Chronicles of Baltimore - Part 1



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We enter upon our arduous yet inspiring labor in gathering together the 
"Chronicles of Baltimore," with a feeling akin to that lofty spirit of 
enterprise which animates the navigator and explorer of new and unknown 
regions of the earth.

Pressing forward with eager hope and expectation, he sees the realm of 
discovery still apparently receding before him, yet continually rewarding 
his research and curiosity by the most valuable results; and he at length 
returns from the scene of his achievements with the records of his 
enterprise, anxious in his narrative that no historic foot-print may be 
lost. In the inexhaustible field of the old are mines of as deep interest 
and reward as are in the new; and it would be difficult to find in the 
history of America any page which offers a more varied attraction than 
that which treats of Baltimore, not alone to her own fond people, but to 
any people. He who will go over the track of her career, will seek her in 
company with those who first pressed her virgin soil with their feet ere 
she had risen from the wilderness, follow her as she has grown, and behold 
her as she is, cannot fail to be pleasantly and instructively impressed. 
Let us approach her with those who were the first to approach her, and 
stand with them, and see with them the then tangled, wild, unbroken site 
in the forest, now the proud, busy, palatial city. Let us make this 
approach through the quaint, yet clear and touching recital of Captain 
John Smith, who in his History of Virginia records the following, which we 
reprint in the original text:--


                          THE SIXT VOYAGE. 1606.

                       TO ANOTHER PART OF VIRGINIA,
WHERE NOW ARE PLANTED OUR ENGLISH COLONIES WHOM GOD INCREASE AND PRESERUE:
                         DISCOVERED AND DESCRIBED
                          By CAPTAINE JOHN SMITH,
                   Sometimes Governour of the Countrey.

"By these former relations you may see what inconveniences still crossed 
those good intents, and how great a matter it was all

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this time to finde but a Harbour, although there be so many. But this 
Virginia is a Country in America between the degrees of 34. and 45. of the 
North latitude. The bounds thereof on the East side are the great Ocean: 
on the South lyeth Florida: on the North nova Francia: as for the West 
thereof, the limits are vnknowne. Of all this Country we purpose not to 
speake, but onely of that part which was planted by the English men in the 
yeare of our Lord, 1606. And this is vnder the degrees 37. 38. and 39. The 
temperature of this Country doth agree well with English constitutions, 
being once seasoned to the Country. Which appeared by this, that though by 
many occasions our people fell sicke; yet did they recover by very small 
meanes, and continued in health, though there were other great causes, not 
onely to haue made them sicke, but even to end their dayes, &c.

"The Sommer is hot as in Spaine; the Winter cold as in France or England. 
The heat of sommer is in Iune, Iuly, and August, but commonly the coole 
Breeses asswage the vehemency of the heat. The chiefe of winter is halfe 
December, Ianuary, February, and halfe March. The colde is extreame 
sharpe, but here the Proverbe is true, that no extreame long continueth.

"In the yeare 1607. was an extraordinary frost in most of Europe, and this 
frost was found as extreame in Virginia. But the next yeare for 8. or 10. 
dayes of ill weather, other 14 dayes would be as Sommer.

"The windes here are variable, but the like thunder and lightning to 
purifie the ayre, I haue seldome either seene or heard in Europe. From the 
Southwest came the greatest gusts with thunder and heat. The Northwest 
winde is commonly coole and bringeth faire weather with it. From the North 
is the greatest cold, and from the East and Southeast as from the 
Barmudas, fogs and raines.

"Sometimes there are great droughts, other times much raine, yet great 
necessitie of neither, by reason we see not but that all the raritie of 
needful fruits in Europe, may be there in great plentie, by the industrie 
of men, as appeareth by those we there Planted.

"There is but one entrance by Sea into this Country, and that is at the 
mouth of a very goodly Bay, 18. or 20. myles broad. The cape on the South 
is called Cape Henry, in honour of our most noble Prince. The land white 
hilly sands like vnto the Downes, and all along the shores great plentie 
of Pines and Firres.

"The North Cape is called Cape Charles, in honour of the worthy Duke of 
Yorke. The Isles before it, Smith's Isles, by the name of the discover. 
Within is a country that may haue the prerogatiue over the most pleasant 
places knowne, for large and pleasant navigable Rivers, heaven and earth 
never agreed better to frame a place for mans habitation; were it fully 
manured and inhabited by industrious people. Here are mountaines, hils,

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plaines, valleyes, rivers, and brookes, all running most pleasantly into a 
faire Bay, compassed but for the mouth, with fruitfull and delightsome 
land. In the Bay and rivers are many Isles both great and small, some 
woody, some plaine, most of them low and not inhabited. This bay lyeth 
North and South, in which the water floweth neare 200. myles, and hath a 
channell for 140 myles of depth betwixt 6 and 15 fadome, holding a breadth 
for the most part 10 or 14 myles. From the head of the Bay to the 
Northwest, the land is mountanous, and so in a manner from thence by a 
Southwest line; so that the more Southward, the farther off from the Bay 
are those mountaines. From which fall certaine brookes which after come to 
fiue principall navigable rivers. These run from the Northwest into the 
Southeast, and so into the West side of the Bay, where the fall of every 
River is within 20 or 15 myles one of the other.

"The mountaines are of divers natures: for at the head of the Bay the 
rockes are of a composition like Mill stones. Some of Marble, &c. And many 
peeces like Christall we found, as throwne downe by water from those 
mountaines. For in Winter they are covered with much snow, and when it 
dissolveth the waters fall with such violence, that it causeth great 
inundations in some narrow valleys, which is scarce perceived being once 
in the rivers. These waters wash from the rocks such glistering tinctures, 
that the ground in some places seemeth as guilded, where both the rocks 
and the earth are so splendent to behold that better iudgements then ours 
might haue beene perswaded, they contained more then probabilities. The 
vesture of the earth in most places doth manifestly proue the nature of 
the soyle to be lusty and very rich. The colour of the earth we found in 
diverse places, resembleth bole Armoniac, terra a sigillata, and Lemnia, 
Fullers earth, Marle, and divers and other such appearances. But generally 
for the most part it is a blacke sandy mould, in some places a fat slimy 
clay, in other places a very barren gravell. But the best ground is knowne 
by the vesture it beareth, as by the greatnesse of trees, or abun dance of 
weeds, &c.

"The Country is not mountanous, nor yet low, but such pleasant plaine 
hils, and fertile valleyes, one prettily crossing another and watered so 
conveniently with fresh brookes and springs, no lesse commodious, then 
delightsome. By the rivers are many plaine marshes, containing some 20 
some 100. some 200 Acres, some more, some lesse. Other plaines there are 
few, but onely where the Salvages inhabit: but all overgrowne with trees 
and weeds, being a plaine wildernesse as God first made it.

"On the west side of the Bay, we sayd were 5. faire and delightfull 
navigable rivers. The first of those, and the next to the mouth of the Bay 
hath his course from the West Northwest. It is called Powhatan, according 
to the name of a principall countrey that lyeth vpon it. The mouth of this 
river is neare three myles

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in breadth, yet doe the shoules force the Channell so neare the land, that 
a Sarce will overshoot it at point blancke. It is navigable 150 myles, the 
shouldes and soundings are here needlesse to be expressed. It falleth from 
Rockes farre west in a Country inhabited by a nation they call Monacans. 
But where it commeth into our discovery it is Powhatan. In the farthest 
place that was diligently observed, are falles, rockes, shoules, &c., 
which makes it past navigation any higher. Thence in the running 
downeward, the river is enriched with many goodly brookes, which are 
maintained by an infinit number of small rundles and pleasant springs, 
that disperse themselues for the best service, as do the veines of a mans 
body. From the South there fals into it: First, the pleasant river of 
Apamatuck. Next more to the East are two small rivers of 
Quiyoughcohanocke. A little farther is a Bay wherein falleth 3 or 4 
prettie brookes and creekes that halfe intrench the Inhabitants of 
Warraskoyac, then the river of Nandsamund, and lastly the brooke of 
Chisapeack. From the North side is the river of Chickahamania, the backe 
river of Iames Towne; another by the Cedar Isle, where we liued ten weekes 
vpon Oysters, then a convenient harbour for Fisher boats at Kecoughtan, 
that so turneth it selfe into Bayes and Creekes, it makes that place very 
pleasant to inhabit; their cornefields being girded therein in a manner as 
Peninsulaes. The most of these rivers are inhabited by severall nations, 
or rather families, of the name of the rivers. They haue also over those 
some Governour, as their King, which they call Werowances. In a Peninsula 
on the North side of this river are the English Planted in a place by them 
called James Towne, in honour of the Kings most excellent Maiestie.

"The first and next the rivers mouth are the Kecoughtans, who besided 
their women and children, haue not past 20 fighting men. The Paspaheghes 
(on whose land is seated Iames Towne, some 40. myles from the Bay) haue 
not past 40. The river called Chickahamania neare 250. The Weanocks 100. 
The Arrowhatocks 30. The place called Powhatan, some 40. On the South side 
this river the Appamatucks haue sixtie fighting men. The Quiyougcohanocks 
25. The Nandsamunds 200. The Chesapeacks 100. Of this last place the Bay 
beareth the name. In all these places is a severall com mander, which they 
call Werowance, except the Chickahamanians, who are governed by the 
Priests and their Assistants, or their Elders called Caw-cawwassoughes. In 
sommer no place affordeth more plentie of Sturgeon, nor in winter more 
abundance of foule, especially in the time of frost. I tooke once 52 
Sturgeons at a draught, at another 68. From the later end of May till the 
end of Iune are taken few, but yong Sturgeons of two foot, or a yard long. 
From thence till the midst of September, them of two or three yards long 
and few others. And in 4 or 5 houres, with one Net were ordinarily taken 7 
or 8: often more, seldome lesse. In the small rivers all the yeare there 
is good plentie of small fish, so that with hookes those that would take 
paines had sufficient.

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"Fourteene myles Northward from the river Powhatan, is the river 
Pamavnkee, which is navigable 60 or 70 myles, but with Catches and small 
Barkes 30 or 40 myles farther. At the ordinary flowing of the salt water, 
it divideth it selfe into two gallant branches. On the South side inhabit 
the people of Youghtanund, who haue about 60 men for warres. On the North 
branch Mattapament, who haue 30 men. Where this river is divided the 
Country is called Pamavnkee and nourisheth neare 300 able men. About 25. 
myles lower on the North side of this river is Werawocomoco, where their 
great King inhabited when I was delivered him prisoner; yet there are not 
past 40 able men. Ten or twelue myles lower, on the South side of this 
river, is Chiskiack, which hath some 40 or 50 men. These, as also 
Apamatuck, Irrohatock, and Powhatan, are their great Kings chiefe 
alliance, and inhabitants. The rest his Conquests.

