USA > Maryland > Talbot County > History of Talbot county, Maryland, 1661-1861, Volume II > Part 37
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By the House of Burgesses Oct. ye 8th, 1695, Ordered that att Port of William-stadt be layed outt Two Hundred Acres of Land, to be
sioners for this purpose is said, in the record, to have been held in February, 1694-5. There is a confusion of dates, of which it is useless to attempt the settle- ment, but which may be traced, probably, to clerical inaccuracies.
23 Of course, it will be understood that this name was substituted for the origi- nal, in honor of William of Orange, then the King of England.
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valued by a jury, and purchased by the county for the towne common, and that the Island be sett aside for publick buildings.24
Signed pr order,
WILLIAM BLADEN, Clk. of Assembly.
Assented to by his Excellency and Councill, HENRY DENTON, Clerk Councill.
The Commissioners believing that this copy was erroneous as to authorizing the laying out of two hundred acres for a Common, ordered the Sheriff to "goe over to ye Port of Annapolis, and there examine the said ordinance with the originall," and to make his return on the eleventh day of February. A copy of this order of the Commissioners was served on the Sheriff, Mr. Daniel Sherwood, who made his return upon the day appointed, when the Commissioners "ordered that a Jury be impanelled for to value two hundred acres of land for ye said Towne and Common." On the following day Mr. Hemsley, the surveyor, was ordered "to lay out the outermost bounds of the Towne Common, and a Jury was sworn to assess the value of the land comprised within those bounds and amounting to two hundred acres."25 This Jury consisted of these persons, namely:
Mr. William Turloe, foreman; Mr. Solomon Wright, Mr. Joshua Atkins, Mr. Ric'd Moore, Mr. Antho. Rumball, Mr. William Moore, Mr. William Anderson, Mr. John Price, Mr. Edward Banning, Mr. Robt. Hall, Mr. William Arickrfill (?), Mr. John Brannock.
The Jury went out and viewed the land and returned their verdict in wrighting26 signed by the foreman in these words here following:
Wee of the Jury being all agreed doe value the Towne Land at Eight- een thousand pounds of Tobacco, pr hundred, and the twenty-four acres within the Towne over and above the hundred acres pro rata. Also wee [doe value] the seventy and six acres of ye Common at four thousand pounds of Tobacco, and the twenty-five acres next adjoin- ing to the end of the Towne after the rate of ye rate of above said Towne
24 No such ordinance appears among the laws as compiled by Bacon. This paper was doubtless meant to be an abstract of the Act referred to in the text, but was erroneously made.
25 The Surveyor's return of metes and bounds is a part of the Chamberlaine manuscript records; but it is very obscure.
26 Mr. Delahay's orthography, as appears from this old record, was exceedingly eccentric.
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land, p. cent. In witness whereof the foreman of the said jury in ye behalf of all the rest hath hereunto set his hand.
WILLIAM TURLO. "Febr. ye 12th, 1695.
After these proceedings proclamation was made that all who desired to take up lots in the "Towne and Port of Williamstadt" should appear on the following morning, when, after reserving "for his Excellencie . ye Chief Governor, then being, Francis Nicholson, Esq., &c., Lotts No. 4, 5, 6," it was "Ordered by the Commissioners that in taking up Lotts this method should be observed, viz .: Soe many [as] are minded to take up Lotts shall give their names, and soe many numbers shall be put into a hatt, [that is] to say 1, 2, 3, &c., and every person shall draw for his choice. Which was accordingly done, and then they proceed to draw Lotts."
Some other orders were passed, of which the following only will be quoted as curious and significant.
Ordered by the said Commissioners that there be a good substantial worrume [worm] fence made across the narrowest place of ye said Towne, for convenience of fenting [?] for securities of creators [creatures] that shall or may be brought to ye said Towne of Wm. Stadt on any ac'ctt, by the inhabitants of ye said Towne or others, and that ye said fence be sett up and finished at the charge of those persons having lotts in ye said Towne, by an equal assessment on all persons having Lotts as aforesaid, some time betwixt this present date and ye first day of May next, with good substantiall gates and other conveniences for pass- ing along the rode-the said gates to [be] hung on good substantial hinges, and to open both wayes.
Mr. Clement Sale was requested to see that the work was satis- factorily done. A copy of the journal of proceedings was ordered to be sent to the Governor.
