colonel Ramsay and his wife found agreeable quarters at the resi- dence of their friend Mr. Lee. On June 9th, 1778, Ramsay was Lieutenant-colonel of the day at Valley Forge. On June 17th and 18th, 1778, the British army evacuated Philadelphia, and marched across New Jersey toward New York. On the 18th a portion of the American army set out in pursuit from Valley Forge. On the 19th, Washington followed with the whole army. On Sunday, the 28th, was fought the battle of Monmouth. The advance of the Ameri- cans under command of General Charles Lee had met the British, but without cause began to retreat, "fleeing from a shadow." For twenty minutes General Lee sat upon a fence without giving an order or making an attempt to stop what at every moment came nearer to being a disastrous rout. At this moment Washington arrived upon the field. The enemy must be checked or all is lost. Colonel Ramsay is coming out of a ravine. Washington hastened to him, and Colonel Walter Stewart, and taking Ramsay by the hand, said
* Some time before this a battalion from Harford County marched to Baltimore, whose serviees it became unnecessary to accept. Colonel Ramsay to whose regiment the battalion belonged, in acknowledging the receipt of the communication made to them by the Baltimore committee expres- sive of their sense of the patriotism of the battalion, says : " That bat- tabon, sir, esteem it but their duty to march to the assistance of any part of the province when attacked or in danger of it. But they march with greater alacrity to your assistance from the pleasing memory of former connections and a sense of the value and importance of Baltimore Town to the province in general." Scharff's Chronicles of Baltimore, page 112.
544
HISTORY OF CECIL COUNTY.
that he should depend upon them with their two regi- ments to check the enemy until the army could be reformed. Ramsay replied, " We shall check them."
" The British were in the wood in front of Stewart and Ramsay, whom Washington had directed to incline to the left so that they might be under cover of a corner of woods, and not exposed to the enemy's cannon in their front .* The British guns opened fire. Fighting every inch of ground Stewart and Ramsay's men came out of the woods, the Americans and British mixed up together. Ramsay himself maintained his ground until left without troops, and was cut down in a hand-to-hand encounter with some British dragoons, wounded, and taken prisoner."
General Knox wrote to Mrs Knox, June 29th, that Colonel Ramsay was released in parole that morning. He remained at Princeton at the house of Mrs. Sargent until he had recovered from his wounds.f October 31st, 1778, an order was issued by the British Commissary General of prisoners, requiring all American prisoners at home on parole to repair immediately to New York. Colonel Ram- say's name being upon a return of officers at home on parole, October 12th, he was probably among those called to New York by the order. In the fall of 1779, with General Irvine, Colonel Magaw, and other prisoners at Flat Bush, he sent a number of letters to the American Commissary General of prisoners urging that money be sent them with which to buy the necessaries of life. The same officers also sent com- plaints to General Clinton of the insults offered them by some British troops under Captain Depeyster, and that on one occasion they had been charged upon with fixed bay- onets and taken prisoners for no offense whatever. An ex- amination having been made, the Americans were declared to have been "much in the wrong in their controversy with
* Lieutenant-colonel Fitzgerald's testimony. Court-martial of General Lee.
+ Boyle's distinguished Marylanders, page 143.
545
HISTORY OF CECIL COUNTY.
the sergeant of the guard." To this the American officers replied that their treatment had been " very scandalous and that if permitted to do so, they could have established their charges in the clearest manner by the testimony of officers, and respectable inhabitants." In May 1780, the prisoners issued a memorial saying that the public supplies had been stopped for twelve months and asking the respective States to which they belonged for relief.
