USA > Maryland > Talbot County > History of Talbot county, Maryland, 1661-1861, Volume II > Part 34
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As early as 1667, six years after the laying out of Talbot County, may be found in the Proceedings of the Provincial Council of Mary- land, a commission issued by Charles Calvert, Esq., Captain General of all the forces within the Province of Maryland, to George Richard- son as captain of all troops of horse that shall march out of "Choptanck and St. Miles rivers in Talbot County, aforesaid upon any expedition against any Indian enemy whatsoever," etc.
At the same time, a similar commission was issued to Hopkin Davis, as Captain of foot in Choptanck and St. Miles rivers. So we find authority for St. Michaels and Michaels, St. Miles and Miles; take your choice.
Wye River, which forms the northern boundary of Talbot County, was given this name by Edward Lloyd, the Welsh emigrant who took
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ORIGIN OF TALBOT GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES
up large tracts of land along its southern shores, before the laying out of Talbot County. He named it for the beautiful winding Wye, noted for its sinuosity, whose source is near that of the Severn, rising almost at the summit of Plinhimmon, a mountain in Wales it forms the bound- ary between the shores of Brecon and Radnor in South Wales, ere it enters Herefordshire, England, and thence flowing through this county, Ross and Monmouth, falls into the Severn near Chepstow. To the Lloyd homestead, which has continued in the possession of the Lloyds of Wye for nine generations he gave the name of Wye House.
The Tred Avon River doubtless takes its name from one of the many Avon rivers in Old England, most likely from the Lower Avon that empties into the Bristol Channel.
Of the thirteen Eastons in England, the most important town of that name is situated about one mile from the head of the Lower Avon. Easton, Talbot's county seat, being just one mile from the headwaters of the Tred Avon River, is supposed to have been named for this English town.
In colonial days there were many merchant vessels trading between Oxford, Maryland, and Bristol, England, near which Easton, England, is located and from which section many of the early settlers of Talbot County emigrated.
Edge's Creek takes its name from James Edge, who in 1755, was as- sessed on over 700 acres of land, lying principally in Deep Neck.
Plain Dealing Creek was so called from the name of a tract of land of 200 acres, surveyed December 5, 1663, for Joseph Winslow, and border- ing along the west shore of this creek.
Harris's Creek took its name from William Harris, of the Clifts, Calvert County, who in his will probated May 2, 1698, devised to his two sons Joseph and Benjamin, lands in the lower part of Talbot County.
Peace Blossom Creek. George Robins of Banbury, England, who emigrated to America in 1670 settled in Talbot County on a tract of land at the head of the eastern branch of the Tred Avon containing 1,000 acres, which was surveyed for Job Nutt, January 31, 1660, and called by him, Job's Content. Mr. Robins planted on this estate the first orchard of peach trees that was ever planted in Talbot County. These trees he imported from England, through his lifelong friend Peter Collinson, the then world-renowned naturalist and botanist, which had been procured by him from Persia. When this peach orchard was for the first time in full bloom it presented such a novel sight, that the neighbors for miles around came paddling up the creek in their dug-
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HISTORY OF TALBOT COUNTY
out canoes to Mr. Robins' homestead to catch a sight of the beautiful pink peach blossoms, which were at that time such a curiosity that the name of Job's Content was changed to that of Peach Blossom and that romantic name, which was at the same time given to the creek, has been perpetuated for over two centuries down to the present time (1914).
Boon's Creek took its name from one of Talbot's earliest settlers, John Boon, who owned almost all of the land bordering along both sides of this creek, which later, a few years prior to the American Revo- lution, came into possession and ownership of Samuel Chamberlain who built the colonial mansion thereon, and gave to it the name of Bonfield.
Pickering's Creek, in Miles River Neck, a branch of the Wye River, takes its name from Francis Pickering, who owned a tract of land at the head of this creek, now known as Forrest Landing. In a deed from Francis Pickering et al to Edward Lloyd dated November 9, 1758, this creek is called Long Tom's Creek. Who this Long Tom was, will prob- ably ever remain a mystery.
Leed's Creek, in Miles River Neck, was named for the Hon. John Leeds, Jr., a native of Talbot County, who died in March, 1750, eighty- five years of age. He was one of the "ye worshipful commissioners and Justices of the Peace for Talbot County" 1734-38, and clerk of the Talbot County Court from 1738 till the beginning of the War of the Revolution.
