USA > Maryland > Old manors in the colony of Maryland : first-second series > Part 2
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all sorts and conditions, usually of the better class of the English, and not infrequently from the old nobility. The Jerninghams are examples of this. They came in as servants to one of the adventurers, but, in an account of a Roman Catholic emigration to Spanish Louisiana before its cession, Dr. Jerningham modestly mentions to the Spanish dignitary that they are themselves connected with some of the best of the titled families in England, and proof is given; and this was only one instance out of many.
After one of these arrivals, Father White writes to Lord Baltimore : "Now, my Lord, in the inteerim heere is Captayne George Evelyn. who wishes much happiness, to your LOPP and the place. He sheweth us a draught of our Province divided into counties, baronies, lord- ships, etc." And so, in 1637, the Manor of Evelynton, in the Barony of St. Mary's, is taken up. It is said that this included the well- known resort of Piney Point, and from this patent to his Lordship's cousin was given one of the few grants, made by Thomas Greene, Governor, only ten years later, after the death of Governor Calvert, in 1647.
Meanwhile, as one comes up the St. Mary's River from Point Look- out, in the laying-out of manors, the lands of dignitaries next appear. The Hon. Thomas Cornwallis, one of the most striking figures of his day, toop up two thousand acres, which he called " Cornwalleys " Cross Manor. Apparently he did not bring his wife to the colony, as did Mr. Thomas Greene and Mr. Jerome Hawley. Captain Cornwallis writes to Lord Baltimore in 1638 in regard to his coadjutor, who is accused of an undue bias toward the Virginia Plantation: "Well may the discharging of the office hee hath undertaken invite him sometimes to Look toward Virginia but certainly not with prejudice to Maryland from whens he receives the greatest conforts that the world affords him-both from sowle and bodie-the one from the church, the other from his wife, who by her comportment in these difficult affayres of her husband's hath manifested as much virtue and discretion as can be expected from the sex she owes [oh! cruel Cornwallis!] whose industrious housewifery hath so adorned this
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desert that should his discouragements force him to withdraw himself and hir, it would not a little eclipse the Glory of Maryland."
Mr. Hawley did not live long to enjoy his perquisites in the two colonies, but he had laid off for him two manors, St. Jerome's and St. Helen's, which his stepson, Sir William Courtenay, arranged to have secured to himself after the death of his mother, Mrs. Elinor Hawley.
Captain Cornwallis was probably the wealthiest man in the colony. Within a few months after the landing he had erected, in 1635, a town water-mill, the property containing nine acres. The lines of the old dam are still visible, and upon its completion he set about building a brick house, " to put my head in," which stands to-day with its stack of beautiful old chimneys, its fine proportions still show- ing the lines of the original building. Time, of course, has brought changes, but there is little question that it is the oldest house now standing built about this period.
The inventory of his losses in Ingle's raid shows a magnificent estate for that day: cattle, plate, household linen, hangings, furni- ture, with personal effects of great value.
" Cornwalleys " Cross Manor is the last of these divisions, bringing us to the town land, of which the holdings were naturally much smaller. Across St. Inigoe's Creek is the beautiful estate of "Rose Croft," which contained the Wolstenholme House, popularly known as the " Collector's." The house was a capacious frame building, with brick gables and, until recent years, double-roofed and triangularly- capped dormer windows, finished with handsomely carved wood- work ornamenting both ceilings and side walls. "It stands to-day " (Mr. Thomas wrote in 1900), " the only monument of its time, and furnishes a handsome and interesting specimen of the style of archi- tecture and interior embellishment of that day. It occupies the summit of the high, bold bluff at the juncture of Saint Inigoe's Creek with the river, and commands an extensive and picturesque view of . both land and water, embracing in its sweep, Saint George's Island,
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h
ROSE CROFT. A FAMOUS SEAT OF HOSPITALITY ON THE ST, INIGOE'S CREEK.
the broad Potomac, and the dim, mountain-like lines of the distant Virginia shore."
The old " domestical " chapel in the background, the quaint tiling of the porches, the superb old box-trees, shown in the accompanying sketch, have perished in the flames which consumed the entire prop- erty, not long after this photograph was taken. And it can live now only in the memory of those to whom it was dear, and in the pages of Kennedy's work, " Rob of the Bowl," the best historical novel that tells of those days.
