>¦• Yale University Library 39002023535058 YALE UNIVERSITY ART AND ARCHITECTURE LIBRARY COLONIAL MANSIONS OF MARYLAND AND DELAWARE THIS LIMITED EDITION HAS BEEN PRINTED FROM TYPE AND THE TYPE DISTRIBUTED WmTEHALL, ANNK AKUNDEL COl'NTV, MAUVLAND Built about 1700 COLONIAL MANSIONS OF MARYLAND AND DELAWARE BY JOHN MARTIN HAMMOND WITH SIXTY-FIVE ILLUSTRATIONS PHILADELPHIA &¦ LONDON J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY 1914 COPYRIGHT, 1914, BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY PUBLISHED SEPTEMBER, 1914 PRINTED BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY AT THE WASHINGTON SQUARE PRESS PHILADELPHIA, U. S. A. PREFACE Some people collect old furniture, some old books. I for many years have been a collector of old houses within easy travelling distance of my home in Balti more, and the best of my finds are to be found in this book. He who would collect old houses must possess much enthusiasm, a determination that will not be dis couraged, and a fine power of walking. Fully one-half of the points that he visits because of hearsay will be found to be without interest, and of the others that he seeks out only a few insignificant facts wUl at first be ascertainable. A continual source of surprise to one who searches for colonial homes is how little is known about them even in the immediate neighborhood in which they have stood for so many years. The material in this book has been gathered from personal visits and studies at first hand of the houses described. Much of the literary matter has come from private papers and from the recollections of the older generation of the descendants of builders of Maryland and Delaware mansions. The photographs I have made myself. I wish to make acknowledgment of inspira tion and help gained from certain indefatigable workers in history, whose researches have gone into almost every nook of the field in Maryland and Delaware. Any one who delves into Maryland archives will be sure to come across the path of Mrs. Hester Dorsey Richardson, one of the first authorities on Maryland genealogy. Much PREFACE of the available data of the history of Maryland and Delaware will be found in the voluminous writings of John Thomas Scharff, particularly in his " History of Maryland " and his " History of Delaware." No more complete sectional history was ever published than Joshua D. Warfield's " Founders of Howard and Anne Arundel Counties." The annals of Southern Maryland have been gathered together and told in a most scholarly fashion by James Walter Thomas in " Chronicles of Saint Mary's County." In the making of this book I have had certain def inite ends. I wished to call attention, first, to the many beautiful colonial survivals to be found in Maryland and Delaware. Then through the photography and re production of certain architectural detaUs (such as, in particular, doorways), I have hoped to bring sugges tion to those about to build homes of the present day. Finally I have laid some stress on famUy history that the descendants of old famUies in the two States might feel an especially close drawing to these shrines of the life of yesterday. The work of gathering together the photographs and data presented in the following pages has meant much tramping, buggy riding and boating, — the first a no light task with a fifteen pound camera, — but it has been a labor of love. I wish to acknowledge the valuable assistance of my friend, Michael Warner Hewes, Jr., in the preparation of several of my chapters, particu larly those relating to Eastern Shore points. Baltimore, Md., J. M. H. July, 1914. CONTENTS MARYLAND PAOE CHASE HOUSE ANNAPOLIS 15 Families: Chase, Llotd, Habwood, Ridout HAMMOND or HARWOOD HOUSE. .ANNAPOLIS 27 Families: Hammond, Finenet, Chase, Loceebman, Harwood PACA HOUSE ANNAPOLIS 36 Families: Paca, Schaaf, Neth, Bland, Kennedt, Swann BRICE HOUSE ANNAPOLIS 45 Families: Brice, Stephen, Martin, Robb RIDOUT HOUSE ANNAPOLIS 60 Familt: Ridout SCOTT HOUSE ANNAPOLIS 68 Families: Scott, Ket, Bibnet, Claude, Sisters of Merct, Sisters of N6trb Dame BORDLEY or RANDALL HOUSE. . .ANNAPOLIS 72 Families: Bobdlet, Randall WHITEHALL SANDY POINT, ANNE ARUN DEL COUNTY 77 Families: Shaepe, Ridout, Stort MONTPELIER LAUREL, PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY 88 Families: Snowden, Jenkins, Tatlob, Blaeeman, Pendleton, Von Schrader. OAKLANDS CONTEE STATION, PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY 96 FAMnjBa: Snowden, Contee, Bolltng, Hoopf BURLEIGH HOWARD COUNTY 105 Familt: Hammond DOUGHOREGAN MANOR HOWARD COUNTY UO Familt: Cabroll HAMPTON BALTIMORE COUNTY 131 Family: Ridgblt vii CONTENTS TULIP HILL WEST RIVER, ANNE ARUNDEL COUNTY 138 Families: Gallowat, Maxcet, Markoe, Hughes, Mukhat, Parker CEDAR PARK WEST BIVER, ANNE ARUNDEL COUNTY 144 Families: Gallowat, Sprigg, Mercer, Mubrat RATCLIFFE MANOR NEAR EASTON. TALBOT COUNTY 148 Families: Holltdat, Gibson, Hathawat WYE HOUSE TALBOT COUNTY 152 Family: Llotd READBOURNE QUEEN ANNE'S COUNTY 161 Families: Holltdat, Perrt BELMONT HOWARD COUNTY 166 Families: Dorset, Hanson MOUNT AIRY CROOME, PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY 184 Families: Calveet, Duvall BELAIR PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY.. 199 Families: Ogle, Bowie, Woodward BLAKEFORD QUEEN ANNE'S COUNTY 205 Families: DeCoubct, Blake, Weight, Thom BLOOMINGDALE QUEEN ANNE'S COUNTY 211 Families: Harhis, Wallis, Dudlbt MONTMORENCI BALTIMORE COUNTY 216 Families: Worthington, Conrad, Lehr BELVOIR ANNE ARUNDEL COUNTY. ... 219 Families: Ross, Matnadibe, Worthington, Polutansei PLAIN DEALING TALBOT COUNTY 225 Families: Chamberlaine, Lockeeman, Haedcastle BEVERLY SOMERSET COUNTY 232 Familt: Dennis CONTENTS SOTTERLY ST. MARY'S COUNTY 235 Families: Bowles, Plater, Bbiscob, Satterlee DEEP FALLS ST. MARY'S COUNTY 240 Family: Thomas DELAWARE AMSTEL HOUSE NEW CASTLE 247 Families: Van Dtkb, Moody, Burnham, Hay DICKINSON HOUSE KENT COUNTY 251 Families: Dickinson, Logan KENSEY JOHNS HOUSE NEW CASTLE 255 Families: Johns, Stockton, Moore LOOCKERMAN HOUSE DOVER 257 Families: Looceeeman, Bradford, Culbreth READ HOUSE NEW CASTLE 264 Families: Read, Couper, Smith RIDGELY HOUSE DOVER 266 Family: Ridgely STEWART HOUSE NEW CASTLE 291 Families: Van Dtkb, Du Pont, Janvier, Lambson, Stewart THOMAS HOUSE NEW CASTLE 298 Families: Thomas, Read, Thomas ILLUSTRATIONS MARYLAND PAOE WHITEHALL ANNE ARUNDEL COUNTY Exterior Frontispiece ST. PAUL'S RECTORY BALTIMORE Exterior 6 STEMMER HOUSE BALTIMORE COUNTY Exterior 10 CHASE HOUSE ANNAPOLIS Entrance 16 Shutteb Cabving 18 Palladian Window 22 HAMMOND HOUSE ANNAPOLIS Entrance 30 Sofa op American Empire Period 32 PACA HOUSE ANNAPOLIS Exterior IO BRICE HOUSE ANNAPOLIS Mantel m Drawing-Room 46 Exterior 50 RIDOUT HOUSE ANNAPOLIS Entrance 64 SCOTT HOUSE ANNAPOLIS Exterior 68 Entrance Hall '''0 WHITEHALL ANNE ARUNDEL COUNTY From the Garden 78 Entrance to Parlour 80 Entrance, Interior Carving 82 MONTPELIER PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY Rear View 90 Summer House 9* Garden ^^ xi ILLUSTRATIONS OAKLANDS PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY China Cupboard 98 Stairway 98 BURLEIGH HOWARD COUNTY Exterior 106 Garden Entrance 108 DOUGHOREGAN HOWARD COUNTY From the Rear 114 Garden Entrance 120 HOMEWOOD BALTIMORE Exterior 122 HAMPTON BALTIMORE COUNTY Central Portion 132 Cupola 134 SPRING HILL HOWARD COUNTY Exterior 134 TULIP HILL ANNE ARUNDEL COUNTY Entrance igg Garden Entrance 140 Hall and Stair 142 RATCLIFFE TALBOT COUNTY Shell Cupboard 148 Alcove Window 148 Garden Entrance 150 From the Garden 150 BELMONT HOWARD COUNTY extebior 188 Entrance 178 MOUNT AIRY PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY EXIEEIOH 188 RIVERDALE PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY Exterior 192 MOUNT AIRY PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY Fireplace in Dining-Room 198 The Sideboard jgg xii ILLUSTRATIONS BELAIR PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY Central Poetion 200 From the Terrace 202 Main Stairway 202 BLAKEFORD QUEEN ANNE'S COUNTY All-the-Yeae-Round Summee House 206 From the East 206 BLOOMINGDALE QUEEN ANNE'S COUNTY extbeiob 212 Side Porch 214 STEMMER HOUSE BALTIMORE COUNTY Garden Entrance 214 MONTMORENCI BALTIMORE COUNTY exteeioe 216 The Winding Stair 216 Parlour Coenbb 216 BELVOIR ANNE ARUNDEL COUNTY Entrance 220 From the South 222 DELAWARE AMSTEL HOUSE NEW CASTLE Entrance 248 KENSEY JOHNS HOUSE NEW CASTLE Exterior 254 RODNEY HOUSE NEW CASTLE Exterior 256 LOOCKERMAN HOUSE DOVER The Stairway 260 A Corner Cupboard 260 RIDGELY HOUSE DOVER Exterior 268 From the Garden 272 Pabloub Corner 280 THOMAS HOUSE NEW CASTLE Entrance 292 INTRODUCTION The scattered survivals of the colonial era of home buUding in Maryland and Delaware have certain great similarities of construction, but they are more closely bound together by ties of blood than by architectural detail. The colonial mansions of the latter little Com monwealth show decided evidence of Dutch influence in their construction, while those of the former present probably as pure examples as wUl be found of the Eng lish adaptation of the classic motive in building, which forms the backbone of the Georgian school. Side by side however, geographically speaking, the eastern shore of Maryland and the whole of little Delaware being isolated by the Delaware and Chesapeake bays, the two States are very closely connected genealogicaUy. The Ridgely, Loockermann, and Johns families, to men tion only a few, have branches in both States and have been conspicuous in the history of each. One great distinction between the colonial homes of Maryland and Delaware relates to the comparatively unimportant matter of size. The homes of Maryland are of much bolder conception than those of Delaware. There are many reasons for this, but on the surface it is apparent that Delaware, with its unsettled early days — founded by the Dutch, wrangled over by the Swedes, and finally wrested from both of these nationalities by the strong hand of the Enghsh — would not attract as wealthy a class of settler as Maryland, nor would its INTRODUCTION people spring from a stock with as imperative a tradi tion of luxurious living as those of the cavalier life in the Southern State. In point of charm and historic interest, however, one finds as much to please the imagination and the eye in the homes of Delaware as in those of any other State of the Union. A characteristic architectural development of colonial Maryland is the wing. This is not typical of the colonial homes of Delaware. Maryland was essen tially a slave-holding and tobacco-growing colony and the wing was a creation designed to meet the double demand for a place to house the house-servants near at hand and for an office close to the dwelling-house from which to conduct the affairs of the plantation. At first these demands were met by a small isolated structure close to the big house. Then came a covered passage way from the house. Finally the wing as a concrete part of the whole became an accepted convention. In both Maryland and Delaware, as well as Penn sylvania, brick was the favorite material used for buUd ing. Incidentally in New England frame was usual. Yet stone and brick were plentiful in New England, and wood in Maryland and Pennsylvania. Just why there should be this characteristic and undeniable difference in choice of buUding stuff is one of those things " no fellow hopes to know." Temperamental variances would seem to be a better explanation, even though a somewhat ambiguous one, than an attempt to blame it INTRODUCTION on the climate ; for wood is certainly a less appropriate buUding stuff for a cold northerly climate than stone. The homes of Maryland and Delaware were always buUt on a navigable water-course and usually with the front of the house toward the water. There were good reasons for this. Our ancestors did not have good roads and they were not especially fond of walking. Again the water-courses were safer routes of travel than the forests where hostile savages might do mischief. As late as 1750, indeed, the fear of Indian attack had not left Annapolis, the capital of Maryland. Follow the Delaware up from the Atlantic and diverge into almost any of the tributaries of this body fifty miles or so above its mouth, and you will find the colonial houses of Dela ware. Penetrate into southern Maryland by the Pa tuxent or go up the Severn upon which Annapolis was situated and in these reaches of land will be found the colonial mansions of Maryland. The period of fine home buUding in Maryland and Delaware extended from about 1735 to the end of the eighteenth century. It was not until the beginning of this stretch of time that a really wealthy class had been developed in either of the two colonies. Now the planter came into his own. His acres were a " going concern," a concern that probably paid larger dividends in pro portion than the great bulk of those commercial ventures which have been born in the present day. His own work was little more than casual supervision; two or three 3 INTRODUCTION months in the year he would devote to the planting and the cutting, and the rest of the time was his own, over seers taking the mass of small details from his shotdders. It was at this time that he began to buUd himself a beautiful home, that Annapolis in Maryland and Dover and New Castle in Delaware became social capitals, and that the lawyer class — made up chiefly of leisured men — attained that brilliance of forensic and intellectual achievement which was characteristic of the bar of these two States before the Revolution. The typical Maryland colonial mansion, using this word to mean a pretentious dwelling, was a large central buUding with wings, surrounded by a number of smaUer dwellings for servants and overseers. It was usually two stories in height and occasionally, though very rarely, three, and it was made after designs sent from London. This interesting question as to who were the archi tects of the Maryland and Delaware houses has received investigation from the late T. Henry Randall, of the Randall House, Annapolis, Maryland, an aged man at his death several years ago, an architect himself, and a life-long resident in the traditions of the aristocratic ancient city, and his opinion expressed several times in his writings and in his conversation coincided with the last sentence above. The planter was his own architect and builder, securing his plans from good authorities in England and patiently and carefuUy following them INTRODUCTION after they were secured. The reputation for smartness and fashionableness of Annapolis just before the Revo lution drew to it some architects from the other side of the water, but they were never numerically a large class. A book of designs from which many of the old doorways and interior details of the mansions of Maryland and Delaware were evidently copied is to be found, among other places, in the British Museum in London and bears the title, " The British Architects or BuUders Treasury, by Abraham Swan, Architect. London, MDCCVII." It was from such sources as this that our forefathers drew their inspirations. Even in the town houses in Annapolis, where space was more confined, the buildings retained their wings and their aspect of generosity of mass, the chief differ ence between town and country being that in the country there were more out-buUdings. Each plantation house was its own store, as the merchant class in Maryland was small and each house had a private wharf where goods were received from vessels from Europe. The greater planters owned the schooners in which barter was carried on with the mother country. The decoration of the homes was done by hand by intelligent servants trained to the work or by those artisans whom chance, misfortune, or adventure sent to the New World. Despite the mUdness of the climate in Maryland and Delaware and the severity of the summers the INTRODUCTION houses were built without piazzas. Sometimes there would be a covered stoop at the entrance, but the Eng lish tradition in this regard was carefully followed. It was not until after the end of the eighteenth century that the porch as a place of sufficient size for the family to take the air was introduced. The grounds around the houses were almost always carefuUy terraced and, usually, toward the river. This gave a splendid space on which to stroU of humid evenings, and summer- houses in the gardens were very common. A distinguishing feature of the buUders of the colonial mansions in both Maryland and Delaware seems to have been their love of gardens. After the planter had built his house, he always chose a sunny spot of ground to devote to flowers and box-bushes, these latter guarding the sides of formaUy planned gravel walks. Just how long did it take our forefathers to buUd one of these homes? Probably about four years on the average if there was no interruption. We know that two years after the Chase House in Annapolis, Maryland, was started the outside of the house was completed. SkUled labor was scarce and the builders of those days did their work with a care and a regard to permanence which does not mark all modern home erection. The timbers of Tulip Hill, West River, Maryland, are heavy enough for the keel of a large ship, and the thick waUs of the quaint Ridgely House, Dover, Delaware, would ST. PAUL'S RECTORY, BALTIMORE 1794 INTRODUCTION make a whole city block of two-story modern brick houses. When our forefathers built a fine house how much did it cost them? The Chase House, Annapolis, when almost completed was sold by Samuel Chase for nearly five hundred pounds sterling, of Great Britain, and twenty-four hundred pounds current, while the purchase price for the lot on which the house stood was one hundred pounds sterling. When Ninian Pinkney sold his beautiful home opposite the Chase House to Jere miah Townely Chase in 1811, the consideration was three thousand, five hundred dollars, of the United States mint, the purchasing power of a dollar being much greater then than now. Whatever our fore fathers' homes may have cost them when new, it is lamentably true that untU very recent years many of them were sold for the proverbial song, and rag-time at that. Of nearly every old house that one visits, it is proudly asserted that the bricks were brought over from England, usually as ballast for the ship it is said, or as the result of a direct order for such a commodity. This is a tradition that seems to have no settled home. It can be heard in Maryland, Pennsylvania and Georgia, yet there is not a single bUl of lading recorded in Mary land which shows brick as an item of import, and the only pertinent information in the author's possession INTRODUCTION upon this moot question is the recollection of certain members of the Snowden family of Maryland of having seen passages in old letters that referred to brick having been brought from England for the buUding of Birm ingham. These letters were destroyed by the fire which carried away this beautiful manor house. The fire did not destroy the brick in entirety and, to be sure, they are of size and texture not resembling any other old brick in Maryland. It would seem that as a rule, how ever, the popular tradition of imported brick is without foundation, though one hesitates to contravene a general opinion so well established. But the colonists needed more important things from England than brick to ballast a ship, and there was good clay in this country. Governor Sharpe had his own brick-yard to assist in the building of Whitehall, Maryland. It is probable that the planters as a class were their own brick-makers. Around the old homes of Maryland and Delaware hang many traditions often scattered to various quarters to be gathered together one by one. Sometimes one finds a beautiful colonial homestead which seems to strive terribly to unfold to you the story of its past but for which you miss just the word which wUl make aU intelligible to you. There comes to mind in this con nection the Stemmer House, near Baltimore, about which records cannot be found to connect its history from its erection just before the Revolution by the man INTRODUCTION from whom it took its name with its acquisition not long after the opening of the nineteenth century by Robert Howard, It is now owned and occupied by Miss Sallie Hays, the grand-daughter of Robert Howard, and lately housed, also, the family of Miss Hays's cousin, Mrs. E. B. Hall. This old homestead is one of the finest examples of colonial architecture in Maryland, and yet it is to be doubted if more than two dozen people outside of its immediate neighborhood know of its exist ence. It consists of a central building with wings, though the wings are not developed to the fuU type which marked most of the homes of Maryland of this period. It is large, and contains very beautiful interior carving. The stairway which leads from the rear of the usual central hall is of notable grace, winding to the second floor in an airy curve with a window lighting its course midway and with hardwood stairs and with slender mahogany pUasters. In its general design it resembles the stair of Montmorenci, the Worthington homestead in the Worthington Valley, Maryland. The builder of this mansion, it has been asserted, was a sea-captain who was so wedded to the ways of the sea that he had a hammock slung in his bedroom on the second floor and slept in this in preference to a bed stead which a land-lubber might have chosen. In proof of this, two large hooks are shown you in this room from which a hammock might have been slung. The 9 INTRODUCTION grounds around the house were carefully terraced and in the rear was a garden. The era of fine home buUding in Maryland reached its finest flower in Annapolis, as would be supposed from the social pre-eminence of this little capital, just before the Revolution. In southern Maryland, the scene of the original settlement of the State, are to be found homes even antedating the Georgian period of building, some very pretentious and all equally difiicult of access because of the poor railroad facilities of this part of the State, Among the charming homes in Saint Mary's County, Maryland, of which an extended story has not been told in the body of the book are: Tudor Hall, Mrs. Joseph H. Key's place; EUenborough, an other Key house; Cremona, which has been inherited by Miss Eliza Thoinas, of Baltimore; Saint Cuthbert's, the home of Mrs. Walter Briscoe; and Portobello, opposite the historic town-site of St. Mary's, now the possession of Mrs. Hyatt. There may be mentioned, too, Rose Hill, Chancel lor's Hope and Pamonky, in Charles County; Rane lagh, the Contee place, Brookefield, Poplar HiU, Bald Eagle, the Waring homestead, Acquasco and Matta- poni, in Prince George's County; the Hermitage in Queen Anne's County; Plimhimmon and Myrtle Grove in Talbot County; the Lee House, Rehoboth, in Dor chester County; Success Farm, in Cecil County; the 10 THE STEMMER HOUSE INTRODUCTION Dairy Farm, the Hall homestead, in Harford County. All of these places were in preservation a few years ago. Among the interesting colonial homes in Delaware not treated fully in the text are: Belmont Hall, near Smyrna; the WUson House and the Corbit House at Odessa ; and the CowgiU House at Dover. The CowgUl House has been very well described in a novel popular twenty years ago, " The Entailed Hat." A long chapter might be written of the beautiful colonial homes in Maryland and Delaware which have passed away in the memory of the last generation. In some of the colonial places of these two States life is lived in a state closely approximating that when the house was new. In Oakdale, Howard County, the home of former Governor Edwin F. Warfield, of Mary land, one finds himself where the traditions of this old Maryland famUy are carefully maintained. A minor triumph of colonial home building in Mary land is the rectory of St. Paul's Protestant Episcopal Church, Baltimore, Ulustrated in this chapter. Erected in 1794 as the home of the spiritual director of this parish, it has never served any other purpose. It at present shelters the Rev. Dr. Arthur Kinsolving and his family. Situated at the intersection of busy Cathe dral and Saratoga streets in the downtown section and opposite a large hotel, it draws many curious glances from Baltimoreans and strangers to the city alike. 11 INTRODUCTION The life that was lived in these old homes has been pictured often by novelists and historians. It was not all cards and wine, dancing and love-making, with a little bit of duelling thrown in for good measure after breakfast as cheap romancers would have it, but one cannot help thinking that the occupants of these houses knew how to live life fuUy and frankly and one may be sure that they had sufficient leisure, as well, for reflec tion and rest. COLONIAL MANSIONS OF MARYLAND THE CHASE HOUSE ANNAPOLIS. MARYLAND CHASE— LLOYD-HARWOOD-RIDOUT ^^_^HE old Chase House, Annapolis, Maryland, as it is affectionately spoken of by residents of this quaint and delightful city, is one of the largest of the colonial man sions which have made that place a Mecca for artists and students of architecture. It faces the Hammond House on the north side of Maryland Avenue, over which it gazes to the sleepy harbor front and the broad waters of Chesapeake Bay at the mouth of the Severn River, its three stories and a half above the pavement giving it an advantage of height over any other residence in Annapolis. The house is situated on the main way to the Naval Academy and receives many visitors daily from among the sightseers to this institution. Of late years it has been the home of a public charity and gives open door to all callers. Few men or women could be so absorbed in affairs of the present as to fail to respond to its mute invitation to step aside for a few moments for a trip into the past. When Annapolis was laid out in 1695, the ground on which the old mansion stands was surveyed, forming a part of the original plat of the city. The town-site 15 COLONIAL MANSIONS OF MARYLAND commissioners put down two adjacent circles of ground in what is the centre of the present-day city. One of these circles they labelled " State," and here the capitol of Maryland stands, a beautiful Georgian edifice with a quaint dome and interior decorations by Bulfinch. The other circle they called " Church," and here was erected St. Anne's Church (of the Church of England) thrice rebuilt but sheltering within its grounds the bones of most of Annapolis' honored dead, including those of many of these very same town-site commissioners. Another part of the future city the commissioners de voted to " Trade," other parts to " Gentlemen's Homes," and " Tradesmen's Homes." State, Church, Trade, and Gentility were kept carefully separated in the ancient city until well after the Revolution, for it was an aristocratic city with aristocratic ideals; and they are separated even now, some of the city's critics would say. In the heart of the fine residence district, the Chase House was planned and finished. It faces southeast and is built close to the southeast boundary of its lot, which is enclosed by a high, old-time paling fence. Over the Maryland Avenue side of this fence, near the front door, hang sweet-flowering bushes, the remains of a garden planted a century or more ago. Though the garden is not so orderly as it once was — with close-clipt hedges and tiny, graveUed walks — it still shows the plan on which it was laid out in ye olden time. ENTRANCE TO CHASE HOUSE 1769 THE CHASE HOUSE The doorway of the old home is of three-part con struction with a fanlight over the central portion, and is approached by a high, broad flight of steps headed by a commodious landing with quaint benches on either side. There is a brass knocker on the door representing Medusa's head, with the knocker-stirrup encircling the lower part of the face. Though large, the house is not ill-proportioned, and the monotonous expanse of the walls is varied by string courses of brick which mark the different stories. The cornice is heavy and the eaves of the roof have wide projections lowering the appearance of the house, and preventing its seeming too high. The carved medaUion panels on the inside shutters are to be plainly seen from the street, and this feature adds a touch of ornament to the plain exterior. The house was originally intended to have wings, but these were never finished, though there is a sort of " rudimentary development " on the northeast side, wherein is situated a kitchen and a laundry. The main building is divided through the middle by a broad hallway leading from the front door to a great stairway at the back of the house. To the right of this hall, as one enters, is the dining-room, an apartment of stately proportions. To the left is the parlor. Beyond the parlor is a sitting-room, and between these rooms runs a passage from the main haU to a little terrace overlooking the remains of the garden. To the rear of 2 17 COLONML MANSIONS OF MARYLAND the dining-room is a smaU breakfast-room, whUe be tween these two rooms is a passage leading down a steep flight of stairs, through a very thick old door-frame to the kitchen. There are no other rooms on the first floor. The stairway commences with a single flight leading to a landing. Steps and landing are lighted by a PaUa- dian window which has been copied in many beautiful homes of this country. From here there are two flights in a reverse direction which run without break to a gaUery on the second floor. From this gaUery halls extend to the northeast and southwest sides of the house. Much less conspicuous stairs conduct one from the second to the third floor. The base of the main stairway is marked by two fine Ionic columns which support the gaUery on the second floor. This flight of steps is that down which Dorothy Manners tripped so blithely and so effectively in Winston ChurchUl's novel of colonial AnnapoUs, " Richard Carvel," Annapolitans assert, but there is no foundation for the story, save the fitting beauty of the stair. A back-stairs is to be found in the house, too, an unusual thing in houses of the Georgian period, and a sign of great extravagance in its buUder, The doors of the house throughout are of solid mahogany with latches and hinges of wrought sUver. There is much wood-carving, particularly in the dining- room, and the ceUings of the first floor are of stucco. The foundations' of the Chase House were laid in 1769 by Samuel Chase, " the Signer." In May of that 18 SHUTTER CAR\TNG, CHASE HOUSE THE CHASE HOUSE year he purchased lot Number One Hundred and Seven in the city of Annapolis, an old deed in the land record office, Annapolis, teUs us, from Denton Hammond for One Hundred Pounds, Sterling. He commenced to buUd immediately, and two years from this time, in July, 1771, sold this piece of ground and " all houses, edifices, buUdings, improvements, waters, easements, privUeges, commodities and advantages whatsoever to the same belonging " to Edward Lloyd, of " Wye House," Tal bot County, Maryland. The consideration involved was " Five Hundred and Four Pounds, Sterling, of Great Britain, and Two Thousand, Four Hundred and Ninety-one Pounds, Seventeen ShUlings and Seven Pence, Current." These words are quoted from an indenture among the provincial court records of Maryland, now in the Land Commissioner's office in the Court of Appeals BuUding, Annapolis, and are given verbatim, as it has been a matter of dispute whether Samuel Chase buUt entirely the old mansion that bears his name, whether he buUt it in part and left it to be finished by Edward Lloyd, or whether he was at all concerned in its erection. Considering the sum of money involved in the transac tion last noted, rather great for property in those days — especially when compared with the amount which was paid for the lot two years prior thereto — it seems indis putable that the house was substantially completed when it came into its second owner's hands. 19 COLONIAL MANSIONS OF MARYLAND At the same time, when we think of the scarcity of skilled labor and the general slowness of construction work at that time, we must conclude that the interior was finished under Edward Lloyd's direction, and the final stamp given the property by him. This view is strikingly borne out by a comparison of the exterior and interior of the house. The big, simple masses of the exterior and the uncomplicated general plan of the house, contrasted with the slim, fastidious silver door- fittings and decorations of the interior, show two de cidedly different personalities, and these observations agree very well, too, with the characters of Samuel Chase and Edward Lloyd, as they are to be seen in records of their contemporaries. In the registry of wills of Baltimore city is to be found the testament of Thomas Chase, " clerk of Balti more Town, Baltimore County," probated in the year 1779, in which the testator leaves all his world's goods to " son Samuel." This Thomas Chase was the father of the builder of the Chase home. He was a clergyman of the Church of England, but held a civU position for the greater part of his life. The document mentions other chUdren, Ann, Elizabeth, George, and Richard, There is another will of earlier date in this same de pository, bearing the name of Richard Chase, brother of Thomas, which mentions two chUdren, Jeremiah and Frances. These good old English names, Thomas, Samuel, Richard, Jeremiah, Ann, and Elizabeth, recur 20 THE CHASE HOUSE constantly in the records of the Chase famUy. This Richard Chase's wiU contains one statement, too, show ing at least that its maker had a mind of his own: " I desire that no funeral sermon shall be preached at my interment." " Son Samuel," of Thomas, was educated in Annapo lis when that little city was beginning to thrill to that spirit of independence which brought about the Revolu tion, and was filled with men ardently reciting the creed of liberty. Among them very soon one finds Chase con spicuous. He joined the " Sons of Liberty " and be came known for uncompromising frankness of utterance and a personal bravery that has made him a picturesque figure in Maryland annals. A somewhat more opulent follower of the Hustings than Andrew Jackson, he yet resembles that great fire-eater of later times in many particulars. Once he was assailed by certain prominent men of Annapolis with a newspaper canard containing the following words: " Chase is a busy-body, a restless incendiary, a ring-leader of mobs, a foulmouthed and inflaming son of discord and faction, a promoter of the lawless excesses of the multitude." This followed his connection with the destruction of the property of Zachariah Hood, stamp collector for the province of Maryland. Says the historian Warfield: Chase replied to these words in a vehement public address : " Was it a mob who destroyed in effigy our stamp distributor .'' Was it a mob who assembled here frora the different counties 21 COLONIAL MANSIONS OF MARYLAND and indignantly opened the public offices.'' Whatever vanity may whisper in your ears, or that pride and arrogance may suggest which are natural to despicable tools of power, emerged from obscurity and basking in proprietary sunshine, you must confess them to be your superiors, men of reputation and merit, who are mentioned with respect while you are named with contempt, pointed out and hissed at as fruges consumere nati. " I admit that I was one of those who committed to the flames in effigy the stamp distributor of this province, and who openly disputed the parliamentary right to tax the colonies; while you skulked in your houses, some of you asserting the parliamentary right and esteeming the Stamp Act a beneficial law. Others of you meanly grumbled in your corners, not daring to speak out your sentiments." It was a time of strong men and strong language I On another occasion, while Chief Justice of the General Court of Maryland, and when there was a riot in the streets of Baltimore, Chase with his own unaided hands arrested two of the ringleaders of the disturbance of the peace and dragged them before the sheriff. His prisoners refused to give bail and the sheriff was afraid there would be a successful effort to rescue them if he took them to jail through the crowded streets. " Summon a posse comitatus," thundered Judge Chase. " Sir, no one will serve." " Summon me, then ; I will take them to jail ! " Instead of presenting the rioters, the grand jury in dicted the judge for holding a place in two courts at the same time. 22 PALLADIAN WINDOW IN CHASE HOUSE THE CHASE HOUSE StUl later in life, as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, by appointment from Presi dent Washington, Chase was impeached in the United States Senate for mingling diatribes against current pohtical conditions with his judicial utterances. WhUe the impeachment did not hold, no one doubted its provo cation. He was a signer of the Declaration of Inde pendence, and a delegate to the Continental Congress from 1774 to 1778. Judge Chase's first wife was Ann Baldwin, of an old Maryland family, by whom he had four chUdren, Samuel, Thomas, Ann, and Catherine. He married a second time, Hannah Kitty Giles, of Kentbury, Eng land, and died June 19, 1811. Thomas Chase married his cousin, MatUda, daughter of Jeremiah T. Chase. Catherine married Henry Ridgely, of Howard County, Maryland. The second owner of the mansion, Edward Lloyd, of Wye House, was of the old baronial stock of the colony, and was the fourth Edward Lloyd in Mary land. The family was English in origin and a more extended account of it wUl be found in the chapter on Wye House, where this Edward kept a deer park, horses and hounds, and rode when he went abroad, in that iUustrious but cumbersome institution — a coach and four. His tax assessment in 1783, despite depreda tions by British marauders at Wye House, included 261 slaves, 799 head of sheep, 147 horses, 571 head of 23 COLONIAL MANSIONS OF MARYLAND cattle, 579 head of hogs, 215,000 pounds of tobacco, 500 ounces of plate and 72 tracts of land covering 11,8841/2 acres. At his death he left his home in Annapolis to his son Edward Lloyd, V, who became Governor of Mary land, 1809-1811. During its occupancy by Edward Lloyd, IV, the Chase House was the scene of many brilliant social entertainments, and the tradition of hospitality thus established was continued by this gentleman's son and heir, Edward Lloyd, V, the next occupant, during whose occupancy, moreover, the old home became the " Governor's Mansion " of Maryland, by reason of its master's election to that high office in 1809. One must again turn to the record office in Annapo lis to foUow the Ufe of the Chase House. May 11, 1826, Edward Lloyd, V, sold the Chase House to his son-in- law, Henry Hall Harwood, for $6,500, the first mention in deeds concerning the property of coin of the United States. November 5, 1847, it was purchased from the heirs of Henry Hall Harwood, who died suddenly, by Miss Hester Ann Chase, daughter of Jeremiah T. Chase. She left it, in her wiU of 1875, to her nieces, MatUda and Frances Catherine Townley Chase, daughters of Thomas Chase (son of Judge Samuel) and his cousin- wife MatUda (daughter of Jeremiah T. Chase). The old home thus came back at last to descendants of its founder. These two ladies did not marry and were sur vived by their sister, Hester Ann Chase Ridout, wife 24 THE CHASE HOUSE of Reverend Samuel Ridout, to whom they in turn left their half -interest in the old home. The final phase of the life of the Chase House was entered into in 1888, following the death of Hester Ann Chase Ridout, by reason of the foUowing words in this noble-hearted woman's will: " Desiring to estab lish a home for destitute, aged and infirm women, where they may find a retreat from the vicissitudes of life and to endow the same, as far as my means will allow, to be called and known as the ' Chase Home,' I hereby devise and bequeath to Dr. WUliam G. Ridout, John Scharff Stockett, John Wirt Randall, Frank H. Stockett, Eu gene Worthington, Dr. Zachariah D. Ridout, Elizabeth M. Franklin, and Nannie S. Stockett, and to their heirs, successors and assigns, all that lot of ground on Mary land Avenue, in the City of Annapolis, together with all the buildings and improvements thereon, where I now reside . . . together with the furniture which may be in said house at the time of my decease, not including, however, family portraits and silver- ware; in trust, to be held by them and their successors in perpetuity for the objects and purposes of such ' Home.' " Mrs. Rid out also left property in Baltimore to these trustees as an endowment for the " Home." She survived her husband three years, and had no direct heirs. In accordance with her request, she lies buried at Whitehall, her husband's family home, and by his side. COLONLIL MANSIONS OF MARYLAND Its later owners have not changed the Chase House in any essential, preferring rather to maintain it in its vestiture of the olden times. It contains, amongst other minor colonial relics, a set of china bearing the Chase coat-of-arms, an immense bedstead requiring a set of steps to enter it, and an eight-day clock which belonged to the bachelor Proprietary Governor Horatio Sharpe, and was kept by him at Whitehall. THE HAMMOND, OR HARWOOD, HOUSE ANNAPOLIS. MARYLAND HAMMOND— PINKNEY— CHASE— LOCKERMAN— HARWOOD HE Hammond House, Annapolis, Maryland, very often called the Harwood House, is on Maryland Avenue, directly opposite the Chase House, just described. A more striking contrast in exterior than these two buildings could hardly be imagined, as, where the latter is high and square, the former is low, long and distinguished for grace; the one a solid, single unit, the other depending for its architectural effect almost entirely upon one- story-and-a-half wings, which are almost the only examples of semi-octagonal additions of this character in the United States. The Chase House is notable for breadth, simplicity, and generosity of line and mass; the Hammond House for elegance, refinement of detaU, and beautiful proportion. Either one in itself would be sufficient to give character to a city fortunate enough to possess it, and that the two, so diverse in character, yet so representative of the best homes of our fathers, should be face to face affably holding converse in stately eighteenth-century style across the same street in the same city, is a rare cause for congratulation. 27 COLONML MANSIONS OF MARYLAND The Hammond House was built in 1774 by Matthias Hammond, the revolutionary patriot; was inherited, in 1786, by John Hammond, nephew of the buUder; sold by its inheritor, in 1789, to his brother, PhUip Ham mond; was transferred by purchase, March 31, 1810, from Philip Hammond to Ninian Pinkney and by pur chase, October 28, 1811, from Ninian Pinkney to Jere miah Townley Chase, who bought it as a home for his daughter, Frances Townley Chase Lockerman. The present owner of the house is Miss Hester Harwood, a granddaughter of Frances Townley Chase Lockerman, whose father, WUliam Harwood, in 1853, married Mrs. Lockerman's daughter, Hester Ann Lockerman. There are many interesting traditions in Annapolis of this old property, one of them relating to the quaint transaction that took place between Edward Lloyd who lived in the Chase House and Matthias Hammond during the building of the latter's home. The story goes that the latter had planned to have a three-story edifice without wings, very much like other town houses of the time in Ajinapolis, and was proceeding merrily along in this direction, when it occurred to the former that if the latter carried out his plans in full, the former would have no view of the water from his front windows — a very much sought-after condition in those days. Events proved that the two gentlemen were good friends, as otherwise, in that litigious age and city, they would certainly have gone to the courts and our two THE HAMMOND, OR HARWOOD, HOUSE beautiful colonial reminders of the present day might never have been finished; or the two men would never have come to so amicable an agreement as they did reach. Mr. Hammond agreed to change the plans of his house so that Mr. Lloyd might have a good view if Mr. Lloyd would pay the cost of the wings which would be added to his house to make up for the space lost in the projected third story. Thus, instead of his hopes taking wings, as they might have done had he gone into the courts, Mr. Hammond's house took wings, and all was well. This accounts for the fact that the founda tion walls of the Hammond House are five feet thick in the central portion, which — even with the generous emphasis on such details of those days — seems rather too much for a two-story building. Another tradition in Annapolis of the old home has a flavor of romance. Mr. Hammond was engaged to be married to a fair lady, whose name has not been handed down to us, and this house, a very gem of classical architecture, was to be his wedding gift to his bride. It was finished, and its master had even sent to PhUadelphia for furniture when his fiancee would have nothing more to do with him because, tradition hath re ported it, she declared he gave more of his thoughts to the house than to herself. The rift in the lute of love between these two was complete, their marriage never took place, and the only result was this beautiful crea tion of brick and mortar which has preserved its form 29 COLONLyL MANSIONS OF MARYLAND and dignity when the human beings who brought it into existence have almost passed from reeoUection. Its builder was the great-grandson of Maj.