USA > Maryland > Talbot County > History of Talbot county, Maryland, 1661-1861, Volume II > Part 23
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Although this deed of sale of land and contract for building the prison were placed upon record, it appears that neither was held as binding, or if binding, only as to the land, for a new contract for the building of a prison were entered into with Jonathan Hopkinson in 1675, and at the same time a purchase of a larger, or perhaps additional tract of land was consummated. Under date of March 4, 1675, is found the following entry among the Court records.
Jonathan Hopkinson this day sould the Commissioners of the County twenty acres of land and Court House, and the said Jonathan doth hereby bind himself to give unto the Court good assurances for the said land, when thereunto called, and the said Jonathan hath undertaken to build a Prison, and in consideration of the Land, Court House and Prison the county is to allow him the said Jonathan pounds of To- bacco, to be paid in the next leavy laid for this county of Talbot. The Dimensions of the Prison followeth.
To be twenty foote longe, and fifteen foote wide, and the ground sells to be of Locust or Cedder and a foot square; to be laid one foot and a half in the ground; the posts to be 8 inches square and to stand stud- waies within four inches one of the other; the Plates answerable, and the joists to be sixe inches square and to be within foure inches one of another, with a Roufe sufficient and strong, [being] Eight foote from the lowere Plate: and a particon or enclusure sixe foote out of the length of the Prison with a doare in the said Partison: the outward Doare to be of two inch planke made dowble, and one grating window in each divi- sion, made with iron bars well fixte into the wood and small wickets in each doare, with good strong Lockes: the upper floware to be laid with inch planke and to be covered and wether boarded with good clabboard.
The consideration paid for this property is not mentioned in the record, but in the levy of the following year 10,000 pounds of tobacco was assessed for the use of Jonathan Hopkinson in payment for the prison. It would appear from the above entry that Jonathan Hopkinson sold a house with the land, which was called the Court House. In this, then, the court was probably held until the year 1679. Under the date of Jan. 21, 1678, there is this record.
The Court hath left it to Capt. Philemon Lloyd to pich on a place to keepe Court for this county, and to purchase land for the same use.
It would appear therefore that wherever the Court may have been held prior to 1679, in that year Mr. Lloyd selected the "Widdow Winkles" house in which to hold Court, and the Commissioners in their levy made Nov. 18, of that year, allowed her 3,100 lbs. of tobacco, according to an agreement with her, as published in the previous article. In the same year, and again in 1781 the Courts were held at the house of Mr. Philemon Lloyd himself, who was one of the Justices. It will be
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seen from all this that there is considerable obscurity as to the meeting places of the Court; in truth the Court was moved from place to place. It appears that twenty acres of land were bought of Jonathan Hopkinson, and upon it a prison was built, and the house that was upon it was used for a while as a Court House; that afterwards the house of Elizabeth Winkles, who apparently kept a tavern, was used. There is no evi- dence of the purchase of any other land than that bought of Jonathan Hopkinson, but in March 1679 (N.S. 1680) the clerk of the Court was ordered to "send to Mr. William Hemsley to repair forthwith to the Court House, and lay out the county land, according to the former bounds thereof." We may conclude therefore with tolerable cer- tainty that the Court House which was built about the year 1680-81, was erected upon the land purchased of Jonathan Hopkinson, and represented to be on Wye. Except the record that the house was upon this river, there is no other written memorandum to guide us as to its exact position in the County. If the surveyor ever filed any return of his survey, it was not placed upon record, or it is lost, unless indeed, it has been preserved at Annapolis. But there is a pretty well established tradition, and one which we may be safe in fol- lowing, that the county land, upon which this Court House was built was upon the south side of Skipton creek, a branch of Wye, a short distance from what is called Wye Landing. The twenty acres sold by Jonathan Hopkinson upon which was first erected the prison and then the new Court House, was the point of land formed by Skipton creek and Wye river to the west and south of the dwelling house upon the farm of the late Philemon Feddeman Hemsley, known by the name of "Hopton." Here there are remains of old houses and at one place, in a situation giving a view directly down the creek into a beautiful bay, and in the center apparently of a tract of about twenty acres, there is an excavation which is popularly supposed to have been the cellar or dungeons of the jail; but as the building contracted for by Hopkinson and built by him had no cellar this must be an error. In the garden adjoining the dwelling upon the farm are the débris of another very ancient building. There is nothing however to identify any remains that are found at this place, with those of the Court House or the jail, but tradition, as before said, a sufficient guide in this case, points to this spot on Skipton creek as the site of the old county buildings. As a village grew up around the seat of Justice for the county, we may sup- pose there would be left some indications of its existence, and these indications, though few, are sufficient to identify the location. This village or town was known by the name of York, a designation bestowed
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no doubt by some of the Justices in reminiscence of their place of resi- dence in the Old World. The town by its proper name is mentioned for the first time in the record June 20, 1693.