In the laying-out of the town lands Greene's Rest comes next, afterwards called St. Anne's. This was allotted to one of the Pro- prietary connection, who succeeded Leonard Calvert as second Governor of the Province of Maryland.
His loyalty cost him dearly, for later, in proclaiming King Charles II., he roused the ire of those who had not the courage to stand by King Charles I., and the proclamation in Maryland by Governor Greene was certainly the first banner flung out for that apparently hopeless cause. His family has notable in the colony. His children were godsons of Leonard Calvert, and one was called for him- Leonard. Their history is most interesting.
He is said to have married a sister of Governor Calvert; certain it is that the grouping of the property about this region was that of a family circle, Philip Calvert, Chancellor, occupying the plantation known as " Chancellor's Point," of especial historical interest, since the landing of the Maryland Pilgrims was made just here.
Then came the allotments of town land for the Brents, brothers and sisters, Giles, Fulke, Margaret and Mary. The land of the sisters, called at one time, " The Sisters' Freehold," lay between " Greene's Rest," " Brent's Forge " and the " White House," the residence of Deputy Governor Giles Brent, sometime treasurer of the colony. These stately sisters require far more room than we can here afford them, though it is possible to show how mistaken is the estimate com- monly held of Mrs. Margaret's conduct on many trying occasions. Kinswomen of Lord Baltimore, they enjoyed the firm friendship of
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the family, and, as relatives, attended the last hours of Leonard Calvert, Margaret receiving his nuncupative will and, as next of kin, administering on his estate. Their residence in St. Mary's was an establishment of great elegance. It was called St. Thomas, in their patent, and the house erected on a portion of what was known as St. Mary's Forest, containing 70} acres, a special grant from Lord Baltimore to the sisters. It was surrounded by a beautiful grove of ancient oaks, and here these distinguished women dispensed a generous hospitality to the gentlefolk of their day and generation.
Upon Mistress Margaret Brent fell the burden of responsibility and anxiety left by Governor Leonard Calvert. It became her duty to dispose of all his worldly goods, to care for the interests of his chil- dren, who were then in England-probably under the oversight of Lord Baltimore. At that time, this task subjected her to slander and de- traction ; while in later years a mythical environment has been created, and she has been made to do duty as the first woman lawyer and the pioneer advocate of woman's suffrage. She has been made party to a love affair with Governor Leonard Calvert; she has been contracted in a betrothal (at the mature age of sixty) to a man whom she probably never saw! But, notwithstanding these perversions of fancy, the real woman stands out as one who conducted the colony through a desperate strait with courage, ability and patience rarely equalled.
Women have defended their homes and children, but rarely has it been given to a woman to take the charge of a colonial government upon her own slender shoulders.
In the rebellion which had preceded and probably hastened the death of Leonard Calvert, it had been necessary to enlist troops for the defense of the government. There was a question of how the sinews of war should be furnished, and Governor Calvert had pledged his cattle, indeed the credit of the entire Province, for the provision of this fund.
In her capacity as administratrix she went on her even way; as long as she had corn, she paid the troops in that commodity, when that gave out she supplied them with cattle, thus averting the most serious
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mutiny with which the Province had ever been threatened. She saw with clear vision that the interests of Leonard Calvert's family, and indeed those of the Lord Proprietary, could only be properly adminis- tered through her personal transaction of the business left her. And so, upon the 21st of January, 1647, she came before the House and requested that she should have a vote as his Lopps sole attorney ; namely, as possessing his power of attorney. For this she was received " for recovery of rights under the estate and taking care of its preser- vation, but not further." Her request, that she should have a vote for herself and voice also, simply meant that she refused to appear by proxy.
When Governor Greene, unmindful of the fact that he owed his office to the testimony of the Brents, denied her this, she protested against all the proceedings of this present Assembly. She received, however, the acknowledgment of the Assembly, when they assured Lord Baltimore that she had done more in the matter of the mutiny than " any other man." This, however, did not save her from the censure of the Lord Proprietary, who was most harsh in his denuncia- tion of her policy, so that she left the colony, making her home among a little colony of Marylanders, who settled in Lancaster County, Virginia.