Several times while a prisoner, Ramsay, in company with other officers, came into the American lines on parole with propositions of exchange. The Americans and British could not agree upon the terms of exchange, but an agreement was at last happily effected in the fall of 1780, in pursuance of which Ramsay and others were released from confine- ment. On October 30th, 1780, a letter was addressed by General Irvine, Colonels Matthews, Ely Marbury and other officers, still in confinment on Long Island, to Ramsay, Ma- gaw, and others, congratulating them upon their release from the miseries of captivity; saying that "their hearts bleed for the unjustifiable neglect of our country to you, eighteen months without a shilling of supplies," and asking them to remonstrate to Congress, and, if that failed to the country against the injustice of exchanging officers cap- tured at Charlestown, a few months before, in preference to those who had been prisoners three and four years .* Gen- eral Irvine wrote from Flatbush, October 31st, 1780, to the president of Congress, that those officers who that day left the island, on their way home, had been compelled to leave their unfortunate friends as security for payment of their private debts, the Comissary General of prisoners not being able to discharge them. Ramsay was exchanged for Lieu- tenant-colonel Connelly, the British spy.t
Tradition says that the officers confined on Long Island made their life as pleasant as possible, paying frequent
* Irvine papers in Pennsylvania Historical Society.
t Scharff's History of Maryland, page 337.
546
HISTORY OF CECIL COUNTY.
visits to one another, and doing all that could be done to relieve the tedium of confinement. The regulations for the prisoners permitted all field officers to visit any quarters where prisoners were cantoned. No prisoners were per- mitted to go to the northward hills, or to use firearms, or go into any craft, and all were compelled to be in their respec- tive quarters by ten o'clock at night in summer and by nine in winter. The injustice to the American officers who were in the hands of the British so long, did not end with their imprisonment. They were set free to find their positions in the army occupied by other men. Their places were filled and there was no room for the bravest of them elsewhere in the army. Colonels Ramsay and Tillard, the latter ex- changed at the same time with Ramsay, became supernu- mery on July 1st, 1781 .*
By the acts of Congress, Colonel Ramsay became entitled to half pay, commutation, and bounty land. In 1783 he settled in Baltimore. The Maryland Society of the Cin- cinnati was organized at Annapolis, November 21st, 1783. The next day General Smallwood was elected president ; Brigadier General Gist, vice-president ; Brigadier General Williams, secretary; and Colonel Ramsay, treasurer; and the latter was also chosen with General Williams, Governor Paca, and General Smallwood to represent the State Society in the General Society.
At the first general meeting of the society after the dis- bandment of the army, held in the State House, Philadel- phia, May 4th, 1784, General Washington was requested to preside, and Colonel Ramsay was appointed one of the com- mittee to wait on General Washington and inform him of the request of the meeting. On the next day, when the meeting resolved itself into a committee of the whole, Colonel Ramsay was called to the chair. On Thursday, May 6th, the chairman reported that the committee of the
* Saffell Records, page 237.
547
HISTORY OF CECIL COUNTY.
whole were of opinion that the institution of the Society of the Cincinnati should be revised and amended.
In 1785 Colonel Ramsay was chosen to represent Mary- land in the old Congress for one year from the second Mon- day in December, 1785. He took his seat on Monday, June 26th, 1786. While in Congress, in opposition to the votes of the two other Maryland representatives present, Colonel Ramsay voted in favor of a resolution to pay Major General John Sullivan $4,300, as compensation for the great expense he had been put to while in separate command on expedi- tions; and he served on the committee to which was referred questions of payments to soldiers. He was sent to Congress for another year, and took his seat May 3d, 1787.
In Baltimore, Colonel Ramsay lived in the handsome home which has since been purchased by Thomas Winans. March 11th, 1786, he bought for £1,750 part of Anna Catharine Neck and Carpenter's Point, Cecil County, Maryland, a few miles below the mouth of the Susquehanna, on the eastern side of the Chesapeake Bay, and on October 6th, 1790, he bought Clayfall, four hundred acres for £580. The Car- penter's Point farm at that time was famous for its shad fishing and ducking shore, and in a less degree is still so.
Colonel and Mrs. Ramsay in winter made their home in Baltimore; in summer at Carpenter's Point; and according to Mrs. Titian R. Peale, exercised a more generous hospi- tality than was then known in rural Maryland. The climate here, however, did not agree with Mrs. Ramsay, and she died in 1788, leaving no children. Colonel Ramsay then married Charlotte Hall, by whom he had five children.
