USA > Maryland > Dorchester County > History of Dorchester County, Maryland > Part 3
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
Province of Maryland, in which causes civil * to be tryed
* we do constitute, ordain and appoint you, Ray- mond Stapleford, John Pollard and William Stevens, of Little Choptank, to be the Judges as aforesaid, unless some one of our Council be then in Court; and there- fore we do commend you that you diligently intend the keep- ing of the peace laws and orders, and all and singular, other the premises, and at certain days appointed according to Act of Assembly in that case provided, and at such places which you or any four or more of you as aforesaid shall in that behalf appoint, ye make enquiries upon the premises and perform and fulfill the same in form aforesaid, doing therein
35
BOUNDARY OF DORCHESTER COUNTY
that which to justice appertaineth according to the laws orders and reasonable customs of our said Province of Mary- land, saving to us the amercments and other things to us belonging: And therefore we command the Sheriff of Dor- chester by virtue of these presents that at the days and places aforesaid which you or any such four or more of you as afore- said shall make known to him to give his attendance on you, and if need require to cause to come before you or any such four or more of you as aforesaid, such and so many lawful men of your county by whom the truth in the premises may be the better known and required of. And further, we will that the said county extend to the great Choptank River, including the south side thereof to be accounted and taken to be within the said county of Dorchester. (2.) And lastly we have appointed Edward Savage, Clerk and Keeper of the Records and proceedings in your said County Court, and therefore you shall cause to be brought before you at the said days and places the writts, precepts, processes and indict- ments to your Court and jurisdiction belonging, that the same may be inspected and by a due course determined.
"Given at St. Mary's under our Great seal of our said Province of Maryland, this sixth day of May, in the seven and thirteenth year of our Dominion over our said Province, Anno Domini one thousand six hundred and sixty-nine.
"Witness. Charles Calvert, Esqr. our Lieutenant-Gen- eral, Chief Governor and Chief Justice of our said Province of Maryland."
For one hundred and four years after Dorchester County was laid out, in 1669, its bounds on the north and west extended up and along the Choptank River to the territory of New Sweden, later called Delaware, binding therewith on the east to an intersection with the Nanticoke River and embraced all that part of Caroline County, which was laid out in 1773. lying east of the Choptank River. By the definite bounds of Maryland described in the Proprie- tary's Charter, the northern limit was the fortieth degree of North Latitude, and the eastern line was to run with the
36
HISTORY OF DORCHESTER COUNTY
Atlantic Ocean, and the Delaware Bay, and River, back to the fortieth degree. The limits of Somerset and Dorchester Counties extended eastwardly to Delaware Bay, and included that part of Delaware, now called Sussex County.
Lord Baltimore authorized William Stevens of Somerset County to lay out and grant land in that part of Dorchester County, lying next to Delaware Bay. However, after the Duke of York acquired this Dutch Colony, on the Delaware Bay, the protests of Lord Baltimore for his rights were not as strong as the appeals of Penn to King James, for the pos- session of the new territory of Delaware which the King granted to Penn in 1685. To-day, Dorchester County does not contain one-half of its original area as legally acquired by Lord Baltimore.
CHAPTER II.
REFERENCES TO THE ASSEMBLY OF 1669 AND 1671-OTHER COUNTY AFFAIRS.
At the Provincial Assembly, which met April 13, 1669. Richard Preston came as a Delegate, having been elected to represent Dorchester County, as also did Daniel Jenifer, who had been chosen a Burgess. They both lived at Patux- ent, but were large land-holders in Dorchester.
At this session a number of laws were passed. In the Act for Court days the first Tuesday in September, November, January, March and June, were designated for Dorchester. Commissioners who failed to attend Court on the days named were fined one hundred pounds of tobacco, which was applied to a fund to be used for the erection of whipping-posts, stocks and pillories. Once those bar- barous implements of punishment stood near the Cambridge Court House, where criminal, even white women, had their bare backs lashed until the blood ran down, drawn by the rawhide's cruel blows. Men had their ears cropped, and hot iron-brands were applied that burned their flesh to publicly mark them as criminals, for larceny and other petty crimes; and tongue-boring was done for graver offences.
