USA > Maryland > Maryland's colonial Eastern Shore ; historical sketches of counties and of some notable structures > Part 2
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The removal of the county-seat to Chestertown from "New Yar- mouth" was soon followed by an order of the Council in 1707 which reads as follows: "All towns, rivers, creeks and coves in Cecil, Kent and Queen Anne's Counties (except Kent Island) shall be deemed members of Chester Town in Chester River." With this order "New Yarmouth" lost its last chance to become a permanent town and today only a few scattered bricks can be seen as evidence of its ever having existed. Other towns were authorized to be laid out; among them were "Shrewsbury Town" on "Meeting House Point" on the Sassafras River: "Gloucester Town" on Cackaway Point on Langford Bay, and "Milford Town" on Swan Creek. These towns never became more than landing places and today no evidence of them is to be found. For the better handling of the tobacco trade, the Assembly authorized the purchase of half an acre of ground at convenient land- ing places along the rivers and creeks, to be called "Public Landings,"
"where tobacco may be brought in order to be waterbourne and con- veyed to any town of this province." Upon this land the commis- sioners were authorized "to build rowling [rolling] houses not to lie above two furlongs from the water." The tobacco in casks was rolled from the plantations to the landings.
On April 3. 1701, a report sent to the Commissioners of Trade and Plantations in England by Governor Francis Nicholson shows Kent County at that time had 707 taxable inhabitants and 1,223 others not subject to a tax, a total of 1,930 inhabitants. This report was subdivided to show masters of families, freewomen and servants, free children, (boys and girls) ; free men and serving men, servants, (boys and girls), and slaves. In 1712 there were 2,886 inhabitants in the county.
Kent County was divided into hundreds and the names in 1606 were Town, Lower Chester River, Lower Langford, Swan Creek, Island, Eastern Neck, and Chester Upper Hundred. In each of these hundreds companies of soldiers were organized for protection against
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the Indians. In 1705 the Indians had been giving the Province con- siderable trouble and in that year the Assembly designated Philemon Lloyd, of Talbot, Nathaniel Hynson, of Kent, and Thomas Addison as commissioners to go to "Conestoga or farther northward" to treat with the "Senequis" Indians. When the French and Indian War broke out Kent furnished her quota.
In 1775 it was seen that war with Great Britain was inevitable and an Association of the Freemen of Maryland was formed, all of the counties being represented. Delegates were chosen by the several counties to the Provincial Convention which met at Annapolis on Wednesday, the 26th day of July, 1775, and appointed a committee to consider ways and means to put the Province into the best state of defense. The following were the Kent delegates to the Convention : William Ringgold, Col. Richard Lloyd, Thomas Smythe, Joseph Earle and Thomas Bedingfield Hands. Chestertown became the most im- portant place on the Eastern Shore for the accumulation of muni- tions and firearms. Elisha Winters, a large manufacturer of firearms, of that town, was designated by the Council of Safety the official gunsmith for the Eastern Shore. The Council of Safety consisted of eight men from the Eastern Shore and a like number from the Western Shore. So important had Chestertown become in 1775 that the Council of Safety met there on the 20th of October of that year and remained in session there for about a week. The Kent muster rolls bear names of about 1,500 of her citizens who volunteered for service against Great Britain. These volunteers composed the Thirteenth Battalion, commanded by Col. Richard Graves, and the Twenty-seventh Battalion, under Col. Donaldson Yeates.
When the call for minute men was issued in January, 1776, Kent County furnished a company consisting of four officers, four sergeants, four corporals, one surgeon, one fifer, one drummer and seventy men "fit for duty." Capt. William Henry was in command. They marched from Chestertown on the 20th of January, 1776, and reached Northampton Court House, Virginia, on the 12th of February. The following report to the Council of Safety at Annapolis is interesting to Kent countians as it shows that Kent County's minute men were the first to reach Northampton, where they had gone to assist the Vir- ginia troops repel the threatened British invasion:
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MARYLAND'S COLONIAL EASTERN SHORE
HEADQUARTERS, NORTHAMPTON C. H., VA. Feby. 28th, 1776.
Honble. Gent'l.
The company from Kent County arrived here on the 12th instant and the company from Queen Anne's County on the 14th in good health and spirits.
Gent'l yr. Obd't. hble. Servt's, JAMES KENT WILLIAM HENRY
TO THE
COUNCIL OF SAFETY
ANNAPOLIS, MD.
Capt. James Kent was in command of the Queen Anne's company.