In 1790 he was appointed by President Washington, United States Marshal for Maryland, and in 1794 he became naval officer of the port of Baltimore. He died Friday morning, October 24th, at two o'clock, in his seventy-first year, and was buried at Westminster church, corner of Green and Fay- ette streets, Baltimore .*
* A painting of Colonel Ramsay and one of his brother, the historian, Dr. David Ramsay, hang in Independence Hall, Philadelphia. A painting
548
HISTORY OF CECIL COUNTY.
Colonel Ramsay was a gentleman of great benevolence and integrity of character. He had the early advantages of the best education that the country could then give. It has been said of him that in his law practice he would rather bring the plaintiff and defendant to a peaceful adjustment of their differences than try a case. His brilliant military record shows him to have been the " brave Ramsay " which the great orator, Henry Armitt Brown, called him. Socially his position was of the best. He enjoyed the personal acquain- tance and confidence of General Washington, and when he died his obituaries in the United States Gazette,t Baltimore Fed. Rep., the London Gentleman's Magazine,t and the Annual of Biography and Obituary,§ which spoke of his valor and value, came nearer the truth than is sometimes the case in similar notices.
of him when a young man, together with one of his father, James, and brother, David, were until recently in the possession of his grandson, Mr. William White Ramsay, of Harford County. These portraits were painted by Colonel Ramsay's brother-in-law, Charles Wilson Peale.
Mrs. Titian K. Peale, in whose husband's possession is a manuscript diary, kept by his father, Charles Wilson Peale, and which contains several references to Colonel Ramsay, says, "that Ramsay and Washing- ton were of nearly the same height, and that when the officers of the Ameriean army would gather, as was their custom, at the residence of Charles Wilson Peale (now occupied by the New York Historical Society) in New York, they would frequently take turns in trying to lift the artist's baby sister to the ceiling. Of all who tried the playful feat, Washington and Ramsay were the only two who succeeded. It is to be regretted that Mrs. Peale's consent to an examination of this manuseript diary, could not be obtained.
The portrait of Colonel Ramsay, in Independence Hall, was photo graphed with difficulty, the surface being mueh cracked. A few litho- graphie copies were struck off, and the stone was destroyed. Through the kindness of Mr. Stone, librarian of the Pennsylvania Historical Society, one of these copies is now in the possession of Colonel Ramsay's great-granddaughter, Mrs. Isaac R. Pennypacker, nee Charlotte Whita- ker. Colonel Ramsay's sword is now owned by his granddaughter, Mrs. Mary Ramsay Whitaker, of Harford County. Bearing this sword in his hand Colonel Ramsay onee quelled a serious disturbance among the fishermen at Carpenter's Point. Colonel Ramsay's camp candlesticks are in the possession of his grandson, Mr. William White Ramsay.
+ October 29th, 1817. # January, 1818, page 87. § 1819, page 218.
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INDEX.
Acadians or French Neutrals, account of. 260, 264
Advice Boat. 191 Aikentown .. 334
Alexander, Robert
335, 336, 347
Alexanders of New Munster 136, 291
Alexanders of Nottingham. 294
Allegiance, oath of. 4.12 Almshouse, History of. 372, 375
Altoona, 26 ; Altoona, Fort, 33; Changed to Christiana. 74
Amsterdam, New. 24
Anna Catharine Neek. 27
Appoquinimink Creek.
76,196
Ararat, Mount ... 128, 418
Ark and Dove. 8, 14
Asbury M. E. church. 461
Asbury, Rev. Francis.
.177, 441, 447, 448, 449, 452, 459
Atwood, Father Peter.
199, 200
Avalon
1]
Bachelors, tax on .. 134
Bainbridge, Commodore William. 491
Baltimore County, original limits of 81 Barroll, Rev. William 216
Bassett, Richard 100, 177, 180, 184, 185
Bayard, Colonel Peter.
178, 182
Bayard, James A 106, 185
Bayard, James.
213
Bayard, Petrus
93
Beacon Hill.
122
Beard, Hugh 391
Beard, Rev. John.
280
Beehitel, George K.
283
Belleconnell
116. 224
Belle Hill.