Other Assembly Acts were to levy resources for war, make highways and roads; to encourage the building of water-mills, and to revive various laws previously passed that first applied to Dorchester. During this session an Indian, named Ana- tchcoin, alias Wanamon, a Wiccomis, who had killed Captain Obder, and his servants, was brought from Dorchester bly order of King Abaco, to St. Mary's, on May 6. The guards who brought him were George Hogg, Humphrey Jennings, John Stevens and Thomas Flowers, who were paid as follows: Hogg, three hundred pounds of tobacco; the others, two hundred pounds each. The Council ordered with little delay that the Indian be shot to death before three o'clock, the next day, Friday afternoon.
38
HISTORY OF DORCHESTER COUNTY
An Act for Naturalization of Foreigners was also passed, and William Tick, a Dutchman in Dorchester, was natural- ized, April 19. He was a native of Amsterdam, Holland, but having settled on the Little Choptank River, and as a partner with Richard Preston, who was a large land owner in that section, jointly raised live-stock there. Some route of his on or about his premises, which he frequently used, perhaps a cattle-path, his English neighbors named "Tick's Path." From that name and the traveler of that path, a traditional legend has been handed down from generation to generation for more than two hundred years, that William Tick hung himself there; and the apparition of a "headless ghost" on Tick's Path has often been seen in the dark shadows of the dense forest along that weird pathway.
Just where the first Court of Justices met in 1669, or 1670, there is no record, but private family-papers show that Court Sessions were held at a town site called "Islington," om "Nicholas Mayney's Point," on Little Choptank, where an old brick building more than two hundred years old now stands, at the side of Brooks' Creek.
In 1671 William Stevens, of Little Choptank, was ap- pointed Coroner, and William Wroughton, Thomas Pat- tison and Thomas Skinner, additional Commissioners, and Daniel Clarke and Henry Trippe were elected Delegates to the "Assembly;" an Act was passed for establishing standard weights and measures, which were to be purchased in Eng- land and afterwards set up for Dorchester, at Daniel Clarke's house; Clarke was appointed Keeper. An Act to Establish Ferries over Choptank into Dorchester County, and over Nanticoke into Somerset County, was also passed. A tax levy was made; in Dorchester there were 263 tithables, who were taxed 33 pounds of tobacco per poll or head. Tobacco was then worth two pence per pound; the price is here given to show what taxpayers then had to pay in money value- about one dollar and thirty-two cents each. "Ordinary" Keepers charged ten pounds of tobacco for a meal, and six- teen pounds for a night's lodging.
CHAPTER III.
RECORD OF LOCATION OF FIRST COURT HOUSE-THE BUILDING OF COURT HOUSES AT CAMBRIDGE-NO OFFICIAL RECORDS OF COURT PROCEEDINGS PRIOR TO 1689 NOW TO BE FOUND-ASSEMBLY PROCEEDINGS THAT AFFECTED DORCHESTER-AN ACT FOR KEEPING HOLY THE LORD'S DAY- LEVY FOR PAYING THE PUBLIC CHARGE-LIST OF MILITIA-MEN SENT AGAINST THE NANTICOKE INDIANS IN 1669, WITH AMOUNTS PAID IN TOBACCO FOR SERVICES-MISCELLANIES.
While the first Courts of Dorchester were temporarily held in private houses for the first two years of the county's existence, an appropriate building was soon established. From "John's Point," on Brooks' Creek, a tract of land acquired by John Hudson, November 24, 1665-the Court was removed to "Harwood's Choice," a plantation lying on the most easterly branch of Fishing Creek, a tributary of Lit- tle Choptank River. It contained 150 acres, and was pur- chased by William Worgin, tenant, of Fishing Creek, from Robt. Harwood, of Talbot County, on the sixth day of Octo- ber, 1670. This Court record is subscribed by Edward Savage, Clerk of Court. Witness, Stephen Gary.