-Gen. John Hammond, who settled near Annapolis, Mary land, before the eighteenth century and died in 1707, Matthias' line of descent reading ; John, Charles, PhUip, Since we must hear again of his family, and since he remained a bachelor throughout the rest of his life, we shall not now further discuss him except to say that by profession he was an attorney. The Hammond House is notable for its doorway which, with the second-floor window and the bull's- eye above, form a group very generally and greatly admired. The principle of symmetry is observed with great strictness throughout the exterior and interior of the house. In the reception-room, even, where a doorway is needed in one waU to balance a doorway in the adjacent wall, a dummy-door has been constructed, which is com plete in every detaU of lintel, frame and carving. The left wing of the house is not connected with the main body, and was used as an office by the buUder of the house. The right wing is connected, and contains the kitchen and pantry. In each wing are second floors containing bedrooms. The main hall-way leads from the main entrance to a drawing-room in the back of the house overlooking the garden. On the right of the drawing-room is the 30 '¦'-'vmm ...J EXTRAXCE TO HAMMOXD HOUSE 1774 THE HAMMOND, OR HARWOOD, HOUSE dining-room. A library and a reception-room are on either side of the hall. On the second floor, over the dining and drawing- rooms, and taking in the whole back of the house, is a baU-room, nineteen by twenty-seven feet, one of the most beautiful colonial rooms ever buUt. It is wain scoted with wood to the height of about three feet, and the taU window frames, door frames, mantel and cornice are most exquisitely carved. The great charm of the room lies in its fine proportions, high ceiling, and atmosphere of grace and dignity, and it was a fitting setting for the many briUiant social gatherings it held under its first master's regime. The ground back of the house once sloped away to the water, but the little creek which did duty then has long since been filled in, and the only view to be ob tained in that quarter now is the roofs of the Paca and Brice mansions and the tops of some modern little structures buUt on " made " land. The remains of a terraced garden are to be found here, yet this garden in its fullest perfection was not original with the house, but is to be associated with the name of a later occupant, Frances Townley Chase Lockerman, whose love for, and success with, flowers was proverbial in her day. She it was who planned the walks and had set out the borders, the remains of which we admire to-day. The deed of sale, on record in the land office at Annapolis, Maryland, between Philip Hammond and 31 COLONLIL MANSIONS OF MARYLAND Ninian Pinkney, contains a concise summary of the title of the house, which seems to point to the fact that Pinkney had been a tenant before he purchased it, and a section may be quoted. The location of the property is described, and then follows: all of which four lots or parcels of ground lie contiguous and adjacent to each other and 'form a square commonly called " Hammond's Square," and on which property the aforesaid Matthias Hammond built that elegant and commodious dwelhng- house, office and kitchen, which was lately rented and now occupied by the above-mentioned Ninian Pinkney, a party to these presents. The above-mentioned property was devised to John Hammond, son of Charles Hammond, in the last will and testament of the aforesaid Matthias Hammond, as will fully appear by the said will, and which property was by John Ham mond on or about the 14th of December, 1789, conveyed to the above-mentioned Philip Hammond. Ninian Pinkney's father, Jonathan Pinkney, was a sturdy, bulldog Englishman, who remained loyal to the mother country during the Revolution and lost, as a consequence, his lifetime's accumulation of property. His sons, Jonathan, William, and Ninian, had each to make his own way in the world from the beginning, which each did successfully, William, in especial, rising to high honor at the bar and in the statecraft of his country, serving variously as United States Senator, Minister to Great Britain, Minister to Russia, and Attorney-General of the United States. Ninian, the youngest son, married twice. By his second wife, 32 o IS > o> THE HAMMOND, OR HARWOOD, HOUSE Amelia Grason Hobbs, a widow, daughter of Richard Grason, of Talbot County, and sister of Governor Wil liam Grason, of Maryland, he had three chUdren : Mary Amelia, WUliam, and Ninian, Jr. He was " Clerk of the CouncU " for thirty years. WUliam Pinkney, son of Ninian, became fifth Bishop of Maryland of the Episcopal Church. He was born in the old house we have been studying. His nephew and namesake, the late United States Senator, WiUiam Pinkney Whjrte, carried the name to distinction in recent years. Ninian Pinkney, Jr., bom in the Hammond House in 1811, became medical director of the United States Army, married Mary Sherwood, and died in 1871. Mary Amelia Pinkney, the only daughter of this occupant of the Hammond House, died unmarried. In 1811, Mr. Pinkney sold his home to Chief Justice Jeremiah Townley Chase, who bought it for his daughter, Frances Catherine Townley Chase, wife of Richard Lockerman, a descendant of the Maryland branch of the old Knickerbocker family of Loockermans, whose name so largely figures in the early annals of New York City. One child was born of this union, Hester Ann Lockerman, named for her maternal aunt, Hester Ann Chase, who in 1847 bought the Chase House. This daughter inherited the Hammond House and married the late Judge William Harwood. She had two daughters and one son ; Lucy Matilda, Hester Ann, and 3 33 COLONLM. MANSIONS OF MARYLAND Richard Lockerman Harwood. The son died chUdless. Over his grave in the burying ground at Cemetery Creek, Annapolis, is the simple inscription: "Richard Lockerman Harwood, a Confederate soldier of Mary land Cavalry, only son of Mrs. Hester Ann Harwood." Lucy Matilda Harwood died unmarried. Miss Hester Ann Harwood, the sole survivor of this generation of the family, is the present owner of the Harwood House, She makes her home in the left, or northeast wing, the rest of the house being leased to Rear Admiral Garst, U. S. N., retired, and his family, which consists of his wife and a young daughter. Judge WUliam Harwood, father of Miss Hester Harwood, was an ardent sympathizer with the Con federate cause during the " late unpleasantness," and remained for long thoroughly unreconstructed. He was a teacher in a school in Baltimore during, and for some years after, the war and would not use the train between Annapolis, his home, and that city as in order to do so he would be compelled to take the oath of allegiance to the United States, but every week tramped the thirty mUes to Baltimore and back. He was greatly beloved in Annapolis. The Harwood family is one of much distinction in Maryland, and its branches have gone into Pennsylvania and southern states, one of the members of the Penn sylvania branch being Dr. James Harwood Closson, of Germantown, It springs from Richard Harwood, 34 THE HAMMOND, OR HARWOOD, HOUSE of " Hooker's Purchase," Anne Arundel County, Mary land, who was the son of Thomas, of Streatley, Berk shire County, England. Richard, son of this Richard, married Anne Watkins, born 1737, and had nine sons and two daughters, among whom were Colonel Richard, of " South River battalion," who married Margaret Hall; and Thomas, first Treasurer of the Westem Shore of Maryland, under the Council of Safety of 1776. The son of Colonel Richard, of " South River battahon," was Henry HaU Harwood, who married Elizabeth Lloyd, and purchased the Chase House. So the Harwood name has been closely associated with two of Maryland's most beautiful colonial survivals. Thomas, Treasurer of the Western Shore of Maryland, had a son, Richard, who married a Miss Callahan, and became the father of William Harwood, who married Hester Ann Lockerman and thus comes into this chapter. THE PACA HOUSE ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND PACA— SCHAAF— NETH— BLAND— KENNEDY— SWANN ROBABLY none of the old home steads of Annapolis is more fa miliar to the general public than the Paca House, of late years used as a hotel. A superb ex ample of solid, tasteful colonial buUding, it stands on Priace George Street, south of Maryland Avenue and half a city block away from the old Major Dorsey home, which was buUt well before the beginning of the eighteenth century. Across an open space at the rear may be seen the back of the Hammond House and the roof of the Chase Home for the aged. Next door is the Brice mansion. The Paca House was buUt in 1763 by WUliam Paca, ardent stirrer in the revolutionary turmoU and signer of the Declaration. It is of the conventional type of a Maryland colonial home of elegance in that it con sists of a central buUding with wings; and its general aspect is that of simplicity, dignity, and mass. It is exceedingly large, being only rivalled in size by its neighbors, the Brice and Chase Houses. The brickwork is good, and the walls, five feet thick at the foundations, are as impregnable to the assaults of the elements to-day as when they first were built. THE PACA HOUSE The interior of the house is not characterized by that elaboration of ornament that distinguishes some other Annapolis homes, but the window-casings and shutters of the parlor are very beautifully carved in a simple floral design. The house has a wide hall through the middle and the staircase is situated at the back of the hall, leading off to the left beneath an arch. The attic or third-story stairway has a very intricate balustrade of white raUs set in a sort of a zigzag design that is very novel though not greatly attractive. One of the most notable features of the homestead in its youth was the garden in the rear which ran down to a little stream of water making in from the harbour only a hundred yards or so away. " My Ladye's Bower " it was called, and it is inevitably recalled first in connection with the old house when old residents of the ancient city send their thoughts back to times be fore the hand of change could be so plainly seen as now. It contained a summer house, a miniature lake, a fountain, a wharf, and a staunch bateau. In this the master of the house was accustomed to be rowed by half a dozen blacks in livery when he paid state visits to his neighbors on the Severn or one of the nearby streams which were the chief means of communication from house to house in those days. Many years ago the garden fell into decay, and when the property passed into the possession of the hotel company which at present owns it the last vestiges COLONL^ MANSIONS OF MARYLAND of this fairy-land of flowers and quaint box-walks were destroyed, the very bricks which formed its boundary walls being broken apart and carried around to the front of the house, where they were relaid to make a new approach to the stately mansion. Much of the beauty of this old garden, tradition asserts, was due to the care with which it was tended by the first mistress of the old home, Mary Chew Paca, — daughter of Samuel and Henrietta Maria Lloyd Chew — for whom the house was built. She it was who laid it out and it was her delight to spend her leisure hours in its familiar little nooks and corners. She was of that distinguished family which has set its mark in four states. John Chew, the first of his name in this country, came to Virginia in the Sea Flower, in 1622, settled in Jamestown, and became a member of the House of Burgesses. Samuel Chew, his son — of " Herrington," on Herring Creek, Anne Arundel County, Maryland — was Lord Baltimore's " well-beloved Samuel Chew, Esq." In 1669 he was sworn in as one of the justices of the chancery and provincial courts, and until his death in 1676 was a member of the House of Assembly. His son, Samuel, married Henrietta Maria Lloyd and his granddaughter, Mary, married WUliam Paca. Samuel Chew, of Maidstone, near Annapolis, Maryland, son of Benjamin, son of Samuel, removed to Dover, Delaware, and was father of that famous THE PACA HOUSE Benjamin Chew, who, in turn, moved to Pennsylvania and buUt Cliveden, that beautiful homestead of German- town, PhUadelphia, around which the battle of German- town was fought and about whose social frivolities — in which figured such conspicuous lights as Major Andre — ^many a tradition is current. WiUiam Paca, buUder of the Paca House, and who deserves and has received far more study than this memoir can give, was born in Harford County, Mary land, October 31, 1740. His' father was John Paca; his mother, Elizabeth Smith Paca. The name is Itahan in origin, famUy tradition asserts, and there is a touch of the Roman in the features and olive skin of the Signer as they appear in his portraits. Elizabeth Smith, wife of John Paca, father of WUliam, was a daughter of that " pretty Betty Martin " with whose name an old nursery rhyme is so free. It runs as foUows : Pretty Betty Martin, Tip-toe! Tip-toe! Pretty Betty Martin, Tip-toe fine ! Pretty Betty Martin, Tip-toe! Tip-toe! Couldn't find a husband To suit her mind J The story is that " Pretty Betty Martin " was born in England and when she came to this country, a young COLONLAL MANSIONS OF MARYLAND woman, had so many suitors on the ship in which she made the voyage that she could not choose among them, so, consequently, rejected all. It has been said that she was a niece of the Duke of Marlborough, but even this reflected effulgence of glory can add little to her fame as the heroine of the jingle just quoted. Her son was educated at Philadelphia under the tuition of Reverend William Smith, D.D., and, after he acquired all of the polite accomplishments and knowl edge deemed necessary to a gentleman, was sent to Annapolis, Maryland, to read law in the office of his father's friend, Stephen Bordley, Esquire, one of the great lights of the early days of the Maryland bar. In 1761 he was licensed to practise law and in 1764 was admitted to the bar. At this time AnnapoUs was at its gayest as a social capital and was already begm- ning to work itself up to that fever pitch of feeling against the mother country which marked the days just before the outbreak of the War of Independence, Young Paca became a member of the Sons of Liberty, and one of his exploits— of a somewhat later period of his life — was to head a mob which hung on a gibbet and buried in a coffin the proclamation enforcing the Stamp Act issued by Governor Eden, the last Proprietary executive of Maryland, whUe meantime in the harbour minute guns were fired from a schooner owned by him. He was a delegate to the Continental Assembly in 1774 where, against the instructions of his constituents, he 40 THE PACA HOUSE 1763 THE PACA HOUSE continually advocated the ratification of a declaration of independence from Great Britain, and two years later was a signer of the immortal proclamation of American liberty. In 1778 he was Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Maryland; in 1782-1784 and 1786- 1788, Governor of Maryland; and in 1789, by appoint ment from President Washington, Judge of the United States District Court for Maryland. Washington was urged to appoint another man, but replied that if it had not been for Paca and others like him there would have been no United States and that he deserved the place. He died, October 27, 1799, at the home of his son, John Philemon Paca, of Wye House, Wye Island, Talbot County, Maryland. Here in a grove of trees not far from the site of the house his body was committed to the earth. On the day of its organization in Maryland, No vember 21, 1783, the Society of the Cincinnati, of Maryland, passed the foUowing resolution: Resolved, that as a testimony of the satisfaction we feel in the opportunity we enjoy of returning to our respective stations in the general class of the community and of recommenc ing our civil occupations under a government which we have aided to establish and which we all approve and will endeavor to maintain ; and in consideration of the abilities, merit, patriot ism of His Excellency, Governor Paca, this society direct that the Secretary-General Williams wait on His Excellency and in form him that this society do themselves the honor to consider him as an honorary member. 41 COLONIAL MANSIONS OF MARYLAND He was the same day elected a delegate to the general society and a year later vice-president of the Maryland society. In 1789, shortly after the conclusion of his second term as Governor of Maryland, Paca sold his home in Annapolis to Arthur Schaaf who, in turn, disposed of it to Louis Neth, a rich merchant of Annapolis, the owner of Prioirose, another beautiful colonial home about five miles out of the ancient city which he used as a country place. In 1827 the house was occupied by ChanceUor Theodoric Bland, and then, for a number of years, by Dr. S. D. Kennedy, a beloved physician of Annapolis. From his family it passed to Mrs. Richard Swann, who sold it to the company which at present holds its title. The old homestead saw its most brilliant days during the occupancy of its first master and mistress. Annapo lis was at the brightest point of its history then and Governor Paca was endowed with that precious gift of personal magnetism which draws together and stimu lates congenial spirits. The mansion held many a de lightful and notable gathering at this tune. Before the Revolution Washington as a visitor to Annapolis spent many hours as a guest of Mr. Paca— when neither had yet been singled out for the honors of the world— and in 1783, when the latter was Govemor of Maryland, his hospitable home sheltered many members of the Continental Congress which assembled i2 THE PACA HOUSE in Annapolis to witness the great leader resign his com mission as Commander-in-Chief of the armies of the United States. Chairs from the house were taken to the beautiful old Senate chamber in the capitol of Maryland for the use of the delegates and are repre sented in some paintings of the historic ceremony in which they figured. A rather quaint tribute to Governor Paca was found among some papers in Wye Hall, Wye Island, Maryland, in 1888, and was then reproduced in Lippin cott" s Magazine. It was an address from a student's club of budding lawyers which Governor Paca had been instrumental in forming in Annapolis, and a passage from it is as follows: When a man in the tranquility (sic) and leisure of private life employs part of his time in the improvement of the rising generation, we readily acknowledge the justice of his claim to the thanks of every considerate mind. But when we behold the Supreme Magistrate of a State, with all the cares of government on his hands, devoting his short intervals o'f repose to the instruction of Youth, by his knowledge and experience pointing out to them the path to Virtue and Glory, the most inattentive must admire such conduct and acknowledge it to be far above the reach of panegyric. Of the union of WiUiam Paca and Mary Chew were born: John Philemon Paca, of Wye House, Wye Is land, Maryland, who married Julianna TUghman; and a daughter who married Consul RoubeUe, of France, 43 COLONIAL MANSIONS OF MARYLAND joint ruler of that country with Napoleon Bonaparte. A son of Consul RoubeUe and his Maryland wife bore such a striking likeness to the accepted type of the Christ that he was often called upon by artists to sit for paintings of Our Saviour. A descendant of Governor Paca is John PhUemon Paca, of Baltimore. THE BRICE HOUSE ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND BRICE— STEPHEN— MARTIN— ROBB ^ N the Brice House, Annapolis, we may see one of the most magnifi cent wedding presents in the his tory of colonial times, the gift of Thomas Jenings, cousin of Sarah Jenings — that strange figure of English history, first Duchess of Marlborough — to Juliana Jenings on her marriage in 1745 to Col. James Brice, son of John and Sarah Frisby Brice. It is at the intersection of East and Prince George Streets, Annapolis, facing toward the harbor, which it can easUy see over the heads of about a city block of little modern houses, and its next door neighbor is the Paca mansion whose garden its own garden formerly adjoined. In the last decade the property was purchased by the proprietors of the hotel in the old homestead built by Governor William Paca, and the thorough renovation given it at that time by its new owners — including, especially, the new paint — re vealed charms in the old mansion (tumble-down in the hands of its last owner) not hitherto suspected by any of its acquaintances of this generation. It is now an annex of the adjacent hotel, but has been rented in its entirety for a home by Dr. Paul Quatrebeau, whose family consists of his wife — a very charming hostess in this 45 COLONM.L MANSIONS OF MARYLAND old house — and a young son. The house is of the con ventional Maryland classic style with centre building and wings, and is famous for its size, beauty of pro portion, and elaboration of both exterior and interior architectural detaU. The present approach to the house from East Street is, as shown in photographs, of modern con struction, the old walk having extended directly from the front door, by way of a terrace; to the pavement, and having a very small stoop to the steps. One of the great beauties of the house is to be seen above the centre doorway in a wonderfully-carved window, whose graceful floral design has excited much enthusiastic admiration. The interior of the house is rich in carving, plaster work, wrought brass and rare and costly woods used with great skUl and in profusion. The stairway is of San Domingo mahogany richened to a lustrous black by the passage of the years, and the pUasters and banisters are light and graceful in design. The latches of the doors inside the house are of very beautifully worked metal. Perhaps the most beautiful single feature of the inner part of the mansion is the state drawing-room, which leads off to the rear from the square hallway upon which the front door opens. In this regal apartment may be found, in especial, a fire place very generaUy copied and admired. The fire space is framed with most elaborate and delicate carvings, 46 MANTEL IN DRAWING-ROOM OF BRICE HOUSE THE BRICE HOUSE and above is a mantel which in turn supports a finely proportioned plaster panel enclosed with carv ings. The cornice of the room is noteworthy for its carving, and the room as a whole is conspicuous for its dignity, spaciousness, and grace, being a worthy setting for the many brilliant social gatherings which it has held, often having, as an honored guest, George Wash ington, on his frequent visits to Annapolis before the Revolution. This magnificent mansion was built about 1740. We have the following record of the Jenings family in Maryland, written by James Frisby Brice, a son of this Colonel James, and as quoted by J. D. Warfield in his admirable " Founders of Howard and Anne Arundel Counties : " Thomas Jenings, my grandfather, was born in England. The place and time of his birth are not known to us ; nor do we know the Christian names of his father and mother. The former died when he was quite young. He was a cousin to the Duchess of Marlborough (the first), whose name was Sarah Jenings. He came to this country when nineteen years of age. My brother, Thomas J. Brice, found in the Executive Chamber (Annapolis) a record of his commission as Attorney-General of the state, about the year 1773. He studied law in England with Mr. James Best, and at his request named a son and daughter for Mr. and Mrs. Best who left them legacies. Elizabeth Jenings was a celebrated beauty. She became Mrs. Hodges of Baltimore. We are related to the family of Edmund Jenings, Secretary of the Province, through his marriage to my great-grandmother, Arian, mother of Sarah Frisby. 47 COLONLy;. MANSIONS OF MARYLAND Edmund Jenings and wife went to London, where she died. He returned and died in 1'757. Their son, Edmund Jenings, remained in England, and wrote to his half-sister, Sarah (Frisby) Brice, for information of the family. Col. James Brice, a gallant soldier, who was the first master of the Brice House, left a note-book with maps of the battles in which he fought in the Revolution. He had two sons : Thomas Jenings and James Frisby Brice (whose notes we have just read), and a daughter, Juliana Jenings, who married Judge John Stephen of Bladensburg, Maryland, who was the son of the Rever end Stephen of St. Mary's, St. Mary's County, Maryland. Thomas Jenings Brice, eldest son of Colonel James, was the next occupant of the Brice mansion, and in con nection with his name there must be brought up the black paU of tragedy. He was a man of great generos ity, and made large provision for his household servants in his wiU. It is thought that one of them gained knowl edge of the will's contents and was overwrought thereby, for one morning the lord of the old home was found dead — murdered, whUe he was asleep, by a blow on the head from a hammer. Suspicion has always rested on the household servants — though nothing definite was ever proved. Mr. Brice was a bachelor, and at his death the property became the home of his brother, eventually to descend to Nicholas Carroll Stephen, of Bladensburg, Maryland, and Charles W. Stephen, 48 THE BRICE HOUSE of Baltimore, who in 1873 jointly sold the mansion and its ground to Thomas Ennals Martin, Mayor of Annapolis for several terms, from whom it was inherited by his daughter, Mrs. Louise Martin Robb, by whom, in October, 1911, it was disposed of, with the land out lying, to its present owners. Juliana Jenings Brice, who married Judge Stephen, had eight sons, only one of whom, Nicholas Carroll, had issue. Benjamin D. Stephen, John Stephen, and Mrs. Juliana Jenings Diendonne, of Bladensburg, Mary land, were his heirs. The Brice family, long conspicuous in Maryland, and now seated in Pennsylvania, as well as in its parent state, originated with Capt. John Brice, who came from Hampshire, England. Let us read, again, in War- field's valuable work: From a copy held by Nicholas Brice of Philadelphia, made from Judge Nicholas Brice's record, the following is taken by permission of Mrs. Edith Marden Ridout, of the Severn: " Captain John Brice came from Hampshire, England. He is recorded as gentleman, merchant, planter, member of the House of Burgesses, Justice of the Peace, and Captain of the Severn Hundred. He married Sarah, widow of Captain John Worthington. His crest and coat of arms, a lion's head, are still extant. " Captain Brice was guardian for the Worthington heirs, and extended the estate. One son and two daughters were the issue of his marriage to Mrs. Worthington: Ann, who married Vachel Denton; Rachel, who married Philip Hammond, the 4 49 COLONIAL MANSIONS OF MARYLAND Annapolis merchant; and John Brice, Jr., Judge of the Provincial Court, who married Sarah Frisby, daughter of James and Ariana (Vanderheyden) Frisby." Unquestionably the most magnificent colonial home in Annapolis, the entertainments given at the Brice House before the Revolution were of a royal character, and it was an inspiring centre for that quaint, gay life which made the little capital conspicuous socially in the colonial annals of the country, and of which we have such enchanting glimpses in the old homes of Annapolis. Just what were this life and spirit? Whatever we may read or say about these conditions is applicable to the Brice House. The Abbe Rodin, of France, who visited the colonies just prior to the outbreak of the Revolution, and on his return home wrote such interesting memoirs of his trip in his " Nouveau Voyage dans I'Amerique," after speaking of the elegance of Maryland plantation homes, says of the life in Annapolis : There appears to be more wealth and luxury in Annapolis than in any other city which I have visited in this country. The extravagance of the women here surpasses that of our own provinces ; a French hair-dresser is a man of great im portance; one lady here pays her coiffeur a salary of a thousand crowns. A gifted modern writer, Sidney George Fisher, look ing through the years has written of the life in An- 50 THE BRICE HOUSE napolis prior to the Revolution in the following terms in " Colonial Men, Women and Manners : "* In the harbor of Annapolis in plain sight from most of the houses, lay vessels from all parts of the world, for the little town had its commercial day before the rise of Baltimore. The houses were in the most perfect forms of the colonial archi tecture. . . . The men and women, who, like the rest of the Maryland gentry, ordered champagne from Europe by the cask, and madeira by the pipe, also dressed expensively in the latest English fashions, and French travellers said that they had seldom seen such clothes outside of Paris. They had French barbers, negro slaves in livery, and drove light carriages, — an extremely rare indulgence in colonial times. The clubs got up excursions, picnics, and fishing parties. Balls were given on all the great English anniversaries, and the birthday of the proprietor and saints' days were used as excuses. They gambled, of course, after the universal custom of the times, flirted, or pretended to flirt, like the miodem Mary- lander, discussed the last vessels from England, the prospects of the tobacco crop, and the quarrels of the proprietors and the crown. Visitors were frequent from the northern and southem colonies. In spring the wealthy people departed for their manors or country places in great coaches of light yellow color with Venetian windows and projecting lamps. The history of Annapolis goes back to the year 1649, when it was settled by Puritan refugees from Virginia, who found under Lord Baltimore the liberty of worship which they could not secure elsewhere. In 1683 it was erected into a town, in 1694 became the capital of the colony, and between 1750 and the out- * J. B. Lippincott (Company, publishers, Philadelphia. 51 COLONIAL MANSIONS OF MARYLAND break of the Revolution saw its most brilliant days. Though founded by Puritans, so rapidly did it change its character that, in 1749, we find an old record de scribing it in the following terms: The outlook of the city was fair and promising, its mer chants had secured the chief trade of the province ; ships from all seas came to its harbour ; its endowed school (King William's) educated its citizens for important positions ; its thought made the mind of the province. The gayety of its inhabitants, and their love of refined pleasure had developed the race-course, the theatre, the ba,ll-room ; their love of leaming, the Gazette and King William's school ; creations and enterprises that made the province famous in after years as the centre of the social pleasures, of the culture and of the refinement of the American colonies. It is in the letters of WiUiam Eddis, published by him in London in 1792, under the patronage of " many influential personages," that we can best visit Annapolis, however. This prolific correspondent was one of the commissioners of the loan office of Maryland by pro prietary appointment, and whatever he saw he seems to have recorded and sent " home " in his voluminous outpourings to relatives and friends in England. He describes his impressions on landing at Annapolis, his presence at balls, his opinions on prominent men. Like Pepys, nothing human seems to have been too trivial for him to set down. He goes to the Governor's ball in February, 1770, shortly after his arrival in Annapolis, and is much im- 52 THE BRICE HOUSE pressed. The ladies' manners and converse also strike him, as do the winter sports of the little city: On Saturday last, our little city appeared in all its splen dour. It was the anniversary of the proprietary's birth. The Governor gave a grand entertainment on the occasion to a numerous party ; the company brought with them every dis position to render each other happy, and the festivity con cluded with cards and dancing, which engaged the attention of their respective votaries till an early hour. I am persuaded there is not a town in England of the same size as Annapolis, which can boast of a greater number of fashionable and handsome women ; and, were I not satisfied to the contrary, I should suppose that the majority of our belles possessed every advantage of a long and familiar inter course with the manners and habits of your great metropolis. During the winter there are assemblies every fortnight, thc room for dancing is large, the construction elegant, and the whole illuminated to great advantage. At each extremity are apartments for the card tables, where select companies enjoy the circulation of the parti-colored gentry, without having their attention diverted by the sound of fiddles and the evolu tions of youthful performers. About Christmas an intense frost set in, which has con tinued till a few days since, with unremitting severity. Our principal rivers, for several weeks, have been passable for carriages heavily laden ; and in particular situations, innumer able skaters have exhibited on the glassy surface their feats of dexterity. Jamiary 18, 1771. — In a former letter, I attempted to con vey some idea of the truly picturesque and beautiful situation of our little capital. Several of the most opulent families have here established their residence ; and hospitality is characteristic of the inhabitants. Party prejudices have little influence on social intercourse; the grave and ancient enjoy the blessings 53 COLONIAL MANSIONS OF MARYLAND of a respectable society, while the young and gay have various amusements to engage their hours of relaxation, and to promote that mutual connection so essential to their future happiness. You will know that I have ever been strongly attached to the rational entertainments resulting from theatrical exhibi tions. When I bade farewell to England, I little expected that my passion for the drama could have been gratified, in any tolerable degree, at a distance so remote from the great mart of genius ; and I brought with me strong prepossessions in behalf of favorite performers, whose merits were fully estab lished by the universal sanction of intelligent judges. My pleasure and my surprise were therefore excited in proportion, on finding performers in this country equal, at least, to those who sustain the best of the first characters in your most celebrated provincial theatres. He finds that the " phantom " of pleasure is pursued with avidity: November 2, 1771. — In this remote region, my dear friend, the phantom pleasure is pursued with as much avidity as on your side of the Atlantic, and certainly with as much gratifica tion, except by the injudicious herd who form ideas of happiness from comparison alone. Our races, which are just concluded, continued four days, and afforded excellent amusement to those who are attached to the pleasures of the turf ; and, surprising as it may appear, I assure you there are few meetings in England better attended, or where more capital horses are exhibited. . . . Nothing could excel the charming serenity of the weather during these races, in consequence of which there was a pro digious concourse of spectators, and considerable sums were depending on the contest of each day. On the first, a purse of one hundred guineas was run for, free only for the members of the club; and on the three following days subscription 54 THE BRICE HOUSE purses of fifty pounds each. Assemblies, and theatrical repre sentations, were the amusements of the evening, at which the company exhibited a fashionable and brilliant appearance. December S4-> 1771. — ^Whatever you have heard relative to the rigid puritanical principles and economical habits of our American brethren is by no means true when applied to the inhabitants of the southem provinces. Liberality of senti ment and .genuine hospitality are everywhere prevalent; and I am persuaded they too frequently mistake profuseness for generosity, and impair their wealth and their fortunes, by splendour of appearance and magnificence of entertainment. The quick importation of fashions from the mother country is really astonishing. I am almost inclined to believe that a new fashion is adopted earlier by the polished and aflHuent Americans than by many opulent persons in the great metropo lis ; nor are opportunities wanting to display superior elegance. We have varied amusements and numerous parties, which afi'ord to the young, the gay, and the ambitious, an extensive field to contend in the race of vain and idle competition. In short, very little difference is, in reality, observable in the manners of the wealthy colonist and the wealthy Briton. It is but just to confess that the American ladies possess a natural ease and elegance in the whole of their deportment; and that, while they assiduously cultivate external accomplish ments, they are still anxiously attentive to the more important embellishments of the mind. In conversation they are generally animated and entertaining, and deliver their sentiments with affability and propriety. In a word, there are, throughout these colonies, very many lovely women, who have never been beyond the bounds of their respective provinces, and yet, I am persuaded, might appear to great advantage in the most brilliant circles of gaiety and 'fashion. One of the frequent visitors to Annapolis during its days of gaiety before the Revolution was General 55 COLONIAL MANSIONS OF MARYLAND Washington, then in the service of Virginia. In one of Eddis' later letters, written during the turmoil of the first days of the Revolution, he speaks of his appoint ment as commander-in-chief of the army of the colonies by the Continental Congress, with whom, he goes on to say: " beneath the hospitable roof of our worthy Govemor, I have so frequently shared the hour of social and sentimental dis course. Little did I then conceive that he was destined to be called forth by the united voice of America, from the private occupation of domestic tranquillity, to direct hostile operations against the measures of the British Government. Reserved in conversation, but liberal in opinion, his actions have, hitherto, been directed by calmness and moderation." A sidelight on the polite life of Annapolis before the Revolution may be found in the advertising columns of the Maryland Gazette published by Jonas Green, Esq. Here, for instance, is one who offers himself as a servant. His qualifications are that he " can wait at table, curry horses, clean knives, boots and shoes, lay a table, shave, and dress wigs, carry a lantern and talk French." He is " as honest as the times will admit, and as sober as can be." Richard Wagstaff e, — peruke and lady's tate-maker, wishes to announce that he will soon settle in Annapolis and follow the said business, and will sell his goods at reasonable rates. He also intends to teach read ing, writing and accounts ; and will take in youth to board and 56 THE BRICE HOUSE educate at twenty-three pounds per year. N.B. — He has a few perukes ready made which he will dispose of very cheap, such as Ramillies, Albemarles and Bois, etc. The profession of clock-mender seems to have been one without many professors, as the following advertise ment will signify: Whereas John Powell was advertised last week in this paper as a runaway, but only being gone into the country a cider drinking, and being retumed again to his master's ser vice, these are therefore to acquaint all gentlemen and others, who have any watches or clocks to repair, that they may have them done in the best manner at reasonable rates. Perhaps no such unique souvenir of colonial days exists as the records of the " Tuesday Club," of Annapo lis, preserved in the rooms of the Maryland Historical Society of Baltimore. These cover a period of years. The club was an organization of the wits and influential men of the city. Formed with no other purpose than that of good fellowship, it met every Tuesday in regular alternation at the homes of the members, who in turn provided the refreshments, which consisted of a " gam mon of bacon, or any one other dish of vituals and no more," and such drinkables as might be proved necessary. Offensive topics of conversation were dealt with by the " gelastic " method, that is, every man present except the one (or ones) talking burst into a hearty fit of laughter, which they kept up until a new theme of dis- 57 COLONIAL MANSIONS OF MARYLAND course was brought up. Politics was absolutely barred, as a subject of talk, from the gatherings. The first toast, it was ordered, should be " The Ladies," after that " The King," and then " The Deluge." From the records of the club, let us glance at " the humble petition and remonstrance of sundry of the single females of Annapolis " to the " Honorable President," then Charles Cole. This showeth that — Whereas, it has been observed by sundry persons as well as your petitioners, that a singular and surprising success has aU along attended such happy females as your honor has been pleased to pitch upon as the toasts of the honorable chair, every one of whom in a short time after having been adopted by your honor has successfully and happily been provided with a much more eligible estate, your petitioners, therefore, eamestly pray that your honor, instead of con ferring your favors in so partial a manner, would, in com miseration of our desperate situation, include us all in the circle of favor that the benign influence of your honor's marti- ferous notice may henceforth shine upon us all. The Honorable President declared that he would grant this petition as far as lay in his power. Jonas Green, the venerable publisher of the Mary land Gazette, seems to have found himself in ill-favor at one session of the club, for we find that, — after reading the sentence, during which Jonas Green, Esq., stood up. His Lordship knocked upon the table with a little mallet after the manner of Sir Hugh McCarty, Esq., Lord President of the Monday Club of New York, and this signal 58 THE BRICE HOUSE being given, the Sargeant-at-Arms took Jonas Green, Esq., into custody, and he was confined for a full half hour, a languishing prisoner in one comer of the room, being deprived of all comfort and assistance from the sparkling and enliven ing board, a woeful and lamentable spectacle, and a warning to all loyal members to be upon their good behaviour. The entry was made that William Thornton, be cause of his wonderful talent for singing, was created by unanimous vote, " Proto-Musicus," and that " it is ordained that, as often as he votes in club, he is to sing his vote in a musical manner, else it is to go for nothing." Alas, this gay life had to end! With the outbreak of the Revolution the cavalier days of the " Athens of Ajnerica " left, to return no more, some of the actors on its little stage taking part in the great confiict just opening, others going " home " to the mother country; and from this time on the little city's importance as the social capital of the country dwindled. It was an aristo crat in tradition and did not survive the inauguration of the great experiment in democracy. Thus passed the glory of the Brice mansion and its neighbors. RIDOUT HOUSE ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND RIDOUT IHE Ridout House, Annapolis, is situated on Duke of Gloucester Street, not far from the water front. It is a two-story buUding without wings, and is chiefly re markable architecturally for the very beautiful garden doorway which graces the rear of the structure. It was built in 1763 by John Ridout, Secretary to Governor Sharpe, for his bride, Mary Ogle, whom he married in 1765. The garden doorway consists of a large portico at the head of a long flight of steps leading from the garden. Above it is a fine Palladian window, whose apex breaks the cornice of the house. The garden, itself, is a beautiful spot to-day, though not so lovely as when the house was new. It consists of a series of terraces to the water-front street of Annapolis, and in other days led direct to the water itself. The interior of the house contains much fine carving. As you enter the reception hall through the simple Georgian front door, the stairway is to the left; to the right is the dining-room. In the rear of the first floor are two rooms, a study and a parlour, to the latter of which the garden doorway gives entrance. The house contains a rich store of old furniture and 60 RIDOUT HOUSE colonial souvenirs. On the heavy old sideboard in the dining-room are two mahogany knife-boxes and a spoon urn of mahogany made in the same style as the knife- boxes. In the hall is the table at which the owner of the house so often dined, and a harpsichord that was sent, in 1764, as a wedding present from Lady Essex in England to her cousin, Mary Ogle, in the New World. The work table of Mary Ogle's mother is still to be seen in a sunny window of the library, overlooking the terraced garden in which she spent so much of her time. There is no more romantic story in the annals of old Annapolis than that of the rise to fortune in the New World of young John Ridout, Governor Sharpe's secretary and bosom friend. He is first to be seen in Annapolis when Horatio Sharpe arrived early on the morning of Thursday, August 16, 1753, to take up his duties as proprietary governor in the Province of Mary land. Accompanying Sharpe, also, was Dr. Upton Scott, builder of the Scott House of Annapolis, and founder of another family in Maryland which has been conspicuous in public and private life. John Ridout was at this time twenty-one years of age. He was a grave, sober, older-than-his-years young man, who had spent the preceding six years of his life at the University of Oxford, England, and had taken high honors as a Greek and Latin student. We have the following record of the Ridout family in Lady 61 COLONLy[. MANSIONS OF MARYLAND Edgar's (herself a Ridout connection) invaluable work, "A Colonial Governor in Maryland:" The Ridouts (spelt also Rideout), of Sherbome, were de scendants of Thomas Ridout of Henstridge, Somerset. The family came originally from France from the neighborhood of Fontainebleau and settled in England about the middle of the sixteenth century. In Hutchins' " Visitation of the Somerset," now in the College of Arms, London, mention is made of the granting of a coat-of-arms, in 1551, to Thomas Ridout of Henstridge. These arms bear a striking resemblance to those bome by the de Ridouts de Sance (see Hozier's Armorial General of the French Nobility), near Fontainebleau. In the will of Walter Ridout, of Langlin, Dorset, a de scendant of Thomas, dated 1582', among other legacies he bequeaths a large sum of money to the church at Fontainebleau. Christopher Ridout, son of Thomas, was baptized at Henstridge, Somerset, 24th November, 1664, and settled in Sherborne, Dor set. His eldest son, George, bom at Sherbome in 1702, was the father of the John Ridout who came to America with Horatio Sharpe. Another descendant of Thomas, of Henstridge, settled in Bristol, and mention is made in Hutchins' of the marriage in 1674, of Susannah, daughter of John Ridout, of Bristol, to Thomas Strangways, of Melbury, Dorsetshire. Their grand daughter, Elizabeth, married Stephen Fox, who was created Earl of Ilehester. Young Ridout entered immediately upon his duties, and with such devotion and intelligence that he soon became his master's mainstay. In 1757, he was sent on a mission to the Cherokee Indians in western Maryland 62 RIDOUT HOUSE in company with Mr. Daniel Westenholme, one of the most important men of the province, and with a wagon- load of presents, to secure their aUiance with the English as opposed to the French in the French and Indian wars then raging. This was a very important undertaking, and the fact that young Ridout was despatched upon it four years after his arrival in the province shows how rapid was his rise to favour with Governor Sharpe. Three years after this he was made a member of the Governor's Council, and this so incited the jealousy of certain individuals of the province that they wrote a long letter of expostulation to Secretary Calvert. Governor Sharpe defended his protege in the following reply: I am confident there is not a gentleman in the Province, acquainted with Mr. Ridout, who does not condemn the author for expressing himself after that manner. He is, I am satis fied, well esteemed by most of the Principal people in the Province that know him, particularly the gentlemen of the Council. Who, pray, are said to be those persons of Rank, Fortune, and Superior Capacity whose long course of im portant services have gone unrewarded? If there are any, either in or out of the Council, who have devoted as much time to the business of his Lordship and the Government as Mr. Ridout hath already done, who are better acquainted with the Constitution or political history of the Province, and have so much inclination to serve his Lordship, the Letter writer would have done well to point them out. In this letter, too, is the first mention of Ridout's 63 COLONL^ MANSIONS OF MARYLAND proposed marriage to Mary Ogle, daughter of former Governor Samuel Ogle and Anne Tasker, whose father, Benjamin Tasker, was one of the most notable figures in the early history of Maryland. An alliance with her family would make Ridout's position in the New World absolutely unassailable. Sharpe continues indignantly: Even his not having been born in Maryland was mentioned as what ought to have been an insuperable objection to his promotion; and as he had no family connection or large estate here it was insinuated that he had no inducement to consult and promote the welfare of the Province. As Mr. Ridout is with my consent and approbation, as well as with that of Mr. Tasker, her grandfather and guardian, about to make an alliance with the eldest daughter and eldest child o'f the late Governor Ogle, those who may have hitherto considered him an alien, and not interested in the Prosperity of the Province, will not long have an opportunity of mentioning his want of connections here as either a fault or a misfortune. If tradition be true. Governor Sharpe's fine scorn was an evidence of the magnanimity of his character, as he, himself, was said to be in love with the fair Mary Ogle. Whether this story be true or not, he spent his life a bachelor, and throughout the rest of his days showed a most devoted interest in the Ridouts and their children. In 1765, John Ridout was married to Mary Ogle, and took his young bride to the beautiful old house on Duke of Gloucester Street. Here they entertained lavishly, and brought many a 64 ENTRANCE TO THE RIDOUT HOUSE 1763 RIDOUT HOUSE brilliant company together within their doors. That George Washington before the Revolution was a guest of Mr. Ridout's is evidenced by extracts from his diary: September, 1771. — On a visit to Annapolis. September 24th. — Dined with the Governor and went to the Play and the Ball afterwards. September 25th. — ^Dined at Doctor Stewart's and went to the Play and Ball afterwards. September 26th. — ¦ Dined at Mr. Ridout's and went to the Play. September 27th. — Dined at Mr. Carroll's and went to the Ball. September 28th. — ^Dined at Mr. Boucher's and went from there to the Play and afterwards to the Coffee House. October 4th, 1772. — Set off for the Annapolis Races. Dined and Lodged at Mr. Boucher's. October 5th. — Reached Annapolis. Dined at the Coffee House with the Kosky Club and lodged at the Governor's after going to the Play. October 6th. — Dined at Major Jenifer's, went to the Ball, and Supped at the Governor's. October 7th. — Dined at the Governor's and went to the Play afterwards. October Sth. — Dined at Mr. Lloyd's and went to the Play; from thence early to my Lodgings. October Qth. — Dined at Mr. Ridout's, and went to the Play and to the Govemor's to supper. October 10th. — Dined with Mr. Carroll of CarroUton, and set out for Mr. Boucher's, at which place I arrived about eight o'clock. October Ilth. — Got home to a late dinner; John Parke Custis came with me. September 26th, 1773. — I set off for the Annapolis Races. Dined at Mr. Rollin's and got into Annapolis between five find six o'clock. Spent the evening and lodged at the Governor's. September 27th. — Dined at the Govemor's and went to the Play in the Evening. September 28th. — Again dined at the Governor's and went to the Play and the Ball in the Evening. September 29th. — Dined at Mr. Sprigg's and went to the Play in the Evening. September SOth. — Dined at Mr. Ridout's a 65 COLONIAL MANSIONS OF MARYLAND and spent the afternoon. Supped at Mr. Jenifer's and spent the Evening. October 1st. — Still at Annapolis. Dined with Mr. Ogle. Spent the Evening at the Govemor's. October Snd. — Set off on my retum home. Dined at Marlborough and Lodged at home. Mr. Custis came with me. In the troublous days which preceded the Revolu tion, Ridout stood loyal to the crown, and threw aU of his influence towards reconcUiation with the mother country. That his eff'orts were very powerful is evi denced by the fact that Samuel Chase, called the " torch of the Revolution," and his adherents had the greatest difficulty in obtaining the vote of the Assembly for independence. When Sharpe went to England in 1773, he ap pointed Ridout his agent in this country, and, when the outbreak of the Revolution came, Ridout retired to Whitehall, Sharpe's country home, closing up his town house in Annapolis. His servants were drafted for the war, and the price of provisions became exorbitant, so, with Mrs. Ridout, he took refuge in a log cabin at Tono- loway, Virginia, on the Potomac River. His son Horace was sent to a boarding school in Frederick County, three thousand pounds of the Continental currency being paid for his education. As, in 1780, Continental money had fallen in value to two cents on the doUar, this sum was not so prodigious as it first seems. In 1789, Mr. Ridout made arrangements for a long- deferred trip to England to visit Colonel Sharpe, and 66 RIDOUT HOUSE actuaUy made embarkation from Alexandria, but the ship sprung a leak after being out two weeks, and was obhged to return. In 1790, came the sad news of Horatio Sharpe's death at Hampstead, England, in the seventy-second year of his age. Ridout survived his friend oiUy seven years, dying in 1797 at the age of sixty-five years. He was laid to rest at Whitehall, which, as has been told in another chapter, was left to him by the wiU of Governor Sharpe. The issue of John Ridout and Mary Ogle, his wife, were two sons and a daughter: Samuel, Horatio, and Anne Tasker (Ridout). Samuel, the eldest son, was educated abroad, and on his return entered Mr. Stone's office in Annapolis for the study of law. He married, in 1790, Mary Grafton Addison, a descendant of Col. John Addison, brother of the famous William Addison, and died, in 1840, in the old house on Duke of Gloucester Street where he was born. His grandson. Dr. WiUiam Grafton Ridout, is the present holder of the old mansion. Dr. Ridout's famUy consists of his son. Dr. John Ridout, and a daughter, Mrs. Ligon, of Howard County, Maryland. Horatio Ridout, John Ridout's second son, married Rachel Goldsborough, and lived at WhitehaU. SCOTT HOUSE ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND SCOTT— KEY— BIRNEY— CLAUDE— SISTERS OF MERCY —SISTERS OF NOTRE DAME HE most beautiful hallway among all of the exquisite colonial man sions in Annapolis, Maryland, is to be found in the Scott House, on Shipwright Street, now the home of the Sisters of Notre Dame. It is a square hallway about thirty feet each way, with stairs on the right de scending away from the door. Immediately facing the entrance is an arch beneath which a small hall leads to the back door. Flanking the front door on each side are sunny windows. All of the woodwork of the hall and the stair is wonderfully carved in a design whose grace, precision, and charm have been commented upon and admired by many artists. The house is two and a half stories in height and is a square, single structure without wings. The grounds around it have been exceUently maintained and in the rear is a garden which is worked by the Sisters of Notre Dame. The front door is very simple in construction and chaste in design and resembles greatly the main doorway of Montpelier, the old Snowden homestead in Prince George's County. Inside the house the rooms on the first floor are ar- THE SCOTT HOUSE c. 1765 SCOTT HOUSE ranged symmetrically with regard to the hallway — ^two on each side — and the disposition of the rooms on the floor above is very similar. In the rear room on the second floor to the right. Governor Eden, the last proprietary executive of IMaryland, died, on his visit to Annapolis immediately after the termination of the Revolutionary War. This room is now used as a chapel by the Sisters and is rarely shown to visitors. The Scott House was built by Upton Scott, physi cian to Governor Horatio Sharpe, of Maryland, about 1760, upon his marriage to the heiress, Elizabeth Ross, daughter of John Ross, of Frederick County. He accompanied the beloved bachelor governor of Mary land to this country, in 1753, and had, as his companions and as fellow-venturers with Sharpe, John Ridout, founder of the Ridout family in Maryland, and Daniel Wostenholme, progenitor of another distinguished line in the state. Doctor Upton Scott was born in the year 1722 at Temple Patrick, County Antrim, Ireland, and received his early education at Dublin University. After graduation he served as a surgeon under General, then Colonel, Wolfe in Scotland. During this campaign he met and formed a friendship for the future governor of Maryland. In order to accompany Sharpe to the New World, he gave up his commission, bearing with him to America, as a token of remembrance from 69 COLONIAL MANSIONS OF MARYLAND General Wolfe, a pair of pistols now in the possession of Major Rogers Birnie, of the Ordnance, U. S. A. When Governor Sharpe died in 1789, he appointed Scott one of the trustees of his will, with Benjamin Ogle as his associate. The father of Elizabeth Ross, Doctor Scott's bride, was the Register of the Land Office of Maryland and was the buUder of Belvoir, the beautiful old homestead at the head of the Severn River, not far from Annapolis, which has been long associated with the name of Worth ington. Elizabeth's sister was Ann Arnold Ross Key, grandmother of Francis Scott Key. So famous did Doctor Scott become as a physician that he was frequently sent for on consultation from the other colonies of America and it is said that when General Wolfe lay dying at Quebec he expressed a wish to have his old comrade prescribe for him. He lived to a green old age, dying when he had rounded out ninety years of life. He was buried at Cemetery Creek, Annapolis, where his tombstone may stUl be seen. The inscription on his grave is simple and reads: Dr. Upton Scott, died 1814, aged 92 years. Native of Antrim, Ireland, and for 60 years a distinguished and re spected inhabitant of this city. His wife's tomb is near and the inscription reads: In memory of Mrs. Elizabeth Scott, beloved and respected by all who knew her, died 1819, 80 years. 