We now come to the time when the first Court House was built within our present bounds. Among the proceedings of the Court held Aug. 19, 1679, appears the following record:
The Court hath agreed with Richard Swetnam [the same who was invited in June of the same year, to come to the place where the court was held, to keep an ordinary, and to confer with reference to the erection of a county building], to build a Court House upon the County land in Wye River; the said house to be fivety foote by twenty-three, with a Court Hall, eighteen foote by eighteen, according to a plot delivered to the court by the said Swetnam. In consideration whereof the com- missioners have condescended to payd unto him the s'd Swetnam, One Hundred & Fifty Thousand Pounds of Tobacco; the one moyety or half part to be payd this yeare, the remainder at the cleare finishing the Premises, and the said Swetnam to live in the said house when finished, seaven years Rent free: the said Swetnam is to repair forth- with to the house where the court is now keep, and lay in provision ag't the next Court.
The phraseology-"the commissioners have condescended to pay, etc." will be noticed. Many of those justices who thus condescended from their lofty seat to pay a carpenter for his work, were the very same who made Christopher and Elizabeth Barnes, in 1666, "kneele downe upon their knees in open Court and ask forgivness" for some peccadillo. These petty magistrates were the chief dignitaries of the county and they magnified their office. But they seem not to have been held in that humble reverence they liked to exact, for there are frequent records of their arraignment of persons for conduct and language that savored of contempt, and they punished offences of this kind that would be regarded as too insignificant for notice by our Judges. One of them was publicly accused in 1664 of hog-stealing-an offence of the same grade in social morals, then, as sheep-stealing is now, and his brother justices sentenced the slanderer to down go "upon his knees and acknowl- edge that he had wrongfully defamed the plaintiff."
The above contract seems not to have been sufficiently explicit, for in March of the same year (or according to the new style in March of 1680) a new contract, setting forth the specifications of the building, was made between the Justices and Richard Swetnam, of which the following is a copy word for word:
This indenture made ye sixteenth day of March One Thousand Six Hundred and Seaventy nine between Richard Woolman, Major William
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Coursey, Coll. Philemon Lloyd, Edward Mann, Capt. George Cowley, James Murphy, William Combes, Commissioners for ye county of Tal- bott of ye one party and Richard Swetnam Carpenter of ye other party, Witnesseth, yt it is covenanted granted, bargained, concluded and agreed by and between ye said parties in matter and forme following, yt is to say yt sd Richard Swetnam for himself his heirs Executors and Administrators doth covenant in manner and forme as hereafter, from Article to Article doth ensue & follow, yt is to say, yt ye sd Richard Swetnam att his own propper cost and charges shall forthwith sett aboute and prosecute ye building of one County Courte house upon ye County land in Wye River in Talbot County, ye sd building to be according to Ruff plot heere annexed, yt is to say fifty foote by twenty- three with a court Hall of eighteene foote by eighteene with a porch eight foot by eight, ye whole building to be of three stories pitch't the first twelve foote in ye cleere, ye second nine foote & ye third eight foote, with an Italion or hip't roofe, with Lutarnes (?) hip't with twelve Archy- tryve Windowes, in ye two cleere storyes with cornishes over ye heads of ye windowes two of them in ye Court Hall of eight foote by seaven, ye rest five feet by six with seaven or eight Lutarne Windowes in ye Roofe, together with two stacks of brick chimneys of fower harths of eight foote within the Gaumes with a fayre open vill (?) stare case up unto ye Roofe, having several partitions with folding wenscoatt dores where nessisary, ye lower Dores polectioned [this word is so written- it may be polished, or panneled, or partitioned], with two chimney pieces for ye lower rooms. Ye Court Hall to be wenscoated, Railed and Banis- terd sealed and inclosed in such forme & manner and as comendable as in ye Provinciall state house, with good and sufficient light clap- board covering and wather boarding with a second covering ye second yeare after finished, ye whole building to be p'formed & finished att his ye sd Swetnams owne charge, saving glass, hooks hinges boltes and locks only excepted; with all brick laying & plastering woorke and under pining with brick or stone, wch is to be done by some knowne woork- man who is sufficiently to calk (?) render, wash and stopp ye whole building and Prime ye windowes in Oyle, Coll. Philemon Lloyd to provide and finde him colours yt ye whole woorke be sufficiently built woorkman like & yt all the several timbers thereto be of good proportion and of such regular scantling as shall be reasonably advised by any good Archy- tecktare. In consideracon of w'ch bargaines Covenants promises, Articles and agreements of ye part of ye sd Richard Swetnam, by him his heyrs, executrs or admrs well and truly to be performed fulfilled and kept as aforesaid, ye sd
Richard Woolman Major Will Coursey Coll. Philmeon Lloyd Edward Mann Capt. George Cooly James Murphey William Combes
Commissioners for ye County afores'd.
