#52 Ancestors 2019 Week 45 Rich Man: Richard Bennett III Maryland's First Multimillionaire

Although he is barely remembered now, in the early 18th-century, Richard Bennett's name was a household word.  He owned thousands of acres of land and built his own fleet of merchant vessels. His obituary in the Maryland Gazette in 1749 described him as the greatest trader in the Province and the richest man on the continent, while also praising his great generosity to widows and orphans.

Richard Bennett III, born in 1667 in Queen Anne's County MD, was the son of Richard Bennett II and Henrietta Maria Neale and the grandson of Richard Bennett, governor of Virginia.  Richard's father drowned when he was about 4 months old and Henrietta married again to Philemon Lloyd of Wye House, with whom she had eight children.  The beautiful Madam Lloyd was one of the most glamorous and powerful women of her day.

Richard and his sister Susanna were brought up Catholic and stuck to their faith even when Catholics were persecuted in Maryland.

After Madam Lloyd's death in 1697, Richard embarked on a land-buying spree all over the Eastern Shore of Maryland and began building a business empire the likes of which Maryland had not seen before.  When the price of tobacco plunged and planters lost their plantations, Richard stepped in to purchase the properties, making himself one of the largest landowners in Maryland.

Although Richard married Elizabeth Rousby (daughter of John Rousby), she pre-deceased him and they had no children.  So, when Richard lay dying in 1749, the big question on everyone's mind was who would be his heir?  He drew up a new 16-page will shortly before his death and signed it on his deathbed, naming 275 actual or potential beneficiaries and disposing of an estate that was the equivalent of millions of dollars in modern terms.

However, the deathbed will led to a Dickensian court battle when one of the witnesses declared that Richard had not been competent to sign at the time of his death, and his Catholic relatives protested when his Protestant nephew Edward Lloyd was named as executor. In the end, the will was carried out as written and the fortunes of several prominent Eastern Shore families were made as a result. Nearly 25,000 acres of land were distributed and scores of debts forgiven when the will was probated.

Richard was buried at Bennett's Point, but for many years his grave and his wife's lay hidden under a tangle of vines.  Only recently has it been restored so that this inscription can be read:

Here lieth the body of Richard Bennett Esq., who was born the 16th of September 1667, and died ye 11th of October 1749. His Father Died Young His Grandfather, who was also named Richard Bennett, was Governor of Virginia. No man was more Esteemed in Life In all Ranks of People than He, And this Esteem proceeded from his Benevolent & Charitable Disposition, Added to a Vast Depth of Understanding. To His Memory this Tombstone is dedicated by his Nephew, The Honourable Edward Lloyd Esq.

#52 Ancestors 2019 Week 39 Map It Out: The Evolution of Kequotan's Choice, Anne Arundel County MD

Kequotan’s Choice

Kequotan’s Choice is a property which shows up several times in the Scrivener family. For this research project, I have chosen to trace it from its original patent in 1663 through the early nineteenth century when it left the Scriveners. The name Kequotan’s Choice sounds like it might be of native American origin, but I do not know why this name was chosen for the property. The spelling of the tract name shows considerable variation over time.

On 6 May 1663, Stephen Benson, a carpenter, was granted a patent for 300 acres in Anne Arundel County, lying in the branches of Herring Creek. (1) The tract, called Kequotan Choice, was granted to Benson because he had transported Eliza Benson, Mary Smith, Daniel Rosse and Mary Clarke to Maryland. The patent contains the following description of the property:

Begin in the woods at a marked oak, said oak being the NW corner tree of a parcel of land laid out for William Ayres and the NE corner of a parcel surveyed for Samuel Chew and running west by the land of said Chew 150 perches to a marked white oak; bounded on the West by a line drawn north until it intersects a parallel to the land of John Burrage; bounded on the North by said parallel and Burrages’s land; on the East with the headlines of William Selby’s land and others from the creek; on the South with Chew’s land.

The metes and bounds are not exact enough in the patent to draw a plat of the property, but its general configuration is suggested in Figure 1. 

