USA > Maryland > Dorchester County > History of Dorchester County, Maryland > Part 21
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THE GOLDSBOROUGHS
They had a large family. William T. Goldsborough, who at one time lived at "Horn's Point," was their oldest son; R. Tilghman Goldsborough and Charles F. Goldsborough, who was Associate Judge of the Circuit Court in the First Judi- cial District, were the other sons. None of the sons or daughters of Governor Goldsborough are now living. The youngest son, Judge Charles F. Goldsborough, died in 1892, before the expiration of his term on the Bench.
One of the first Goldsboroughs who came to Dorchester County was John Goldsborough, the son of John Goldsbo- rough, of Talbot County. He married his cousin, Caroline Goldsborough. He was Deputy Commissary of Dorchester County under the Provincial Government, and after the Rev- olution, was for many years Register of Wills for the county.
In every generation of the Goldsboroughs since the arrival of Nicholas Goldsborough in Maryland, some of them have been prominent in public affairs, which has given the name a high reputation that history claims with partial pride.
The late deceased and surviving members of the latter generations have honored their ancestors with marked dis- tinction in political, professional and social life.
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HON. PHILLIPS LEE GOLDSBOROUGH.
Hon. P. L. Goldsborough, of Cambridge Md., is one of the rising young men of the day in the Republican party on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. He is the son of M. Worth- ington Goldsborough, Pay Inspector in the U. S. Navy, and Henrietta Maria (Jones) Goldsborough. After completing his education, he began the study of law with the Honorable Daniel M. Henry, Jr., of Cambridge. He was admitted to the Bar of Maryland at Cambridge when about twenty-one years of age, and later, to practice his profession before the Court of Appeals of the State. After serving as Paymaster's Clerk in the Navy, at San Francisco, for some time under his father, he returned to Cambridge in 1890, when he began
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to practice his profession there. In the fall of 1891 he was nominated by the Republican Party for the office of State's Attorney of Dorchester County, to which he was elected. Four years later he was renominated and elected by a hand- some majority.
In 1895 he was a prominent candidate for Congress in the First District. In 1896 he was a strong candidate for the United States Senate before the General Assembly of Mary- land, but was defeated by a vote of only four majority against him.
At the Republican State Convention in 1897 he was nom- inated for Comptroller of the Treasury of the State of Mary- land, and elected by seven thousand majority.
In 1895 he began to publish a weekly newspaper at Cam- bridge, the Dorchester Standard, a Republican organ which he edited and published until 1901, when he sold it to Thomas S. Latimer, the present editor and proprietor.
Mr. Goldsborough is Chairman of the Republican State Central Committee of Maryland and an influential party leader in the State. He is a popular member of several social and political clubs and a vestryman of Christ's Protest- ant Episcopal Church in Cambridge.
In June, 1902, he was nominated by President Roosevelt for the office of Collector of Internal Revenue at Baltimore, for the District of Maryland and Delaware. On July I, he relieved Collector B. F. Parlett, and entered upon the dis- charge of his duties as Revenue Collector.
In 1893 Mr. Goldsborough married Miss Ellen Showell, daughter of the late William M. Showell, of Berlin, Worces- ter County, Md. They have two surviving children, Phil- lips Lee Goldsborough, Jr., and Brice W. Goldsborough, Jr.
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THE HENRY FAMILY.
>VIRTUTE
TIMORE
SINE
Goldsborougb-benry Arms.
From the memoirs of Hon. John Henry, of Dorchester County, we have been permitted by one of his great-grand- sons to copy extracts :
Of the paternal ancestors of Hon. John Henry, the first who emigrated to this country was the Rev. John Henry, a Presbyterian minister, who, it is said, "stood high, not only as a divine, but also as a citizen." He came from Ireland about the year 1700 and settled at or near Rehoboth, on the Pocomoke River in Somerset County, Md., where he con- tinued to reside until his death in 1717. I know nothing of his family history prior to his arrival in this country. Some years after his settlement at Rehoboth, he married Mary Jenkins, widow of Francis Jenkins. Col. Jenkins having no children gave her by his will what was in those days consid- ered an immense estate. Her maiden name was King. She was the daughter of Sir Robert King, an Irish Baronet, and is generally known by tradition and in public records of Som- erset County as Madam Hampton, having married, after the death of Mr. Henry, her second husband, Rev. John Hamp- ton, also a Presbyterian minister. She was an accomplished woman of many virtues and was sometimes called "a great woman."1 She had no children, except by her marriage
*See letter on "Early History of the Presbyterian Church in America," by Irving Spencer, p. 97, ch. 55.
