USA > Maryland > Maryland's colonial Eastern Shore ; historical sketches of counties and of some notable structures > Part 11
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The Chief Justices of the County Courts at first sat with two lay associates in each county, but under a further reorganization of the county courts by the Act of 1804, Polk, Done and James B. Robins, of Worcester, became the Fourth District bench. Judge Whittington returned to it as an Associate Justice in 1812, again succeeding Done, promoted to Chief Justice on the death of Polk.
Judge Whittington, noted among the early judges of Maryland for his mental attainments and judicial character, continued on the bench until his death, in 1827, when his place was taken by his son- in-law, Judge Tingle. A quarter of a century later all the appointive judges were legislated out of office by the Constitution of 1851, which changed the circuits and made judgeships elective. Judge Tingle returned to the practice of law at Snow Hill, and died in 1864.
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ALL HALLOWS CHURCH FIRST CHURCH BUILT 1734
N following the instructions given to the freeholders of what was then Somerset County in the Act of Assembly of 1692, Chapter 2, entitled "An Act for the Service of Almighty God and the Establish- ment of the Protestant Religion within this Province," Mathew Scarborough, William Round, John Francklin, Thomas Painter, Thomas Selby, and Edward Hammond were selected to serve as vestrymen of Snow Hill Parish until the Monday after Easter of the following year. I
The Justices of the County Court, with the "principal free- holders" of the county, had, previous to the selection of the vestrymen, divided Somerset County into four parishes. The instructions regard- ing the laying out and dividing the several counties under this act includes the following; "And the same districts and Parishes the said Justices shall cause to be laid out by meets and bounds and fair certificates of each parish, with the most evident and demonstrable Bounds of the same, returned to the next County Court to be held for the said County which the Justices at their County Courts as
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aforesaid shall cause the Clerk of the said County to enter the said certificate upon the Record and draw a fair copy thereof, affixing his name and the Seal of the said County thereunto, and transmit the same with all convenient speed to the Governor and Council of this Province to be kept on record in the Council Books."
It was found that of the four parishes laid out in Somerset County, the most easterly one, Snow Hill, was co-extensive with two sub- divisions of the county, namely, Bogettenorten and Mattapany Hundreds, lying east of the Pocomoke River and bordering upon the Atlantic Ocean.
The first minister who preached in the parish according to the Allen MSS. was Rev. John White, in 1698. In 1703 Rev. Robert Keith preached there, and in 1708 Rev. Alexander Adams was in charge. It was during his pastorate that the name was changed, in 1710, to All Hallows. Rev. Charles Wilkinson began to preach in the parish in 1711, but owing to the unsettled conditions no minister afterward preached in the parish until 1728, when Rev. Thomas Fletcher began his thirteen years of faithful service as rector. Rev. Patrick Glasgow followed, serving eleven years, and during his pasto- rate, in 1742, All Hallows found itself in Worcester County-the county at its erection being co-extensive with the bounds of old "Snow Hill Parish." The first church was built in 1734, during Rev. Mr. Fletcher's time. In 1754, Rev. John Rosse began his pastoral duties, which continued until the last part of 1775. On January 28. 1776, Rev. Edward Gantt began to preach there.
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OLD PORKAGE
OLD FURNACE
T THROUGH the influence of the Spence family in 1828 the Maryland Iron Company was formed, and acquired about 5,000 acres of land, along Nassawango Creek, which included a large deposit of. bog ore, rich in iron, that curiously enough lined the bed of the creek in considerable quan- tity. It represented the de- posit of mineral substance left by springs that had oozed from the depths of the earth through the bog and cypress roots for untold ages to feed Nassawango Creek. The company was formed to mine and reduce this ore. The adjacent pine forests furnished charcoal to be used in the process. A large furnace was constructed and many houses for employees were built on a site about five miles from Snow Hill. Much money and many high hopes were lost after about seven years unprofitable operation. The stack of the "Old Furnace" is all that now remains of the mills, and around about it and its environs is woven the story of that remarkable novel, "The Entailed Hat," written by the late George Alfred Townsend, himself a native of Worcester County.