"Before we come to the third river that falleth from the mountaines, there 
is another river (some 30 myles navigable) that commeth from the Inland, 
called Payankatanke, the inhabitants are about 50 or 60 serviceable men.

"The third navigable river is tailed Toppahanock. (This is navigable some 
130 myles). At the top of it inhabit the people called Mannahoacks amongst 
the mountaines, but they are aboue the place we described. Vpon this river 
on the North side are the people Cuttatawomen, with 30 fighting men. 
Higher are the Moraughtacunds, with 80. Beyond them Rapahanock with 100. 
Far aboue is another Cuttatawomen with 20. On the South is the pleasant 
seat of Nantaughtacund having 150 men. This river also as the two former, 
is replenished with fish and foule.

"The fourth river is called Patawomeke, 6 or 7 myles in breadth. It is 
navigable 140 myles, and fed as the rest with many sweet rivers and 
springs, which fall from the bordering hils. These hils many of them are 
planted, and yeeld no lesse plentie and varietie of fruit, then the river 
exceedeth with abundance of fish. It is inhabited on both sides. First on 
the South side at the very entrance is Wighcocomoco and hath some 130 men, 
beyond them Sekacawone with 30. The Onawmanient with 100. And the 
Patawomekes more then 200. Here doth the river divide itselfe into 3 or 4 
convenient branches. The greatest of the least is called Quiyough, 
trending Northwest, but the river it selfe turneth Northeast, and is still 
a navigable streame. On the Westerne side of this bought is Tauxenent with 
40 men. On the North of this river is Secowocomoco with 40. Some what 
further Potapaco with 20. In the East part is Pamacaeack with 60. After 
Moyowance with 100. And lastly, Nocotchtanke with 80. The river aboue this 
place maketh his passage downe a low pleasant valley overshaddowed in many 
places with high rocky mountaines; from whecne distill innumerable sweet 
and pleasant springs.

"The fift river is called Pawtuxunt, of a lesse proportion then rest; but 
the channell is 16 fadome deepe in some places, Here

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are infinit skuls of divers kindes of fish more then elswhere. Vpon this 
river dwell the people called Acquintanacksuak, Pawtuxunt, and 
Mattapanient. Two hundred men was the greatest strength that could be 
there perceived. But they inhabit together, and not so dispersed as the 
rest. These of all other we found most civill to giue intertainement.

"Thirtie leagues Northward is a river not inhabited, yet navigable; for 
the red clay resembling bole Armoniack we called it BOLUS. At the end of 
the Bay where it is 6 or 7 myles in breadth, it divides it selfe into 4. 
branches, the best commeth Northwest from among the mountaines, but though 
Canows may goe a dayes iourney or two vp it, we could not get two myles vp 
it with our boat for rockes. Vpon it is seated the Sasquesahanocks, neare 
it North and by West runneth a creeke a myle and a halfe: at the head 
whereof the Eble left vs on shore, where we found many trees cut with 
hatchets. The next tyde keeping the shore to seeke for some Salvages; (for 
within thirtie leagues sayling, we saw not any, being a barren Country,) 
we went vp another small river like a creeke 6 or 7 myle. From thence 
returning we met 7 Canowes of the Massowomeks, with whom we had conference 
by signes, for we vnderstood one another scarce a word: the next day we 
discovered the small river and people of Tockwhogh trending Eastward.

"Having lost our Grapnell among the rocks of Sasquesahanocks, we were then 
neare 200 myles from home, and our Barge about two tuns, and had in it but 
twelve men to performe this Discovery, wherein we lay about 12 weekes vpon 
those great waters in those vnknowne Countries, having nothing but a 
little meale, oatemeale and water to feed vs, and scarce halfe sufficient 
of that for halfe that time, but what provision we got among the Salvages, 
and such rootes and fish as we caught by accident, and Gods direction; nor 
had we a Mariner nor any had skill to trim the sayles but two saylers and 
my selfe, the rest being Gentlemen, or them were as ignorant in such toyle 
and labour. Yet necessitie in a short time by good words and examples made 
them doe that that caused them ever after to feare no colours. What I did 
with this small meanes I leaue to the Reader to iudge, and the Mappe I 
made of the Country, which is but a small matter in regard of the 
magnitude thereof. But to proceed, 60 of those Sasquesahanocks came to vs 
with skins, Bowes, Arrows, Targets, Beads, Swords, and Tobacco pipes for 
presents. Such great and well proportioned men are seldome seene, for they 
seemed like Giants to the English, yea and to the neighbours, yet seemed 
of an honest and simple disposition, with much adoe restrained from 
adoring vs as Gods. Those are the strangest people of all those Countries, 
both in language and attire; for their language it may well beseeme their 
proportions, sounding from them, as a voyce in a vault. Their attire is 
the skinnes of Beares, and Woolues, some haue Cassacks made of Beares heads

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and skinnes, that a mans head goes through the skinnes neck, and the eares 
of the Beare fastened to his shoulders, the nose and teeth hanging downe 
his breast, another Beares face split behind him, and at the end of the 
nose hung a Pawe, the halfe sleeues comming to the elbowes were the neckes 
of Beares, and the armes through the mouth with pawes hanging at their 
noses. One had the head of a Wolfe hanging in a chain for a Iewell, his 
Tobacco pipe three quarters of a yard long, prettily carued with a Bird, a 
Deere, or some such devise at the great end, sufficient to beat out ones 
braines: with Bowes, Arrowes, and clubs, sutable to their greatnesse. 
These are scarce knowne to Powhatan. They can make neare 600 able men, and 
are pallisadoed in their Townes to defend them from the Massawomekes their 
mortall enemies. Fiue of their chiefe Werowances came aboord vs and 
crossed the Bay in their Barge. The picture of the greatest of them is 
signified in the Mappe. The calfe of whose leg was three quarters of a 
yard about, and all the rest of his limbes so answerable to that 
proportion, that he seemed the goodliest man we ever beheld. His hayre, 
the one side was long, the other shore close with a ridge over his crowne 
like a cocks combe. His arrowes were fiue quarters long, headed with the 
splinters of a white christall-like stone, in forme of a heart, an inch 
broad, and an inch and a halfe or more long. These he wore in a Woolues 
skinne at his backe for his Quiver, his bow in the one hand and his clubbe 
in the other, as is described.

"On the East side of the Bay, is the river Tockwhogh, and vpon it a people 
that can make 100 men, seated some seaven myles within the river: where 
they haue a Fort very well pallisadoed and mantelled with barkes of trees. 
Next them is Ozinies with sixty men. More to the South of that East side 
of the Bay, the river Rapahanock, neere vnto which is the river 
Kuscarawaock. Vpon which is seated a people with 200 men. After that, is 
the river Tants Wighcocomico, and on it a people with 100 men. The people 
of those rivers are of little stature, of another language from the rest, 
and very rude. But they on the river Acohanock with 40 men, and they of 
Accomack 80 men doth equalize any of the Territories of Powhatan, and 
speake his languge, who over all those doth rule as King.

"Southward we went to some parts of Chawonock and the Mangoags to search 
for them left by Mr. White. Amongst those people are thus many severall 
Nations of sundry Languages, that environ Powhatans Territories. The 
Chawonockes, the Mangoags, the Monacans, the Mannahokes, the Masawomekes, 
the Powhatans, the Sasquesahanocks, the Atquanachukes, the Tockwoghes, and 
the Kuscarawaokes. All those not any one vnderstandeth another but by 
Interpreters. Their severall habitations are more plainly described by 
this annexed Mappe, which will present to the eye, the way of the 
mountaines, and current of the rivers, with their severall turnings, 
bayes, shoules, Isles, Inlets, and creekes, the breadth of

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the waters, the distances of places, and such like. In which Mappe obserue 
this, that as far as you see the little Crosses on rivers, mountaines, or 
other places haue beene discovered; the rest was had by information of the 
Savages, and are set downe according to their instructions.

"Thus haue I walkt a wayless way, with vncouth pace,
Which yet no Christian man did ever trace:
But yet I know this not affects the minde,
Which eares doth heare; as that which eyes doe finde."


In the foregoing account, the "annexed Mappe," of which Captain Smith 
speaks, showing "the way of the mountains, and current of the rivers, with 
their severall turnings, bayes, shoules, Isles, Inlets, and creeks, the 
breadth of the waters, the distance of places, and such like," presents to 
the eye almost a facsimile of modern maps representing the same section, 
the only material distinguishing difference between them being in the 
Indian names, which have, of course, been superseded by English ones. Its 
accuracy, as compared with the maps of the present day, is wonderful; and 
upon it may be, not traced, but immediately fixed on by the familiar eye, 
the locale which has since become Baltimore on the Patapsco--a river 
marked on the "Mappe" as the "Bolus" river, and so called by Captain Smith 
because of "the red clay resembling Bole armoniack." This red clay, or 
"bole," after which Captain Smith named this river Bolus, was a covering 
for extensive mines of iron ore since discovered and worked extensively on 
the Patapsco (the old Bolus), the first of which mines were owned and 
worked by Mr. John Moale, at "Moale's Point," that "point" where it was 
sought to establish Baltimore town, but where the town was not 
established, through the hostility of Mr. Moale, who refused to sell his 
land, and who preferred and had a greater interest in his ores than in a 
prospective town.

Concurrent authorities fix upon the Bolus and the Patapsco as one and the 
same river, either in words or by inference. Bozman says "the Patapsco is 
the Bolus river of Smith."

Lossing says of Smith:--"He went up the Potomac to the falls above 
Washington city. He also entered the Patapsco, and ate maize upon the site 
of Baltimore. These long voyages were made in an open boat, propelled by 
oars and paddles. It was one of the most wonderful of exploring 
expeditions, considered in all its aspects, recorded by the pen of 
history. Smith constructed a map of his discoveries, and every subsequent 
survey of the region attests its wonderful accuracy."

That Captain John Smith was the first white man whose eye rested upon the 
site of Baltimore, there can be, hardly, a reasonable doubt. It was as far 
back as 1606, as appears, that he penetrated the Patapsco; and when he had 
turned away from the head-waters he had sought, a long time intervened 
before the coming of any

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other of the European race to the Patapsco again. It is not improbable 
that the next white man who penetrated to this river, and who mayhap also 
stood and ate maize upon the site of the present city, was Lord Baltimore 
himself, in 1628, of whom, in this connection, the historian Bozman says:--
"Whether Lord Baltimore personally, at the time of his visit to Virginia, 
explored that tract of country now denominated Maryland, of which he 
afterwards procured a grant, we are not positively informed. But as the 
obtaining a more complete knowledge of the country bordering on the 
Chesapeake, than he could otherwise possibly have from report, must have 
been the principal object of his visit, we cannot but suppose that he must 
at this time, notwithstanding the discouragement of his pursuits by the 
Virginians, have made the tour by water of the principal parts of the 
Chesapeake Bay."