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with Mr. Henry, by whom she left two sons, Francis Jenkins Henry and John Henry. Both of these sons afterwards . became prominent and important citizens and took an active part in public affairs. She survived Mr. Hampton also for a number of years and died in 1744. I do not know whom Francis Jenkins, the elder of her sons, married, but he left children, and many of his descendants are living in Mary- land and elsewhere, influential and respected. John, the younger, known as Col. John Henry, married Dorothy Rider, youngest daughter of Col. John Rider, who was a gentleman of wealth and respectability. As Col. John Rider was the maternal grandfather of Governor Henry, it may be well to give some account of his family.
He was the only son of John Rider, of England, and Anne, only child of Col. Hutchins. Col. Hutchins was one of the early settlers in Dorchester County, and displayed great judgment in selecting and securing large tracts of valuable land. He became wealthy and built the large brick house at "Weston," which afterwards became the home of the John Henry branch of the Henry family. His daughter was sent to England to be educated and after the completion of her education, he was anxiously awaiting her return. In those days there was considerable direct trade between the town of Vienna, on the Nanticoke River, six miles above "Weston." and England, and when the vessel in which his daughter was expected anchored in front of his house, he felt sure that she was on board; but instead of this he received her minia- ture and a letter informing him that she was engaged to marry Mr. John Rider. In his disappointment, he became very angry and threw the miniature in the fire, but it was rescued by some one before it was seriously injured, and, I think, it is still in the possession of one of her descendants. She married Mr. Rider in England about 1685, and their son, since known as Col. John Rider, was born there October 30, 1686. They afterwards sailed for America, but both she and her husband died on the voyage, leaving their son surviving
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them. He was received by his grandfather, and at his death, inherited all his property. Col. Hutchins died in 1699. From him descended in the female line, the Steeles, of Mary- land, as well as our branch of the Henry family. *
Col. John Rider (grandson of Col. Hutchins) married on January 23, 1706, Annie Hicks, of Dorchester County, and died February 16, 1749. * * He left one son, Charles, and three daughters, Sarah, Anne and Dorothy, surviving him. His son died unmarried about two years later. Of his daughters, Sarah, the eldest, married James Billings, a merchant of Oxford, Md. Anne married Thomas Nevett, the father of John Rider Nevett, and Dorothy, Col. John Henry, as before stated.
Henry Steele, an English gentleman, at that time of Oxford, Md., afterwards nearest neighbor of Governor Henry, in Dorchester, married a daughter of James Billings, whose name is also retained in the Steele family, and her son, James Steele, married Mary Nevett, granddaughter of Thomas and daughter of John Rider Nevett. The Nevetts, Billingses and Steeles were all refined and cultivated people, as may be discovered from their letters and other writings still in existence. The Nevetts and Billingses, I believe, are now extinct in the male line. The name Nevett still sur- vives in several members of the Steele family.
Col. John Henry died in 1781. He had four sons and five daughters, nearly all of whom survive him. His son, John Henry, afterwards U. S. Senator, Governor, etc., was born in November, 1750, at "Weston," the residence of his father, in Dorchester County. He was prepared for college at West Nottingham Academy, in Cecil County, Md., under the direction of Rev. Samuel Finley, D.D., and later, was sent to Princeton College, where he graduated about 1769. After this he devoted himself to the study of law for several years in this country and then went to England, where he remained about two years and a half, engaged in prosecuting his law studies in the Temple. While in England, the issues between
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the colonies and the mother country grew warmer day by day and excited intense feeling and anxiety. They were a frequent subject of conversation, and led to animated dis- cussions in the Robin Hood Club, of which he was a member. He took part in these discussions and zealously defended the rights of the colonies. He left England in 1775 and upon arriving at home, thoroughly educated and popular, he was almost immediately elected by the people a member of the Legislature of Maryland. In 1777 he was sent to the Continental Congress and remained by successive reelec- tions, almost continuously a member of that body until the adoption of the Constitution of the United States.