70 ENTRANCE HALL OF SCOTT HOUSE SCOTT HOUSE After the death of its fixst master and mistress, the old homestead was held by the Keys and Birneys, their nearest of kin and heirs, and shortly passed into the hands of Mr. Dennis Claude, from whom it was pur chased by the Sisters of Mercy about the middle of the last century and from whom, ia tum, it shortly went to the Sisters of Notre Dame, who have been settled in it for nearly fifty years. During its occupancy by its first mistress the old homestead often held a figure destined to fame. This was the boy, Francis Scott Key, whose great-aunt Mrs. Upton Scott was. He spent much of his boyhood in Ajinapolis and lived a great deal of that time with Mrs. Scott. A descendant of Francis Scott Key of Annapo lis, to-day, is Mrs. Habersham, of Charles Street, whose daughter is Miss EUen Key Habersham. In her house is to be found some of the furniture which graced the Scott House many years ago, and which was inherited by Francis Scott Key upon the death of his great-aunt. BORDLEY, OR RANDALL, HOUSE ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND BORDLEY— RANDALL O visitor to Annapolis fails to make mental note of the Randall House hidden away in its little court; and a beautiful picture it forms to carry away in the camera of the mind from the ancient city to be developed in some drowsy hour when one goes wandering tlu-ough the realm of recollec tion. A description of it has been written by the late T. Henry Randall, an architect, and may be given in his words : Looking to the north from the State House and hidden among locusts, poplars and magnolia trees, we see the Randall House, erected about 1730 by Thos. Bordley. It stands in the midst of a charmingly old-fashioned garden, with lawns in front and diverging walks behind, lined with flower beds and high box borders and possessing, in its great stretch of front, some of the most striking characteristics of an Annapolis home, besides the peculiarity of being in the centre of its own grounds and not on the street. That part of the main house beyond the sitting-room has been added within the present generation (to take the place of a frame addition that was removed), but it so thoroughly carries out the charactei-istics of the plans of its day in its arrangement that no one would suspect that this later portion was not of the same date as the rest. The front hall, as in the case of two other examples (the Ridout and the Brice houses), is not on a centre with the axis of the bouse, and the staircase rises directly from the entrance 72 BORDLEY, OR RANDALL, HOUSE with a most charming rail, wainscot and balusters in French walnut or mahogany. The library is in the wing connecting with the parlor and is placed a few feet below its level, forming a most interesting and attractive room. It opens upon the garden, on one side, and upon the conservatory, on the other, and its ceiling follows the lines of the roof above, giving unusual height and a charming effect. On the front of this house, and running its full length, once stood a row of columns supporting the projecting eaves and resting upon a long porch that has long ago disappeared and with it a charming fa9ade, such as one always associates with the houses much further south than Maryland. Contrary to Mr. Randall's notes, however, the old homestead was not built by Thomas Bordley but by Stephen Bordley, his son, as is very clearly shown by an examination of the records of the Bordley family. Thomas Bordley, the first of his name in Maryland, and of ancient English famUy, came to Maryland in 1694 and died in 1726, four years before the date of erection of the home. He came to Annapolis unknown and without means, and by his own sturdy qualities raised himself to a position of affluence in that busy little city. He was a busy man and with little leisure. It was his son, Stephen, the merry bachelor, of whom tradition is busy, who built the mansion now known as the Randall House and who had the time to devote to the building of the homestead. There are many letters preserved of this Stephen Bordley, and some of them have been published in the very interesting " Notes on the Bordley FamUy " pre- 73 COLONLU. MANSIONS OF MARYLAND pared by Mrs. Elizabeth Bordley Gibson, of PhUadel phia, Pa., edited by her niece Elizabeth Mifflin, and published some years ago. A pleasant picture is drawn by Mrs. Gibson of the buUder of the mansion: This worthy old bachelor, for such he remained, was a great favourite amongst the ladies of the first circle of Annapolis where his society and conversation were much sought after — they smiled at his primitive and precise politeness, but justly admired his wit, good sense and good humour. . . . He resided in the old family house, on taking possession of which he sent to England for complete sets of household fumiture, plate and so forth. Its noblest furniture, however, was an extensive law and miscellaneous library, amply stocked with the best editions of well-selected works, in various languages, to whicK he was constantly adding — and reading as he added; his opinions, showing a good critical taste of the different authors and subjects of the day, are largely expressed in some of his familiar letters ; he seems always to have read to some good purpose, and neither law nor politics could conquer his favourite pursuit of general knowledge. As a lawyer he stood high and though surrounded in that day by able competitors, his practice was very extensive. . . . There seemed nothing wanting to his happiness but a wife! Like many of his brotherhood, he was an admirer of the fair sex and fond of being rallied for his admiration of handsome individuals among them, though we believe he was only once in sober earnest on this subject. He acquired some quaint old bachelor peculiarities. . . . Writing to England to his Aunts Mary and Eliza beth Bordley, Stephen Bordley gives us an entertaining picture of his famUy and the home life in this charming old mansion about the year 1737: 74 BORDLEY, OR RANDALL, HOUSE I have two own Brothers and one Sister; the eldest is my Brother Will, who has now been of age some time and is very capable of doing for himself in that kind of life which, in my opinion, is by far the most happy ; I mean that of a Planter, it affording a good incorae and being destitute of the noise and bustle and stir which attends those who are obliged to lead their lives amongst great numbers of people ; and where livelihood, of course, depends upon the smiles of those who . . . are often inclined to frown; whilst the honest peaceable labour and industry of the other procure him a sweet and pleasant and independent repose, affording him not only a certain means of living, but likewise of living well. My Brother Johnny is now about 16 and still at school here, intending for the same kind of employment with his Brother WiU. My Sister Bett is between 19 and 20 and is one for whose sake alone I could choose to live, and should have but little inclination to continue here after the happening of anything to deprive me of her ; or to lessen that affection which I now bear her, and which I think I ought, so long as she continues to do nothing whereby she may forfeit it. She is still single and in my opinion, since she has a fortune independent of any one, she will be best off while she continues so; tho' I would not be understood as if I was against her marrying, if she were so inclined ; but only to let you see that I think there are so few men who may be trusted with the happiness of a woman of education or delicacy, that the hazard is not worth running; and of this she herself is sensible; indeed there are very few to whom I could trust her. I am, likewise, still single; and at present continue so, as well to avoid the noise and uneasiness of a large family and the continual labour and fatigue of providing fortunes to be left them at my death, as the lessening of my power of doing for my dear Bett anything that may contribute towards mak ing her happy. From Stephen Bordley, the Bordley or RandaU 75 COLONML MANSIONS OF MARYLAND House descended to his " Sister Bett " upon his death in 1764. Elizabeth Bordley died in 1789 and at her death left the mansion to her half-brother — the only surviving member of her generation — ^John Beale Bordley of The Vineyard, Wye Island, Talbot County, Maryland. Not long after the latter's death in 1804, the house was sold to John RandaU, Esq., the first of his name in Annapolis, and with his famUy it has been associated ever since that time. Concerning this founder of a distinguished line of sons of Maryland, J. D. Warfield, the historian of Anne Arundel and Howard counties, has to say: He was the youngest son of Thomas Randall who came from England in the early part of the century, settled in Westmore land County, Virginia, and married Jane Davis. . . . John put himself under the tutelage of Mr. Buckley of Fredericksburg, an architect and builder who designed and constructed many of the most celebrated public buildings in Maryland and Virginia. He settled in Annapolis after the Revolution, married Deborah Knapp, of that city, and died in 1826 survived by his widow and thirteen children, of whom Alexander Randall was the inheritor of the homestead. Upon the death of the latter in 1881, the property was divided among his children, and the house is now part of the estate of the late John Wirt Randall, of Annapo lis, who died in August, 1912, after a long and dis tinguished life of public service. His widow is the mistress of the mansion. WHITEHALL SANDY POINT, ANNE ARUNDEL COUNTY, MARYLAND SHARPE— RIDOUT— STORY O considerations of economy of money or space hampered the building of Whitehall, the colonial home of Governor Horatio Sharpe, on Sandy Point, about nine mUes out of Annapolis. Its builder was not bound by the limits of a city lot or of a narrow purse. His eye was ever towards comfort, beauty and utility. So, to-day, the old home in its royal isolation is a beautiful exponent of the highest culture of the days before the Revolution. Of late years Whitehall was in rather a dUapidated condition, but since its purchase for a summer home by Mrs. W. G. Story, of Washington City, it has been restored in the smallest detail to its original condition, and is one of the finest examples of the best class of colonial homes. The road to Whitehall from Annapolis leads through a beautiful rolling country with many streams and little bays. It carries you through scenes associated with events in the earliest days of the province of Maiyland. There is the little hamlet of Saint Margaret's, where one of the earliest parishes of Maryland was established. The very names on the little tin letter-boxes are historic — Duvall, Ridout, Dorsey — they each have their 77 COLONIAL MANSIONS OF MARYLAND significance to the lover of things colonial in Maryland. At last you come to a sharp turning. There is a long, straight lane at right angles to the road along which you have been driving, at the far end of which, about a mile away, you can discern a white object. This lane leads to Whitehall and the white object in view is the old-time bar fence encircling this approach to the grounds. The original tract on which Whitehall stands con tained one thousand acres. The house is not now lord of so much ground. It dominates only the extreme point of the peninsula on which it stands — about sixty acres. The home lot is enclosed in a high old-time bar fence, kept so white with whitewash that it glimmers in the dark. On one side of the house is Meredith Cove; on the other. White Hall Creek. The house itself faces the junction of these two bodies of water where they form a bay, having a most beautiful vista, between the lines of the garden laid out by Governor Sharpe almost a century and a half ago. " Meredith Cove " and " White Hall Creek," — the names do not sound impos ing, but in reality the cove and creek to which they are attached are rather large bodies of water. They are directly tributary to the Chesapeake, just beyond their juncture, and give an easy and direct access to or from Annapolis. The house is buUt in the famUiar Georgian model of simple main structure with wings, and its greatest charm 78 i>wo K HO to SOoW2 WHITEHALL is to be looked for in the elaboration of each of its separate parts. It is large in dimension, but is so beauti fully proportioned and so weU situated on its little roUing crest of land that its size does not at once im press the visitor. Perhaps the greatest compliment that could be paid it is to say that it seems a natural part of the land on which it stands. The wings of the house have been set back so that they are in line with the front of the house. They are square and one story in height. The ends of the main body are of semi-octagonal shape, so that there are no abrupt lines. A series of round bull's-eyes painted white give the back of the house a strange, exotic appearance, and contrast very markedly with the frail, slender, straight lines of the doorway and right-angled steps leading down in the enclosure here. The front door is marked by four huge columns of stone painted white, extending from the ground to the second floor, and supporting a heavy Grecian canopy. Back of the house is the old garden where Governor Sharpe had the plants and flowers which he loved. He was a most enthusiastic gardener, and his letters to friends in England contain frequent requests for slips and cuttings of bushes and shrubs from the Mother Country. The garden is as beautiful to-day, owing to careful cultivation by its present-day mistress, as it was when the bachelor Governor of Maryland held domain, and it is the flrst sight which greets the visitor who 79 COLONIAL MANSIONS OF MARYLAND approaches the house by land. It is bounded by a white bar fence of the style used in all parts of the grounds and which makes a semicircle around the garden with the back of the house as the base of the segment of the circle. From the garden, lead the Willow Walk, the Locust Walk, and the Crepe Myrtle Walk, each of which carries one through a shaded and beautiful path to the water front. In the old days, it was a frequent amusement for parties of young people to come from Annapolis by boat to the home of the bachelor governor and hold im promptu dances. The story has been repeated that at Whitehall, INIary Ridout, sister of Governor Sharpe's secretary, John Ridout, danced with George Washing ton — then a colonel in the provincial militia — while Benjamin Franklin played the tune on the musical glasses. The outhouses, among which may be numbered the homes of the slaves, are continued in a straight line with the house, and are set off" in square lots of ground with white fences. The view of the old home from the water, with its commanding white pillars, its quaint and leisurely wings and white outhouses, is charming. The bricks of the house are set in the familiar Flemish bond, and it is said that they were manufactured in Governor Sharpe's own brickyards established on his property for the benefit of himself and his friends. There are no remains of this yard to be seen now, but the story has a ring of probabUity. The bricks, themselves, have a 80 SlUUeMMMSMjeSWsiria 'i'^:-^/'f;fn?5*;'^.''^'-;'".'r*'''i'*i;*''J 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 II ) M I n 1 1 It n 1 1 M 1 1 1 1 n 1 ! t n 1 11 M 1 1 1 1 ) I M 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 ! 1 1 1 1 u 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 rr ''l'i"'^'f4*'^/^A''^kW'^\%*^i^^M^^§^^*^^^}?i T rf ^H^^^^H^^^H ilil'«I; - I^^Hi^^^^^^^^Hi^^^^^^H ryi; ^ass ^^H^^^^H^H^^^^H : S^SSS 1 ^H 'I H^^I^^^^^^R^I^^^^^^^^^^^^^I ' u EKTRAiNCE TO PARLOUR. WHITEHALL WHITEHALL rather rough-cast appearance, and are distinctly smaUer than those in other homes of the same period, which, reliable traditions assert, were brought from England. Taken in its entirety, the old home, with its white fences and neat enclosures, its old gardens and general inde finable air of serenity, well-being, and good content, is very charming. There is a pathetic story of the Ulterior of the house. On entering, the visitor is at once struck by the superb and abundant wood-carving to be seen wherever this form of decoration might be used. You are to know that it was all done by a young redemptioner sent to the colonies, who had aroused Governor Sharpe's pity on account of his youth, and who had been taken into that gentleman's household service. He showed great aptitude in wood-carving, and was ofi'ered his freedom by the governor if he would decorate Whitehall. This he set out to do, and laboured long and patiently until the whole house was filled with these marvels of minute scrolls of wood of the most perfect design and good taste. He never told anyone where he learned his art, or anything about his past. When freedom was within his reach, and his task was wholly completed, he was stricken by a sudden Ulness and died. The New World offered him little but adversity, yet the influence of his perfect work will probably last longer than the memory of his noble patron. One cannot enter Whitehall without being impressed 6 81 COLONIAL MANSIONS OF MARYLAND with the thought of its buUder. The stories of his liberalities come to mind. You recall how he is said to have buUt a cotton null on his property and have im ported wool from flocks of sheep in old England that cloth might be woven for the comfort of his negro servants. You remember passages of sage phUosophy in his voluminous correspondence with his master, Lord Baltimore. The house speaks of good cheer. Here was one who had solved the art of the secret of living, indeed I In the dining-room is his portrait painted in the style of Godfrey Kneller — probably by one of his pupils. It shows a beak-nosed man in cavalier costume. He wears a laced waistcoat which comes nearly to the knee, and the pockets and sleeve flaps are large and ridiculous. Around his slender hands hang lace ruffles. The interior of the house is but one room deep in the central portion, though the wings contain rather more space from front to back. The main haUway, which is also a state reception room, is carried on up through the second floor and is a high, square apart ment whose lofty ceUing is curved above the cornice. Here the most elaborate ornamentation of the whole house is to be found. In each of the four corners above the cornice in the curved ceUing are set large Satyric faces carved in black mahogany, an ideal detail for a bachelor's home. In the middle of the ceUing is a golden eagle which holds up the slender chain support ing the chandelier. 82 ""irat"f|HSF,3Ba|gpBn--jpB,'''.'»:?i!!, "?55i?r"'^H6',':sKn, ' INTERIOR CARVING, ENTRANCE TO WHITEHALL WHITEHALL To the right of this hall, as you enter from the front, is the dining-room ; to the left is the parlour. How Whitehall was regarded by a contemporary of Governor Sharpe is shown in one of the letters of William Eddis, the voluminous chronicler of pre-revo- lutionary Annapolis who, under date of October 1, 1769, writes a friend in England : In the vicinity of Annapolis are many pleasant villas, whose proprietors are eminent for their hospitality. Colonel Sharpe, the late governor, possesses a most delightful retirement, about seven nules distant ; his house is on a large scale, the design is exceUent, and the apartments well fitted up, and perfectly con venient. The adjacent grounds are so judiciously disposed, that utility and taste are everywhere happily united ; and when the worthy owner has completed his extensive plan, Whitehall will be one of the most desirable situations in this, or in any of the neighbouring provinces. Colonel Sharpe has resided many years in this country, where he has established a reputation which reflects the highest honour on his public capacity, and on his private ¦virtues. This gentleman does not seem to entertain any idea of returning to his native land, but appears inclined to spend the residue of his days, within the limits of a province, which he has so long governed with honour to himself, satisfaction to the people, and fidelity to his sovereign. Lord Baltimore wrote to Sharpe in reference to Whitehall: Captain Love having hinted to me of your desire of some English Hares he informs me you have a villa and grounds to keep them in. It gives me pleasure your being in such a situa- 83 COLONIAL MANSIONS OF MARYLAND tion, the recess of Happiness. I have ordered Hares to be got at Woodcote. The Steward has ketched four Brace. I shall have them augmented to more if I can and send them by Captain Love. As to the hares, Sharpe wrote some months afterwards : I am very much obliged to you for the Present of English hares and Dogs you were so kind as to send me by Captain Love, who I daresay took all possible care of them. Unluckily all the Hares, except a Leash, died at sea, and one of them, also, the day after they were brought hither. I am much afraid the surviving Brace which I have turned out at my farm are infected with the same disorder. Governor Horatio Sharpe, of Maryland, whose sixteen years of office covered that eventful period when independence was brewing, was born in Yorkshire, in 1718, one of a numerous and celebrated family. His eldest brother, John, who died while he was in Mary land, was one of the guardians of Frederick, Sixth Lord Baltimore. Another brother, Gregory, was a dis tinguished Oriental scholar, Master of the Temple and chaplain to Frederick, Prince of Wales, and is spoken of by Boswell in his Life of Johnson in the following words : He, Johnson, went with me one Sunday to hear my old master Gregory Sharpe preach at the Temple. In the prefatory prayer Sharpe ranted about liberty, as a blessing most fer vently to be implored and its continuance prayed for. Johnson observed that our liberty was in no sort of danger ; he would have done much better to pray against our licentiousness. 84 WHITEHALL It was through Gregory Sharpe's influence that Horatio Sharpe received his appointment as proprietary governor of Maryland. Prior to this time, he had served against the French as captain in Brigadier- General Powlett's regiment of marines, and as lieutenant-colonel of foot in the West Indies. In 1753, he arrived in Annapolis, as duly chronicled by that leisurely custodian of news, the IMaryland Gazette, of Annapolis, and took up his duties in energetic fashion. Some historians have credited Governor Sharpe with first suggesting the famous Stamp Act, which led to the separation of the colonies from the mother country. In a communication of 1754 to Lord Baltimore, in England, in commenting on the difficulty of raising money from the colonial assemblies to carry on war against the French and Indians, he suggests that this end be brought about by " imposing an equal poll Tax, or by a Duty on the importation of Spirituous Liquors and Wines, or an excise on such as may be either im ported or made on the Continent, or by a Stamp Duty or something simUar on Deeds and Writings. . . . It would, I conceive, be proper for the Law to order the Enrollment of all Deeds of Bargain and Sale and to invalidate all Deeds of Trust, unless they be also properly stamped and enrolled, as well as Deeds of Sale in the Provincial, or county clerk's office, where, I apprehend, the Stamp or Seal might be lodged." This outlines concisely the first Stamp Act of 1768, whose 85 COLONLy. MANSIONS OF MARYLAND repeal and subsequent re-enactment in modified form set the colonies ablaze. In 1768, Sharpe was replaced by Sir Robert Eden, who had married the proprietary's sister. He now took up his residence permanently at Whitehall, which had hitherto been only his country home, and from then until 1773 devoted himself to planting, gardening, and living the life of a simple country gentleman. In this year he returned to Eng land, where he died in 1790, leaving WhitehaU to his old associate and faithful friend, John Ridout, Annapolis, who married Mary Ogle. The grant of land on which Whitehall was buUt was purchased by Nicholas Greenberry, of AnnapoUs, in 1680, from William Fuller, of Virginia, son of Capt. William Fuller, its first surveyor. At his death in 1697, Greenberry left it to Charles, his son, who died in 1713, leaving Whitehall to his wife during her lifetime, to descend at her death to Saint Margaret's parish for the support of a minister. Mrs. Greenberry, the widow, married Col. Charles Hammond, Treasurer of the Western Shore. She died, records the Maryland Gazette, " Saturday night, February 25, 1769." Prior to her death, however, and that of her husband, who survived her three years, the tract of land had been purchased by Governor Sharpe, who secured a special act of legislature to set aside the provisions of Mr. Greenberry's will. After the death of its second owner, John Ridout, 86 WHITEHALL the old mansion passed to his son, Horatio, who married Rachel Goldsborough, of Cambridge, Maryland, and from Horatio to Horatio's son, John. John Ridout, son of Horatio, had the following chil dren: Horatio, Samuel, Eliza, Rachel, and Ann Ogle. WhitehaU remained in the hands of this branch of the Ridout famUy until 1895, when it was purchased by Mrs. W. G. Story, of Washington City, wife of Gen. W. G. Story, U. S. A. In the graveyard at Whitehall, lie generations of the Ridouts and their connections. Among the names to be found there are those of : John Ridout, of Horatio, 1793-1868; Weems Ridout, 1818-1881; Mary Ridout Winchester, 1812-1894; Prudence O. Ridout, 1834r- 1909; Horatio S. Ridout, 1822-1851; Samuel Ridout, 1824-1856; Meliora Ogle Ridout, 1858-1907; Hester Ann Chase Ridout, 1817-1888. The servants' burying ground is not far from the master's graveyard and is situated at the base of a great linden tree which was standing, no doubt, before the old mansion was buUt. MONTPELIER LAUREL, PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY, MARYLAND SNOWDEN— JENKINS— TAYLOR— BLAEEMAN— PENDLETON— VON SCHRADER [HE traveUer, one hundred years ago, on the old Annapolis- Wash ington post-road, would have seen a very beautiful homestead near present-day Laurel, Prince George's County, Maryland. This was Montpelier, home of Nicholas Snowden, just over the county line from Anne Arundel County to Prince George's County and about halfway between the terminal cities of this much- traversed means of communication. Certainly he might have alighted and broken his joumey, for the mansion — then an " old " house, as houses are familiarly reckoned — ^was one of the very hospitable homes of the state, with a long tradition of good living and comfort, and had sheltered many men, famous and humble alike. George Washington had spent nights there, even before the Annapolis-Wash ington-post road was built, before the guest was our great, austere " Father of His Country." And to-day, the old homestead stUl throws out protecting arms — though not over descendants of those who called it into being — as hospitable and as fine as when it was 88 MONTPELIER buUt. Beautifully preserved against the attacks of time, and finely maintained by its present owners, it is a splendid memorial of the days of the proprietary in Maryland. The old post-road still stretches over hUl and through the reedy marshes of the Patuxent Valley in which Montpeher is situated but, except for occasional stretches, it is not kept up and is but rarely travelled. About three or four miles farther along its course, you come to the site of Birmingham, another (and the original) Snowden stronghold in this part of Maryland which, after standing two hundred years, was burned (by a vandal's act, it is thought) in 1891. Montpeher is situated on a hUl-top and originally overlooked thousands of acres of its owner's land. Though the present estate does not go into great figures it is yet comfortably large. The house is of the famUiar Maryland Georgian type of central buUding with wings ; but it diff'ers from others of its kind in two peculiar features — the roof line and the shape of the wings. The former is pointed, the lines of the roofs of wings and central buUding converging to a single upper focal point. WhUe this sounds rather extrava gant, the effect is very attractive. The wings them selves are semi-octagonal in shape, with the half octagon to the front, this and the Hammond House in Annapolis being the only colonial mansions in Maryland having such a distinction. 89 COLONIAL MANSIONS OF MARYLAND In front, and to the south side of the house, is the garden, one of the place's great charms nowadays. It has been splendidly kept up and the old Enghsh box has reached a gigantic height, forming long, shady lanes cool even in the hottest summer day. The major part of it is laid out in the form of a cross with circles on the arms. The trunk of the cross is a walk leading to the front door, where there is a large porch extremely com fortable, though, undoubtedly, the addition of recent years. The garden contains a very quaint summer- house where, tradition asserts. Major Herbert courted his bride, one of the Snowden daughters, and which might very weU have been the setting for many senti mental interludes. The back of the house has a great deal of charm, chiefly because of the beautiful doorway which graces the central portion of its expanse. The door now bears a von Schrader coat-of-arms and knocker in place of the old knocker it bore in early days, but in aU other aspects the back of the house is much as it must have been a hundred years ago. Ivy frames the windows and was so thick when its present owners acquired the property that, literaUy, cart-loads of it were cut off' and carried away. At the corner of the right wing of the house, is a great bell on a high post, used in old days to call the field hands up to the great house when the master wished to speak to them. A circular driveway completes the picture. 90 REAR VIEW, MONTPELIER c 1740 MONTPELIER Interiorly is found a very elaborately carved mantel in the dining-room, beautiful panelling in the sitting- room, a sunple and elegant mantel in the parlour, many cupboards let into the walls at odd places, includ ing a fine china cupboard, and huge wrought-brass door hinges and latches, — the only existing instance of the use of wrought-brass for these purposes in colonial Maryland. The arrangement of the rooms is simple — a broad haU from front to back of the building, the stairs set off" from the middle of the hall and running with it, and the rooms symmetrically disposed on either side. Words faU to describe, however, the brightness and cheeriness of the whole interior of the old mansion, especiaUy of the hall on a summer's day with both big doors open, the wind sweeping through and a view here, of the quaint old garden, and, there, of the gravelled driveway, the ancient dignified trees and the blue dis tance of hUls beyond. One of the great charms of Montpeher is its trees, as it is blessed with an abundance of magnificent old oaks. The foundations of the mansion were laid some where between 1740 and 1770 by Thomas Snowden, son of Richard (the " iron-master," as he styles himself in his wUl), son of Richard, son of Richard the Immi grant. We cannot be sure of a more definite date be cause the first formal division of the Snowden lands in Prince George's County was not made untU 1790, when a deed of partition inter partibus was recorded, 91 COLONIAL MANSIONS OF MARYLAND and so there are no records. This seems a curious circumstance from several standpoints; for one thing, it points to the fact that the famUy, which had been seated in this country for over a hundred years, lived in entire amity up to this time without recourse to law or courts for disposition of its affairs. Perhaps the fact that, up to a late date, the Snowdens were Quakers may explain the quiet conduct of their affairs over their own hearth-stones. Montpelier was built by the aforesaid Thomas, born 1722, died 1770, and was greatly added to by his son. Major Thomas, of the Maryland line. The elder Thomas, tradition tells us, was sober, simple in tastes and something of a recluse, while the son was more fond of the bright things of the world. Thomas, the elder, built the substantial central portion of Mont pelier. Thomas, the younger, added the beautiful wings and the interior decoration of the whole. This Thomas Snowden, the younger — better known as "Major" Thomas, from his services during the Revolution — ^was born in 1751, at Montpelier, and died in 1803. He married Ann Ridgely, a great heiress, and after his wedding was so plentifully supplied with this world's goods that the members of the Quaker congregation of which he was a part, forbade him to come to meeting. To placate them, he liberated one hundred negro slaves and was then allowed to worship with his brethren. Says Lawrence Buckler Thomas, 92 MONTPELIER the faithful chronicler of the Thomas family and its connections, of Major Thomas Snowden: He lived at Montpelier which was on the great Northern and Southem Post-road, and entertained great numbers of people who were then continually passing upon it, and in accord ance with the hospitable customs of the day, would not hesitate to stop at his residence for the night. Washington, himself, once spent the night there, and the bed in which he slept is still preserved. Arm Ridgely Snowden, the devoted wife of Major Thomas Snowden, died thirty-one years after her husband, on Good Friday of 1834, having had issue: Richard, who married Eliza Warfield; Thomas, a bachelor; Mary, who married Col. John Carlyle Her bert, of Walnut Grange, Virginia, and whose great- granddaughter, Mrs. Carlyle Herbert Hooff, lives at Oaklands; Nicholas, who married Elizabeth Warfield Thomas, and inherited Montpelier; and Caroline, who died unmarried. Nicholas, the next owner of the old home, was born at Montpelier, October 21, 1786, and died March 8, 1831. His wife, Elizabeth Warfield Thomas — to whom he was married October 7, 1806 — died at Avondale, Maryland, June 16, 1866. He left the following chU dren: Ann Elizabeth, who married, first, Francis M. Hall, second, Charles HiU; Louisa, who married Col. Horace Capron, and made her home in Chicago; Julianna Maria, who married Dr. Theodore Jenkins, COLONMJL MANSIONS OF MARYLAND of Baltimore, and inherited the homestead; Adehne, who married Walter W. W. Bowie; Edward, who married Mary Thomas Warfield; Dr. De WUton, who married Emma C. Capron; Henry, who married Mary Cournan; Elizabeth, who entered a convent in George town, D. C. ; and Emily RosevUle, who married Charles C. HUl. Descendant sons and daughters of these unions have taken prominent places in many states. Ann Elizabeth Snowden's second husband, Charles HUl, was the father of Charles C. Hill, who married her sister, Emily RosevUle Snowden, and she did not marry the second time until after her second husband's son had married her sister. What relation were her chil dren by her second marriage to her sister's children? Her husband's chUdren were younger than his grand chUdren, it is plain; and other aspects of this interesting genealogical problem wiU be discovered upon reflection. Julianna Snowden, who married Dr. Theodore Jenkins, was the inheritor of Montpelier, and was a woman of fine intellectual endowment and great strength of purpose. She was married at Montpelier, June 23, 1835, and after her husband's death at the homestead, December 15, 1866, managed the entire large estate. Her chUdren were: Theodore, born April 19, 1838, kUled at the battle of Cedar Mountauis, Yir ginia, August 9, 1862; Elizabeth Snowden, Louis WUliam, born June 16, 1842; Francis Xavier, born September 29, 1844, and lives in Baltimore; Mary 94 SUMMER HOUSE, MONTPELIER GARDEN, MONTPELIER MONTPELIER Ehza, born November 5, 1846, and lives in Washington, D. C. ; Ann Louisa, and Arthur. Since the death of Mrs. Jenkins, the beautiful property has passed through many hands. It was left by her will to her. children and was, later, in the posses sion of W. P. Davis and Martin W. ChoUar as specula tive investors until, in 1895, it was purchased by Mrs. Josephine D. Taylor, of New York, for a summer home. In 1900, Lewis H. Blakeman, of New York, acquired the title, from whom in 1906, it went to Ed mund H. Pendleton, a writer, of New York, who lived there untU his death in 1910. In 1911 it was purchased from the Pendleton estate by Otto V. von Schrader, of St. Louis, its present owner, whose family consists of his wife, a married son, Atreus Hargadine von Schrader, and a grandson, Atreus Hargadine, Jr. In its present hands the old homestead belongs to those capable of understanding its traditions and of continuing them. OAKLANDS (WITH NOTES ON OTHER SNOWDEN HOMES) CONTEE STATION, PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY, MARYLAND SNOWDEN— CONTEE— BOLLING— HOOFF N the crest of a hUl overlooldng Contee, Prince George's County, , Maryland, stands Oaklands, one )of the Snowden homes, now the property of Mr. Charles R. Hooff, a Virginian by birth, whose wife — a daughter of the late Gen. James R. Herbert, C. S. A. — is a descendant of the family which called the solid old homestead into being; though, when Mr. Hooff acquired its title, in 1911, it had passed from the direct line of its founders. The house is a sturdy brick structure distinguished on the exterior by fine front and back doorways and by the excellence of its brickwork, whose customary mo notony is varied by the use of heavy, glazed " headers," the secret of the making of which is believed to have passed away. In the rear of the house, which faces west, is a charming, crumbling garden with broken terraces, whence may be had a delightful view of the tree-clad hills from which the estate took its name. The place had gone through various stages of ruin before Mr. Hooff took it in hand, even to having its window weights and the top-soil of the garden sold. For the rehabilita tion of the home Mr. Hooff has made, and is carrying 96 OAKLANDS out, extensive plans, aU of them based primarUy on the desire to have it, when these are finished, as near as possible as it was when it was new. The arrangement of the house on the inside is simple: a broad hallway from front to back divides it in the middle and there is a small wing to the south in which there are kitchen, pantry and servants' rooms. An exceedingly sunny and beautiful staircase leads from the hall at the rear, extending half the width of the house. Its entrance and its point of departure from the hall are marked by two graceful, classic arches placed on the transverse and longitudinal lines of the house, respectively. The stair is broken by a landing on which stands a Fairfax clock, a relic of the famous Lord Fairfax, of Virginia, Washington's patron, and one of Mrs. Hoofl"s maternal forebears. The rooms are notable for their high ceUings and good proportion, the parlour, in especial, being very charming with high- wainscoted walls, and sunple cornice. In the dining- room, is a corner cupboard, which takes every feminine heart, and in the sitting-room adjoining are the remains of a secret staircase which led from this room to the master's bedroom above. In the old days, this sitting-room was used as a card- room and the following story is told of it : It seems that at one period the Lord of Misrule held sway in this house — as he has in almost every old home in Maryland —and during his reign, one evening, a furious and 7 97 COLONML MANSIONS OF MARYLAND boisterous game of cards was in progress in this room. High stakes were on, the players were aU heated and red with wine when suddenly one of them was suminoned away by a message that could not be put aside. His going would mean the breaking up of the game. " We would play with the Devil if he took your place," declared the host and his guests with loud oaths. They were seated in confusion when there came a knock at the door. Entered a tall, slim man whom no one there recognized. " May I take the vacant place? " he asked. " Sit down," replied the host, " though we don't know your name." Again play waxed furious. The stranger played in an incredible streak of luck. Morning came and went and afternoon and evening and stUl the game went on, each player seeming to be bound to his seat by some irresistible force. At last the unknown had won every dollar of each man sitting at the table and the hypothe cation of every valuable they possessed. He arose to go but turned at the door to bow farewell. Sharpenedtby distress, the weary eyes of the men at the table noted plainly the outline of a forked taU beneath the back of his coat as he bent over, and, on his departure, a smell of brimstone clung about the room for a long time. In each of the rooms of the house, is a broad fire place set across the corner of the room farthest from the door. This gives an exceedingly homelike atmosphere 98 OAKLANDS to the house in winter, and, indeed, one of its great dis tinctions at aU seasons is its general air of sunny good cheer. The windows are full five panes across and high in proportion. Oaklands was inherited by Richard Snowden from his father. Major Thomas Snowden, of Montpeher, which is situated nearby, and to it he took his bride, Eliza Warfield, of Bushby Park, Howard County, when he was married, February 13, 1798. After the death of his first wife, he married her sister, Louisa Victoria Warfield, of Bushby Park — no mean tribute from a man to his wife's family. The estate extended from the boundaries of Mont pelier, on the south, well up into the present Howard County, Maryland, and embraced more than two thousand acres. Its master had no chUdren by his second marriage. The issue of the first has begotten a large and active connection. Ann Louisa, the eldest child, who inherited the homestead, married Capt. John Contee; Col. Thomas Snowden, the eldest son, married Ann Rebecca NichoUs and had Sara Rebecca Nicholls, who married Capt. Charles Marshall of Baltimore; Caroline Eliza married Albert Fairfax, of Northamp ton, Prince George's County, Maryland, father of the late John Contee Fairfax, first of the name after the Revolution to assume the title of Lord Fairfax — the only certified English title in the United States — and grandfather of Albert, present Lord Fairfax; EmUy 99 COLONIAL MANSIONS OF MARYLAND RosevUle married Col. Timothy P. Andrews, U. S. A., of Baltimore; and Richard Nicholls married Elizabeth Ridgely Warfield. The chUdren of Ann Louisa Contee, inheritor of the homestead, included eight daughters and two sons: Charles Snowden Contee, who married Betty Bolling; and Richard, who married Anna Boiling, Betty's sister. These sons were the last of the family in a direct line from the builder to occupy the home. In 1878 the place was bought by trustees of the Bolling estate and at the death of Richard Contee's wife, six years ago, it was sold to John Dominick Boiling, nephew of the BoUing sisters. In 1912, it was purchased by Mr. Hooff. Concerning the origin of the Snowden famUy in Maryland, we may read to advantage Lawrence Buckler Thomas' notes on the Thomas family: Richard Snowden, of Wales, who is said to have held a Major's commission under Oliver Cromwell, came to Maryland in the seventeenth century. His son, Richard, is mentioned as a well-known owner of land in Maryland, near South River, in a deed dated October 13, 1679. August 1, 1686, a tract of land called " Robin Hood's Forest," and containing 10,500 acres, was granted to him. He was living October 13, 1688, when William Parker deeds to him certain land for a consideration of 306 pounds. In 1704, he was still living but died soon after that date. Richard Snowden, son of this Richard, married Mary Waters — of the family of which Dr. Franklin Waters and his sisters, of West River, Maryland, are 100 OAKLANDS descendants — and became a large land-holder and iron- founder, adding more than ten thousand acres to the large tract of land already his by virtue of inheritance from his father. In partnership with Edmund Jen nings, of Annapolis, John Galloway and Jacob Cow man, of Anne Arundel County, and John Pritchard, of London, he built in Prince George's County, on the Patuxent, the first ironworks ever operated in Mary land. Not far from his forges on the JPatuxent and near the present-day city of Laurel, Maryland, he erected his manor-house Birmingham, which stood in fine preservation until 1890, a superb example of early buUding, when it was destroyed by fire. Richard Snowden, the third, son of Richard, the second, married first, in 1709, Eliza, daughter of Wil liam and Ehza Coale, and four years after her death, in 1713, married, second, Elizabeth, daughter of Samuel and Mary Hutchins Thomas. He lived at Birmingham and, following the lines his father had laid down, be came one of the most influential and affluent men of his generation. At his death, 1763, he was sole owner of the ironworks his father established and was building a new forge not far from the old one on the Patuxent. Mr. Julius Snowden, a direct descendant of this Richard, who lives in a home he has built on the site of old Birmingham, found a chimney-back near the river on the site of one of these foundries which is a very curious object. It bears the date 1738 in old-fashioned 101 COLONMX MANSIONS OF MARYLAND numerals and, in script equally quaint, on a hne below, the word " Potuxon." Beneath this line is a third bearing a capital " O " intertwined with a heart, though just what this means no one has been able to assert; possibly a trade-mark used by the builder of the foundries. The chUdren of Richard Snowden, the third, by his first wife were: Deborah, who married James Brooke, of Sandy Spring, Maryland — ancestor of Dr. James Brooke, of Sandy Spring; Eliza, who married John Thomas ; and Mary, who married Samuel Thomas. By his second wife, his chUdren were: Richard Thomas, who married Mary Wright and was the father of Major Thomas Snowden, of Montpelier, and grandfather of Richard Snowden of Oaklands; Ann, who married Henry Wright Crabbe; Margaret; Samuel, who married Elizabeth, daughter of Philip and Ann Chew Thomas, and who built the quaint old homestead now occupied by Mr. Jeremiah McCawley and wife; Elizabeth, who married Joseph Cowman, descendants of whom are in Baltimore; and John, who inherited Birmingham. John Snowden was the youngest chUd and seems to have been his parents' favorite, for in his father's will, drawn shortly before his death in 1763, it was specified that he should stay at home so as to keep his mother company and that if he should marry and wish to have a home of his own, he should be given land near the manor-house, which at his mother's death he was to 102 OAKLANDS inherit, and to be aUowed to erect a small house at the expense of the estate. He did buUd for himself before his mother's death, though he did not marry untU late in life, and the little frame buUding which he caused to be put up — buUt in the substantial fashion of even the smaUest homes of that day — is stUl standing near the site of Birmingham after that stately pile has been vanquished by the elements. He did not marry untU forty years old, and this fact, coupled with his being the youngest of a large family, makes his descendants almost two generations nearer the founder of the f amUy than descendants of any other branch. He married Rachel, daughter of Gerard and Mary Hall Hopkins, and had seven chUdren, only two of whom had issue. These were Rachel, who married Judge John S. Tyson; and Rezin Hammond Snowden, the youngest son, born in 1796, who inherited Birmingham, and married, in 1829, Margaret, daughter of John McFadon, a rich merchant of Baltimore, who left an estate largely in vested in Baltimore city property. Rezin Hammond Snowden, who lived at Birming ham, died in 1858, leaving seven chUdren, of whom Maria Louise, born in 1843, married Professor Alfred M. Mayer, the distinguished scientist and has chUdren living in Brooklyn, New York; John, the eldest son, married Sarah E. Hopkins, and had a son John who lives at Snowden Hall, near Laurel, Maryland, and a daughter, Mrs. Charles H. Stanley of Laurel; William, 103 COLONIAL MANSIONS OF MARYLAND inheritor of Birmingham, married Adelaide, daughter of Dr. Gustavus Warfield, of Howard County, Maryland. Birmingham never went out of the line of the famUy. Julius, son of William, and inheritor of the estate, has built on the site of the old manor-house and lives in this new home with his family which consists of his wife (who was Miss Estell Bird) and her sister. Miss Anna C. Bird. To retrace a few steps in Snowden genealogy, Thomas Snowden, of Montpelier, father of Major Thomas, and son of Richard, the third of the name, had a son Richard who buUt Fairlands, the last of the old Snowden homes that we shall record, now occupied by Dr. Leonard Robert Coates, originally of CoatesvUle, Pennsylvania, and of the family which gave that place its name, who married Miss Boarman, daughter of the previous owner. He has three children; Roberta, who, in 1910, married W. W. Easterday, of Washington, D. C; Robert Boarman and Dorothy WetherUl, aged sixteen. The builder of Fairlands died shortly after his marriage and was soon followed to the grave by his wife, who was Elizabeth Rutland. Their orphan daughter, Mary, was brought up at her uncle's home, Montpelier, and because of the large estate in her own right was considered a great catch in marriage. She married John Chew Thomas, of LeipervUle, Pennsyl vania, brother of Evan WUliam Thomas, the then owner of Whitby HaU, Philadelphia. BURLEIGH HOWARD COUNTY, MARYLAND HAMMOND URLEIGH, the old Hammond place in Howard County, Mary land, is not far from Doughore- gan Manor, which it surpasses in grace and beauty of interior decoration, but to which it is much inferior in size and venerability of aspect. It is situated about five miles from EUicott City, the thriv ing little county-seat of Howard County, and is ap proached by the famous old national highway, Frederick Pike, once the national highway. The estate of which it is the seat comprises one thousand acres of fine, fer tUe farming land in this most productive of Mary land's counties, and the entire property is now the home of Mrs. Mary Hanson Hammond, widow of the late Col. Matthias Hammond, a lineal descendant of the founder, and her daughter, Mrs. Richard Craigh Hammond. The approach to the house is through a tree-lined avenue which ends in a circle before the front door, and a white bar fence encircles the home lot. The house, itself, consists of a square central building with one wing. The entrance is distinguished with a porch and the doorway is very exquisitely carved. A broad hallway 105 COLONIAL MANSIONS OF MARYLAND leads from front to rear of the house, and the staircase begins its ascent at the back of the haU. One of the great beauties of the house is the garden doorway at the end of the main hall. It is an arched doorway with a fanhght over the central portion and the two long narrow windows which fiank this part. The structural wooden detaUs are beautifully carved in the decorative design which is carried out through the house. The beauty of the interior carving of Burleigh attracts many visitors, and it is of unusual character in the originality of the design and in the great delicacy and precision of workmanship manifested in its execu tion. On mantels, doorways and every avaUable space for decoration this lace-work of cut wood extends. The garden of Burleigh is not so beautiful now as it was during its late master's lifetime or during the lives of those who lived in the old home before him, as the widowed ladies who now form the household are not so weU able to have these details looked after but it is still a very delightful place, especially when a westerly sun throws long shadows through its walks and touches the delicate carving of the old garden doorway with mellow, warm splotches of golden light. A feature of the grounds of Burleigh which lends much to its romantic atmosphere is the old slaves' quarters a little distance from the house. Great beetle- 106 BURLEIGH backed barns and stone buUdings make up the out buUdings of the homestead. Burleigh was built by Col. Rezin Hammond, a revolutionary character — one of the Committee of Safety of Annapohs in pre-revolutionary days — for his nephew, Denton Hammond, son of " Brother Philip." It is said that this Rezin Hammond observed his brother's large family and told him not to worry about the future of at least one of his sons — that he, Rezin, would provide for him; and, being a bachelor and very weU endowed with this world's goods, too, there is no doubt that he could afford to do so. Denton was the son who was the recipient of his favors. The estate thus created has not been divided since it became Denton's home. The famUy with which this old place is associated has left its imprint in many parts of Maryland and springs from Maj.-Gen. John Hammond, a Royalist commander, who died in Annapolis in 1707. He was a great-nephew of Henry Hammond, D.D., chaplain to Charles I, of England, and great-grandson of John Hammond, M.D., physician to James I. At his death he left a sum of money to St. Ann's Church, Annapolis, and this sum was used to purchase a big, brass-bound Bible which is one of the cherished relics of that church to-day. His tombstone lies in St. Ann's churchyard, though his body was laid to rest on his estate north of Annapolis beside the waters of the Severn. Mr. John 107 COLONIAL MANSIONS OF MARYLAND Wesley Brown, of Howard County and Baltimore, a son of Mrs. Matilda Ridgely Hammond Brown, has in his possession a tankard which belonged to Maj.-Gen. John Hammond, his ancestor, and, in addi tion, a brass-bound book of sermons by Reverend Henry Hammond, chaplain to Charles I, which belonged to Maj.-Gen. John. The children of Maj.