At a session of the Court, held December 11, 1673, by
Daniel Clark. -
Robert Winsmore, of the Quorum,
William Stevens,
and
Henry Trippe,
Thomas Skinner, Justices,
William Worgin gave twenty-five acres of "Harwood's Choice," "and a new house lately built and finished by George Seward for the keeping of the Court there." He also gave timber for buildings and firewood for use of the Court: and gave bond to the amount of 12,000 pounds of
40
HISTORY OF DORCHESTER COUNTY
tobacco, to warrant and defend the gift. The terms of the gift were that, "Whenever the Court removed from there, the said land and property to be returned to the owners." This apparently generous gift from Worgin evidently was an inducement to have the County Court permanently estab- lished near his premises. Court was held there until estab- lished at Cambridge in 1687.
Mr. James S. Shepherd, present Deputy Clerk of the Court, published an account of the building of the several Court Houses at Cambridge, from which he kindly permitted copy extracts to be made, and are herein given.
The second Court House in Dorchester, being the first one built in Cambridge, was constructed by Capt. Anthony Dawson, in 1687. He contracted with Major Thomas Tay- lor, steward of Dorchester County, in consideration of 26,000 pounds of tobacco (worth about $1300), to build a house of the following dimensions: 40 feet in length and 24 feet in breadth; two floors; four large windows below and one small closet window, with two large casements to each window, etc. Chambers to be sealed; one large pair of stairs with rails and balusters; a large porch at ye end of the house, etc. This Court House was taken down and sold in 1770, when the second one was built, authorized by Act of Assem- bly, passed in the year 1770 (see Chap. XIII). Robert Eden, Esq., was then Governor. The Act directed 200,000 pounds of tobacco to be assessed, to be paid Charles Dickenson, William Ennalls, Robert Harrison and John Goldsborough, Jr., who were to meet in Cambridge by March 15 and con- tract with workmen to build the new house. It was built of brick, upon the site where the present Court House now stands, but a few feet nearer the street. It was destroyed by fire, supposed to have been of incendiary origin, in 1851. The records in the Clerk's Office were saved; all in the Register's Office were burned. The present or third Court House was completed and occupied in 1853, and cost $18,- 162.31. It is a substantial and commodious building, and
41
COMMISSIONERS FOR DORCHESTER COUNTY
serves well to-day the same purposes for which it was built fifty years ago.
Of the sessions of the Courts held by the County Justices from 1673 to 1687, at the house donated by William Worgin, and from 1687 until August 5, 1690, at Cambridge, there are no records to be found in the Clerk's Office.
Remarkably strange and deeply to be regretted is the failure of Edward Savage, the first Clerk of the Court in Dorchester, and his successors to transmit the records of the Court in order, down to Thomas Pattison, who was appointed Clerk by the first "Assembly of Revolutionary Associators" which met August 23, 1689, after having dis- placed the Proprietary from control in the province, and proclaimed "William and Mary Sovereigns of England, the Province of Maryland and all the English dominions." For seventeen years there are no records to show the proceed- ings of the Courts of Justice in Dorchester County, although they were probably convened four times a year according to the law under Proprietary rule. We must content ourselves to know only the names of county officers of those who represented the county in the Provincial Assemblies and the laws passed that affected the colonists in that division of the State.
