USA > Maryland > Talbot County > History of Talbot county, Maryland, 1661-1861, Volume II > Part 56
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The widow of Col. Vincent Lowe married, for her second husband, William Coursey, another prominent citizen of Talbot County, who together with his wife, mortgaged Choptank Island to Capt. John Hyde, merchant, of London, who sold it to Matthew Tilghman Ward. This last named gentleman married, firstly, Mabel Dawson Murphy, daughter of Ralph Dawson, and widow of Capt. James Murphy. He married, secondly, Margaret Lloyd, daughter of Col. Philemon Lloyd of Wye House. He was commissioned Major General of the Militia of Talbot County in 1739, Chief Justice of the Provincial Court 1729-32, Member of the Governor's Council 1719 till his death in 1741, leaving his widow, Margaret Ward, the richest woman on the Eastern Shore. His only child, a daughter Mary by his first wife, died single in 1722. He devised this entire estate, after the death of his widow, to his cousin and namesake, Matthew Tilghman, whom he had adopted when a youth. His landed estates included not only Choptank or Ward's Island, but his attractive homestead "Bayside," or "Rich Neck Manor," now (1914), the elegant country-seat of Henry H. Pearson, Jr., Esq. The town of Claiborne is located on this tract of land, which was pat- ented by Henry Fox for 1000 acres, and conveyed by him to Capt. James Murphy in 1684.
Matthew Tilghman, a few months after the death of his benefactor,
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married Ann Lloyd, and soon became one of the leading public men in the province, and a prominent patriot during the American Revolu- tion. He died in 1790. He devised his homestead to his eldest son Lloyd Tilghman who died intestate in 1811. Choptank, Ward's or Tilghman's Island continued in the possession of Matthew Tilghman's heirs until the year 1838, when it was sold and conveyed by them to Absalom Thompson; eleven years later, in 1849, he conveyed this island to Gen. Tench Tilghman, when it was surveyed by Samuel Jackson, County Surveyor, and found to contain 1869 acres, a greater part of which was covered with a forest of tall pine trees of original growth. General Tilghman erected two portable Page saw-mills on this island, the first steam saw mills ever used on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Both of these mills were unfortunately burned, and the timber project was abandoned.
It is now (1914), nearly denuded of timber trees, the land is divided into small farms, and the town of Tilghman is a busy shipping point for fish, oysters and crabs and the canning of tomatoes and herring roe are big industries at this place.
The wind storms which have for centuries caused the waters of the Chesapeake Bay to break over the banks of this island at high tides have swept away many acres of this island on the bay front. The United States Geological Survey, Department of the Interior, has just published (1914), a most interesting pamphlet entitled Erosion and Sedimentation in Chesapeake Bay around the mouth of Choptank River, in which the following reference is made to Tilghman's Island.
Tilghman Island is the largest and most northerly of the three islands under discussion. It is over 3} miles long and has an area of more than three square miles, providing homes for many prosperous farmers and fisherman. At its north end are located the towns of Tilghman and Avalon with a population of several hundred people. It is sepa- rated from the mainland by a narrow strait called Knapp Narrows. This island has suffered much less erosion in proportion to its area than either of the other two. The eastern coast, as in the other is- lands, remained essentially unchanged during the 63 years from 1847 to 1910. Extensive erosion has taken place along the western.coast, except in the protected portion in Pawpaw Cove, a semicircular in- dentation midway of the island. During the 53 years between 1847 and 1900 the area of Tilghman's Island decreased from 2015' to 1686
1 If the U. S. Government survey of 1847 is correct, which makes the area of Tilghman's Island, at that date, 2,015 acres, then the original surveys under which this island was patented to Seth Foster in 1659 and 1661 are manifestly
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HISTORY OF TALBOT COUNTY
acres, a total loss of 329 acres or over 16.3 per cent. The maximum encroachment of the sea has been on the southern cape (Black Walnut Point, which has reached a quarter of a mile in 63 years. The average annual encroachment of the sea on the western shore during the 53 year period was 10 feet, the estimate excluding the shore of Pawpaw Cove, which has not changed. This is a much lower rate than those effective on the corresponding coasts of the other islands. Only the southern portion of the west coast was surveyed in 1910, but here the erosion has been rather rapid, averaging 29 feet a year for the 10 year period beginning with 1900. That Tilghman Island will have a much longer life than the other two islands is manifest. By considering as before the mean annual areal loss per mile of exposed shore line and using one-half the remaining westerly exposed shore line as a basis, it would seem that the island will not disappear in its watery grave for at least 570 years. However, this estimate must be regarded only as a very rough approximation. Although the earliest maps show a large stretch of water between Tilghman and Sharpes Islands many of the residents recount the tales told by their forebears of a genera- tion or two ago concerning the proximity and even the connection of the two islands. It may be interesting in this connection to point out the fact that during the 63 years from 1847 to 1910 the average annual widening of the intervening water area was 0.01 mile as the islands in 1910 were 3.38 miles apart, the time of their separation, if this rate of widening has prevailed continuously would be about 340 years ago or about 1570. This is a hundred years earlier than the date of the oldest map, that of Herman, which shows a considerable stretch of intervening water.