-Gen. John Hammond were four — Thomas, John, William, Charles — forming an extensive line of descent. Charles married his cousin, Hannah Howard, and had five sons — Charles, PhUip, John, Rezin, and Nathaniel, — and three daughters, Hammutell, Ruth and Hannah. He died in 1718. Philip, of Charles, married Rachel Brice and died in 1760. Charles, of PhUip and Rachel Brice, died in 1777, one of the largest owners of land in Maryland, holding large tracts in Anne Arundel, Frederick and the present Howard County. His son. Colonel Rezin, we have already become acquainted with. Philip Hammond, father of Denton Hammond, beneficiary of his uncle Col. Rezin Hammond, married Elizabeth Wright, daughter of Thomas and Mary Wright, and died in 1822, leaving seventeen chUdren, including this Denton. Denton Hammond married Sarah Hall Baldwin, daughter of Capt. Henry Baldwin, of Anne Arundel County, and Sarah Hall, his wife, and had three chil dren who grew up at Burleigh and made its halls ring 108 c BURLEIGH with their shouts and laughter. Elizabeth, one of these children, married Richard Cromwell, and settled near Burleigh. CamUla, the other daughter, married Dr. Thomas Herbert, and became the mother of the late Gen. James G. Herbert, C. S. A., a man distinguished in many ways in his day, and whose daughter, Mrs. Carlyle Herbert Hooff, is the present-day mistress of Oaklands, another old homestead of Maryland. Col. Matthias Hammond was the third of these children and the last male occupant of Burleigh, of the name. He married Mary Hanson, of Anne Arundel County, and had one child, a daughter, who married her cousin, Richard Craigh Hammond, whom she survives. There have been many brilliant entertainments at Burleigh, and its tradition of fine hospitality was well maintained by its last master. Col. Matthias Hammond. He was a man of great scholarship, a fluent writer, and a linguist of distinction. Yet he did not occupy himself entirely with his books but found distraction in the society of his feUows, and was host to many a gay and congenial gathering of neighbors and friends. In Burleigh is a great quantity of rare and beautiful old furniture and china, as well as the extensive library with which Col. Matthias Hammond busied himself, and a visit to it now in its quiet elder days is a delightful excursion into the atmosphere of leisure and dignity which seemed to be a peculiar possession of the genera tion that passed a hundred years ago. DOUGHOREGAN MANOR HOWARD COUNTY, MARYLAND (CARaOLL MANSION, ANNAPOLIS; HOMEWOOD, BROOKLANDWOOD; CARROLL PARK HOUSE, BALTIMORE) CARROLL OUGHOREGAN MANOR, the centre of the historic estate from which it takes its name, is the strongest link in the chain which binds Maryland to its colonial past. The home of Charles CarroU, of CarroUton, the longest-lived of the signers of the Declaration, and of many figures notable in the history of the nation and the state, it has for two centuries and more been the seat of one of the most dis tinguished families in the history of Maryland. The magnificent old mansion is situated five mUes northwest of EUicott City, Maryland, on the Frederick pike, once the national highway from east to west, and over which many a settler following the counsel epito mized by Greeley has slowly made his way. The house is situated on the crest of a high ridge of ground com manding a broad prospect to the east, at the end of a mile long driveway through a beautiful wood from the pike and is surrounded by five thousand acres of fertile land, the present-day extent of the estate. As the visitor to Doughoregan approaches the house, after a cool drive through its magnificent woods, 110 DOUGHOREGAN MANOR he is at once impressed with the size of the old mansion and the overpowering dignity of the whole scene of which it is a centre. The house is a long, low structure with two wings and a cupola in the middle and looks more hke a section of some ancient waU with watchman's tower than like a dwelling house. It is three hundred feet in length and not more than thirty feet deep. The right or north wing is the chapel where every Sunday the devout have held services for more than a hundred years; the left or south wing contains the kitchen and servants' rooms. The house is divided through the middle by a broad hallway very heavily and plainly paneUed in oak. To the right of this, as you enter, is a parlor beyond which is a study, the walls of which are covered with famUy portraits, and in which the signer conducted the business of his vast estate. Among the paintings here is one showing the signer as a boy at school in France, standmg upon a shore watching a dis tant ship make out to a distant sea. Other portraits show the late Governor John Lee CarroU and the beautiful three Caton sisters, granddaughters of the signer, who were known as the Three Graces of America. To the left of the hallway, as you enter from the front, are a reception- and a dming-room. Adjoming the re ception-room is a very charming little breakfast-room. In the dining-room may be seen the old CarroU sUver and a rich hoard of old furniture. One of the features of interest of the interior of the house is the Cardinal's 111 COLONIAL MANSIONS OF MARYLAND room, a richly furnished apartment in which the pre dominant colors in the scheme of decoration are red and gold, and which is scrupulously reserved for the use of Cardinal Gibbons, or whatever other high dignitary of the Roman church may be entertained at Doughore gan. The CarroUs have been churchmen for, lo, these many years ! Passing through the house to the garden in the rear one finds one's self at the first of a very beautiful succes sion of terraces leading from the mansion to the magnifi cent grove of old trees that protects the place to the west. The southern boundary of the garden is a charm ingly irregular and moss-grown stone wall that has been standing for a century. The garden itself, laid out when the house was new and tended carefully from that time to this, is an ideally beautiful spot. The finely planned driveway which leads from the Frederick pike at the entrance of the estate to the house was planned by the late Royal Phelps, Esquire, of New York, whose daughter was the mistress of the old place, and while thus only a comparatively new addition to the estate, as its age is to be measured, is one of its greatest attractions. It is over a mile long and leads by a gentle ascent from the gate to the house through long curves well calculated to show in vistas the wonder ful old trees of the place. Doughoregan Manor has always been noted for its hospitality and a delightful picture of one occasion of 112 DOUGHOREGAN MANOR its generous outpouring has been drawn by J. D. War- field, who wrote of the " Founders of Anne Arundel and Howard Counties," of Maryland. I have a distinct and delightful recollection of a visit to Doughoregan Manor in my boyhood with my father who was an invited guest of Col. Charles Carroll. The occasion was a tournament which, as far as my knowledge of tilting extends, was unique. The gentry of the neighbouring counties with their families were present, and the display of beauty and fashion was such as made a lasting impression on a youth of ten years. The joust was out of the ordinary way of such entertainments. Instead of the conventional ring suspended in the air, through which the knights at fidl gallop were to thrust the spear, the object of their skill was a lay figure of wood representing a man life-size, caparisoned as a knight, and so nicely balanced on a pedestal that a blow in the face from a well-poised spear would unhorse the figure while a stroke against the body was calculated to shiver the spear or unhorse the knight. Against this figure each knight, handsomely attired and mounted with heavy spears about twelve feet long and one to three inches thick with a strong brass point, was to dash himself at full speed. One knight was dismounted and another had his spear shivered but no injury occurred to man or horse. The victor who overthrew the lay figure three times and so won the right to crown the queen of honour was an officer of the United Srates Cavalry; but his name, with that of the queen, I have forgotten. After the joust foUowed the crowning of the queen and then the " menu " and the departure of the many guests. The CarroU family has, it may be easily argued, been the greatest land-owning famUy in America. When Charles Carroll of CarroUton, the signer, died m R 113 COLONLIL MANSIONS OF MARYLAND 1832, he owned 27,691 acres in Bradford County, Pennsylvania, in addition to the 80,000 acres or more he possessed in his own state, and his famUy, before him, held continually the ideal of the acquisition of landed property. In 1707, Charles Carroll, the first of the name in Maryland, grandfather of the signer, held Clynmaljrra, a tract of land of 5,000 acres; En field Chase, a royal stretch in Prince George's County, Maryland; 1,969 acres in Baltimore County, including Ely O'CarroU and Litterlouna, the old dwelling-house on which burned down in 1913, and other tracts in Maryland aggregating in all nearly 60,000 acres. In this same year he was granted the princely domain of 10,000 acres known as Doughoregan, and ten thousand more acres were added to this in the later grant of land of CarroUton Manor. Charles Carroll, it seems, was given the right to choose ten thousand acres in Frederick County and first fixed on a spot beyond Frederick town but, later, finding the land better on the south side of Frederick, changed to a location in the present Howard County. The record of the property was not made untU 1723, if we can believe Charles Browning's " Chief Explanation," published in 1821 : The grant of this land first appears to have been made April 10, 1723, to the Carroll fainily, some of whom dying there were different assignments from time to time up to 1734, but I under stand the land was not taken up tUl just before the Revolution by the present Charles Carroll, of CarroUton, for his father, and 114 DOUGHOREGAN MANOR the only money that appears to have been given for the land was a rent of $20 per annum which the present Mr. Carroll got rid of by the act for the abolition of quit-rent, 1780. Portions of CarroUton became the inheritances of the girls of the family in later generations born in the old manor-house of Doughoregan. Charles Carroll, the first of the CarroUs, of CarroU ton, in Maryland, was a claimant to the estates of the O'CarroUs, princes of Ely in Kings and Tipperary Counties, Ireland, and petitioned the throne of Eng land to restore him to his inheritance. WhUe he was successful in gaming the ear of the king, he could not gain his petition but was offered instead 60,000 acres in Maryland. We first hear of him in Maryland in 1688, and the foUowing year saw the overthrow of the proprietary government in Maryland. When Sir Lionel Copley, later, took possession of the affairs of the province in the name of King Charles II, he charged CarroU, who had been Lord Baltimore's attorney-general, with disloy alty and threw him into prison. In 1715, with the restoration of the Protestant Charles Calvert, CarroU was Uberated and appointed Judge and Register of the Land Office, the highest office in the disposition of the proprietary, succeeding his father-in-law, Henry Darnall. Like most Catholic gentlemen of his time, Charles CarroU was educated at Douai, France. He married, 115 COLONIAL MANSIONS OF MARYLAND first, in America, Martha Underwood, daughter of Anthony Underwood, of St. Mary's County, but this first marriage left him soon a widower, as his wife died in 1690. In 1693 he married Mary DarnaU, daughter of Henry Darnall, of Portland Manor, whose wife was Elinor Hatton, widow of Major Thomas Brooke, of Brookefield. Of their ten chUdren, three sons and two daughters lived to maturity. Henry, the eldest son, was drowned at sea whUe returning from school at St. Omer, France, which left Charles, born 1702, the heir- at-law. Daniel Carroll, born 1707, married Ann Rozier, of Notley Hall, and became the progenitor of the CarroUs of Duddington, Prince George's County, now a part of Washington City. When the second Lord Baltimore died, Charles Carroll, who was in England, became the attorney of the widowed Lady Baltimore. In 1718 he returned to the colonies, where he died in 1720. His wiU made his three sons, Henry (then living), Charles and Daniel, his executors. In 1729 Charles and Daniel Carroll sold sixty acres of land on which the city of Baltimore was laid out. Charles Carroll, the Second, was known as Charles Carroll, of Annapolis, to distinguish him from his father. He it was who erected the Carroll mansion in Annapolis, now the home of the Redemptorist Order, on two lots of ground purchased from a widow, to whom tradition asserts Carroll paid many times the lots' value. 116 DOUGHOREGAN MANOR The house is a solid brick structure, four stories high on the water side, and has a magnificent view of Spa Creek, which it overlooks. The garden, a famous part of the estate, lies between the house and the water. Here, Washington's diary frequently records, the Father of His Country took many a meal beneath the shade of a gigantic old tree in the cool of the evening, and this tree is stUl standing. In 1783, upon the occa sion of Washington's resignmg m Annapolis his com mission as commander-in-chief of the armies of the United States, Mr. Carroll gave a great public dinner and dance in his garden, which the conservative news papers of that day and place spoke of with unwonted enthusiasm, and of which tradition in Annapolis is stUl noisy. The house is severely plain inside but very com fortable. It was used by its buUder as a town house and as a centre for his active political and official life, whUe Doughoregan served him for a country home. In this house at Annapohs, Charles CarroU, of CarroUton, the signer, was born and here he wrote many of the speeches and public letters which rendered him famous in pre- revolutionary days. In 1870, Mrs. John MacTavish, granddaughter and favourite of the signer, for whom he built the mag nificent home known as Folly Quarter, deeded the property to the Redemptorist Order, to which it now belongs. The church, St. Mary's, annexed to the old 117 COLONM.L MANSIONS OF MARYLAND Carroll house, was built in 1858 on land given by the CarroUs, but prior to that time the private chapel of the old home had been used by the Catholics of Aonapolis as a place of worship. Charles Carroll, the Second, had but one son, Charles Carroll, of CarroUton, the signer, born 1737, whose mother was Elizabeth Brooke, daughter of Clement Brooke and Jane (Sewall) Brooke, daughter of Col. Nicholas Sewall, step-son of the second Lord Baltimore. At ten years of age young Carroll was sent to school to a Jesuit college at Bohemia Manor in Cecil County, Maryland, where he was a student with his cousin, John Carroll, afterward Archbishop of Balti more, and with Robert Brent, who married a sister of John Carroll. In 1748, with his cousin John, he was sent to St. Omers, in French Flanders, whence, in 1757, he went to the College of Louis le Grand in Paris, where he remained about four years. In 1764, Charles Carroll, of Annapolis, wrote to his son in France and gave him an estimate of his estate, which shows at the same time the vast inheritance in land which this next owner of Doughoregan might expect and, also, how compara tively little a cash revenue it brought in at that period of the nation's history. Forty thousand acres of land, two seats alone containing each upwards of 12,000 acres, would now sell at 20 shillings sterling per acre. . . . 40,000 pounds. Sterling. One-fi'fth of an Iron-work, with two forges built, a third 118 DOUGHOREGAN MANOR erecting, with all convenient buildings ; ISO slaves ; teams and carts, and 30,000 acres belonging to the works ; a very growing estate, which produces to my fifth annually at least 400 pounds Sterling, at twenty-five years' purchase . . . — 10,000 pounds, Sterling. 20 lots and houses in Annapolis . . . 4,000 pounds. Sterling. 285 slaves on the different plantations, at 30 pounds each . . . 8,550 pounds. Sterling. Cattle, horses, stock of all kinds on my plantations, with working tools . . . 1,000 pounds. Sterling. Silver household plate . . . 600 pounds, Sterling. Debts outstanding at interest in 1762, when I balanced my books . . . 24,230 pounds, Sterling. You must not suppose my annual income to equal the interest of the value of my estate. Many of my lands are unimproved, but I compute I have a clear revenue of at least 1,800 pounds. Sterling, per annum, and the value of my estate is continually improving. I propose upon your coming into Maryland to convey to you my manor of CarroUton, 10,000 acres, and the addition thereto of 2,700 acres, now producing annually 250 pounds, Sterling, not one-half of which is let. Also my share of the ironworks, producing at least 400 pounds. On my death I am willing to add my manor of Doughoregan, 10,000 acres, and also 1,425 acres called Chance adjacent thereto, on which the bulk of my negroes are settled. As you are my only child, you will, of course, have all of the residue of my estate at my death. Your return to me I hope will be in the next fall. In 1765, young Carroll came home to his promised Doughoregan. He was married three years after his return to Mary Darnall, daughter of Henry and Rachel (Brooke) Darnall, of the same famUy from which his 119 COLONML MANSIONS OF MARYLAND grandfather had chosen a wife. " He came home at twenty-seven years," says J. D. Warfield, the admirable historian of the CarroUs, " an amiable, upright, accom plished young man, with the polish of European society and the social requirements of studious culture. De barred by his religion from political honors, he came to occupy in ease and comfort his manorial estates but he was not long to rest in retirement." Throughout the course of his long and busy life, the most celebrated act that Charles Carroll, of CarroUton, performed was his signing of the Declaration of Inde pendence, an act that, with him, as with others of the immortal signers, had an especial significance owing to the vast personal wealth which he hazarded upon the stroke of a pen. Robert C. Winthrop, in his centennial oration at Boston, July 4, 1876, gives a version of the signing: " Will you sign.? "said Hancock to Charles Carroll. " Most willingly," was the reply. " There goes two millions with the dash of a pen," says one of those standing by ; while another re marks, " Oh, Carroll, you will get off, there are so many Charles CarroUs." And then we may see him stepping back to the desk and putting that addition of " of CarroUton," to his name, which will designate him forever, and be a prouder title of nobUity than those in the peerage of Great Britain, which were afterwards adorned by his accomplished and fascinating granddaughters. This legend of CarroU's adding " of CarroUton " to his name has been repeated frequently, yet it is to he 120 GARDEN ENTRANCE TO DOUGHOREGAN DOUGHOREGAN MANOR doubted that it has the significance given to it or that it has any real foundation in fact. That he did sign " Charles Carroll, of CarroUton," is not to be questioned, but that this was his ordinary mode of signature hundreds of documents in the record offices of Mary land stand to prove, and it is to be doubted whether on this one occasion he would vary his usual form and sign in instalments. In 1889 the late J. H. B. Latrobe, biographer of CarroU, wrote to J. D. Warfield, the historian: I have no recollection of having heard the reason given in Appleton for the attaching the " of CarroUton " to the signature of Charles CarroU to the Declaration of Independence. No such reason was .given me by Mr. Carroll in my conversation with him during the preparation of his biography. Shortly after the close of the Revolution, Mr. Carroll spent more and more of his time at Doughore gan and towards the end of his life lived there con tinuaUy, closing up his town house, the Carroll mansion, in Annapolis. During these years he built the chapel which forms the north wing of the manor and within the chapel he was buried after his death in 1832. The chUdren of Charles Carroll, the signer, and Mary DarnaU, his wife, were two daughters and a son, Charles, the Fourth, who never was master of " the Manor" as Doughoregan is famUiarly spoken of, as he died before his father. He married, in 1800, Harriet, daughter of Chief Justice Benjamin Chew, of Pennsyl- 121 COLONIAL MANSIONS OF MARYLAND vania, who lived in the historic old colonial mansion known as Cliveden, still in possession of the famUy. Justice Chew's eldest daughter, who was admired by the unfortunate Major Ajidre, hero of perhaps the most deplorable incident of the Revolutionary War, married Gen. John Eager Howard, of Belvedere, now part of Baltimore city. Harriet Chew was a great favourite of Washington, and, when the President had his portrait painted by GUbert Stuart, often accompanied him to the sittings as Washington said her conversation " would give his face its most agreeable expression." While she was never mistress of Doughoregan her home was an even more luxurious place, though one not nearly so large, — Homewood, in the northern part of the present Balti more city. This beautiful old mansion, buUt by Charles Carroll, the signer, for his son after the latter's mar riage to the charming Miss Chew, is situated on the fair stretch of land which was donated to the trustees of Johns Hopkins University as the future site of that institution of learning. In the plans drawn up by these trustees for the new home of the university, Homewood has been made the centre of the group of proposed buildings, whose designs have all been modelled on the superb original of its classic design. It is to be known as the Administration Building and is to front on a circle of driveway which leads up from Charles Street Boule- 122 DOUGHOREGAN MANOR vard, the newest and most beautiful of Baltimore's resi dence thoroughfares. Homewood was built in 1809, and, whUe erected after the inauguration of the noisy nineteenth century, is constructed in the best tradition of that type of Georgian buUding which distinguished the middle part of the eighteenth century. It has a central buUding with wings, the front portico of the central portion being distinguished by four piUars. One of the great beauties of the house is the exquisite proportion of all of its parts and the interior is elaborately ornamented with wood- carving. In the rear of the house are the remains of an old garden. A mile to the southeast of Homewood, during its first mistress's occupancy, was Homestead, the house in which Jerome Bonaparte and his young bride, Elizabeth Patterson, hved out their year of this first notorious American experiment in international marriages. Mary Carroll, eldest daughter of Charles Carroll, the signer, and first daughter of the house to be married from Doughoregan, was wed in 1787, at the age of seventeen years, to Richard Caton, an English cotton merchant and geologist, who settled in Baltimore in 1785. Her marriage portion was the land and home stead on and around which the present-day suburb of Baltimore, CatonsvUle, grew up. She was the mother of four daughters, three of whom, as previously men tioned, were so remarkable for their beauty that they 123 COLONML MANSIONS OF MARYLAND were known as the " Three American Graces." They married Englishmen of high rank. Her portrait in the study at Doughoregan shows that she, herself, was the possessor of beauty, and tradition asserts that she was distinguished for her fine mental gifts. Catharine Carroll, the second daughter of the signer, married, in 1801, Robert Goodloe Harper, of South Carolina, from which state he had entered Congress as a representative in 1794, as a member of the Federal party. He removed to Maryland after his marriage and, in 1815, was United States senator from Maryland. His country home was Oakland, in Howard County, not far from Doughoregan. The Caton beauties, granddaughters of the signer, were the attraction at a grand ball given at Hampton, by the Ridgelys in 1809, and their social conquests were innumerable both in this country and abroad. Mary Caton became the wife of Robert Patterson, brother of Madame Jerome Bonaparte. Louisa Caton married Col. Sir Tilton Bathurst Hervey, who fought under Wellington in Spain and was his aide at Waterloo. She afterwards became the Duchess of Leeds. Elizabeth Caton became Lady Stafford. After the death of Robert Patterson in 1822, his widow with her sisters Louisa and Elizabeth was at the country-seat of the Duke of Wellington in England, where she met the Marquis of Wellesley, a widower of sixty-three. It proved to be a case of love at first sight, 124 DOUGHOREGAN MANOR and shortly after they were married in Dublin, where the Marquis was living in state as Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland. In 1826, the former Mrs. Patterson presided at a baU in Dublin, seated under a canopy of gold and scarlet. EmUy Caton, the fourth of the daughters of Mary Carroll Caton, married John MacTavish, British consul in Baltimore, and spent her life in this country. Mrs. MacTavish lived first at Brooklandwood, in the Green Spring VaUey, Baltimore County, Maryland, now the home of Isaac E. Emerson, Esq., but, later, at FoUy Quarter, the truly regal home which her grandfather buUt for her near his home in Howard County, now the home of Van Lear Black and famUy, of Howard County and Baltimore. When it was sold out of the famUy about thirty years ago, after nearly fifty years of wear and tear, FoUy Quarter brought the large amount of one hundred thousand doUars. This gives a shrewd idea of the luxury, comfort and splendour of its exterior and mterior appointment when new. The house fronts east and is built of granite blocks which average in size thirty- five inches long and nineteen inches in thickness. In the centre of the front and the rear of the house, which are almost identical in appearance, are massive porches with six solid granite columns each. These columns are six feet in circumference at the base and taper slightly as they rise. That cost was little object in building the 126 COLONIAL MANSIONS OF MARYLAND house is shown by the fact that the rain spouts which carry off the water from the metal-sheathed roof are of copper. It is said that among the appointments of the mansion when it was new was a marble bathing pool, located a little distance from the house and connected with it. by a subterranean passageway. It is not known where this pool was, if it ever existed, as there is no trace of it now. How and why Folly Quarter received its name is a question not easy to solve. Says the historian Warfield : In the surrounding country is a tradition currently believed to the effect that Charles Carroll, son of the Signer, had accumu lated a considerable sum of money from his allowances. In look ing about for a good investment his attention was called to a fine tract of land several miles west of Doughoregan Manor. He was pleased with it and purchased it. When he informed his venerable and distinguished father of the fact the latter, accord ing to the story, exclaimed: " That is folly ; we have enough land now." And so, tradition has it, the farm was known ever afterward as " Folly Quarter " or " The Folly." Mr. and Mrs. MacTavish made their home at " Folly " for many years, and after their death it passed to their son Charles Carroll MacTavish, whose home it was with his family until he disposed of the estate to Mr. Charles M. Dougherty, of Baltimore. Mr. Dougherty made the place a summer home untU he re moved to New Orleans about twenty-five years ago. 126 DOUGHOREGAN MANOR Shortly after his removal he sold it to Royal Phelps, Esq., of New York, father-in-law of the late former Govemor John Lee Carroll, of Doughoregan, great- grandson of the signer. The next owner was Gov. CarroU, from whom it passed to his son Charles CarroU, the present master of Doughoregan, and from him to its owner. Van Lear Black, Esq. After the death of Charles Carroll, the signer, in 1832, the next master of Doughoregan was Charles Carroll, born 1801, at Homewood, grandson of the signer, and son of Charles Carroll, of Homewood, and Harriet Chew, his wife. The other chUdren of Charles Carroll, of Homewood, and Harriet Chew, were: Elizabeth, who married Dr. Aaron Tucker; Mary Sophia, who married Hon. Richard Bayard; Benjamin Chew Carroll ; Harriet Julian, who married Hon. John LeCj _ of_ _Needwgqdj _ Frederick County^ Maryland ; Louisa, who married Hon. Isaac Rand Jackson. This Charles, known as " Colonel Charles " Carroll, married, in 1825, Mary Digges Lee and had issue: Charles, inheritor of Doughoregan; Mary, who married Dr. Eleazer Acosta; Louisa, who married George Cavendish Taylor, nephew of Lord Waterpark, an Irish peer; and John Lee Carroll, born 1830. Charles CarroU, son of Colonel Charles, was the sixth Charles Carroll of the line in this country. He married Miss Caroline Thompson, of Staunton, Vir ginia, daughter of Judge Lucas P. Thompson, and of a 127 COLONIAL MANSIONS OF MARYLAND distinguished hneage, one of her ancestors having been Colonel Ball, grandfather of George Washington. Having no chUdren, Mr. and Mrs. Carroll decided to live in Europe, where Mrs. CarroU became famous for her beauty and social charm. The manor was purchased by John Lee Carroll, brother of Charles. John Lee Carroll was only three years of age when his father inherited Doughoregan. He studied at Mount Saint Mary's School, Georgetown College, and Harvard Law school. In 1855 he removed to New York, where he met and married Anita Phelps, daughter of Royal Phelps, of the extensive South American importing house. In 1861, because of the feeble health of his father, he returned to Doughoregan, which was his home for the rest of his life. In 1874 his wife died. In 1875 he was nominated and elected Governor of Maryland. In the succeeding summer he was the representative of the state at the great centen nial exposition in PhUadelphia. Two years subsequent to this he married Miss Mary Carter Thompson, of Staunton, Virginia, sister of his brother Charles' wife. He died in 1905, leaving a large descent. The chUdi-en of Governor John Lee CarroU and his first wife, Anita Phelps, are: the Countess de Kergo- lay; the Baroness de La Grange; Royal Phelps Carroll, who married Miss Langdon, of New York; Helen CarroU, who married Mr. Herbert Robbins, of New York, and gave recently, in memory of her mother, St. 12S DOUGHOREGAN MANOR Anthony's chapel to St. Matthew's church, Washing ton; and Charles, the present owner of the manor, who married Miss Susanna Bancroft, granddaughter of the historian, George Bancroft. In his second marriage, Govemor CarroU had but one chUd, PhUip Acosta CarroU, bom 1879, an attorney of New York City. Of the union of Charles CarroU and Miss Bancroft there has been one son, Charles Carroll, the Eighth, born 1891. There are other branches of the Carroll famUy in Maryland of equal antiquity with that of the Doughore gan branch and of almost as great conspicuousness. A distinguished Carroll branch only distantly connected with the Doughoregan CarroUs is that of Dr. Charles CarroU, who came to this country about 1718. That he was related to Charles CarroU, the First, grandfather of the signer, is proved by the fact that both of these men used on their seals the full arms of the Ely O'CarroUs, as Mrs. Hester Dorsey Richardson has pointed out in her valuable " Side Lights on Maryland History," and by the fact that Charles CarroU, the First, made over to Dr. Charles Carroll a portion of his lands. Dr. Charles CarroU married Dorothy Blake, granddaughter of Henrietta Maria Lloyd, god daughter of Queen Henrietta Maria, of England. He was the father of Charles CarroU, barrister, a notable figure in pre-revolutionary annals in Maryland (con- 9 129 COLONIAL MANSIONS OF MARYLAND tending for fame with Charles Carroll, the signer) and buUder of the Carroll mansion in Carroll Park, one of the parks of Baltimore city. The Carroll mansion in CarroU Park, Baltimore, is distinguished for the beauty of its outlook over Winans Cove, a portion of the water-front of that city, and for the charming old grounds around it, now kept up in good fashion by the city park board. It is a substantial building to which the two wings now gracing it on either side have been added within the last decade. The house originally had one wing on the west side, which was merely a brick addition without particular grace of design. From the cellar of the house extends a sub terranean paissageway leading no one knows where, though busybodies assert that it goes to the water-front and was used for smuggling in early days, a supposition that hardly obtains credence with those who know the position and wealth of the builder of the mansion. The interior of the house has no particular detail of interest except a staircase which leads off to the left from the front door. Another Carroll family of distinction was early seated in Saint Mary's County, and the name has been associated with Susquehannah, a historic old homestead of St. Mary's County, Maryland, now destroyed. From Capt. Henry Carroll came Governor Thomas King CarroU, of Maryland, of Kingston HaU, Somerset County, Maryland. HAMPTON BALTIMORE COUNTY, MARYLAND RIDGELY T is difficiUt to deal in superla tives, but the most cautious and canny of mortals might feel no hesitancy in saying that Hamp ton, the seat of the Ridgelys (of Robert Ridgely) of Mary land, is the largest colonial mansion in Maryland; and the historian, whose delving mind cares little for the ordinary distinctions of great or small, would find in the traditions of the old home a store wherein he might leam, amongst other things, how large a part its occupants have played in the development of their state. The title " colonial " may be denied to Hampton by the purist in terms, as its foundations were not laid until 1783 — the very last minutes of the colonial era in this county — but it is so purely Georgian in design and so representative in spirit of the colonial era that the lover of things of this period will always wish to have its acquaintance. Hampton is about thirteen miles due north of Baltimore and about two miles north of Towson, Baltimore County, in which county it is, likewise, situ ated, and is the centre of a broad and fertile tract of land embracing nearly five thousand acres. The house is approached through an avenue of trees, — as are al- 131 COLONIAL MANSIONS OF MARYLAND most all of the colonial homes of Maryland and the south, generally. The grounds around the buUding are beautifully terraced and occupy much more space than is usually aUotted to the parking around a private dwelling. They contain fine old trees which shade the house at all hours of the day and make it difficult to see it entire, — except from the rear, in which direction he the famous Hampton gardens. On the exterior, the first impression that the mansion gives is that of great mass, and then one notices the de taUs — the cupola first, a very distinctive feature of the building and one found in no other homestead of the type in Maryland; and, second, the urn-shaped finials on the parapet of the central portion. The waUs are bare and the windows not especially well disposed, while the wings of the house are small and not in good proportion to the central buUding. The front and rear entrances of the mansion are great porticos with a floor above the first story elevation. Over the rear door which leads out into the garden ivy and honeysuckle have been allowed to grow in a huge mass of green with long, tender, verdant streamers. The most impressive single feature of Hampton is to be found on the interior and is the great hall which leads from front to back of the buUding. It is at least thirty feet wide and high in proportion, and the paneUed walls are hung closely with family portraits. From this great hall lead smaller ways to the wings, and the 132 CENTRAL PORTIOiN OF HA.MPTdN 1783 HAMPTON dining-room, sitting-room, reception room, and parlour open upon it. The rooms on the first floor are all panelled and the woodwork throughout the house is of sound and agreeable construction. Capt. Charles Ridgely, buUder of Hampton, was a descendant of Robert Ridgely, of Saint Inigoes, Saint Mary's County, Maryland, whose name is to be found in Maryland records preceding the year 1681. A connec tion has never been established between this famUy, the family from which spring the Ridgelys of Delaware, and the famUy of WiUiam Ridgely, of Maryland, a contemporary of the Robert Ridgely aforementioned, yet superficial evidence all points to the conclusion that there is such a connection and the physical resemblance, even, between members of different famUies is often such as to strike attention. Robert Ridgely, of St. Mary's County, had a son, Charles Ridgely, of Baltimore County, who married Deborah Dorsey. Their grandson, Capt. Charles Ridgely, whose wife was likewise a Dorsey (Rebecca Dorsey), was the buUder of Hampton. Captain Ridgely was a gaUant soldier in the Revolution and was a gay blade. His wife was a member of the young society of Methodists then barely established in this country; and it is said that whUe sober Mrs. Ridgely opened Hampton with a prayer meeting in the parlour, rollicking Captain Ridgely celebrated the same event with a card party in the attic. This marriage was not 133 COLONIAL MANSIONS OF MARYLAND fruitful and Captain Ridgely left Hampton to his nephew, Charles Ridgely Carnan, son of John Carnan and Achsah Ridgely, on condition that his legatee change the order of his name so that he would be known as Charles Carnan Ridgely instead of Charles Ridgely Carnan. Charles Carnan Ridgely, Governor of Mary land from 1815 to 1818, was thus the second master of Hampton. He married PriscUla Dorsey, of Belmont, daughter of Caleb Dorsey and Priscilla Hill Dorsey and sister of Rebecca Dorsey Ridgely, his uncle's wife. The master of Hampton to-day is Capt. John Ridgely, grandson of Governor Charles Carnan Ridgely, and son of the late Capt. Charles Ridgely and Margaretta Sophia Howard. His wife is Helen West Stuart, a writer, author of " Old Brick Churches of Maryland " and other historical works. The famUy circle of Hampton consists of Mr. and Mrs. John Ridgely, Miss Helen S. Ridgely, Messrs. David Stuart and Julian White Ridgely and Mr. and Mrs. John Ridgely, Jr. Not far from the house is the Hampton burying ground which contains the earthly part of the successive generations that have lived in the old mansion. With the exception of the Lloyd cemetery at Wye House and that of the Tilghmans at The Hermitage, in Queen Anne's County, Maryland, there is no private grave yard in Maryland so impressive in aspect or so well kept up. It has been described by Mrs. Helen West Ridgely: 134 HAMPTON In the family vault at Hampton, built of marble and brick, repose six and possibly seven generations of Ridgelys. Captain Charles Ridgely, bom in 1733, died June 28, 1790, made pro visions in his will for the building of this vault. Tradition says that his remains, with those of his father, Col. Charles Ridgely, and other members of his family, were placed here when the city of Baltimore ran its streets through the Spring Garden property, owned by the Ridgelys, and obliterated all traces of an earlier burying ground. A complete record of those buried at Hampton begins, however, with the succeeding generation, and as one looks through the iron grating of the doorway, one sees a wall of marble slabs duly inscribed with the names of the dead. This final touch, by which a charnel house was transformed into a worthy monument to her race, was given by the late Mrs. Charles Ridgely, a granddaughter of Governor Charles Ridgely, with whom the record begins. The inscriptions are : Govemor Charles Ridgely, bom Dec. 6, 1760 ; died July 17, 1829. PrisciUa, wife of Gov. Ridgely, died April 30, 1814. Charles Ridgely, Jr., eldest son of Gov. Ridgely & Priscilla, his wife, bom August 26, 1783 ; died July 19, 1819. Rebecca D. Hanson, wife of Charles W. Hanson and daughter of Govemor Ridgely, born March 5, 1786; died Sept. 1837. Chas. W. Hanson, died Dec. Sth, 1853, in the 70tb year of his age. Sophia Gough Howard, wife of James Howard & daughter of Governor Ridgely, b. July 3, 1800 ; d. April 18, 1828. Priscilla HiU White, wife of Stevenson White & daughter of Govemor Ridgely, bom March 17, 1796, died April 10, 1820. David Latimer Ridgely, 3rd son of Gov. Ridgely, b. Nov. 19th 1798 ; died 1846. Mary Louisa, widow of David L. Ridgely, born July 4th, 1808 ; d. Nov. 8, 1863. Eight children of D. L. & M. L. Ridgely. 135 COLONLU. MANSIONS OF MARYLAND John Ridgely of H., son of Gov. Ridgely, b. at Hampton Jan. 9th, 1790 ; died at H. July 17, 1867. EUza E., wife of John Ridgely of H., b. Feb. 10, 1803 ; d. Dec. 20, 1867. 3 infant children of John and EUza E. Ridgely, Mr. & Mrs. Nicholas G. Ridgely, the parents of Mrs. John Ridgely, and John Clemm, son of Daniel & Johanna Ridgely, a young cousin who died Sept. 26, 1839. Charles Ridgely of H., son of John & Eliza E. Ridgely, bom March 22, 1838, died at Rome, Italy, on Good Friday, March 29, 1872. Margaretta S. Ridgely, widow of Charles Ridgely of H., b. Sept. 24, 1824, died March 31st, 1904. Rev. Charles Ridgely Howard and John Eager Howard, brothers of Mrs. Margaretta Ridgely, her son Charles and her grandsons John Stewart and Charles, complete the number. The vault yard, inclosed by a high brick wall and entered through an iron gateway, also shelters the dead. Here in one comer is the tomb of JuUanna Howard, a sister of the late Mrs. Ridgely and a granddaughter of Govemor Ridgely. She was bom August 25, 1821 ; died May 22, 1853. A Celtic cross marks the grave of Eliza Buckler, daughter of John and Eliza Ridgely, and the body of her first husband, John Campbell White, reposes beside her. She was bom October 28, 1828 ; died March 3, 1894. John CampbeU White, departed this Ufe February 6, 1853, m the 28th year of his age. Near him is the grave of an infant son. An antique altar tomb is inscribed: To the Memory of Eliza Ridgely, wife of N. G. Ridgely and daughter of M. and E. Eichelberger, Departed this hfe the 10th of February, 1803, a few hours after the birth of an only Daughter aged 19 years and 2 months. On the opposite side of the inclosure is a modern marble cross to the memory of Howard Ridgely, the third son of Charles and Margaretta S. Ridgely, bom January 7, 1855 ; died Sep tember 28, 1900. 136 HAMPTON There are also several unmarked graves level with the ground. Periwinkle overruns the whole inclosure and, with the ancient ivy on the waUs, enables the spot to retain its beauty throughout the changing seasons of the year. A summer retreat of the Ridgelys of Hampton was for many years Spring HUl, a very quaint and beautiful httle brick homestead in Howard County, Maryland, now the home of Garnett Y. Clark, Esq., an attorney of Baltimore. The house is beautifully situated on a little hUl and contains in the interior some very pretty mantel carving. It is not large, but has the charm which comes of years sturdily maintained against the encroachments of the elements. TULIP HILL WEST RIVER, ANNE ARUNDEL COUNTY, MARYLAND GALLOWAY— MAXCEY— MARKOE— HUGHES— MURRAY —PARKER ULIP HILL is famous for its front and garden doorways, its exquisite interior decoration, and its whole grace and sym metry. It is a large house, though so well proportioned that its size does not obtrude it self upon one, and gains its name from the magnificent grove of tulip poplar trees which make up the large park through which the visitor drives to reach the mansion. These trees have been a land-mark to sailors navigating West River for a century and a half, and they tower far up into the air on the crest of the high ridge on which the homestead is situated, showing plainly against the sky. Their dark mass of green seen in silhouette from the water has a grotesque resem blance to the outline of the roof of a giant's house. The mansion consists of a central buUding with wings, and the roof of the main structure is pitched very sharply, giving an unusual emphasis to this por tion. Another unusual feature is the decorative dis position of the two great chimneys which grace the central building. Instead of being placed with their 138 TULIP HILL longest dimension parallel to the transverse of the house, as most chimneys are placed, they are set with their longest dimension parallel to the longitudinal line of the house and are cut out in the middle so as to give them a very light and airy effect. The main doorway, seen as one approaches through the grove of great tulip trees, consists of a large portico with four simple pillars. In the cap of the portico is carved a Cupid's figure represented as throwing flowers on those who enter the house. Set in the wall above is a tablet of stone carved in a floral design and this carries the eye on up to the ornamented bull's-eye window in the attic. From the rear of the house is to be obtained a wide view embracing West River and the hiUs beyond. The ground falls sharply towards the river and is carried away from the house in three long terraces. The garden is to one side and to the rear. In the rear of the house is the Tulip HUl garden doorway so widely copied. It is a simple shell portico, not intricate at all in design but beautifully ornamented with floral carving and very light and graceful in effect. Entering the house through the front doorway one finds oneself in a broad hallway which runs to the back of the house, facing a superb double arch extending across the hall. From the pomt of this arch hangs a lamp. The stairway commences at the arch. The walls 139 COLONML MANSIONS OF MARYLAND of the hallway are wainscoted and the stairs contain much beautiful carving. The newel post is very large and heavy with the banisters and rails of mahogany carried around it in a whirl. AJl of the rooms on the first floor are panelled in hard old oak and the fireplaces and mantels contain much beautiful carving. To get a good idea of the solidity of the construction of Tulip Hill one should make a trip to the ceUar, which runs completely under the house. The foundation walls are as thick as the battlements of a castle, and the chimney pUlars are at least six feet square. The beams average in measurement, fourteen inches by twenty inches by sixty feet, and show the marks of the axes which hewed them out. Here are to be found a wine vault and a servant's oven for baking bread. The slaves' dungeon is to be found in the right wing of the house. The history of Tulip Hill takes one back to the early days of the Friends in Maryland. Owing to the liberality of the proprietary in regard to religious be lief, the province soon became a haven for those op pressed for their conscience's sake, among whom were the Friends. They came to the province in great num bers in the seventeenth century and formed two great colonies : one in Talbot County on the eastern shore of Chesapeake Bay; the other at West River where Tulip HUl is situated. The remains of the old Quaker meet- 140 GARDEN ENTRANCE TO TULIP HILL TULIP HILL ing-house of West River are to be found not a quarter of a mUe from the mansion. Samuel Galloway, the buUder of Tulip HiU, was a Friend, as were all of his neighbours, — those great families which sent out sons to many states — ^the Chews, the Murrays, the Mercers, the Chestons, and the Richardsons. The Galloways in Maryland descend from two brothers, sons of Richard Galloway, of London, Eng land. Samuel, the second brother, married, first, Sarah, by whom he had four chUdren, one of whom, Sarah (GaUoway), married March 9, 1720, Henry Hill; and another, Hannah, married a Ford. By his second wife, Anne Pardoe, who died April, 1723, he had a numerous posterity. Anne Pardoe GaUoway, we are told, was an accept able minister in the Society of Friends. John GaUoway, son of Samuel, married Mary, daughter of Samuel and Mary Thomas, and had three chUdren: Samuel; Mary, who married June 13, 1747, Benjamin Chew, afterwards Chief Justice of the Su preme Court of Pennsylvania, and who buUt that beauti ful old mansion in Germantown, PhUadelphia, known as Cliveden ; and Joseph, who married Ann Cookson. Samuel, son of John, married Anne Chew, sister of that Benjamin Chew whom his sister married, and in 1745, three years after his marriage, buUt Tulip Hill to celebrate, tradition says, the birth of his first infant, 141 COLONIAL MANSIONS OF MARYLAND Mary, who married Thomas Ringgold, of Chestertown, Maryland. Other chUdren of Samuel Galloway and Anne Chew, his wife, were: Ajine, who married James Cheston; Benjamin, who married Henrietta, daughter of Benja min and Sarah Chew, of Cecil County, Maryland; and John, inheritor of Tulip Hill, who married Sarah Chew, sister of his brother's wife. John Galloway was a witness to the burning of the brig Peggy Stewart, in the harbour of Annapolis in 1774. The vessel was loaded with tea and was destroyed by the Sons of Liberty after the passage of the Second Stamp Act. Galloway wrote a letter to his father at Tulip Hill, in which he described the occurrence: The committee then ordered the tea from on board the brig, but some of the mob called out tbat it should also share the same fate. The committee then with the consent of Mr. Dick declared the vessel and tea, together, should be bumt. . . . And then Mr. Stewart went on board of his vessel and set fire with his own hands and she was burnin.o- when I left. The sons of Samuel Galloway were educated in England. Samuel, the eldest son, died without issue. John, whose letter about the Peggy Stewart we have read, had an only daughter, Mary. He died in 1810 and was buried in the Friends' graveyard near his home. Mary Galloway married Virgil Maxcey and had two daughters: Mary, who married Francis Markoe; and 142 TULIP HILL Sarah, who married Col. George W. Hughes. At Mrs. Hughes' death, Tulip HUl was sold to Mr. Henry M. Murray, of Ivy Neck, West River, who, not long before his recent death, disposed of it to its present owner, Mr. Dupont Parker, a Marylander by birth and now a resident in Nevada, where he is prominently interested in raUroad development. The present occupant uses the old home as a summer place. His famUj?^ consists of his wife and two daughters. CEDAR PARK WEST RIVER, ANNE ARUNDEL COUNTY, MARYLAND GALLOWAY— SPRIGG— MERCER— MURRAY OT far from Tulip HUl, the mag nificent old Galloway mansion at West River, Anne Arundel County, Maryland, is Cedar Park, another Galloway memorial and probably the oldest large dwelling-house in Maryland. It was built between 1690 and 1700 by Richard GaUoway, the first of his name in the New World, and is markedly difi'erent in appearance from the other colonial mansions ia Maryland. Cedar Park is of the style of an old English farm house of the period of Queen Anne. It consists of a simple, single building with great chimneys at either end, and a long, low, sloping roof, which is carried nearly to the ground and whose eaves project far from the walls. An addition at the back of the house, wherein is the present-day living room, is of comparatively modern construction, having been erected in the last century. A simple little porch marks the front door and, for the rest, the house with its deep-inset windows and great roof nearly touching the ground has a singularly self- contained and immobile expression, like a terrapin with its head in its shell. The outline of the chimneys is 144 CEDAR PARK very distinctive and these are, no doubt, the most char acteristic features of the quaint homestead. The interior of Cedar Park is cheery, cool and airy, though the sun struggling through the little windows in the immensely thick walls has difficulty in reaching aU of the corners of the rooms. The ceilings are surpris ingly high and the walls are without ornament. The whole interior of the house is plain but the solid mahog any staircase, which runs from the back of the hall lead ing to the front door, attracts attention immediately. The wood of the stair is as black as old Spanish leather now and every part of it — steps, railing, banisters, and all — is made of the costly material of which our great grandfathers were so fond. The grounds of Cedar Park comprise about four hundred acres of park and farming land, though the original estate was larger. In the rear of the house is a level green used as a bowling green in the old days. To the right of this is a garden maintained very beauti fully by the present-day occupants of the old home. From the bowling green and from the garden may be obtained very enchanting outlooks over a leafy de scent to the distance where are the waters of one of the arms of West River. Great trees, many decades old, shade the house and the grounds around, and in the floral border surrounding the old bowling green are many rare shrubs whose names are not even known to the majority of people of the present day. 10 146 COLONIAL MANSIONS OF MARYLAND Cedar Park was pm'chased in 1893 by Dr. James M. Murray and is now the home of his three daughters, the Misses Alice Maynadier, Margaret Cheston, and Elizabeth Murray. Before this it had belonged to the Mercers, and the Spriggs, from whom we go back to the Galloways, the famUy of the buUder. Richard GaUoway, buUder of Cedar Park, became a tenant on the farm of which it is a part some time before 1689, the year in which his marriage was cele brated to Elizabeth Lawrence, daughter of Benjamin Lawrence, of Marlborough, WUtshire, England; and in 1697 he purchased the property from his wife's father, who held the patent to it. There seems to have been no chUdren to this marriage, but by a second marriage, he had sons, Samuel and Richard, from the first of whom came the line of which was the buUder of Tulip Hill. He died August 8, 1736. Richard Galloway, the second, married Sophia Richardson, of West River, and died in 1740, leaving a daughter, Elizabeth, who married Thomas Sprigg, of Prince George's County. Elizabeth GaUoway was a Quaker, as were all of her famUy, and this gay Sprigg, her suitor, was not ! She refused consistently to marry him until he became a Friend. They had a great quarrel and her lover rode away, vowing that he would never come to see her again. The next month he was at the door of Cedar Park, in the straitest of Friends' garb and with the properest of Friends' dialect. 