Anne Arundel County deeds record the sale of the property by Stephen Benson to George Simmons and Faith Wilson (alias Gongoe) on 7 February 1667, for 4000 pounds of tobacco. (2) The deed gives the same metes and bounds as the original patent. I do not know the connection between Simmons and Wilson, although I suspect there must be one if they are buying property together. Possibly siblings? Despite the sale of the property, Anne Arundel County deeds of 1669, 1672, and 1682, mention Stephen Benson’s property, Kecoughton Choice, as a boundary of Robert Paca’s tract, Daun or Dan, also indicated in Figure 1. (3)

George Simmons’ will of 1679 leaves his dwelling plantation, presumably Simmons’ half of Kequotqan’s Choice, to his son George George Symons, who is not yet 18 years of age. (4) Faith Gongo’s will of 1693 divides her 150 acres of the tract among three of her four daughters. (5) Mary Trevitt, wife of Robert, Ann Gongo and Faith Gongo each receive 50 acres. The fourth daughter, Lois, the wife of Christopher Vernon, and the widow of Lewis Evans,(6) did not inherit any of the property, probably because her two husbands between them owned most of the property surrounding Kequotan’s Choice.

Robert Trevitt died about 1698 and his wife then married Peter Tibbido and had several children—Mary, born 14 March 1703; Joseph, born 15 January 1706; and Faith, born 12 July 1708, as shown in the Register of St. James Parish. (7)

The St. James Register likewise records that Ann Gongo married Samuel Gushard on 2 November 1704 and had several children—Hannah, born 30 October 1704; Elizabeth, born 28 February 1705; Anthony, born 17 June 1708; George, born 19 July 1710; Ann, born 11 December 1713; and Mark, baptized 29 April 1716. (8) Samuel Gushard’s burial is recorded on 26 September 1733. (9)

Faith Gongo, according to the St. James Register, apparently had several children out of wedlock: Elizabeth, born 10 March 1698\9; and Samuel (whose father is listed as Samuel Guichard—her future brother-in-law?) born 3 April 1700. (10) Faith later married Richard Hall of Calvert County and had several children with him: Faith, born 12 October 1704; John, born 2 August 1705; Richard, born 1 October 1708; and Sarah, born 28 December 1710. (11)

On 8 May 1705, a special warrant was granted to George Symons of Anne Arundel County and Faith Wilson, also Gongo, of the same county who was then married to Richard Hall to resurvey the tract laid for Stephen Benson called Kicketon’s Choice and to include surplus land.(12) The property was located in Anne Arundel Manor; in the resurvey, it included 432.5 acres.

The metes and bounds given in the resurvey are as follows:

Begin at a cedar post near the branches of Herring Creek also the NW corner tree of William Ayres’ land and the NE corner of Samuel Chew, running from said post with Chew’s land by a line drawn West 210 perches to a pair tree planted where the original white oak bounded stood and from the pair tree North 368 perches to ye land of John Burrage where now is planted another pair tree; then with Burrage’s line ESE 186 perches to the headline of a tract called Marshes Seat, then with said tract S 28 perches to a locust post, being placed where exterior tree of said Marshes Seat stood, it also being the westernmost boundary of a tract of land called Town or Parker’s Land belonging to the orphans of Lewis Evans of Anne Arundel County and running with said Towne or Parker’s land from said locust post SSE 271 perches to the West by South line of said Ayres. The with said land by a straight line to the first cedar post.

These boundaries produce a plat of the property as shown in Figure 2. 

On 23 June 1714, Anne Arundel County Deeds show the sale of 50 acres from Richard Hall and Faith his wife, to Samuel Gushard. (13) That deed describes how the property was originally divided among the three sisters, shown with broken lines in Figure 2.

The other half of the property, meanwhile, passed to another generation of the Simmons family. George Simmons will of 1720 does not name his property, but it mentions only one son—George—who is not yet 21. (14) I assume that George inherited the land. The will was witnessed by Samuel Guichard and William Vernon, indicating that Simmons still lived in the area where Kequotan’s Choice was located, Guichard and Vernon being the neighboring land owners.

The Rent Roll of 1724 shows George Symons owning 150 acres of Kirketon’s Choice, Samuel Guichard owning 100 acres in right of his wife, and Peter Tibedan owning 50 acres in right of his wife, the daughter of Ann Gongo. (15) (I think this last was an error, since Peter’s wife was actually the daughter of Faith Gongo.)