Sharpe's Island, lying at the mouth of the Great Choptank River, on the eastern side of the Chesapeake Bay, and directly opposite the "Cliffs" of Calvert County, derives its name from one of its early owners Dr. Peter Sharpe, who is called in the Calvert County Records Peter Sharpe of the Cliffs, "Chirurgion." This island has been known by several different names, according as it has, at various times, belonged to this or that person, but the name of the Quaker physician of Calvert has clung to it, and will ever be used to designate a little patch of earth a century ago containing 700 acres, but which is diminishing year by year, and destined at no very remote geological period to disappear beneath the waves of the Chesapeake, unless, indeed, there shall be another of those secular upheavals which first lifted it and the whole
incorrect, as his two patents call for 1,500 acres only. It is possible, however, that he may not have taken up the whole of this island, and that the neck on the north end of this island, next to the mainland, may have been patented by Robert Knapp, who died in 1682, and from whom Knapp's Narrows, the strait or narrow stream separating Tilghman's Island from the mainland, takes its name.
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Eastern Shore out of the sea. If priority of designation should be allowed to govern, the proper name of this island is Claiborne's. In the deed of Will Sharpe, son and heir of Peter, to John Eason, Septem- ber 10, 1675, it is expressly stated that this island was formerly known by the name of Claiborne's Island, and now, or lately, by the name of Sharpe's Island. This is repeated in other and subsequent con- veyances. There is little doubt that Capt. William Claiborne, the original settler, if he may not claim the honor of founder of Mary- land, visited, took possession of, and gave his name to this island. It is really due to Claiborne, whom Lord Baltimore's colonists treated so badly, and who has fared so poorly at the hands of the historians, that his name should be permanently attached to some spot of earth in a state, the seeds of whose civilization he was the first to plant. His- toric justice and the laws of geographical nomenclature demand that this island, while any of it remains shall be called Claiborne's Island. Since the above was written the name of Claiborne has been given to a village at the western terminus of the Baltimore, Chesapeake and Atlantic Railway, on Eastern Bay, which promises to become a town of some importance. In "The Worthies of Talbot," volume 1 of the His- tory of Talbot County, may be found a memoir of William Claiborne who founded the first settlement of white men in Maryland on the south end of Kent Island a few years before Lord Baltimore's colonists landed at Saint Mary's. It was Claiborne and his Puritan followers who defeated Lord Baltimore's Governor, Stone, at the battle of the Severn which made him not only Lord of Kent but of all Maryland, and he continued so during the reign of Cromwell the Protector in England. In the autumn of 1659, the Great Protector passed away, and two years afterwards Charles II was restored to his throne and Maryland quietly acknowledged him. That was necessarily the end of Claiborne in the province of his hold upon Kent Island. The famous "rebel," as he was then called, returned to Virginia where he owned a fine old estate, called "Romancoke" in King William County, and either there, or in the County of New Kent, where he also owned broad acres, and which he had so named in contradistinction to Old Kent in Maryland, he died at the age of about ninety toward the end of the seventeenth century. These old struggles are now long forgotten, but they lie at the foundation of Maryland history and are worthy of attention. He was a soldier, a diplomat, a politician and a man of genius, and the multitude of honorable persons of his blood in the United States need not be ashamed of the descent from him says Jno.