At an Assembly session in 1674, begun May 19, the delegates from Dorchester County were Daniel Clarke and Henry Trippe. An Act was passed to build a Court House and jail in each of the several counties. June 14 Com- missioners for Dorchester were appointed, viz: Daniel Clarke (who was then a Delegate), Robert Winsmore, Wil- liam Stevens and John Hudson, Gents. of the Quorum; and Henry Trippe, Stephen Gary, Bartholomew Ennalls, Henry Hooper, William Ford, Thomas Skinner and Charles Hutch- ins, Gents. Justices. A second session of the Assembly was held in the same year, but nothing special was done for Dor- chester. At the next session, begun February 9, 1675, Henry Trippe and William Forde, were the Dorchester Delegates. A public levy was made at the rate of 165 pounds of tobacco
42
HISTORY OF DORCHESTER COUNTY
per poll or heard. In Dorchester, 355 persons (males) were taxed. The next session held began May 15, 1676. "Ordi- nary" Keepers were appointed at the several County Courts, including Dorchester, and were taxed 1200 pounds of to- bacco annually, and license cost 25 shillings sterling. August 6, 1676, commissions were issued to Henry Trippe and Anthony Dawson, to be Captains of foot companies in Dor- chester, under Col. Vincent Lowe. August 9 new Com- missioners of the Peace were appointed, namely, Robert Winsmore, William Stevens, Raymond Stapleford, Henry Trippe, and John Brooks, Gentlemen of the Quorum; and Stephen Gary Barth, Ennalls. Ch. Hutchins. Henry Brad- ley, Jno. Pollard and John Offey, Gentlemen Justices. At this session, The Right Honorable Charles. Absolute Lord and Proprietary of the Province of Maryland, first presided over the Council. On May 30, 1677, the following was put on record in the House. "Upon complaint made to this House by Andrew Insloe, of Dorchester County, touch- ing an execution intended to be served on him by Richard Meekins, of the said county, it is thought fit by this House that the said execution be hereby suspended and superseded if already issued, and Thomas Taylor, high Sheriff of said county is required to take notice hereof accordingly." Then as now the Legislature exercised the power to pass Acts of financial relief.
The next Assembly met October 20, 1678, and passed some important laws of interest to every citizen then in Dor- chester, notably, an "An Act for Keeping Holy the Lord's Day," which is here partly copied :
"Forasmuch as the sanctifying or keeping holy of the Lord's day, commonly called Sunday, is and hath been esteemed by the present and all primitive Christian Churches and people, a principle and chief part of the said worship, which day in most places in this province hath been and still is profaned and neglected by a wicked and disorderly sort of people, by working, drunkenness, swearing, gaming, unlawful pastimes and other debaucheries to the high dis-
43
MILITIA-MEN AND REMUNERATION
honor of Almigthy God, the scandal of Christian religion, and the apparent detriment and ruin of many of the inhabit- ants of the province,-for remedy whereof for the future,- Be it enacted. That from and after twenty days next after the end of this session of Assembly, no person or persons within this province shall work, or do any bodily labor or occupation upon any Lord's day, commonly called Sunday, nor shall command or willfully suffer or permit of his or their children, hired servants, servants or slaves to work or labor as aforesaid (the absolute works of necessity and mercy always excepted)." Fishing, drunkenness, swearing, gaming at cards, dice, billiards, shuffle-boards, nine-pins, horse-racing, fowling and hunting, or any other unlawful sports or recreations were forbidden, and the penalty was to pay or forfeit one hundred pounds of tobacco; and in default, be committed or bonded for the next Court. The penalty for selling strong liquor on the Sabbath day, was two thousand pounds of tobacco. The Sabbath Day Act of 1674, was now repealed.
Jacob Lockerman, who was born in New York, under the jurisdiction of the States of Holland, was at this session naturalized. Later he was Clerk of Dorchester County Court.
At the same session, on October 28, an Act was passed to make an assessment for the payment of the "public charge" of the province. In Dorchester, the following named per- sons who were then living there who had served in the cam- paign, or aided the troops sent against the Nanticoke Indians, were paid as follows for their services:1 To Capt. Thomas Taylor, 1900 pounds of tobacco; Lieut. John Ross, 1600 lbs .; Cornetist, Maurice Mathews, 1500 lbs .; John Brooks, 1750 lbs .; Wm. Haselwood, 800 lbs .; Wm. Wil- oughby, 700 lbs .; Wm. Betts, 700 lbs .; John Alford, Robert Thornhill, John Thomas, John Nicholas, Wm. Robson, James Mosley, Rich. Callenhaugh, Rich. Tubman, Rowland,
1See Maryland Archives.