At Chestertown in 1707 the first free school in Kent County was established, it being under the supervision of the rector of St. Paul's Parish. It was the nucleus which later, 1723, developed into the Kent County Free School and still later. 1782, into that greater institution of learning-Washington College.
No historical sketch of this old county would be complete without mention of the Quakers who at one time formed a large part of the population. Their meeting house, which is in ruins now, stands near Lynch. It was built about 1690.
A well-known port of entry twenty years prior to the laying out of Baltimore, Chestertown was the center of the trade for the upper Eastern Shore. Here the vessels came with the tea and supplies from foreign lands and loaded tobacco and furs for England. Like Annap- olis on the Western Shore, Chestertown was the center of the social world of the Eastern Shore, and to read of delightful entertaining by the "Colonial Dames" is one of the pleasures of occasional contempla- tion of the history of this quaint old town. Chestertown is now a prosperous town, and is on the finest roads in the United States. These roads cover the whole County of Kent and all of the county can be reached by automobiles.
Gracious, dignified, simple in habits, elegant in tastes, there was no higher type of civilization than that exemplified by the residents of Kent County in the colonial days.
Jeny S. Akiwen
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7
... ...
HUBBARD PLACE
BUILT 1765
N TO finer example of colonial homes of Maryland can be found in the State than that of Wilbur W. Hubbard, banker, fertilizer manufacturer, and financier. Here Mr. and Mrs. Hubbard entertain in true Eastern Shore style, and their many friends, including artists and architects of distinction, claim this beautiful residence to be a fine example of restoration work and a monument to the intelligent appre- ciation and good taste of Mr. Hubbard and his wife.
From the time the house was built to the present day, a number of distinguished men in State and nation have dwelt within its historic walls. In searching the title chain you will learn of Col. Thomas Smythe, the first merchant in Chestertown, one of the Justices of the Kent County Court from 1757 to 1769, a member of the Provincial Convention in 1776, and of the Association of Freemen of Maryland. He was a member of the Council of Safety and did splendid service during the Revolutionary War in providing munitions for the troops enlisted in Kent. Col. Smythe died at "Trumpington," having lived to the great age of ninety-one years. You will learn of the distinguished lawyer, Thomas Bed-
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XF
ingfield Hands; of the two United States Senators who lived there-Robert Wright, Senator from 1801 to 1806, when he resigned his seat in the Senate to become Governor of Maryland, and Ezekiel F. Chambers, Senator from 1826 to 1834, and afterward Chief Judge of the Second Judicial District. It was here that Judge Chambers lived for forty- eight years and entertained many distinguished men of his day.
As in some charming old tome we have the story of the County of Kent, as well as that of Chestertown; woven closely around this old house. The story has for its setting a quaint old English colony town, which was laid out on the banks of the SCENE IN DINING ROOM Chester River, one of the pret- tiest rivers of the Province of Maryland. From the street we approach the house over pavement laid 140 years ago and through which the violets push up their charming flowers. The boxwood hugs up close to the old English brick of which the house is built. The big brass knocker on the front door; the wide hall with its keystoned arches and mahogany stairway spreading its leisurely length past the grandfather's clock; the hand-carving on walls and mantels; the doors with dropped silver handles and broken pediment above, where might well be placed the bust of Pallas; mahogany furniture, spinet, dulcimer, and low-boy haunting the spots where Thomas Smythe himself might have placed them. These are the evidences that impress you with the colonial atmosphere of this old home. The accompanying illustrations give not only the river view of the mas-
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sive porch, with Ionic columns, but also the approach through the iron gates. Truly, Mr. Hub- bard, with his widely known business ability, has, in restor- ing this old mansion, been a more beneficent owner than any since its builder, and has estab- lished one of the most delight- ful homes of the Eastern Shore.
Mr. Hubbard is descended from Adley Hubbard, who came to Maryland from Essex County, England, in 1660. He A VIEW OF THE HALL received a grant of a large tract of land on the Sassafras River in what is now known as Cecil County. He called his grant "Hubbard's Delight," more recently known as "Ward's Hill."
Mrs. Hubbard is descended from Col. William Ross, Col. William Evans and Major Glenn, Revolutionary Officers. She is the daughter of Judge James Evans Ross, whose ancestors belonged to Clan Ross of Scotland.
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CAMELL'S WORTHMORE
SURVEYED 1682
..
C AMELL'S WORTHMORE" originally contained 1, 150 acres of land and was surveyed in 1682. It is now the property of the Rev. Sewell S. Hepburn, a minister of the Protestant Episcopal Church, who was rector for a number of years of the old parish of St. Paul's, Kent, and still laboring in the Master's vineyard as rector of Christ Church, I. U.