Nothing is positively known of the presence of any others in the 
neighborhood of Baltimore up to the year 1659, although it is not unlikely 
that some had pushed up and settled about the head waters of the Patapsco, 
following in the track of Captain John Smith's and Lord Baltimore's visit.

1659. Baltimore County was established in this year. Its limits were then 
far more extensive than at present, embracing not only all of Harford and 
Carroll Counties, but large portions of Anne Arundel, Howard, and 
Frederick. At that time the population of all Maryland was only twelve 
thousand, and that of the newly erected county was probably less than one-
sixth of that number.

On the 28th, 29th and 30th of July, patents for land in the neighborhood 
of Baltimore were issued to Robert Gorsuch for 500 acres, Hugh Kensey 400 
acres, Richard Gorsuch 500 acres, Thomas Humphreys 300 acres, John Jones 
200 acres, Thomas Powell 300 acres, Howell Powell 300 acres, William Ball 
420 acres, and Walter Dickinson 420 acres. Captain Thomas Howell, Captain 
Thomas Stockett, and Messrs. Henry Stockett and John Taylor, styled 
Commissioners of the County, took up patents, and on the 20th of July, 
1661, held a court at the house of Captain Howell, the presiding 
Commissioner, Mr. John Collett being their clerk.

On the 20th day of October, Mr. Walter Dickinson sold all his land to Mr. 
Abraham Clarke, a ship-wright. Mr. Clark also pur chased of Mr. John 
Collett, on the 2d of March, 1662, 200 acres, and of Richard Gorsuch 300 
acres, and on the 7th of March, 1662, Mr. Clarke sold all his lands to 
Thomas Muntross.

1661. The next settler who took up ground was Charles Gor- such, said to 
be a member of the Society of Friends, who patented fifty acres of land on 
the 24th of February, 1661, which is afterwards known as "Whetstone
Point," lying between the branches of the Patapsco River, and at whose 
extremity Fort McHnry now stands--Mr. Gorsuch yielding and paying the rent 
of £1 sterling per annum in equal half-yearly instalments at Saint Mary's.

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Mr. Gorsuch vacating, a patent was granted for the same land, on the 2d of 
June, 1702, to Mr. James Carroll, who called it "Whetstone," he paying two 
shillings rent per annum.

On the 15th of June, Mr. Peter Carroll surveyed for Mr. David Jones, 380 
acres of land on the line of what is now called Jones Falls, at a rent of 
fifteen shillings two and one-half pence per year, which was called "Jones 
Range." Mr. David Jones gave his name to the stream which is so often 
mentioned, and by its repeated overflows, of such troublesome interest to 
Baltimoreans of the present day. Jones is said to have been the first 
actual settler, having his residence on the north side of his "Falls" on 
Jones street, which by the sacrilegious interference of the ministers of 
the law has been changed into Front street. We say sacrilegious, because 
the ancient landmarks and names of towns, cities, &c., should be preserved 
and cherished reverentially as are family heir-looms. Mr. Jones built his 
residence in the neighborhood of the intersection of French street, near 
what was known as "Finn's Bridge."

On the 8th of February a warrant was issued to the Surveyor General to lay 
out 200 acres of land for Alexander Mountenay, which was afterwards called 
"Mountenay's Neck." Mr. Alexander Mountenay did not, however, receive a 
patent for his lands until the 30th of June, 1663. The patent states that 
Lawrencen Porter assigned 200 acres to Mr. Mountenay, at the rent of 4 
shillings sterling, &c., per annum; but we can find but one entry where L. 
Porter demands 100 acres for transporting himself and servant in 1661. 
There is another entry on the Land Records where Margaret Kinsey assigns 
50 acres, Robert Ball 100 acres, and Wm. Like 50 acres, to Alex. Mountenay 
in 1661, which is no doubt the correct entry. "Mountenay's Neck," which 
lay on each side of Harford run, was re-surveyed the 27th of April, 1737, 
for Wm. Fell as Escheat Land. The run in question is now bound in by long 
straight walls, or tunneled over, through which in drier times it trickles 
in a meagre rivulet, or after heavy rains dashes with a swollen and turbid 
tide, to contribute its portion of alluvion to supply labor to the 
ponderous "mud machines" to which the harbor or basin of Baltimore owes 
its continuing existence. In olden days, Harford run meandered lazily 
along the broad low lands until it silently entered the Patapsco; 
extending now to the right, now to the left, now hid among the rushes on 
its banks, now lost to view as it spread into some widening of the marsh, 
and then reappearing, slowly creeping onward to its destination. 
lnsignificant as it was, it possessed charms for Mr. Alexander Mountenay, 
the ancient patentee; and as if acquiring dignity in the course of years, 
it now, with its confines, is the boundary between "Old Town" and "Fell's 
Point."

On the 1st of May an Act was passed by the General Assembly "that all 
vessels whatsoever, not properly belonging to this Province,

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having a deck flush fore and aft, coming in, and trading within this 
Province, shall pay, for port duties, or anchorage, half a pound of 
powder, and three pounds of shot, or so much in value, for every ton of 
burden, to the Lord Proprietary, and his Heirs."

1668. The next land taken up was "Cole's Harbor," on which the town of 
Baltimore was originally laid out, containing about 550 acres, and divided 
into nearly two equal parts by the current of "Jones Falls."

On the 13th of January, Thomas Cole received a warrant for 300 acres of 
land, which he soon after revoked, but renewed it again on the 8th of 
June. He also received on the 8th of June 200 acres more by assignment 
from Geo. Yates, and 50 acres more by assignment from John Blomfield, the 
assignee of Roger Sheekie, for his the said Sheekie's transporting himself 
into Maryland in the year 1649. Geo. Yates received his land from John 
Collitt the 8th of Feb., 1668, and John Collitt received the same from 
Major Samuel Goldsmith, who claimed five rights of 50 acres each, for 
transporting Robert Parker, Nicholas Banks, Thomas Pickerall, Edward 
Jackson, and Elizabeth Hopkins,--all excepting 50 acres which were laid 
out for John Deering, were transferred to Yates as aforesaid. "Cole's 
Harbor" was surveyed for Thomas Cole, Aug. 28th, 1668, and was patented to 
him Sept. 4th: "To be held in fee and common soceage, by fealty only, for 
all manner of services; yielding and paying therefor yearly unto us our 
heirs, at our receipt at St. Maries, at the two most usual feasts in the 
year (viz) at the feast of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, 
and at the feast of St. Michael the archangel, by even and equal portions 
the rent of eleven shillings sterling in silver, or gold, and for a fine 
upon every alienation of the said land or any part or parcel thereof, one 
whole year's rent in silver or gold, or the full value thereof, &c., &c."

"Cole's Harbor" was for a long time ample space for the accommodation of 
Baltimore; and until, like a sturdy boy outgrowing his first garments, it 
required larger limits, and embraced within its expansion Hap Hazard, 
Spicer's Inheritance, Chatsworth, Welsh Adventure, Bond's Pleasant Hill, 
Ridgely's Delight, Lunn's Lot, Mount Royall, Timber Neck, David's Fancy, 
Salisbury Plains, Haile's Folly, Gay's Neglect, Darly Hall, Hanson's. Wood 
Lot, Cole's Addition, Gallow Barrow, Roger's Inspection, Carter's Delight, 
Kemp's Addition, Parker's Haven, Mountenay's Neck, Upton Court, Whetstone 
Point, Georgia, Diligence, Fell's Point, Elizabeth, Inspection and 
Portland. All of these lands or farms, by various names and titles, 
subsequently fell within the growing limits of Baltimore. "Cole's Harbor," 
after being patented to Cole, September 4th, 1668, was re-surveyed 
February 17th, 1698, and found to contain only 510 acres, which were 
patented to James Todd, June 1st, 1700, as "Todd's Range," at the rent of 
ten shillings and two and a half pence per year.

Page 12

On the 20th of June, 1668, Mr. John Howard patented "Timber Neck" 
comprising 200 acres, yielding and paying therefor yearly the rent of four 
shillings sterling in silver or gold. "Timber Neck lay between the middle 
and north branches of the Patapsco, being that part of the city now 
occupied by Howard, Eutaw and Paca streets. Other parties followed 
Gorsuch, Mountenay, &c., and year after year the cultivation of this part 
of Baltimore County went on increasing.

The most striking feature upon the face of society was these plantations. 
Upon them were held some of our earliest courts and councils. Hardly a 
home or a tenement was not approached by water. And our governors, privy-
councillors, and county court judges, were, all of them, planters. The 
principal planters were also the merchants, who traded with London and the 
other great ports of England. And the large plantations, with their group 
of storehouses and other buildings, assumed the appearance and performed 
the office of little towns.

The currency of the province presents a good key to the state of society. 
In some contracts, none was required. There was simply a barter or an 
exchange of one commodity for another. In commercial transactions, a 
little English or European coin was occasionally used. In the trade with 
the indians, for beaver skins and other valuable articles, the peake and 
the roanoke obtained a free circulation, and a good deal of this kind of 
currency was held by the colonists. There was also a provincial coin 
consisting of silver, and issued by the Proprietary, of various 
denominations (as groats, sixpences, and shillings), having upon one side 
his lordship's arms, with the motto Crescite et Multiplicamini, upon the 
other his image, with the circumscription Coecilius Dominus Terroe-Marioe, 
&c.; being equal in fineness to English sterling, and of the same 
standard, though somewhat less in weight. Specimens of this curious money 
are preserved in the Maryland Historical Society; but very little of 
which, there is reason to believe, was ever coined--tobacco being the most 
common currency of the province; and one pound of it, in 1650, worth about 
three pence of English money.