The next official mention of Kequotan’s Choice occurs in Mary Tipitoe’s will of 1744, when she leaves 50 acres of the tract, lying near Herring Creek, to her son Joseph. (16)

In 1753, Catherine Evans Clark Thornbury, the daughter of Lois Gongo Evans Vernon, and the granddaughter of Faith Gongo, purchased 164 acres of Kirketon’s Choice from her cousins Anthony and Mark Guishard, then living in Baltimore County. This amounted to two-thirds of Faith’s original purchase. (17)

Catherine Thornbury’s will of 1768 left Kirketon’s Choice to her grandson, John Scrivener, the son of William Scrivener and Elizabeth Clark. (18) George Simmons will of 1769 left his piece of Kequotan’s Choice to his son John, (19) who in 1771 traded property with his brother, Knighton Simmons. (20)

In June 1772, John Scrivener, Knighton Simmons, and Joseph Tipitoe worked a three-way deal in which Knighton Simmons bought John Scrivener’s 166 acres of Kirketon’s Choice and also Joseph Tipitoe’s 50 acres. Simmons then gave the 50 acre piece to John Scrivener. This transaction left all of Kequotan’s Choice except one 50-acre parcel in the hands of Knighton Simmons, a descendant of the original owner. (21)

After Knighton Simmons’ death, however, 160 acres of the tract was sold at a Sheriff’s sale to pay Simmons’ debts. Thus Anne Arundel County Deeds record Francis Scrivener’s purchase of a part of Kicketton’s Choice in 1796 for L200. (22) Francis was a cousin of the John Scrivener who had earlier owned the property, and I strongly suspect, Knighton Simmon’s brother-in-law. I believe that Francis Scrivener married Elizabeth Simmons sometime between 1771 and 1776, although I have not been able to prove this conclusively. Francis had previously bought Evans Purchase, the property next to Kequotan’s Choice and was thus Simmons’ nearest neighbor. Francis also named his third son George, a name that does not appear prior to this in the Scrivener line. Naming patterns suggest that George was named for his maternal grandfather, in this case, possibly George Simmons.

Francis Scrivener died shortly after his purchase of Kicketon’s Choice and left both that property and Evans Purchase to his son George Scrivener. (23) George’s property was managed for him by his older brother John until George came of age in 1805. George quickly ran into financial difficulty and sold the property back to his brother. George died about 1810, deeply in debt. George’s creditors brought suit, claiming that the earlier sale had been a ruse to avoid paying them, (24) and John Scrivener ended up selling off Kirketon’s Choice to George’s creditors. (25)

In Figure 3, I have attempted to show the position of this tract on a modern map. 

A

Research by Anne Scrivener Agee 1992

Sources:

• 1. Patents L5 F458
• 2. Anne Arundel County Deeds WT#1 F237-8
• 3. Anne Arundel County Deeds IH#1 F268, 273; IH#3 F123
• 4. Anne Arundel County Original Wills Box S F41
• 5. Prerogative Court Wills L2 F262
• 6. Anne Arundel County Testamentary Papers Box 10 F57, Administrative Bond 27 June 1698
• 7. St. James Register P28 #16; P32#6; P37# 7
• 8. St. James Register P47#17; P32#4; P30#11; P36#7; P44#6; P39#14; P49#16
• 9. St. James Register P60#2
• 10. St. James Register P19#14; P20#7
• 11. St. James Register P37#4,5,6; P41#15
• 12. Patents L DD#5 F713
• 13. Anne Arundel County Deeds IB#2 F158
• 14. Prerogative Court Wills L16 F182 14 June 1720
• 15. Anne Arundel County Rent Roll, Herring Creek Hundred
• 16. Anne Arundel County Original Wills Box T F16
• 17. Anne Arundel County Deeds RB#3 Vol 2 F634
• 18. Anne Arundel County Original Wills Box T F30
• 19. Anne Arundel County Original Wills Box S F40
• 20. Anne Arundel County Deeds IB#3 F111
• 21. Anne Arundel County Deeds IB#3 F314-318
• 22. Anne Arundel County Deeds NH#4 F456
• 23. Anne Arundel County Original Wills Box S F21
• 24. Chancery Court 5701 April Term 1810
• 25. Anne Arundel County Deeds WSG#2 F116

#52 Ancestors 2019 Week 40 Harvest: Marlboro Tobacco Market

Tobacco was an important crop in Maryland almost from the first days of its settlement.  Southern Maryland was covered in tobacco, gathered on to sticks in back-breaking hand labor, dried in barns, packed into giant hogsheads and rolled to the nearest port for shipment back to England. In 1775,  Virginia and Maryland shipped 100 million pounds of tobacco worth more than $4 million, about 75 percent of the total exports from these two colonies.

Maryland tobacco was especially prized for its slow-burn and smooth taste.  The "free-burning" Maryland tobacco was the only kind that could be used "as is," without blending.  In modern times, European cigarette makers reportedly used up to 85 percent Maryland tobacco in their products.