Around the house the boxwood hedge is laid out like the old English gardens and the beautiful wainscoting and hand-carved doors and mantels of the house attest the elegant taste of the Angiers, the builders and owners in Revolutionary times. John Angier bought this property from James Tilghman, of Philadelphia, 1767, and left it to his son, Thomas, who sold it to his brother, Unit Angier, at whose death the property passed into the hands of Thomas Hepburn. Mary, his daughter, dying intestate, the estate became the property of the present owner.
J
James Tilghman was Chancellor of the Province of Pennsylvania and father of Col. Tench Tilghman, Washington's aide-de-camp. In
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MARYLAND'S COLONIAL EASTERN SHORE
old St. Paul's Churchyard James Tilghman lies buried and his tomb is plainly marked, giving some of the history of his life.
The last of the Angiers who owned "Camell's Worthmore" lies buried in the garden back of the old colonial home. The Angier, Brooks and Medford families were large landowners and with few exceptions were members of the parish in which they lived-Shrews- bury.
"Thornton," 1,000 acres, the Brooks property, and "Bucking- ham," another large grant, 1,300 acres, were among grants in this neighborhood that date back to the very earliest in the Province. "Drayton," a manor of 1,200 acres, granted Charles James 'in 1677, and long the home of the Janvier family, was not far distant to the west. This same Charles James received a grant for 100 acres in 1687 which he gave to the vestry of Shrewsbury Parish. This property was called "Mayford."
"Denbigh," 700 acres, granted in 1671, at the head of Churn Creek, and "The Grange," 900 acres, granted the same year to John James, on the north side of Still Pond Creek, were famous colonial homes in their day.
In 1765 the Assembly passed an act erecting Chester Parish out of St. Paul's and Shrewsbury Parishes, authorizing the purchase of two acres of land "at or near the cross roads at the place called I. U. and a parish church to be built on the land. The land and church to cost not more than 130,000 pounds of tobacco." The chapel of ease was already built at Chestertown. The first vestrymen were: Aaron Alford, Macall Medford, Joseph Rasin, Thomas Perkins, St. Leger Everett and William Ringgold.
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COMEGYS HOUSE
BUILT 1708
C OMMANDING a splendid view of the upper Chester River and the surrounding country, this rare example of Dutch architecture that has been handed down to the present generation is now the home of Dr. F. N. Sheppard and his wife. Mrs. Sheppard is a descendant of Alethia, daughter of the William Comegys who built the house and who was the second son of Cornelius Comegys, the emigrant. The woodwork and the wainscoting are very pretty and the great fireplaces suggest the many famous dinners served there to guests in the long ago. It is a charming old home and the lawn, originally terraced and hedged with boxwood, extends to the waters of the Chester River. At the time the house was built there was a ferry, ("Collister's Ferry"), across the Chester River at this point and just across the river in Queen Anne's County William Crump took up a large tract of land he called "Crumpton." It was for this prop- erty that the present village of Crumpton was named.
For years there had been a well-established route for travel from
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"Williamstadt," (now Oxford), Talbot County, to Philadelphia and the Northern settlements. That route led past the old Wye Church in Talbot, through Queen Anne's to Crumpton, over the Chester to Kent, across that county to Georgetown on the Sassafras, over the Sassafras and by way of Bohemia to "Head of Elk," and so to Philadelphia.
Cornelius Comegys, the emigrant, petitioned the Maryland Pro- vincial Assembly in 1671 to be made a naturalized citizen. In his petition he states that he was born in "Lexmont, belonging to the states of Holland." Millimety, his wife, was born in Barnevelt "under the domain of the said states," and Cornelius, their oldest son, was born in Virginia. Their other children, Elizabeth, William and Hannah, were born in Maryland. Cornelius Comegys emigrated to Virginia about 1660 and came to Maryland about 1663, receiving his first grant, 400 acres, called "Comegys Delight," in that year. Several thousand acres were later acquired by him. Some of the tracts bore the following names: "The Grove," "Vienna," "Adventure," "Fer- nando," "Sewall" or "Utreck," "Poplar Plains," "Andover" and "Comegys' Choice." He was made a member of the Commissioners of Justice for Kent County in 1676 and was evidently a man of large interests.