Our ancestors, about this time, generally sat upon stools and forms, the 
latter a sort of bench, and sometimes, if not always, attached to the 
wall. They dined without forks, but made a free use of the napkin; and 
paid especial attention to the furniture of their bed-chambers. The walls, 
also, of their principal rooms were wainscotted, specimens of which are 
still preserved at some of the old family-seats in Maryland. And they kept 
a great deal of rich and massive silver plate, upon which were carved the 
arms of their own ancestry. Tea and coffee they rarely if ever tasted; 
sugar they sometimes had; but freely did they drink both cider and sack. 
And there is frequent mention of the silver sack-cup. Strong punch and 
sack, it would seem, were their favorite

Page 13

drink. They had, also, every variety of fruit, both for the winter as well 
as for the summer. They delighted in pears and apricots, in figs and 
pomegranates, in peaches and apples, and the most luscious melons. The 
wild strawberry and grape-vine grew, also, in the richest profusion. The 
air and the forest abounded in game; the rivers and bays in fish. Our 
ancestors feasted upon the best oysters of America; and dined, we may 
suppose, upon the canvas-back, the most delicious duck in the world. 
Providence was "not content with food to nourish man." All nature then was 
"music to the ear," or "beauty to the eye." The feathered songsters of the 
forest were constantly heard. And so fascinated were our forefathers with 
a bird they had never seen before their arrival, that they gave it the 
name of Baltimore--its colors (black and yellow) corresponding with those 
upon the escutcheon of the Calverts. The eagle also, which still lingers, 
was then more frequently seen, in all his proudest majesty.

Tobacco was the great product of the province. In all the parts of 
Maryland at that time colonized, was it cultivated. And it is said upon 
good authority, that "a hundred sail of ships," a year, from the West 
Indies and from England, traded in this article--the source also of a very 
large revenue to the English crown, at "his lordship's vast expense, 
industry, and hazard." Indian corn (or "mayz,") was also cultivated at an 
early period. From the Indian also did we obtain the sweet potato. The 
word itself is derived from them. So also are pone hominy, po coson, and 
many others.

No regular post was established; and it is doubtful if we had any printing-
press before the year 1689 in the province. Gentlemen travelled on 
horseback by land, or in canoes or other small boats by water. Ferries 
over the rivers and other large streams were erected by the government, 
and kept by the most respectable colonists--the duties in most cases, 
however, being performed by their deputies. Letters were sent by private 
hand, and dispatches from the government by a special messenger. The 
practice of partaking of ardent spirits and other refreshments at funerals 
was brought by our earliest ancestors from their own fatherland, and 
generally, if not universally observed. The sums expended in "hot waters" 
and other drinks upon such occasions were surprisingly large.

The costume, during the reign of Charles I., bore the marks of the strong 
military spirit of that age, and was the most striking and picturesque 
ever worn in England. We have also, here and there, a glimpse of it upon 
the records of this province. The inventory of Thomas Egerton, a cavalier, 
may illustrate a part of it. There we have the falchion and the rapier; 
the cloth coat lined with plush, and the embroidered belt; the gold hat-
band, and the feather; the pair of shoes, and the silk stockings; the 
pair, also, of cuffs, and the silk garters. The signet-ring is also

Page 14

mentioned, one of the articles of a gentleman at that period. And we find 
that leather breeches, and stockings of the same material, were frequently 
worn. The collar was succeeded by the cravat, it would seem about the time 
of the Protestant Revolution. Buff coats were also worn as early as 1650. 
The cocked hat was probably not introduced before the year 1700.

Finger-rings were worn by almost all the early landed gentry of Maryland, 
and they were the favorite tokens of regard and remembrance given in their 
wills. The number bequeathed during the first hundred years after the 
settlement at St. Mary's would seem incredible to any one who is not 
familiar with our early testamentary records.

Mr. Macaulay says that many English gentlemen and lords of manors, as late 
as 1685, had hardly "learned enough to sign" a mittimus. The accuracy of 
his picture has been doubted; but so far as it regards the education of 
many of the early gentry of Maryland, nothing could be more faithfully 
drawn. That many gentlemen could not write their names is evident; they 
repeatedly made their marks. Cases from the records could be cited. We 
have instances in which the servant writes his name and the master makes 
his mark. One, if not several, of the earliest udges of the provincial 
court came within this same category. The fact, indeed, suggests a very 
important inference, and can only be accounted for upon the true 
historical hypothesis. In the past we see the military, in the present the 
commercial spirit of society.

1683. In 1663 an Act was passed by the General Assembly, "for seating of 
lands in Baltimore County," which was rejected by the Proprietary. But on 
the 6th of November, 1683, an Act was passed establishing towns, ports, 
and places of trade in "Baltimore County on Patapsco, near Humphrey's 
Creek," and on "Bush River on the town land, near the Court House." By 
this Act, "all ships and vessels, trading into this province, shall 
unlade, and put on shore, and sell, barter and traffic away all goods, 
&c., imported into this province. And all tobacco, goods, &c., of the 
growth, production or manufacture of this province, intended to be sold 
here, or exported, shall be for that intent brought to the said ports and 
places." The commerce of the bay and river was growing, and as the most 
convenient converging point at that time for all sections bordering on or 
communicating with the great streams, "North Point" was agreed on as the 
common resort and anchorage of vessels for loading and distribution.

1696. On the 13th of January, 1695, Charles Carroll surveyed 1000 acres of 
land "lying in Baltimore County on the north side of Patapsco river in the 
woods upon Jones' Falls, and on the west side of the said Falls," which 
was called "Ely O. Carroll." On the 10th of February, 1696, this land was 
patented; 500 acres to Daniel Carroll and 500 to Charles Carroll, at the 
yearly rent of

Page 15

two pounds per annum for the whole--this land being "Cole's Harbor," with 
further additions.

1702. On the 25th of March an Act was passed for the "establishment of 
religious worship in this province, according to the Church of England; 
and for the maintainance of ministers." By this act the Episcopal Church 
was established by law throughout the State, and a tax or assessment of 
forty pounds of tobacco per poll was successively levied upon every 
taxable person within each parish, for the maintenance of the minister, 
who was appointed by the Governor or Commander-in-Chief.

1704. On the 3d of October an Act was passed "prohibiting the importation 
of bread, beer, flour, malt, wheat, or other English or Indian grain or 
meal, horses, mares, colts or fillies, or tobacco from Pennsylvania, and 
the territories there belonging." At the same time an Act was passed 
"requiring the masters of ships and vessels to publish the rates of their 
freight, before they take any tobacco on board." By this Act "every Master 
and Commander of a ship or vessel, before he take any tobacco on board his 
said ship or vessel, publish in writing, by a note under his hand, which 
he shall cause to be affixed on the Court-house door of the County where 
his said ship shall ride at Anchor, at what rate he will receive tobacco 
upon freight per ton, on board his said ship for that intended voyage; 
which note the Clerk of the County shall enter upon record."

On the 3d of October of this year it was "thought convenient, and very 
much for the benefit of the inhabitants of the province, that roads and 
paths be marked." It was enacted, therefore, that all public and main 
roads be hereafter cleared and grubbed, fit for travelling twenty feet 
wide, and that the roads that led to any County Court-house shall have two 
notches on the trees on both sides of the roads, and another notch a 
distance above the other two; and any road that leads to any church shall 
be marked into the entrance of the same, and at the leaving any other 
road, with a slip cut down the face of the tree, near the ground. This 
certainly shows how much of the country then settled was a wild wood, and 
at the same time the primitive guide-marks along the public roads and 
paths leading to court-houses, and also to the places of public worship.

1706. On the 19th of April an Act was passed creating "Whetstone Point" a 
town,-- the original favorite among locaters of land in this vicinity.

Speaking about this period, Beverly, in his history of Virginia, says:--
"At the mouth of their rivers, and all along upon the Sea and Bay, and 
near many of their creeks and swamps, grows Myrtle, bearing a berry of 
which they make a hard, brittle wax, of a curious green color, which by 
refining becomes almost transparent. Of this they make candles, which are 
never greasie to the touch, nor melt with lying in the hottest weather; 
neither does the snuff

Page 16

of these ever offend the smell, like that of a tallow candle; but instead 
of being disagreeable, if an accident puts a candle out, it yields a 
pleasant fragrancy to all that are in the room; insomuch, that nice people 
often put them out, on purpose to have the incense of the expiring snuff. 
The method of managing these berries is by boiling them in water, till 
they come to be entirely dissolved, except the stone or seed in the 
middle, which amounts in quantity to about half the bulk of the berry; the 
bigest of which is something less than a corn of pepper."

1708. On the 17th of December an Act was revived "imposing three pence per 
gallon on rum and wine, brandy and spirits, and twenty shillings per poll 
for negroes, for raising a supply to defray the public charge of this 
Province, and twenty shillings per poll on Irish servants, to prevent the 
importing too great a number of Irish Papists into this Province."

1711. In this year we find Mr. Charles Carroll selling thirty-one acres of 
his portion of "Cole's Harbor" with a mill-seat, to Mr. Jonathan Hanson, 
millwright, who erected a mill, of which the remains were standing a short 
time since, in the old building near the northwest intersection of Bath 
and Holliday streets.

1713. On the 14th of November an Act was passed "for the more speedy 
conveying public letters and packets of this Province and defraying the 
charge thereof; and to prevent the abuses of breaking open, and concealing 
any letters whatsoever." By this Act the sheriff of each county was 
authorised to convey all public letters to the sheriff of the next county, 
and so on to the place of destination--the sheriff of Baltimore county to 
receive for his services six hundred pounds of tobacco annually.

1715. On the 3d of June an Act was passed authorising "that for the future 
there shall be held four courts in the year, viz.: for Baltimore County, 
the first Tuesday in March, June, August, and November."

1717. On the 8th of June an Act was passed "for laying an additional duty 
of twenty shillings current money per poll on all Irish servants, being 
Papists, to prevent the growth of Popery by the importation of too great 
number of them into this Province; and also the additional duty of twenty 
shillings current money per poll on all negroes, for raising a fund for 
the use of Public Schools within the several counties of this Province." 
By this Act "all masters of ships and vessels, or others, importing Irish 
servants, being Papists, into this Province, by land or by water, at the 
time of their entry, shall pay unto the Naval officer for the time being, 
belonging to such port or place, where they make their entry, the 
additional sum of twenty shillings current money, over and above the 
twenty shillings sterling per poll imposed by a former Act of Assembly of 
this Province, for every Irish servant so, imported, on penalty and 
forfeiture of five pounds current money for every servant that shall be by 
him or them concealed

Page 17

at the time of his or their entry as aforesaid, one-half thereof to be 
appropriated for defraying the public charge of this Province, the other 
half to the informer, or to him or them that shall sue for the same, to be 
recovered in his Lordship's name, in any court of record within this 
Province, that shall have jurisdiction of the same, by action of debt, 
bill, plaint or information, wherein no ession, protection or wager of law 
to be allowed." It is further "enacted, that the Naval Officers of the 
time being, belonging to the several and respective Districts within this 
Province, be, and are hereby authorized, impowered and required to 
administer to every such Irish servant, except children under the age of 
fourteen years, (to be adjudged at the discretion of the Naval Officer) so 
imported as aforesaid, the several oaths appointed by the Act of Assembly, 
and cause them to subscribe the Oath of Abjuration and the test, and all 
and every such servants that shall refuse to take the Oaths, and sign the 
Oaths and test as aforesaid (except before excepted), shall be and are 
hereby deemed and declared Papists, for whom the owner or importer shall 
be obliged to pay the additional duty as aforesaid."