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have agreed to pay in behalfe of ye s'd county unto him ye sd Richard Swetnam his heyres exors, admrs or assignes one hundred and thirty thousand pounds of tobacco, one moyty at the sealing and delivery of these presents, yt it to say fifty seaven thousand five hundred and fifty & one pound of tobacco, whch said sum of fifty seaven thousand five hundred fifty and one pounds to tobacco ye said Swetnam doth for himself his heyres executrs & adminrs doth release acquit and discharge ye sd
Richard Woolman
Will Coursey
George Cowly James Murphy William Combes
Philemon Lloyd Edward Mann
and either of their heyres executrs &
admrs by these presents and ye s'd
Richard Woolman
George Cowly
Will Coursey
James Murphy &
William Combes
Philemon Lloyd Edward Mann doe further covenant & prom- ise in behalfe of ye County aforesaid to pay unto him ye sd Ricd Swet- nam his heyres and assignes att ye cleare finishing of ye premises Seaven- ty two thousand foure hundred forty and nine pounds of tobacco, it being ye full and cleare agremt, in witness whereof ye partyes above men- tioned have interchangeably sett their hands and seales ye day and yeare first above written.
Richard Swetnam [seal]
Signed Sealed and
delivered in ye presence of - Benja Randall Tho. Impey Clk
To this instrument succeeds the bond of
Richard Swetnam, William Bishope, Anthony Mayle,
for the faithful performance of the contract, which, as it contains nothing of special interest, is not copied. The amount of bond was 260,000 lbs. tobacco in the cask.
According to the specifications as stated in this paper it is probable the first Court House erected within our present bounds was constructed, and in that house the court met about the year 1682 or 3, not before, for there are records of its being held at the house of Philemon Lloyd, Esq., in the year 1681 and of a levy in favor of Mr. John Downes for the use of his house to keep Court in"-1000 lbs. tobacco, in November of the same year. From a minute of the court held in March 1679, 80, we may infer that our ancestors of the time were not more temperate than we are ourselves in the use of intoxicating liquors. It was found to be necessary to promulge the following order:
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The Court hath ordered that noe ordinary be Keep upon the planta- tion of Elizabeth Winckles by herself or any other person during the time that Mr. Richard Swetnam is a building the Court House upon the county land, &c. Another minute of a later date gives indication of the abuse of the privilege held apparently under the first contract by Ric'd Swetnam of occupying the Court House as an ordinary. In Sept. 1684, after possession had been taken of the new house, we have this record: "Ordered by the Court that noe drink be sold in the Court House, or Drank theire dureing the setting of the Court, in forfeiture of two shillings and six pence for every Pott or Bottle or drink sold during the setting of the Court aforesaid. According to the levy list of 1682, the contractor was allowed 2,000 pounds of Tobacco for adding a porch to the county building. One of the accessaries of a Court House and implements of Justice, in former times, was the public pillory, or stocks. Within the recollection of many persons yet living one of these remnants of barbaric judicature, the stocks and whipping post stood in the Court House yard in this town. It was placed in front of the jail, just where the smoke house now stands, and the culprit sat facing Washington street. The unlucky wight who had the misfortune to be sentenced to be placed in the stocks, suffered not only the punish- ment of uneasy posture and restraint, but received the unsavory com- pliments of the boys, and low people, not in words only, but in the form of stale eggs and defunct animals which they threw upon his head, he being unable to dodge their obscene missiles. Fortunately for us this degrading punishment of pillory and stocks was long since abolished in our county and State, though we retained the whipping post to a com- paratively recent date. On the 18th Nov. 1690, the court "Ordered that Thomas Bruff doe at or before the next ensuing court to be held for this county, the third day of January next, fix and sett up before the Court House doore the stock, pillory and whipping post, by act of assem- bly appointed, on penalty of five hundred pounds of Tobacco, for failure, for his neglect.