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ST. MARTIN'S CHURCH
BUILT 1756
F OR nearly seventy years St. Martin's Church, near the village of Showell in Worcester County, was the parish church of Worcester Parish. The parish was erected from part of Snow Hill, now All Hallows Parish, in 1744. The present brick building was erected in 1756 on the site of its less pretentious predecessor under the patron- age, it is said, of a Queen of England, who presented the parish with a silver service. Part of this silver is now used in St. Paul's Episcopal Church at Berlin and the rest of it in the Episcopal church at Mills- boro, Delaware, which town lies a few miles to the north of St. Martin's.
The vestry of the parish built Prince George's Chapel at Selbyville in the early days, and when the Maryland-Delaware boundary line was run by Mason and Dixon in 1763 and relocated to include that part of Worcester County south of the Indian River it divided Wor- cester Parish, placing Prince George's Parish in Delaware. It was at that time that the silver service of St. Martin's was divided.
The vestries in those days, when state and church were united and, under the Proprietary government of the Calverts subject to the
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Crown of England, had magisterial authority and laid a tax on the settlers for the maintenance of the Church of England in Maryland. The tax was paid in tobacco.
Five acres of land were laid out for a cemetery around St. Martin's and many of the ancestors of the present generation are buried there. The cemetery is now covered by a jungle of bushes and briers. There is much valuable history in the records of the parish associated with this old church and its congregation. The names of the first pew- holders are still found in the records, together with much interesting historical information of the families and "doings" of olden times.
Following the English custom, several of the early rectors were buried under the chancel of the church. This has given rise to the legends of ghosts being seen about the old edifice. But the brave pioneers of that part of the Eastern Shore sleep too soundly to play pranks.
Old Worcester Parish included the upper part of Worcester County and within its bounds are Ocean City, Bishopville, Berlin, Liberty- town, Whaleyville and Friendship.
INTERIOR ST. MARTIN'S CHURCH
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BURLEY COTTAGE
BUILT 1830
IN the town of Berlin within a mile of the birthplace of Commodore [ Stephen Decatur is "Burley Cottage," which was built by Capt. John Selby Purnell about 1830. This place probably takes its name from "Burley," granted to Colonel Stevens in 1677, together with many tracts in this section of the Peninsula. From the descrip- tion, it is likely that the present town of Berlin covers a part of this grant.
In "The Days of Makemie," an interesting account is given of a visit in 1684 to inspect these estates: "Sailing on up the eastern fork of the bay next morning and passing along the tract of land called 'Goshen,' patented by Mr. Makemie's friend, Colonel Jenkins, we see a little town of the aborigines, their canoes strewing the banks. A larger cabin indicates the Palace of Majesty, and, steering our course nearer, we see Queen Weocomoconus sitting in State at the door and her son, Kunsonum, at her side with the plumes of the seagull in his hair." After trading with the Indians, with whom they seemed to be on friendly terms, one "Wasposson" acted as guide dur-
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ing the balance of the expedition. Continuing, the writer says: "Mr. Ambrose White had joined us, coming from his estate called 'Happy Entrance,' north of St. Martin's River. Together we went on to 'Kelsey Hill'-another of Mr. Steven's tracts-thence on a mile farther to his land called 'Burley,' of three hundred acres, granted him in 1677. 'Coyes' Folly,' belonging to Mr. Wale, lies to the north, and 'Mount Pleasant' between the two. On the 'Burley' tract a gentle, quiet hill, covered with venerable oaks and gemmed with wild flowers, offered a quiet resting place for our midday repast."
"Burley Cottage" is a most attractive home, and is conspicuous for the luxurious growth of English ivy that covers the brick walls and which can only be kept in bounds by constant trimming. Back of the house there was originally a garden with formal box hedges which have grown to a most unusual size. Captain Purnell was the owner of much landed property in Worcester County. He was a highly educated man, with cultured tastes and most distinguished manners. He married Margaret Campbell Henry, daughter of Francis Jenkins Henry, who was a brother of John Henry, of Dorchester County, who was successively member of the Continental Congress, United States Senator and finally Governor of Maryland, 1797-1798. In addition to the large landed estate inherited by Captain Purnell his wife brought him "Buckland." This was a large tract of land on the St. Martin's River, and at that time had a fine house and hand- some garden running down to the river. This is the same tract that was devised by John Henry to his son John upon his death in 1717. It was here that Captain Purnell passed his early married life, moving to "Burley Cottage" upon its completion, where he lived the re- mainder of his days. Upon his death the various large estates passed to his sons-"Buckland" to the heirs of his son, John Henry, "Wallops Neck" to his son, Francis Jenkins, and "Simperton" to his son, James Robins; "Burley Cottage" being devised with other property to his daughter, Nancy Purnell. Upon her death and the division of her estate it was sold and is now owned by Henry Purnell, grandson of the builder. The various large tracts inherited by his sons have now been sub-divided or broken up by the process of time except "Wallops Neck" which is still held as devised to Francis Jenkins Purnell, by his heirs.