1723. On the 26th of October, an Act was passed "to punish blasphemers, 
swearers, drunkards, and sabath-breakers." By this Act it was imposed, 
"That if any person shall hereafter, within this Province, willingly, 
maliciously, and advisedly, by writing or speaking, blaspheme or curse 
God, or deny our Saviour Jesus Christ to be the Son of God, or shall deny 
the Holy Trinity--the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, or the Godhead of any of 
the Three Persons, or the Unity of the Godhead, or shall utter any profane 
words concerning the Holy Trinity, or any the Persons thereof, and shall 
be thereof convict by verdict, or confession, shall, for the first offence 
be bored through the tongue, and fined twenty pounds sterling to the Lord 
Proprietor, to be applied to the use of the County where the offence shall 
be committed, to be levied on the offender's body, goods and chattels, 
lands or tenements; and in case the said fine cannot be levied, the 
offender to suffer six months imprisonment without bail or mainprizes; and 
that for the second offence, the offender being thereof convict, as 
aforesaid, shall be stigmatized by burning in the forehead with the letter 
B, and fined forty pounds sterling to the Lord Proprietor, to be applied 
and levied as aforesaid, and in case the same cannot be levied, the 
offender shall suffer twelve months imprisonment without bail or 
mainprize, and that for the third offence, the offender being convict as 
aforesaid, shall suffer death without the benefit of clergy." Profane 
swearers were fined two shillings and six pence for the first oath or 
curse, and five shillings for every oath or curse after the first. 
Drunkards to be fined five shillings for every offence. In case of the non-
payment of fines by drunkards and swearers, they were to be fined or 
whipped not over thirty-nine lashes, or be placed in the stocks over three 
hours. Sabbath-breaking

Page 18

was punishable by a fine of 200 pounds of tobacco. House-keepers selling 
strong liquor on Sunday, punishable by a fine of 2000 pounds of tobacco. 
This act to be read by every minister in his parish church four times a 
year, on forfeiture of 1000 pounds of tobacco.

In this year there were but five ships in the Patapsco up for freight for 
London, to which place the trade was then carried on extensively, but one 
of which ships was said to lie in the Northern Branch. There were persons 
living in the last twenty years who have seen as many vessels of burthen 
anchored at the same time, at the point between the south and middle 
branches of the Patapsco, as in the north branch on which our city was 
finally established. The ships which traded with the surrounding country 
never at this time ascended the Patapsco, but lying at anchor off North 
Point, received their cargoes from the rivers which emptied into the bay 
in the vicinity.

1726. Mr. Edward Fell, a Quaker from Lancashire, England, who had settled 
east of Jones Falls, took out an escheat warrant, and employed Richard 
Gist to survey "Cole's Harbor," or "Todd's Range," and in the succeeding 
year purchased the rights in it of John Gorsuch, son of Charles. But this 
stirred the sons of Charles Carroll, then lately dead, who entered a 
caveat, and prevented the new grant sought for by the enterprising land-
hunter from Lancashire. Gist's return of the survey is interesting as 
showing that, in 1726, the sole improvements in that part of modern 
Baltimore were three dwellings, a mill, tobacco-houses and orchards, and 
that the land was about "one-half cleared and of middling quality."

1728. On the 24th of October, an Act was passed "to encourage the 
destroying of wolves, crows, and squirrels." By this Act every taxable 
person was required to produce annually to the Justice of the Peace where 
they resided, three squirrels' scalps or crows' heads, under a forfeiture 
of two pounds of tobacco by execution, for every such scalp, &c., not 
produced. Two pounds of tobacco were also allowed in the county levy for 
every such scalp, &c., produced over and above the three required by law; 
200 pounds of tobacco were also allowed in the payment of taxes for every 
wolf's head.

1729. As yet no designation had been given to the significant settlement, 
which had groped its way and fixed itself amid the creeks and marshes and 
under the hills of the northwestern branch of the Patapsco. To the point 
between the south and middle branches, the main road from the west and 
through the country generally was directed, passing south of Gwynn's 
Falls, at the mouth of which once stood Tasker & Carroll's Furnace of the 
"Baltimore Company." This point, the terminus of such a road, and with 
such an anchorage for commerce, was, of course, one of vast importance in 
"seating counties" and establishing a

Page 19

future metropolis. And at last, when the head of tide began to attract 
attention as the proper site for a fair and promising town, it was upon 
the southern, and not the northwestern branch it was proposed to be 
placed. Fortunately for the owners of "Cole's Harbor," and for us of the 
present day, "Moale's Point"--which looks in on Spring Gardens--the 
intended and designated site of the new city, was the property of a Mr. 
John Moale, a merchant from Devonshire, in England, who set prodigious 
store by certain iron mines which he believed to be situated on his 
territory, and when he got wind of the attempt about to be made to put a 
town upon his property, he posted off to Annapolis, which by this time had 
become the seat of government, and taking his place in the Legislature, of 
which he was a member, defeated the plan, much to his own satisfaction, no 
doubt, but whether equally to the satisfaction of his heirs is a point 
which admits of question. Excluded from the level land, those persons 
interested in forming a new town, were obliged from sheer necessity, which 
in this instance forced them to their true interests, to seek the site of 
Baltimore under the hills and amid the marshes of the northwestern branch 
of the river; and accordingly, on Monday morning, July 14th, 1729, the 
petition of the inhabitants of Baltimore was read in the Upper House of 
Assembly, "praying that a bill may be brought in for the building of a 
Town, on the North side of Patapsco river, upon the land supposed to 
belong to Messrs. Charles and Daniel Carroll." On Friday morning, July 
25th, the bill was read a second time and ordered to be endorsed thus, 
"the name of the land being inserted, and a saving clause as usual in 
bills of the like nature to be added." It was then sent to the Lower House 
by Colonel Tilghman, signed, &c., by order of John Ross, clerk. On July 
14th, Colonel Ward, from the Upper House, delivered to the Speaker of the 
Lower House "the petition of several the inhabitants in and about Patapsco 
river and the rest of the inhabitants of Baltimore County" endorsed thus, 
"By the Upper House of Assembly, 14th July, 1729, read and recommended to 
the consideration of the Lower House of Assembly," with this further 
endorsement: "We the subscribers proprietors of the land mentioned in the 
within petition, do consent there may an act pass as prayed in the usual 
terms.

"Charles Carroll, 
"Daniel Carroll."
On the second day it was ordered that leave be given to bring in a bill as 
prayed. On Saturday, July 26th, the bill was passed for engrossing. On the 
30th the bill was finally passed. On the 8th of August the Lower House 
assembled in the Upper House, where the laws passed during the session 
were signed and received the assent of the Right Honorable the Lord 
Proprietary, &c., of which the following is a copy of the law relating to 
Baltimore:--"At a session of Assembly begun and held at the City of 
Annapolis, in the County of Ann-Arundel, for the Province of Maryland, on 
the

Page 20

10th Day of July, in the 15th Year of the Dominion of the Right Honourable 
Charles, absolute Lord and Proprietary of the Province of Maryland and 
Avalon, Lord Baron of Baltimore, &c., and ended the 8th of August, Anne 
Domini 1729, was enacted the following law: 'Benedict Leonard Calvert, 
Esq., Governor. Passed Aug. 8th, 1729:--An Act for erecting a Town on the 
North side of Patapsco, in Baltimore County, and for laying out in Lots, 
Sixty Acres of Land, in and about the place where one John Fleming now 
lives.'" By this Act Major Thomas Tolley, William Hamilton, William 
Buckner, Dr. George Walker, Richard Gist, Dr. George Buchanan and Colonel 
William Hammond were appointed commissioners to lay off the town. They 
were all justices of the county, excepting Doctor Walker, and as such, 
generally deputy commissaries; some of them were delegates before or 
after. Mr. Gist, then deputy surveyor of the western shore, was the son of 
Mr. Christopher Gist, or Guest, as in some records, who had settled on the 
south side of the Patapsco as early as 1682, and died before the river 
became the bounds of the county; Dr. Buchanan, who came from Scotland, 
purchased lands and practised medicine in the county from the year 1723; 
Colonel Hammond was, from all accounts, the son of Mr. John Hammond, who 
settled on the north side of the Patapsco, upon lands for which he paid 
forty shillings sterling per acre, as early as 1695; Mr. Hamilton 
purchased lands in the county, as appears by the records, in 1710; Doctor 
Walker, with a brother James, had practised medicine in Anne Arundel 
county some years, but came to reside in Baltimore county about the year 
1715, and was the proprietor of that well-known seat and tract of land on 
the west side of the town called Chatsworth, which is occupied at present 
by Daniel B. Banks, on Franklin street; Mr. Buckner had not apparently 
been long settled in the country, but in 1726 became purchaser of several 
tracts of land in Patapsco Neck. John Flemming, who has thus travelled 
down to posterity by Act of Assembly, and to whose memory a great city may 
now be almost deemed a monument, was a tenant of Mr. Carroll's; and the 
antiquarian who revels in the occupation of deciphering the almost 
illegible remnants of the past, may deposit himself on the east side of 
South Charles Street at the intersection of Lombard, and repeating, as he 
may do with perfect security, "here was once the homestead of John 
Flemming," enjoy at his ease the associations that the occasion may give 
rise to. The Commissioners of Baltimore Town were appointed for life, and 
were authorised to fill their own vacancies; also empowered "to purchase 
(by agreement, or valuation of a jury) sixty acres of land, on the tract 
whereon John Flemming now lives, commonly known by the name of 'Cole's 
Harbor;' and to lay out the same in the most convenient manner into sixty 
equal lots, to be erected into a town. The land being laid out, surveyed, 
marked, staked out and divided into convenient streets, lanes, &c., and 
the lots marked,

Page 21

numbered, &c., the owner of the land to have the first choice for one lot, 
after which the remaining lots to be taken up by others, none to take up 
more than one lot during the first four months, nor any but the 
inhabitants of the county within six months after laying out; after which 
vacant lots may be taken up by any other persons. The takers-up of lots to 
pay the owner of the land the valuation of the sixty acres, proportionably 
to their lots, which shall give such purchasers, their heirs and assigns, 
an absolute estate, in fee simple, in said lots; they complying with the 
requisites in this Act mentioned. The surveyor to return a plat of the 
town to the County Clerk, to be by him kept among the county records. In 
case the taker-up of any lot or lots neglect to build thereon within 
eighteen months, a house that shall cover 400 square feet, then may any 
other person enter upon such lot or lots so not built upon, paying the 
Commissioners, or person by them thereunto appointed, the sum first set 
and assessed upon such lot, for the use and benefit of the town; provided, 
such second taker-up do build and finish, within eighteen months after 
such his entry made, such house as in this Act is before limited and 
appointed be built by the first taker-up; which house so built, shall give 
as good estate to such second taker-up as is by this Act settled upon the 
first taker-up and builder. If any lots remain untaken after seven years 
from the date of this Act, then shall the owner of the land (after such 
time has expired) be possessed and interested in such lots, as in his 
first and former estate. The town to be called Baltimore Town; the 
Commissioners to employ a sufficient clerk to make true and impartial 
entries of their proceedings, upon oath, which entries shall be made up 
into a well bound book, and lodged with the clerk of Baltimore county 
court, for the inspection of any person, saving to the Crown, the Lord 
Proprietor, all bodies politic and corporate, and all others not mentioned 
in this Act their several rights." On the first of December, Messrs. 
Richard Gist, William Hamilton, Doctors Buchanan and Walker, agreed with 
Mr. Charles Carroll, acting for himself and brother Daniel, about the 
price and purchase of the sixty acres of land, to be erected into a town 
called Baltimore Town, in honor of the Lord Proprietary, who in his turn 
had borrowed his from a town of the same name, which stands on a 
promontory in the sea, in the County of Cork, Ireland, at the rate of 
forty shillings per acre in current money of Maryland, or tobacco, to be 
paid into the hands of the Sheriff of the County, at the rate of one penny 
per pound, this to be paid by each "taker-up" of lots.