My grandfather, Paul Summers, was among the many thousands of Maryland farmers who relied on tobacco farming to make a living for his family. I have vivid memories of his barns filled with sticks of tobacco drying out over the winter for sale in the spring. A 60 to 80 pound stick would weigh only a couple of pounds once it dried out.

In the late 1930's, having suffered through the Great Depression, my grandfather and a few other farmers, developed a new idea for selling tobacco that they hoped would re-invigorate the market for their product. They opened a local auction house--the Marlboro Tobacco Market--where farmers from the five "tobacco counties"--Anne Arundel, Calvert, Prince George's, Charles, and St. Mary's--would bring their baskets of leaf to the auction floor for sale to the highest bidder. This "leaf market" lowered the hauling costs and got payment to the farmers faster. Paul Summers was the general manager of the Marlboro Tobacco Market from its opening in 1939 to his death in 1970.  My uncle, Hill Summers, became the manager after his father. 

Buyers had complained that the old system of buying in hogsheads forced them to take a chance on an unseen product.  They might get some very good tobacco mixed with a lot that wasn't so good.

In this new loose-leaf market, farmers brought in "burdens" of tobacco and displayed them on the floor of the market in huge oaken baskets where buyers and inspectors could handle them, sixty to a hundred pounds in a stack. An auctioneer (chanting the nearly unintelligible sing-song language of bidding) moved down the long aisles and tickets with bids were placed on top of the baskets and the grower decided whether to accept the bid or try for resale at a higher figure. If he accepted the bid, he could take the ticket immediately to the office and get his check.

After a bid was accepted, the "burdens" were packed into hogsheads and shipped to the factories of the winning bidder.

The farmers hoped that this new method of auction sales would help Maryland regain its pride of place among tobacco growers.  And for a time, that seemed to be true. In the first auction in 1939, the Marlboro Tobacco Market sold more than 632,000 pounds of tobacco for over $98,000, an average of about 16 cents a pound.  In 1942, according to the Sun, farmers were elated by a high price of 50 cents per pound.  About 30 million pounds of tobacco were sold that year in Maryland. By 1948, the Marlboro Tobacco Market sold 1/6 of the Maryland crop.

By 1971, even though tobacco prices were up to about 80 cents per pound, and sales seemed good, farmers were not making much money because of the higher costs of the difficult hand labor and the increasing costs of their equipment, as well as competition from increased job opportunities in other fields. Many farmers dropped out of the market. At the time, the head of the Maryland Tobacco Authority insisted that the Surgeon General's report from the mid-60's had "no appreciable effect" on Maryland tobacco sales, but it seemed that the handwriting was on the wall and the once-lively auctions gradually died out by the early 2000's with just a few buyers and elderly farmers selling their crops.

Today, the Marlboro Tobacco Market is no more. I can remember visiting there as a child, hearing the auctioneer and smelling that rich, earthy aroma.  In its later years, the market became as well-known for the annual Antique Show that filled the huge space every fall as for its tobacco auctions.


Update:  My cousin Scarlett Sasscer gave me this picture of her father, Wally Sasscer working his first job at the Marlboro Tobacco Market.  He is sitting at the scale where the burdens of tobacco were weighed. 

#52 Ancestors 2019 Week 34 Tragedy: The Tragic Death of Celestia Gwynn Belt

My 3X great-aunt, Celestia Gwynn, died tragically in a house fire at age 86.

Celestia was the fourth of eight children of John Hilleary Gwynn and Ann Eliza Dyer of Prince George's County MD, born in July 1826. Her brother, Andrew Jackson Gwynn, was my 2X great-grandfather.  She married Stephen Belt, the son of Benjamin Belt and Margaret Hilleary, in Washington DC in November 1846.

The couple spent most of their married life farming in Prince George's County.  Stephen won prizes at the county agricultural fair for his hogs and attended meetings of the Patuxent Planters Club on topics such as how to make tobacco farming more profitable.

Late in life, Stephen became more or less an invalid, and in 1902 went to spend the winter in Baltimore with the Edelen family, Celestia's sister Emily having married Walter Edelen.  Stephen died suddenly at the Edelen's on 10 March 1902.  And here is where Celestia's life took a drastic turn for the worse.

Just a few hours after her husband's death, Celestia fell  down the front steps of the house on her way to church, sustaining a compound fracture of her thigh, from which she never really recovered.

She spent the remaining 13 years of her life as an invalid, living with her sister Emily's family in Baltimore and getting around only with the help of crutches.