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DECATUR BIRTHPLACE NEAR BERLIN
A MONG the historical houses of Worcester is the unpretentious birthplace of one of Maryland's most distinguished sons, Stephen Decatur. Here on the 5th of January, 1779, was born that hero of the early American Navy. The old house is in the neighborhood of Berlin, a thriving town of northern Worcester County. For over a century it has withstood the east winds that have swept in from the Atlantic, over whose restless bosom Decatur sailed and fought his way to everlasting fame.
Decatur's grandfather was born in France and went to Rhode Island, married and established his home at Newport, where Decatur's father, Stephen Decatur, the elder, was born in 1751. In Philadelphia this Stephen met a Miss Pine, the daughter of an Irishman, whom he married and they made their home there. In writing of Decatur, John W. Staton, of Snow Hill, says:
"His nature combined the characteristics of the French and Irish and they were manifested in his fascinating personality and gallant bravery in after life. It was in the late spring of 1778 that Stephen Decatur, senior, brought his young wife from Philadelphia to Worces-
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ter County and took this unpretentious house, where Stephen was born the following January. The theory seems to be reasonably sound that it was the desire of the elder Decatur to have the prospective mother removed far from the excitement and danger incident to the occupation of Philadelphia at that time by the British troops under Lord Howe; that the country near Philadelphia was in the zone of danger and great excitement, and that the lower part of the Eastern Shore Peninsula offered the haven of peace and quiet that they sought. The occupancy of the house, which then belonged to Isaac Murray, was temporary only and for a definite purpose, and when that purpose was fulfilled by the birth of the son who was destined to shed such glory on his name, and the British troops had evacuated Philadelphia, the parents returned there with their boy when he was three months old. There his early days were spent and at the Uni- versity of Pennsylvania he received the training and pursued the studies which made him a man of culture and education as well as a man of brilliant daring and courage. The fact remains, however, that to Worcester was given the honor of being the deliberately selected birthplace of a most distinguished citizen."
Decatur entered the service of the American Navy as a midship- man on the frigate United States at the age of nineteen in 1798, under Commodore Barry. He was soon promoted to the rank of lieutenant. In 1801, as first lieutenant of the frigate Essex, he went to the Medi- terranean with Commodore Dale's squadron to protect American merchantmen against the Barbary pirates. For bravery at Tripoli he was promoted to captain in 1804, at the age of twenty-five, then the highest rank in the Navy. Later commands gave him the courtesy titles of post-captain and commodore, and in 1816 he was made one of the commissioners of the American Navy.
Commodore Decatur married Miss Wheeler of Norfolk.
He was mortally wounded on March 22, 1820, in a duel with Commodore Barron at Bladensburg. Barron, court-martialed in 1808 for surrendering the Chesapeake and afterward never given a sea command, challenged Decatur, who had sat on the court-martial. Taken to his home in Washington, Decatur died a few hours after the duel and was buried in St. Peter's Churchyard, Philadelphia, where his grave is marked by a handsome monument.
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SINEPUXENT INLET
A VIEW OF THE ATLANTIC OCEAN
S INEPUXENT Bay, a long and narrow body of water on the eastern side of Worcester County, is separated from the Atlantic Ocean by Assateague Island and the North Beach. This inlet was the entrance from the ocean into the bay. The remains of a wreck may still be seen in the sand. A boat is said to have grounded while passing through the inlet, which, when the channel was thus choked, rapidly closed. Of the three inlets known to have been used by some of the foreign and by the large coastwise shipping in days gone by, only the most southerly, Chincoteague, is now open and in use.
