USA > Maryland > Talbot County > History of Talbot county, Maryland, 1661-1861, Volume I > Part 33
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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 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69
The last two are probably the same in title as the preceding (II.) and differ only in the number of sermons included, in the number of pages and the dates of publication. There was a mutilated reprint of these sermons, or of some of them, with additions, issued under the direction of Rev. William Meade, as noticed in the text, and printed by John Heiskill, at Winchester, Virginia. The title to this need not be given here.
V. A sermon preached at the parish church of St. Peter's in Talbot county, Maryland, on Sunday the 14th of October 1750, for the benefit of a Charity Working School, to be set up in the said parish, for the maintenence and education of orphans and other poor children and negroes by the Rev. Thomas Bacon of said parish. Published at the request of the trustees. To which is added copies of the proposals, rules, subscription roll and proceedings relating to the said school. London: Printed by T. Oliver, and will be sold for the benefit of the said Charity School, 1751, 4° pp. 28.
VI. Two Sermons, preached to a congregation of Black Slaves at the parish church of S. P. in the province of Maryland, by an American pastor. [Motto] London: T. Oliver, 1751, 12mo. pp. 79.
VII. Laws of Maryland at large, with proper indexes, now first collected into one complete body and published from the original acts and records remaining in the Secretary's office of the said province. Together with notes and other matters relative to the constitution there- of, extracted from provincial records. To which is prefixed the Charter, with an English translation. By Thomas Bacon, rector of All Saints parish in Frederick county, and Domestic Chaplain to the Right Honor- able Frederick Lord Baltimore (Seal of Province) Annapolis: Printed by Jonas Green, printer to the province. 1765-Folio-No pagination, but containing about 800 pages.
Of these publications, Nos. II. and V., are in the collection of the Diocese of Maryland: Nos. III. and IV. are in the Library of Harvard College. No. VI. is said to be in the Library of the late Rt. Rev. Bishop Hawks, of New York. No. VII. is well known in the Law Libraries of Maryland, public and private. No. I. cannot be traced by any books of bibliography within reach. The book of Sir Anthony Bacon is in the Library of Congress, Washington.
The authorities that have been consulted in the preparation of this paper are-first and chiefly Dr. Allen's memoirs of Mr. Bacon in the
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American Quarterly Church Review and his manuscript history of St. Peter's Parish, of Talbot county; secondly, the Parish records; thirdly, the County Records of Talbot; fourthly, Callister's manuscript letters; fifthly, Bacon's Sermons and Laws; sixthly, Will Stevens Perry's Historical Collections-for Maryland; seventhly, Mr. John B. Kerr's manuscript history of the Chamberlaine family; eighth, the files of the Maryland Gazette, in the State Library at Annapolis.
DAVID KERR
First Grand High Priest of the Grand Royal Chapter of Maryland; Fourth Grand Master of Maryland, of the Ancient and Honorable Society of Free and Accepted Masons
1749-1814
Brother Kerr was the founder of a distinguished family in the county of Talbot, which is still worthily represented there, and in other portions of Maryland, and in many other states of the Union. He was born in Monreith, in the shire of Galloway, Scotland, July third, 1749.
Destined to a mercantile career, he received such an education as fitted him for this calling, and after serving an apprenticeship as mer- chant's clerk, he, in the year 1769, emigrated to America and settled upon the Rappahannock river at the town of Falmouth, opposite the town of Fredericksburg, in Virginia, where he prosecuted commercial business. He remained there until 1773, when he removed to Annapolis, Maryland, where he married, in March, 1773, Hamutel Bishop, grand- daughter of Col. Charles Hammond, the Colonial Treasurer of the Western Shore. This lady died without children surviving her, in October, 1775, leaving her husband in the possession of an estate known as Greenbury Point, at the mouth of the Severn river, in Anne Arundel County which Col. Charles Hammond had acquired by his intermarriage with Mrs. Rachel (Stimpson) Greenberry, widow of Col. Charles Green- berry.
Kerr's creek, opposite the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis still perpetuates the name of David Kerr.