She has left, however, a notable figure on our canvas; the adminis- trator and guardian of the Governor's children and estate, the repre- sentative of Lord Baltimore's interests in the troublous times, the pro- tector of her brother Giles' family and fortune during his absences over seas, an ardent and devoted daughter of the "Holy Romane Catholique Church," she needs no fictitious setting to be, perhaps, the most notable of our women in the Colony of Maryland.
We have traced the lines of the manors from Point Lookout up the St. Mary's River into St. Inigoe's Creek. Going up still further, to St. Mary's Bay, we find St. John's Manor, first patented to Secretary Lewger, afterwards in possession of Charles, 3rd Lord Baltimore, lying on St. John's Creek ; while on one side of the Bay is West St. Mary's, laid out for the Proprietary, and on the other East
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*
PORTO BELLO. THE HOME OF WILLIAM HEBB, R.N.
Through the courtesy of Mrs. Alpheus Hyatt, the present owner.
St. Mary's Manor, in which Margaret Brent had authorized Thomas Copley to receive all rents and profits of certain tenements and lands, which, after his bitter controversy with the Jesuit Fathers, did not endear her to his Lordship.
On the Manor of West St. Mary's, and its most important sur- vival to-day, is Porto Bello, which gives a wonderful view of the country round about. It is a quaint old colonial dwelling, a fine old stack of brick chimneys, in which is found one of the best speci- mens of a penthouse, of such ample dimensions, extending into the cellar, as might shelter two or three fugitives. It stands at Bacon's Wharf to-day, as a connecting-link with the expedition against Carthagena and the enlistment of three colonial midshipmen, in the English Navy, who, on their safe return to their homes, in memory of the campaign, bestowed, in the case of William Hebb, on his division of West St. Mary's, the name of the battle in which they had all fought so valiantly, Porto Bello; his neighbor, Edwin Coade, recalled in his plantation the title Carthagena, against which the English expedition had been directed, while Lawrence Washington gave to his home on the Potomac the name of Mt. Vernon, after Admiral Vernon, who had been their commander of the fleet; and though tradition has been, as usual, elusive, yet these facts have been verified through the Hon. James Walter Thomas (whose researches have been so far-reaching) in a correspondence relating to this episode which Hopewell Hebb, Esq., of St. Mary's had exhibited to him by his grandfather, William Hebb, of the Royal Americans.
KENT FORT MANOR
Kent Island had been one of the strategic points in Lord Bal- timore's settlement. The contest for it with William Claiborne (who had been commissioned as Commander of the Island with license to trade with the Indians only a few months before Lord Baltimore received permission to occupy territory which neces- sarily included this small but very important point) absorbs much time and space in the first instructions and correspondence of the officials.
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When Captain Evelyn came out, in 1636, under the wing of Cloberry and Co., Claiborne's business firm, Governor Calvert, in obedience to his brother's instructions, secured his friendship and loyalty, and, after all efforts to treat with the Kentish men had failed, he was appointed in Claiborne's place as Commander of the Isle. Not very long after, a commission was issued for a Court Leet upon the island, but it was by a stretch of authority on the part of the Governor, as there had been as yet no manor laid out. Captain Evelyn did not tarry long in the Province, and the only manor he ever owned was that of Evelynton in the Barony of St. Mary's, that classic spot known to our forefathers as a " watering place," Piney Point, where testimony can be rendered by present-day pilgrims that the plagues of Pharaoh sink into insignifi- cance before the swarms of mosquitoes which there abound.
Among those who were to receive a special welcome at the hands of the authorities, both from Lord Baltimore, who was still sojourning in the beautiful old Wardour Castle ( from which all these earliest grants for Maryland are made), and Leonard Calvert on this side the water, were the Brents, descended from the noble house of Richard, Lord of Cosington (Manor) in Somerset, and Eleanor, daughter of Edward Reed, Lord of Turburie and Willen ( Manor).
