The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1878-06-08

MS James van DlDOer was guilty OF
malfeasance in office while he was Sheriff
of the county aud "did exact levy and I'M
lawfully take from the inhabitants of the
county the sum of S6C1 lbs. of tobacco"
for which he was indicted, but under color
of friendship, relationship or otherwise,
las was alleged in petition signed by fifty
three of the freeholders of the county the
said indictment was stifed and the culprit
was not punished. They therefore prayed
the court to bring the said Van Bibber be-
fore it and take measures to restore the
said tobacco to those from whom it had
been wrongfully taken. The petition was
favorably received and James came into
court and promised to refund the money to
the county, whereupon the court ordered
the same to be inserted in the levy for the
current year.
Henry Van Bibber, brother of Isaac and
Matthias, came to Cecil county about the
year 1120. His will, which was written in
Utrecht, is to be found among the records
of the Orphans Court, and being literal
ably the most curious document among the
archives of the county,
These members of the Van Bibber family
were contemporaries of the grandson of Au-
gustine Herman, and probably occupied
more conspicuous place in this part of the
history of the county than any other family
then residing in it. The descendants of
these Van Bibbers intermarried with the
Petersons and acted conspicuous part in
the history of ST. Augustine Manor. They
continued to hold some of the land there as
late as 1910, when Henry Van Bibber, of
Virginia, sold it to r. Cochran, father of
~. P. Cochran, now Governor of Delaware,
who yet owns it.
DR.. Van Bibber, of Baltimore, and his
brother, Thomas E. Van Bibber of Carroll
| county, are descendants of the Van Bib
bers of Bohemia Manor, many members of
which were noted for their patriotism in
the Revolutionary war. Their grandfather,
Isaac Van Bibber, was commercial agent of
the colonial government in the West Indies
at that time. He was, no doubt, a son of
one of the three Van Bibbers who have
been referred to as being among the early
settlers on the Manor.
John Jawert, who was Surveyor of the
county in 1907, married the widow of Cas-
parus Herman. He was one of the justices
of the quorum,-that is to say, he was one
of the number of justices specially COM
missioned to hold courts, which at that
| early day appear to have been somewhat
like the ancient English courts leet These
justices were frequently called commission
ers. In TIA Jawert and his wife relin-
quished their right to the Manor brick
house, which they occupied in common at
that time with Ephraim Augustine Her
man, the son of Casparus, in consideration
of which he was to build them house
I" five and thirty feet long and 20 feet wide
with ehimneys and two windows. " The
house was to be pastered, and in addition
to it they were to have the use of one hun
dred and fifty acres of land. The Manor
brick house referred to is the old brick
house, now in the possession of Col. r. C.
johnson, on the bank of the Bohemia river,
mile Or two east of the bridge, and is
probably the oldest house in the county.
Jawert's will was proved in 1926. No
real estate is mentioned in it, and he is be-
lieved to have left no children. He was
keeper of the Elk ferry, between Elk Neck
and Court House Point, in 1920, and was
accused of leaving it to the management
of negro slaves, who neglected it, and the
citizens of the county, after much trouble,
had him removed, and Herman Kinkey,
who kept tavern and had a plantation on
the Elk Neck side of the river, was ap-
pointed in his place.
In 1918, he purchased large tract of
land from his stepson Herman, called Town
Point Neck or "Jawert's Delight" for
e33. This land was adjoining the tract
upon which Port Herman now stands.
From 100 to 1920, Bohemia Manor and
the country as far south Of it as the Sassa-
fras river, far exceeded the other portions
of the county in wealth and Importance.
The courts were held till 171S in Sassafras
Neck, and many of the justices of the
court were residents of the southern part
of the county. Tobacco, the great staple
of the colony, was extensively cultivated
there. and yielded large return to the
planters. The land, but little of which
had been cultivated long enough to become
impoverished, was we'll adapted to the pro-
duction of wheat, some of which was raised,
though probably not in very large quaint
ties.
The planters in the southern part of the
county at this time shipped their tobacco
directly to England, and were supplied
with slaves (many of whom they owned by
slave traders who carried cargoes of to-
bacco from the Chester and Sassafras rivers
and the upper part of the Chesapeake Bay
to London and Liverpool, and then visited
the coast of Guinea and procured cargoes
of slaves, which they disposed of to the
planters when they returned for another
cargo of tobacco.
The old record books of the county,
few of which are yet extant, contain many
dluSlOuS W tue LTduSdCGlOuS Vi
this period. Bills of lading, notices of
freight, and bills of exchange, for some
reason, were recorded, and are to be found
in the old books, sandwched between in
dentures of servants and deeds for land.
The planters in the southern part of the
county not only shipped their tobacco from
the wharves of this county, but they also
shipped some of it from the South river
which name was still applied to the Della
ware, as the following bill of lading will
show, which we publish in this connection
to indicate the changes that time has
wrought in instruments of this kind.
BILL OF LADING.
Shipped in good order & we'll condition
ed by Mr.. George Huddeston on his proper
accompt Il RESCUE in Il upon We good
ship Vesila whereof is master under God |
for this present voyage James Brady &
now riding at anchor in South river & by |
~ ~. E. 7 .