He continued to reside on this estate until 1777, when he removed to Talbot county. That Mr. Kerr was a patriot during the American Revolution, is attested by the fact that, on January 20, 1776, he was commissioned by the Council of Safety as First Lieutenant in Captain George Watts' Company of militia in Anne Arundel county. On April
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17, 1777, he married for his second wife, Mrs. Rachel Leeds Edmond- son (nee Bozman), widow of James Edmondson, and sister of the Hon. John Leeds Bozman, the well known historian of Maryland. He settled at Talbot Court House, later called Easton. Here, in 1789, he again entered into mercantile business, having for his partners Messrs. Robert Lloyd Nicols and Thomas Chamberlaine. This firm of Kerr, Nicols and Chamberlaine conducted the first retail general merchandise store in Easton. Success seems to have attended him; for having acquired a competency, he retired from trade to his attractive estate, Cook's Hope Manor, on the Peach Blossom creek in Edmondson's neck, about three miles south of Easton, enjoying the merited respect of his fellow citizens and sharing the honors which they were able to bestow upon him. Cook's Hope Manor originally contained 1000 acres and was patented by Miles Cook in 1659. Job's Content, at the head of Peach Blossom Creek, adjoined Cook's Hope on the east. It contained 1000 acres and was surveyed January 31, 1660 for Job Nutt. While on the north of this tract, along the head waters of the Tred Avon river, was another thousand acre tract, called Tilghman's Fortune, surveyed August, 1659 for Captain Samuel Tilghman. Soon after his removal to Talbot Mr. Kerr entered actively into politics. He attached himself to the Federal Party and became an ardent supporter of Washington and the elder Adams. In 1789 he was commissioned one of the Justices of the Peace, or Judges for Talbot county, but the Judicial system being changed by the law of 1790, he was legislated out of office, He was, in 1801, appointed by the Governor one of the three associate Judges of the county, two of whom were laymen. He was elected a delegate to the General Assembly of Maryland for seven successive years, namely from 1788 to 1794, and again in 1797. In 1791 on the 15th of December, he addressed a letter to the Governor, and Council, as follows:
"Doubts have arisen whether a Justice of the Orphans Court, under the late act is eligible to hold a seat in the Legislature, and as I am unwilling to lose my seat, I beg leave to resign my appointment as a Justice of the Orphans Court of Talbot county. I have the Honor to be your Excellency's and the Honorable Councils' Obedient servant, David, Kerr.
In 1802, he was again appointed a Judge of the Orphan's Court of Talbot county, but held this place for a short time only. In a letter written by him to Alexander Hanway, a kinsman of his, in Dumfries, Scotland, dated June 4, 1804, he gives a minute account of an accident
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that happened to him on November 5, 1803. He was thrown violently from his carriage by a runaway horse, and it was ten days before he recovered consciousness. He wore a green silk patch over his eye, which was injured by this fall, till the day of his death. Governor Philip Francis Thomas of Easton married his granddaughter who owned an oil portrait of David Kerr showing this patch over one eye. David Kerr's eldest son, the Hon. John Leeds Kerr, who was long the leader of the Easton bar, was also an ardent Mason. He was born at Green- bury's Point, near Annapolis, January 15, 1780. The Chesapeake Bay was frozen so hard at that time that a party of gentlemen walked across the Bay, on the ice, from Annapolis to Wades Point plantation, on Eas- ton bay in Talbot county, to inform the Hon. John Leeds, who was Clerk of Court for Talbot County from 1738 to 1777, of the birth of his grandson and namesake.
After serving two terms in the lower house of the United States Congress, 1825-1833, he was elected December 31, 1840 by the Mary- land Legislature United States Senator to fill the unexpired term of the Hon. John S. Spence of Dorchester County, deceased. He died in Easton February 21, 1844, 64 years of age. He, like his father, was a member of the Masonic fraternity, by which body he was held in high esteem as was evinced, after his death, when an eulogium upon him was pronounced in Cambridge, by the Rev. William Brown, a fellow craft, in which the distinguished services, the mental abilities and the masonic virtues, which are the virtues of the good citizen and the upright man, of Mr. Kerr were commemorated with no inconsiderable eloquence.
His son, the Hon. Charles Goldsborough Kerr, who was States Attor- ney for Baltimore City for 18 years was also a Mason. In the History of Free Masonry in Maryland by Edward T. Schultz, 1884, is the following:
The first mention of Bro. Kerr's name is in September 1787, as the Master of Lodge No. 34, (afterwards No. 6). In 1791, he was elected Grand Treasurer; in 1794, Deputy Grand Master; and in 1795, Grand Master; and was re-elected in 1796. From the copies of old documents published in this work, it will be seen that Bro. Kerr was Grand High Priest of the Grand Chapter of Maryland in 1797.