Island Creek was so called from the fact that a small island stood directly at the mouth of this creek, which has entirely disappeared, but was still visible a half century ago within the memory of persons now (1914) living.
Glebe Creek takes its name from a tract of land lying along the south side of this stream which was devised by Thomas Smithson in 1714 to St. Michaels Parish for a Glebe for the support of the rector.
Nelson's Point, at the lower end of Broad Creek Neck, and so called on all the United States Government charts, and also upon the Mary- land geological maps, was never the correct name of this point. It is properly Elston's Point, and takes its name from Ralph Elston, who patented "Long Neck" a tract of land at the extreme southern end of Broad Creek Neck, containing 200 acres, and which was surveyed for him March 12, 1664. His name is perpetuated down to the present time (1914) by one of his descendants William Elston Shannahan, a prominent merchant of Easton.
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ORIGIN OF TALBOT GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES
Benoni's Point, which originally extended nearly out to the light- house opposite the mouth of Tred Avon River takes its name from Benoni Banning, one of Talbot's earliest settlers, who owned this point of land. He removed to Virginia, and was in a Virginia regiment in the American Revolution and was wounded in the battle of King's Mountain, N. C.
Pecke's Point, spelled Peck's Point on all maps and government charts, which is on the north side of the Tred Avon River about one mile above Oxford, takes its name from Benjamin Pecke, a lawyer who owned a tract of land which included this point, at the lower end of Hall's Neck. He died in 1709. His son, Benjamin Pecke, Jr., who died in 1729, gave the silver communion service to Christ's Episcopal Church in St. Michaels.
Ship Point, at the mouth of Trippe's Creek, was so named from the fact that a ship yard was located there where many sailing ships were built by Thomas Skillington who died in 1699. He devised to his son Kenelm Skillington, "Turner's Point (the former name of this point) in Hambleton's Neck," as the lower end of Bailey's Neck was then called.
Mr. Thomas Chamberlaine had several vessels built at this ship yard. In 1700, the ship "Elizabeth" was built for him there, to trade between Oxford and Liverpool "by Gilbert Livesley" which was manned by 24 guns and 96 men. In the "Records of Port Oxford" written by the sons and grandsons of Mr. Thomas Chamberlaine, in the possession of the Maryland Historical Society, these ships are frequently mentioned.
Clora's Point, which is improperly spelled on the United States Gov- ernment maps and charts Chlora's Point, was so called from one Clora O'Dora, who became the owner of a tract of land in Island Creek Neck of 600 acres, fronting on the Choptank River and extending from the waters of Island Creek to those of Dividing Creek, by virtue of a deed therefor dated June 18, 1666, from Edward Lloyd to the said Clora O'Dora and John Marks, whose interest shortly thereafter passed to O'Dora, being a part of Edward Lloyd's original tract of 3,050 acres called "Hier Dier Lloyd." Although he gave to Clora's Point a name which has continued to adhere to it ever since, he actually owned this tract of land less than two years, for on June 8, 1668, by deed of that date, he conveyed it to John Ingram.
Wade's Point, on Eastern Bay, below Claiborne, is so called from its first owner Zachary Wade, one of Claiborne's Kent Island colonists, who crossed over from Kent Island to Talbot in 1758 and took up a tract of 400 acres upon which he settled.
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HISTORY OF TALBOT COUNTY
Howell's Point, on the north shore of the Choptank River about three miles below Cambridge, took its name from Howell Powell, one of the early Quaker settlers in Talbot County who owned a tract of land ad- joining the Dickinson estate "Crosiadore."
Tilghman's Point, at the mouth of Miles River, took its name from Matthew Tilghman, the patriarch of the Maryland colony, who owned Rich Neck Manor, of which this point is the northern extremity. This fine estate adjoins the village of Claiborne and is now, (1914), the attrac- tive homestead of Henry H. Pearson, Jr.
Chancellor's Point, in Bolingbrook Neck on the Choptank River, is located at the southern end of the tract of land called "Woolsey Manor," containing 1000 acres, which was originally surveyed for Philip Calvert, Esq., who was sometime Chancellor of the Maryland Province. Hence his land was, and continues to be, called Chancellor's Point.
Jamaica Point was so called from the name of a 250 acres tract of land upon which this point is located called "Jamaica," which was sur- veyed May 18, 1666, for John Richardson.