146 CEDAR PARK " How is thee? " he asked soberly. " Is thee a Friend? " inquired the fail' Elizabeth. The affirmative answer was all that was needed to signalize the plighting of their troth and they were shortly married. Thomas Sprigg and Elizabeth GaUoway had three sons, only one of whom hved to maturity. This son, Richard Sprigg, married Margaret Caile, of Dorchester County, Maryland, in 1765, and had a daughter, Sophia, born AprU 23, 1766, at Cedar Park, married Col. John F. Mercer, in 1785, and inherited the homestead. Another daughter married Dr. James Steuart, of Annapolis. Mrs. Sophia Galloway and her daughter, Mrs. Sprigg, lived for many years as widows at Cedar Park. The Galloway famUy of Maryland divided into many branches, every one of which terminated in female descendants, and the name is extinct. RATCLIFFE MANOR NEAR EASTON, TALBOT COUNTY, MARYLAND HOLLYDAY— GIBSON— HATHAWAY SENRY HOLLYDAY, the son of Col. James Hollyday, buUder of Readbourne, built Ratcliff'e Manor for his bride, Anna Maria Robins, whom he married in 1749. It is situated in Talbot County, on the banks of the beautiful Tred Avon River, and is not far from the busy little Eastern Shore metropolis of Easton. The site of Ratcliff'e Manor is such that it has a charming outlook. One sees the windings of the Tred Avon and the fine farms of this rolling, fertUe country. To approach the house one drives through a long avenue of trees set in rows about one hundred feet apart, and this avenue is bounded by white bar fences of oldtime appearance. The home grounds are encircled by a fence of this same fashion and in back of the house the land is terraced, falling away to the river in graceful green sweeps. Here, too, are shrubs and flowers, while giant trees give a grateful shade from summer's sun. In exterior view, Ratcliff'e Manor has a great atmos phere of comfort and content. It is not large but very well proportioned. In design it follows the Maryland convention, consisting of a central building with a wing, 148 RATCLIFFE MANOR and the middle of the central portion is distinguished by a simple and beautiful portico and doorway. In the interior of the house, one is again impressed with an air of comfort and good taste. The haU is small and does not continue to the back of the house. To the right of the door as you enter is the stairs. In the back of the house are two rooms, — a dining and a living room, — the latter of which opens upon the ter raced garden, its avenue of ingress and egress being a doorway of exactly simUar design to that in front of the house. To the left of the front door as you enter, is a little office, or study, wherein the master of the planta tion in the old days interviewed his overseer and attended to the many smaU details of management of the place. The rooms downstairs are panelled in hardwood and the fireplaces are very prettily carved. In the living room is a very beautiful old shell cupboard and an alcove window of rare charm. The wing of the house contains the kitchen, the servants' rooms, and the pantry. Ratcliffe Manor, the house, takes its name from Ratcliffe Manor, a survey made in the early days of the Maryland province and part of which was purchased with other lands by Henry Hollyday, the buUder, when he was making a home for himself. In his will of 1789, this Henry Hollyday leaves to his wife (Anna Maria Robins) during her life "the plantation and lands where I now live and all my lands adjoining or con- 149 RATCLIFFE MANOR United States Senator Charles Hooper Gibson. From her it was purchased, in 1903, by its present occupant, A. A. Hathaway, formerly of Milwaukee, Wis.; Mr. Hathaway's famUy consists of his wife, who was a Miss Finney, of MUwaukee, and five children, — three sons and two daughters. Ratcliffe Manor has no ghosts and no stories of violent death or suicide. It speaks simply of gentility and good living. WYE HOUSE TALBOT COUNTY, MARYLAND LLOYD name in Maryland history is evocative of richer historic memories than that of Lloyd. Seven generations of this iUus trious family have lived at Wye House in Talbot County, begin ning with Edward Lloyd, the First, who established himself there in 1668. Since that time the estate has been handed down from one generation of Edward Lloyd to another. The first two Edwards returned to England and died there, but in the old family burying ground at Wye, which stands back of the manor-house, there lie four succeeding generations of the name. Edward Lloyd the First and his brother Cornelius settled in Virginia about 1635, in which year each received from Capt. John West grants of land on the Elizabeth River. Edward Lloyd was a justice and lawyer at Norfolk in 1645, and a member of the House of Burgesses from 1644 untU 1649, in which latter year he joined the Puritan Colony in Maryland. On the 20th of April, 1650, the district embracing Providence was erected into a county and given the name of Anne Arundel, and Edward Lloyd was made commander of this county 162 WYE HOUSE by Governor Stone. On the organization of Talbot County in the year 1660, having large landed estates on the Eastern Shore, he removed to that county and built his residence on the Wye River, calling it Wye House. In the year 1660 Csecilius Calvert, second Lord Baltimore, commissioned Col. Edward Lloyd— among others — ^to be Deputy Governor of Maryland in the event of the death of Governor Philip Calvert. Phile mon Lloyd dying before his father, the estate passed to his son Edward Lloyd, the Second, grandson of the first master of Wye. The original Wye House was burned by the British in 1776, and was looted of its fine paintings and rich plate and other treasures. All the old records of the Lloyd family up to that time were then destroyed. After the war several pieces of plate bearing the family arms were returned by the crown. Of the original manor house only a fragment re mains, and that is now used as an outbuUding. The present Wye House was built just before the end of the Revolutionary War by Edward Lloyd, the Fourth, and remains intact to-day just as constructed more than a century and a quarter ago. The main building is of two lofty stories, containing the hall, drawing-room, parlour, dining-room and chambers, all of noble proportions, and connects by 153 COLONML MANSIONS OF MARYLAND corridors with one-story wings, in which are the library on one side and domestic offices on the other, presenting a pleasing fa9ade of two hundred feet, commanding a superb view of the Wye River and the bay. Back of the manor-house is an old garden with many winding walks bounded by box-wood hedges. To one side of the garden is a beautiful stretch of lawn bounded on each side by hedges, at the ends of which is an imposing old buUding, the conservatory — a relic of colonial days. To the left of the structure is an arch of brick flanked on each side by a wall fast crumb ling away. No one seems to know how old this waU is, but it was probably buUt when the original house was constructed. An arch marks the entrance to the burying ground at Wye. On each side of the walk stands a gigantic tree — mute sentinels guarding those who are slumbering in peace in the graveyard, which contains the remains of many illustrious members of the Lloyd famUy. A number of the gravestones are crumbling, while others have been repaired, and they are interesting not only on account of their great age, but for their quaint inscriptions. One of the oldest and most interesting in the grave yard is that over the last resting-place of the famous Henrietta Maria Lloyd, wife of Philemon, son of Edward Lloyd, the First. The inscription on this stone reads : 154 WYE HOUSE Henrietta Maria Lloyd, Shee who now takes her Rest within this Tomb Had Rachel's Face and Leah's fruitful womb, Abigail's Wisdom, Lydia's faithful heart. With Martha's care and Mary's better Part. Who died the 21st day of May (Anno) Dom. 1697, aged 50 years, months, 23 days. To whose Memory Richard Bennett dedicates this Tomb. Of this Henrietta Maria Lloyd it has been said " the name of this beautiful, gracious lady stands for what ever is gentle in birth and in breeding, for whatsoever is exceUent in character and conduct, for whatsoever is of good report of the honorable men and women of old Maryland." She was of foreign birth, and tradition has it that Queen Henrietta Maria of England stood sponsor for her when she was christened. From the Inventory and Accounts, Liber 15, page 198, Prerogative Court Records of Maryland, Novem ber 2, 1697, we quote: " An inventory of all and singular the goods and chattels and credits of Madam Henrietta Maria Lloyd, of Talbot County, in the Province of Maryland, lately deceased." Among these goods and chattels and credits may be mentioned Madam Lloyd's clothes, which are inven toried as follows : 1 satin gown and petticoat, 1 silk gown and petticoat, 1 old silk gown and coat, 1 mouming gown and quilted petticoat, 1 silk mantel, 2 silk petticoats and scarf, a good warm gown, 2 smock coats and 2 waistcoats, a parcel of laces, a pair of 155 COLONIAL MANSIONS OF MARYLAND bodices, a gauze coat, 1 flowered satin party coat, 4 party coats, 4 pairs of shoes and 1 pair of galoches, silk and worsted stock ings, 2 head dresses, a box of handkerchiefs, 3 pictures, a parcel of neck lace, 1 diamond ring, 1 mouming ring, 4 stone rings, 3 rings and a pair of earrings, 2 pictures, a little box of cash, a flowered " satting " moming gowne, a long scarfe lyned with velvet, a parcel of silver lace and footings, 2 pairs stays, 1 black scarfe, 1 parcel of beads and silver cross and snufF-box, 1 gowne and party coats, 1 silk petticoat with silver fringe, 1 silk moum ing gowne, 1 riding gowne, 1 sable tippet and strings, 2 short aprons, girdle and mask, etc. In her will Madam Lloyd disposed of an unusuaUy large estate, and it is interesting to note among her effects " the great wrought sUver dish " which she left to her three daughters. Undoubtedly one of the prettiest romances asso ciated with Wye House is that of the two brothers, Edward Lloyd, the Second, and Philemon, who were rivals for the beautiful Sarah Covington, a winsome Quaker maiden. According to the tale, Sarah Coving ton, mounted on a piUion behind her father, rode into Tred Haven to attend that notable yearly meeting to which came WUliam Penn, Lord and Lady Baltimore, and others of note. The two dashing cavaliers from Wye House, seeing the Quaker maiden from Somerset for the first time, fell desperately in love with her. At the close of the meeting, without acquainting each other of their intentions, the young cavaliers rode hard and fast by different routes into the neighbouring county, meeting at the fair Quaker's gate. Guessing 156 WYE HOUSE each other's secret, they agreed that he who had seen her first should first have the privilege of seeking to win her. PhUemon, it appears, had seen her upon first entering the meeting-house, but Edward had seen her on the way to the meeting-house, and of him the Quaker maid's father had inquired the road. Whereupon Philemon mounted his horse and rode away, while Edward entered the Covington home and in due course married the fair Sarah. Sarah Covington, after the death of Edward Lloyd, married Col. James Hollyday, and was first mistress of the mansion known as Readbourne in Queen Anne County. PhUemon Lloyd was Deputy Secretary of the province in the year 1709. He was also a member of the Council and was a man of great prominence and influence in his day. Each Edward Lloyd, seven of whom have been masters of Wye House, in succeeding to the great ancestral estates of Wye, fell heir to offices of public trust and honor, and we find in this distinguished family three governors, councillors, burgesses, members of Assembly, presidential electors, captains and colonels in colonial and revolutionary times. Edward Lloyd, the Fourth, was a conspicuous patriot through the entire revolutionary period. He was a member of the Provincial Conventions in 1775 and 1776. He was chosen by the convention of 1775 a member of the commission of safety of the Eastern 157 COLONML MANSIONS OF MARYLAND Shore. In 1780, he was a delegate to the lower house of Assembly, and in 1781-1786 and 1791 was elected to the State Senate. In 1783-1784, he was delegate from Maryland to the Continental Congress, and in 1788 was a member of the State Convention to ratify the Federal Constitution. His son Edward was a member of Congress from 1806 to 1809, in which latter year he became Governor of Maryland. He was also a presidential elector in 1812, and cast his vote for Madison. From 1816 to 1826, in which year he resigned, he served in the United States Senate. His successors have continued to hve the life of wealthy country gentlemen, but have ever responded to the call for pubhc service, in the discharge of which they have reflected credit upon their fanuly name, and upon the State of Maryland. With Wye House is connected the name of that strange historic character, Fred Douglass. This mulatto boy, the iUegitimate son of a white man of con siderable learning and a coloured woman who was owned by a saUing master in the employ of Governor Lloyd, was born at St. Michael's. UntU he was eight years of age this Fred Douglass was much at Wye, and played not only with the little pickaninnies there, but frequently with the governor's son, Daniel. When about nine years of age, the boy, who had accompanied his master on a trip to Baltimore, ran away and was lost sight of for years, until he turned up 158 WYE HOUSE in the person of Fred Douglass, a weU-educated and traveUed man of the world. He was said to have been the first coloured man who was ever dined by Queen Victoria, an honour which was later accorded to Booker T. Washington. He was also entertained at the White House by President Cleveland, although in so doing the President was severely censured. Douglass was at one time Minister to Hayti, and later became Marshal of the District of Columbia. About 1881, the old man was moved to visit the scenes of his chUdhood. In company with several custom oflScers from Baltimore, he one day journeyed to Wye, and in the absence of Col. Edward Lloyd was shown over the estate by the colonel's son Howard. Although he was but a chUd when he had last visited Wye, he recaUed by name many of the points, creeks, bayous, which had even then been forgotten by the boatmen around St. Michaels. It is said that the venerable old negro, apparently oblivious of his companions, fell to musing in a negro dialect: "Dar," he said, "is war me and Mars Dan useter trap rabbits." Some years later Mr. Howard Lloyd, riding to Philadelphia, noticed the aged figure of Fred Douglass in the fore part of the car. Before reaching his destina tion, Mr. Lloyd went forward to speak to him. At first Douglass seemed not to recognize Mr. Lloyd and greeted him with a cold stare. 159 COLONIAL MANSIONS OF MARYLAND " I don't believe you recognize me. Marshal." The marshal paused, looked at him keerUy, then jumping to his feet, hat in hand, he exclaimed, " Yes, I do; it is Mr. Howard Lloyd." Douglass begged to be allowed to hold the watch of the former governor which the great-grandson wore at the time of the meeting. Speaking of this distinguished son of Maryland, Douglass said: " How well I remem ber him, stately old gentleman, moving about the farm in that quiet, dignified way of his, with his high hat and cane. I remember when the govemor imported a buU of special breed and went out one day to inspect the animal. As he moved across the pasture, the bull glared at him with lowered head, but the governor, not scenting trouble, went on. Presently, with a roar, the animal made for the old gentleman. That," said Douglass, " was the only time I ever saw the governor act in an undignified manner, his hat went one way, his cane another, whUe the governor made for the fence," Letters found in possession of John Brown impli cated Douglass to a certain extent. Governor Wise of Virginia made a requisition on President Buchanan for the person of " Frederick Douglass, a negro man, supposed now to be in Michigan, charged with murder, robbery and inciting servile insurrection in the State of Virginia." Douglass went to Canada and then to England, and upon his return to America the matter had been lost sight of. READBOURNE QUEEN ANNE'S COUNTY, MARYLAND HOLLYDAY— PERRY I* N ascending the Chester River, which forms the dividing line be tween Kent and Queen Anne's Counties on Maryland's famous Eastern Shore, one passes through a section not only of great fertUity, and compeUing natural beauty, but of rich historic memories. There is something in the very atmosphere that makes one sensible of the fact that he breathes an air laden with the fra grance of a bygone age before he has seen tangible earnest of the fact. Long before reaching Indian Town — ^with its frequent discovery of arrow heads, tomahawks, bits of pottery in a more or less excellent state of preservation, and the numerous ridges where once stood the wigwams of proud Indian chieftains — one's thoughts stray back to those stirring days of fierce struggle between the all-conquering white man and the savage aborigine; to a later period when stately man sions supplanted rude log-cabins, and the crude struggle for mere subsistence gave way to a life of luxury and ease; and when the " call to arms," which to preceding generations had been the signal to fight for one's hearth and home, for the preservation of life, now meant no 11 161 COLONML MANSIONS OF MARYLAND more than to trip it gracefully, " on light, fantastic toe," across the gleaming baU-room floor with " mUady," to the stately measures of the minuet. Readbourne is on the Queen Anne's side of the Chester River and takes its name from George Read, the original owner, who received his grant hi 1659. The exact size of the plantation is unknown but is supposed to have been in the neighbourhood of two thousand acres, and included several of the farms lying on either side of the river. In 1733, James Hollyday with his wife, Sarah Covington Lloyd (widow of Edward Lloyd of Wye House, and formerly the famous beauty, Sarah Covington) came to this estate from Talbot County, and here built the beautiful homestead which is the subject of this chapter. The main part of the house is of Enghsh brick, and Hollyday, hunself, is said to have gone to Eng land to purchase the materials whUe his fair partner remained at home to superintend the buUding, which she had planned with the aid of the then Lord Balti more, her husband's intimate friend. At the death of his father, James, the eldest son, a colonial lawyer and statesman of great eminence, inherited the home, but he died a bachelor and Readbourne went to his nephew, James, son of Henry Hollyday, at Ratcliffe, and Anna Maria Robins. This James married Susanna TUgh man, and the homestead passed in a direct hne through 162 READBOURNE their descendants to the late Richard Hollyday, the last of the famUy to live there. The present owner is Mr. John Perry, and Readbourne is now occupied by the Perrys as their summer home. The original building was colonial in design and finish, with large wainscoted halls and rooms. There have been various additions and alterations, but the main part has been substantially unchanged by the successive generations which have called it home. One of the chief beauties of the house is a gracefuUy wind ing stairway on which, no doubt, many a coquettish damosel lingered to waft a coveted kiss from her delicate finger-tips to some amorous swain below. There are about the place the foundations of many small buUdings, probably kitchen, dairy, etc., which were connected with the main building. One of these ruins is known as the " Old Store " and, in all likelUiood, was a storehouse for supphes ordered from England which, owing to infrequent opportunity, had to be imported in large quantities. The garden, like many another of its kind, is terraced down to the river. There are the re mains of an old wall of English brick which enclosed the river-side lawn. The famUy graveyard, as was the custom at that time, is m full sight of the house, where the quick might be ever conscious of the presence of the dead. This proximity of graveyard to dwelling house is a custom 163 COLONLAX MANSIONS OF MARYLAND diflScult to understand at this late date, but it was, none the less, a custom almost universally observed. The grave of the first Hollyday of Readbourne is marked with a large flat stone engraved with the famUy coat of arms and the following elaborate inscription: Here Ues the body of Colonel James Hollyday, who departed this life, on the eighth day of October, 1747, aged 52 years. " He was for many years one of His Lordship's Council, and in pubUc and private life always supported the character of a worthy gentleman and a good Christian." Readbourne was made famous by the lavish hospi tality of its fair first mistress, and was the rendezvous for belles and beaux of the surrounding country. Judg ing from her portrait — now in the possession of Col. Henry Hollyday, Jr., of St. Aubin near Easton, Tal bot County, Maryland — she was a woman of rare beauty, and one can readUy credit the many tales that StiU obtain of her charm and fascinating personality. In her will, probated in 1775, she disposed with great scrupulousness of a large estate, and the docu ment contains frequent references to that antique in stitution, " a mourning ring." " To my daughters-in-law, Anne Lloyd and Anna Maria Hollyday, to each of them, a Mouming Ring. 164 READBOURNE " I give to my son-in-law, WiUiam: Anderson, a Mouming Ring. " For as much as my dear children Edward Lloyd, Richard Lloyd and Rebecca Anderson are settled in the world in good circumstances that it can not be thought that they stand in need of any assistance from me, I give to each of my said children a Mouming Ring. . . . " This wUl is one of the records of Queen Anne's County, Maryland. BELMONT HOWARD COUNTY. MARYLAND DORSEY— HANSON ELMONT, the ancient stronghold of the Dorseys and Hansons, situ ated on a high hUl coinmanding a view of twenty miles of open country on three sides, is about ten mUes west of Baltimore as the crow flies, in the highlands of the Patapsco River, an exceedingly beautiful estuary of Chesapeake Bay, whose deep-valleyed, winding course was the path of many an early settler in Maryland to the back reaches of the province. Indeed, Behnont was buUt when the tide of settlement was stUl flowing from the water-crevices of Maryland to the hUls in the west, and when hostUe Indians were still to be encountered. Measured by the standards of the day in which it was erected, Belmont lies a day's journey by horseback north of Annapolis on the Elk Ridge post-road, and about half a day's journey to the east of that hustling, growing, shipping and fishing centre, " Baltemore Towne." Annapolis was just entering upon that period of commercial and social splendour which was to make it the " Athens of America," as its pre-revolutionary visitors affectionately dubbed it. We, through the eyes of history, may look back and see, about the year 1730, one of those peculiar littie 166 BELMONT surveying parties which went out from Annapohs re peatedly about this period in the history of Maryland to locate desirable stretches of land in the back country of the state not yet covered by patents, or otherwise encumbered. There is little to compare them to now adays, except gold-seeking parties, only the former prospected for humble earth instead of regal metal; a difference in chemistry, that's aU. This especial party was in charge of a certain Mordecai Moore, a surveyor of good reputation, and was to head north beyond Elk Ridge to the untouched parts of wUd Baltimore County, now one of the most industrious farming sections of Maryland. The configuration of the land in Maryland just north of Annapolis is rather peculiar and is historicaUy of some little interest. For about twenty mUes due north of the little capital it continues in a sort of spiny ridge even to-day thickly wooded, and then turns sharply (about where is the present-day thriving city of Laurel) to the east, to the vaUey of the Patapsco, the two sides of this angle being about equal in length. Because of the greater height of this land above its surroundings, it became a favourite place for home sites with the early settlers. From the abundance of a certain species of game to be found in its woods it gained the name of " Elk Ridge," so that eventually the little city which grew up at its Patapsco River terminus was known as " Elk Ridge Landing." 167 COLONLy. MANSIONS OF MARYLAND There are few records of Mordecai Moore, surveyor, and he did not make a lasting imprint in the life of the colony. Yet he founded well for others to buUd upon. Our little surveying party under his direction was en camped one autumn moming on the heights above the Patapsco River when its leader arose early, before any one else was astir. The mists were rising from the river, and the land sloped away from his feet to a generous horizon on three sides, whUe behind was a little hUl which would protect one from the northwest winds. It was an ideal site for a home, and Mordecai Moore was not slow to realize this fact. " Here wiU I buUd me a house," he said to his soul; and, after he had wakened his companions and the sun had climbed up into the sky, he set himself to survey a tract of land which included more than ten thousand acres centring at the point whereon he had his camp. This tract he named in his patent papers, approved, in due course, by the pro- prietarj^ " Moore's morning choice." Here, not many years later, Belmont was erected, on the site of Moore's morning camp. We do not find that our early morning surveyor long held on to the tract of land which his enterprise had gotten him. About the year 1735 he sold it to rich Caleb Dorsey, of Annapolis, by whom it was given to his son, Caleb, the large-hearted iron-maker of Maryland annals, who, in 1738, built thereon the beautiful home to which he took his young bride, PriscUla HUl, of West River. 168 BELMONT Over the doorway of Belmont to-day we may see a wooden tablet set in the stone bearing the initials, quaintly carved, " C. P. D." (which stand for " Caleb " and "PrisciUa" (HUl) "Dorsey") and "1738," the date of the erection of the house. This marriage of Caleb Dorsey's had a romantic basis. Like most men, young and old, of his day, Caleb was an ardent fox-hunter, and in this but followed his father who, at Hockley-in-the-Hole, often haUooed on the hounds. The foxes of that day were all red foxes, the grey variety not being abundant at any time in Maryland. One winter a grey fox appeared on Elk Ridge, having come from Canada, maybe. He received a greeting from the hard-living, open-air people of the neighbourhood, which would have satisfied the most captious animal, and was acclaimed the prize of the country-side. Strong men wrought through long days to kUl him, and it became a point of honor with the people of the neighbourhood to see who should have the coveted trophy of his brush. One day young Caleb Dorsey was out with his hounds, when he started this famous grey fox. The chase, though it had a happy conclusion from young Caleb's standpoint — ^being successful in its object — led him from early morning till late afternoon far down in a distant southerly part of the state of which he knew little. The marks of land around him he did not know, the traUs were not famUiar to him, and he was about to 168 COLONL^ MANSIONS OF MARYLAND make up his mind to a night in the woods, when down a little lane rode a beautiful young lady. She was about to ride by when she spied the grey fox brush on his saddle. " How may I get to ' Hockley ' above Annapolis? " asked the youth. " I don't know," replied the maid (so the story runs), " but if you keep down this lane for half a nule and turn to the left you wUl come to a house where they may direct you." This was her own father's home and she knew, the story goes, that this fiery old gentleman would never let the boy go home that night untU he had heard the whole story of the destmction of the fox. So it turned out. Old Mr. HUl no sooner saw the young man with the grey-fox taU than he immediately wished to hear all of the circumstances of the hunt. " Go home to-night? Why no; impossible! It is too far; the traU is choked up. I would not think of letting you go home to-night! ! ! Boys " (turning to the house servants), "take this gentleman's horse and hounds to the stables. Do you see that brush he has? " To tell the truth, so our chronicles run, young Dor sey was not unwUling to stay, and wished to continue his acquaintance with the fair lady of the lane. The even ing was begun with tales of fox-hunting, and after this topic had been exhausted the old gentleman put a handkerchief over his face and went to sleep; when the 170 BELMONT latest gossip of Annapolis, the possibUity of a theatre being opened in that metropolis, the routs, and the newest fashions, and such other subjects had the floor. Caleb did not go home the next day, or the next, though he did finally leave after he had told that fox tale untU even the old gentleman would not listen to it. Gossip began to say that he found a great many foxes in the neighbourhood of West River to hunt. " No," replied wise ones, "he is not hunting foxes there; he is hunting dear ! " As we know, he was successful in the hunt. He secured " Moore's morning choice " from his father, buUt Belmont, took up his life there with the fair PrisciUa, and became that solid man of affairs which he has been written in Maryland's history. Caleb Dorsey inherited a large fortune from his father, but it was very greatly increased through his development of the iron ore resources in the neighbour hood of Belmont. With his brother, Edward, he buUt a foundry at Avalon, on the Patapsco, near his house, and the ruins of this foundry may still be seen at the little post-ofl&ce station there which has taken its name from the mill. Farther south he buUt a second and larger foundry, which he called Hockley in honour of his boyhood home, and a third nearer Belmont. The Patapsco River, upon which each of these mills depended for shipping its product, was more navigable in that day than it is now. The cutting of the forests, for one thing, has allowed the river to fill up so that, 171 COLONL^ MANSIONS OF MARYLAND where a hundred years ago it supported a full-rigged schooner, it is to-day but a burbling shallows. Ships could then come up to the foot of the hiU on whieh Belmont is situated, and here grew up the thriving little seaport town of Elkridge Landing. It is a strange story, this of the growth and faU of Elkridge Landing. There are stUl people in Elkridge Landing who can remember when ships could come up the river to its wharves, and when the river had an open channel ten feet deep from there to the bay. It was created a port of entry of the province, and not only carried away Caleb's iron manufactures, but tobacco in great quantities. The tobacco was rolled in casks by long strings of slaves down the old " Rolling Road," still in use from the northern part of the state. Next to Annapolis, it was one of the most important shippiag points in the colony. With the filling up of the river, however, its glory departed and to-day it is a dreaming country vUlage with high-pitched, old-time roofs, great chimneys that know now only a thin wisp of smoke, and houses with traditions of visits of Washington and Lafayette, with no hint of ships or things that "go down to the sea." A delightful company fiUed old Belmont when it was young, and in those exciting times prior to the outbreak of the Revolution, many a stormy gathering was sheltered within its walls. The Dorseys were strong in the colonial cause, and many of the cannon used by 172 BELMONT American troops against the British were cast at Caleb Dorsey's iron-works. Washington was a guest not in frequently at Belmont, and it is probable that the sage Benjamin Franklin was also, as we know that he visited Elkridge Landing. The chUdren of Caleb and PriscUla HUl Dorsey included three sons (Edward, Henry Hill and Samuel) and six daughters (Mary, MUcah, Rebecca, PriscUla, Peggy HiU and Elinor). Edward married his cousin, Ehzabeth Dorsey, daughter of Col. John Dorsey and Mary Hammond, his wife, and was the inheritor of Belmont. Henry HUl married Eliza Goodwin; Samuel married Margaret Sprigg (in this line of descent is Mrs. Handy, of Richmond) ; Mary married Dr. Michael Pue (a descendant is W. Ventress Pue, of Texas) ; MUcah married WUliam Goodwin; Rebecca married Captain Charles Ridgely, of Hampton; PrisciUa married Charles Carnan Ridgely; Peggy HiU married WiUiam Buchanan; and Elinor died unmarried. Edward Dorsey, next owner of Belmont, was popu larly known as " Iron-head Ned." A strong-fisted, big- hearted man, he ran his father's mUls in partnership with his brother Samuel. He had one son and three daughters. Hammond Dorsey married Elizabeth Pickering, of Massachusetts, and buUt a fine brick homestead, stUl to be seen, near the post-office of Relay. Mary married Daniel Murray, of Annapolis, whose sister, Annie Murray, became the wife of Gen. John 173 COLONIAL MANSIONS OF MARYLAND Mason, of Virginia. Caroline married Johnston Donaldson; and Priscilla, who inherited Behnont, married Alexander Contee Hanson, whose descendants hold the old homestead. The marriage of Priscilla Dorsey and Alexander Contee Hanson was an elopement. The girl was living with guardians in Baltimore, who would not give their consent to the match. With the temper inherited from her father aroused, she went to Annapolis with the man she loved and was there married. The elopement was not without its excitement, as the carriage in which the pair was making the trip broke a wheel pin. Had it not been for the extraordinary foresight of the pro spective groom who had provided for just such a con tingency, the marriage would inevitably have been postponed. The chUdren of Priscilla Dorsey and Alexander Contee Hanson were many, but only one lived to maturity, Charles Grosvenor Hanson, named for his paternal uncle, Charles Grosvenor, member of Con gi-ess from New York. He married Annie Maria Worthington, and had chUdren: John Worthington Hanson, Murray Hanson, Grosvenor Hanson, Nannie Hanson, and Florence Hanson. These five constitute the present-day circle of this beautiful old home. Belmont, like other colonial Maryland mansions, con sists of a central building with wings. The centre build ing is traversed by a hallway running from front to 174 BELMONT back, and the wings are connected with the main body of the house. The downstairs rooms and the haU are beautifuUy paneUed with oak from floor to ceUing, and so hard is this wood to-day that it resists all but the sturdiest saws, as carpenters have learned to their cost when they have had slight alterations to the house to effect. In the right wing is the kitchen ; in the left wing is the baU-TOom, an octagonal apartment, generous in size, panelled in oak and with a large open fireplace. The second floor is occupied by sleeping rooms. The entrance is a graceful Georgian portico. At the back of the house is a broad and comfortable veranda overlooking the old garden, of which there remains a box-hedge, believed to have been planted when the mansion was buUt, and now over twenty feet in height ; such a Gargantuan box-hedge is rarely to be seen! The ground on which the house is placed is terraced, and the view from front or sides is still as delectable as when Mordecai Moore arose in the early morning and saw that the land whereon he had struck his camp was filled with beauty. About half a mUe behind the house on the crest of a hUl is the " God's half acre," where lie the bones of the successive generations that have been sheltered within Belmont's walls. Alexander Contee Hanson, the first Hanson to live at Belmont, is a conspicuous figure in Maryland annals. Firm in his convictions, fluent in speech, of flne address and manner, he was the representative of his state for 175 COLONLU. MANSIONS OF MARYLAND many years in the United States Senate. He was a friend of Henry Clay, who was often his guest at Belmont. Among the Belmont papers is a letter from Hanson to his wife, asking her to have six pairs of slippers for himself and guests, among whom was Clay, when they arrived from Washington. It was the custom for the men of that time to wear only great boots, and in the evening they wished to be comfortable and would put on as light gear as they could. The chair in which Clay loved to sit at Belmont is still kept in his favourite place before the fire, and the great table in the dining- room, around which he and other distinguished guests were wont to gather, is stiU in use and stUl maintains the same generous hospitality. Sometimes, on dark, windy nights, in the old house you hear the Belmont ghost. At least once a winter does it come. You are sitting, let us say, before the open fire in which Clay delighted, you hear the wind lonesomely without, and suddenly there is the sound of horses' hoofs and jangling harness; many horses evi dently, and the harness and wheels seem to creak and rumble more heavily than harness and wheels of nowa days. You start to the door, but you hear the rustle of other feet ahead of you on the same errand, though you see no one. The door opens, and there is the scraping of feet as people come in. You are now standing up in alarm. " What is it? " you ask. 176 BELMONT " Oh, that is just some of the forefathers coming home from Annapolis in the coach and six." You hear the sound of wheels driving away around the house towards the stables, the creak of harness and clatter of hoofs. The rest is sUence. This is the Bel mont ghost. The Hanson family is traced to Roger de Rastrick who, in 1251, was seated at Rastrick in the County of Halifax, England. The famUy name of to-day origi nated in 1330, when John de Rastrick of the seventh generation from the founder assumed the name Han son, a diminutive of Henry's son, and signed himself John Hanson to a deed in 1337. John Hanson, of London, of the fifteenth genera tion, whUe making a summer tour of Sweden feli in love with and married Margaret Vasa, granddaughter of Gustavus Vasa, and connection of the famous Gustavus Adolphus, of Sweden. He had a son who was reared by the latter, at a suitable age entered the army, served with credit, rose to the rank of colonel, and fell at Luetzen, November 16, 1632, with his sovereign, whom he was attempting to defend. This son left four chil dren: Andrew, RandaU or Randolph, WUliam, and John, who were taken under the immediate protection of the royal famUy of Sweden, and in August, 1642, were sent to the New World in the care of Col. John Printz, Governor of New Sweden, on the Delaware. The family in this country has given many strong men, 12 177 COLONIAL MANSIONS OF MARYLAND especially during the days which led up to, and con cluded, the Revolution. Of the four sons above mentioned, Andrew, the eldest, settled on Kent Island, Maryland, in 1653, and died there in 1655, leaving a wife and five chUdren: Hans, Frederick, Katherine, Margaret, and a posthu mous chUd, Barbara. Randolph, the second of the four, was a bold and ambitious man, according to the chronicles of the day. He went to St. Mary's, the seat of the govemment of Maryland, to carve out his fortunes with his sword, and was a conspicuous figure in those troublous times. His daughter Barbara married Thomas Hatton, Gentleman, a grandnephew of Sir Christopher Hatton, of Hatton Hall, England, Lord High Chancellor of England and famous courtier of the circle of Queen Elizabeth. WiUiam, the third son, accompanied Randolph to St. Mary's, but returned to Kent Island, where he died in 1684, leaving only his " loving wife Alice." Colonel John, the youngest son, removed to Mary land in 1653, and, after a short sojourn on Kent Island, went to St. Mary's. FinaUy, about 1656, he settled in Charles County, where he lived untU his death. In his wUl, dated December 12, 1713, he styles hunself "a planter of Charles County," and mentions seven chil dren, forming a lusty line of descent — Robert, Benja min, Mary (the wife of the Rev. WiUiam Maconchie), Anne, Sarah, John, and Samuel. 178 EXTRAXCE TO BELMONT BELMONT Of these, Robert had chUdren: Samuel, WUliam, Dorothy, Mary, Sarah, Violetta, and Benjamin. Dorothy married Richard Harrison. Mary married John Briscoe. Samuel became the father of John Hanson, progenitor of the branch of the family con nected with Belmont, and of Samuel — ^revolutionary patriots both— Judge Walter, WiUiam, Elizabeth, Charity, Jane, and Chloe. Elizabeth married Benjamin Douglas, who was buried at Equality, an estate owned by his son-in-law, David Stone, a lineal descendant of WiUiam Stone, Governor of Maryland, 1649-1654. John Hanson, son of Samuel, bom in Charles County, Maryland, in 1715, was president of the Con tinental Congress, which assembled in PhUadelphia during the Revolution, and is sometimes spoken of as the " first President of the United States," as his title was " President of the United States in Congress assembled." His statue has been placed by Maryland in Statuary HaU, in the Capitol at Washington, D. C, as one of her two sons whose names are most cherished. He married Jane Contee, and had children: Alexander Contee ; Samuel, surgeon of Washington's Life Guards, kiUed whUe fighting at Fort Washington; Catherine Contee, who married PhUip Alexander, of Virginia; Jane, who married John Thomas, of Maryland; and Elizabeth. Alexander Contee Hanson was born in Annapolis, October 22, 1749. He was educated at the College of 179 COLONLUv MANSIONS OF MARYLAND PhUadelphia, studied law in Annapolis, and started for England to be ordained for the ministry of the Prot estant Episcopal Church, but was wrecked, rescued and taken to PhUadelphia, where he became assistant pri vate secretary to General Washington, his first cousin (Robert Hanson Harrison, of Virginia) being chief secretary. After two months in this post, his health forsook him, and he was obliged to resign. He visited Washington at headquarters just after the battle of Brandywine, and was present when the two arinies were separated by a violent shower of rain. He accompanied Washington to a farmhouse, and, being stUl in poor health, was obliged to accept Washington's offer of his bed for the night. Alexander HamUton curled up in one corner of the room on the floor, and afterwards Hanson woiUd good-naturedly remark that he "never saw a man look so much like a cat." In 1784, he was appointed with Samuel Chase to digest the laws of Maryland from 1763, and this work, a monument to his memory, is known as " Hanson's Laws." He was a delegate in 1788 to the convention which ratified the federal constitution, and dechned a federal judgeship to become Chancellor of Maryland. He married Rebecca Howard of Annapolis, and left children: Charles Wallace, who married Rebecca Ridgely, eldest daughter of Governor Charles Ridgely, of Hampton, and had no issue; Alexander Contee, who married Pris cUla Dorsey, of Belmont ; and Mary Jane, who married 180 BELMONT Peabody Grosvenor, Member of Congress from New York. Alexander Contee Hanson, Jr., was born at his father's home in Annapolis, February 27, 1786. He was educated at St. John's CoUege, Annapolis, at that time under the direction of John McDowell, who be came provost of the University of Pennsylvania, and whUe yet in his sixteenth year had gone through all of the branches taught at his school except French, for which he conceived an aversion he never overcame, owing to the shocking deeds done by the Jacobins of France as recorded in the " Bloody Buoy," compiled and pub lished by WUliam Cobbett, bookseller of Philadephia, and other hke tracts of that period. He became a con tributor to the press of the day, and at length edited the Federal Republican, of Baltimore, in which he de nounced the federal administration. Violent strictures of those in authority not being so amiably received by the populace of that time as this, the people of the city sacked his printing plant. After a temporary suspen sion, the journal was reissued, July 27, 1812, simulta neously in Baltimore and Georgetown, D. C. This led to another attack upon the newspaper ofiice on July 28, 1812, and an armed collision between those who de fended the establishment and those who attacked it. Mr. Hanson and his friends surrendered to the city authorities under promise of protection. The murder ous attack by the mob on the jaU in which they were 181 COLONML MANSIONS OF MARYLAND confined is a matter of Baltimore history. Mr. Hanson was left for dead, but recovered after a painful iUness. In 1813 he was elected to Congress, where he served from May 24 of that year to January 2, 1817, when he took his seat in the Senate in place of Robert Goodloe Harper, resigned. He was returned for the next term, and was a senator until his death, at Belmont, May 23, 1819. He was a man of many friendships and entertained lavishly. His runaway marriage with Pris ciUa Dorsey has already been recounted. Jane Contee Hanson (daughter of John, the presi dent of the Continental Congress, and Jane Contee) married Dr. Philip Thomas, delegate from Frederick County to the Maryland convention of 1774. Their son, John Hanson Thomas, born in Frederick, 1779, died 1815, married (October 5, 1809) at Honeywood, Berke ley County, Virginia, Mary Isham Colston, a descendant of William Brewster, who came over in the Mayflower with the Plymouth colony in 1620, and was the first elder of that settlement. She was, also, a descendant of Henry Isham, of England, colonist to Virginia in 1675. Their son, John Hanson Thomas the second, of Freder ick, Maryland, born in 1813, died in 1881, married Annie Campbell Gordon, of Virginia. Of this union came Mr. Douglas HamUton Thomas, of Baltimore, who married Alice Lee Whitridge, BasU Gordon Thomas, John Hanson Thomas the third, Raleigh Colston Thomas, Nannie Gordon Thomas, Mary Ran- 182 BELMONT dolph Thomas, and John MarshaU Thomas (whose son is John Gregg Thomas, and whose daughter is Natalie Contee Thomas). Of the marriage of Douglas HamUton Thomas and Alice Lee Whitridge was born Douglas N. Thomas, of Baltimore, who married Bessie Chadwick; John Hanson Thomas, of Baltimore; and Alice Lee Thomas. Samuel Hanson, brother of John Hanson, the revolutionary patriot, had the following chUdren: Samuel, who married May Kay, daughter of John and Elizabeth Kay, of New Jersey; John Contee; Capt. Thomas Hawkins, who married Rebecca, daughter of Walter and Maay Grafton Dulany; Sarah, who married Dr. William Beane, of Upper Marlboro ; Elizabeth, who married Addison ; Eleanor, who married General Chap man ; MUdred, who married Dr. William Baker ; Chloe, who married Gen. George Lee, son of Governor Thomas Sim Lee and nephew of Richard Henry Lee, the signer; Anne, who married Nicholas Lingan, brother of Gen. James Maccubbin Lingan. Of the union of Samuel the third and May Kay came Samuel the fourth, who settled in Kentucky and was the father of Gen. Roger Weightman Hanson, who feU mortally wounded at the battle of Murfreesboro, Tennessee, and the Honourable Richard Hickman Han son, of Paris, Kentucky; Isaac Kay, who married Maria Storer; Maria, who married Daniel Sheffy; Louisa Serena, who married Gen. Roger Chew Weightman. 183 MOUNT AIRY CROOME, PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY, MARYLAND CALVERT— DUVALL |*N a grove of great oaks in southern Maryland is a royal old homestead deep in colourful memories of the past. This is Mount Airy, the Calvert mansion, near Croome, Prince George's County, Mary land, the seat of the descendants of Lord Baltimore in the United States. A popular picnic point for automobUe parties from Washington now, the place has sheltered many notable people and has been the scene of many a brilliant social gathering. Here Washington's stepson, George Parke Custis, found his bride, Eleanor Calvert, and lived out the brief span of his life. Here, too, Washington was a frequent visitor even before the Revolution — it is not a long day's journey from Mount Vernon. Standing before the door of the old home, we can imagine the great coaches of our great-grandfathers, requiring four or six horses to move them — and un comfortable then— lumbering up through the long aisle of high trees and discharging their polite and elegant freight; for Mount Airy was a centre of hospitality of the old Maryland order where a guest came at his wUl and stayed for a day, or weeks, as he chose. What an 184, MOUNT AIRY alluring gossip of picturesque figures might the house chat in its old man's tone if it could! In the halls of the old home the romantic figure of Eleanor Calvert, the bride of young Custis, can be pictured. She was a great horsewoman, and frequently hunted over the country-side. Glimpses of her beauty have been preserved in miniatures and in an old painting which, untu a few years ago, hung at Mount Airy. Dur ing Washington's occupancy of the White House she was a frequent visitor, and there is a painting of Mrs. Washington in which Eleanor is shown, a beautiful figure, to the elder woman's right. We may not see her young husband so clearly through the mists of time. A delicate gentleman, he hved only five years after his marriage, and died at the age of twenty-eight years, leaving four children. He was married February 3, 1774, in the parlour of Mount Airy. A glimpse of him we have in the following letter written by Washington to the boy's tutor: "I wiU aUow you an extra sixty dollars for your pains with Parke. I want you to be good to him for he is a most promising lad, the last of his family, and wUl have a large fortune at maturity. I wish to make him a useful man." He was buried in the family lot at Mount Airy. Eleanor was married a second time to Dr. David Stuart, of Virginia, and went to this sister state of Maryland to live, thus passing from our scene. Of the builder of Mount Airy we do not know very 185 COLONIAL MANSIONS OF MARYLAND much. At his death he was described in the following terms in the Maryland Journal and Advertiser, January 15, 1788: " A gentleman whose Benevolence of Heart and many other exalted Virtues justly endeared him to his Relations and a numerous and respectable Acquaint ance, who have sustained an irreparable loss by his death." There is mystery concerning a great part of Benedict Calvert's life. That he was a son of Charles Calvert, fifth Lord Baltimore, is well known, but who his mother was, or where he was born, has never been recorded. As a young man he was sent to Annapolis to the home of Dr. George Steuart, of that city, with a tutor, Onorio Razolini. We find him addressed by his father in the foUowing fashion in a letter, dated February 7, 1745: Dear Child : You will by this Opportunity receive Duplicates of a Com mission with the proper Instructions fromi ye proper Offices Appointing you Collector of Patuxent in ye Room of Rousby, deceased, and I make no doubt but you will do Your Utmost to Execute it to the Utmost of your Power, and I must desire you will get ye most able to Aid and Assist you, and I hope you will Endeavor to get Mr. Jennings to help you and that You'll give him such Encouragement as may make it worth his while. I desire you will Consult with Mr. Bladen and Mr. Tasker. I shall Omit no Opportunity of doing all in my Power to show how much I am Your Affectionate Father, Baltimoee. 