Out of one of the patriarchal families embracing Fulke, Richard, Giles, William, Edward, George, Margaret, Mary, Katharine, Elizabeth, Eleanor, Jane, Anne, we can trace only five who came into the colony-Giles, Fulke, George, Margaret, Mary-although there is some reason to believe that Katharine Brent intermarried with the distinguished Greenes, and Anne, the youngest, we believe to have been the bride whom Leonard Calvert went home in 1643 to wed. Certain it is that the sixty acres of town land next the Governor were laid out for Mr. Giles Brent in October, 1639, and in January of the same year (old style) is registered the survey for "Gyles Brent Gentleman Treasurer of the Council 1000 acres lying together as near Kent Fort as may be, and 1000 more when he shall desire it." Made Commander of Kent, from this time forward he comes second only to Leonard Calvert himself, and in the eighteen months from April,
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1643, to October, 1644, while Calvert was absent, Giles Brent was acting Governor. No mention is made of the coming of his wife with him, and whether Mary Fitzherbert was his daughter or his wife remains uncertain to this day.
In the letter from the missions, the earliest mention made, and that in the case of the conversion of the Indian chief Maquacomen, and the hospitality proffered by him, the writer says: "Nor was the Queen inferior to her husband in benevolence to her guest (R. F. White), for with her own hands (which thing the wife of our Treasurer also does willingly) she is accustomed to prepare meat for him and to bake bread with no less care than labor." Giles Brent, Gentleman, found himself out of touch with my Lord Baltimore after the Jesuit troubles. So, later, he removed to Virginia, where he has many descendants.
But the most important manor, perhaps, was that laid out for Dr. Thomas Gerrard, who had been an early arrival in the Province, in the year 1638. No time was lost in the survey made for him of the one thousand acres, including St. Clement's Island, and immedi- ately afterward was given the patent for St. Clement's Manor.
Among the first of the manor lands to be laid off, it is notable as the only one to yield testimony as to the methods of their government. It is also remarkable as including the first landing-place of the Pil- grims, St. Clement's, now Blackiston's Island, lying on the Potomac, an emerald in a setting of sapphires. It was long supposed that St. Clement's had vanished, but through the valiant efforts of Mr. Thomas, in the search of the old records, is has been proven that it is still preserved to us.
It is also unique, in that, being himself a staunch member of the Roman Catholic Church, Gerrard erected for his wife, Susanna Snow, a " Protestant Catholic," a little church where his manor tenants, also Protestant, worshiped. A glebe was also given by the Lord of St. Clement's Manor, and in 1696 the Council ordered the vestry of King and Queen Parish " to have the bounds settled to the one hundred acres of land given to the church by Thomas Gerrard."
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Just where the original manor house stood, it is difficult to say, unless indeed it was that part called Brambly, and as this was the place of residence of both Dr. Gerrard and his son, and was also the name of the Gerrard homestead in England, it is very probable that just here was the center of influence from which this superb estate of eleven thousand four hundred acres was governed.
In many cases the provisions for holding a Court Baron and a Court Leet are mentioned, but, although many must have been kept, this is the only record that remains to us in its entirety.
At the opening of the Leet, so called from the old German " leute," or people, the steward, who was also the judge, having taken his place, the bailiff made proclamation " Oyez ! Oyez ! Oyez ! " and commanded all to draw near and answer to their names, upon " pain and perill." A jury was empanelled from the residents of the manor between the ages of twelve and sixty who were present. The Statute 18 Edw. II. names the following persons as proper to be investigated at a Leet : " Such as have double measure and buy by the great and sell by the less. . . . Such as haunt tavern and no man knoweth whereon they do live. . . . Such as sleep by day and watch by night, and fare well and have nothing." It also fixed the price of bread and ale, and set its hands on butchers that sold " corrupt vitual." The game laws also came under its supervision; but whether it dealt with the King of Chaptico for killing a wild sow and taking her pigs, and “ raising a stock of them "; or whether the lord of the manor himself was dealt with, because he had not provided a pair of stocks, pillory and ducking stools, or whether the entertainment of Benjamin Hayman and Cybill, his wife, brought John Mansell into trouble: certain it is that a more unusual chronicle cannot be found.
But perhaps the chief historical interest of St. Clement's Manor would center to-day about the beautiful old estate of "Bushwood," and the description written by Mrs. Edmond Plowden Jenkins tells us: " the columns which gave the front the stately aspect peculiar to the great mansions of the colonial period, fell to ruin many years ago." In an ancient manuscript, the property of Mrs. Plowden,
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formerly of Bushwood, it is shown that Thomas Gerrard, Esquire, grants to Robert Slye, his son-in-law, one thousand acres of land, known as Bushwood, in consideration of a mortgage, two barrels of Indian corn, and twenty pounds sterling. The approach to the mansion, was through a park of magnificent primeval forest trees, which was kept intact until the middle of the nineteenth century. At the back of the house there were terraces, which sloped down to the Wicomico River, one of Potomac's many beautiful tributaries.