Upon the adoption of the Constitution, Mr. Henry was elected U. S. Senator for the term commencing March 4, 1789, and upon its expiration, was reelected for the term commencing| March 4, 1795, but afterwards resigned to accept the office of Governor of Maryland, which he held for the year 1798. * He resigned the office of Gov- ernor on account of ill-health and returned to "Weston," his estate on the Nanticoke, where he died in November, 1798. He married, March 6, 1787, Margaret, daughter of John and Elizabeth Campbell, of Caroline County, Md. I know noth- ing of Mr. Campbell, except by tradition, that he was an intelligent and respected citizen. The maiden name of his wife was Goldsborough.
Gov. John Henry was a gentleman and citizen of the first rank in private and public life. His fine physical appearance and polished manners made him the centre of social attrac- tion wherever he mingled with the people; his preeminent legal attainments and thorough knowledge of public affairs at home and abroad placed him first in public estimation, and the people chose him to represent them in every public affair where strong influence and leadership were most needed to guide Maryland through the dark hours of the Revolutionary conflict, and to secure her sovereign rights under the Con- stitution as a State in the Federal compact. Well may his
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living descendants and kindred of to-day be proud of an ancestor who served his State and country in the Continen- tal Congress for six years; eight years in the United States Senate and Governor of Maryland as long as his health would permit. In the U. S. Senate he was the colleague of Charles Carroll, of Carrollton, and the peer of any Senator. His services were in universal demand. On December 19, 1783, he headed the Senate Committee to prepare the House for the reception of General Washington, and to prepare an address to present to him on his arrival at Annapolis to resign his command of the Continental Army.
During the Revolutionary War, when the British kept a fleet of armed vessels and barges in Chesapeake Bay for plun- dering the homes and destroying the property of the colo- nists who lived near the Bay or navigable rivers, in October, 1780, they sent an expedition up the Nanticoke that captured the town of Vienna, looted the stores and burned a new brig there. On their way down the river they stopped at the home of Col. John Henry, member of Congress, and burned his house and furniture. Only the Colonel and his servants were at home. As the enemy approached he retired to a neighbor's house where he had removed his plate and valu- able papers. Fortunately he was not then captured by that devastating force of plunderers who had threatened to take his life. They took away one negro man from Mr. Henry's place and another from Mr. Steele, who was a near neighbor.
Governor Henry left two sons, John Campbell Henry, born December 6, 1787, and Francis Jenkins Henry, born in 1789. His wife died about a month after the birth of her younger son, and he remained a widower until his death. His sons, after attending various schools in the State, were sent some years after his death, by their guardian, to Princeton Col- lege, where they completed their education. Francis Jen- kins, the youngest, died unmarried soon after his arrival at age.
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The other son, John Campbell Henry, on April 21, 1808, married Mary Nevett Steele, eldest daughter of James and Mary Steele. I. Nevett Steele, of Baltimore, who was a distinguished lawyer and Dr. Charles Hutchins Steele, of West River, Md., were her brothers. Mary Steele, her mother and wife of James Steele, was the only daughter of John Rider Nevett, by his marriage with Sarah Maynadier, a daughter of Rev. Daniel Maynadier, a minister of the Church of England and rector of Great Choptank Parish in Dorchester County for many years and until his death. He was a son of Rev. Daniel Maynadier, a French Huguenot, who fled from Languedoc after the revocation of the edict of Nantes, first to England and thence to this country. He settled in Talbot County and became rector of White Marsh Parish. John Rider Nevett was unfortunately drowned April 13, 1772, at the age of twenty-five years, by the cap- sizing of a schooner in Choptank River, while on his way to Annapolis. * *
* His widow married Dr. James Mur- ray and removed to Annapolis. They left two sons, Daniel and James, and three daughters, all of whom were distin- guished by intelligence, cultivation and high social position. One of the daughters married Governor and U. S. Senator Edward Lloyd, of Talbot County; another became the wife of Hon. Richard Rush, of Philadelphia, whose distinguished career is so well known, and the other became the wife of Gen. John Mason, of Virginia, and the grandmother of Gen. Fitzhugh Lee, late Governor of Virginia.
John Campbell Henry died in his seventieth year, April I, 1857, at "Hambrook," his beautiful residence on Choptank River, a short distance below Cambridge. He never sought public office, and having been appointed one of the Gov- ernor's council, soon resigned. Other public places of prom- inence he preferred not to accept, but devoted himself to the duties of private life, and only served the public in local posi- tions. He was an intelligent gentleman of sound judgment and strict integrity, though reserved in his manners, yet he
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HAMBROOK, NEAR CAMBRIDGE.