When in March, 1634, Lord Baltimore's colonists sailed up the Potomac on the Ark and the Dove and settled at St. Mary's, they doubtless cared little for their 120 odd miles of distant seacoast along the Atlantic. Their immediate work lay closer by, and their settle- ment grew first, naturally, in the Chesapeake Bay region. After the middle of the century, when they turned their faces east and began in earnest to occupy and to govern the seaside, they were opposed by shrewd men with plans of their own. All the diplomacy of Governor
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Calvert and the energy of Col. William Stevens, of Somerset County, and their successors have been able to preserve of this large ocean frontier from stranger claimants is the fifty miles of beach land, with- out a deep harbor, comprising the easterly boundary of Worcester County.
The early history of this little strip of Maryland's seacoast, pic- turesque and full of ancient interest, has never been fully written and much of it is now, no doubt, lost in the mists.
"Who, first among Europeans, set foot upon the island beaches of the Maryland coast we do not know. The native inhabitant still clings to the tradition that it was most likely some sailor on that shipwrecked Spanish vessel which gave to the island of Chincoteague her famous wild ponies; and still believes that the master genius of the Jamestown settlement, that indefatigable navigator, Capt. John Smith, must have fully explored this coast" says Harry F. Covington in writing of the visit in 1524 of Verrazzano to the Eastern Shore of Maryland.
While acting as navigator for King Francis I of France, this Italian, in the "Dauphine" with a crew of fifty men, sailed along the Worcester coast. In making his report of the voyage he wrote that he came "to another land, which appeared much more beautiful and full of the largest forests." To this land he gave the name of Arcadia and in 1670 Augustine Herman made a map for Lord Baltimore in consideration of a manorial grant, (Bohemia Manor in Cecil County). and located Arcadia on this map where Worcester County now is.
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CAROLINE COUNTY
I773
O RIGINALLY all the territory included in Caroline County lay within the bounds of Kent and Dorchester. Talbot later had jurisdiction over the area between the Choptank River and Tuckahoe Creek for forty-five years, when this section was made part of Queen Anne's. From the time of the first separation of the region below the Choptank into two counties Dorchester extended along the south side of the river from the Chesapeake Bay to its headwaters. The southeastern corner of Caroline as a part of the northeastern corner of Dorchester figured in the claim of Somerset that "Nantecoke River on the north" carried its upper boundary to the North-West Fork, (Marshy Hope Creek), as the "main branch" of the river, a dispute terminated in 1684 by the fixing of the true location of the "main branch" of the Nanticoke.
Surveys began on Kent Island in 1640, on Miles River in 1658, and in bayside Dorchester in 1659, and a fourth tide of colonization was working up the Peninsula from Accomac; but pioneers penetrated slowly to the upper Choptank, the Tuckahoe and North-West Fork. Twenty-nine years had elapsed from the coming of Calvert's colon- ists to St. Mary's, and thirty-four from the arrival of Claiborne's traders on Kent Island, before the Caroline area knew compass and chain. The first survey within its limits was made on March 4, 1663, for Thomas Skillington-"'Skillington's Right," 300 acres, "on the south side Choptank River above the second turning." This was speedily followed by surveys on Hunting Creek and Fowling Creek and on up the river. By December, 1665, grants far up the northeast branch were being made, and the original patent names for tracts in this locality appear frequently in the "Summersett" and Dorchester Rent Roll. "Cedar Point," the site of the first county-seat, is among them; surveyed August 5, 1665, for John Edmondson. Even earlier
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than this, surveys were being made in the "Forrest of Choptank," north of the river, and on the east side of the Tuckahoe, designated as "the main branch of the Choptank." Not until a long period after- ward, however, did settlers venture far to the eastward of the Chop- tank. Some surveys were made on Marshy Hope in the last quarter of the seventeenth century and grants within the original eastern limits of Dorchester were found to be in Delaware when the Penns at last succeeded in wresting forty-one per cent of the peninsula between the Chesapeake and the Delaware Bays from the Calverts. Entries occur in the rent roll: "This land deny'd, being supposed to be in the province of Pensilvania," evidently an echo of Penn's letters to holders of Maryland grants.