44
HISTORY OF DORCHESTER COUNTY
Morgan, Philip Aherne, John Pope, John Savage, Thomas Bowman, John Fish, Jonathan Waite, John Wallice, James Egg, John Richardson, Lewis Griffith, James Dalton, Henry Johnson, James Fielding, Robert Evans, Charles Hutchyson, John Hudson, John Curtice, and to John Causey, and every and each of them, 600 lbs .; Capt. Henry Trippe, 1000 lbs .; Lieut. Edward Taylor, 700 lbs .; Ensign Edward Pander, 600 lbs .; Francis Tarcell, 400 lbs .; Richard Owen, 400 lbs .; Wm. Law, 400 lbs .; Thos. Veitch, 400 lbs .; John Plummer, 300 lbs .; Laurence Woonett, 400 lbs .; Wm. Watson, Matthew Hood, John Denaire, Mark Mitchell, Samuel Finch, John Snooke, James Nowell, Philip Gunter, Thomas Tay- lor, David Fortune, Edward Cheeke, John Lawrence, Wm. Marchent, Stephen Pardue, Jos. Casten. Thomas Collens, Charles Morgan, Richard Tucker, Andrew Pruett, Alex- ander Dowell, William Spuriway, George Sprouce, Corne- lius Lurden, Patrick Harwood, Wm. Walker, Alexander Fisher, Henry Plummer, William Cheesman, Thomas Cloughtane, John Foord, and to John Yate, and to every and each of them, 300 lbs .; Capt. Anthony Dawson, 1300 lbs .; Lieut. John Mackeele, 700 lbs .; Ensign, John Dawsey, 600 lbs .; Edward Hyde, 400 lbs .; Wm. Plovey, 400 lbs .; Cor- poral Lewis, 400 lbs .; James Haile, 400 lbs .; Thomas Sym- monds, 400 lbs .; Edward Newton, John Newton, John Waterly, Thomas Phillips, Wm. Evans, George Hargissone, Rowland Vaughn, Philip Sutton, Henry Harvey, James Duell, John Pollington, Wm. Beard, John Lunn, James Perle, Henry Newbell, William Taptico, Wm. Berry, John Clark, Robert Robertsone, Stephen Bently, William Mes- shier, Thomas Long, William Hares, Richard Thomasine, Francis Floyd, Darley Cohoone, Wm. Mills, Joseph Reeves, John Stamward, Rich. Dudson, and John People, and to each and every one of them, 300 lbs. To Bartholomew Ennalls, 6832 lbs .; Henry Bradley, 1832 lbs .; Daniel Jones, 150 lbs .; John Kirke, 895 lbs .; James Peterkin, 50 lbs .; John Pierson, 50 lbs .; Oliver Gray, 464 lbs .; Wm. Robsone, 50 lbs .; Richard Holland, 400 lbs .; John Hudsone, 1230 lbs .;
45
EVENTS IN COLONIAL DAYS
Henry Beckwith, 50 lbs .; Stephen Gary, 85 lbs .; Wm. Stephens, 731 lbs .; Wm. Dorrington, 579 lbs .; Daniel Jones, 407 lbs .; John Richardson, 25 lbs .; John Steward, 370 lbs .; John Davis, 70 lbs .; William Daysone, 70 lbs .; Wm. Wil- loughby, 300 lbs .; Thomas Flowers, 200 lbs .; Henry Turner, 200 lbs .; Raymond Staplefort, 300 lbs .; Frances Tarcell, 200 lbs.
These claims were paid out of the colonial revenue at the Government warehouses, chiefly by exchange of tobacco, for imported merchandise in demand and needed by the people in every colonial household.
Space in this work is too limited to give in detail every local event of record in colonial days, about the people and their doings in Dorchester. Then, as now, conflicting inter- ests in landholding, business affairs and politics arose and were faced by contending opponents. In 1679 Raymond Staplefort, one of the Commissioners of Dorchester, was dis- missed by Governor Calvert, on complaint made by some of the county citizens. He had been one of the Justices since 1669, when he was transferred from the office of Sheriff.
At a Colonial Council in 1681, a petition was presented by James Peterkin, against Stephen Gary, Sheriff of Dor- chester County, that Gary and others had combined to defraud and deceive him of his just rights and property; that they illegally proceeded in the execution of a warrant for summoning a jury to lay out the bounds of Capt. Anthony Dawson's land in Transquaking River, by empanneling Jurors excepted by Peterkin, and that damage and almost ruined him. An investigation was ordered to be heard before the next Council.