Deep Water Point, on the Miles River, was in colonial times known as "Feast Landing," because of fish feasts having been held on the hard, sandy beach there. In a certificate of survey made in 1737 by David Davis Barrow, Surveyor of Talbot County, it is stated: "The State of Maryland, sct. February 20th, 1787: By virtue of a special warrant of Proclamation granted out of the Land Office unto Matthew Tilghman, Esq., of Talbot County, bearing date the 15th day of December, 1786, to resurvey a tract or parcel of land called 'The Feast Landing' con- taining 16} acres of land, which a certain George Gleaves had hereto- fore surveyed and laid out for him the 21st of March, 1773, as may appear, etc. I humbly certify that I have by virtue of the aforesaid warrant carefully resurveyed for and in the name of him the aforesaid Matthew Tilghman, Esq., the aforesaid tract or parcel of land accord- ing to its respective metes and bounds, and find it to contain sixteen acres and one quarter of an acre of land. Seven acres and three quar- ters of an acre of which I find to be taken away by St. Michaels river, which I have by virtue of the aforesaid warrant excluded, and have by virtue of the aforesaid warrant added to the aforesaid tract six acres and three quarters of an acre of vacant land and have reduced the whole into one entire tract now called Deep Water Point, etc."
THIRD HAVEN
To the annalist and antiquary there is scarcely any subject of more interest than geographical nomenclature-the tracing to their sources, through all their variations, changes and corruptions, the names of the civil divisions and the physical features of any country. Though it cannot be said that the study of topographical terminology is one of the highest importance, it cannot be disdained as one unworthy of the attention of the man of letters, the statesman, or the man of affairs; for, it often has led to the elucidation of obscurities in history, to the settlement of national disputes, and the protection of large pecuniary interests.1 To the citizens of Talbot it should not be a matter of indif- ference whence came the names of the towns, villages and hamlets; the public landings, ferries and bridges; the parishes, hundreds and dis- tricts; the islands, points and necks of land; the watercourses, rivers, creeks, coves, branches and mill streams; and even of the manors, plantations and homesteads. Such names are often the only mementoes of many of our worthies of past time, and it should not be deemed an unbecoming sentiment, the desire to transmit some memory of those who, even humbly, wrought for the good of Talbot. Such names, too, perpetuate many local incidents, of too small importance to merit a record in history, but too interesting, to those who claim this county as their home and the home of their ancestors, to be entirely forgotten. Such names, again, bestowed by our fathers as reminiscential of their former homes in the Old World serve to point out the source from which our families sprang, and to keep alive kindly memories of our mother country. In estimating the importance of our geographical nomen- clature, of correcting it when erroneous, and perpetuating it when correct-to these benefits, which may be called merely sentimenal, may be added those more material advantages which come from its enabling us to settle disputes as to property, of its validating titles, or of secur- ing valuable rights where they have been denied, or been in abeyance. This much it has been thought necessary to say by way of apology
1 As an instance of the political importance of names, Marylanders and Vir- ginians will recall the long dispute, scarcely yet settled, concerning their boun- daries, founded upon a controversy as to Watkin's Point.
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for the attempt which is about to be made to determine the name of a water course in Talbot county.
In the Saint Michaels Comet of the 18th of Aug., there appeared an account of the Wye, an arm of the bay which in part divides the coun- ties of Talbot and Queen Anne's. The following is an extract from this article:
The name "Wye," some will persist in saying, was given to this river from its shape, this being like the letter Y, the lower part of the river being its shank, and the branches that unite at Wye Island, form- ing the arm of the Y. However plausible this may seem, it is of course erroneous, as the river was given its name for the Wye of Wales by the Welsh patentees of the lands on its banks. The Welsh Lloyds owned the magnificent country on the east side from its mouth to the borders of Queen Anne's, except "Gross's" where the Welsh Tilghmans settled. Alike erroneous is the notion of the name of the "Third Haven," as it was called-because it is the third haven or branch of the Choptank. The geography that calls it so, is as wrong of this corruption of the name of the Welsh Tred Avon. Such nomenclature is akin to finding the name Oxford in the supposition that the "Third Haven," at this point could once be forded by oxen."
In this paragraph there are several statements which invite criticism, to one of which, and one only, it is proposed to call attention at this time. As the article from which it has been taken appears to have been written deliberately, it would not be safe, perhaps, to say that any declaration the writer has made in it is erroneous; but in the absence or in ignorance of the grounds upon which he declares, apparently with authority, and certainly with positiveness, that the proper name of another water course, wholly in Talbot, is not Third-Haven, and is not anything else than Tred-Avon, it is permissible to say that possibly he is mistaken. There are three circumstances which determine the correctness of a geographical name, when in dispute, to wit: priority, usage, and fitness. When these all concur, all doubt ceases. When they are not in accord or are in conflict, then question arises. When two of them agree, their weight of authority must over-balance the third and sanction the name they give.