In the record, so frequently quoted, there are lists of names of the persons taking up lots, and of the numbers of those lots, as well as cer- tificates of surrender or transfer of lots; but as it would serve to extend this contribution beyond reasonable limits these must be omitted.27 Before concluding this portion of the narrative, it is proper to say that there is no evidence, other than that presented, that the town common
27 The authorities of the town of Oxford could hardly spend a small sum of money more profitably, if the gratification of its citizens be regarded as a profit, than by publishing the whole Chamberlaine manuscript, accompanied by copies of the two old plots of the town, now in their possession.
-
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was ever purchased and enclosed. No further reference to it is made in any contemporary document.
The custom which was followed by the Assembly of the Province, periodically, to repeal all its former legislation, with specific exceptions, and re-enact those laws which were demanded by the public interest, was observed by the passage of an Act of general repeal, Oct. 3rd, 1704, entitled :
An Act repealing all former acts of Assembly heretofore made, saving what are hereby accepted. The acts of 1694 and 1695 respecting the ports of Annapolis and Oxford were included; but by the same assem -. bly they were re-enacted and continued in force until the close of the next session of the Assembly. At the April session of the year 1706 an act was passed entitled "An Act for the advancement of trade, and erecting ports and towns in the Province of Maryland. This Act had a supplement in 1707 and another in 1708, though the last in no way related to Oxford. By these acts a large number of the towns formerly authorized were re-elected, others were "deserted," and yet other new ones ordered to be laid out. All the old towns of Talbot were revived. But of the whole number but six were made Ports, and of these Oxford was one, and the district assigned to it comprised "All the towns, rivers, creeks and coves in Talbot county, and the towns, rivers, creeks and coves in Great Choptank and Little Choptank in Dorchester county and Kent Island in Queen Anne's county.
Commissioners were appointed for laying out the town anew, under conditions almost identical with those prescribed by the acts of 1694 and 1695, already mentioned in this paper: but with this qualification, viz: it should be
surveyed and laid out according to the former plot, and when so laid out, the Commissioners according to their discretion, shall leave out 24 from the 124 acres therein contained by the first laying out, and the Lots remaining within the 100 acres only, shall be adjudged the Town and Port of Oxford, although the same do not contain 100 Lots; to the end that the Lots already taken up and built upon may not be altered or lessened.
It will be observed that the discount on debts paid at the ports is no longer allowed by these new acts of incorporation, if they may be so called.
The gentlemen named in the Act of 1706 were these:
Major Nicholas Lowe, Mr. Thomas Robins,
Mr. Matthew Tilghman Ward,
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HISTORY OF TALBOT COUNTY
Mr. Daniel Sherwood, Mr. Robert Grundy, Mr. John Dawson, Mr. Thomas Emerson, Mr. John Hawkins.
and perhaps others.28 Of these a majority assembled on or about the 10th July, 1707, and were attended by Mr. William Turbutt, the deputy surveyor for the county, who also acted as clerk. It was agreed between the Commissioners and Major Nicholas Lowe that he should be paid six hundred pounds of Tobacco for each lot to be taken up in the town, but this agreement was modified on the 26th, when
The Commissioners taking it into consideration that in as much as sev- eral lotts (now to be taken up in the said town) are much more conven- ient and of greater value than ye rest, they have thought fitt and do agree to sett a particular value on every lott, according to the goodness or conveniency, conceiving that it would be a greater encouragement to ye People than to make every lott of an equal value.
The prices settled upon ranged from 200 to 1000 pounds of tobacco. On the 21st the surveyor and Commissioners "proceeded in laying out ye Towne and Port of Oxford, beginning att ye Towne-Point and running according to a former platt so farr as to include one hundred acres of land, leaveing outt twenty-four acres which were formerly within the bounds of the said Towne, as by said platt appears." Some changes were made in the direction of High street, and the street along the strand. The survey was completed on the 25th, when it appears the plot of the town after leaving out the twenty-four acres, formerly embraced, belonging to Major Lowe, was divided into eighty-two lots, with streets, lanes, etc., and a Place for Public buildings. The extant record gives the names of the persons taking up lots, the number of the lots, and the prices paid for them; also certificates of improvement which gave full and clear title to the property. The last entry is of Jany. 21st, 1711-12, being a receipt of Nicholas Lowe to William Tur- butt for 800 lbs. tobacco, in full for a lot in Oxford. It will be observed that the original name of the town was resumed, King William being dead, and "good Queen Anne" being upon the throne of Great Britain.