It is said that he never lost his interest or attachment for masonry to the end of his life, which terminated on the 2nd of November, 1814. He died honored and revered by all capable of estimating his intelli- gence and moral worth. At a meeting of the Grand Steward's Lodge held December 10th, 1814, the following resolution was adopted:
Resolved, That the officers of the Grand Lodge, as evidence of their unfeigned regret for the death of our late Past Grand Master, Bro. David Kerr, wear crape for the space of one month, and that it be rec-
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ommended to the Masters of the several sub-ordinate Lodges to keep their respective Lodges in mourning for the space of six months, and that it be further recommended to the respective Masters to deliver, or cause to be delivered, an eulogium to his memory.
The mortal remains of brother David Kerr, the first grand High Priest of the Grand Royal Chapter of Maryland lie buried in an unmarked grave on his old homestead Oakland, a part of Cooke's Hope Manor, near the shore of the beautiful Peach Blossom creek, a short distance below the present residence of Mr. Samuel A. Rohrer.
He needs no marble monument to commemorate his many virtues. They are already recorded and preserved in our Masonic Archives.
May the precious tenets of Masonry which he has handed down to us, inspire each and all of us to put them into daily practice, and when we have finished our pilgrimage on earth, may the Great High Priest, who rules eternal in the Heavens, and whose last commandment was "that ye love one another," pronounce upon each of us that joyful judgment, "Well done good and faithful servant."
PERRY BENSON
Captain in the Continental Army and Major-General in the Maryland Militia
1757-1827 -"non pugnavit ingens Idomeneus Sthenelusve solus Dicenda Musis proelia."
The times of our Revolution constitute our heroic age. Patriotic illusion has given to all the more conspicuous characters of that epoch grand proportions, and has magnified even their unimportant acts into wonderful exploits. Research has been pushed to its farthest limit to reveal to our admiring eyes the slightest minutiæ in the lives of the chiefs of that our happy Iliad, while eulogy has exhausted her resources in laudations of their deeds. While this has been doing, there has been an apparent forgetfulness that besides these great chiefs there was in that conflict a great host of men whose labors, courage, daring, patience, endurance and unselfish devotion to the cause of their country were as great as those of the leaders they followed, or the commanders they obeyed. The Revolution was not fought through by Washington, and Gates, and Green, and Knox, and Putnam, and Lincoln, and Wayne, and Marion, and men of like grade and ability, alone. There were men of humbler rank, and many more of no rank, who perform- ed deeds worthy to be recorded and praised. But these have no men-
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tion in story or song; or if mentioned at all, it is with such poverty of words and weakness of strain, that the subjects are dwarfed into honorless insignificance. The sentiment has become a familiar one that there have been many heroes in all past time, who have had no historian to record their deeds, and no poet to sing their praise. Of one of these almost unnoticed and unlauded heroes of our Revolutionary epoch, it is now proposed to present a brief memoir.
Perry Benson, the subject of this biographical sketch, was of a family that has been settled in Talbot county for at least two hundred years. The genesis of this family in Maryland was in Doctor James Benson, who soon after the organization of the county took up land on Saint Michaels river, between Royal Oak and the town of St. Michaels; and in this neighborhood he has representatives to this day. To him were born many children. The youngest son was Perry, the first that bore that name. From Perry sprang another James, who was the father of the subject of this memoir. The first Perry Benson, by marriage with the widow of Michael Russell, obtained part of Huntington Grange, upon the north side of St. Michaels river, and there settled. This land came to be known by the name of Wheatland, and is the same property that is now owned by Capt. David A. Martin (1879). Here the first Perry Benson and his son James lived, died and were buried, their graves remaining to this day properly marked. Here too the second Perry Benson, commonly remembered in this community as Gen'l Benson, was born, lived, died and is buried. but without a stone to indi- cate his grave. He was born on the 6th of August, 1757. His education seems to have been only of an elementary character, and obtained in the neighborhood schools from such masters as poverty or a worse com- pulsion drove to our shores, here to be bought, as other indentured serv- ants, by the planters and other gentry. It is possible he may have received his best instruction in letters from Parson Gordon, the incum- bent of St. Michaels parish, his father's near neighbor-a man of liberal culture, sincere piety and as the events of his later life showed, of un- doubted patriotism, a quality not possessed by all his brethren of the cloth of that time. From this worthy source, as well as from his father, he may early have imbibed those sentiments which led him to espouse the cause of his country with so much enthusiasm, and to enlist in the armies that were raised for her independence, almost immediately upon the outbreak of hostilities. It is proper to state that what has been said of his instructors is merely conjectural, for absolutely nothing is known of his early youth.