There are few citizens of Talbot who, having occasion to mention the beautiful watercourse that penetrates the county from the south to about the centre, having its debouchure in the Choptank, and its source near Easton, have not hesitated to pronounce or to write its name, and this embarrassment has always increased where particularity or precision has been required. This hesitancy is owing to the fact that it
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has been designated by so many names, each of which had the authority of currency, and, as investigation shows, of early usage. It is a singular circumstance that the same hesitancy and confusion has existed for more than two hundred years. The people who lived near the time when this watercourse first received a name from European explorers or settlers upon its borders, were just as much embarrassed as the people of the present day. Whoever bestowed the name seems to have been the only man who could write and pronounce it correctly, and he has left no record as far as is known. The writer in the Comet asserts, rather positively, that the name was of Welsh origin. Upon what authority this is said does not appear. The intimation is also, that it derives from some stream or river in the Cambrian principality. The writer of this article has taken the pains to examine all the gazetteers, and atlases that are in the large libraries in the city of Baltimore, and has failed to find any name which approaches in sound or spelling to any of the names which have been attributed to this estuary or creek, for river it can in no sense be called. There are several rivers and rivu- lets in England that bear the name of Avon, and some small streams in Scotland; but there does not appear to be any in Wales. Indeed, Avon seems to have been a generic name in some of the old languages of the British islands, for river. There is no river Avon in Wales. The word Tred, is doubtless of Welsh or Celtic origin; at least it is used as a prefix to many Welsh names as Tredegar. Further: there is no evidence that there were any early settlers of unquestionable Welsh origin in Talbot county.2 It is certainly an assumption, without proof, that Mr. Edward Lloyd, the founder of the family of that name that has so long held, even from the first days of the organization of the county, or even before, a social position of the highest respectability, and that has given so many distinguished statesmen and civilians to the province, state, and nation, came over from Wales. He is known to have come into Maryland from Virginia, and assumed a prominent
2 There is plausibility in the presumption that Mr. Morgan the patentee of the tract of land called Plimhimmon, near Oxford, possibly a corruption of Plin- himmon, was a Welshman. But nothing is known of him. Mr. Robert Vaughan, at one time commander of Kent Island, and Thomas Vaughn, once sheriff of this county, both of whom took up land in Talbot may have been Welshmen, as their name indicates. In the original patent of Plimhimmon to Henry Morgan, dated 1658, the land is represented as lying upon Tred-avon creek. In a deed of the same estate by John Rousby to Richard Coward, and dated 1718, this water is some- times called Tredavon, and sometimes Tredavan. Mr. Samuel Chamberlaine in copying from original papers calls the creek Thirdhaven.
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position during the Puritan ascendency, as well as after; but he was probably an Englishman, though of course of Welsh descent, as his patronymic clearly indicates. He died in England, and his will, be- queathing his estate on the Wye to his grandson, states that he was a merchant of White Chapel Parish, Middlesex county. It may be well enough to say here that neither the Wye nor the Severn are dis- tinctively Welsh rivers, the former has its source and part of its course in Wales, and the latter bounds that principality on the South, but both pass through English territory. The man or men who gave name to this water under consideration died and left no sign to enable us to determine its primitive appellation: nor are we able to trace any of its varied names to an original cognomen existing in those countries from which the first explorers or emigrants into Talbot came.