On the evening of March 22, 1915, Celestia apparently knocked over a candle next to her bed and set the bedclothes on fire.  She was unable to rouse anyone or get herself out of the bed and died in the fire.

There were three other women in the house at the time, Celestia's sister, Emily Edelen, and Emily's two granddaughters, Mary and Carmelite Edelen. According to the news accounts, Carmelite smelled smoke and went out to the hall only to see her great-aunt's room engulfed in flames and the fire within minutes of cutting off the stairway.  She roused the other two women and they escaped in their nightclothes to a neighbor's house.  Carmelite stayed long enough to call the fire department and Mary ran down the street to pull the fire alarm.

The three women ended up staying at my great-grandmother's house (Louise Gwynn Scrivener) who was a niece of Emily and Celestia and lived nearby.  Carmelite became a lifelong friend of her cousin, my grandfather, Frank Scrivener, and I knew her as an elderly lady who played poker and drank whiskey with my grandfather.  She was a character in her own right who was the secretary to a wealthy man and loved betting the horses among other things.  She often told us about her friends who were "fabulously wealthy and beautifully connected. "

Celestia was buried beside her husband at Mt. Carmel Cemetery in Upper Marlboro.  They had no children.

#52 Ancestors 2019 Week 36 School Days: Baden Agricultural High School

Worried that the big cities were stealing away their children, the good citizens of Prince George's County decided to build an agricultural high school designed to "awaken in its pupils a just appreciation for the many advantages of country life."  My maternal grandparents, Paul Francis Summers and Theresa Evalina Sasscer, were among the first students of Baden Agricultural High School.

Baden Agricultural High School, built in 1912 at a cost of $13,000, was the first agricultural high school in Southern Maryland. The Annual Report of the State Board of Education in that year touts the new building as "a fine example of modern school architecture," constructed of "thoroughly waterproofed concrete" with maple floors and woodwork.  The report also noted how "inordinately proud" the local community was that the architect and builder of the school were local men, J. Howe Rawlings and Walter S. Young, respectively. "Who can claim more for one community?" 

As the local newspaper bragged: "The passer-by looks more than once, so attractive in design and esthetics in its harmonious colors is this three-story concrete structure."  The editor went on to rhapsodize the well-equipped laboratory, the domestic science classroom (where samples were dispensed) and the considerable library.  The school even boasted a piano! "Do you wonder at our boastful spirit?"  
 
But more important than the design was the purpose of the school.  According to Principal, W.R.C. Connick:

The establishment of this school is the beginning of a movement by the people of the community to conserve one of their most valuable assets--their boys and girls. The proximity of the large cities of Baltimore and Washington has for years caused such a steady draining away of the young people that it had become imperative that something be done to stop it. Believing that the chief cause of this exodus is the character of the education that is given to their children--fitting them for the city's workshop and the city's office instead of adapting them to the environment of country life--the more progressive spirits of the community asked and received from the General Assembly a bond issue...for the erection of a school, the dominant aim of which would be to awaken in its pupils a just appreciation of the many advantages of country life.

In addition to following the Course of Study adopted by the State Board of Education, Baden Agricultural High School aimed to "equip its boys for the successful solution of the problems of farm life" and to inspire and cultivate in its girls an interest in and love for the highest sphere of women--homemaking."  Baden aspired to be the social and intellectual center of its community, emphasizing the dignity and importance of labor and above all, "to waken an enthusiasm for the glorious privilege of living in God's out of doors."

 This photo is the class of 1916, when both my mother's parents were students there.

My grandfather, Paul Francis Summers is in the back row, fourth from the right next to the girl with the bow. My grandmother, Evalina Sasscer, is seated in the middle row on the left end of the bench in a white blouse with a bow. Grandfather's sister, Ruth Summers, is the girl in the dark dress.

I think my grandparents absorbed the ideals of the school.  Paul Summers went on to found the Marlboro Tobacco Market, a new idea for selling single-leaf tobacco.  He and my grandmother raised nine children on their farm, and if my mother, who cultivated a large garden until she was almost ninety, was any evidence, they all enjoyed the "glorious privilege of living in God's out of doors."

Paul Summers also played on the school's baseball team.  In this photo from 1915, he is in the back row on the far left.

Finally, I found online a wonderful picture of the horse-drawn wagon that served to carry students to Baden Agricultural High School in the early 1900's.  I haven't identified any relatives for sure in this picture, but I think that might be my grandmother seated in the wagon, second from the left.

Here is the graduation program for 1916 that includes both of my grandparents.