1730. On the 12th of January, the commissioners, assisted by Philip Jones, 
the county surveyor, laid off the town, commencing at a point near the 
northwest corner of what is now called Pratt and Light streets and running 
thence northwesterly, along or near Uhler's alley, towards what was then 
called a "great eastern road" and "a great gully" or drain at or near 
Sharp street, thence

Page 22

across the present Baltimore street, east of the gully northeasterly with 
the same road, afterwards called the Church road, and now McClellan's 
alley, to the precipice which overhung the falls at or near the southwest 
corner of St. Paul and Saratoga streets, then with the bank of Jones Falls 
(which then swept up to the hast named corner) southwardly and eastwardly 
various courses, unto the low grounds which lay ten perches west of Gay 
street, including the African Bethel church lot, then due south along the 
margin of those low grounds to the bank on the north side of the river, 
which then came up to near the present Custom House and Post Office 
building, and thence by that bank various courses, nearly as Lombard 
street runs, westwardly and southwardly to the first mentioned point, 
making thus by its original bounds the form of an ancient lyre. The town 
was divided by Long street, now called Baltimore street, running 1323/4 
perches from east to west and four perches wide, intersected at right 
angles by Calvert street, then not named, 561/4 perches from the hill near 
the falls north, to the riverside south, also four perches wide, and by 
Forrest street, afterwards called Charles street, 891/4 perches in the 
same course, and three perches wide. There were also nine lanes of the 
width of one perch each, since widened and called South, Second, Light, 
Hanover, East, Belvedere, Lovely, St. Paul's and German streets. The lots, 
containing about one acre each and numbered from one to sixty, commencing 
on the north side of Long (Baltimore) street and running westward, 
returned eastward on the south side. On the 14th of January, and on 
several of the following days, the office was open for takers-up, and it 
appears that the proprietor, Mr. Carroll, chose No. 49, which was the east 
side of Calvert street next the river bank, Mr. Gist taking the lot on the 
opposite side of Calvert street. Other lots were taken by Messrs. Walker, 
Jones, Jackson, Hammond, Price, Buckner, Sheridine, Powell, Ridgely, 
Trotten, North, Hewitt, Gorsuch and Harris, all inhabitants of the 
vicinity; some did not improve in time, and their lots were taken by new 
settlers in succession, but some lots fell to the original proprietor, not 
being taken up within seven years. Thus the first "Baltimore Town" was 
laid out and disposed of, but it was as we see a small affair of sixty 
rough acres, comprised within the westernmost basin of the Patapsco on the 
south, the chalk hills of Charles and Saratoga streets on the north, the 
deep drain and gully which swept down about the present course of Liberty 
street and McClellan's alley on the west, and on the east of the big 
swamp, which bordering Jones Falls, ran up by its western flank as far on 
the present Frederick street as Saratoga or Bath streets. Jones Falls, the 
absolute easternmost limit, swept round in a deep, horse-shoe bend, a 
couple of squares above our Gay street bridge, the course of the horse-
shoe penetrating as far as the corner of Calvert and Lexington streets, 
and thence going northeastwardly along the line of Calvert street. From the

Page 23

small quantity of ground originally taken for the town, and from the 
difficulty of extending the town in any direction, as it was surrounded by 
hills, water-courses or marshes, it is evident that the commissioners did 
not anticipate either its present commerce or population. The expense of 
extending streets, of building bridges, and of levelling hills and filling 
marshes, to which their successors have been subjected, and which 
unfortunately increases that of preserving the harbor as improvements 
increase and soil is loosened, have been obstacles scarcely felt in other 
American cities, requiring immense capitals of themselves, against which 
nothing but the great local advantages for internal and external trade 
would have enabled the citizens to contend. The situation relative to 
other parts of the country, however, afforded the most direct 
communication; the proximity of better soil, the great security presented 
by the harbor, the abundance of stone, lime, iron and timber, and the 
proximity of seats for water-works, all contributing to make the first 
part of the town the centre around which additions have been nearly 
equally made, affords some proof of the commissioners' judgment and 
foresight. It is to be noticed also, that the lots toward the river were 
all taken within the first three days, and not one of those on Baltimore 
street, except that on the north side, next adjoining the great public 
road, now McClellan's alley.

It appears that Roger Mathews was presiding justice at this time, and 
Thomas Sheridine sheriff, but the latter was succeeded the same year by 
John Hall.

During this year a ship-carpenter, William Fell, brother of Edward, who 
settled east of Jones Falls in 1726, bought the tract of land called 
Copus's Harbor, and built a mansion there, on the present site of 
Lancaster street, so that the subsequent improvements and disposition of 
the property have resulted in what still bears the name of "Fell's Point."

The situation of the town at this time was unhealthy, and would continue 
to be so until a large marsh was reclaimed. The alluvion of the falls, 
spreading from the shore from Harford run to South street, already limited 
the channel of the river on the north side of it, and formed some islands 
which continued to be overflowed by high tides, until the islands and 
shoals were made fast land, as they now are. Certainly the commissioners 
were not regardless of the navigation, or they would not have located the 
town by the water; yet the exterior lines nowhere reached the shore, and 
one street only, Calvert street, appeared to communicate with it, for 
between the east end of Baltimore street and the falls, there was a marsh, 
and on the south, Charles street terminated at Uhler's spring branch, or 
rather a precipice which stood on the south side of it, as did the north 
end of Calvert street, at a greater precipice, where, indeed other 
commissioners closed the street by erecting the Court-house, which stood 
on a bluff overhanging the falls, precisely where the Battle Monument now 
stands.

Page 24

The zeal of the founders of our city furnishes evidence this year, in the 
passage of an Act by the Assembly on the 16th of June, for the erection of 
a parish church in Baltimore, which, being the first church erected in the 
town, we will endeavor to give a brief history of the same from the first 
knowledge we have of it, down to the present time. In January, 1675, Mr. 
Jeremiah Eaton in his will devised to the first Protestant minister who 
should reside in Baltimore County, and his successors, "Stokely Manner," 
containing 550 acres. Up to this time there had been no resident 
Protestant, in other words Church of England, minister in the county. This 
Manor was about two miles south from Abington, as it is now called, and 
four or five miles northeast from Joppa, and six or seven miles from the 
bay.

It is not probable that as yet there was a population of more than one 
thousand in the whole county, which extended from below the Patapsco river 
to the north line of the Province, a distance in a direct line from north 
to south of more than forty miles, and a considerable proportion of it was 
on the south side of the Patapsco. The rest, save on the Spesutiæ and Bush 
river neighborhood, were scattered widely distant from each other on the 
rivers and inlets along the bay. Little land could as yet have been 
brought under cultivation, and a house of unhewed timbers from the wild 
forest, afforded the most comfortable dwelling possessed by any one. The 
original terms for seating lands in this country indeed had materially 
hindered the increase of population. Not only had the time fixed for the 
emigrants sailing from England been too short as well as unseasonable, but 
each one was obliged to keep three servants, above three years old, upon 
his plantation, which many were not able to do. Besides all this, through 
this vast region of wild forests lay the great war-path of the 
"Sasquesahanocks" and more northern Indians, in their too frequent forays 
on the Piscataway nations on the Patuxent. Of these a few were sometimes 
killed in their passing through by the settlers, and revenge was not long 
delayed; and when even not prompted by revenge, the lives and property of 
the settlers were alike a prey to their savage depredations. It is not 
long after this date that we have a petition, quite illustrative, to the 
General Assembly, from Thomas Hawkins of this county, asking for relief; 
in which he states that the Indians had lately broken into his house with 
violence and spoiled him of all his goods, so that he had not a bed left 
him to lie on or a spoon left to eat his victuals with. It may not be out 
of place to mention here some account of the Indian tribes which inhabited 
Baltimore County, and the surrounding country. Captain John Smith, in his 
history, speaking of the habits and customs of the Indians, says:

"When they need Walnuts they break them between two stones, yet some parts 
of the shels will cleave to the fruit. Then doe they dry them againe upon 
a Mat over a hurdle. After they