Now, it appears that the Acts of Assembly of 1706 and of the next few years following, did not receive the assent of the Queen, who pos- sessed a veto, and they were thereupon void. Persons who had taken
23 The text of the Law is not given by Bacon.
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up lots in the town, under these acts and the previous acts that had been repealed by the Assembly, became concerned about the title to their property; so it was deemed necessary in 1715 to pass a law con- firming them in the title, where they had complied with the condi- tions of purchase. But the failure of the law of 1706 to receive the royal assent, apparently, should have deprived those towns therein mentioned, as places of entry and clearance of ships and other vessels, and of the peculiar privilege of being ports. Yet it is known that this deprivation never occurred. Oxford certainly remained the port for the collection district defined in the Act of 1706 during the whole pro- vincial régime, and even under the confederate and federal government down to a very recent period, with a regular succession of custom house officers. Under what authority it so continued during the ante revolu- tionary period is not known. Possibly it was by a simple order of the Governor and Council, with Royal and Proprietary sanction. Certain it is that no law has been hitherto discovered which reinstated Annapolis, Oxford and the other places mentioned in the Act of 1706 as the ports of Maryland, in the precedence that had been given over other towns of the Province.
Besides what has been related of its origin and founding little more is known of the history of Oxford, and this little must be given in a disjointed and fragmentary way. As a place of trade it long held a precedence of the towns upon the Eastern Shore and next to Annapolis it was the principal port of the province, until the town of Baltimore acquired the superiority which it has to the present retained. Although from the earliest settlement of the country along the Choptank and its tributaries this place enjoyed considerable trade, it seems to have reached the height of its prosperity about the middle of the last century after which this prosperity began to decline, and became finally extinct at the commencement of the war of the Revolution. From an early period some of the large Liverpool and London commercial houses engaged in the American trade had their factories established here, and their ships making their periodical and regular trips to the waters of Third Haven and Choptank, or into Saint Michaels and Wye rivers. It may be noted, upon authority, usually accurate, that Mr. Gilbert Livesey, was the first to establish a factory, or place of trade at Oxford. One of the earliest of these houses was that of Gildart & Company com- posed of Mr. Richard Gildart, in 1714 Mayor of the City of Liverpool, Sir Thomas Johnson, Mr. Richard Norris, Mr. William Squire and Capt. Ed- ward Rachdale, who had for their factor at Oxford, Mr. John Chamber-
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HISTORY OF TALBOT COUNTY
laine, and owned the ship Elizabeth, built near that town. Another Liverpool house, which more than any other became identified with Ox- ford was that of Messrs. Foster Cunliffe & Co., of which Mr. John and then Mr. Samuel Chamberlaine were at one time the factors, to be suc- ceeded, but after some years, by Mr. Robert Morris and then by Mr. Henry Callister. Each of these gentlemen are prominent characters in our local and indeed our provincial history, of whom more will be said in other connections. Another firm of which Mr. Anthony Bacon, of Lon- don, was the principal, had for a great number of years intimate commer- cial relations with the people of this county, having his ships sailing into and his stores upon the Choptank and one store at Oxford. The names of a few other Liverpool and London merchants may be given, who were trading in the waters of Talbot. Of Liverpool were Mr. Edward Lowndes and Mr. Lawrence Spencer. Of London were Mr. Mathias Gale, Mr. Samuel Hyde, Mr. John Hanbury, Mr. Wm. Anderson, Mr. Christopher Court. These were generally principals of firms that changed their style as time passed. Some of them continued in the trade until all commercial intercourse was interrupted by the war of independence.
