USA > Maryland > Talbot County > History of Talbot county, Maryland, 1661-1861, Volume II > Part 40
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45 Saint Michaels may be regarded the patron saint, or guardian angel of Mary- land, for all patents required the payment of the quit rents to the Lord Proprie- tary on the Feast of Saint Michael and all angels: and this was the legal day of many processes.
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1736 it had gone to decay and had been replaced by a new structure; and that no others but very aged persons had knowledge of the time when it was built. From depositions taken in the year just named, by authority of the Vestry, the land for church purposes had been given by either Mr. John Hatton or Mr. Edward Elliot, but the weight of the evidence was that the former was the real owner of the two acres that were set apart for church purposes. There is reasonable ground to believe that this occurred as early at least as 1672, when the Reverend Mr. James Clayland, was exercising the office of minister of the Reformed Church, and before the Church of England had become the established church of the province.46
It is not difficult to conjecture what were the considerations which determined the locating of the church at the place where it was built. In the earliest years of the province of Maryland, before the construction of the roads, the water ways were commonly used for inter communica- tion. The canoes and barges antedated the chairs and coaches of a later period, and for the poorer class of people they took the place of the horse with his saddle and pillion. As the settlements in Talbot were in the first instance made along the banks of the innumerable creeks and coves of the county, it is readily seen that the inhabitants found it more convenient to make their journeys by water, than to take long detours around the heads of these creeks and coves by the yet unfre- quented paths through woods and swamps. Now the place selected as the site of the church is just where the waters of Saint Michaels and Broad Creeks approach near to each other. Boats were able to land almost at the church door upon one side, while they could reach a point not many hundred yards from the same, upon the other. An examina- tion of the chorography will show that a very large part of what subse- quently became Saint Michaels parish can be easily reached by boats leaving the town either by church cove or by what is known as Saint Domingo or Back creek. The whole of what is now called Bayside, the whole of Miles River Neck, and the country along Saint Michaels river on the east,47 were able to send their worshippers to the church
46 A memorandum by Mr. John Bozman Kerr, states that the first church at St. Michaels was built in 1600. Upon what authority this was made is not indi- cated. We are not safe in disregarding any indicia of this first explorer of the wilderness of our early annals, but he is not to be followed implicitly.
47 The proper name for the creek or river, commonly called Miles River, is Saint Michaels. The corruption into Miles probably originated in the habit, common to all people of abbreviating names which are difficult of pronuncia-
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in barges, canoes or other boats, some one of which every farmer pos- sessed; while those who preferred and were able to ride, had but to to follow the devious and narrow bridle path which by necessity had to pass immediately before the door.48
But the position selected for reasons ecclesiastical and spiritual well might have been chosen for reasons economical and secular; for the same facilities of access which it offered to those seeking religious strength or comfort were offered to the wordly minded intent upon their material or pecuniary advantage. In truth the place of meeting for worship became a place of meeting for business. There, as a point where most persons congregated, were posted the advertisements of the masters of the ships trading in the waters of Talbot, Queen Anne's and Dorset, in which they described the character of their vessels, their destination, their rates of freight, and gave the names of their owners and consignees in London, Liverpool, or other English ports. There the captains met the planters of the vicinity, and the factors and merchants, with whom contracts were formed. The creek which makes in from Saint Michaels river and forms the harbor of the town furnished an admirable anchorage for sea-going and other vessels, while at Deep-Water Point, one of the chops of this harbor, vessels of large tonnage could approach the shore within a stone's throw. If we may credit tradition, a most uncertain guide, such vessels, at a time, not within memory, could and did ascend the harbor much higher than the present depth of water would permit.49 It is, however, very well established that the harbor
tion. Possibly the custom of the Quakers in dropping the word Saint, may have favored this habit. It was easy to pass from Michaels river to Miles; and the corruption commenced at a very early period in the history of the county. There is a Miles creek in Trappe district, which sometimes, in the first records was called St. Miles, and at others St. Michaels. In 1687 one John Miles of Ann Arundel county, sold a tract of land to Thomas Miles of the same county upon the upper waters of the St. Michaels river. May we not have here the origin of the alter- nate name.