CHAPTER IV.
THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION IN 1689-COUNTY OFFICIALS CHOSEN- KING WILLIAM'S APPROVAL OF THE PROTESTANT ASSOCIATORS' REVO- LUTION-CONTINUES THE PROVINCIAL OFFICERS AD INTERIM-LIONEL COPLEY BECOMES GOVERNOR-PROTESTANT CHURCH ESTABLISHED BY LAW-DEATH OF COPLEY-GOVERNOR ANDROS ASSUMED CONTROL-COL. CHARLES HUTCHINS, A MEMBER OF THE GOVERNOR'S COUNCIL, 1694- LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR NICHOLSON INSTALLED GOVERNOR-DORCHES- TER SUBSCRIBED TO THE PUBLIC SCHOOL FUND-REVISION OF THE PROTESTANT CHURCH LAW, AND COMMENTS ON ASSEMBLY DELEGATES FROM DORCHESTER AND OTHER COUNTIES-STRICT RULES GOVERNING THE PEOPLE AND EFFECTS.
1689. After William and Mary ascended the throne of England, and the unfortunate delay of the Proprietary of Maryland to proclaim them sovereigns, owing to a long; voy- age of the vessel which had on board the messengers who were bringing the proclamation to Maryland, a crisis in pub- lic sentiment, already in sympathy with the new King and Queen, arose in the colony, and in April, 1689, there was formed by revolutionary measure: "an association in arms for the defence of the Protestant religion, and for asserting the rights of King William and Queen Mary to the Province of Maryland, and all the English Dominions," which was led by John Coode, a wicked and desperate man.
This revolution deprived the Proprietary of the right of governing Maryland with officially appointed officers in the province; but we find that most of the office-holders who had well and faithfully served him, readily accepted appointments to office and elective places under royal decree, and even under the assumed Assembly of the King's Protestant sub- jects, that met August 23, 1689. We discover, in Dorchester County, that for regulating the affairs of the militia, Henry Trippe, who had served the Proprietary in many offices, was appointed "Major of the Horse" in the place of Thomas Tay-
47
.
LIONEL COPLEY APPOINTED GOVERNOR
lor; Thomas Ennalls, Captain of a foot company in the place of Captain Trippe; John Murket, Captain of a foot company in the place of Anthony Dawson. Thomas Pattison, late Clerk of the Court under the Proprietary was reappointed Clerk. The Justices were Henry Trippe, Charles Hutchins, Henry Hooper, John Woodward and John Brooks-a very little change from the Proprietary appointees. It is surprising that honorable men like the above-named would accept or hold office under the dictation of the notorious and lawless John Coode, whose word to the associated Assembly was law, and whose demands were conceded without question whether right or wrong. Coode was so publicly detested that several counties refused to send representatives to the Assembly in 1689, notably Anne Arundel and Kent Coun- ties.
In 1690 King William made a formal approval of the rev- olutionary acts of the Protestant Association in Maryland, and authorized the leaders to continue as officers ad interim. April 9, 1692, Lionel Copley arrived in Maryland with a royal commission, and was at once recognized as Governor. The Assembly met May 14, 1692, an ultra body that passed a sacrilegious Act, entitled "For the service of Almighty God, and the establishment of the Protestant religion." It was a law that protected Protestants only, and made it criminal for Catholics to hold divine service according to their church forms, and gave no lawful protection to other religious denominations.
Whatever laws or customs that prevailed at large to affect the colonists, were proportionately felt by the people of Dor- chester. Previous to this Protestant crusade, little had been done to establish religious services or for the education of children. Vice and immorality flourished. Ignorance and rude manners influenced home life in many sections of the county and province as well. The Church Act of 1692 with other reformatory laws, good in one sense, and bad in an- other, very slowly improved the habits of the lower classes of society.
48
HISTORY OF DORCHESTER COUNTY
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.