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HISTORY OF TALBOT COUNTY
Eston Cooke in the August number, 1883, of the magazine of American History. A pamphlet just published (1914), by the U. S. Geological Survey, heretofore referred to, entitled Erosion and Sedimentation in Chesapeake Bay around the mouth of Choptank River contains the fol- lowing interesting information relative to Sharpe's Island:
SHARPS ISLAND
Loss in area .- Sharps Island, the smallest of the three under dis- cussion, stands directly at the mouth of Choptank River, unprotected on any side from the action of the waves. Less than a generation ago it was a summer resort and supported a number of people throughout the year. The north end was well wooded and the island was a favorite ground for hunting ducks and small game. The days of its prosperity are now but a memory, and the life of the island is a thing of the past. The trees have disappeared save for a meager half dozen; the houses have been washed away except for the large hotel which stands alone in the center of the island, a crumbling monument to the activity of other days; the site of an artesian well has been transgressed by the waves so that it now presents the unique feature of a well in the midst of the waters of the bay. The survivors of the piling that made up the long pier which formerly invited the voyager only add to the melan- choly of the deserted and dreary scene.
Impressions and hearsay are not the only evidence of remarkable changes in the island, for the story told by the comparison of the three maps of 1848, 1900 and 1910 is equally noteworthy. In 1848 the island contained 438 acres; in 1900 the surprisingly small area of 91 acres, or but 21 per cent, had survived. There had been an average annual loss of 6.7 acres, or 1.5 per cent. Owing to the decrease in the length of shore line the amount of erosion annually during the period from 1900 to 1910 dropped to an average of 3.8 acres, which, however, was 4 per cent of the total area of 1900. The area of the island in 1910 was 53 acres, showing a loss of 88 per cent in 62 years, an average annual loss of 6.2 acres, or 1.4 per cent.
Linear cutting .- The maximum erosion on Sharps Island, as on James Island, has been on the west and north sides, the east and south sides having remained substantially unchanged. An interesting fea- ture is the continuance of the sandspit on the south end until after 1900, when the pier was washed away. Since then the spit has moved around to the southeast corner of the island, inclosing a small pond. The north- ern part of the island is made up of material of the Talbot formation and rises out of the water as much as 7 feet. Here the erosion has been enormous, the water advancing 0.35 mile in 52 years and 0.57 mile in 62 years. The average encroachment on the north and west coasts during the 52-year interval was 0.32 mile, or at the rate of 32 feet a year. During the 10 years between 1900 and 1910 the bay advanced 0.21 mile on the north shore, or at the remarkable rate of 110 feet a
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year. The loss on the west coast, however, was much less, averaging about 21 feet a year during the period.
The marshland of the southern part of the island is withstanding the force of the waves much more effectively than the rest of the island and will doubtless be the last to disappear. It may be interesting in this connection to venture a prediction, based on the facts at hand, as to the time of final disappearance of the island. By platting the length of the island as ordinates against the time interval between surveys, it is evident that the rate of erosion has greatly increased in the last 10 years. If the rate of that interval were to continue the island would disappear before 1930. However, it is obvious from the general study that the erosion was unusually intense during this period and furthermore that when the marshland is reached the rate will decrease. On the basis of the rate of encroachment during the 52- year interval and the maximum width of 0.28 mile, the time of dis- appearance would be put at 1947. From a consideration of the an- nual areal loss per mile of shore line subject to erosion, one-half the remaining exposed shore line being used as a basis, the average annual loss will be 1.67 acres. By this method the date of the island's entire submergence would be put at 1942. At the rate during the last 10 years on the west coast, the estimated date would be a little later, probably about 1950 to 1955.
From general considerations the writer feels that it is fairly safe to predict that Sharps Island will be entirely gone by 1950 and that it is not beyond the range of possibility that the island will disappear before 1940. The higher land to the north will doubtless be cut away first, and in 15 years, if the average yearly rate persists, the house will be reached. In 20 years probably little will be left but the low-lying marshland.
POPLAR ISLAND OR FOSTER'S ISLAND
In the Calvert Papers No. 269, Record for Land 1640, folio 106, is the following record:
Isle of Kent County, Thompson's Manor, containing the Island called Popeley's Island, containing 1000 acres, and 430 acres on Isle of Kent due Richard Thompson for transporting himself, wife, his child, one maid servant and six men servants-surveyed 6th Novem- ber 1640 owned by Seth Foster 1658.