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was fond of bright and refined society and his home was always the seat of generous but unassuming hospitality. His widow survived him many years and died November 20, 1873, at the age of 84 years.
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Mr. Henry left four sons and four daughters who survived him, namely: Dr. James Winfield, Francis Jenkins, Daniel Maynadier and Rider, and Kitty, Isabella, Elizabeth, Mary and Charlotte A. P.
James Winfield, the eldest son, studied medicine in Phil- adelphia and successfully practiced his profession for many years at Cambridge. He never sought public office. In March, 1841, he married Anna Maria, youngest daughter of Levin H. Campbell, Esq. Dr. Henry died in 1889. Of his children, James Winfield is a prominent and prosperous bus- iness man in Baltimore City. Daniel M. was a leading law- yer at the Cambridge Bar, and was elected State's Attorney in 1879. He married, in 1881, Miss Martha H. Adkins, daughter of Dr. Adkins, of Easton, Md. Mr. Henry died of typhoid fever in 1889, in the prime of his manhood, when hope was highest and life was dearest. He was admired and esteemed by a host of devoted friends.
Miss Nannie C. Henry, a daughter of Dr. Henry, married Dr. B. W. Goldsborough, a prominent physician in active practice at Cambridge, Md., October 29, 1884.
Francis Jenkins Henry has had large experience in public office; at one time was Postmaster of Cambridge. He was elected Clerk of the Circuit Court for Dorchester County in 1851 and held the office by successive reelections until 1879, covering a period of twenty-eight years. His affable man- ner and cheerful accommodation shown to all who had offi- cial business with him at the Court House, and his social intercourse unofficially with the town and county people, made him the most popular Court Clerk ever elected in Dor- chester County.
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DEATH OF THE OLDEST CITIZEN.
Col. Francis J. Henry, the oldest resident of Cambridge, and one of the best known citizens of Dorchester, died at his home on Locust Street, Tuesday evening at 7 o'clock, aged 85 years. Up to three years ago, Colonel Henry enjoyed good health, until he was stricken with paralysis while on a trip to Baltimore, since which time he had been gradually failing until the end came. He was born at Hansell, in Vienna District, Dorchester County, on August 12, 1816, and was the son of John Campbell and Mary Nevett Henry and grandson of John Henry, Governor of Maryland, United States Senator and member of the Continental Congress. He married Wilhelmina Goldsborough, of Dorchester County, who died about fifteen years ago. He is survived by four sons and four daughters, namely: John C. Henry, of New Orleans; R. G. Henry, ex-Postmaster and now Mayor of Cambridge; Nicholas G. Henry, of the Hydrographic Office, Washington, D. C .; Hampton Henry, of Cambridge; Mrs. John Spence, of New Market;, Mrs. Elizabeth Golds- borough, of San Francisco; Mrs. Annie O. B. Steele and Wil- helmina Muse, of Cambridge. The funeral was at the resi- dence Thursday afternoon, conducted by Revs. T. C. Page and Jas. L. Bryan, of the P. E. Church.
Colonel Henry was Clerk of the Circuit Court of Dorches- ter for twenty-eight years, being first elected to that position in 1851, and was considered one of the most popular officials who ever held that office. He was defeated in 1879 by the present incumbent, Mr. Charles Lake, after a spirited contest. -Dorchester Era.
In 1836 he married the youngest daughter of Robert Goldsborough, Esq., of Cambridge. She died in 1881. Eight children survived her. The oldest son, John Campbell, at the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, raised a company of volun- teers for the Federal Army, known as Company A, of which he was Captain, in the First Eastern Shore Regiment of Infantry. As a citizen of Maryland, influenced by Southern
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interests and social intercourse, Captain Henry decided to cast his lot as a soldier in the war with the South in her battles for independence. He then resigned his command in the Federal Army, went South and served with distinction in the Confederate Army; was engaged in many battles and wounded five times. It was his good fortune to survive all conflicts of the war and after its close, returned to his native State and town to join his father's family and devoted friends.
Another son, Robert Goldsborough Henry, is a prominent lawyer and Mayor of the city of Cambridge, and was for- merly Deputy Court Clerk of the Circuit Court for Dorches- ter County for thirteen years, and Postmaster of Cambridge, under President Cleveland, 1893-97. Previously he was, for a number of years, Secretary to the Chief of the Torpedo Division in the Navy of the Argentine Republic. May 20, 1875, Mr. Henry married Miss Julia M. Muse, daughter of Dr. James A. Muse, of Cambridge. Nicholas G. Henry, another son, is connected with the U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey Office, Washington, D. C.