48 Although the origin of the town is to be traced to the building of a church, it is a curious fact, worthy of being noted, that the first mention of the place that has been discovered in the county or any other records, is in connection with a horse race which came off at St. Michaels in 1680. In a book of judgments for 1681-1685 there is a record of an action to recover a bet made upon this horse race. This indicates clearly that here was a place for neighborhood gatherings at the date indicated.
49 As confirmatory of the truth of this tradition, stones are pointed out in Church Creek, which are said to have been thrown from ships that had used them as ballast.
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of Saint Michaels was a place of lading and unlading of English shipping at a very early period, and continued so to be down to the Revolution, if not a little later. In extant records there are many indications that Deep Water Point, upon the right of the approach to the harbor, was from its singular natural advantages, at and from a very early day, a preferred place for the receipt and deposit of freight, and that here was the factory of one Liverpool firm, at least, and a house of public entertainment.
There is a little doubt that the English mercantile firms of London, Liverpool and Bristol, whose ships were trading in the waters of Talbot, Choptank, Third Haven, Wye and Saint Michaels rivers, had their factors or agents at points at, or at least not remote from the site of the town of Saint Michaels; but there have been discovered but few records of the presence of such persons. There was a public tobacco warehouse upon the farm of Daniel Sherwood, upon Broad Creek not very dis- tant from this place. Here large quantities of the staple of the province was brought to be inspected, and stored to await transportation. It is known that Mr. James Edge, he who gave name to an arm of Broad Creek, upon which he resided, was in 1741-2 the factor of Mr. Richard Gildart of Liverpool, whose ships visited Talbot regularly down to the outbreak of the war of Independence.50 When the people of the colonies determined, by their Associations, to permit no English goods to be introduced, namely in 1775, Mr. Jas. Braddock of St. Michaels, was the agent of Messrs. Gildart and Gawith, and their ship, the Johnson, which entered the Eastern bay was prevented by the Committee of Observation from landing that part of her cargo consigned to Mr. Braddock. This gentleman owned much property which was subse- quently embraced in the plot of the town, at the date of its incorporation and survey; and his name was given to one of the squares or wards into which the town was divided, as will presently be noted. In this very imperfect sketch of the origin and ante-revolutionary history of Saint Michaels, it is proper that reference should be made to an independent merchant whose large transactions in tobacco and other country prod- ucts and whose stocked store of imported goods, were important factors in the growth of a town in his immediate vicinage. This gentle- man was Mr. Thomas Harrison, who had his place of business on the arm of Broad Creek that approaches the town, as it were in the rear, at his farm now called Canton. His store-house stood at the water's edge,
50 Mr. Edge is buried beneath the church at St. Michaels.
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near his residence, yet standing, and to it resorted the planters and traders of Talbot and Dorchester counties to exchange their tobacco or other products for goods and wares of foreign importation. This tobacco and whatever else was fitted for export were sent abroad in ships lying in Saint Michaels river and harbor. It may not be amiss to say that Mr. Harrison acquired a very handsome fortune in this busi- ness which he conducted until his death in 1802, and left to his son, Mr. Samuel Harrison, who prosecuted the same in the old place until about 1810, when he removed to the town proper which had now grown to a village of no inconsiderable size, the patronage of whose inhabitants it was his interest to retain. Mr. Samuel Harrison continued to import his goods directly from England, down to 1808, at least, and he was probably the last merchant of this county to participate in the foreign export and import trade; but it should be stated his importations at this date were made through the port of Baltimore, and his exportations, if any, were through the same. If there were other merchants before the Revolution at or near St. Michaels, and doubtless there were, their names have not been preserved.