There are still indications of the old English garden, with its clipped box walks, and not so very long ago there were still traces of the " maze " which also formed part of the garden.
In the interior of the house, the walls and ceiling of the drawing- room are panelled in hard wood. In one of the two carved, shell- shaped alcoves, is a secret chamber, which tradition says was used as a place of concealment in troublous times.
There are still outlines of the ancient mantel, now replaced by a modern marble piece, with a blank space about it, where not very long ago there was a quaint panel painting of Virginia Water, in the park of Windsor Castle.
· The staircase of solid mahogany, still in perfect condition, an exceedingly quaint device, without either posts or rails, has been painted white. It is, however, a handsome and artistic piece of wood carving, attributed to Bowen, one of the many "King's prison- ers " transported to Maryland. At the top of the stairway, occupying the center of the house, on the second story, is a fine hall. It was here that the lawgivers of Maryland sat in council. It was here also, at a later date, that the secret plottings for Fendall's rebellion were held. Thomas Gerrard, strange to relate, was the friend and ally of Fendall, and it was from this hall that the schemers proclaimed their independ- ence of Lord Baltimore. From this point, also, Fendall issued his famous proclamation as Governor of the little Republic of Maryland.
These transactions cost the lord of the manor his property, his residence in Maryland, and his political disfranchisement. The
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order of confiscation and banishment was dismissed, but Maryland had lost its charm for him, and he removed to Virginia, where he died.
Among the many beautiful estates lying about St. Clement's Manor and near Bushwood, must be mentioned Bashford Manor, originally belonging to Dr. Gerrard, as early as 1650. Upon it is the subdivision of Bachelor's Hope, with its quaint and attractive hunting lodge, its curious roof, the beautiful old bricks which shade into purple and green tinges, giving a curious effect of vitrified tiling. It possesses perhaps the only specimen of what was frequently found in the old English manor house, an outside staircase. This leads to a gallery on the interior upon which face the upper living and sleeping rooms. From the gallery one looks down upon the hall, where the spoils of the chase were brought in, where the dogs wandered in and out and the deer lay, and where the boon companions gathered after the day's sport was done. Belonging first to Sir Thomas Notley, then to Colonel Benjamin Rozier, who married Anne Sewall, Lady Baltimore's daughter, few places have probably seen more good cheer than Bachelor's Hope.
After the sale of the manor by Governor Notley to Lord Baltimore, the lodge came into possession of Mr. Joshua Doyne. The manor house, like Bushwood, overlooked the Wicomico and had some very beautiful interior carving; but it was burned a few years ago.
In the days when my Lady Baltimore's home was at Notley Hall, with its yellow brick mansion and underground passage from cellar to river, Mrs. Doyne, with many of the surrounding gentlefolk, came and went over the Old Manor Road in a round of visits; and it was while they were enjoying these social delights that my lady had a petition from the wife of one of the colonists in behalf of her hus- band, who had used " reproachful and contumacious words " against Lord Baltimore. She was in a very vituperative frame of mind, taking great umbrage that she was not more successful in her under- taking to obtain his pardon.
Another estate which possesses the distinction-too rare, alas, in this
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STAIRCASE AT BUSHWOOD
1
BASHFORD MANOR. BACHELOR'S HOPE. Through the courtesy of Mr.& Mrs.Truman Slingluff, the present owners
day of restless change-of having descent from the original patentees to its present owner, is Deep Falls, in which a perfect restoration in the most minute detail has been made by the Hon. James Walter Thomas.
Erected about 1745 by Major William Thomas, it is a large double two-story building, with brick gables to the first story and a fine stack of chimneys at each end of the house-indeed the whole width of the house is covered by this beautiful treatment of a generally homely feature. The hall is a large, well-finished square room. On one side is a parlor, on the other a dining-room, separated by a partition consisting of a series of folding doors. In the rear is a long passage running at right angles, which opens to the back porch by a door immediately opposite the front door and archway between hall and passage. The stairway with carved sides, maple and rosewood, inlaid with ivory, is in this passage ; and the balustrade extends round the cor- ridors above.
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