Daniel M. Henry, a brother of Francis Jenkins Henry, was a lawyer by profession and practiced at Cambridge. He represented Dorchester County in both branches of the State Legislature and was elected a member of the House of Rep- resentatives of the United States in 1875 for two terms. He was twice married, first in November, 1845, to Henri- etta Maria, youngest daughter of Gov. Charles Golds- borough, of Shoal Creek, Dorchester County. She died in December, 1846. He next married Susan Elizabeth, only daughter of William Goldsborough, Esq., of "Myrtle Grove," Talbot County, Md., and granddaughter of Hon. Robert H. Goldsborough, twice U. S. Senator from Maryland, and also granddaughter of Gov. Charles Goldsborough, above men- tioned. The blood relationship between these two dis- tinguished gentlemen was distant.
Mr. Daniel M. Henry was a gentleman of fine legal attain- ments, unassuming and modest in his demeanor, with such refined and tender sympathies that he neglected self to serve
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others. Honor and honesty were jewels that crowned his useful work in public and private life.
Of his sons, W. Laird Henry is an attorney-at-law at the Cambridge Bar and an ex-Congressman, having been a member of the Fifty-third Congress. He married the widow of Hon. D. M. Henry, Jr., in 1894.
Maynadier Henry, a brother of W. Laird, entered the realm of manhood with bright prospects of a useful career, but while in the employment of the National Bank of Cam- bridge, he became the victim of a fatal disease and died in 1892.
Rider Henry resides in Washington, D. C., and holds an official position connected with the House of Representatives.
Kitty Henry married Daniel Lloyd, youngest son of Governor and U. S. Senator Edward Lloyd, of Talbot County. She died in April, 1886, leaving three children, two daughters and a son, Henry Lloyd, who was elected State Senator in 1881, and elected President of the Senate, became Governor in 1885 by the resignation of Gov. Robert McLain. In 1892 he was appointed Associate Judge of the First Judicial Circuit after the death of Judge Charles F. Goldsborough, and was elected Associate Judge in Novem- ber, 1893, for the term of sixteen years, and is still on the Bench.
Isabella Elizabeth Henry, in June, 1850, married Dr. Thomas B. Steele, a surgeon in the United States Navy, from which he resigned and for the last forty years has been a leading practitioner of medicine at Cambridge, Md. They have two surviving children, a daughter and son, Dr. Guy Steele, a young physician and surgeon of prominence now located in Cambridge.
Mary Henry, in April, 1848, married R. Tilghman Golds- borough, a son of Gov. Charles Goldsborough. No children by this marriage.
Charlotte A. P. Henry married in 1852, Hon. Charles F. Goldsborough, a son of Gov. Charles Goldsborough. He held important offices; State's Attorney for Dorchester
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County; State Senator, and was elected Associate Judge of the Court, First Judicial Circuit, in 1879. He died in 1892, before the expiration of his term on the Bench. No surviv- ing children by this marriage. His widow is still living.
In closing this sketch of the Henry family it is worthily due their living descendants to note the high esteem in which Gov. John Henry was held by quoting a paragraph of a letter written to him by the illustrious statesman, Thomas Jeffer- * son, of Virginia. The subject I withhold. "* * I have gone, my dear sir, into this lengthy detail to satisfy a mind in the candor and rectitude of which I have the highest confidence. So far as you may incline to use the communi- cation for rectifying the judgments of those who are willing to see things truly as they are, you are free to use it, but I pray no confidence you may repose in anyone may induce you to let it go out of your hands so as to get into a newspaper, against a contest in that field I am entirely decided. I feel extraordinary gratification in addressing this letter to you, with whom shades of difference in political sentiment have not prevented the interchange of good opinion, nor cut off the friendly intercourse of society and good correspondence. This political tolerance is the more valued by me who con- sider social harmony as the first of human felicities, and the happiest moments those which are given to the effusion of the heart. Accept them sincerely, I pray you, from one who, with sentiments of high respect and attachment, has the honor to be, dear sir, your most obedient and humble ser- vant. TH. JEFFERSON."
THE HICKS FAMILY.
Thomas Hicks was the first of that name to settle in Dor- chester County. He was a native of White Haven, Great Britain; was born in 1659 and died in 1722. He left chil- dren-
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