From very early dates in the history of this county the business of ship building had been successfully prosecuted. The vast forests of magnifi- cent pines and oaks which almost completely covered the face of the country and came down the very water's edge, as though asking to be launched upon its bosom, furnished ample, excellent and easily procurable materials for the use of the naval architect; while the many deep and sheltered coves and creeks gave him convenient and inexpensive sites for shipyards. In no section of the county was the business more largely and diligently followed, as long as the timber lasted, than in Bay Side, where it has left, to the present day, traces and indications of its extent in the debris and waste yet lying preserved by the salt water and to be seen in every neighborhood and where the business still sur- vives, though upon a much reduced scale. The tendency which, in all progressive societies, is shown by the occupations of men, especially of the commercial and mechanical, to concentrate for their prosecution at a few points, instead of being widely scattered was manifested there by the trade of ship building. Without pausing to study the philosophy of this it is sufficient to say that in such pursuits, differing from the professional or agricultural, personal and pecuniary interest corroborates the instinctive gregariousness of men; for in those common effort is most necessary to success, while in these individual effort is all that is required. With the destruction of the timber proximate to the various
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ship yards scattered through the county there was a gradual drawing together of the master builders, and their workmen in the various depart- ments-the ship-wrights, the blacksmiths, the sawyers, the caulkers the riggers, the sail makers and the painters-at a few localities which pre- sented compensating advantages to offset the labor and expense of the longer transportation of materials. One of these points of concentration of the ship building interest, determined by circumstances very apprecia- ble, was St. Michaels, and its immediate vicinage, where from the earliest days of settlement it has had an existence. Here, owing to the causes which have already been noticed, and others; here where men assem- bled for traffic, worship or recreation; here where the planters and traders, with their wives and daughters, resorted upon the arrival of every ship to partake of the politic and calculating hospitality of the captains, which upon these occasions was profusely extended; or where they came to learn the prices of the Maryland staple in the markets of Europe, and the political and social news of the great world beyond the ocean; here where the youth of both sexes from the country around congre- gated on holidays to witness or participate in the horse racing, cock fighting and other rustic sports; here the young men came to prove and display their manhood in feats of strength and agility and the young women to parade their personal charms bedecked in the simple finery of the country, or, in the case of the more fortunate, in the newest mode from abroad ;- here had grown up, as it were, imperceptibly a hamlet or small village, chiefly inhabited by mechanics, and those who lived off their labor, the publicans and small ship-keepers. The mechan- ics were engaged in building or refitting vessels, the shop keepers catered to their wants, while the publicans provided entertainment for the sailors and strangers just arrived from abroad or for the cockerouses51 of the country around.
These, then, were the circumstances under the influence of which a small straggling village of a few humble tenements, occupied by a hun- dred or more people, grew up around the church, and near the ship yards. The houses had been built without regard to order, and the people lived in peace without government No attempt, down to the time of the Revolution had been made to assign any limits to or give any regularity to the village, and no thought or wish had been expressed for municipal rights and privileges. The few streets were but roads that conformed
51 A term said to be of Indian origin, signifying the chief or great men, and applied to the large planters as distinguished from the small farmers.
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to the natural features of the land and water, and the only laws the in- habitants obeyed, except the general laws of the province, were those which custom had established. With the outbreak of the war of the Revolution closes the first period of the history of the town of Saint Michaels namely that of its origin and inchoation.
After that happy event the prosperity which had begun to be shown before, became more marked. Houses, and people to occupy them, multiplied, business flourished, fortunes, or what was deemed there to be fortunes, were accumulated by the masters of the numerous ship yards and the small merchants, the workmen lived in great independence, comfort and plenty, while the people of the adjacent country experienced the benefits o" having a ready market for their timber and other farm products. Within the town all was life and animation, particularly around the ship yards. The ringing of the heavy broad axe, as it shaped the tortuous knees or the graceful timbers, the grating of the whip-saw as it went plunging into the pit, riving the solid oak; the thundering of the great iron maul upon the rounding bottom or the sweeping sides of the ship as it drove the spikes or trunnels home; the clanging of the caulkers' mallet closing with pitchy oakum the gaping seam; the roar of the blacksmith's forge as it welded the links of the ponderous cable; the aeolian strains that awoke as the tightening stays and shrouds became attuned under the rigger's cunning hands; even the boisterous chaffing of the sailors awaiting the completion of their vessels, and the noisy prattle of the urchins while picking up the chips for the evening fire,-all these united in one grand symphony, at once the sign and the expression of industrial prosperity and happiness.