116
Bequest to poor of St. Stephen's parish. 373
Bethel church. 450
Bill of lading 19"
ii
Biork, Rev. Ericus. 225
Bloody Holly Bush, legend of. 250
Blue Ball Tavern 150, 160
Bohemia Ferry 178
Bohemia, Jesuit Mission at. 19
Bohemia Landing 197
Bohemia Manor, 38 ; original metes and bounds, 39 ; plantations on, 172 ; division of. 185
Bosley, James. 395
Bouchell, Peter
175, 176, 178, 179
Boulden, Major William.
413
Boundary line between Cecil and Harford 403
Bradford, Rev. John. 221
Brevard, John. 276, 292
Brice, Samuel, petition of.
297
British army in Elk Neck, 329; at Elk Forge, 331 ; at Turkey Point, 413 ; at Frenchtown, 414 ; at Havre de Grace, 418 ; at Frederick- town.
420
Broad Creek Presbyterian church.
275
Brown family
160
Brown, James
145, 160
Brown, William
145
Buchannan, ex-President James 417
Bulls Mountain.
223
Burton, Rev. John. 286
Calvert, Benedict Leonard 117
Calvert, Cecil or Cecilius. 13, 14, 110, 313
Calvert, Charles. 110, 120, 299, 306
Calvert, George. 11, 14
Calvert, Leonard. 14
Calvert, Philip. 39, 46, 57
Camp-meetings. 454
Cantwell family. 77
Carolina.
12
Carroll, Charles.
137
Carroll, Charles, of Carrollton, 138, 182, 184, 201, 376; his letter to Henry Hollingsworth.
325
Carroll, John. 201
Catto, Mrs 176, 182
Cape Henlopen .. 304
Cecil County first mentioned, 40; original boundaries of. 82
Cecil Manufacturing Company. 382
Ceciltown, 40; account of. 256, 259, 264
Chalkley, Thomas, visits Conestoga Indians. .156
Chandlee, Benjamin. 157, 158
iii
Chandlee. Isaac. 158
Charlestown, reasons for building, 265 ; act of incorporation of, 265 ;
names of streets in, 266 ; names of first lot owners, 267 ; exports from, 268 ; Fairs in, 269-70 : taxables in, 273 ; population of, 274 : ferry at, 356 ; preaching in. 460
Chauhannauks. 4
Chesapeake, town of. 378
Chesapeake and Delaware Canal, 383 to 390 ; feeder of, 385 ; cost of ... 392
Churchman family. 525
Churchman, John. 190, 381
Chrome
475
Clayborne, William 7, 15, 17, 19
Clayfall. 27, 63, 64, 130, 131, 222
Clayton, Dr. Joshua. .181, 323, 326
Commissioners of the tax 402
Conestoga Indians.
70
Confiscated property
346, 351
Connaught Manor (see Susquehanna Manor)
114
Convention.
319, 320, 321
Cooper, John. 361
Corn, scarcity of, 58 ; Carroll Charles.
137.138
Cosden, Rev. Jeremiah 453
Cottey, Able. 157
Coudon, Rev. Joseph. .362, 446, 453, 455 Council, order of 16, meets at Spesutia, 42; at Susquehanna Point,
53 ; makes a treaty with the Indians at New Amstel
61
Court, first rules of. 244
Courts Baron and Leet, 113; of Cecil County. 117
Court-house at Jamestown, 83 ; at Court-house Point, 247 ; at Elkton .. 367 208
Crawford, Rev. James
Cresap, Thomas.
238, 301, 393
Creswell, Colonel John 693
Dare, William. 118, 223
Davies, Rev. Samuel. 167
Davis, Rev. Henry Lyon
453, 451. 458
Dearbourn, General 346
Death, Randall. 239 Defoe family 526 Delaware College.
Delaware River, names of
Dobson, Richard. 217. 229, 323
Dobson, Henry.
436, 443, 455, 457, 459
Duke, Rev. William
Durham County. 75
Dutton, Robert ..
148, 150, 231
iv
Ease, Chapel of. 210
Ebenezer chapel. 450
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