Page 25

put it into a morter of wood, and beat it very small. That done, they mix 
it with water, that the shels may sinke to the bottome. This water will be 
coloured as milke, which they call Pawcohiccora, and keepe it for their 
use. Of their Chesnuts and Chechinquamins boyled, they make both broath 
and bread for their chiefe men, or at their greatest feasts. They divide 
the year into five seasons. Their winter some call Popanow, the spring 
Cattapeuk, the sommer Cohattayough, the earing of their Corne Nepinough, 
the harvest and fall of leafe Taquitock. From September untill the midst 
of November are the chiefe feasts and sacrifice. Then haue they plentie of 
fruits as well planted as naturall, as corne, greene and ripe, fish, 
fowle, and wilde beasts exceeding fat. The greatest labour they take, is 
in planting their corne, for the Country naturally is overgrowne with 
wood. To prepare the ground they bruise the barke of the trees neare the 
root, then doe they scortch the roots with fire that they grow no more. 
The next yeare with a crooked peece of wood they beat up the weeds by the 
rootes, and in that mould they plant their Corne. There manner is this: 
They make a hole in the earth with a sticke, and into it they put foure 
graines of wheate and two of beanes. These holes they make foure foote one 
from another. Their women and children do continually keepe it with 
weeding, and when it is growne middle high they hill it about like a hop-
yard. Their corne they rost in the care greene, and bruising it in morter 
of wood with a Polt, lap it in rowles in the leaues of their corne, and so 
boyle it for a daintie. As small as the proportion of ground that hath yet 
beene discovered, is in comparison of that yet vnknowne; the people differ 
very much in stature, especially in language, as before is expressed. Some 
being very great, as the Sasquesahanocks; others very little, as the 
Wighcocomocoes: but generally browne when they are of any age, but they 
are borne white. Their hayre is generally blacke, but few haue any beards. 
The men weare halfe their beards shaven, the other halfe long; for Barbers 
they vse their women, who with two shels will grate away the hayre of any 
fashions, agreeable to their yeares, but ever some part remaineth long. 
They are very strong, of an able body and full of agilitie, able to endure 
to lie in the woods vnder a tree by the fire in the worst of winter, or in 
the weedes and grasse in ambuscado in the sommer. Some are of disposition 
feareful, some bold, most cautelous, all savage. They are soone moued to 
anger, and so malicious that they seldome forget an iniury. For their 
apparell they are sometimes covered with the skinnes of wilde beasts, 
which in winter are dressed with the hayre, but in sommer without. The 
better sort vse large mantels of Deare skins, not much differing in 
fashion from the Irish mantels, some imbrodered with white beads, some 
with Copper, other painted after their manner. But the common sort haue 
scarce to cover their nakednesse, but with grasse, the leaues of trees, or 
such like. Their women, some haue

Page 26

their legs, hands, breasts and face cunningly imbrodered with divers 
workes, as beasts, serpents, artificially wrought into their flesh with 
black spots. In each eare commonly they haue 3 great holes, whereat they 
hang chaines, bracelets, or copper. Some of their men weare in those 
holes, a small greene and yellow coloured snake, neare halfe a yard in 
length, which crawling and lapping her selfe about his necke oftentimes 
familiarly would kisse his lips. Others weare a dead Rat tyed by the 
taile. Some on their heads weare the wing of a bird, or some large feather 
with a Rattell. Those Rattels are somewhat like the chape of a Rapier, but 
lesse, which they take from the taile of a snake. Many haue the whole 
skinne of a Hawke or some strange foule, stuffed with the wings abroad. 
Others a broad peece of Copper, and some the hand of their enemy dryed. 
Their heads and shoulders are painted red with the roote Pocone brayed to 
powder, mixed with oyle, this they hold in summer to preserve them from 
the heate, and in winter from the cold. Many other formes of paintings 
they vse, but he is the most gallant that is the most monstrous to behold."

In closing his description he says: "So then here is a place, a nurse for 
souldiers, a practise for mariners, a trade for marchants, a reward for 
the good, and that which is most of all, a businesse (most acceptable to 
God) to bring such poore Infidels to the knowledge of God and his holy 
Gospell."

Under all these circumstances, it is not wonderful that the early settlers 
of this country had not as yet been able to have the services of a 
minister; and it was a noble Christian act for Mr. Eaton to provide as he 
did for the support of a resident minister, for this scattered, 
struggling, destitute people. The Rev. John Yeo, who removed to this 
county from Calvert about 1682, is the first Church of England clergyman, 
or any other of whom we have any mention, in Baltimore County. Mr. Eaton 
having made the provision which we have mentioned, it may have been some 
inducement to Mr. Yeo to remove to this county. The places for holding 
public worship were generally private dwellings; for we have found no hint 
that there were any other than such in the county, save St. George's, 
which was simply a log-building. St. Paul's Parish were accustomed to 
assemble for public worship in Patapsco Neck, the neck of land between 
Back Creek and the Patapsco river, cast from the city of Baltimore. Their 
place of assembling at that time, was probably from six to eight miles 
from the present city limits. Mr. Yeo was spared to minister here only a 
few brief years, He died in 1686, leaving a married daughter, and a son 
John, if no other children, to which son the Court gave his property, and 
made Miles Gibson his administrator.

Within three years after the death of Mr. Yeo, on the first of August, 
1689, occurred what is called the Protestant revolution in Maryland. On 
that (lay the government of the Province was seized by the Protestants, 
without bloodshed, which put an end here to

Page 27

the Roman Catholic rule and domination. The government passed into the 
hands of a Protestant Convention of the Colonies, and Lord Baltimore's 
officers were deposed. Aider its continuance for two years and a half, the 
government of the Province was taken in charge by King William and Queen 
Mary, and early in the spring of 1692 Gov. Copley arrived as their 
Majesties' Governor. In this government no Roman Catholic was permitted to 
hold office.

By the Act establishing the Church of England in the Province, passed on 
the 9th of June, 1692, every taxable inhabitant (and such were all male 
persons, and female slaves, female mulattoes born of white persons, and 
free negro women), of the age of sixteen, were obliged to pay 40 pounds of 
tobacco annually to the support of the parish minister. Patapsco Hundred, 
or St. Paul's Parish, in the returns of the year 1694 to the County Court, 
contained 231 taxable inhabitants, equal to 8240 pounds of tobacco, or 
$226 less than one dollar tax to each inhabitant. Under the Act of 1692, 
the several parishes having been determined or defined, the freeholders of 
each parish were then directed to meet by the appointment of the County 
Justices, and make a choice of six vestry-men. Such an appointment having 
been made, the freeholders of Patapsco Parish, as it was then called, now 
known as St. Paul's, accordingly met and elected a vestry. But of that 
meeting we find no record. That they however did so meet and make then an 
election, the following entry, found in the records of the Baltimore 
County Court for 1693, folio 126, fully proves. It is this:

"We, the Vestrymen for Patapsco Hundred, met together at the house of Maj. 
John Thomas," when it was determined "that at Pettetes old field was the 
most convenient place to erect a church, and also appointed John Gay to be 
clerk of the Vestry, Mr. Watkings being absent. And at another meeting at 
Master Demondidies, did confirm the above mentioned proceedings. Mr. 
Watkings also absent. George Ashman, Nicholas Corban, John Terry, Richard 
Sampson, Francis Watkings, Richard Cromwell." This record thus tells of 
two vestry meetings, of what was done at, and who the vestry-men were. 
Such were the beginnings at the organization of this parish one hundred 
and seventy-nine years ago.

General Tobias Stansbury, who died in 1849, aged 92 years, said that the 
old St. Paul's Church stood about thirty or forty rods west of where the 
Sellers Point road leaves the North Point road on the left side as you go 
east. It was built of brick. In 1765 it was then in ruins, and the bones 
of the dead buried there were removed to Baltimore town. The plough has 
not left a trace of the old building on the spot where it stood.

In 1702 St. Paul's was made a missionary parish, mainly under the ministry 
of Roy. Wm. Tibbs, who does not appear to have been a faithful rector. 
After several unsuccessful attempts to build a new church, the parish at 
last succeeded, and about 1702 built, as is

Page 28

supposed, the one mentioned by Gen. Stansbury. On the 2d of January 1728, 
Mr. Thomas Sheredine and Mr. Richard Gist having been appointed a 
committee by the vestry to purchase a site for the building of a new 
church, purchased two acres of land of Mr. Moses Edwards, on the old York 
road near Walsh's tan-yard. The vestry afterwards, on the 8th of July, 
1729, decided to build at Mr. Edward Fells', who lived east of Jones Falls.

On the 16th of June, 1730, an Act was passed by the General Assembly "for 
the Building a Church in Baltimore County, and in a Town called Baltimore 
Town, in St. Paul's Parish." Bacon says: "The Act of 1727 having impowered 
the Vestry-men and Church wardens to purchase one or more acres of land, 
and thereon to build a Parish Church; in pursuance whereof, land was 
purchased but not built on; and the same being very inconvenient, the 
present Act impowers the Vestry-men and Church-wardens to purchase a Lot 
in Baltimore-Town and to cause a Church to be built thereon; which shall 
be the Parish Church of the said Parish, and be called St. Pauls Church, 
and directs, that the Tobacco to be raised by the afore recited Act, be 
applied to the Building a Church in the Town as aforesaid." Under the 
provisions of this Act, on the first of July, 1730, the vestry having 
abandoned the idea of building at Mr. Fells', as they had previously 
determined, on the lot purchased on the old York road, agreed with Doctor 
George Walker for lot No. 19 on the town plat, to build the church on. 
This lot was the most elevated point on the plat, and it is on the 
northwest corner of that lot that the present St. Paul's now stands--on 
the corner of Saratoga and Charles streets. The lot then extended south 
below Lexington street, and eastward to St. Paul's street.

On the 28th of July, 1730, the vestry again met, and agreed with Thomas 
Hartwell to build the walls of the new church, which were to be 50 feet by 
23 feet in the clear, and 18 feet high from the floor to the ceiling, for 
£40; the vestry to haul the bricks, lime and sand. They also agreed with 
Charles Wells to make 100,000 bricks, to be delivered at or upon the last 
day of October, and May then succeeding, for £90 currency. On the 3d of 
November the vestry agreed with Mr. John Moale and Mr. William Hammond to 
get the rafters, six window-frames, two for each side, and one for each 
end, and two door-frames, one for the southeast side, and the other for 
the end, for £59 5s. currency, or tobacco at 105 per hundred at the same 
amount. On the 2d of February 1731, the vestry agreed with Mr. Hammond to 
build a vestry-house in Baltimore Town, 16 feet by 12, in height 71/2 
feet, for which they were to pay £6. They also agreed with Mr. Charles 
Ridgely to draw the brick for £10, and Mr. Jonas Robinson to furnish 1500 
bushels of lime, at the place where the church was to be built, for 6d. 
currency per bushel. On the 9th of April Mr. Hartwell failed in his 
contract, and the vestry agreed with Mr. John Babcock to build the walls 
of the church for £50 currency. On the 11th of October 1732, Rev. Wm.

Page 29

Tibbs died. He was succeeded by Rev. Joseph Hooper. Owing to the failures 
in fulfilling contracts and other delays, the church was not completed 
until 1739, a period of eight years from the time work was first 
commenced. Mr. Hooper died July 12th, 1739, and was buried in the church, 
He was succeeded by the Rev. Benedict Bourdillon, July 29th, 1739. He died 
January 5th, 1745, greatly lamented. On the 11th of February 1745, Rev. 
Thomas Chase was appointed rector by Gov. Bladen. At the meeting of the 
vestry on the 30th of June, 1753, they ordered that the middle portion of 
the front gallery be taken down. This was done in order to place the organ 
there, which had been purchased by subscription from Mr. Adam Lynn, to put 
in its place. At this period the church also had a bell. On the first of 
June the vestry ordered a brick wall to be built around the church. After 
an eventful and useful ministry of thirty-four years, Dr. Chase, father of 
Samuel Chase, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, &c., 
&c., died on the 4th of April 1779, and was succeeded, by Rev. Wm. West, 
D. D., who became rector June 7, 1779.