186 MOUNT AIRY Somewhat later Ave find that His Lordship writes : " Pray do not think of Marrying till you hear from me hav ing some things to Propose to you, much for your Advantage, and believe me I will never force Your Inclination, Only Propose what I think will make you most Happy, Afterwards Leave it to Your own Determination." That a wife was chosen to suit the lordly, far-away parent, is shown by a letter from him in 1748 to Razol ini, the tutor, expressing approval of his son's intended venture upon matrimony. About the same time he wrote to the young man himself, telling him to take in charge certain lands on the Patuxent which he designed for him. On AprU 21 of that year, Benedict was married to Elizabeth Calvert, his distant cousm, daughter of Charles Calvert, Governor of Maryland from 1720 to 1727. The ceremony was performed by the Reverend John Gordon, rector of St. Anne's Parisli, Annapolis, in the presence of Mr. Onorio Razolini, Mrs. Ehzabeth Razolini and Miss Ariana Brice, and is thus recorded in the Maryland Gazette for AprU 27, 1748: "Last Thursday the Honourable Benedict Calvert, Esq., CoUector of His Majesty's customs for Patuxent District, etc., was married to Miss Elizabeth Calvert, only survivmg Daughter of the late Honourable Charles Calvert, Esq., deceased, former Governor of this province." Before his marriage, young Calvert had entered upon his duties as collector of the Port of Patuxent and 187 COLONIAL MANSIONS OF MARYLAND had taken up his residence upon the lands on that river given to him by his father. It was not until three years after his marriage that he acquired full title to the Mount Airy property, and then it was by transfer through an intermediary, Ignatius Digges, Esq., as is witnessed by the following deed, one of the records of the Provincial Court for the Western Shore, in the Land Record office at Annapolis: This indenture made the third day of June, 1751, between Ignatius Digges, of Prince George's County, in the Province of Maryland, Gentleman, of the one part and Benedict Calvert of the City of Annapolis and Province aforesaid of the other part. Whereas, by indentures of lease and release bearing date respectively on or about the Seventeenth and Eighteenth days of February, 1745, made between Samuel Hyde, late of London, Merchant by the name of Samuel Hyde of Rood Lane, London, Merchant, of the one part and Charles, Lord Baltimore, of the other part, he the said Samuel Hyde did grant and confirm unto him the said Charles, Lord Baltimore, all that Plantation called " His Lordship's Kindness " containing by estimation Six Thousand, Seven Hundred acres of land, and also all that other Plantation called and known by the name of the several tracts containing by Estimation, Two thousand Five hundred Acres, — unto the said Charles, Lord Baltimore, his heirs and assigns, forever. And whereas, the aforesaid two tracts of land were on the twenty-ninth day of June, 1750, by the direction of the said Charles, Lord Baltimore, sett up to Publick Vendue by Auction at which sale the said Ignatius Digges was the highest bidder at Seven Hundred and Sixty Pounds, Sterling, for the first mentioned tract and at Seven Hundred and Ten Pounds, Sterling, for the last mentioned tract. Now this indenture Witnesseth that the said Ignatius Digges in consideration of One 188 o MOUNT AIRY Thousand, Four Hundred and Seventy Pounds (being the total of the aforesaid sums of money) Doth grant and confirm unto the said Benedict Calvert all those above-mentioned Plantations, all which premises are in Prince George's County on a River called Patuxen, in the Proprietary of Maryland, on the continent of America, and are part of certain Land and Premises released and conveyed by Henry Darnall, late of Prince George's County in Maryland aforesaid, to John Hyde, deceased, the father of a certain Samuel Hyde, late of London, Merchant, deceased, to gether with all Messuages etc., unto him the said Benedict Calvert, his heirs and assigns forever. In witness whereof the partys to these presents have hereunto interchangeably set their hands and seals the day and year fir est above written. Signed and sealed in the presence of Chas. Hammond and Sam. Chamberlaine. In 1751, Benedict Calvert commenced to build Mount Airy and completed it without interruption. Here he lived until his death in 1788. He was buried under the chancel of St. Thomas' Church, Croome, Prince George's County, which he had helped to found and support. Ten years later he was followed to the grave by his wife. At the outbreak of the Revolution, he had given up his post of Collector of Customs of Patuxent, and his latter years were years of leisure. At the death of its builder, Mount Airy was left to his wife, on her death to go to the oldest living son, Edward Henry, born November 7, 1766, married March 1, 1796, and died July 12, 1846. Edward Henry (Calvert) left the estate to his widow, who died March 130 COLONIAL MANSIONS OF MARYLAND 26, 1857, and by her wUl the property, now shrunk to about a thousand acres, was to be divided among her children. Two of these chUdren, however, CecUius Baltimore and Eleanora Adela, bought out the interest of all of the other chUdren, and made it their home until they died; the former, March 13, 1901, and the latter, July 15, 1902, aged ninety-five and eighty-one years, respectively. These were the last Calvert owners. After the death of " old Miss Eleanor " the home and furnish ings were sold at auction, the house being purchased February, 1903, by Mrs. TiUie R. DuvaU, its present occupant. The property was described in the auction eer's catalogue in the following terms: This beautiful old place now contains about eight hundred and twenty acres of fine grazing, or farming land, well watered by natural springs, having a beautiful lake containing about ten acres, well stocked with fish. About two hundred acres of the land is covered with a natural growth of old oaks and other choice varieties of native trees. Death in a tragic shape was the portion of the last of the Calverts of Mount Airy. Miss Eleanor Calvert was accustomed to use an old-fashioned oU lamp, which her relatives warned her was not safe. One night it turned over in her hand as she was descending the steps, spUled oU over her clothing and set it ablaze. The old lady died from the injuries. She was beloved and re spected by her neighbours, and was very fond of chU dren. During her later years she kept the old house full 190 MOUNT ALRY of little ones — ^her nieces, nephews, great-nieces, great- nephews and little cousins, even to the third and fourth generation. Six years after the marriage of Eleanor Calvert to George Parke Custis, another briUiant wedding took place in the little parlour of Mount Airy. It was that of Elizabeth, a younger daughter, who was wed, June 15, 1780, to Dr. Charles Steuart, of Annapolis, son of that Dr. George Steuart in whose home Benedict Calvert lived. In Mount Airy, too, was celebrated Eleanor's second marriage. The chUdren of Benedict Calvert, the founder, and his wife Elizabeth, were: Rebecca, who died in infancy; Eleanor, who married first, February 3, 1774, George Parke Custis, stepson of George Washmgton, second, 1783, Dr. David Stuart, of Virginia; Charles, Avho re mained unmarried; Elizabeth, who married, June 15, 1780, Dr. Charies Steuart, of Annapolis, Maryland; Edward Henry, who married, March 1, 1796, Elizabeth Biscoe, daughter of George and Araminta Carroll Biscoe; George, who married, June 11, 1799, Rosalie Eugenia Stier, daughter of Henri Joseph and Marie Louise Stier, of Antwerp, Belgium; PhUip, Leonard, CecUius, Robert, John, WUliam, and Ariana. Of this last seven, the first four died in youth; the last three did not marry. The tragedy of Ariana Calvert's life is one of the most pathetic stories connected with the historic old 191 COLONLiL MANSIONS OF MARYLAND mansion. She loved a young man who had been re ceived at her father's house, but was not looked upon with favour as the daughter's prospective husband. Trusting to time to soften her father's heart, she waited patiently, and the father, on his part, tried by every indulgence to tum the thoughts of his daughter from her lover. She was sent to Annapolis for a visit and in the company of her brUliant sisters to every fete in town and country. Many suitors pressed their claims for her hand but for all she had a gentle refusal. She began to fade and droop and her health broke down. Her father died and her mother, seeing that her chUd was facing death, gave her consent to the engagement. But it was too late. The fine spirit had been tried too long, and death bore it away. The issue of George Parke Custis and Eleanor Cal vert (the first wedding in the Calvert house) was: Eliza Parke, born August 21, 1776, married, March 20, 1796, to Thomas Law, secretary to Warren Hastings in India, and has descendants — Martha, born December 31, 1777, who married, January 6, 1795, Thomas Peter a wealthy merchant of Georgetown, D. C, and has descendants, many of them in Washington; Eleanor Parke, born March 21, 1779, who married, February 22, 1799, Major Lawrence Lewis, and has descendants; George Wash ington Parke, born April 30, 1781, who married Mary Fitzhugh, of Arlington, Virginia, whose daughter, Mary Randolph Custis Parke, born October 1, 1806, married, 192 MOUNT AIRY June 30, 1831, Robert E. Lee, commander-in-chief of the armies of the Confederacy. By her marriage to Dr. Stuart, Eleanor had seven cMldren, four of whom married, leaving a large descent. George Calvert, the only other son of Benedict to have issue, built, in 1802, another beautiful homestead at Riverdale, Maryland, about sixteen miles north of Croome, more magnificent in size and decoration than Mount Airy; and this place, which is more accessible by raU to visitors than the older homestead, is often mis taken for that other dweUing house. His chUdren were: CaroUne Maria, born July 15, 1800, who married Thomas WUling Morris, of PhUadelphia; George Henry, bom January 2, 1803, who married. May, 1821, Elizabeth Steuart, and died without issue. May 24, 1889 ; Marie Louise Calvert; Rosalie Eugenia, born October 19, 1806, who married Charles Henry Corter; Charles Benedict, born August 23, 1808, who married Charlotte Augusta Norris; Henry Albert; Marie Louise, Julie, born January 31, 1814, who married Dr. Richard Henry Stuart; Amelia IsabeUe. The homestead at Riverdale remained in the famUy untU December 5, 1904, when it, too, was sold at auction, the purchaser being its present occupant, W. T. Pickford, a prominent business man of Washington. The children of Edward Henry Calvert and Eliza beth Biscoe, his wife, forming the last generation of Calverts at Mount Airy, were: Benedict; George, who 13 193 COLONIAL MANSIONS OF MARYLAND married Sarah E. Hungerford; Edward Henry, who married Mary Powell ; Charles Frederick ; Washington Custis, who married, first, Sophia O. MuUiken, second, Elizabeth S. Randolph; Cecelius Baltimore; John, who married Julia Stockton Rush; Elizabeth; WiUiam B., who married Mary Harriet Hughes; Araminta; Octavius Augustus; Juliana; Eleanora Adela. John Calvert had two chUdren : John Calvert, of Philadelphia, whose son is Cecelius Baltimore Calvert, of PhUadelphia, and Madison Rush Calvert. Roberta Lee Calvert, the youngest daughter of George, married T. C. Judkins, and lives in San Francisco. She has a son, Robert Cal vert Judkins. Interesting recollections of Mount Airy have been written by Mrs. Eleanora Calvert WUson, daughter of William Calvert, and who spent her chUdhood at the old place. My father, William, the youngest of these nine sons, was the first to bring his young bride, according to the custom of the day, to this old house, and here my sister and I were bom, and still another generation of little girls chased the butterflies fromi flower to flower, hunted the birds in their nests, and the woods sent back the echoes of merry prattle and joyous soag once more. We were not so decorous and well disciplined, I fear, as the former generations of little people had been, for we had so many indulgent uncles to spoil us. Hand in hand they would walk with us through the orchard every moming gathering for us the choicest fruits, such dehcious peaches, grapes, pears and great, red-cheeked apples! How well I remember old " Aimt Polly," the octogenarian 194 MOUNT AIRY negress who had nursed or assisted in the nursing of these other little girls, often reducing us to order by saying: " My little misses never did so; they were little ladies." " So are we. Aunt Polly," we would indignantly reply. " Then you must behave like them," was always Aunt Polly's strong argument. She was at that time too old for actual service, so with a silk cloth in her hand she passed from' room to room removing any dust that had settled upon the handsome mahogany fumiture. Occasionally, Aunt Polly would doze and mechanically rub one spot for a long time. Coming upon her sometimes at these moments we would mischievously startle her by asking, " Why, Aunt Polly, what are you doing? " Recover ing her consciousness quickly she would put additional force into her labour and answer with great placidity, " Just a little fine polishing, Honey." Sometimes we would quietly slip the cloth from her hand and conceal it before awakening her and enjoy her look of amaze ment when she couldn't find it. " Oh, Aunt Polly, you were asleep that time," we would say. " Well, Honey, I do think I must have been," she would reply with one of her placid smiles. My grandinother would have liked to have her remain in her quarters, and would have cared for her, but poor old Aunt Polly was so afraid of being considered " old and worthless " that she would not consent to it. Old Neale, too, the coachman, could not tolerate the idea of having to give place to a younger man. " Why, I 'members the day when that boy was bom," he said indignantly. Grand father tried to comfort liim by telling him that the new coachman would never be quite so fine as he had been. At this the old man straightened himself up in spite of his bent shoulders and a smile passed over his face as be said, " Well, Massa, there is sumpin' in dat." By her marriage to Charles Steuart, Elizabeth Cal- 195 COLONIAL MANSIONS OF MARYLAND vert, daughter of Benedict, had issue: George Calvert; Benedict; Edward Henry, who married Mary WUcox; and Dr. Charles (Steuart) who married Ann Fitzhugh Biscoe, and a descendant of whom in Baltimore is Mr. Richard D. Steuart. Perhaps it is the ghosts of the ancients whom we have considered that trouble Mount Airy to-day, for ghosts there are, the present owner will tell you. There is the time when with her husband Mrs. Duvall drove back from Washington, one dark night, and found a solitary horseman in the garb of a hundred years ago calmly sitting his horse in front of the door, at the end of the long aisle of trees. By the dim light of the stars they saw him inspecting them with a gaze, as if to say " What do you here? " and then he vanished. Again Mrs. Duvall has been awakened in the night by a ghostly woman's figure, which one midnight put its cold hands around her throat. There is a room above the dining- room in which no lamp will burn, the strongest, most in geniously constructed lamp going out meekly the moment you cross the threshold with it. Doors open and shut without cause. Beds sag and creak with no human being on them. Many of the colonial mansions of Maryland are larger than Mount Airy, rfaany of them have more elaborate ornamentation, for this place has neither size nor elaboration to commend it, yet few have its charm. Its chief feature is a wing, considerably older than the 196 FIREPLACE IN DINING-ROOM THE SIDEBOARD IMPRESSIONS OF MOVNT AIRY MOUNT AIRY body of the house — used as a hunting lodge by one of the early Lords Baltimore, tradition tells us — a long, low structure with dormer windows and a hip-roof, made of immense old English brick laid aU with the ends out, the walls being nearly two feet thick. From the centre rear of this the main part of the house takes its de parture. This main portion is simply a two-story edifice with two large pUlars in front which support a gallery. It contains merely a hall, staircase and two rooms at the end opposite the wing. A cellar runs beneath the main buUding connecting with the more ancient cellar beneath the old hunting lodge or wing. In the former is a wine vault with high, arched ceiling; in the latter, an entrance to a secret passageway, which has not been explored in the memory of man. This passageway leads through the old foundation walls, five feet thick, to a point of exit, it is believed, near the old bowling green. The maia body of the house is of brick covered with plaster; the wing is of brick exposed. The approach to the old mansion is one of its greatest charms. The road leads straight from the gate about two hundred yards through an avenue of overarching old linden trees to a circle of box, immediately in front of the more modern portion of the house. To the right, lies a garden designed by Major L'Enfant, the designer of the plan for the city of Washington. Just a few steps from here, on a terrace overlooked by, and fronting on, the wing of the house, is the old bowling green, now 197 COLONIAL MANSIONS OF MARYLAND a tennis court. There is more terracing hi other parts of the grounds, and Major L'Enf ant's garden containing many rare shrubs and flowers, is even to-day a very beautiful retreat. When Mount Airy was sold in 1903, the many treasures which it contained were sold at an auction room in Washington. Among other things disposed of were a portrait supposed to be by Van Dyke, of Charles, fifth Lord Baltimore, in armour; a portrait of Benedict Leon ard Calvert, fourth Lord Baltimore, who married Lady Charlotte Lee, granddaughter of King Charles II; a portrait of Benedict Calvert ; a portrait of Eleanor Cal vert in riding habit; other paintings; a set of sUver, consisting of one coffee pot, two mugs, a set of casters and two small waiters, all bearing coat-of-arms and crest, and sent to Benedict by his father as a wedding present; and many other things of smaUer value. The present owner of Mount Airy, Mrs. TiUie R. DuvaU, is an artist and musician by training, and is known to many in these arts. She was married in 1908, about five years after she had moved into the place, to Percy M. Duvall, of Croome, Prince George's County. One chUd, a girl, has blessed this union. The DuvaUs have open house, and many friends from nearby Wash ington keep them from getting lonesome with the ghosts and solitudes of the old home. BELAIR PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY, MARYLAND OGLE— BOWIE— WOODWARD )HE most magnificently main tained survival of the Georgian era of buUding in Maryland is unquestionably Belair, the old Ogle estate, now the occasional home of WUliam Woodward, Esq., of New York City. Its present owner spares no pains to preserve the flavour of the olden time which clings around the beautiful struc ture and, at the same time, has so added to the buUding and grounds that the place is one of the most splendid in Maryland. It is situated in Prince George's County, not far from Bowie Station, a point on the Pennsylvania RaUroad. The house is situated on the crest of a hUl, as were most of the mansions of the colonial period in Mary land, and commands a wide view. However hot and stUl the day may seem in the countryside around there is always a breeze stirring in its wide halls. As it stands to-day, it consists of a central buUding with wings; but the wings are a latter addition by its present-day oAvner, though in such perfect harmony with the rest of the buUding have they been fashioned that one needs must be told this fact to believe it. The grounds around the house are terraced and from the main doorway extends 199 COLONIAL MANSIONS OF MARYLAND a mUe-long aisle of great trees, memorials of an early day, indeed. This approach to the front of the house Mr. Wood ward has improved by an extension which carries it for a mUe or more farther through his estate, so that now one drives for nearly two miles from the entrance to the place over a finely ballasted and smoothly topped road way before one at last swings into the long, straight stretch between mammoth trees which leads to the old mansion itself. The front and rear doorways of the house are simple but graceful, and the interior woodwork, whUe not elaborate, is beautified with carving. The stairway ex tends to the left from the front door and leads to a cool and well-disposed second floor. The outlook from the rear of the house is very fine, leading the eye over the old bowling green and the green terraces which lend dignity to this side of the house. Belair belonged in the early part of the eighteenth century to Hon. Benjamin Tasker, who was one of the most important men in the then Province of Maryland. His daughter Anne, at the age of eighteen, married Governor Samuel Ogle, a captain of cavalry in His British Majesty's service, who had received from the Lord Proprietary a commission as Governor of Mary land, dated September 16, 1731. Belair was given to Governor Ogle and his bride by Benjamin Tasker, and 200 E O M O 2 2; BELAIR there the Ogles lived in princely style, their town house at Annapolis claiming their presence only during the social season. The estate then consisted of 3,600 acres. The mansion was spacious and elaborate for those days» It is said that six hundred acres were thrown into a park, and fallow deer were seen about the woodland. Belair had its race track, its kennels, and life was planned in every particular on the basis of the gentry of England. The Ogles lived as befitted their station, and drove to and from Annapolis, a distance of about twenty mUes, with four-in-hand and liveried outriders, as has been noted from letters still in existence. Such was the early condition of the plantation, and it must have remained much the same during the next century as is evidenced by the condition of the house and grounds, and especiaUy^ the long avenue of tulip trees immediately in front of the house which constantly added to the beauty and dignity of the landscape. Originally there must have been ninety-six of these trees planted on a straight ave nue of five hundred yards leading to the house, in four parallel rows, making two turf -covered lanes over which the rider (and a very occasional vehicle) would ap proach. There are thirty-tAvo of these now giant tulips remaining, one of the larger ones measuring over twenty feet in circumference, and with a height of more than ninety feet. A part of Belair in the late seventies fell to the 201 COLONEL MANSIONS OF MARYLAND ownership of Governor Bowie, of Maryland, and finaUy to his sons, and some partition had by that time been made, when in the later years of the last century Mr. James T. Woodward, of New York and Maryland, purchased the estate and added to and improved it, as has also his nephew, WUliam Woodward, who inherited it from him and now owns it. The Woodwards are from Anne Arundel County, but James T. Woodward's mother was a Magruder, of Prmce George's County, and a substantial portion of what is now comprised in Belair is old Magruder land. Belair has to-day its own pack of hounds, and thoroughbred colts are seen grazing on its meadows. Among the many distinguished men of Maryland none were of more distinguished lineage than Samuel Ogle, buUder of Belair. The family was of old Saxon stock. This member of it received from the Lord Pro prietary his commission as governor of the province of Maryland in September, 1731, and took oath of office in Annapolis in December of that same year. In 1741 he married Anne Tasker, who was but a chUd of nine years when he arrived in this country. Though there was this great disparity of age between Ogle and his wife, the marriage was, none the less, a happy one. Two of Anne Tasker's sisters, Elizabeth and Frances, married, respectively, Christopher Lowndes, forebear of the late Governor Lloyd Lowndes, of Maryland, and 202 MAIN STAIRWAY, BELAIR BELAIR Robert Carter, of Nominy Hall, Virguiia. Her maternal imcle was that Thomas Bladen who was Governor of Maryland from 1742 to 1747 and of whose daughter Lord Chesterfield wrote as follows in a letter to his son: " Our friend, Harriet Bladen, with a fortune of 20,000 Pounds, is to be married to the Earl of Essex." Benjamin Ogle, son of Samuel Ogle, became Governor of Maryland in 1809, and his son of the same name was the last Ogle to live at Belair. Belair was the country home of Samuel Ogle and his Bladen bride. The town house in which they had their entertainments during " the season " is that quaint little old structure in Annapolis which stands at the corner of CoUege Avenue and King George Street and is famUiarly known in the ancient city as the Ogle House. A beautiful box-bordered walk and an arched doorway which no passerby faUs to admire are almost all that remain of its one-time glories, yet its gardens were once very beautiful and its presence is always dignified by the flavoiu" of the names with which it has been associated. Here, moreover, in 1840, Governor Benjamin Ogle, son of Samuel, died. So great a lover of horses was Samuel Ogle that he buUt his stables in Annapohs beside the front walk of his house, so that he might always stop and see the animals upon which he lavished so much affection when ever he left or entered his home. He also imported from 203 COLONIAL MANSIONS OF MARYLAND England the celebrated horse, " Spark," a gift from Lord Baltimore, to whom the horse had been presented by Prince Frederick, father of George III, of England. This stable has long since been torn down, but its exist ence will probably never be forgotten by those who know the traditions of Annapolis. The Ogle House is now a boarding-house for ofiicers of the navy who are stationed at the Naval Academy hard at hand, and is part of the estate of the late Rear-Admiral Porter, U. S. N., retu-ed. BLAKEFORD QUEEN ANNE'S COUNTY. MARYLAND DE COURCY— BLAKE— WRIGHT— THOM LAKEFORD, the old De Cour cy homestead, is situated on Queenstown Creek, an estuary of the Chester River, Queen Aome's County, Maryland, and is notable for its antiquity, the dignity of its interior and its beautiful gardens which have attracted sightseers from sleepy little Queenstown — across Queenstown Harbour from the old mansion — for many generations. The approach to the house is by a finely planned drive which leads through a magnificent stretch of wood land trees. This forest has been used by the Maryland Forestry Board as an example of a perfectly tended woods. One passes beyond these trees and comes to another ancient grove. Here is situated Blakeford. Blakeford has a charming outlook over the waters of the Chester River, which in the early days was its means of communication with the rest of the world. The house faces the river which runs northwest here, and is one of the largest homesteads on the eastern shore of Mary land. It consists of a main structure and a wing. The walls are of masonry covered with clap-boards, and the whole construction of the house is one of great substantiality. 205 COLONL^ MANSIONS OF MARYLAND The interior of the mansion is very delightful. It is divided through the middle by a hallway which con nects with another haU extending to the side of the house, which has no wing, so even on the hottest day there is an air stirring in Blakeford when the three outer doors are open. The dining-room is heavUy panelled and the main hall contains arches, yet the whole character of the interior of the house is very simple and without elaboration of detaU. The gardens of Blakeford extend upon two sides of the grounds surrounding the house, and contain many rare shrubs and flowers, making the place at all seasons a veritable bower of delight. They contain, in addition, an all-the-year-round summer-house, a very ingenious sort of erection which is unique in Maryland, and probably in the rest of the United States as weU. It consists simply of two intersecting brick walls set at right angles to each other, so that no matter at what position of the sky the sun may be in, no matter what hour of the day, there is always a side of the summer- house which is in shade. The brick walls of which it is constructed have had vines trained over them and have comfortable benches buUt into them at their bases. The De Courcy (or Coursey) famUy has been identi fied with the history of Maryland since the very earliest days of the colony. In 1654, for instance, we find that one " Henry Coursey, Clark " examined certain papers concerning William Claiborne who, with Richard 206 ALL-THE-YEAR-ROUXD SUMMER HOUSE FROM THE EAST BLAKEFORD BLAKEFORD Bennett, was appointed by Parliament in 1651 Com missioner " for the reducing of Virginia and Maryland to their due obedience to the Commonwealth of Eng land." This " Henry Coursey, Clark " was a man of great prominence in the province, was chief judge of Kent County, and covered himself with glory on the field of battle and in the councils of state. In his trans actions with the Five Nations at a congress in Albany, New York — 1677 — ^his conduct was so creditable as to elicit the commendation of the Governor and Assembly. Hemy Coursey lived at " My Lord's Gift," on the opposite side of Queenstown Creek from Blakeford. It is said that, in recognition of the distinguished services he had rendered the government, particularly in con nection with a treaty he had recently made with the Iroquois Indians, the Governor offered him as much land as he could cover with his thumb on the map of the province spread before him. According to the story. Col. Henry Coursey placed a blunt thumb at a point on Queenstown Creek and rolled it over, thus describing an imprint, representing some sixteen hundred acres. Hence the name, " My Lord's Gift." These two homesteads were taken up at practically the same time — more than two and a half centuries ago— My Lord's Gift, as we have seen, by Henry Coursey; Blakeford by his brother WUliam. The name of the original patent for Blakeford was " Coursey's Neck." Major WUliam Coursey, the patentee, in time 207 COLONIAL MANSIONS OF MARYLAND sold to a Mr. Blake, who had the place resurveyed and added thereto two tracts. Long Run and White Banks. The three combined were known as " Blake's Fort," so called from the old fort at the southwestern end of the place on the Chester River. This name in time became Blakeford, the change being facilitated, no doubt, by the fact that there was a ford across Queenstown Creek, or Coursey's Creek as it was then known, used as a means of communication between the two Coursey estates. The old place remained away from the family of its founder for two generations until through the marriage of Mary Tidmarsh De Courcy — grand-niece of Col. Henry Coursey, Major William Coursey, patentee of Coursey's Neck, and granddaughter of Col. Henry Coursey, patentee of My Lord's Gift — to Judge Solo mon Wright, of another distinguished Maryland family, who purchased Blakeford from the Blake heirs, it came to its own again. Judge Wright was a member of the Maryland Con vention of 1771-1776; member of the Assembly, 1771- 73-74; member of the Association of Freemen; Judge of the Provincial Court; special Judge for the Eastern Shore during the Revolution, etc., etc. He was ap pointed judge of the first Court of Appeals of Mary land, upon the formation of the state, and served in this capacity untU his death in 1792. His son Robert, thirteenth Governor of Maryland (1806-1809) and 208 BLAKEFORD twice reelected, was bom at Blakeford, November 20, 1752. Robert Wright was educated at the public schools, studied law, and, having been admitted to the bar, prac tised first in ChestertowTi and later in Queenstown, Maryland. He served as a private in Capt. James Kent's company of " Minute Men " against Lord Drum mond's Tories of the Eastern Shore of Virginia, Febru ary, 1776. Later he was a captain of a company in the Maryland Line and fought with distinction in a num ber of important engagements, notably the battle of Brandywine. In 1801, he was elected to the United States Senate, but resigned from that august body in 1806 when elected Governor of Maryland. During his first term much excitement was occasioned by the pas sage of the Embargo and Enforcement Acts; he pre sided at a meeting held at Annapolis to endorse the administration. At this meeting were passed resolu tions asking President Jefferson to reconsider his deter mination to decline a renomination. Although Mary land's export trade had been grievously crippled by the passage of the Embargo Act, the Governor and the Legislature stUl endorsed the administration. In 1810, 1812, 1814, and again in 1820, Robert Wright was elected to Congress. In 1823 he became District Judge of the circuit comprising Queen Anne, Kent, and Talbot counties. He lived at Blakeford with his wife, who was Sarah De Courcy, of Cheston- 14 209 COLONIAL MANSIONS OF MARYLAND on- Wye, and there, on September 7, 1826, he died. His particular hobby was the breeding and training of thoroughbred race-horses, turning out such famous heroes of the race-track as Blakeford, Uncas, SUver Heels. There was a fine race-track on the place which is stUl to be seen, and where lovers of the " sport of kings " were wont to gather. Judge Wright — or Captain, or Senator, or Governor, for he was rich in titles as hi worldly goods — ^also did much to encourage farming interests and frequently served in the capacity of dele gate to farmers' conventions. He was a trustee of the Board of Agriculture for the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Robert Wright married his distant cousin, Sarah De Courcy, of Cheston-on-Wye, and became the father of WiUiam Henry De Courcy, a distinguished public man of Maryland, and grandfather of the present owner of Blakeford, De Courcy Wright Thom, of Baltimore and Queen Anne's County. The De Courcys, although originally French, came to this country from Ireland. In the early records of the Colony, as has been noted, the name was spelled Coursey, but Capt. Edwin Coursey in his will instructed his sons to resume the original spelling, De Courcy, and this precept has been followed by all succeeding genera tions of the house. BLOOMINGDALE QUEEN ANNE'S COUNTY, MARYLAND HARRIS— WALLIS— DUDLEY IHE most magnificent colonial homestead in Queen Anne's County, Maryland, from an ar chitectural point of view, is Bloomingdale, about three mUes from historic Queenstown, one of the first points of settlement on the eastern shore of the Chesapeake Bay. Of late years the old place has been allowed to faU into a sad condition of disrepair in the hands of tenant farmers, but enough is left to show its state when it was new. The house is situated on the crest of a hUl which overlooks the low, rolling country round about. In the distance are to be seen the blue waters of a little estuary of the bay. Great, ragged trees and an unkempt green sward are the immediate environs. The approach is through a mUe-long avenue of cedar trees, through whose dark tunnel the front of the house beckons on. Originally, great hedges of cedars extended from either side of the house like green pennons half a mUe long, but these have been cut down for telegraph posts hi these latter days. Even the park around the house has been curtaUed in area to make room for the planting of more corn and " crops." 211 COLONLy. MANSIONS OF MARYLAND Bloomingdale is distinguished for the excellence of its brickwork, the bricks being set with an oyster-shell mortar so hard that a cold chisel can with difiiculty penetrate it, and so evenly that they look like the bricks ruled on paper in chUdren's toy-houses. Over the main doorway, in the middle of the central front of the house, is a balcony. At the east side of the house is a small, square, covered porch with steps on two sides. The house has but one wing, which is to the west. On the interior is a very beautiful, broad hallway which extends from front to back, ensuring a cool house whenever any air is stirring. The stairway leads from the rear of the hall and extends straight from the first floor to the attic above the second. Hardwood, once polished until it shone, forms the floor of the haU which is wainscoted to the height of about three feet. The fireplaces in parlour and dining-room are very hand somely carved but the house as a whole does not contain much interior ornamentation. Concerning the early history of Bloomingdale, C. PhUlips Armstrong, who has spent much time in look ing into the subject, has written as follows: The farm bearing the name of Bloomingdale, halfway be tween Wye Mills and Queenstown in Queen Anne's County, con tains over 600 fertile acres. The original tract contained over 1,000 acres and was a grant to the old Seth family from Lord Baltimore and included what was known as Harris' Mill. The whole of this vast acreage remained the property of the Seth family of Talbot County for many years and at one time was 212 BLOOMINGDALE known as Seth's Mills. In the early records of the State of Maryland and those of Queen Anne's County particularly, fre quent reference is made to^ Seth's Mill, and the description there is such as to correspond unmistakably with what afterward came to be called Bloomingdale. Once owned by tbe late Edward Harris, Bloomingdale was inherited from him in 1835 by Misses Mary D. and Sallie Harris. Upon the death of the latter in 1874, it went into the possession of Hon. S. Teackle Wallis, of Baltimore. In 1889 it was purchased by Hiram G. Dudley from John Mather Wallis, heir of S. Teackle Wallis. The main structure was buUt in 1792, but the wing is much older, though it is not possible to set an exact date to its erection. Not far from the house is the slave quarter, a long, bare brick buUding which accommodated sixteen negro famUies, one f amUy to each of the sixteen narrow windows. The most brUliant part of Bloomingdale's life was that spent during the years when the Misses Harris were mistresses of it. Miss SaUie Harris, the elder sister, was a notable figure in the fashionable world of Balti more, where the sisters as young ladies spent most of their winters, and when she retired to Bloomingdale after youth had passed she carried with her a devoted court of admirers. Miss Mary D. Harris was of shyer temperament than her sister and did not so greatly en joy the social successes which fUled her sister's life. They entertained generously and caused the old house to be filled with a gay and pleasant circle at all tunes. Many stories are told of the Misses Harris by old 213 COLONIAL MANSIONS OF MARYLAND residents of Queenstown. As you drive out to the house, your driver wUl tell you of how as a smaU boy he went to Bloomingdale, was taken into the house by Miss Harris, and given sweet cakes. There are many tales of kindnesses done by these two spinster ladies and there is also the pathetic reeoUection of how broken Miss Sallie Harris was by the death of her sister, who left her alone in the world through which they had voyaged together so bravely. The paintings at Bloomingdale which were imported from the Old World in the stately Colonial days attracted great atten tion from distinguished visitors and guests and one was given additional celebrity by being the subject of an animated con troversy between the venerable Bishop Whittingham and a Catholic prelate. In one room, a little winter parlour, and a dreamer's paradise, were hung most of the family portraits, and here were pictures of the maiden sisters, made in the heyday of their youth and dressed alike in black velvet and pearls, but with only the outline of family resemblance between them. The name of the artist is not known but he gave to posterity the fair patrician faces of two of the rarest beauties of the day. The one looked down in the blue-eyed serenity of a household divinity ; the other with a shade of deeper thought or a trace of hauteur. It is but fitting that Bloomingdale should have a ghost. The story was printed in one of Queen Anne County's newspapers in 1879 and told by an eyewitness. One night Miss Sally Harris and a guest, Mrs. Nancy De Courcy, had retired, when a rap was heard at the front door. Both ladies were alarmed, but Mrs. De Courcy accompanied the servant to the door and was 2U GARDEN ENTRANCE TO THE STEMMER HOUSE BLOOMINGDALE confronted by the apparition of WUliam Sterrett, a deceased nephew of Miss Harris. The figure moved down the hall, beckoning to the frightened human beings to follow it, until it came to the door of the room in which it had been accustomed to sleep when in the flesh. Then, without pausing, it went through the door. When the terrified onlookers at last unlocked the door of this room, which had been kept closed for some time, nothing was to be found inside, yet the bed looked rumpled as if somebody had slept in it and just left it. Sterrett's ghost was never again seen, and a thorough search of the house on the night of his one visit faded to disclose anything that would give a reasonable explana tion of the strange figure which the frightened women and the servant had seen. After the death of Miss Sallie Harris, the old place was preserved in the style in which she had kept it by her nephew and heir, Severn Teackle WaUis, who lived the last years of his life here. A man of large means, Walhs spent most of his years in Baltimore where he is remembered for his large benefactions, and is memori alized by a statue in Mount Vernon Place, the most beautiful section of that city. He left the estate at his death to his nephew, John Mather Wallis, from whom it was purchased in 1889 by Mr. Hh-am G. Dudley, of Baltunore and Queen Anne's County, who has a country home at Hemsley Farm, not far from Bloomingdale. MONTMORENCI BALTIMORE COUNTY, MARYLAND WORTHINGTON— CONRAD— LEHR EAR the hamlet of Glyndon, Baltimore County, Maryland, in the Worthington Valley, is to be found the old Worthington home stead, Montmorenci, buUt about 1760 by Samuel Worthington who married Mary ToUey. From these two a long line with many branches has descended, and from this generous old home have gone forth many sturdy sons who have played conspicuous parts among their fellows. The house is finely situated on the crest of a hill in the centre of the thousand and more acres which remain to it of the vast tracts over which it lorded when it was young, and is as sound and weatherproof to-day as when it was new. It is of stone and plaster construction, the waUs being very thick and the foundations of a mass sufficient to support a battlemented tower. A winding road leads from the entrance of the grounds to the front of the house, and from the rear the ground falls sharply away to the Italian garden which the present mistress of the old home, Mrs. Mary Conrad Lehr, of Montmorenci and Washington, is devising at the foot of this declivity. The exterior of the house is plain, and there is a smaU 216 MONTMORENCI wing at the north end which contains the kitchen and pantries. The interior arrangement of Montmorenci is like that of many another old Maryland home in that it has a broad haUway from front to back of the house, on which as an axis the other rooms are symmetricaUy dis posed. The winding staircase, however, with its slender mahogany rail and its slim, patrician mahogany spokes, is a very gracefiU and unusual feature and is perhaps one of the mansion's greatest beauties. In Montmorenci may be found a great quantity of rare old furniture which (as is not always the case) has found an appreciative mistress in the daughter of the house of this generation. It would be, perhaps, without interest to mention styles and periods well known or to attempt in any way a description of the furniture, but in each room of the house are to be found pieces to inter est the lover of things colonial, and so great a quantity has Mrs. Lehr that she is able to furnish her new home in Washington from Montmorenci without seeming to have robbed that place. Not far from Montmorenci is Bloomfield, another old Worthington place and buUt by a son of the buUder of Montmorenci. It is a brick homestead and is dis tinguished for the carving which graces the north waU of the living room on the interior. Though long a Worthington possession, it has been for a number of years the home of Mr. and Mrs. Charles CouncUmann. 217 COLONLVL MANSIONS OF MARYLAND The Worthington family has already received a brief summary in the chapter devoted to Belvoir, the beautiful mansion on the Severn in Anne Arundel County, Mary land. The tombstone of the founder of the famUy in Maryland, Capt. John Worthington, is to be found in a vacant field not far from Annapolis and still in good preservation. From it we learn that Captain John died in 1701. His son, John, styled " Merchant " in his wiU (in M^hich he disposes of a great fortune), married Helen Hammond, daughter of Thomas Hammond and his wife, Mary Heath, and had, among other chUdren, Samuel Worthington, who married Mary ToUey, daughter of Walter ToUey, of Joppa, Baltimore County, Maryland, and built Montmorenci. From Samuel Worthington the homestead descended through Edward, his son, to John ToUey Worthington, first, to John ToUey Worthington, second, his great- grandson, who married Mary Govane Hood, daughter of James Hood, of Hood's MUl, Baltunore County, Maryland. From him it descended to his daughter, Mrs. Sarah Worthington Conrad, now an invalid, whose daughter (who married Louis C. Lehr, Esq.) is the present mistress of Montmorenci. BELVOIR ANNE ARUNDEL COUNTY. MARYLAND ROSS— MAYNADIER— WORTHINGTON— POLUYANSKI N Wyatt's Ridge, overlooking Round Bay, some half a dozen mUes up the Severn River from the " Ancient City," Annapolis, is Belvoir, one of the most pictu resque colonial homes in Mary land. Belvoir is a brick building with a wide haUway and large, well-proportioned rooms, and was built by John Ross, Register of the Land Office of Maryland in colonial days. This John Ross was the father of Anne Arnold Ross, who married Francis Key, son of Philip Key, of St. Mary's County, and became in due course the great-grandfather of the immortal Francis Scott Key, author of our stirring national anthem, " The Star Spangled Banner." Young Francis Scott Key, who lived with his aunt and guardian, Mrs. Upton Scott, formerly Elizabeth Ross, in Annapolis, and was educated at St. John's College (the endowed William and Mary CoUege of revolu tionary times), spent many pleasant hours at Belvoir. From the original owners Belvoir passed to Colonel Maynadier, of Old Windsor, Baltimore County, but it is with the name of Worthington, rather than Ross or Maynadier, that Belvoir is identified. Brice John Worthington, great-grandson of the famous Captain 219 COLONIAL MANSIONS OF MARYLAND John who established the Worthingtons in Maryland, purchased Belvoir in the year 1760, from Colonel May nadier, thereby extending his Summer Hill estate from Eagle's Nest Bay to South River, a distance of seven miles. The purchase price was $25,000, but that it was an excellent investment is evidenced from the fact that its new owner realized half that sum in the first year from tobacco alone. Brice John Worthington was an enthusiastic fol lower of the hounds, like many another of the landed gentry of the day, and it was while on a fox-hunting expedition as a guest of Colonel Maynadier that he met Anne Lee Fitzhugh, whom he subsequently married. He was a son of Nicholas Worthington, son of Thomas, son of Captain John and was fourth in line of descent to serve with distinction in the legislative halls at An napolis. He was an ardent Federalist, and stood nobly by Samuel Chase, signer of the D/eclaration of Inde pendence, and justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, at the time of the latter's unpeachment for injudicious utterances from the bench. The Worthington family is one of the most promi nent in Maryland, and through marriage is connected with nearly every other family of distinction: Dorsey, Brice, Warfield, Hammond, Goldsborough, Contee, Ridgely, Howard, and Chew. The Worthingtons came to this country from England, where, according to Burke, the town of Worthington in the " Hundred of 220 ENTRANCE TO BELVOIR BELVOIR Leyland," near Liverpool, has been " in high repute from the tune of the Plantagenets." The first Worthington to settle in Maryland was Captain John, that famous old Indian fighter, in 1670. In 1686 Captain John purchased Greenbury Forest from Col. Nicholas Greenbury, and shortly thereafter married Sarah Howard, a daughter of Matthew Howard, his neighbour on the Severn River. In 1692 he was appointed Associate Justice of Anne Arundel County, and in 1699 was a member of the Legislative Assembly. At the tune of his death in 1701 he owned, in addition to Greenbury Forest, a number of valuable tracts of land: Lowe's Addition, Howard's Pasture, Pendenny, and Expectation, and many nameless tracts aggregating a vast acreage. His tomb, an immense slab of gray marble, lies opposite the United States Naval Academy, just a few yards from the old home stead. It is excellently preserved, and the inscription is quite legible: Here Lieth Interred The Body Of Captain John Worthington, Who Departed This Life, April 9, 1701, Aged 51 years. Belvoir continued in the possession of the Worthing ton famUy untU within recent years. The surviving chUdren of Nicholas Brice Worthington are: Joseph Muse, Eugene, Mrs. Gordon Handy Claude (formerly 221 COLONIAL MANSIONS OF MARYLAND Sophia Muse Worthington), and Rear-Admiral Walter Fitzhugh Worthington of the United States Navy, aU of Annapolis. The present owner is Reuben J. Poluyanski, who, by the generous application of brUliant pigments to the waUs and woodwork, has made the " green," " yellow " and " blue " rooms of this beautiful old place quite unmistakable. The mansion is situated on a high ridge and has a beautiful outlook over the blue waters of Round Bay, the head of the Severn River, which it faces. Archi tecturally its design is that of a capital letter T, the head of the T being the front of the house and the post to wards the river. At the base of the ridge on which Belvoir is situated and between the old house and the river, is the course of the Annapolis-Baltimore post- road, a very important avenue of travel one hundred years ago but now very rarely traversed. The doorway of the house is situated about one-third ofi" the middle of the front and is introduced by a very quaint portico with arched ceUing and pointed roof. The door contains a massive old knocker bearing the Worthington coat-of-arms. When you enter the house, you are struck by the thickness of the walls. The house, being situated on such an exposed height, required even thicker walls than was the custom of the time in which it was erected. There is some very pretty wood-carving, particularly of 222 BELVOIR the mantels in the parlour and dining-room, but the house does not contain a great deal of ornamentation. The brickwork of the walls is very solid, and the bricks are larger than ordinary. The foundation waUs in the cellar are fuUy five feet thick, and in the ceUar, also, is to be found a dungeon constructed by the original owners for mischievous or unruly slaves. It is safe to assert that a taste of this hole's black recesses would cure any negro of propensity to violence. That this means of correction was of little use to the Worthingtons, however, we may believe from the statement of Dr. Joseph Muse Worthington, a beloved physician of Annapolis, who was born at Belvoir and who says that in his recollection of his father he knew him only once to deal severely with a servant and that was when a negro woman attempted to kill one of her fellow-workers with a kitchen knife. The garden of Belvoir lies to the front of the house and even in its desolation to-day shows the beauty that must have been its own when in perfection. It has the outlook over Round Bay that is one of the great charms of the house, and contains many shrubs and flowers which once on a time would have contented an observer near at hand, without his having to look to distance for beauty. Not far from the garden but to the back of the house is an old barn, very interesting as showing how solidly our forefathers could buUd these adjuncts to life when 223 COLONLyL MANSIONS OF MARYLAND they chose. Its walls are of brick half-way up and are almost as thick as those of the " big house " itself. One of its especial features is a heavy chimney with a space for an open fire at the bottom. The barn was used as a living room by the slaves of the plantation and, in accordance with the traditions of the place, must needs be comfortable for them as much as for the most honoured guest in the great house. Not far away are the remains of the slave quarters themselves, which were solid log and mortar structures. About half a mile from Belvoir, but on the Belvoir grounds, is the grave of Ann Arnold Key, grandmother of Francis Scott Key, composer of the national anthem, whose resting-place has been protected by the Maryland Chapter of the Colonial Dames of America by the placing around it of a heavy chain fence. The fence forms a little square with the insignificant stone which marks the grave as its centre. Standing about are great sycamore trees and tall grass covers the ground. It is a desolate scene, yet the simple action of the Colonial Dames has given a warm touch of humanity to it all. PLAIN DEALING TALBOT COUNTY, MARYLAND CHAMBERLAINE— LOCKERMAN— HARDCASTLE 'EW old places in the State of Maryland can boast of finer tra ditions than Plain Dealing, the homestead of the Chamberlaine family. On Plain Dealing Creek the Indians were wont to trade with the Friends, exchanging pelts, deerskins and things of their manufacture for those things which the white men had brought from the Old World. As the Friends always dealt honestly with the Indians, the latter named the creek " Plain Deal ing," and it is from the creek on which it is situated that the Chamberlaine homestead gets its name. A large stone now marks the spot at the edge of the water where the Indians traded with the white men. Plain Dealing is in Talbot County, on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, across from the town of Oxford (settled in 1695) on the Tred Avon River, one of