THE TOWN OF SAINT MICHAELS
An hundred years or more had probably elapsed, after the date when the first traces of Saint Michaels might have been discovered at the place where it now stands, before any steps were taken to give to the town which had huddled around the church and ship yards something of regularity, by the laying off streets and alleys, to take the place of the tortuous roads and paths, which made the village ways and to mark and designate by proper lines the lots which were to be built upon. In the year 1778, during the progress of the war of the Revolution, Mr. James Braddock, an English gentleman, who was the agent or factor of Messrs. Gildart & Gawith, Liverpool merchants, at St. Michaels, and who had come into possession of land in and near the town, laid
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off a portion of this land into town lots, and had a plot of the same properly made by a surveyor. This survey and plot is not upon record, but is frequently referred to in many deeds of land which he executed after this date. It is believed that Mr. Braddock at this time laid off the central portion of the town including the public square, of which mention will be made in the sequel. After Mr. Braddock's death, Mr. John Thompson, his heir under his exceedingly brief will of a half dozen lines, in 1783, laid off another portion of land into lots. Of this addition to the town there is no record, farther than frequent mention of and refer- ence to it in many conveyances. The town continued to grow in size and in prosperity. By the year 1804 the number of people who had taken up their residence at Saint Michaels, and had therefore common interests distinct from the interests of the people of the county in general, was such that there was felt a desire, or rather there was experienced a necessity for the acquisition by this community of certain powers, privileges and immunities which would enable it better to maintain order and promote its well being. Besides there was a growing con- viction, founded upon the prosperity which prevailed, that the village would develop into a considerable town requiring municipal government, with its own proper ordinances and officers. After the matter had been thoroughly discussed by the people at their voluntary meetings, and by the principal citizens, upon whom wou'd fall the chief burden of the new government, in private, it was determined to forward a petition signed by the residents of the village, to the General Assembly of the State praying that a charter for a corporate town be granted to the people of Saint Michaels. Accompanying this petition was a bill embodying those provisions which it was deemed advisable to secure. This petition and bill were presented to the Legislature at the November session of 1804, and on the 19th of Jan. 1805 the bill received the final ratification of the body, and became a law. The following are the first, second and third sections of the Act of Incorporation.
I. Whereas, it hath been set forth by the petition of sundry inhabi- ants of Talbot county, that the village now known by the name of St. Michaels, in said county, has considerably increased in the number of houses and inhabitants, and have prayed that the said village may be reacted into a town according to the ancient metes and bounds thereof, and of the lands adjoining thereto, as laid down in a plot annexed to said petition, and the prayer of the petitioners appearing reasonable, therefore
II. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Maryland that Robert Dodson, John Dorgan, James Boid and Thomas S. Haddaway be and
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they are hereby appointed Commissioners, who, or a majority of them, be and are hereby authorized and directed to resurvey the grounds and lots within the village of Saint Michaels, in Talbot county and to per- petuate the lines and bounds thereof, that is to say, as well as those lands and bounds laid off by a certain James Braddock about the year 1778 for the purpose of a town by the name of Saint Michaels, as afore- said, as those gounds or lots which were laid off and sold by a certain John Thompson, heir and representative of the aforesaid Braddock on or about the year 1783, for the said purpose; and the said Commis- sioners are hereby directed to resurvey and establish by stone bounda- ries, or such other as they shall consider good and durable, all the lots, squares, lanes, ways and alleys in the said town, agreeably to the old location, thereof, as made at the time of the first laying off of those grounds, or as nearly so as they can, and to give to the said squares, streets, lanes, ways and alleys, such distinguishing names as they think proper; and the Commissioners are further hereby authorized and directed to lay off into lots, streets, ways, lanes and alleys such other grounds or lands conceded for such purposes as shall be contained within the limit's herein after prescribed and the same to name and number as aforesaid.