The methods of conducting trade with this colony gradually changed. In the beginning, the want of capital and proper business connections on the part of the permanent residents required the establishment of agencies at the different favorable points, but as the circumstances altered, these factories were either closed, or the factors purchased the interest of the original owner, and conducted the business upon their own account, or copartnerships were formed between the resident merchant and the English firm. In yet other cases, as wealth increased wholly independent houses were established whose connections with those of the old country were merely those of commercial correspond- ence. The factory system, however, was not discontinued, as long as the political connection between the mother country and the province subsisted. It may be not amiss to give the names of some of the resi- dent merchants of Oxford, and those importing their supplies of foreign goods through this port. One of the earliest of the resident merchants at Oxford was Mr. Will Sharp,29 a quaker, and another, of the same
29 As something of curious interest the following, a bill of lading, is here in- serted :
Shipped by the Grace of God in good order well conditioned, by me William Sharp, Jr., merchant, in and upon the good ship called "The Blue Bird's Delight," whereof is master for this present voyage Capt. Morgan Jones, and now residing at anchor in Fyall [Fayal, of the Azores] Roads, and bound by God's permis-
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religious persuasion, was Mr. John Edmondson. Both of these became very wealthy and founded families, now extinct in this county. A little later appear the names of Robert Grundy, Benjamin Pemberton, Thomas Lewis, Robert Ungle, Thomas Robins, John Oldham, all of whom apparently had stores and warehouses at Oxford. In or about 1723 Mr. Saml. Chamberlaine purchased an interest in the firm in whose ship he originally came to Maryland, and established the house of Cham- berlaine & Company. He made and married a great fortune, rose to distinction in the civil and political affairs of the province, and is the progenitor of the most respectable family of the name, still well repre- sented in the county. In this connection also must be mentioned Mr. Robert Morris and Mr. Henry Callister, both of whom from being factors rose to be independent merchants. For some years prior to the Revolution the number of stores throughout the county multiplied and Oxford became more and more a port of entry merely and not a great depot, though always enjoying a very liberal share both of the domestic and foreign trade. In order to render this account more com- plete, the names of some of the ships and their captains may here be mentioned. The first ship of which we have any positive knowledge that appeared in Third Haven was the Golden Fortune, commanded by Capt. Saml. Tilghman, who before the organization of Talbot county took up a large tract of land at the head of this creek, to which he gave the name of "Tilghman's Fortune," out of which Ratcliffe, and other neighboring properties were carved. The Blue Bird's Delight, Capt. Morgan Jones, has already been mentioned, as has the ship Elizabeth, Capt. John Chamberlaine, a ship that was built at Skillington's Point near Oxford. Passing over a number of years, for which no record exists, we find the names of many of the ships of which the firm of Foster Cunliffe & Sons of Liverpool were the owners or the consignees mentioned in the Callister papers. The Robert & John, Capt. Johnson, was trading at Oxford in 1742, and the Cunliffe, Capt. John Pritchard in 1745. Of this ship more will presently be said. The Liverpool
sion to Choptank river in Maryland, to say: Seventy-two pipes and three quarter casks of wine and marked and numbered as per margent, all to be delivered in like good order and well conditioned at the aforesaid port of Choptank, the dangers of the sea only accepted to Mr. William Sharp, senior, or to his order, the freight being all paid, the master hath affirmed to three bills of lading, one of which three to be acknowledged, the other two to be void, and so God send her safe to her desired port.
September ye 17th, 1699.
MORGAN JONES.
Land Records Talbot county, No. 7, p. 219.
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HISTORY OF TALBOT COUNTY
Merchant, Capt. John Gardiner, was a constant trader from 1745 and onward for many years. The Choptank, another Talbot built ship, Capt. Barnes, was well known at Oxford from 1748 and onward, but did not belong to the Cunliffes, nor was she sailing in their interest. In 1750 the ship Integrity, commanded by Capt. John Coward, who was a resident of Plimhimmon, and the founder of a family here, was sailing in the interest of Mr. Anthony Bacon, and was probably owned in part by him. Upon this ship local tradition relates that the young woman, who came to be known as Perdita, embarked, whose story was so romantically told by Miss Catherine Sedgwick.30 Capt. John Coward and his good ship Integrity were succeeded by Capt. Thomas Coward, his son, and the frigate Choptank, in 1772. This ship was probably among the last of those belonging to Oxford to sail from Third Haven creek prior to the Revolution. There is a record of her taking in freight on the 19th of April, 1774, her consignee being Thomas Eden & Co., just one year before the battle of Lexington, the beginning of the war. Probably before her return resolutions forbidding all commercial inter- course with Great Britain had been adopted. In 1761 the ship Friend- ship was in command of Capt., afterward Col. Jere Banning, who had long been sailing out of Choptank, and who, subsequent to this date had charge of several ships, which need not here be named. This very respectable gentleman after "following the sea" for many years settled at the Isthmus in this county, having acquired a handsome competence, and was appointed the first collector of the port of Oxford under the new régime inaugurated by the Revolution in which war he was an active and prominent participant. It is not necessary to extend this catalogue of ships trading at Oxford, which to be rendered complete would require the insertion of nearly two hundred names, recovered by an examination of the county records, the books of the Custom House as kept by the collectors prior to the Revolution, and other authentic sources.31
30 This little romance, founded on fact, was published originally in the Atlantic Souvenir, of 1827 and frequently republished, lastly in the Easton Star, of Aug. 24th and Sept. 2nd, 1872, with an introduction and appendix by the author of these contributions, giving the actual occurrences upon which the romance was based.