Close family ties connected the descendants of Cornelius Comegys with the Wallis family, also with the Everett and Thomas families. To Nathaniel Everett was granted "Fair Harbor," "Adventure" and "New Forest." To Samuel Wallis, "Partnership," "Conclusion" and "Boothbie's Fortune" were granted. In 1659 William Thomas was granted "Kedgerton," 1,000 acres, and "Mt. Hermon," 890 acres. Jesse Comegys, an officer in the Revolutionary War, son of William and Ann Cosden Comegys, married Mary Everett. They had three children, Cornelius, who was a lieutenant in the U. S. Army; Maria, who married Augustine Boyer; and Sarah Everett Comegys, who married John Wallis. Their eldest son, Francis Ludolph Wallis, was commissioned August 6, 1846, captain of the Columbia Hussars, a company of cavalry attached to the Eighth Regimental Cavalry District, Maryland Militia. Captain Wallis married Emily Thomas, daughter of William Thomas, of "Mt. Hermon." Their only daughter, Mrs.Elizabeth Thomas Wallis Schutt, of Washington, inherited "Mt. Hermon" and still owns the property.
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743
CAULK'S FIELD HOUSE
BUILT 1743
E SPECIALLY interesting is this old farm to those fond of stories of the wars with Great Britain, for here in the moonlight of a hot summer night, August 31, 1814, in the early morning hours was fought a battle that was singularly important-the Battle of Caulk's Field. Capt. Sir Peter Parker, on his ship, the Menelaus, was sent up the bay to capture if possible the Kent County troops, known as the Twenty-first Regiment of Maryland Militia, then under the com- mand of Col. Philip Reed. During the engagement Captain Parker received a mortal wound and died while being carried on the shoulders of his men back to his ship. Fourteen of the British soldiers were killed and twenty-nine wounded. Only three of Colonel Reed's men were wounded, and those not seriously. The old "Caulk's Field" house, now owned by E. J. Watson, was built in 1743, and on the east gable the date is traced in the wall with the brick.
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ST. PAUL'S CHURCH
BUILT 1713
S `URROUNDED by giant oaks and sycamores, by boxwood and fragrant pines, by tombs of the humble and the rich, St. Paul's stands today a real monument to the energy and religious zeal of those Church of England members who settled in Kent in the colonial days of more than 200 years ago. Rev. Dr. Ethan Allen in his manuscript covering the early Church in Maryland says: "St. Paul's Parish was organized in 1692, but as early perhaps as 1650 there was a church called St. Peter's at Church Creek, [Kent], near Gray's Inn Creek, two miles from Chester River near the town of New Yarmouth, which was on land sold by Major Thomas Ringgold. A burial ground is there and graves well arched over."
The building of St. Paul's Church on the present spot in 1713 was to replace an old structure which had stood on the site ever since the
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"Establishment." Whether any church had existed there prior to that date is a matter yet undetermined. At the time the English Church was established Thomas Smythe, of "Trumpington;" William Frisby, of "Hinchingham;" Charles Tilden, of "Great Oak Manor;' Michael Miller, of "Arcadia;" Hans Hanson, of "Kimbolton," and Simon Wilmer, of "Stepney," were among the principal freeholders in the parish and they were elected as vestrymen. They lived many miles from St. Paul's; in fact, all sections of this old parish were represented in the selection of these gentlemen as vestrymen.
St. Paul's was one of the thirty parishes that were laid out in the Province of Maryland in accordance with the Act of Assembly of 1692. This parish, with that of Shrewsbury, covered all the territory now within the geographical bounds of Kent County. The dividing line between these two parishes was at that time taken as the boundary between Cecil County and Kent County and to determine the loca- tion of this line an Act of Assembly was passed April 4, 1697, authoriz- ing a survey to be made. Capt. Edward Blay, representing Shrews- bury, and Michael Miller, representing St. Paul's, were appointed to be present at the running of the line between the parishes. They were to report to the Assembly "with a fair demonstration of the division line which is to be lined out by a line of marked trees." Simon Will- more, [Wilmer], then Surveyor of Kent County, was to do the survey- ing. They determined upon a line running from what is now known as Goose Hill to the headwaters of Churn Creek.
There is an old building called the "Vestry House," which has the date 1766 worked in the bricks of the gable, that stands at the western entrance of the cemetery. The land on which this old building stands was bought of Thomas Ringgold and the deed recites-"this five acres of land is bought for the benefit of air and shade to the parishioners and their horses round the church in attendance on divine service and for the building of a vestry house thereon and any other parish use whatever."