This Richard Thompson was a near kinsman and henchman of the notorious Capt. William Claiborne, the first white settler on Kent Island, which later belonged to Talbot County. A few years only after Thompson had settled on Poplar Island, his entire family, in- cluding his wife, children and servants were all massacred by the blood- thirsty Nanticoke Indians, during his absence from the Island.
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HISTORY OF TALBOT COUNTY
In 1642 Giles Brent being Commander of the Isle of Kent, William Luddington and Richard Thompson were appointed commissioners. This entitled him to a seat in the Assembly of the Province.
In 1838 the Assembly had passed an act of Attainder against Clai- borne, by which all of his property and stores at his trading post on Kent Island were forfeited to the Proprietary. Claiborne went back to England to submit his claims under the Virginia Charter to the Crown; on his return, in 1644, Thompson evidently advocated his claims, for Governor Calvert, in 1644, issued a proclamation,
to be published on the Isle of Kent, prohibiting any trade with that island till ships had first been at St. Maries, and declaring Captain William Clayborne and Richard Thompson, planter, to be enemies to the Province, and prohibiting all intelligence or correspondence with them or agents.
When the Royal Government in England was usurped by Oliver Cromwell, after the execution of Charles I, Claiborne, being a Puri- tan, recovered his estates on Kent Island, and became one of the lead- ing citizens of the province. Thomas Hawkins appears to have been the next owner of Poplar Island, after Richard Thompson, for in 1654 he sold and conveyed by deed to Seth Foster "Two quarters of my land on Poplar Island." In his will, dated October 21, 1656, but not pro- bated till October 4, 1669, he divided his land on Poplar Island between his wife Elizabeth and son Thomas Hawkins, Jr. His widow later married Seth Foster. Seth Foster, dying in 1674, devised Great Chop- tank Island to his daughter Elizabeth, wife of Vincent Lowe; to his daughter Sarah, who, later, married Michael Turbutt, 1000 acres of land in upper Talbot, later Queen Anne County, and residue of estate to his two daughters aforesaid. This residue must have included at least one-half of Poplar Island. He also mentions son-in-law, meaning stepson, John Hawkins, who later became prominent as Judge of the Provincial Court. He resided at Queenstown, the first county- seat of Queen Anne's County.
In the Assembly Proceedings 1657, Maryland Archives, is the follow- ing act concerning Poplar's Island.
It is enacted and declared in the name of his highness the Lord Protector of England &c and by the authority of this present General Assembly, that the island commonly called Poplar's Island lying near unto the Island of Kent be adjoyned unto the County of Kent, and from henceforth be of all persons so accounted and taken to be.
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In 1661 Poplar Island was made a part of Talbot as also Kent Island, but in 1671 it was restored to Kent County together with Kent Island, by the following proclamation.
To all persons to whom these presents may come: These are to certify that I have ordered and appoynted, and doe order and appoynt that for the future the Northeast side of Chester as far as the bounds of Talbot County were formerly on that side, shall now bee added to Kent County, and I doe declare that part to belong to Kent, as alsoe Poplar's Island, and doe hereby require that the Sheriffe of Talbot County presume not to recover any quitt rents or dues from the in- habitants living and residing uppon the place above specified, they being within the County of Kent. Given under my hand this 4th day of June 1671.
In 1695, both Kent Island and Poplar Island were attached to Tal- bot. In 1706 Kent Island was divorced from Talbot and given to a younger sister Queen Anne.
After the termination of the Reign of Oliver Cromwell in England, and the accession of King Charles II, this monarch determined to dispossess the Dutch of the settlements they had made in America on what the English claimed as their territory. To this end, he granted to his brother James, Duke of York, a patent for all the country from the Connecticut to the Delaware Bay. Shortly after this grant was made war was declared between the English and Dutch and the same year New Amsterdam surrendered to an expedition under command of Col. Richard Nichols and the name of that place was changed to New York.
Shortly after the surrender of New Amsterdam an expedition under Sir Robert Carr was sent to Delaware Bay, which without much blood- shed, took possession of the country, according to Carr's instructions, in the name of his majesty the King of England. The name of New Amstel was now changed to New Castle, and Altona was called by the name of Christiana and later Wilmington. New York and the country along the Delaware remained in the possession of the English till 1674, when war again breaking out between the Dutch and English they were conquered by the former.