the most beautiful streams of the Eastern Shore. Plain Dealing was deeded to the Chamberlaine famUy during the reign of Queen Anne. This was the first home of the Chamberlaines in America, and was buUt in 1753 by Samuel Chamberlaine, who was born at Saughall on the Dee, England, in 1697. His father, Thomas Chamberlaine, and his uncle John had for many 15 225 COLONIAL MANSIONS OF MARYLAND years engaged in trade with the colonies in America, and owned many ships plying between Liverpool, England, and Oxford, Maryland. Coming to the New World in one of these ships, Thomas, in 1714, decided to settle at Oxford. The famUy derives its name from John, Count de Tankerville, Lord Chamberlain to Henry I, of England, in the early part of the twelfth century. Richard, son of John, succeeded to his father's posses sion in the royal household, and assumed the patronymic of Chamberlain, but retained the Tankerville coat-of- arms. In 1735, Samuel moved from Oxford to Plain Dealing. At that time he was one of the richest men in the county, owning thousands of fertile acres. For many years he was a member of the Lord Proprietor's CouncU, Deputy Naval Ofiicer of Pocomoke and Ox ford, and Collector of the Port of Oxford, to which latter position his son Thomas in due course succeeded. There is a tradition at Plain Dealing of how Susan Robins of Peach Blossoms married Thomas Chamber laine, eldest son of Samuel and Henrietta Maria Chamberlaine, and was taken to his lovely home on Plain Dealing Creek. Soon after their marriage the husband died, and for seven years his disconsolate widow sat at a window in her room gazing out upon the grave of her husband in the nearby burying ground. Rumor has it that at night she had a lantern placed upon the grave that her eyes might still rest upon the sacred 226 PLAIN DEALING spot. For seven years the widow refused to be com forted, and then one day she saw her handsome cousin, Robert Lloyd Nichols, ride past the window at which she sat. Their eyes met, her sorrow vanished, and the beautiful widow shortly afterwards married her dashing young cousin who had ridden between her and the grave of the husband whom she mourned. In the old graveyard, now overrun with weeds and bushes, are two large marble slabs, on which the Chamberlaine coat-of-arms is beautifully engraved. One of these marks the grave of Col. Thomas Chamberlaine, whose widow so faithfully kept vigil over his grave during seven long, weary years. The second marks the grave of Henrietta Maria Chamberlaine, wife of Samuel Chamberlaine and eldest daughter of Col. James Lloyd of Talbot County. " She departed this life on the 29th day of March, 1749, aged 37 years, 2 months and 3 days." Near this historic old graveyard is a large depression in the earth, concerning which there is a story weU known to the residents of the Eastern Shore. According to this story, some three-quarters of a century ago Plain Dealing was occupied by two brothers of the name of Valhant. One night one of the brothers had a dream that beneath the spot referred to there was gold buried. The following day the two brothers started to dig. At the sight of the gold which they actually found one of 227 COLONIAL MANSIONS OF MARYLAND the brothers lost his mind. The value of the gold thus unearthed is unknown, but with it the surviving brother purchased Sharpe's Island, which then contained about seven hundred acres. To-day, not more than twenty acres survive the unremitting attack of the waters of the Chesapeake. Like many another colonial home of Maryland, Plain Dealing has its ghost. An owner of the mansion, according to the tale which obtains, fell from the upper story over the carved railing into the hall, breaking his neck, and leaving a stain of blood upon the floor which even the passage of the centuries has not erased. After his death the house was neglected, and began to go to ruin. Its handsome panelling and carving began to decay; its walls crumbled and became moss-covered; its spreading roof showed signs of advancing age; the old furniture became covered with dust ; the old portraits of patrician men and women, with powdered wigs and once-immaculate ruff's, became stained and mouldy, whUe from the wet cellar came dank, miasmic airs as from a tomb. The famUy burying ground, just across the lawn upon the banks of the creek, became a tangled mass of weeds, trees and underbrush, while the vaults cracked open and their ghostly occupants stalked at wUl — an ideal setting in truth for ghostly visitants, but to enhance this, the neglected old dwelling became the abode of " Katie Coburn, the witch." This witch, the 228 PLAIN DEALING last of her line known in Talbot County, was aged, de formed and hideous. Children fled at her approach and negroes were terror-stricken at the very mention of her name. The threat that " Katie Coburn wUl get you if you don't look out " had a salutary effect on the be haviour of the former, and the latter were in constant fear of being hoodooed by a wicked glance from her " evU eye." Negroes wore charms to counteract her speUs — rabbit foot and what not — and it may be assumed they did not crowd upon the heels of " Katie Coburn, the witch," as she walked the highway. Not far from Plain Dealing there was a farmer whose cows pastured near the old Chamberlaine burying ground. One afternoon the boy whose duty it was to drive the cows home, had to go near the lonely spot, and beheld to his amazement a stranger there — a man, tall, stately, and atthed in the fashion of a bygone period. The man spoke to the boy; the latter fled. The story was dismissed as the idle fancy of a chUd. Again and again the lad saw the same strange visitant, until at last he spoke to him, and in response saw him walk to a cer tain spot in the burying ground and look downward, stamping his foot. This performance was gone through several evenings between the boy and the silent spectre. On one occasion the spectre led the boy — now no longer afraid of hun — into the deserted old home and pointed to a portrait on the wall. The boy saw that his guide 229 COLONIAL MANSIONS OF MARYLAND was strangely like the portrait. Leading the lad back to the graveyard, the spectre pointed downwards and stamped his foot as before. As it was growing dark and the cows had already gone homeward, the boy suddenly decided to go also and lost no time in so doing. StUl they laughed at his story, but then came the rumour that " witch Katie " had not only disappeared from Plain Dealing, but no trace of her was to be discovered in the surrounding country. The boy had not seen her since the coming of his strange acquaintance of the graveyard. At last, so impressed were the parents of the boy with the story of the strange visitor — daily seen in the gloaming and now become the talk of the neighbourhood — that the father accompanied his son one evemng to investigate the phenomenon. " There he is, father. See, he has gone to the same spot and is pointing to the ground," exclaimed the boy. The father was unable to see, but he was impressed with the look and manner of his son, and replied: " WeU, my son, we wUl see what the ghost is pointing out to us." The spectre was seen no more, but the famUy of the boy to whom the spectre had revealed himself grew suddenly rich. According to the legend, they belonged to a noble family in England, who, having been de frauded of their inheritance, came to America to seek a home, and that this ghost, one of their ancestors, had 230 PLAIN DEALING enriched them by pointing out the treasure, discovering himself (for some unknown reason) only to the lad. Since 1735 Plain Dealing has been in the possession of but three famUies, the Chamberlaines, the Locker- mans, and the Hardcastles. Gen. E. L. F. Hardcastle, the present owner, bought the farm in 1856, and built the present substantial and beautiful addition to the original mansion. The original part of the house built in 1735 forms the rear part of the building as it stands to-day. BEVERLY SOMERSET COUNTY, MARYLAND DENNIS E VERLY, the old homestead of the Dennis famUy, is on the Pocomoke River, Somerset County, on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, about six mUes from Pocomoke City. The original estate, which con tained over 1,600 acres, extending beyond what is now the Virginia line, at present contains only 500 acres. It was first patented in 1664 by Dan- nock Dennis during the reign of Charles II. The estate has been in the possession of the Dennis family for nine generations, extending over a period of more than two hundred years. The present owner is James Teagle Dennis, of Baltunore and the Green Sprmg Valley, Maryland, who is a lineal descendant of the origmal owner. Prior to Mr. James T. Dennis's possession, the place was owned by Arthur C. Dennis, of Winnipeg, Canada; Alfred P. Dennis, of Pocomoke City, Maryland; and Samuel K. Dennis, of Baltunore, and was occupied by their mother and sister. Beverly is well situated and has a commanding out look upon the water of Pocomoke Sound, half a dozen mUes to the south. A straight, broad avenue, fianked by red cedars, leads out from the front of the house through orchards and cornfields for nearly a mile to the country 232 BEVERLY road at the eastern edge of the plantation. The velvet lawns, the beautiful river terrace, the stately pines and cypresses rising above a well-kept garden, materially enhance the natural beauty of the site. The present dwelling is the second of the ancient manor houses, and was erected about 1774 by Susannah Dennis. The first was destroyed by fire in the early part of the eighteenth century. The house is of the familiar Georgian model and contains much carving. So typical of Maryland colonial homes was it considered that it was reproduced in outline on the silver service presented some years since to the cruiser Maryland by the state for which the battle-ship was named. The interior woodwork of the house is of heart yellow pine. The wainscoting, staircases and window seats are wrought out by hand in the style of the middle of the eighteenth century. The iron porch on the west side of the house, overlooking the river, is of a style rarely seen out of England, whence it came. The front porch (facing the main entrance on the east), with its great white columns and its wide upper veranda, is in the con ventional type of the period in which it was built. A colony of nearly one hundred slaves was contained on the plantation until the Civil War, and the marks of the self-centred, self-supporting character of the ante bellum days are strong upon the old Beverly estate. There is stUl an old smoke-house, in which for more than two centuries, extending down to the present date. COLONIAL MANSIONS OF MARYLAND the family meats have been smoked, and remnants of the old negro quarters, the " ship-yard lot," the " saw- bit lot," the " tan-yard lot " and " blacksmith lot " exist. In the old carriage-shed a coach of the Louis Quinze period, with iron steps, leather straps and seats for lackeys, still stands. This is one of the picturesque old coaches of early days and was drawn by six richly caparisoned horses driven by pompous darkies in magnificent liveries. There is a famUy graveyard and two negro burying grounds. In the former, nine generations of the dis tinguished Dennis family have been laid to rest, and here, also, may be seen the handsome tomb, with its quaint lettering, of Susannah Dennis, who was the first mistress of the present Beverly homestead. SOTTERLY ST. MARY'S COUNTY. MARYLAND BOWLES— PLATER— BRISCOE— SATTERLEE NE of the most historic places in Maryland is Sotterly, the Plater mansion in Saint Mary's County, on the Patuxent River. Through its purchase in 1910 by Herbert L. Satterlee, of New York— whose wife was a daughter of the late financier, J. Pierpont Morgan — ^the old homestead has singularly enough come into the hands of one who is not descended from the famUy of its builder, but who is descended from the famUy from which the English seat of the famUy of its buUder took its name. Sotterly, in other words, derives its cognomen from " Sotterle," the seat of the Plater famUy in England; and this Plater seat in England was long years ago purchased from the Sotterle family of which Mr. Satterlee to-day is an American descendant. Needless to say, it is finely maintained and in its present hands is a magnificent example, indeed, of the fine dwelling house of the early colonial period of the nation's history in a cavalier sec tion of the provinces. The house is of frame with brick foundation, gables, and porches and a flagstone colonnade. It is in the shape of a capital letter Z and is one and a half stories 235 COLONML MANSIONS OF MARYLAND in height with a steep roof, surmounted by a cupola and pierced with triangiUar capped dormer windows. From cellar to foot of the hUl below the house leads a secret passageway of brick. The rooms are large and airy on the first floor but low and sloping on the second. Throughout the house is a great deal of fine paneUing and in the parlour, in particular, is to be found a quantity of delicate carving, the ornamentation of the alcoves here being especially fine. The doors of the parlour are of solid mahogany, swung on solid brass straps extending about two feet out from the frame. The stairway is of mahogany and the balustrade and newel post are of an ingenious filigree which, fanuly tradition tells us, was devised by a mechanic named Bowen who was one of the " King's seven year con victs." He was purchased by the buUder of Sotterly and liberated for his devoted work here. James Walter Thomas, the historian of Saint Mary's County, says: In the front yard of Sotterly fonnerly stood two small square buildings with cone-shaped roofs. The one stood at the garden gate and was used as a wine and smoking room; the other stood immediately opposite, and was used as the office of the Collector and Naval Officer of the Patuxent District. The former of these is now at the foot of the yard, opposite the old " Gate Lodge," the other is in the barn-yard, flanked by a series of sheds and used as a granary. Sotterly was erected about 1730 by James Bowles. 236 SOTTERLY For a number of years it was known as Bowles' Separa tion, as the ground on which it stood was originaUy part of Fenwick's Manor, one of the earliest grants of land in the province of Maryland, and was " separated " from it for Bowles. At first it contained 2,000 acres, but this number has long since dwindled to the present comparatively modest limits of the estate. After no long time James Bowles died, and his widow married the Hon. George Plater, one of the most unportant men of the province. James Walter Thomas says: The Hon. George Plater was a member of the Assembly and Attorney General of Maryland as early as 1691, and from 1692 to 1720 was the Collector of Customs for the Patuxent. Governor George Plater, only son of Hon. George Plater, and heir of Sotterly, was bom in 1736, and was educated at William and Mary's College. In 1760 he visited England, where he was introduced by letters from Govemor Horatio Sharpe. He seems to have made an agreeable impression while there upon Lord Baltimore, who shortly after indicated to Govemor Sharpe his desire to have him associated " in the affairs of the Province," and with which he soon became so prominently connected. He married Ann Rousby, the only child of Col. John Rousby, of the once famous and beautiful estate on the Calvert side of the Patuxent, known as Rousby Hall. Mrs. Plater enjoys the reputation of having been a woman possessed of rare personal beauty and stately elegance. Her rich patrimony, added to the already large estate of her husband, enabled the occupants of Sotterly to live in courtly style, and in full keeping with their distinguished position, as is clearly attested by the will of Governor Plater and the inventory of his estate. Governor George and Ann Rousby Plater left two daughters, Ann and Rebecca (whose fame for beauty and accomplishments have lived 237 COLONIAL MANSIONS OF MARYLAND to the present day), and three sons, George, Thomas, and John Rousby Plater. Ann Plater married the distinguished jurist and statesman, Phihp Barton Key, and Rebecca married General Uriah Forrest, of the Maryland line; George, eldest son of Govemor George Plater and heir of Sotterly, married, first, March 9, 1795, Cecelia B. Bond, of Southampton, and second, March 22, 1798, Elizabeth Somerville. He died in 1802, leav ing by his first marriage George, who inherited Sotterly and lost it, and by his second Ann Elizabeth Plater, who married her cousin, John Rousby Plater. Judge John Rousby, second son of Govemor George Plater, married Elizabeth Tuttle, of Annapolis, Maryland. He died in 1832. There is an interesting story told of Ann Rousby, who was the wife of Gov. George Plater. Mrs. Rousby, the mother, became a widow at twenty, and as mistress of a fine estate and proprietress of many personal charms as well, was much sought after in marriage. Among the most ardent of her wooers was a Colonel Fitzhugh, of Virginia, who was leaving Rousby Hall one day when he espied Mrs. Rousby's infant daughter asleep with its nurse near the water side. He approached the sleeping child and took it in his arms, and before the startled mother, who had followed his movements with wonder ing eyes, could guess what he was about, had held the infant far out over the water. " If you do not promise to marry me, I will drop this chUd into the current," he said. The distracted mother gave the promise asked and not long after became the bride of Colonel Fitzhugh. The infant whose tiny life was the battlefield of two 238 SOTTERLY wiUs was that Ann Rousby who became the wife of Governor George Plater. Early in the nineteenth century, after more than a hundred years of possession, Sotterly passed from the Platers and until its purchase by Mr. Satterlee belonged to the famUy of Dr. Walter Hanson Stone Briscoe. A descendant of the Platers of Sotterly is Mrs. Kirby Flower Smith, of Baltimore, wife of Prof. Kirby Flower Smith, of Johns Hopkins University, whose great-great-grandfather was John Rousby Plater. DEEP FALLS ST. MARY'S COUNTY, MARYLAND THOMAS OT far from the vUlage of Chaptico, Saint Mary's County, Maryland, is the quaint Thomas homestead. Deep FaUs, now the summer home of James Walter Thomas, lawyer, of Cumberland, Mary land, and historian-author of " Chronicles of Saint Mary's County." Somewhat fallen to frayed ends in later years. Deep FaUs has recently been restored in the smaUest detaU, to its condi tion when new, by its present master. In a proprietary grant of March 26, 1680, the estate of Deep Falls is spoken of as " Wales," but shortly the name became that which it bears to-day. The house was erected by Major William Thomas about 1745 and has never passed from the hands of descendants of the buUder. To approach Deep Falls one drives through a beauti ful wooded avenue. The house itself is situated on an eminence which commands a fine view. In appearance it is like an English country dwelling-house, its most distinguished feature being the group of great chimneys which tower above its roof-line. It is sixty feet long and forty feet deep and has wide piazzas, front and back, running its whole length, supported by massive pUlars. 240 DEEP FALLS It is a large, double two-story frame buUding with brick foundation. While the whole effect of the old mansion is that of massive simplicity, yet it is so weU proportioned in aU of its parts that it is not without grace. In the rear of the house are five terraces, each one hundred feet long and ten feet deep, which lead to the plateau below, where is an old-time garden of Queen Anne design fiUed with beautiful old flowering shrubs and bushes. On either side of the house are broad lawns made picturesque by gentle undulations and rich and varied foliage. Not far from the house is the graveyard dedicated to family burial for more than a century and a half, and containing within its limits the successive generations that have lived and passed away at Deep FaUs. The interior of the house does not contain a great deal of ornamentation, and bears out the character of the sunplicity which marks the outside, but it is distinguished by the staircase which leads off from the main hall at the rear, its point of departure being signalized by a beautiful arch. The sides of the stair are panelled and carved ; the newel posts are of maple with rosewood tops surmounted with an ivory knob. This WUliam Thomas, builder of Deep Falls, was the son of John Thomas, Charles County, where he was born in 1714. He removed early in life to St. Mary's County and resided there until his death. He was a delegate to the Revolutionary Convention in 1775, and 16 241 COLONIAL MANSIONS OF MARYLAND a member of the Committee of Safety for St. Mary's County in the same year. He married Elizabeth Thomas, daughter of Thomas Reeves, and died at his residence in March, 1795, leaving four sons and a daughter. Thomas Thomas, first of his name in Maryland, was one of the early settlers on the Patuxent River, there being a survey made out for him — known as Broad Neck —in 1651. In 1671 he died, leaving amongst other items " 2 pewter dishes, 1 pewter Bason, 3 poringers, 6 spoons, 1 Dutch pott and pott hookes and 1 dish," to his daughter Grace. Others of his chUdren fared equaUy weU. James, eldest son of Thomas, was born in the year in which his parents came to Maryland. He died in 1701, and left among other chUdren a son John, who was the father of William Thomas, buUder of Deep Falls. WUliam Thomas, son of William, who inherited the homestead, was born at Deep Falls and became a very prominent man of his time. He held the commission of major in the Maryland line of the Continental Army, was member of the House of Delegates of this state, and for twelve years previous to his death, in 1813, was President of the Maryland Senate. He was a prominent freemason, and was elected in June, 1799, Grand Master of Maryland. He married in 1782 Catherine Boarman, daughter of Mary Brook Boarman, and through an inheritance of his wife acquired the historic 242 DEEP FALLS estate of De La Brook in St. Mary's County. He died at De La Brook on the Patuxent, leaving Deep Falls to his eldest son, James, from whom it has descended to its present owner. James Thomas, son of WUliam, inheritor of Deep Falls, was a physician and was educated at St. John's College, Annapolis. In 1883 he was elected Governor of Maryland. He married his cousin, Eliza, daughter of Major WUliam and Elizabeth Thomas Coates. In the graveyard of Deep Falls may be deciphered the foUowing inscriptions among others: In memory of Maj.-Gen. James Thomas, Ex-Govemor of Maryland, bom March 11, 1785, died December 25th, 1845, aged 60 years, 9 months and 14 days. This Monument is erected as a tribute of affection by his children. Green be the turf above thee. Friend of my better days; None knew thee but to love thee, None named thee, but to praise. Richard Thomas, bora June 20, 1797, died Oct. 30th, 1849. He was long a member of the Legislature of Maryland, and for many years President of the Senate with unanimous applause, standing always honorably high in public confidence and private affection. Major William Thomas Sr., died March 25, 1795, a soldier of the Revolution. WUliam Thomas, youngest son of Major WiUiam and Catherine Boarman Thomas, born March, 1793, studied medicine under Dr. Physick in PhUadelphia, 243 COLONML MANSIONS OF MARYLAND graduated in 1814, and took up his home at Cremona, another beautiful homestead of St. Mary's County, on the Patuxent River. He married Eliza Tubman, grand daughter of Henry Greenfield Sothoron and Mary Bond, of Chaptico Manor. He died at Cremona, Sep tember 30, 1849, leaving, amongst other chUdren, John Henry Thomas, who married November 12, 1851, Mary Leiper, and resided at Trent Hall, an old estate devised to him by his maternal cousin, John Truman Hawkins. He died June 15, 1893. In the burying ground at Trent HaU are to be found the tombstones of James Truman, Gent., died August 7, 1672, and Nathaniel Truman, Gent., died March 4, 1678. The chUdren of John Henry Thomas were : George Leiper Thomas, an attorney of Baltimore; WiUiam, who died in 1857; and Elizabeth Snowden Thomas, of Baltimore, present owner of Trent Hall. COLONIAL MANSIONS OF DELAWARE AMSTEL HOUSE NEW CASTLE. DELAWARE VAN DYKE— MOODY— BURNHAM— HAY HE visitor to New Castle, Dela ware, who walks up the well- shaded street which bounds the western side of the ancient court square of this delightful little old city will find himself (about a square beyond this commons) in a veritable colony of old houses holding gossip together in stately, old-time fashion. Conspicuous among them is the Amstel House, so known because so christened by its present owners ; this is the oldest dwelling-house in New Castle. Prof. Henry Hanby Hay, the present occupant of this mansion, has spent much of his leisure lime, after attending his ofiicial duties at Girard College, Phila delphia, in investigation of the history of his home. He has found that the earliest mention of the homestead in the records preserved in the court-house of his native town is to be found in a bUl of sheriff's sale bearing the date of 1745, but from structural architectural peculiarities and other suggestive characteristics he places the date of erection of the house at about 1730. This date and the name " Amstel House," a fanciful cognomen derived from the ancient name of " New Amstel " which New Castle bore in older days, he has 247 COLONIAL MANSIONS OF DELAWARE had carved in a tablet above the door of his home. In construction the house has a great resemblance to Stenton, an old homestead near Philadelphia, whose date of erection is known to have been near that which Professor Hay has assigned to his own domicUe. The fii'st occupant of the mansion whose name has been handed down to us of the present day as having lived in it was Governor Nicholas Van Dyke, progenitor of a distinguished line, whose term of office was shortly after the close of the revolutionary war and whose name is associated with many of the great movements of his locality and day. New Castle, in Governor Van Dyke's day and prior to 1837, indeed, was on the main line of travel between Philadelphia, Baltimore and southern points, and Governor Van Dyke's home entertained many dis tinguished travellers making their way from one part of the colonies to another. Among these visitors was Lafayette. Washington was a friend of this hospitable patrician also, and was entertained in this old home. In 1774 the enforcement of the Port Bill brought great suffering to many citizens of Boston, Massachusetts. Governor Van Dyke busied hunself in raising a sub scription for the alleviation of the privations of these unfortunates and secured an amount totalling more than nine hundred dollars of United States currency. Exactly fifty years after this — ^after the terrible fire of April 24, which destroyed a great part of New 248 ENTRANCE TO AMSTEL HOUSE u. 1730 AMSTEL HOUSE Castle, including the home of George Read, the signer, and many beautiful colonial mansions of the city — Boston sent generous pecuniary aid to the victims of misfortune in the little Delaware commonalty and selected Nicholas Van Dyke, son of the governor, to be the distributor of its offerings. From Governor Van Dyke the homestead passed by purchase to Major John Moody, whose daughter married John Burnham, Esq., and inherited the house. At her death she left it to her son, John Burnham, who was the owner until the year 1900, when it was pur chased by its present occupants. Prof. Henry Hanby Hay and his wife. Mrs. Hay was a Miss Rodney be fore her marriage, a native of New Castle, and a great- grand-niece of Caesar Rodney, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence from Delaware. The Amstel House is distinguished on the exterior by the heavy roof which far overhangs the pavement. The windows are almost square and very heavily trimmed. Entering the house through the heavy doorway with its very decided Dutch character, one finds oneself in a haUway bisecting the house and facmg a broad stairs with deep, generous steps. To the right is a living- room, the opposite waU of which is heavily and beauti fully paneUed in wood. To the left is a dining-room. The house contains much paneUing throughout and the north waU of the aforementioned living-room has set 249 COLONIAL MANSIONS OF DELAWARE in it two secret cupboards on either side of the big, old fu-eplace. In them the master of the house in other days kept the wines and tobaccos with which he regaled his guests. The house, in its present beautifully main tained condition, owes much of its charm to the energy and discretion of Mrs. Hay, who set herself to renovate and restore it where necessary to the state it held when it was new. That she was successful is evidenced by the very charming glimpse its interior gives of home life in the externals as it was lived in the days of our forefathers. DICKINSON HOUSE KENT COUNTY, DELAWARE DICKINSON— LOGAN HE Dickinson House, about seven mUes from Dover, Dela ware, in Kent County, near Del aware Bay, is a well preserved example of colonial home build ing. It is a large brick edifice with wings, and its beauty is much enhanced by the fine trees surrounding it. Samuel Dickinson, the first of the name in Delaware, began to buy lands along St. Jones' Creek and its vicinity about 1715. He was born in Talbot County, Maryland, and moved to Delaware rather late in life. Other branches of his f amUy are stiU seated in the former state, where an interesting memorial of its existence is Crosiadore, an old homestead not far from Easton, Talbot County, Maryland. On December 3, 1743, he received a deed embracing one thousand three hundred and sixty-eight acres which he named Dickin son's Manor, and on this, about 1750, he buUt his resi dence. In 1738 he became one of the magistrates of the court of Kent County, continuing in ofiice for many years. He died at his residence and is buried in a f amUy graveyard adjacent. " Crosiadore," the Dickinson home in Talbot County, Maryland, is still in existence. A sketch of the old 251 COLONIAL MANSIONS OF DELAWARE place has been given by Prentiss Ingraham in his " Land of Legendary Lore." Here lived the eldest sons of the Dickinson fainily for many generations. The first bouse was remodelled into a modem country home ; was built of EngKsh bricks and in English style. The wainscoted walls and winding staircases spoke of the age in which they were built, then regarded as the most costly and elegant finish for a gentleman's home. Tbe whole appearance and air of the place gives one the impression of refinement and hospitality, while the resourceful country and the beautiful river afford Crosiadore a situation and advantage that make the spot an ideal one for a home. On the walls to-day hang tapestries spun and embroidered by the ladies of that house, and in several instances the subjects of the pictures were romances in the Hves of members of the family. On the lawn are grand old trees which have stood guard these many years and have been the silent witnesses to many a gathering of old and young. Ahke to wedding marches and funeral dirges have their soughing winds played soft accompaniments ; and now in tum they, too, are in the " sere and yellow leaf," yet still replete with memories dear to those who read. " Crosiadore " is a corruption of the French " croix d'or " meaning " cross of gold," derived perhaps from some heraldic design of the ancestors who were engaged in the crusades. In this old home was bom, in 1732, John Dickinson, Govemor of Pennsylvania, and founder of Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania. He was the second son of Samuel Dickinson, the grandson of the first proprietor of the estate, and of Mary Cadwalader, his second wife, sister of Dr. Thomas Cadwalader, of Philadelphia. In 1740 Samuel Dickinson moved to Kent County, Delaware. Another scion of this house was the Dickin son who fought and was killed in a duel with President Andrew Jackson. The cause of diflference was a trivial one, but, accord- 252 DICKLNSON HOUSE ing to the code of those days, honour had to be satisfied by resort to arms. At the first fire Dickinson wounded his opponent, but Jackson, reserving his fire, advanced, shot and killed Dickinson instantly. His body was brought to Talbot County, and he was buried in the adjoining county of Caroline. John Dickinson, son of Samuel, and the next occu pant of the Dickinson House, was born in Maryland two years before his father moved to Delaware. He was the author of the famous " Farmer's Letters," which created so much discussion just prior to the Revolution on both sides of the Atlantic, and it was in this house that they were written. After the close of the conflict between Great Britain and her colony, Mr. Dickinson moved to Wilmington, and later to Phila delphia where he died in 1801, aged seventy-five years. He left two daughters, SaUy N. and Maria. The former was the inheritor of the homestead, but at her death, unmarried, it passed to her sister's chUdren. " At the time of her death," says Scharf, " she was the largest landowner in Kent County, and was assessed on over three thousand acres of highland and marsh." Maria Dickinson married Albanus Logan, who was descended from WiUiam Logan, a man of consequence under Penn's administration, and they had four chU dren. These were Dr. John Dickinson Logan, Gustavus Gr., Mary N., and Mrs. Betton. When the property was divided between them, Samuel Betton received the north part as his mother's share ; Gustavus G., the home 253 COLONML MANSIONS OF DELAWARE property; Doctor John Dickinson, the lower part; and Mary, other lands adjacent. The only piece of land sold of the Dickinson estate, since 1743, was disposed of by Miss SaUy Dickinson in 1823 to Levick Pahner, who was thus singled out for favour because he was a Quaker. KENSEY JOHNS HOUSE NEW CASTLE, DELAWARE JOHNS— STOCKTON— MOORE HE Kensey Johns House, New Castle, Delaware, faces the his toric court-house square which has seen four flags fly and four nations conduct their tribunals of justice and is on the northeast corner of Third and Delaware Avenues. It is the largest of the older mansions of the quaint city and is the only one that has that distinctive feature of many colonial homes — a wing. Now occupied by the famUy of Dr. Lewis Booker, a well-known physi cian of New Castle, it was buUt about the close of the eighteenth century by Chief Justice Kensey Johns, one of the distinguished men of the early days of the state of Delaware. The house is two stories and a half in height and has a long extension in the rear. The door way is chaste and graceful in design, and the interior of the house contains much fine carving. The builder of this house was noted for his hospi tality. He was a man of broad culture and great learn ing and his library contained more books than were to be found in almost any other collection in the state in that day. He was of Maryland family, and of that family with which the founder of Johns Hopkins Uni versity and the Johns Hopkins hospital in Baltimore 255 COLONIAL MANSIONS OF DELAWARE was connected. Upon the marriage of his son James, he buUt the old home now occupied by Mayor James Rodney, of New Castle, as a wedding gift to the pair setting forth upon the seas of matrimony. When his son Kensey married he built for him that house opposite his own at Third and Delaware Avenues; and these two houses, with his own, stand as monuments to his love of fine things and the generosity both of his temperament and his pocket-book. He had three daughters, Susannah (who married Dr. David Stewart, as has been related), Ann, and Nancy (who married Governor Stockton, of Delaware). Upon the death of its buUder, the Johns House descended to his daughter Nancy and was thus for a while the governor's home of Delaware, during the in cumbency of Governor Stockton. The mansion de scended by inheritance to the Misses Nancy and Fidelia Stockton, who did not marry, and finally to Miss Eliza beth Moore, of New Castle, their niece, who is the present owner, though not the present occupant. = 0 LOOCKERMAN HOUSE DOVER, DELAWARE LOOCKERMAN— BRADFORD— CULBRETH g IKE ahnost all of the other Dela ware colonial homes, the Loocker- man House, in Dover, has a great deal of personal charm. It is a brick building two stories in height, without wings, and is re markable for the beautiful old garden which it retains, a memento of other days. The rooms are large and with lofty ceilings, and the hall has a very quaint and delightful staircase, while in the parlour back of the hall is some very well-preserved panelling, exquisite carving and charming sheU-cup- boards containing a veritable prince's hoard of old china and glass-ware. A glass goblet in this collection has cut on it in bold Briton character, " Confusion to the enemies of King George in the Colonies." Another one wears defiantly, " To our Hessian confederates. Confusion to the Colonies." It is not hard to guess the complexion of the house during the revolutionary period. To get to the famous garden of the Loockerman House, one merely steps through the old-fashioned doorway in the parlour and immediately finds himself in a wUderness of towering box-bushes, great trees which cast a velvety, deep shade in the brightest noonday. 17 257 COLONLAL MANSIONS OF DELAWARE and strange flowering plants whose names one does not even know. Of the trees in this garden, some are of a variety known as " Kentucky Coffee Bean," for just what reason it is difficult to discover, the fruits of which, very much like almond kernels in appearance, become hard and lustrous and take a beautiful polish when carried around in the pocket. Needless to say, every small boy in Dover cherishes a Kentucky coffee bean worn to an intense degree of brUliancy. In the house is much old furniture brought from England. On the second floor one will find fireplaces with quaint blue Dutch tiles, which were brought from Holland, for the Loockermans are of Knickerbocker ancestry. Francis Vincent in his History of Delaware writes: Of all the Delaware Knickerbocker families, none that we know of has so complete a chain of descent as the off^spring of the celebrated Govert Loockermans, the sturdy leader of the citizens of New Amsterdam, and colleague of Augustine Herman. Fromi him the Lockermans of Dover are descended. . . . Govert Loockermans came to New Amsterdam with Vouter Van Twiller, the director general, or governor, of New Nether lands, in the vessel St. Martin or Hope, commanded by Juriaen Blanck, in the month of April, 1633, from Holland in the service of the West India Company. At the time of his arrival he was aged seventeen years. He married Maria Jansen (a daughter of Roelf Jansen and his wife Annetje or Annetke Jans, who, after the death of her husband, married the Reverend Everardus Bogardus) and was by that marriage brother-in-law of Oloff Stevenson Van Courtlandt, whose son founded the Van Court landt Manor, in the state of New York; also of Jacob 258 LOOCKERMAN HOUSE Couwenhoven. He filled some of the highest civil and military offices in New Amsterdam. He was despatched with Jan Davitz in May, 1664, across the Green Mountains by Stuyvesant to arrange peace with the Mohawk Indians. At Warrington, he concluded a treaty with them. About the same period he com manded a small armed vessel. He drove the English from' a fort they had erected up the Hudson River ; also at the head of an armed force he surrounded and utterly extirpated a tribe of hostile Indians on Staten Island, who had greatly annoyed the settlers in New Amsterdam. It is said that the memory of this indiscriminate slaughter of this tribe of Indians, although approved by the popular sentiment of the day, occasioned hira much inquietude of conscience after his retirement from active life in his last hours. He was despatched at one period at the head of an armed force to expel the Swedes and English who had encroached on territory claimed by the Dutch on the Delaware River, near the present city of Philadelphia. . . . After a career of honoured usefulness, Govert Loockermans died in 1670, reputed the richest individual in North America. He was worth 620,000 Dutch guilders, an immense sum when the period in which he lived is considered. His public influence and position after his decease devolved on his son-in-law, Jacob Leisler, who became, by a civil revolution, the first govemor of the colony of New Amsterdam. He left five chUdren: Maritjie, who married Bal- thazer Bayard ; Arietta, who married Samuel Verplank ; Jacobus, who married Hellegonda De Kay; Judith, who married Gerardus Stuyvesant, grandson of the last Dutch Governor, Peter Stuyvesant; Joannes, or Jannetje, who married the surgeon, Hans Kiersted. Jacob Loockermans, second son of Joannes, or Jannetje, was born in the city of New Amsterdam, 259 COLONIAL MANSIONS OF DELAWARE 1650, and studied medicine. He became a planter and, being involved in political troubles, removed about 1681 to the vicinity of Easton, Maryland, with his wife, who was Helena Ketin. He died August 17, 1730, leaving a son, Nicholas, born November 10, 1697, who married Sally Emerson, daughter of Vincent Emerson of The Grange, near Dover. Thither this son removed and made his home, and here he died, March 6, 1769, aged seventy-one years. Other descendants of Jacob Loockermans remained in Maryland, where the family spelling of the name has become " Lockerman," and where the famUy has at various times been of promi nence. Vincent Loockermans, only child of the above- named Nicholas, was bom in 1722, and in 1742 pur chased a lot on the north side of King Street, Dover, where he buUt the Loockerman House, which has never been out of the hands of his descendants. He was twice married. By his first wife, Susannah, he had one chUd, his namesake. By his second marriage (to Elizabeth Pryor, daughter of John Pryor, merchant, of Dover, in February, 1774) he had two chUdren, Elizabeth and Nicholas Loockerman. The family spelling of the name in Delaware is without the final " s." Nicholas Loockerman, second son of Vincent and Elizabeth, was born November 27, 1783, and died March 20, 1850. He sat in the legislature, and was never married. 260 LOOCKERMAN HOUSE Elizabeth Loockerman, only daughter of Vincent and Elizabeth, born December 23, 1779, married Thomas Bradford, LL. D., of PhUadelphia, counsellor- at-law. May 8, 1805, and died in PhUadelphia, AprU 12, 1842, leaving as her survivors her husband and five chUdren: Vincent, Elizabeth, Benjamin Rush, William, and Thomas Budd. She was buried with her brother in her husband's family vault in the burial ground of the Second Presbyterian Church of PhUadelphia, which vault has since been transferred to Laurel HUl Ceme tery, PhUadelphia. Vincent, son of Elizabeth and Thomas Bradford, was a lawyer, but later became a raUroad man in Phila delphia. Ehzabeth, daughter of Elizabeth and Thomas Bradford, married Rev. WiUiam T. Dwight, D.D., of Portland, Maine (a son of Timothy Dwight, D.D., President of Yale CoUege), and had four chUdren. Thomas Budd Bradford, son of Elizabeth and Thomas Bradford, became a minister of the gospel and resided at the ancestral home in Dover. He married, as his second wife, Lucy H. Porter, daughter of Dr. Robert R. Porter, of WUmington, Delaware, and de parted this life in Dover, March 25, 1871. His daughter, Lucinda H. Blradford, married Mr. Huston Culbreth, of Dover, of distinguished Delaware famUy, and with her husband is the present occupant of this old home. The tombstones of Nicholas Loockerman, the pro- 261 COLONLy. MANSIONS OF DELAWARE genitor of the family in Delaware, of Susannah his wife, of Vincent their son, and of Vincent the younger, are in the Episcopal churchyard at Dover. The in scription on the stone of Nicholas Loockerman, disre garding dates and figures, is as follows : " An affection ate husband, indulgent parent, faithful friend, kind master and a generous neighbour, he was in communion with the Church of England and to his death continued a member of that society." That on the stone of Vincent, the elder, is : " An afl'ectionate husband, kind parent, faithful friend, kind master and generous neighbour, he was in communion with the Church of England and to his death continued a member of that society." That of Vincent, the younger: " In public life, his usefulness, in private life, his amiable cordiality in friendship, secured respect and esteem, as a tender and affectionate husband, an indulgent parent, a huraane master and a kind neighbour. His memory will be endeared and perpetuated." Susannah, the faithful wife of Nicholas, is sum marized as follows: " She adorned the several im portant characters of a good wife, kind and affectionate mother, kind mistress, faithful friend, a good neigh bour, and fervent Christian and died in communion with the Church of England." Concerning The Grange, the home of Nicholas Loockerman, first of his family in Delaware, and the 262 LOOCKERMAN HOUSE life lived there, John Thomas Scharf, in his volumin ous History of Delaware, has this to say: The tract long known as the Nathanial Drew Lands was originally warranted to Simon Irons, August 6, 1686, as the Grange, and is described as lying on St. Jones' Creek, joining the northwest part of Berry's Range, containing six hundred acres. This land was sold to Benjamin Shurmer, who trans ferred it to Andrew Caldwell, who, March 12, 1723, conveyed it to Nicholas Loockerman, who made this his first purchase of land in Kent County. He built a large brick house, forty by fifty feet, two stories high, with an attic. The doors and windows were capped with stone, the cornice was elaborate, the hallway was large and ran through the centre of the house, and the interior was divided into ample and convenient rooms, while the slaves' quarters were a short distance away. Here Mr. Loocker man lived in the easy style of the old-time Southem gentlemen, and here he died and is buried. He built a dam and saw-mill at the head of St. Jones' Creek, northeast of the house, which is mentioned in the same year, 1723. . . . Nicholas Loockerman married Susan (or Susannah) Emmer- son in 1721, and in 1722, Vincent Loockerman was bom. Mrs. Loockerman soon after died, and Nicholas married Esther, daughter of Benjamin Shurmer. The Loockerman burial ground is to the rear of the old mansion-house, surrounded by an iron fence and well shaded. The old homestead of Nicholas Loockerman is stUl in preservation, though the landed estate has been divided, and is now known as the Covell place. READ HOUSE NEW CASTLE, DELAWARE READ— COUPER— SMITH HE disastrous fire of 1824, which swept New Castle and almost wiped the little city out of exist ence, destroyed among other beautiful colonial reminders the historic Read mansion which stood on the Strand near Har mony Street. The edifice which stands on its site, how ever, was built shortly after this unhappy year by George Read, grandson of George Read, the signer, and is so typically Georgian in aspect and so gracious in mass and outline that it may serve to recall some of the charm of its forerunner, as well as to continue the name of the family so long associated with this spot of ground. The Read mansion which was destroyed was, so con temporary records teU us, one of the finest edifices of its day. It stood in the midst of spacious grounds and was surrounded by venerable trees, tulip, oak and chest nut. In its gardens might be found rare shrubs, as well as the familiar box and other bushes of old England. It was buUt by John Read, the first of his name in America, and was the birthplace as weU as the life-long home of the illustrious George Read, this gentleman's son, author of Delaware's first constitution and one of the two statesmen of America to sign all three of the 264 READ HOUSE great documents of the colonies — the address to King George III, of 1774, the Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution of the United States of America. During his occupancy the house was frequently the stopping-place of Washington and the other great figures in our drama of national freedom. He is a figure in the painting by Trumbull in the Capitol at Washington entitled, " The Signing of the Declara tion," and was a member of the Dinner Club of Con gress of 1775, whose other members were: Washington, Randolph, Lee, Harrison, of Virginia; Chase, of Mary land; Rodney, of Delaware; and Alsop, of New York. George Read, II, was born in this departed Read mansion, and so was George Read, III, who built the house now bearing the family name. In 1844, George Read, IV, removed to Arkansas where he acquired and maintained one of the great cotton plantations of the south. He sold the present Read House to WUliam Couper, a merchant prince of New Castle. WUliam Couper's granddaughter. Miss Hetty Smith, is now the owner and occupant. The Read House of to-day is large in size and wUl attract more than a passing glance to the beautiful PaUadian window above the street door. This entrance is approached by a long flight of steps from the street and is remarkable for the exquisite serpentine carving which decorates the arch enclosing it. The garden at the right and in the rear of the house is finely maintained and is a charming retreat. RIDGELY HOUSE DOVER, DELAWARE RIDGELY I HERE are colonial mansions greater in physical bulk than the Ridgely House at Dover, Dela ware, but there is none that looms larger in the perspective of history, considering the enduring interest of the events in which it has been an actor ; and there is none more fascinating in its surroundings or more individual and charming in itself. A sketch of the lives of the men, women and their connections, whom this little old homestead has sheltered or given a focal point for, would be almost a complete outline of the history of the state of Delaware. The heart of old Dover (as all know who have visited this charming peninsular city) is " the Green," a stretch of turf and trees, two city blocks long, and about half a block wide. It is cut across the middle by an old public road of Delaware, known as " the King's Highway," now one of Dover's chief streets. At the eastern end of " the Green " is the beautiful court-house, capitol of Kent County, one of the three divisions of the state. The other sides of the square are taken up by quaint, low, gossipy brick houses, like the pots in the Rubaiyat, which were built — most of them — in days when Dover 266 RIDGELY HOUSE was a very young city indeed. In the midst of this reverend gathering, secluded by the shade of the trees of " the Green," stands the Ridgely House. It is fascinating, this ancient home of the Ridgelys — fascinating with a charm that grows. The walls (of old-fashioned English brick) rise sheer from the pavement, and the heavy cornice only two short stories above you, projects far out over the pavement, forming a shelter from the heaviest rain storms. The windows on the first floor are so close to the ground that it would be easy to step over the sills from the pavement to the interior of the house. Perhaps the most striking view of the old home is to be obtained from the east, walking down from the Court house steps, when the outline of the quaint old chimneys and the broad, sturdy roof, like a beetle's back, are disclosed. The front door and portico (made over in recent years) have been modelled after the garden doorway of Tulip HiU, the old Galloway homestead at West River, Maryland. There is but one wing, and this is at the western end of the house. It was used about eighty years ago by Dr. Henry Moore Ridgely as an office, and is entered from the street by a door opening directly on the pave ment. Going into the house through the main doorway you find yourself in a square hall beautifuUy panelled in sturdy oak. At the left is a passage leading to the 267 COLONLU. MANSIONS OF DELAWARE wing, next to which is a fii-eplace. Straight ahead runs a passage to the garden, and to the left of this, at the rear of the haU, are the stairs, a very crooked fiight indeed, but quaintly and deliciously fashioned. To your right is the entrance to the parlour, a beautiful room with low ceUing and broad, narrow-paned windows. Among the treasures in the parlour, the discerning old furniture lover wUl descry a genuine Clementi five- octave piano in splendid preservation. On the wall above it hangs a genuine Copley painting which will interest both antiquarian and art lover, its subject being the beautiful Mary Middleton Vining, mother of a dis tinguished progeny. Unfortunately the picture has faUen into the restorer's hands, the way of this being as follows: About the middle of the last century the picture became dim and dusty and the family aUowed a travelling PhUadelphia painter to "restore" it, which he did with customary discouraging results. Yet stUl the painting retains sufficient of its pristine charm to show the hand of the master who created it. On an adjoining wall is another interesting painting — a Rembrandt Peale — never attacked by hands more impious than those of Father Time, which shows Mary Wynkoop Ridgely as a young girl. In this room, too, is a chair which be longed to WiUiam Penn. Entering the dining-room adjoining, we see a most exquisite old Chippendale table. Our attention wiU also be attracted by two Sheraton chairs which belonged 268 RIDGELY HOUSE to Captain Jones, Commander of the Wasp during the War of 1812; an Adam sideboard which through its history brings you into touch with the Lloyd family of Maryland; two chairs which were brought over to this country from England by Thomas Fisher in the Wel come with WUliam Penn ; and a rich hoard of old china and sUverware, which includes the famous Ridgely silver tea service. In the hall, where we started our journey through the home, is an old Ridgely clock, a grandf atherly relic, stUl keeping inexorable count of the seconds. The staircase which we have before noted at the back of the hall leads to a beautifully cool and airy second floor. Perhaps this coolness is partly explained by the fact that the house has two roofs (as we are shown in the attic), one roof having been placed above the other many years ago when the first was beginning to give evidence of its struggle with the elements. The garden of the Ridgely house is one of its most attractive features, yet one that is somewhat discounted to-day by the fact that a hotel has been built on an ad joining property and with its high waUs overshadows the quiet graveUed walks and cool box-bushes where the Ridgelys for generations have loved to linger in sultry hours. After aU, however, it is not so much the house that speaks to the visitor as the successive generations of human bemgs who have given it character. The 269 COLONIAL MANSIONS OF DELAWARE Ridgelys of Delaware, like many other old families of this part of the Union, came to the State from England by way of Maryland. The first Ridgely of whom we have record in the colonies is the Honorable Henrv Ridgely, of Annapolis, Maryland, who came from Devonshire, England, in 1659. Just where this Henry Ridgely lived at first we do not know, but he acquired grants of land aggregating nearly six thousand acres, and his eldest son Henry's home was Wardridge, about four miles from Annapolis. Henry Ridgely, the second, married Katherine Greenbury, and his sister married Charles Greenbury, for whose father, Nicholas Greenbury (the first of the name in this country), Greenbury Point, one of the two arms of Annapolis harbour, is named. Henry Ridgely, the second, was born October 3, 1669, and died March 19, 1699. He had five chUdren— Henry, the third, Nicholas, Charles, Ann, and Eliza beth. Of these Nicholas, born at Wardridge, February 12, 1694, removed to Delaware in 1732, and became the progenitor of the distinguished connection with which we have now to do. The Ridgely family is conspicuous in both Mary land and Delaware. The first of the name in Delaware settled at Duck Creek Town and went thence to Dover where he spent the remainder of his life, with the exception of about two years passed shortly after his wedding to Mary 270 RIDGELY HOUSE Middleton Vining in Salem, New Jersey, his wife's home. He was three times married; first, to Sarah, daughter of Col. John Worthington, of Annapolis, Maryland, a distinguished colonial official; after her death in 1721, at the conclusion of ten years of wedded life, he married, December 5, 1723, Ann, daughter of Robert French, of New Castle, Delaware, his second wife dying November 21, 1733; third, he married, December 23, 1736, Mary, daughter of Hugh Middle- ton, of Salem County, New Jersey, widow of Capt. Benjamin Vining, who survived him. His home place was Eden HiU, about a mile from Dover. He died at home February 16, 1755, and was laid to rest in Christ Church graveyard, Dover, where his tombstone is in good preservation. At different times in his life Nicholas Ridgely was Treasurer of Kent County and Judge of the Supreme Court of Delaware, and in 1745 was selected to be the guardian of Ctesar Rodney, so conspicuous later in the revolutionary stir, in whom his papers show his great interest and affection. It is difficult to form a definite conception of the character of Nicholas Ridgely with such slight material to work with after so many years, yet it has been well said that his spirit memorialized itself in three of the most briUiant figures in the history of Delaware — ^Caesar Rodney, his ward; United States Senator Charles Ridgely, his son; and John Vining, his step-grandson. 