On the 1st of November 1779, the vestry resolved to build a new church; 
and on the 25th of April 1780, the corner-stone was laid with religious 
services by Rev. Wm. West. This church was erected with the assistance of 
money raised by lottery, which realised $33,443 currency. It was finished 
May 10th, 1784, when the pews, 83 in number, were distributed "by ballot." 
The church was opened May 30th at Whitsuntide. The Rev. Mr. West preached 
from Psalm cxxii. 1: "I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into 
the house of the Lord." This new edifice stood a little at the south of 
the centre of the square, and just in front of the old one. Its appearance 
was similar to St. Peter's which lately stood on the southeast corner of 
Sharp and German streets, except that it was not quite so large. At the 
east end there was an immense window of common glass, which during the 
morning service would have poured an intolerable light into the church but 
for the protection of a green baize curtain. It had three large doors, 
more imposing than any belonging to the structure to which it has just 
been compared. One was at the west end, and was seldom entirely opened, 
but access was given to the church through a sort of wicket cut in one 
side. The other two doors were on the south side; one of them was closed 
and plastered on the inside, but on the outside it appeared as a door. 
This was the eastern one of the two; the western was the principal 
entrance.

The church stood on very high ground, surrounded on three sides by the 
graveyard. On the south side was a terrace, paved with imported brick and 
shaded by sycamore trees. From the terrace to the two south doors it was 
reached by flights of rough stone steps, three or four steps each, and the 
ground descended to New Church street, now called Lexington, by three or 
four of what gardeners call falls. At Lexington street was a fence, the

Page 30

gate of which was about halfway between the present doors of Mr. Hodges 
and Prof. Hall. The interior appearance of the church was very heavy. The 
galleries were solid wainscotting and supported by large solid pillars. 
The galleries were reached by two very massive flights of stairs. The pews 
were the old-fashioned square boxes, very high. In the original plan of 
the church there were five aisles. There was no vestry-room; the minister 
put on his robe behind a red stiff curtain suspended from an iron rod. The 
bell remained in the tower built in the time of the former church. The 
organ was placed in the west gallery, in front of which was a desk, from 
which the clerk made the response. There was no choir, and the organ was 
generally so much out of repair as to be useless until the present century.

In April 1785, it appears from the records of this date, that the 
communion furniture consisted of one silver plate, two napkins, one table 
cloth, one pewter basin, and one green cloth cover for the communion 
table. In the same year the old church was used for a school-house by Rev. 
Wm. Nixon. In November 1786, the old church, excepting the bell-tower, was 
ordered to be torn down, and the brick to be used in a wall to be placed 
around the church lot. In 1791 a new parsonage was finished, on ground 
donated by John Eager Howard, at the head of Liberty street, where the 
rector now resides. The house which had been heretofore occupied as a 
parsonage, and in which Dr. West resided, was on the northwest corner of 
the intersection of Charles and Lexington streets, nearly opposite the 
church. It was a one-story frame building with a "hip roof," and was 
painted red, had a yard in front ornamented with trees and shrubbery. 
There was then no house between the parsonage and one on the south side of 
Baltimore street.

On the 22d of June, 1783, the first Convention of the Diocese met, and 
adopted a constitution adapted to the new state of affairs, resulting from 
the independence of the United States, and the separation of state and 
church affairs. Dr. West died March 30th, 1791. June 17th, Rev. Joseph G. 
J. Bend, D. D., was elected rector, whose ministry was signalised by a 
violent controversy with a Rev. Mr. Ralph. Rev. John Ireland was made 
associate rector, December 8th, 1796, and removed October 17th, 1801. On 
the 10th of June, 1797, the church was consecrated by Bishop Claggett. On 
the 8th of April, 1802, Rev. Elijah Rattoone was then elected associate. 
He was succeeded by Rev. James Whitehead, March 24, 1806, who died August 
24, 1808; and he by Rev. Frederick Beasley, D. D., August 7, 1807. Upon 
the death of Rev. Dr. Bend, November 25th, 1812, Rev. Dr. James Kemp was 
elected rector--a man of high literary and scientific culture, and an 
author of much repute, He died suddenly, from injuries received by the 
upsetting of a stage coach October 28th, 1827. William Wyatt was elected 
May 3d, 1814, as associate rector, and afterwards, November, 1827, rector; 
and after a most useful and distinguished ministry of 50 years, died 
universally lamented, June 24th, 1864.

Page 31

On the 4th day of May, 1814, the corner-stone of the new St. Paul's 
Church, was laid, with appropriate ceremonies, Rev. Dr. Kemp delivering 
the address. This church was situated where the present one now stands. It 
was a spacious and noble edifice, of the Grecian Doric order, 126 feet in 
length by 84 feet in breadth. The portico was supported by four fluted 
marble columns, and the steeple was considered the handsomest in the 
United States. The church was finished in 1817, R. C. Long architect, and 
cost $126,140. On Saturday morning, April 29th, 1854, shortly after one 
o'clock A. M., the stately edifice of St. Paul's was discovered to be in 
flames. The rain was falling heavily, but upon forcing the doors, it was 
perceived that the flames had gained great headway in a room in the back 
part of the building, immediately over the altar, and in that place most 
certain to ensure the complete destruction of the building. At about this 
stage of the fire, Dr. Colburn, the Secretary of the Episcopal Convention, 
residing directly opposite, assisted by others, succeeded, after great 
exertions and no little danger, in removing from the church the iron safe 
containing the records and other valuable papers of the Diocese of 
Maryland. The firemen labored hard to arrest the progress of the flames, 
but this was impossible, in consequence of the elevated position of the 
building and the scarcity of water. The fire gaining increased power, soon 
swept through the building, forced through the roof, and illumined the 
darkness of night by its glare. Its towering torch gained access to the 
beautiful steeple, and then the terribly grand spectacle was complete. The 
bell fell from its airy perch, and the crashing timbers throughout sent a 
chill to the heart of many a silent witness of the picture; the fire had 
subdued its victim, and the raging element ceased.

The rebuilding of St. Paul's was at once entered on, without the 
indecision of an hour on the part of the vestry or the congregation, and 
being finished, was dedicated, by Bishop Whittingham on the 10th of 
January, 1856, assisted by the Rev. Drs. Wyatt, Johns, and Balch, and Rev. 
Messrs. Crane, Rankin, Leakin, Stringfellow, Thos. J. Wyatt, C. C. Adams, 
McFarland, Piggot, Reed, Rich, Schroeder, Bausman, Cox, Swope, Spoon, 
Tuttle, Harrison, and Allen. The building is Norman Gothic, designed by 
Mr. Up-john of New York. The walls of the previous building remain entire, 
with the addition of a new front, bringing the church much nearer to the 
street than it was before. The bell-tower if finished would be one hundred 
and fifty feet high, but in view of the westward and northward march of 
the population, including the members of the church, it may never be 
completed; the sacred edifice itself being perhaps destined to give place 
to other buildings.

1731. The county town of Joppa being afflicted by small-pox, the 
Legislature suspended the sessions of the court, which made it very 
dangerous for the magistrates and people to meet from June court till 
first Tuesday in November, a circumstance the more unfortunate

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for the place, as Baltimore was then preparing to become its rival.

1732. On the 8th day of August the Assembly passed "An Act for erecting a 
Town on a creek, divided on the East from the Town lately laid out in 
Baltimore County, called Baltimore Town, on the land whereon Edward Fell 
keeps store." (Samuel Ogle, Esq., Governor.) By this Act Major Thomas 
Sheridine, Capt. Robert North, and Messrs. Thomas Todd, John Cockey and 
John Boring were appointed Commissioners, who also appointed Doctor Walker 
their clerk. They were empowered to purchase by agreement with the owner, 
or in case of such owner's refusal, &c., by valuation of a jury--(a common 
custom at the present day, when an individual's land is taken for public 
purposes, on his being paid what twelve of his neighbors, who have no 
property similarly situated, think that he ought to be satisfied with)--
ten acres of land out of the said tract lying most convenient to the 
water, and to lay out the same into twenty lots, &c., to be numbered from 
one to twenty for better distinction thereof, &c., &c., &c. The town to be 
called Jonas Town, but afterwards Jones's Town, in compliment to one of 
the former owners of the land. The new town was laid off on Wednesday, 
November 22d, 1732, in twenty lots, valued at 150 pounds of tobacco each, 
on that part of "Cole's Harbor" which was first improved, east of the 
Falls, and where Edward Fell kept store, belonging, it is said in the 
return of the jury, to the orphan children of Richard Colgate. The 
conditions of settlement were similar to those of Baltimore Town, except 
that the possessors of lots in this town were to pay the Proprietary one 
penny sterling per lot annually. Major Sheridine had taken up land in the 
county as early as 1721, and in 1734 purchased the Kigsbury lands at the 
head of Back river, where the furnace was afterwards erected, and General 
Smith built a mill. Capt. North, who took the lot No. 10 at the northwest 
corner of Baltimore and Calvert Streets, and upon the laying out of 
Jones's Town, had visited the Patapsco and carried freights in the ship 
Content, which he commanded, as early as 1723. Mr. Thomas Todd was the son 
and heir of Capt. Thomas Todd, who removed from Virginia and purchased the 
land at North Point in 1664, which had been first taken up by Messrs. 
William Batten and Thomas Thomas. Mr. John Cockey purchased lands near 
Patapsco in 1728; the year after, his brother Thomas settled in the 
Limestone Valley, on the York Road. Mr. Boring was a merchant, whose 
father had bought several tracts of land on Patapsco Neck as early as 
1679. Jones's Town consisted of three streets, or one street with courses 
corresponding with the meanders of the bank of the Falls, from a great 
gully at Pitt Street to the ford at the intersection of the old road where 
French Street commences, and which was afterwards called Front, Short, and 
Jones Streets; on the last of which, at the southwest corner of Bridge, or 
Gay Street as since called, and the only cross street, stood Mr. Fell's 
store.

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Improvements were soon made on the east side of the Falls, by which, and 
from the early settlement of Cole, Gorsuch, or Jones, it obtained the name 
which it now bears of "Old Town." The communication with Baltimore Town 
being obstructed by the passage of the Falls, was so inconvenient by the 
ford that a bridge was soon erected where Gay Street bridge now stands, by 
the respective inhabitants of the towns.

Edward Hall was presiding Justice in 1732, and Sheriff in 1734, when Col. 
William Hamilton was presiding Justice.