To students of Maryland history it is well known that at a meeting of
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the Delegates, appointed by the several counties of the province, in Con- vention assembled, and held at Annapolis from July 26th, 1775 to the 14th of August of the same year, it was resolved, among other measures for public defense, that forty companies of minute men should be en- rolled, of which Talbot was to furnish one. These companies were to be filled by voluntary enlistment, and, it would seem, were intended for any emergency, but more especially as a kind of home guard against the disaffected to the patriot cause, of whom there were not a few in this county, and as an armed posse comitatus to carry into effect the resolutions of the convention and the orders of the Council of Safety of the province; also to support the committee of observation of each of the counties. Of this Talbot company, from the known ardor of Perry Benson in the patriot cause, he is believed to have been a member, but of the fact there is no recorded evidence. There is no wish to make any statement that is not well authenticated; it may be, therefore, well to say here with the utmost distinctness, that absolutely nothing is known of the beginnings of Benson's military career. The military organizations that were formed, or that were authorized to be formed, in this county early in the Revolution to some of which he may have belonged and to one of which he must have belonged, are mentioned as matters of local interest, but not necessarily relevant to the subject of this memoir. On the 1st of January, 1776, the Convention resolved to place the Province in the best state of defense, and to this end ordered that 1444 men and officers be raised and placed under pay as a force of regulars. A por- tion of this force was to form a battalion, and the remainder to be organ- ized as independent companies. One of these independent companies, namely the fourth, was formed in Talbot, and these were the officers of it as first chosen by the Convention:
Captain-James Hindman.1 First Lieut .- William Goldsborough.2 Second Lieut .- Archibald Anderson. Third Lieut .- Edward Hindman.1
1 These two gentlemen were the sons of Jacob Hindman, who lived at the place now called Perry Hall. They were brothers of the Hon. Will. Hindman. James Hindman went into active service in the war, and rose to the rank of Colonel. 2 This gentleman was the son of John Goldsborough, of Oxford Neck, and brother of Captain Greenbury Goldsborough. He served in the army and rose to the rank of Captain. He is known by the soubriquet of "Hession Billy," on account of some marvelous feats in his killing three Hessian soldiers, who sim- ultaneously attacked him.
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The organization of minute men, mentioned above, was dissolved, and it is not unlikely this independent company was formed upon its basis with pretty much the same officers. Of this company it is alto- gether probable Perry Benson was a member.3 This independent com- pany was ordered by the Convention (Jan. 14th, 1776) to be stationed in Talbot county, where it was enlisted, and here it had the very ungrate-
3 It may not be amiss to say that after the dissolution of the forces called the minute men, the militia was reorganized throughout the province. The Eastern Shore was divided into two districts. Of these the lower one was composed of Dorchester, Caroline, Somerset, and Worcester counties, and the upper one of Cecil, Kent, Queen Anne's and Talbot counties. Of the former Mr. Henry Hooper of Dorset was chosen Brigadier General, and of the latter Mr. James Lloyd Cham- berlaine, of Talbot. One battalion was assigned to Talbot in the first instance, namely, the 4th, and of this the following were the officers:
Colonel-Christopher Birkhead.
Lieut. Col .- Peregrine Tilghman.
First Major-Jeremiah Banning.
Second Major-Robt. Lloyd Nicols.
Quarter Master-Nicholas Thomas.
Subsequently another battalion, the 38th, was formed. The names of the chief officers of this battalion have not been discovered. The following companies constituted the 4th battalion, namely, those of Captain Joseph Bruff,
Jacob Gibson,
Nathaniel Cooper,
John Daugherty,
James Lloyd,
Samuel Abbott,
Thomas Gordon,
Greenbury Goldsborough.
The following companies constituted the 38th battalion, namely, those of Captain James Benson,
Henry Banning,
John Rolle,
" William Hambleton,
William Webb Haddaway,
Nicholas Martin.