271 COLONIAL MANSIONS OF DELAWARE There are many traditions of the beauty and good ness of Mary Middleton, who was Nicholas Ridgely's third wife. When her first husband was dying he said to her : " I know that you will marry, but you wiU promise me to make over to our children all of your large estate which you inherited from your father." This promise she gave and kept. John Vining, one of her children by this marriage, became the first chief justice of the three lower counties, and his daughter Mary was a celebrated beUe of revo lutionary times. Of the union of Mary Middleton Vining and Nicholas Ridgely was born Charles Greenbury Ridgely, the first Ridgely occupant of the house in Dover which bears the famUy name. Charles Greenbury Ridgely was bom at Salem, New Jersey, January 26, 1738, and was educated for the practice of medicine in PhUadelphia, under the tui tion of Dr. Phineas Bond, who afterwards became his brother-in-law, each having married a daughter of WU liam Moore, of Moore HaU, Pennsylvania. After his graduation from school he took up his residence at his father's home, Eden HUl, near Dover, but his father wishing him to have a larger practice purchased him a home in Dover, the house, substantiaUy unchanged to day, which we have visited. Concerning the prior his tory of the house let us consult John Thomas Scharf's invaluable "History of Delaware." Scharf writes: 272 RIDGELY HOUSE Mention is made in the deed of Thomas Tarrant of the lot designed for William Hamilton as adjoining his lot on the west. It was not taken by Hamilton, but was sold prior to 1729 to Thomas Parke, who resided there in that year. In the deed of January 30, 1730, to William Rodney he states that the deed from the Commissioners was never recorded. Errors were made in this document which were corrected in the deed of November 2, 1731. In the meantime Rodney sold it, August 17, 1731, to Thomas Skidmore, inn-keeper. A portion of the lot had been reserved, whereon the widow of Thomas Parke lived in 1735. John Brinckloe, on May 30, 1735, by an article of agree ment became owner of this lot, which was not conveyed by deed during the lifetime of Skidmore. After Skidmore's death, May 14, 1760, Daniel Robinson, as administrator of the estate, gave deed to John Brinckloe for the property, who, on the 28th of August, 1760, sold it to Nicholas Lookerman, who, on May 23, 1769, conveyed it to Charles Ridgely, by whose descendants it is still owned. The lot lies east of the Capitol Hotel, and the old house upon it, long known as the Ridgely House, is probably the oldest in Dover. A brick in the building bears the date 1728. Thomas Parke owned the lot at that time, and stated in 1730 that he lived there at that date. The original house contained but two rooms, and was added to on the west end and the rear to its present size by the Ridgelys. During the troublous days which preceded the Revolution, Charles Greenbury Ridgely was an ardent worker in the cause of the colonies, and was a member of the State Assemblies of 1766, 1767, 1768, 1773, 1774 and 1776. He believed in separation from Great Britain, and was a member of the Constitutional Con vention of Delaware, of 1776. He married first, June 11, 1761, Mary, daughter of 18 273 COLONML MANSIONS OF DELAWARE Abraham Wynhoop, by whom he had three sons: Abraham, Charles, and Nicholas. Nicholas became Chancellor of Delaware, and is known to-day as the " Father of Chancery " in Delaware. The Chippen dale table in the dining-room of the Ridgely House was purchased by him. Dr. Ridgely's second wife was Ann, daughter of William Moore, of Moore Hall, Pennsylvania, by whom he had five chUdren: Henry Moore, George Wemyss, Mary, Ann, and Wilhelmina. He died November 25, 1785; his wife, December 20, 1810. She was noted for her fine intellectual attainments. A delightful circle made the Ridgely House its headquarters during the lifetime of Dr. Charles Ridgely, when perhaps the old home knew its most briUiant moments. Conspicuous among those who were everyday figures in its halls was Csesar Rodney, one of Delaware's most famous sons, whose guardian Nicholas Ridgely was. Incidentally, the old Caesar Rodney home stead, a sturdy relic of pre-revolutionary building, is stUl in preservation, about seven miles from Dover, near Delaware Bay. Concerning the ancestry of Caesar Rodney we are told in an oration delivered by Honourable Thomas F. Bayard, in 1889, upon the occasion of the unveUing of the Rodney monument in Dover, that — William Rodney married Alice, the daughter of Sir Thomas Caesar, an eminent merchant of the city of London, and his son 274 RIDGELY HOUSE William died near Dover, Delaware, in the year 1708, leaving eight children and a considerable landed estate which was en tailed and by the decease of the elder sons finally vested in his youngest son, Caesar, who continued his residence as a landed proprietor in Delaware until his death in 1745. Caesar Rodney, the eldest son of Caesar and grandson of William Rodney, was bom in St. Jones' Neck, near Dover, Kent County, Delaware, in the year 1728. Mr. Ridgely caused his ward to be instructed in the classics and general literature and in the accomplishments of fencing and dancing, to fit his bearing and manners becomingly to the station of life in which he was born. We have a picture of the young man preserved in the letters of Thomas Rodney, his brother: " He was about five feet, ten inches high. His person was very elegant and genteel, his manners graceful, easy and pohte. He had a good fund of humour and the happiest talent in the world for making his wit agreeable." Which last, George Meredith might have added a whole para graph to his definition to tell us, is the finest flower of " wisdom's lightning." From the pen of this same felicitous Rodney we have a good description of the life of the times: Almost every family manufactured its own clothes ; and beef, pork, poultry, milk, butter, cheese, wheat and Indian com were raised for food ; cider, small beer and peach and apple brandy were for drink. The best families in the county seldom used tea, coffee, chocolate or sugar, and honey was their sweetening. . . . They seemed to live as it were in concord, for they con stantly associated together at one house or another in consider able numbers to play and frolic, at which times the young people 275 COLONLyL MANSIONS OF DELAWARE would dance and the elder ones wrestle, run, hop, or jump, or throw the disc, or play at some rustic and manly exercises. On Christmas Eve there was a universal firing of guns, travelling round from house to house, during the holiday, and all winter long there was a continual froUc, shooting-matches, twelfth-cake, and so on. . . . In this lively atmosphere Csesar Rodney grew up to be a beloved and respected figure. Political honours were showered upon him; when barely thirty years of age he was high sheriff of his native county of Kent and two years later a judge of the lower courts. In 1765 he entered upon that which was to be the absorbing passion of his life by being elected a member of the " Stamp Act Congress," which convened in New York City in that year. As a member of the Delaware Legislature, in 1766, he threw all of his influence into an effort to stop the importation of slaves into the state. It was whUe life seemed to have opened most fully before him and the skies were clearest that the shadow of calamity fell upon him. When about forty years of age he discovered the presence of a malady of the nose, which, on examination by Doctor Bond, of Phila delphia, was diagnosed as cancer, and he put hunself in the hands of this physician for treatment. Even at this writing there is no certain resource for the cure of this dreadful affUction. The use of the surgeon's knife was then, as now, the only palliative, so the tortured man submitted to operation after operation through the rest of his life without gaining permanent relief. 276 RIDGELY HOUSE In 1769 he was Speaker of the Colonial Assembly, and in 1774 and 1776 was a deputy to the Continental Congress caUed to order in Philadelphia. Mr. Bayard says of him at this time: He was a man of action in an era of action ; bom not out of his proper time, but in it, and being fitted for the hour and its work, he did it well. He was recognized and naturally at once became influential and impressive — distinguished for the qualities which were needed in the days in which he lived on earth. Moved by patriotic impulse, he had counselled the election of Washing ton as commander-in-chief of the colonial forces, and from the beginning to the end of the conflict sought to hold up his hands and sustain him at all times and in all ways. Perhaps the most heroic exploit of Csesar Rodney's hfe was his dramatic ride from the extreme southern end of Delaware to Philadelphia to be in time to break the tie vote which kept his state from jouiing her sisters in makmg the Declaration of Independence the unani mous expression of the United Colonies of America in Congress assembled. Richard Henry Lee's unmortal resolution was offered on June 7, and was passed in secret session by six out of seven states on June 8. Rodney was at home working with his people to strengthen the cause of liberty. Thomas McKean voted for the resolution, and George Read voted against it. At a second ballot on July 1, nine colonies favored the motion, two were against it, and Delaware was neutral as before. McKean sent a messenger in search of Rodney with mstructions to bid him make all haste 277 COLONIAL MANSIONS OF DELAWARE to be at the Assembly on July 4, when a final ballot was to be taken. In his address before mentioned, Mr. Bayard expresses the opinion that Rodney was at one of his farms, but writings preserved by the Ridgely family seem to point to a different conclusion. They say: A celebrity of Lewes, the old seaport of Delaware, was Sarah Rowland, who according to tradition almost prevented the Declaration of Independence from having the necessary number of signers. She was a beautiful Tory, for in the first years of tlie Revolutionary War there were many friends of England in the lower part of this peninsula. The news of a Tory uprising in Sussex County and Maryland reaching Caesar Rodney, who was attending the delegates' convention in Philadelphia, he imme diately mounted his horse and went thundering down the state, using threats and persuasion all along the road. While at Lewes, the beautiful Sarah so infatuated himi by her charms that he lingered longer than his business required, and was only aroused to a sense of his delinquencies when he was presented by a loyal servant-girl in the Rowland household with a number of letters which had been intercepted by his enchantress. Then it was that he made his famous ride to Philadelphia. All one hot July day, Rodney, then in broken health, rode through Delaware and lower Pennsylvania. On the morning of July 4, he appeared at the State House door in his boots and spurs as the members were assembling. When the call came for the vote of Dela ware, he arose composedly, and said: " As I believe the voice of my constituents and of aU 278 RIDGELY HOUSE sensible and honest men is in favor of independence, my own judgment concurs with them. I vote for independence." He lived to see peace established by a definite treaty (signed in 1783), and died in June, 1784, the victim of the malady which had broken the happiness of the last sixteen years of his life. Though we find Rodney at the home of the fascinat ing Sarah Rowland on the eve of his immortal ride, the romance of his life is bound up with the name of Mary Vining, of Dover, afterwards Mrs. Charles Ingles. There is preserved to the present day and copied in the American Historical Register, of July, 1895, a letter from Rodney to Miss Vining in his own hand, which gives the secret of his heart, as foUows : Yesterday evening (by Mr. Chew's Tom) I had the un welcome and unexpected news of your determining to go to Philadelphia with Mr. and Misses Chew. If you remember, as we were riding to Noyontown Fair, you talked of taking this joumey and mentioned my going with you; you know how readily I (the letter is torn here) . . . and how willing in this as in everything else I was to oblige and serve you. . . . When I was last down, you seemed to have given over all thoughts of going. This determined me and accordingly gave Mr. Chew for answer that he might not expect me with him ; thereby I'm deprived of the greatest pleasure this world could possibly afford me — the company of that lady in whom all happiness is placed. . . . Molly, I love you from my soul ! In this beheve me I'm sincere and honest; but when I think of the many amiable qualifications you are possessed of, all my hopes are at an end — 279 COLONML MANSIONS OF DELAWARE nevertheless intended (tom) . . . down this week and as far as possible to have known my fate. . . . You may expect to sce me at your return. Till then, God bless you. I'm Yrs., The " Mr. Chew " mentioned here is that Judge Chew, of Delaware, known as the " fighting Quaker," who afterwards removed to Germantown, Pennsyl vania, and built the colonial mansion, stUl standing, known as Cliveden. Of him there is the following couplet : Immortal Chew first set our Quakers right; He made it plain they might resist and fight; And the gravest Dons agreed to what he said, And freely gave their cast for the King's aid, For war successful, and for peace and trade. The Mary Vining who was so ardently beloved by Rodney married Charles Ingles, a clergyman, and died shortly after her wedding. She was aunt to a younger Mary Vining, daughter of her brother John, and grand daughter of Nicholas Ridgely's third wife, Mary Middleton Vining, Avho was destined to create far wider havoc in men's hearts. This was that belle of the revo lutionary period, the fame of whose beauty and clever ness aroused even Marie Antoinette's curiosity in far France. A charmingly written memoir of her life by Mrs. Henry Geddes Banning, a descendant of Thomas Rodney, Cassar Rodney's brother and executor, has appeared in the American Historical Register. She tells us: 280 RIDGELY HOUSE Thomas Jefferson when minister plenipotentiary to France, was proud to assure the lovely young Queen of France that the extravagant admiration of the Delaware belle by the French officers which had reached her ears was no exaggeration, for the American lady was worthy of it all. Marie Antoinette replied that she would be glad to see her at the Tuileries. Her birth is thus recorded in the Vining famUy Bible: Mary Vining, the daughter of Chief Justice John Vining and Phoebe Wynhoop, was born at his house near Dover, on Saturday, the 20th day of August, 1756, at four of the clock, in the morn ing, in the presence of Robana Powell (midwife), Mrs. Mary Wynhoop, and Mrs. Mary Ridgely, and was christened on the 5th day of September following by the Rev. Hugh Niel, missionary for Dover in Kent County. She was born to great wealth, and could and did indulge herself in many caprices of a luxurious imagina tion. Never to be seen walking on the street, but in variably riding, was one of her amiable affectations untU financial reverses caused an upset in this, as in other arrangements of life. Another of her fancies was to partly conceal her face with a fan or veU. In old age she wore a ruffle on her cap that reached her eye brows and completely covered her cheeks. There is but one portrait of Mary Vining in exist ence, a miniature, now preserved in the Ridgely House, and this hardly seems to do her justice. Perfectly fashioned, vivacious, with beautiful eyes, and with the personal magnetism for which her famUy was con- 281 COLONIAL MANSIONS OF DELAWARE spicuous, it is not hard to understand her vogue. Of this, an instance: When the British evacuated PhUa delphia in 1778, an officer ran the risk of court-martial for absence without leave to make the hazardous journey to WUmington to see Mary Vining and persuade her to cancel her previous rejection of his love. In one way he was lucky, as his escapade remained undiscovered, but in another way he was not, for his charmer's heart remained undisturbed. Among the distinguished men who were her guests at her home in Wilmington were the Duke de Lian- court, the Duke d'Orleans, and the late king of the French, Louis Philippe. She numbered General Lafayette among her friends, and corresponded with him until her death. The romance of Miss Vining's life is connected with the name of " Mad Ajithony " Wayne, who stormed Stony Point instead of Hell! After surviving the sieges of the most polished and brilliant men who came to the New World, our beauty at last succumbed to the fascinations of this rough son of Mars. The engage ment excited great comment in the circle in which she moved. In a letter, still extant, written by Mrs. Cad walader (widow of the revolutionary general) and addressed to her aunt, Mrs. Charles Ridgely {nee Moore), a paragi-aph reads: " Is it true Miss Vining is engaged to General Wayne? Can one so refined 282 RIDGELY HOUSE marry this coarse soldier? True, he is brave, wonder fully brave, and none but the brave deserve the fair." Preparations for the wedding were being merrily made, and Miss Vining had bought silver for house keeping when news of the death of her fiance at Presque Isle, Lake Erie, December 15, 1796, was heralded. Mrs. Cadwalader writes : " Miss Vining has put on mourning and retired from the world in conse quence of General Wayne's death." Among the gifts which General Wayne gave his fiancee in thought of their approaching felicity was a set of china. Miss Vining could never bring herself to use it after his death, and it is now preserved entire in the Ridgely House, a pathetic and beautiful memorial of this beautiful, socially brUliant woman and her virile soldier lover. When Caesar Rodney (the signer) was elected Governor of Delaware in 1777 or 1778, he took a house in WUmington, and asked Miss Vining, his young cousin, to preside at his table. (The location of this house was at 606 Market Street.) There is suggestion of romance here — at last, one of the name became mistress of his house ! Here she entertained the promi nent men of the day as her cousin's guests. In the cellar of the house Lafayette stored little casks of gold wherewith to pay his troopers and help the cause of freedom. After the death of General Wayne, Miss Vining 283 COLONLy. MANSIONS OF DELAWARE never again ventured into society, though she lived twenty-five years longer, and she but once left the seclu sion of her home in Wilmington to go to another city. This was when in the winter of 1808 or 1809, she spent two weeks in Philadelphia at the house of C. A. Rodney, Esq., nephew of the signer. Once again, then, she conversed with her friends, and it is recorded that her manners, if subdued, retained their charm and her talk still shone as of old. As the years roUed by, she be came sensitive to the inroads of time, and received her family and the very few intimate friends she retained in a darkened room. Her abundant brown hair never turned gray. When the cap, without which she was never to be seen, was removed after her death, a high, white, very smooth forehead was revealed. She died in 1821, and was laid to rest on Good Friday, almost all of WUmington attending the simple burial services. After Miss Vining's death, her only surviving nephew, William Henry Vining, took charge of her papers, packed them securely, and placed them for safe keeping in the garret of his aunt, Mrs. Ogden, of WUmington. Some years later Mrs. Ogden's home was attacked by fire, and these papers, among which was a manuscript history of the Revolutionary War on which Miss Vining had spent her declining years, were completely destroyed. William Henry Vining died without issue, and was the last of his name and race. About fifty years ago, the tombstones of the 284 RIDGELY HOUSE Vining family in the Episcopal churchyard in Dover were stolen by vandals and pounded into dust to make mortar, as if — Mrs. Banning calls to our attention — fate were determined to obliterate the very name ofi" the earth. Henry Moore Ridgely, son of Charles Greenway Ridgely's second marriage, and second Ridgely master of the Ridgely House, was born August 6, 1779, in the house in which he died, graduated at Dickinson CoUege, and studied law with his relative, Charles Smith, of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. He returned to Dover to practise his profession, and about the time he was ad mitted to the bar became involved in a duel, which nearly resulted in his losing his life. Dr. Barrett, of Dover, had been grossly insulted by a Mr. Shields, of WUmington, and, in accordance with the spirit of the times, sought redress for the injury to his dignity through the code, and desiring a second, asked Ridgely to serve, which the latter agreed to do. Shields refused to meet Dr. Barrett, but challenged Ridgely instead. The latter fought the duel, was severely wounded, and for a time it was thought that he could not live, though eventually he regained full strength after a long and painful prostration. Public feeling was so much aroused against Shields that he was obliged to leave WUmington, never to return. In Ridgely's case, however, this painful experience was but the prelude to a peaceful and happy career as 285 COLONLU. MANSIONS OF DELAWARE a lawyer and public servant in his home town. Apparently he cared little for public office for the sake of pure glamour of position, as at different times he refused the chancellorship of Delaware, and the chief- justiceship, yet accepted the comparatively unimport ant post of levy court commissioner of Kent County, and by his patient, devoted efforts restored the offices of the county to an orderly condition. When he found that there was mismanagement of the county alms house, he requested to be made trustee, and by untiring labour made this institution a sound and self-respecting body. He married, first, November 21, 1803, Sarah, daughter of John Banning and Elizabeth Alford. She died January 14, 1837, and he married, March 17, 1842, Sarah Ann, daughter of Governor Cornelius Comegys, of Dover, who survived him. He died in 1847 on his birthday. Not long before Mr. Ridgely's death, he was the centre of a disturbance almost as violent as the duel which ushered in his public life. It was advertised in Dover that Lucretia Mott, the celebrated abolitionist woman speaker, was to make an address, and as feeling ran high in the little town against abolition, there was talk of doing the speaker violence. Mr. Ridgely, hear ing this, took her into his own home, and entertained her as a guest, " not," he explained, " because I like the abolitionists, but because I will not see any woman 286 RIDGELY HOUSE iU-treated in Dover." When the time came for the lecture, he escorted her to the hall, despite black looks and threatening words, and sat beside her on the stage as she spoke. Strangely enough, Lucretia Mott did not touch the theme of her passion at all. She spoke, not of Abolition, but of Art, and that quite charmingly. When the little party returned to Mr. Ridgely's house it was followed by an ugly, angry crowd. The master of the house would not let the shutters be closed over the quaint, staring old windows, nor the heavy, old-fashioned front door be barred. In plain sight from the pavement, he stood in the parlour with his back to the fire, and conversed with his guest. StiU more hangs to this visit of Lucretia Mott's according to famUy tradition than a good yarn. There were at this time two suitors contending for the hand of Ann Ridgely, one of the daughters of the house, and both were present this adventurous evening. Miss Mott had the Ul-fortune to mistake empty air for a chair, as we have all done at least once in our careers, and to her great embarrassment sat down on the floor. One of the rivals for the fair Ann's hand laughed; the other rushed forward to the stricken lady's assistance. This latter it was to whom the daughter of the house gave her hand, and thus it was that on May 11, 1841, she was married to Charles Irence du Pont, a member of a distinguished Delaware family. 287 COLONLU. MANSIONS OF DELAWARE Around the name of Sarah Banning, Mr. Ridgely's first wife, many traditions cling, full of old Delaware names and events. Her mother was Elizabeth Alford, the beautiful young widow of Mr. Cassius, so fair, indeed, that a distinguished French traveller said that she was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen in Europe or America. Philip and Charity Alford, Elizabeth's parents, came from the West India Is lands, and settled on Second Street in PhUadelphia. The former was engaged in business between that city and Barbadoes, and was lost at sea during one of his voyages between the two ports. His widow moved to Dover. Among the legends connected with their life in the West Indies is one stating that the mother of Charity Alford fell into a trance and was mistaken for dead. Every arrangement was made for her funeral, but, owing to the absence in an adjoining island of a daughter, the body was kept until this latter could arrive. When they were about to place the lid upon the casket, signs of life were found, and eventuaUy the supposed corpse proved to be alive. To commemorate this event, on every anniversary she would go with her children to the graveyard and take tea upon her tomb stone ! Of the fifteen children of Henry Moore Ridgely, six survived him. Charles George, born August 12, 1804, graduated from West Point, was professor of French there, and died July 15, 1844. Elizabeth, born RIDGELY HOUSE February 27, 1813, was a great beauty and early matured into womanhood, having at fifteen aU the grace and ease of manner of a girl of twenty. She was edu cated at Madame GreUand's in PhUadelphia, and was a noted beUe in Washington whUe her father was United States Senator. Her sudden death hi 1833, in the bloom of womanhood, was a great shock to her famUy and a blow to her many admirers. Ann, born February 21, 1815, had light hair and a fair complexion, and because of her fine inteUectual gifts was the pride of her father, who educated her himself entirely at home. At the age of twelve, she had read all of Shakespeare, Chapman's "Homer" and Dryden's " VirgU," and was famUiar with the classics and modern poets. The circumstances have been related of her marriage to Charles Irence du Pont, son of Victor du Pont and his wife, GabrieUe Josephine la Pitte de PeUeporte du Pont. A daughter of this marriage, Amelia Elizabeth, married, July 5, 1866, her cousin, Eugene du Pont, son of Alexis P. and Johanna du Pont, and had issue: Ann Ridgely, Alexis Prene, Eugene, Amy Ehzabeth, Julia Sophia, and Ann, who married June 26, 1894, WUliam C. Peyton, of Santa Cruz, California. Ann Ridgely, wife of Charles Irence du Pont, died after a lingeruig Ulness at her home in Wilmmgton, October 20, 1898, in the eighty-thh-d year of her age, and was buried in the du Pont cemetery on the banks of the Brandywine. / 19 289 COLONIAL MANSIONS OF DELAWARE Henry, another son of Henry Moore Ridgely, born AprU 15, 1817, married Virginia Jenkins, and had the foUowing chUdren: Nicholas, born December 13, 1820, married Mary H. TUden, and had issue: Eugene, born May 4, 1822, married Mary A.,Miffhn, of PhUadelphia; Wilhemina Moore, born May 27, 1827, married Alex ander Johnson; Edward, born January 30, 1831, married Elizabeth Comegys, and had issue; Harriet, who married Dr. D. A. Harrison; Edward, who died yoimg; Sarah; and Henry, who married Mabel Lloyd Fisher. Henry Ridgely, Jr., a son of this last union, and seventh in descent from the founder of the famUy, is the present occupant of the Ridgely House, of Dover, and continues the family tradition of either law or medicine by being a follower of the former profession. STEWART HOUSE NEW CASTLE, DELAWARE VAN DYKE— DU PONT— JANVIER— LAMBSON— STEWART '' CROSS Delaware Avenue from the Amstel House, New Castle, Delaware, is the David Stewart House, a quaint and charming old mansion buUt by Governor Van Dyke for his son. Senator Van Dyke, about the beginning of the nineteenth century. It is three stories in height and the front doorway is approached by a high fiight of brown- stone steps. Dr. David Stewart, the present owner and occupant, is the fifth of his name in New Castle and the fifth of his name to be a physician. The house is simple in exterior and is more attractive for its charm of aspect than for pretension of size or design. The rooms of the interior have lofty ceUings, are weU lighted and have good proportions. Down stairs there is a quantity of fine wood-carving in a floral design, especially in the dining-room. A broad hall runs from the front door to the back of the house. Senator Van Dyke, for whom the mansion was built, was born in 1770 in his father's home, the Amstel House. He was educated in PhUadelphia and studied law in the office of Chief Justice Kensey Johns. Though an attorney by profession he was a public man by avoca- 291 COLONIAL MANSIONS OF DELAWARE tion, and spoke for his state in the Halls of Congress for many years. He died in 1826 on the eve of re election to the United States Senate. Contemporary records of him and traditions speak of him as a man of most delightfiU personality, known for the charm of his manner and his fine intellectual attainments. Upon the death of Senator Van Dyke, the home feU to the lot of his daughter, Dorcas, who married Charles Irence Du Pont. Dorcas' sister, Susannah, married Dr. David Stewart, the grandfather of the present occupant. From the f amUy of Charles I. DuPont the mansion passed by purchase in 1856 to George Janvier, Esq., whose name is to be associated with the early days of transportation in Delaware, records of Delaware fre quently speaking of Janvier's " Union Line " of coaches and boats which bore passengers from New Castle and Wilmington to Philadelphia. About twenty years later the house was sold by Mrs. Mary Janvier, widow of George Janvier, to Mrs. Hannah M. Lambson, who shortly sold to the present owner. Dr. David Stewart. The first David Stewart in New Castle was the donor of the ground on which Saint George's Presby terian church was established, and ever since his day there has been a Dr. David Stewart who was ruling elder of the congregation. The present Dr. David Stewart has a son, David, who married Louise Mc Ilvaine and a grandson of the family patronymic. His other chUdren are Dorothy, Henry Van Dyke, and Ruth Elizabeth (Stewart). ENTRANCE TO THOMAS HOUSE THOMAS HOUSE NEW CASTLB, DELAWARE THOMAS— READ— THOMAS JHE Thomas House at the inter section of Harmony Street and the Strand, New Castle, Dela ware, is of value not only for its own intrinsic charm but for its association with families which have done much for the state of Delaware and for the nation. It was buUt by Dr. WUliam W. Thomas about the beginning of the nine teenth century and gains interest from having long been the home of Mr. William Thompson Read, a grandson of George Read, the signer, who married Miss Sallie Latimer Thomas, a daughter of the buUder. The house is three stories in height and is rather narrow for its height. It overlooks the low roofs of the little houses which make up the opposite side of the Strand and has thus a wide view of the Delaware River and the water-front of the historic little city in which it is situated. Perhaps the most distinguished single feature is the doorway on Harmony Street, which, while simple in design, is remarkable for the intricate and beautifully executed carving with which it is adorned. WUliam Thompson Read was born August 22, 1792, the son of George Read, the second, and his wife Mary 293 COLONML MANSIONS OF DELAWARE Thompson (Read), daughter of Gen. WiUiam Thomp son, of near Carlisle, Pennsylvania. A lawyer by pro fession, he had rare social gifts and was known for his charm of manner. He was Grand Master of the Masons of Delaware and was one of the founders of the Delaware Historical Society. After his death in 1873, the house passed to his wife's niece. Miss Eliza Thomas, who at her decease in recent years left it to the Episco pal church at New Castle to be used as a Parish house. INDEX Acosta, 127 Acquasco, 10 Addison, 67 Alford, 286, 288 American Historical Register, 279, 280 Amstel House, 247, 349, 291 Anderson, 165 Andrews, 100 AnnapoUs, 3, 4, 6, 6, 15, 16, 18, 19, 21, 24, 25, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 34, 36, 37, 38, 42, 45, 49, SO, 51, 53, S3, S5, 56, 58, 60, 61, 65, 68, 70, 73, 73, 76, 77, 83, 89, 101, 107, 116, 117, 118, 166, 167, 168, 170, 174, 177, 179, 180, 181, 188, 191, 201, 203, 204, 218, 219, 223, 343 ¦Anne Arundeii, 35, 76, 101, 108, 109, 113, 138, 144, 153, 153, 218 Anne, Queen of England, 225 Archbishop of Baltimore, 118 Armstrong, 212 Assembly, 158 Association of Freemen, 208 Athens of America, 166 Avalon, 166, 171 Bald Eagles, 10 Baldwin, 23, 108 BaU, 128 Baltimore Co., 125, 131, 133, 216, 218, 219 Baltimore, Lord, Sl, 82, 83, 84, 85, lis, 116, 118, 156, 163, 184, 186, 188, 197, 198, 204, 213, 337 Bancroft, 129 Banning, 280, 385, 286, 288 Barrett, 385 Bayard, 259 Beane, 183 Belair, 199, 200, 201, 202 Belmont, 10, 166, 168, 171, 172, 173, 174, 175, 176, 177, 179, 180, 182 Behnont HaU, 10 Belvidere, 122 Belvoir, 218, 319, 230, 233, 324 Bennett, 207 Berkeley Co., 183 Berry's Range, 363 Best, 47 Beverly, 333, 334 Bird, 104 Birmingham, 8, 89, 101, 103, 103, 104 Birnie, 70 Biscoe, 191, 193, 196 Bishop of Maryland, 33 Black, 135, 136 Bladen, 303 Bladensburg, 48, 49 Blake, 129, 305, 208 Blakeford, 205, 206, 207, 208, 209, 310 Blakeman, 88, 95 Bland, 36, 42 "Bloody Buoy," 181 Bloomfleld, 217 Bloomingdale, 211, 212, 213, 214, 215 Boarman, 104, 243 Bogardus, 358 BoiUng, 96, 100 Bonaparte, 133, 134 Bond, 338, 244, 273, 276 Booker, 355 Bordley, 40, 73, 73 BosweU, 84 Boucher, 65 Bowen, 236 Bowie, 94, 199, 203 Bowles, 235, 236, 237 295 INDEX Bowles' Separation, 237 Bradford, 261 Brandywine, 180, 289 Brent, 118 Brewster, 182 Brice, 31, 36, 45, 47, 48, 49, 50, 72, 108, 187, 220 Brice House, 36, 45, 48, 50, &9, 72 Brinckloe, 273 Briscoe, 10, 235, 239 " British Architects, or Builders Treasury," S British Museum, 5 Broad Neck, 343 Brooke, 102, 116, 118 Brookefield, 10 Brown, 108 Buchanan, 173 Buckley, 76 Bulfinch, 16 Burleigh, 105, 106, 107, 109 Burnham, 249 Bushby Park, 99 Caesar, 274 Cadwalader, 252, 283 Caile, 147 CaldweU, 263 CaUahan, 35 Calvert, 63, 163, 184, 186, 187, 188, 189, 190, 191, 192, 193, 194, 196, 198, 237 Cambridge, 87 Capitol Hotel, 273 Capron, 93, 94 Cardinal Gibbons, 112 Carnan, 133 Carroll, 65, 110, 111, 112, 113, 114, lis, 116, 117, 118, 119, 120, 121, 123, 133, 124, 126, 127, 128, 129, 130 CarroU Mansion, 116, 117, 131 CarroU Park, 130 CarroUton, 65, 110, 113, 114, 117, 120, 121 Carter, 193, 203 Carvel, 18 Caton, 123, 124, 125 CatonsviUe, 123 Cecil Co., 118, 142 Cedar Park, 144, 145, 146, 147 Chadwick, 183 Chamberlaine, 150, 189, 225, 226, 227, 229, 331 ChanceUors Hope, 10 Chaptico, 240, 244 Charies I, 107, 108 Charies II, 115, 198, 333 Charles Co., 10, 178, 179, 241 Chase, 6, 7, 16, 16, 18, 19, 20, 21, 32, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 38, 33, 35, 36, 66, 180, 220, 265 Chase House, 15, 23, 24, 25, 27, 33, 35, 36 Cherokee Indians, 63 Chesapeake Bay, 1, IS, 78, 140, 166, 311, 228 Chesterfield, 203 Chester River, 161, 162, 205, 308 Chestertown, 143, 309 Cheston, 141, 143, 146 Cheston-on-Wye, 210 Chew, 38, 39, 43, 121, 123, 127, 141, 142, 320, 279, 280 ChoUar, 95 Christ Church graveyard, 271 Church of England, 20, 262 Cincinnati, Society of, 41 Claiborne, 206 Clark, 137 Claude, 68, 71, 221 Clay, 176 296 INDEX Cleveland, Pres., 159 Clivedon, 39, 133, 141, 280 Closson, 34 Clynmalyra, 114 Coale, 101 Coates, 104, 343 Cobbett, 181 Coburn, 338, 239 CoUege of Phila., 180 Colonial Dames, 234 Comegys, 286, 390 Committee of Safety, 107 Conrad, 216, 318 Constitutional Convention of Del., 373 Contee, 96, 99, 100, 179, 180, 183 Continental Army, 242 Continental Assembly, 40 Continental Congress, 33, 42, 158, 179, 182 Cole, 58 Colston, 182 Cookson, 141 Corbit House, 11 Councilman, 317 Couper, 264, 265 " Coursey's Neck," 207, 208 Couwenhoven, 259 CoveU Place, 263 Covington, 156, 157 CowgiU House, 10 Cowman, 101, 102 Crabbe, 102 Cremona, 244 Cromwell, 100, 109 Croome, 184, 189 Crosiadore, 251, 262 Culbreth, 261 Cumberland, 240 Custis, 6S, 66, 184, 190, 191, 193 Dairy Farm, 10 DarnaU, 116, 119, 121, 189 David Stewart House, 291 Davis, 76, 95 Davitz, 269 Declaration of Independence, 23 36, 120, 121, 220, 249, 265, 277, 378 De Courcy, 305, 206, 307, 308, 209, 210, 214 Deep Falls, 240, 241, 243, 243 De Kay, 359 Delaware Bay, 3, 261 Delaware R., 177, 293 Dennis, 232, 334 Dickinson, 351, 353, 353, 254 Dickinson College, 262, 285 Dickinson House, 251, 253 Dieudonne, 49 Digges, 188 Dinner Club of Congress, 265 Discovery, 150 D. of C, 159 Donaldson, 174 Dorchester Co., 10, 147 Dorsey, 36, 77, 133, 134, 166, 168, 169, 171, 172, 173, 174, 180, 220 Dougherty, 136 Doughoregan Manor, 110, 112, 113, 117, 118, 119, 121, 123, 124, 126, 127, 128, 129 Douglass, 168, 159, 160 Dover, 4, 257, 258, 260, 261, 266, 270, 272, 274, 379, 281, 285, 286, 387.. 288, 290 Drummond, 209 DubUn U., 69 Duck Creek Town, 370 Duddington, 116 Dudley, 211, 213, 215 Dulany, 183 297 INDEX du Pont, 287, 289, 291, 393 Duvall, 184, 190, 196, 198 Eagle's Nest Bay, 330 Easterday, 104 Eastern Shore, 148, 153, 157, 161, 208, 209, 310, 325 Easton, 148, 164, 251, 260 Eddis, 52, 56, 83 Eden, 40, 69, 86 Eden HiU, 271, 272 Edgar, 62 Elizabeth, Queen, 178 Elizabeth River, 152 EU£ Ridge, 166, 167, 169, 172, 173 EUenborough, 10 EUicott City, 105, 110 Ely O'CarroU, 114 Emerson, 135, 360 L'Enfant, 197, 198 Enfield Chase, 114 " Entailed Hat, The," 11 Episcopal Church, 33, 180, 362, 286 Essex, Earl of, 203 Essex, Lady, 61 Expectation, 221 Fairfax, 97, 99 Fairlands, 104 "Father of Chancery," 374 Federal Constitution, 158 " Federal RepubUcan," 181 Fenwick's Manor, 337 Finney, 151 Fisher, SO, 369, 390 Fitzhugh, 193, 220, 238 Five Nations, 207 FoUy Quarter, 135, 126 Fontainebleau, 62 Forrest, 238 Fort Washington, 179 Fox, 62 FrankUn, 25, 173 Frederick, 106, 110, 112, 182 Frederick Co., 66, 69, HS, 182 Frederick, Prince, 204 French, 271 Friends, 140, 141, 142, 146, 147, 225 GaUoway, 101, 138, 141, 142, 144, 146, 147 Garst, 34 George III, 304 Georgetown CoUege, 128 Gibbons, 112 Gibson, 74, 148, 151 GUes, 23 Girard CoUege, 247 Glyndon, 216 Goldsborough, 67 Goodwin, 173 Gordon, 183, 187 Grange, The, 260 Grason, 33 Green, 56, 58, 69 Green, The, 266, 267 Greenberry, 86, 221, 270 Greenberry Forest, 221 Greenberry Point, 270 Green Spring VaUey, 126, 232 GreUand's, 289 Grosvenor, 181 Habersham, 71 HaUfax Co., 177 HaU, 9, 10, 3S, 108 Hamilton, 273 Hammond, IS, 19, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 36, 49, 86, 89, 105, 107, 108, 109, 173, 189, 218, 220 Hammond House, IS, 27, 28, 29, 30, 33, 33, 34, 89 298 INDEX Hampton, 131, 133, 133, 134, 136, 136, 137, 173, 180 Hancock, 120 Hanson, 109, 136, 166, 174, 175, 176, 177, 179, 180, 181, 183, 183 Hanson's Laws, 180 Hardcastle, 225, 231 Harford Co., 39 Harper, 124, 182 Harris, 211, 212, 213, 214, 215 Harris' MUl, 212 Harrison, 290 Harvard Law School, 128 Harwood, 16, 24, 37, 28, 33, 34, 35 Hathaway, 148, 151 Hatton, 116, 178 Hatton Hall, 178 Hawkins, 183, 244 Hay, 9, 247, 248, 249, 250 Heath, 218 Hemsley Farm, 215 Henrietta Maria, Queen, 139, 155 Henry I, King, 336 Herbert, 90, 96, 109 Herman, 358 Hermitage, 133 Herrington, 38 Hervey, 134 HiU, 93, 94, 168, 170 His Lordship's Kindness, 188 Hobbs, 33 Hockley-in-the-Hole, 169, 170, 171 HoUyday, 148, 149, 150, 157, 161, 162, 163, 164 Homestead, 133 Homewood, 132, 123, 127 Hood, 21, 218, 219 Hood's Mill, 218 Hooff, 93, 96, 97, 100, 109 Hopkins, 103 Honeywood, 183 House of Burgesses, 49, 153 Howard, 1, 9, 133, 134, 135, 136, 180, 330, 221 Howard Co., 11, 23, 67, 76, 99, 104, 105, 108, 110, 113, 124, 125, 166 Howard's Pasture, 221 Hudson River, 259 Hughes, 138, 143, 194 "Hundred of Leyland," 220, 221 Hungerford, 194 Husting, 31 Hyatt, 10 Hyde, 188, 189 Ilehester, Earl of, 63 Indian Town, 161 Ingles, 379, 380 Ingraham, 352 Irons, 263 Iroquois, 207 Isham, 182 Ivy Neck, 143 Jackson, 21, 352 Jacobins, 181 James I, 107 Jamestown, 38 Jansen, 258 Janvier, 291, 292 Jefferson, 209, 281 Jenifer, 65, 66 Jenings, 45, 47, 48, 101 Jenkins, 88, 93, 94, 95, 390 Johns, 1, 255, 291 Johns Hopkins, 122, 239, 355 Johnson, 84 Jones, 269 Joppa, 218 Judkins, 194 299 INDEX Kay, 183 Kennedy, 36, 42 Kensey Johns House, 265 Kent Co., Delaware, 251, 252, 253, 263, 366, 371, 274, 276, 276, 281, 286 Kent Co., Md., 161, 207, 209 Kent Island, 178 Ketin, 260 Key, 10, 68, 70, 71, 219, 224, 238 King's Highway, 266 King WilUams School, 52 Knapp, 76 KneUer, 82 Knickerbocker, 258 Lafayette, Marquis de, 173, 383, 383 Lambson, 291, 293 Langdon, 138 Latrobe, 121 Laurel, 88, 101, 103, 167 Laurel Hill Cemetery, 261 Lawrence, 146 Lee, 137, 183, 193, 198 Lee House, 10 Lehr, 216, 217, 218 Lewes, 278 Lewis, 192 Liancourt, 283 Ligon, 67 Lingan, 183 Lippincott's Magazine, 43 Litterlouna, 114 Lloyd, IS, 19, 20, 23, 24, 28, 29, 35, 38, 65, 129, 134, 152 153, 154, 155, 156, 157, 158, 159, 161, 162, 164, 165, 237, 269 Lockerman or Loockerman, 27, 28, 31, 33, 34, 35, 231, 257, 258, 259, 260, 261, 262, 263, 373 Loockerman House, 257, 258 Logan, 253 Long Run, 208 Lord High ChanceUor, 178 Love, 83, 84 Lowe's Addition, 221 Lowndes, 203 Maconchie, 178 MacTavish, 135, 126 McCarty, S8 McCawley, 102 McDoweU, 181 McFadon, 103 McIlvaine, 292 Madison, 108 Magruder, 202 Maidstone, 38 Markoe, 138, 142 Marlborough, Duchess of, 45, 47 Marlborough, Duke of, 40 Marshall, 99 Martin, 39, 49 Maryland Gazette, 52, 56, 58, 8S, 187 Maryland Journal and Advertiser, 186 Masons, Grand Master of, 294 Maltaponi, 10 Maxcey, 138, 142 Mayer, 103 Mayflower, 183 Maynadier, 219, 220 Meredith, 275 Meredith Cove, 78 Methodists, 133 Mifflin, 74, 290 Minute Men, 209 Mohawk Indians, 259 Montmorenci, 9, 216, 217, 218 300 INDEX MontpeUer, 68, 88, 89, 91, 92, 93, Palmer, 254 94, 99, 102, 104 Moody, 249 Moore, 167, 168, 356, 274 Morgan, 335 Morris, 193 Mott, 286, 287 Mount Airy, 184, 185, 188, 189, 191, 193, 194, 196, 198 Mount Saint Mary's School, 128 Mount Vernon, 184 Mount Vernon Place, 315 Murfreesboro, battle of, 183 Murray, 138, 141, 143, 146, 173 "My Lord's Gift," 307, 208 Myrtle Grove, 10 Naval Acad., 15, 304, 331 Needwood, 137 Neth, 36, 43 New Amsterdam, 358, 359 Newcastle, 347, 348, 349, 356, 356, 364, 366, 371, 291, 293, 393, 294 Nichols, 237 NichoUs, 99 Noming HaU, 203 Oakdale, 10 Oakland, 124 Oaklands, 93, 96, 99, 102 Ogden, 284 Ogle, 60, 61, 64, 66, 67, 70, 86, 87, 200, 201, 202, 203, 204 Old Windsor, 219 Orleans, 282 Oxford, Md., 226 Oxford University, 61 Paca, 1, 31, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44 Paca House, 36 Pardoe, 14 Pamonky, 10 Parke, 273 Parker, 100, 138, 143 ParUament, 207 Patapsco River, 166, 167, 168, 171 Patterson, 123, 124, 125 Patuxent River, 89, 101, 186, 187, 235, 237, 242, 244 Peach Blossoms, 226 " Peggy Stewart," 142 Pendenny, 221 Pendleton, 88, 95 Penn, 156, 268, 269 Perry, 161, 163 Peyton, 289 Phelps, 112, 127, 128 Physick, 243 Pickering, 173 Pickford, 193 Pinkney, 7, 27, 28, 31, 33, 33 Plain DeaUng, 325, 226, 327, 328, 229, 230, 231 Plantagenets, 221 Plater, 235, 237, 238, 239 PUmhimmon, 10 Plymouth, 182 Poconoke, 236, 332 Poluyanski, 319, 332 Poplar HiU, 10 Porter, 261 Portland Manor, 116 Portobello, 10 Potomac River, 66 Powell, 57, 194 Powlett, 85 Presque Isle, Lake Erie, 283 Primrose, 42 Prince George's Co., 68, 88, 91, 96, 99, 101, 114, 116, 146, 184, 189, 199, 202 SOl INDEX Printz, 177 Pritchard, 101 Providence, 152 Provincial Conventions, 157 Pryor, 260 Pue, 173 Puritan, 51, 52, 152 Quaker, 92, 140, 156, 157, 280 Quatrebeau, 45 Queen Anne's Co., 10, 134, 157, 161, 162, 165, 205, 209, 210, 211, 212, 213, 315 Queenstown, 209, 311, 212 Queenstown Creek, 205, 207, 208 Rand, 127 RandaU, 4, 25, 73, 73, 76, 76 RandaU House, 73, 76 Ranelagh, 10 Rastrick de, 177 RatcUffe Manor, 148, 149, 150, 151, 162 Read, 364, 365, 293 Readbourne, 148, 157, 161, 163, 163, 164 Read House, 264, 265 Redemptorist Order, 116, 117 Relay, 173 Rewes, 242 Richardson, 129, 141 Ridgely, 1, 6, 23, 134, 131, 133, 134, 135, 136, 173, 180, 330, 266, 367, 268, 269, 270, 271, 272, 373 274, 275, 280, 281, 282, 283, 385, 286, 287, 288, 289, 290 Ridgely House, 366, 367, 273, 274, 281, 283, 290 Ridout, IS, 24, 25, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 72, 77, 80, 86 Ridout House, 60, 64, 72 Ringgold, 142 Riverdale, 193 Robb, 49 Robbins, 128 Robins, 148, 149, 162, 226 Rodin, SO Rodney, 349, 256, 265, 271, 273, 274, 275, 276, 277, 278, 379, 280, 283, 284 RolUng Road, 172 Rose HiU, 10 Ross, 69, 219 Rousley, 186, 237, 238, 239 RoubeUe, 43, 44 Rozier, 116 Rutland, 104 St. Ann's Church, 107 St. Anthony's Chapel, 129 St. Aubin, 164 St. John's CoUege, 181, 219, 243 St. Jones' Creek, 251, 263 St. Jones' Neck, 275 St. Mary's Co., 10, 48, 116, 133, 178, 219, 235, 240, 241, 242, 243, 244 St. Matthew's Church, 129 St. Michaels, 159 St. Thomas' Church, 189 Saint Anne's Church, 16 Saint Anne's Parish, 187 Saint Cuthbert's, 10 Saint George's Presbyterian Church, 292 Saint Inigoes, 133 Saint Margarets, 77 Sandy Point, 77 Sandy Spring, 102 Satterlee, 235, 239 Schaaf, 36, 42 Scharf, 263, 272 Scott, 61, 68, 69, 70, 71 302 INDEX Scott House, 68, 69, 71 Second Presbyterian Church, Phila., 261 Seth's Mills, 213 Severn River, 3, 37, 70, 107, 218, 219, 221 SewaU, 118 Sharpy, 8, 26, 60, 61, 63, 64, 66, 67, 69, 70, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 83, 84, 85, 86 Sharpe's Island, 238 Sheffy, 183 Shurmer, 263 Sherwood, 33 Shields, 285 Sisters of N6tre Dame, 68, 71 Skidmore, 273 Smith, 364, 365, 285 Smyrna, 11 Snowden, 8, 88, 89, 91, 92, 93, 94, 96, 99, 100, 101, 102, 103, 104 Snowden Hall, 103 Somerset, 156, 232 SomerviUe, 238 Sons of Liberty, 21, 40, 142 Sothoron, 344 Sotterly, 235, 236, 239 South River, 220 South River BattaUon, 35 Spa Creek, 17 Sprigg, 65, 146, 147, 173 Spring Garden, 135 Stamp Act, 32, 85, 142 Stamp Act Congress, 276 Stanley, 103 Star Spangled Banner, 219 State AssembUes, 273 Staunton, 127, 128 Stenmier, 8 Stenton, 248 Stephen, 48, 49 Sterrett, 315 Steuart, 147, 186, 191, 193, 194 Stewart, 65, 356, 391, 292 Stier, 191 Stockett, 25 Stockton, 256 Stony Point, 283 Story, 77, 87 Strangways, 62 Stuart, 134, 191, 193 Stuyvesant, 259 Success Farm, 10 Summer HUl, 230 Sussex Co., Del., 278 Swan, 6 Swann, 36, 42 Talbot Co., 10, 33, 41, 76, 140, 162, 155, 162, 164, 209, 312, 225, 227, 229, 351 Tankerville, 226 Tasker, 64, 200, 303 Taylor. 88, 95, 137 Thom, 305, 310 Thomas, 93, 93, 100, 102, 183, 183, 236, 237, 240, 241, 242, 243, 344, 393, 294 Thomas House, 293 Thompson, 127, 128 Thornton, 59 Three Graces of America, 111, 124 TUden, 390 TUghmann, 43, 134, ISO, 163 TUghman Fortune, 150 ToUey, 216 Tonoloway, 66 Towson, 131 Tred Avon River, 148, 225 Tred Haven, 156 Trent HaU, 244 Tubman, 244 303 INDEX Tucker, 137 Tudor HaU, 10 Tuesday Club, 67 TuUp HiU, 6, 138. 139, 140, 141, 142, 143, 144, 367 Turkey Park, 150 Tyson, 103 Union Line, 293 United Colonies of America in Con gress Assembled, 377 University of Pa., 181 Upper Marlboro, 183 Van Courtlandt, 368 Van Courtlandt Manor, 358 Van Dyke, 348, 349, 291, 392 Vasa, 177 Verplank, 259 Victoria, Queen of England, 159 Vincent, 258 Vineyard, the, 76 Vining, 268, 271, 272, 279, 280, 281, 282, 383, 284 Vonschroder, 88, 90, 95 Wales, 84 WaUace, 180 WaUis, 211, 213, 315 Walnut Grange, 93 Wardridge, 270 Warfield, 11, 21, 47, 76, 94, 99, 104, 113, 130, 121, 220 " Washington, Booker T., 159 Washington Geo., 23, 41, 42, 47, 55, 65, 80, 88, 117, 122, 128, 173, 180, 184, 185, 191, 265 Washington's Life Guards, 179 Wasp, the, 269 Waterloo, 124 Waters, 100 Watkins, 35 Wayne, 282, 283 Weightman, 183 Welcome, The, 269 Wellesley, Marquis of, 124 WeUington, 134 West, 152 Westonholme or Wostenholme, 63, 64 West River, 6, 100, 138, 139, 141, 143, 144, 145, 146, 168, 171, 367 White, 135, 136 White Banks, 208 WhitehaU, 8, 25, 26, 66, 67, 77, 78, 80, 81, 83, 86, 87 White House, 159, 185 Whitham, 134 Whitridge, 182, 183 Whittingham, 214 Whyte, 33 Wilcox, 196 WilUam and Mary's CoUege^ 237 WUmington, Del., 261, 282, 383, 284, 28S, 292 Wilson, 194 Wilson House, 11 Wiltshire, 146 Winans Cove, 130 Winthrop, 120 Wolfe, 70 Woodward, 199, 200, 203 Worthington, 9, 25, 49, 174, 216, 317, 218, 219, 220, 221, 223, 271 Worthington Valley, 9, 216 Wright, 102, 205, 208, 209, 210 Wye House, 19, 23, 41, 43, 134, 162, 163, 154, 156, 167, 158, 159, 162 Wye Island, 76 Wye MiUs, 213 Wye River, 154 Wynhoop, 274, 281 Yale CoUege, 261 304 02353 5058