III. And be it enacted that the bounds and limits of the said town shall be as follows, viz .: Beginning at a stone set down by the side of a cove of Saint Michaels river and running south 66 degrees, 15 min- utes west to a branch of Broad Creek, then up and with said Broad Creek to the land of Samuel Harrison; then therewith north 81 degrees east to the main road; then northwardly with said main road to the land of Robert Richardson's heirs; then therewith to the waters of Saint Michaels river aforesaid, then with said waters to the beginning; which said town shall be called Saint Michaels.
Of the other sections of this act of incorporation it is not necessary to give more than a brief abstract.
IV. Provides for the appointment of a surveyor who shall draw a plot of the town.
V. Provides for a clerk to record the proceedings of the Commissioners and their surveyor, to give a plot and perfect description of all lots, streets, &c., and to file his record with the clerk of the county.
VI. Authorizes the Commissioners to act as such until the first Mon- day in January, 1806, when an election should be held for their succes- sors in office, and it directs that annually upon the same day elections should be held thereafter, commencing at 9 o'clock in the morning and closing at 4 o'clock in the afternoon, at which all freemen qualified to vote for delegates to the General Assembly, should be entitled to vote by ballot. In this section also the qualifications of a Commissioner is defined, and annual choice of a Bailiff required, and the matter of appointing the judges of election determined.
VII. Settles the time for the meetings of the Commissioners, regu- lates their pay, and prescribes their duties.
VIII. Defines the duties of the Bailiff, and among these was this:
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"to punish with moderate correction under such rules and regulations as shall be prescribed by the said Commissioners all such negroes and other slaves as shall be found strolling or wandering about the streets in the night time, and frequenting the houses of other persons in said town, without the consent of their masters."
IX. Prohibits the going at large of geese and swine.
X. Defines the powers of the Commissioners.
The Commissioners appointed by the Act seem not to have proceeded to the discharge of their duties until the year 1807. In the meantime some changes had been made in its constituent membership, Mr. William Merchant having taken the place of Mr. Boid and Mr. Jas. Dodson having been added to the Commissioners.
These gentlemen selected Mr. Samuel Tennant, a gentleman resident in the immediate neighborhood, as their surveyor and proceeded to lay off the town, according to the act of incorporation, paying due regard to the lines of the plots of Mr. Braddock and Mr. Thompson. The streets were laid off sixty feet wide and properly marked by boundary stones. To these streets were given such names as Talbot (that is the main street of the town), Mill (that is the street running down to Mill Point, otherwise Roades' Point), Mulberry, Chestnut, Water, Willow, Cherry, Locust. Certain alleys were named Cedar, Carpenter's, Thomp- son's. The whole plot of the town was divided into three squares, or wards, exclusive of the Public square in the centre of the town. Brad- dock's Square, or ward comprised all the land from St. Michaels river to Talbot street and along that street to a stone marked H. Thompson's Square, or ward comprised all the land bordering on Broad Creek, extending up to Talbot street. Harrison's Square, or ward comprised all the land bordering on St. Michaels river below Braddock's Square. 52 The Public Square, to which the name of Saint Mary was given was a body of land near the centre of the town, containing forty-eight thousand square feet in the shape of a regular parallelogram, two sides of which parallel with Talbot street were each two hundred and forty feet in length, and the other two sides parallel with Mulberry street two hun- dred feet in length. Apparently this square was enclosed; at least it is described in the report of the Surveyor as having two gates, each forty feet wide, and respectively known as the North and South gate. Besides the land which was laid off, as described, there were other lands within the limits which were left unsurveyed. Of these a portion belonged to the vestry of St. Michaels Parish, and was known as Mt.
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