#52 Ancestors 2023 Week 7 Outcast: My cousin, Gen. Jonathan Sellman and the South River Club

The English love their clubs. As 17th-century English writer Joseph Addison noted: "All matters of importance are concerted in a club." One of the earliest and most famous was the Bread Street Club, founded by Sir Walter Raleigh, meeting in the Mermaid Tavern.  Shakespeare and John Donne were among the members. 

The club tradition carried over to the New World where the planters, merchants, clerics and doctors of the Province of Maryland founded the Old South River Club, America's oldest social club, about 1690, when Thomas Gassaway leased a half-acre of ground to the Club for 999 years. Here information about crops, cattle and horses was shared, along with tall tales and neighborhood gossip. Club records show that the club subscribed to several newspapers in order to keep up with what was happening in the colonies.

The original building was destroyed by a fire in 1740, but the "new" clubhouse, dating from 1742, still stands about 8 miles south of Annapolis near the once-bustling port of London Towne. Membership in the club (limited to 25 because that is all the clubhouse could accommodate) is still a highly sought-after prize. So far, all the members have been men.

The club's 25 members met for "fellowship and fulsome discussion," (a tradition that continues to the present day.) Plus a substantial meal.  And that is what got my cousin, Jonathan Sellman, in trouble. (The General and I are related through my 9X great-grandparents: Benois Brasseur and Mary Rickford.)

The Old South River Club

General Jonathan Sellman Jr. was born in 1753 at Woodlawn, the family plantation near the Rhode River in Anne Arundel County MD, the son of Jonathan Sellman and Elizabeth Battee. In June 1776, Jonathan enlisted as a second lieutenant in the 3rd Maryland Battalion of the Flying Camp. He was with the Continental Army at Valley Forge in 1777-78.  In recognition of his courage and gallant conduct, he was presented with a sword by General George Washington. 

Lafayette

After the war, Sellman was made a colonel and later a general of the Maryland militia, in which capacity, he entertained the Marquis de Lafayette on his return visited to American in 1784. He and Lafayette were both original members of the Society of the Cincinnati, an organization founded by General Washington's officers, including several of my great-uncles. 

In 1794, Jonathan married Ann Harwood and had five sons and three daughters with her. 

Sellman portrait
by Charles Willson Peale. 

In 1786, following the death of his father, who was also a member, General Sellman was elected to a coveted membership in the Old South River Club.   Even today, many members are descendants of earlier members although this is not a requirement. 

While the early club met almost weekly to exchange news and gossip of the neighborhood, by 1800 or so, the club was holding four dinner meetings a year, featuring local game and a punch of bourbon, rum, brandy and champagne so powerful it must be diluted 2:1 with water.  Members alternated as the steward, who was responsible for the preparation and delivery of the meal. The meals generally featured such local specialities as wild turkey, deer, duck, oysters, and crabs, as well as mutton, ham, and beef and fruits and vegetables from the member's farm. In other words, a southern Maryland country dinner.

On a cold, snowy day in February 1804, it was General Sellman's turn to act as steward and prepare the meal. A blizzard had blanketed the area with two feet of snow.  The general felt that the weather was too inclement to proceed with the planned dinner and instead sent a servant to say it was too cold for him to appear.  Needless to say, the ten members who had trudged undaunted through the snow, some as far as seven miles, sustained by thoughts of roast turkey and rum punch, were not pleased.  Being a man of honor, General Sellman resigned forthwith after incurring the displeasure of his fellows. 

Meetings might be postponed for circumstances such as "our late and unfortunate civil war," but snow was no excuse. 

Over the years, the South River Club debated such hot topics as whether men should court women or women should court men (religion and politics being forbidden topics).  But one topic was not up for debate: No matter your achievements in life, NEVER, NEVER renege on your obligation to provide dinner for the members! 

I feel certain this is a rule that my family would strongly endorse.