It will be perceived by those who are familiar with these names, and with the residences of those who bore them, that the 38th battalion was composed of com- panies formed in the Bay Side, while the 4th battalion was formed in companies formed in the remaining portion of the county. These details are given, though only in the remotest degree connected with the subject of this memoir, that it may be shown who were the persons sufficiently patriotic in those times to engage for the defence of the State, and sufficiently earnest to assist in enlisting others in the same cause.
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ful duty to perform of arresting some persons disaffected to the patriot cause. On the 25th of June of the same year, the Convention of Mary- land, in conformity with a request of Congress, resolved to raise a force of 3,405 men from the body of the militia, to form a Flying Camp. Of this force Talbot was required to furnish one company, and of this com- pany these gentlemen, on the 29th of the same month, were chosen by the Convention to be the officers, namely:
Captain-Greenbury Goldsborough.
First Lieut .- Woolman Gibson, of Jno.
Second Lieut .- John Thomas, Jr.
Ensign-Perry Benson, of James.
This is the first time the name of Perry Benson appears in the extant record. It is not certain that this company was ever formed. It is very certain that the Captain of it was never in active service in the Fly- ing Camp under Washington, or in any other than militia service at home in the county. But, on the 6th of July, 1776, immediately after the passing of the Declaration of Independence by Congress, Captain James Hindman, the Captain of the independent company referred to above, was ordered to proceed immediately to Philadelphia, and to place himself with his command under Col. Smallwood, whose battalion had been ordered to that point. It is not known who was Benson's captain when he actually joined the army, nor is it certainly known at what precise time he enlisted or went into active service. But this much is certainly known of him, that he was in 1776 one of those men who made up the body known as the Flying Camp, and served under Washington in the campaign of that year, and subsequently. When the part that Maryland took in the war of Independence, shall have been more fully and satisfactorily written than has been done hitherto, per- haps it may be discovered who composed the patriot band from Talbot to join the great commander in the first year of the war, and the pre- cise time when they formed a connection with the forces in the field. It is tolerably certain however, that Benson entered the army as a pri- vate or non-commissioned officer; that he made one of those Maryland troops, drawn from Cecil, Kent, Queen Anne's, Talbot, Dorchester and Caroline counties, which were consolidated into the 4th battalion, and commanded by Colonel William Richardson, of Caroline. Now this body, according to one historian, is said not to have joined the main army until September 8th, 1776, not in time therefore to take part in the battles of Long Island, where the Eastern Shore company of Captain
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Veasey, as did the other Maryland troops, so distinguished itself, but in time to take part in the affair at Harlem Heights and White Plains. Whether Benson actually participated in these battles there is no means at hand of certainly determining. Nor is it known in what particular battles and skirmishes he shared during this year of active operations; all that can be said, or need be, is that he belonged to that Old Maryland Line, which became so famous for firmness and courage in battle that its frequent employment resulted in its almost complete annihilation before the end of the campaign of 1776. If the whole Line was composed of such men as Benson, it is not difficult to account for the reputation it acquired.
The term of service of the men composing the Flying Camp, being about to expire, a reorganization of the Maryland forces was, in March, 1777, resolved upon, and a body of regulars was formed. This was di- vided into seven battalions and were placed under the command of Briga- dier General William Smallwood. The fifth of these battalions was composed of men enlisted upon the Easton Shore, and it had for its field officers the following, namely:
Colonel-William Richardson, of Caroline.
Lieut. Col .- James Hindman, of Talbot.
Major-Thomas Smyth, of Kent.
The fifth company in this battalion had these officers, namely: Captain-Levin Handy, of Somerset.
First Lieut .- Perry Benson, of Talbot.
Second Lieut .- Jonathan Gibson, of Talbot.
Ensign-John Wilburn Watts, of - -.
Early in the year of 1777, the battalion of Col. Richardson was detached from the main army, then around and besieging Staten Island, which was in the possession of the British, and was ordered into Sussex county, Delaware, upon the inglorious but necessary duty of overawing the tories of the lower part of that State and of the adjoining counties of Maryland, particularly of Somerset, where there was a strong loyalist party. But it was soon recalled to take part in the military operations near Phila- delphia. A private letter of Capt. Paul Bentalou, of Baltimore, still in existence, affords the first direct testimony to the presence of Benson in battle. This letter explicitly states that he participated in the battles of Brandywine and Germantown. In the former affair he was wounded while in the act of assisting Gen'l Lafayette, also wounded, on the field. This wound was probably very slight, for he was not incapaci-
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