31 There have been deposited with the Md. Hist. Soc'y two books of the col- lectors of the port prior so the revolution, one of which is a record of the arrivals and departures of ships and other vessels, their names, the names of their masters and owners, their destination or place of clearance, a description of their cargoes, number of their men and their guns, and the place of their building. The first entry is of the year 1758 and the last is of Aug. 28th, 1773. The other volume is a
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Reference has been made to the Cunliffe, Capt. Pritchard. An incident in the career of this ship and her commander, which could not be mentioned when giving the list above, must not be omitted in this account of the port to which she belonged. In the year 1744 war existed between France and England in which the American colonies of the respective countries participated. The home government issued letters of marque and reprisal, and the ocean was traversed by privateers. Every merchantman was equipped with an armament for defence against these legalized marauders. On the 7th of Jan., 1744, the ship Cunliffe, Capt. Prichard, on her passage from Liverpool to Oxford met with one of the French privateers about ten leagues from Cape Fear, and being unable to escape prepared to defend herself, notwithstanding the great disparity in the armament and the number of the crew. The ships fought for ten hours. Several men were killed on board the Cun- liffe, and the captain was so severely wounded that he died three days after the engagement.
However, the wind blowing fresh and the Cunliffe being a tight ves- sel and good sailer got clear.
Another account says:
Our ship had but 38 men and boys, none of which showed the least fear during the engagement, and was ladened deeply. The privateer had twenty carriage guns besides swivels, and two hundred men. * The merchants are making a pretty collection for the ship's crew.
Mr. Callister, in a letter of July 28, 1745, to Mr. Robert Whitfield, of Douglas, Isle of Man, says:
Though we are with reason concerned for poor Capt. Prichard's mis- fortune, yet his gallant behavior in defending the ship and her safe arrival are very agreeable news to us. * Capt. P. and his crew behaved as they ought to do. He died with glory. His epitaph is prettily done and has been printed in the Maryland Gazette. I dare say none of our commanders here will behave ill in such circumstances, but God avert the occasion.
The Cunliffe was consigned to Mr. Robert Morris, and she, after this voyage, was commanded by Capt. Johnson. It would seem from
book of accounts kept by the collectors of the customs, commencing with the year Nov. 1747, and ending Oct. 10th, 1775. These books are in a good state of preser- vation, but the first mentioned of them has lost some of the leaves. They are most interesting records of the trade of the port of Oxford, for the time which they cover.
.
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HISTORY OF TALBOT COUNTY
Mr. Callister's letters that another of the ships of the Messrs. Cunliffe trading in Third Haven and Choptank, namely the Robert & John, was not so fortunate as the Cunliffe, for she was captured by the priva- teers in 1745.32
It will have been perceived from what has been said that the greater part of the foreign trade of Oxford, using the term foreign as appli- cable to all countries not now embraced within the United States, was with England through the ports of London and Liverpool. But at one period there was very considerable commercial intercourse with Bristol. About the middle of the last century, as indicated by the books of the Custom House, there were arrivals from Antigua, Halifax, Bermuda, Guadaleupe, Quebec, Barbadoes, St. Christopher, Barcelona (Spain), Jamaica, Senegal (Africa), Madeira, and perhaps other parts, to say nothing of the three great cities before mentioned. There were frequent arrivals from or departures for the domestic ports of Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Newburyport, Falmouth, Salem, Piscataway, Nantucket and Charleston. Mostly, the ships trading at Oxford came directly from the place of departure, but it was not unusual for them to make a kind of ocean circuit. Loading here with tobacco, peltry, lum- ber, especially that made of black walnut, and with some of the other coarse articles of commerce, the products of Maryland, they sailed for the English ports, and, there discharging their freight, they took in assorted cargoes of goods of European manufacture, and of Eastern or India products and sailed for some of the West India Islands, where they took in sugar, molasses, fruit, rum and negro slaves. Occasionally they touched at Madeira and the Azores, for wine for the gentry of the colony. Thus freighted, they entered Chesapeake and reported at Oxford. After a survey was made and the custom house fees were paid, they either landed their cargo at that town, or at other places within the collection district, as at Cambridge in Dorchester, at Dover or Kingston in Talbot. Some of the ships went into St. Michaels and Wye rivers to supply the stores in those sections of the county thereon bordering, making landings at Wye-town or Doncaster, and at Deep Water Point near St. Michaels. Other ships went into Chester river and Little Choptank. Some of the articles of exportation from Oxford, besides those already mentioned, as shown by the books of the Custom House, were, in the middle of the last century, wheat, corn, pork, live stock and poultry (to the West Indies), sassafras bark, plank, shingles, staves, hoops and bricks. It
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