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HINCHINGHAM
SURVEYED 1659
H TINCHINGHAM" was granted in 1659 to Thomas Hynson for 2,200 acres, lying along the shore of the Chesapeake Bay and extending north from Swan Creek. Thomas Hynson was then in the 39th year of his age and so well liked by the Governor of the Prov- ince that in 1655 he had been made High Sheriff of the County of Kent. He lived on Eastern Neck Island and with his friend, Joseph Wickes, had received grants for all the land on that island. In all Thomas Hynson owned 3,600 acres of land in Kent County. It was at his house that court was held for Kent County, February 1, 1655, the following Justices being present: Philip Connor, Capt. Joseph Wickes, Thomas Ringgold, Capt. John Russell, William Elliott and Henry Carvil. Thomas Hynson's son, Thomas Hynson, Jr., was made Sheriff of Talbot County, April 20, 1666. With the granting of the Manor of "Hinchingham" to Thomas Hynson he became interested in that section of the county and it is supposed made it his home for at least a few of his latter years.
Along the banks of Swan Creek quite a number of places were
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granted and from Eastern Neck Island a road was made in 1675 to Swan Creek Road by Isaac Winchester, who had been appointed over- seer of highways for the Lower Hundred. The road was ten feet wide and made "cleared and good from Joseph Wickes' house to Swan Creek roade." This was probably the first road built in the county of this width that covered so many miles. It led north from Eastern Neck Island through the present town of Rock Hall and thence across the head of Swan Creek.
From "Hinchingham" was sold off several tracts prior to 1722 and one of these, 700 acres, was bought by William Frisby, a member of the vestry of St. Paul's Parish. William Frisby was a man of great prominence in the Colony and to him the Maryland Assembly entrusted the mission of presenting to the Lord Bishop of London and the Commissioners of Trade and Plantations at London, England, for their approval, the copy of the Act of Assembly establishing the Church of England by law in the Province of Maryland. To Nathaniel Hynson, High Sheriff of the County of Kent, in 1718, 320 acres were sold by Thomas Tolley, who had bought it from Thomas Hynson. This property, now owned by Mrs. Harriet Westcott Hill, is part of "Hinchingham" and came to her from her father, the late George B. Westcott, of Chestertown.
In the neighborhood of "Hinchingham" are several tracts of land the names of which are still familiar. "Great Oak Manor," 2,000 acres, surveyed 15th of August, 1658, for Josiah Fendall; "Arcadia," 1,500 acres, surveyed 18th of May, 1680, for Michael Miller; "Buck Neck," 550 acres, surveyed Ist of August, 1666, for Joseph Hopkins.
"Broadnox," a large tract of land on Langford Bay, was the prop- erty of Thomas Broadnox, a man of considerable importance in the earliest days of Kent. From him the property was acquired by Rob- ert Dunn, a friend and adviser of the Proprietary. This old place. with its manor house built about 1708, remained in the Dunn family until long after the Revolutionary War. Robert Dunn was a vestry- man of St. Paul's Church.
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SUFFOLK LAMB'S MEADOWS
SURVEYED 1681
SURVEYED 1691
P EARCE LAMB came into Kent with the first of the settlers; in 1683 he obtained a grant for "Lamb's Range," and in 1694 another grant for a tract which he named "Lamb's Meadows." These two tracts were in the possession of Pearce Lamb's son, Francis Lamb, when he married Rosamund Beck at St. Paul's Church in Kent County, April 6, 1714, one year after the church was built.
One of the descendants of Francis and Rosamund Lamb is B. Howard Haman, of the Baltimore bar. Mr. Haman's Kent County residence is "Suffolk," surveyed for 742 acres in 1681 for James Stavely. It is situated about two miles from Kennedyville. For many years it was the home of Mr. Haman's grandfather, the late Benja- min Howard, a descendant of Matthew Howard, of Anne Arundel County, who came to Kent in 1725 and lived at "Howard's Adven- ture." Matthew Howard's ancestor came to Maryland from Virginia about 1660. Mr. Haman has for years been the foremost advocate of scientific oyster culture in Maryland as a means of conserving and vastly increasing the yield of the public fisheries and supplement-
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ing the revenues of the State. He was the author of the law under which the oyster beds of the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries were first surveyed and mapped by the State and federal governments. Mr. Haman's father was Dr. James Haman, a native of Delaware, and a graduate of the Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia. Dr. Haman was associated for several years in the practice of medicine with Dr. William S. Maxwell, of Still Pond, Kent County. Dr. Haman's paternal grandfather was a yeoman farmer in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England, who emigrated to America from Hull about 1780.
This part of Kent County has several large grants of the earliest dates, among them being "Stone Town," granted in 1658 to Richard Stone for 500 acres. In 1722, 100 acres of this property belonged to Philip Rasin. Mr. and Mrs. J. Harry Price now own and reside at "Stoneton."
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