But the men did not go "unwhipped of Justice" for want of a whipping post before the one mentioned above was erected is very plain, for in the levy laid at the same court Solomon Wright had an allowance of 50 lbs. of tobacco for whipping John Contee.
Our Justices seem to have been fond of this judicial toy, for the same Thomas Bruff was in June, 1700 directed
to set up a pair of stocks and whipping post, at the town of Doncaster, and Robert Grundy a pair of stocks and whipping post at Williamstadt.
Doncaster was a town, now gone to decay, at the mouth of Wye River, on the "Wye town" farm. Williamstadt was what was, before this date, and again after, called Oxford, on Third Haven River.
It appears that want of accommodation at the place of meeting was a trouble the court endeavored to diminish by allowing their Court
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HISTORY OF TALBOT COUNTY
House to be used as an inn; they also in March 1692-3 directed stabling to be provided for the horses of those who should be in attendance upon their sittings, as we find by the following order:
Ordered by the Court that John Salter (the same man who built the Quaker Meeting house on Third Haven) "doe erect and build upp at the toune of Yorke a stable of forty foot long and twenty foote wide, with a convenient place at one end to secure bridles and saddles thereby, overjetting a foot on each side, with cedar posts and cedar and locust grund rales and the same to beginn and finish with all convenient speed, &c.
Apparently the lease of Richard Swetnam, mentioned above, of the Court House, as an house of entertainment, expired about 1691, when it was rented to John Salter for the same purpose and term of years. In September of 1698 the court entered into a contract with one Laurence Knowles of a similar character:
Articles of Agreement made between the Commissioners of Talbot County, on ye one parte and Laurence Knowles of ye same county, Inholder on ye other part, ye 20th day of September, Anno Domini, 1698, witnesseth :
Imprimis. That ye said Lawrence Knowles is to have ye Court house, with the land and privileges thereunto belongingfor to Dwell in at ye yearly rent of Tenn Thousand Pounds of good, sound, well-condi- tioned Tobacco, to be paid as a yearly rent (for and during the space of seaven yeares compleat to ye Justices to be imployed for ye use and benefit of ye county, and that after John Salter have completely repaired ye said house, according to articles of agreement with him formerly made that he ye said Lawrence Knowles doth oblige himself yearely and every yeare for and during ye said term of seven years to keep up ye said house in good repair and so to leave it.
2ndly. The ye s'd Lawrence Knowles shall provide one suitable roome to be set apart for ye use of ye sheriff of ye county, to make a prison for debtors.
4thly. The ye s'd Knowles particularly reserve and set apart ye Court Roome for to hold ye Courts in, and shall likewise provide a roome for ye use of Juries and Candles sufficient for ye use of ye Court during ye sitting thereof, in any Court during ye tearme af'd.
5thly. The y'd Knowles is to have ye use of ye stable for and during ye Tearme af'd he ye s'd Knowles paying ye annual rent of One thousand pounds of Tobacco to and for ye use abovesaid, having received ye same and soe leave it, at ye expiration of ye af'd terme.
Knowles gave bond for the faithful discharge of this obligation in the sum of One Hundred Thousand Pounds of Tobacco, Daniel Sherwood and Michael Russel being his securities. Of the last mentioned person
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nothing is known, but of Daniel Sherwood, it may be mentioned, as illustrative of one phase of the social and civil arrangements of the time, that he was authorized to take care of the poor of the county, at his own residence, instead of a quartering them upon different persons. This was the germ of our Alms House. The Court House continued to be used as an inn until it was finally abandoned in 1707, for in 1706 it was under rent, as appears by a credit on the levy list, to Ralph Stevenson for 3500 lbs. tobacco per year.