Whether Dorchester County was created at the same time as Somerset, (August, 1666), or a few months before Lord Baltimore, (July, 1669), projected Durham County to include the territory along the Delaware to the northern charter limits of his Province, cannot be certainly known because of the failure so far to find any definite and authentic record of the first existence of Dorchester, other than a writ to its sheriff. The fact that Somerset was in express terms placed south of the Nanticoke, when "that part of the province newly seated called the Eastern Shore" had been as expressly bounded on the north by the Choptank River, was pointed out to Mr. Skirven, who, after carefully consulting many original sources of Maryland history relating to this section, came to the conclusion that "The Eastern Shore" was divided into these two counties in the same year, if not on the same day. To this opinion I strongly incline. The settlements on the western waterfront of Dorchester had been growing for six years; the military force of the Colony was brought against the Nanticoke Indians when their opposition to the extension of settlements into the interior between the two great rivers that enclosed the Dorchester territory became too formidable for the local administration; and the Proprietary, by the erection of the temporary Durham and Worcester Counties of 1669 and 1672 completed his fruitless efforts to take full advantage of his charter with its fateful hactenus inculta clause. By buying the "claim" of the Duke of York, (James II), Penn was enabled to finally add the "three lower counties upon Delaware" to Pennsylvania. The result of the
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long controversy was the establishment of the eastern line of Dor- chester by Mason and Dixon.
A century after the peopling of the river and creek fronts of Great Choptank Hundred of Dorchester and the Tuckahoe territory, the inhabitants urged the erection of a new county. Remote from Cam- bridge and Queenstown, they sought a "seat of justice" on the upper Choptank. At November Session, 1773, two of Dorchester's Dele- gates were William Richardson and Thomas White. Richardson brought in a bill which the Assembly passed, carving Caroline out of Dorchester and Queen Anne's, and providing for its organization in the succeeding March. The county was named after Lady Caroline Eden, wife of the last Colonial Governor, and sister of the sixth Lord Baltimore, the then Proprietary. The act prescribed that the public business should be conducted at "Melvin's Warehouse," (on the Choptank just above Denton), until a court house and prison could be constructed at "Pig Point," where the county-seat was to be then located and known as "Eden-Town." The naming of Caroline and Eden Streets in the City of Baltimore was a like compliment to Governor and Lady Eden.
The name of Lady Caroline Calvert is perpetuated, but "Eden- Town" is hardly recognizable in Denton. Local self-government in Caroline concerned itself for a quarter of a century with a county-seat fight. In March, 1779, the "seat of justice" was removed to "Chop- tank Bridge" by the Assembly, which in the succeeding November, spurred by indignant remonstrants, hastily enacted a "suspension" of the law for seven years. In 1785 the Assembly repealed the county- seat provision of 1773, referring to "Eden-Town" as "Edenton," and named Joseph Richardson, Jr., William Whitely, John White, Phile- mon Downes and David Robinson commissioners to erect public buildings at "Melville's Warehouse," the county-seat thus established to be known "forever hereafter" as "Perrysburgh." The next year this act, too, was "suspended," and petitions favoring "Choptank Bridge' and a site at the "center of the county" referred to the following Assembly. Finally, in 1700, this war of petitions was ended by a referendum, and the Assembly passed "An Act for the removal of the seat of justice from Melville's Warehouse to Pig Point," and the county-seat was named Denton. William Richardson, Zabdiel Potter,
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Joseph Richardson, Peter Edmondson and Joshua Willis were desig- nated commissioners under the act, and four years later Christopher Driver, William Robinson, Philemon Downes and Thomas Loocker- man were joined with Joseph Richardson. The court house, modeled after Independence Hall in Philadelphia, was completed in 1797 and stood until 1895, when it was replaced by the present structure.
The outcome of the county-seat "war" was slowly acquiesced in by some county dignitaries, for the Legislature in 1794 commanded certain of them to maintain offices in Denton. The isolated town site was made accessible by land by the laying out of roads westward and eastward to connect with established highways.
Of the fifty-one terms of the Caroline County Court held from March, 1774, to March, 1701, five were at "Choptank Bridge" ("Bridgetown"), now Greensboro, and all the others at "Melville's Warehouse." The question of holding to the county-seat clause of the Act of 1773 or making "Choptank Bridge" the county-seat was put before the voters at the election of Delegates to the Assembly in 1790. The poll for the "Pig Point or Lower Candidates" was: Philip Walker, 471; Henry Downes, 473; William Robinson, 475; Joseph Douglass, 472. That for the "Choptank Bridge or Upper Candi- dates" was: William Whitely, 283; William Banckes, 285; Thomas Mason, 282, and Hawkins Downes, 274.
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