As has already been stated, this water course was called, in the very earliest days of which we have any records, by as many different names as at the present. An examination of the documents preserved in the of- fice of the clerk of the county, dating back to 1662 or earlier, this river, creek, estuary, or whatever it may be called, appears to have been known by eight, if not more names, some resembling each other in sound and spelling, and others differing widely, though all evidently coming from one original. It was called Tred-Avon, Trad-Avon, Tred-Aven, Tred-Haven, Trad-Haven, Tread-Haven, Trade-Haven and Third Haven. It is proper to say there are here mentioned without regard to frequency of use, weight of authority, or order in time. All that is meant to be said is, these names appear in the Court records, if not abso- lutely synchronically, at least within the fifty years after the organization of the county, in 1660-61, and were used indiscriminately. Without mul- tiplying instances of the use of these appellations, a few references to their employment may be presented. Tred-Aven Creek is mentioned in a deed of William Hambleton (whose descendants are still among us), to Francis Bellows, bearing the date of Sept. 9, 1665. This is the very earliest men- tion of this water course that has been discovered in our records. In the following year 1666, Richard Tilghman (who was the founder of the family of that name upon the Eastern Shore, and who was not a Welsh- man, as the writer of the Comet intimates, but a native of Kent, in old England, and who was the ancestor of the Tilghman's of Groses on Wye, as of all others of the name upon this peninsula), sold to Richard Pres- ton, 1000 acres of land called Canterberry Manor (in Bailey's Neck, where Richard Tilghman is said first to have settled, before he moved
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to Hermitage on Chester river), which Manor is stated to have been situated on the Eastern branch of Treadaven Creeke. In the same year (1666) Anthony Griffin conveyed to Richard Howard a tract of land upon Treadaven Creeke. In 1672, this water is called in another deed, Treadhaven Creeke. In 1683 in a conveyance of Cooke's Hope Manor (in Edmondson's neck), originally patented to Miles Cooke, in 1659, the name is written Treadavon. In 1686, Benjamin Pecke, from whom Peck's Point received its name, sold a piece of land, part of Hopkins' Point (in Hopkins' Neck), on the west side of Tredhaven Creeke. In 1714, a deed of Robert Grundy, to Robert Ungle (him who lived at Plain Dealing, and whose tragic end gave origin to the well-known ghost story), to Thomas Pamphilion of a lot in Oxford, the land men- tioned as bounding upon Third-Haven Creeke. Upon a fly-leaf of judg- ment records, in the Clerk's office, there is a memorandum of the sale of a parcel of land to John Edmondson, by Francis Armstrong, made Jan. 18, 1665. This land was said to be on the south side of Trade- Haven Creeke. Down to the time of the formation of the State Con- stitution in 1776-7, it was customary for the Justices of the County Courts to appoint the constables of the several Hundreds into which the county was divided. In the year 1679, these persons were named constables for the several hundreds:
Francis Brooks, for Island Hundred.
George Carrill, Worrall 66
Wm. Gaskin, Bay 66
Richard Moore, " Trad Avon 66
Wm. Trawth, " Bullingbrooke "
Thos. Willson, ' Mill
Henry Green
" Chester 66
But in the next year Clement Sales was constable for Tred-Haven hundred, while in 1686 Walter Quinton, was constable for Tread-Haven, and in 1699, William Bush, took the place of Samuel Martin as con- stable of Third-Haven hundred. Now, turning from the Court records to those which next to them are the most ancient, the minutes of the Friends' meetings in this county, we find that upon the opening of the great meeting house, that which still stands near the town of Easton, which is much older than the town itself, and which, possibly, was the germ of the town, it is represented in the minutes as situated upon Trad-Haven Creeke. This record was as of the 24th day of the 8th
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month3 (October), 1684, the meeting house having been commenced in 1682, or about that date. On the 10th of the 6th (August) month, 1688, a quarterly meeting was held at the house on Trade-Haven Creeke. In 1690 and 1692 the clerk of the meeting used the same orthography, but in 1703 he wrote Tred-Havens. Of all the spellings of the name in the Quaker records Trad-Haven was the most common in the earlier years, that is, during the time of Thomas Taylor, who was the "man who wrote for the Friends," though it was subsequently changed to Tread-Haven, and still later, say in 1760, to Third Haven.
Besides the public rolls of the county and the minutes of the meeting of Friends, there is a third record of early date which merits mention in this connection, namely; a copy of the proceedings of the Com- missioners appointed and authorized to lay off the town and port of Oxford. This copy was made at the instance and charge of the Hon. Saml. Chamberlaine, the first of that name in this county. This record is entirely authentic, having been drawn from official sources, though these sources are no longer discernible. It is the only extant account of an interesting event in our local history. The surveys were made by Mr. William Hemsley and Mr. William Turbutt, Surveyors, the first in 1694 and the last in 1707. The surveyors seem to have acted as clerks to the Commissioners, and authenticated the record with their signatures. In this record the name of the water by which the pro- jected town was nearly surrounded is given as Tred Haven. Upon the maps or plots which these surveyors made, and which are still in existence and in the possession of the town authorities, the water is not named. The date of the first meeting of the Commissioners was as early as 1684.
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