The downfall of the Dutch, in 1664, terminated the connection of the Dutch Governor, D'Hyniossa, with the settlement at New Castle. He sought refuge in Maryland, and his property including an island in the Delaware River, was confiscated and given to Carr. He was kindly received by Lord Baltimore who gave him a grant of the whole
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HISTORY OF TALBOT COUNTY
or part of Foster's Island or Poplar Island, in Talbot County. No doubt this was on account of the favor he had showed the English in Maryland during the latter part of the time he was in authority in Delaware. Poplar Island had doubtless been confiscated by Lord Baltimore from the adherents of Claiborne when they were driven out of Kent and Poplar Island. Just how long D'Hyniossa continued to live on this island is not known. An interesting memoir of this Dutch Governor of Delaware may be found among the "Worthies of Talbot" volume 1 of this work.
George Lynn-Lachlan Davis in his Day Star of American Freedom, published in 1855, says of Poplar Island.
The number of the Dutch refugees was larger than that of the Swedish; including the Governor Alexander Diniossa, and his children, origi- nally from Gilderland; He lived some time upon an Island of the Chesa- peake then called "Fosters:" but subsequently, it seems, upon the Western Shore, and the last glimpse I obtain is in Prince George's where his family dwindled down into a state either of extreme mis- fortune or of great obscurity.
In common with nearly all of the many islands in the Chesapeake Bay, Poplar Island is fast washing away. It has been cut into three separate islands by the lashing of the waves of the Chesapeake Bay and constant erosions have decreased the acreage of this tract from 1000 acres in 1640 to less than 500 acres in 1912.
Royston's Island, formerly called Aldern's Island, at the mouth of Irish Creek, assessed in 1755 for 41 acres to Richard Aldern's widow, Elizabeth, and Willey's Island, on Broad Creek at the lower end of Church Neck, about two miles south of St. Michaels, formerly called Hambleton's Island, and in 1755 about double the size of Royston's Island are both fast washing away. While Powell's Island at the end of Howell's Point on the Choptank River, assessed, to Judge Samuel Dickinson in 1755 for 55 acres has long ago entirely disappeared, as have also other smaller islands in Talbot waters, among which may be named Sherwood's Island, on Miles River, assessed in 1755, for 20 acres to Philemon Hambleton.
BRUFF'S ISLAND OR CROUCH'S ISLAND
This island takes its names from Thomas Bruff, silversmith, who emigrated from London, England, to Maryland, about 1665. He was constable of Chester Hundred in 1690; married, 1668, Rhoda, daughter of Charles Walker and died March 1702. He devised to
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son Richard, dwelling plantation at Doncaster (pronounced Donkster), and one-half of Crouch's Island, and to son Thomas, residue of island. This island was originally called Crouch's Island from William Crouch of Ann Arundel County, who, by will probated May 25, 1676, devises "Crouch's Choyce," at mouth of Wye to son Josias. The town of Doncaster was located on this tract called Crouch's Choyce. Thomas Bruff, Jr., and Katherine, his wife, conveyed to Edward Lloyd, Crouch's Island, by deed dated April 11, 1707, and from that date it has been known as Bruff's Island. It was originally laid out for Henry Mor- gan who assigned it to William Crouch. Josias Crouch, Jr., sold it to Edmond O'Dwyer, who, in November, 1678, conveys to Peter Sayer Crouch's Island, containing 50 acres, Sayer reconveys it to O'Dwyer, who, in turn, conveyed it to Thomas Hinds in 1687, and in the same year the said Hinds conveys this island to Thomas Bruff. Richard Bruff, son of Thomas, born 1670, was an Inn-Keeper at the town of Doncaster, and owned a large tobacco warehouse, fronting on a narrow strait of water which then separated Bruff's Island from the main- land on which the town of Doncaster stood. The foundations of this old warehouse which had been buried under the sand for over a cen- tury were unearthed, in 1912, by Mr. Sidney S. Schuyler, the present owner of Bruff's Island, when digging sand with which to build a con- crete sea-wall to protect the banks of his island. Bruff's Island is now (1914), connected with the mainland by a solid roadway of sand which has gradually filled up the deep stream or strait through which schooners formerly navigated. This island now containing about thirty acres is completely covered with handsome forest trees of great variety and is a park of rare beauty.
There were six tobacco warehouses in Talbot County during the Revolutionary War. The following communication from the commis- sioners of tax for Talbot to "His Excellency, the Governor, and Council of the State of Maryland" shows the locations of these several warehouses.
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