Many of the details here given may be, in the opinion of many, very trivial, and not worth the trouble of perpetuation in print; but to those possessed of the true antiquarian or archaeological spirit, nothing is unimportant that belongs to the past; to the student of history, whether it be the grand epics of nations, or the simple story of a county or neigh- borhood, nothing is valueless that is illustrative of the varying con- ditions of society; and by the lover of his natal soil, who with filial fondness cherishes every memento of the earlier days of the mother earth that bore him, nothing is disdained as insignificant that recalls the features of her prime. By all such these minutes of the building of the first Court House at York, with its prison and pillory, also its hostelery for man and beast, will not be deemed as without interest or value.
In the next article an account will be given of the second and third county buildings, the last being that which now stands in the center of Easton, and upon which workmen are engaged in repairing and im- proving.
In the Court House at York, on Skipton creek, built in 1679, as has been related in the previous article, the Court continued to be held until the year 1707. During this time the population of the county had gone on increasing in numbers with great rapidity. Emigrants, volun- tary or enforced, from the old countries, from neighboring provinces, and from other sections of Maryland, seated themselves along our beautiful water courses, which then, as now, afforded such unsurpassed conveniences of travel and transportation, and caused this tidewater region speedily to become settled. The consequent multiplication of the business of the Court required increased facilities for the adminis- tration of Justice; and the population spreading out into remoter sec- tions of the county, began to feel more and more sensibly the necessity of making the seats of Justice more accessible. This could best be done by increasing their number, and thus diminishing the distance which judges and juries, parties to suits and their witnesses had to travel to attend the courts. Applications, accordingly, began to be made to the
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HISTORY OF TALBOT COUNTY
Provincial Assembly for the organization of a new county, from the northern part of the territory belonging to Talbot. In deference to the wishes of the people, in April 1706 there was passed an act entitled "An Act for the dividing and regulating several counties on the Eastern Shore of this Province, and constituting a county, by the name of Queen Anne's county, within the same province." By this act the bounds of Talbot were defined with precision-something which probably never had been done before. These bounds as thus settled are the same that are now recognized, and in the words of the act are thus described:
From and after the 1st of May, 1707, the Bounds of Talbot county shall contain Sharp's Island, Choptank Island [now called Tilghman's Island] and all the land on the North side of great Choptank River, and extend itself up the said River to Tuckahoe Bridge [at what is now Hillsborough] and from thence with a straight line to the Mill commonly called and known by the name of Swetnam's mill [now Wye mill] and from thence down the South side of Wye river to the mouth thereof, and from thence down the Bay, including Poplar Island, to the first begin- ning: also Bruff's Island in Wye River. (Bacon's Laws-1705, chap. III).
Queen Anne's lay north of these lines, and of course received a large section of the territory belonging to Talbot, including Kent Island. Opportunity will be taken hereafter to attempt the definition of the boundaries of Talbot before the date of this act-a matter still involved in much obscurity. It will be perceived that the Court House at York fell within the Talbot lines, but though formerly it was near the center, if not of the territory, at least of the population, it was now in the north- western extremity of the county and, therefore, far removed from the larger portion of the people. In consequence it became very necessary to remove it to a position more central and convenient of access.
The Court continued to hold its sessions at York after the passage of the act, and up to June 17th, 1707, when the last meeting was held in the old Court House. But immediately after the law was passed, the Justices of the county, at a court held in the usual place Aug. 21st, 1706, appointed a commission, constituted of these members of the court, namely: Robert Grundy, John Dawson and Thomas Robins, together with Thomas Smithson, Chief Justice of the Provincial Court; Robert Goldsborough, Attorney for the Queen or Prosecutor and John Hawkins, also a Judge of the Provincial Court, to select a suitable place for holding the Courts thereafter. This commission seems to have decided upon Oxford as the most fitting place, and so soon after
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the time for the act for the division of the county to become operative, we find the Court assembling at that port. The first Court was held at Oxford Aug. 19, 1707, at the house of the Sheriff, Daniel Sherwood.
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