The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1880-02-07
A Scrap of History.

One evening, recently, we stepped intothr
law office of our friend William s. Exams,
Esq, who is somewhat of Il connoisseur in
the matter of old law books, and takes great
delight in making additions of ancient legal
lore to his fine law library when ever oppor-
tunity offers. We We're 10 sooner seated
than our attention was attracted, probably
for the titteth time to two ancient volumes
on one of the shelves of his library and TAX
ing one of them up and opening it, we found
pasted on the back thereof coat of arms,
consisting OF the usual shield, cmblazoned
with great proiuSon ofcrows horses heads.
and other strange devices beyond the power
of any one, except an expert i'll heraldry, TO
unravel or interpret and the motto - .fon
manor est rtrtuS guam qH"er"re part" t"cri.
a liberal translation of which implies, That
it is not less merturious to try than to sue
coed" Following this was the owners
name, Leigh Master, ESD, of New Hall,
in the county OF Lancaster, England" The
old volumes-tor there were two of them
were printed and published in London, in
1143, by John Basket, printer to the Kings
most excellent majesty, and purportea 10 he
the acts of the British Parliament passed in
the seventeenth year of the reign of George
the | L., and We're in the genuine old black
letter type which is so crooked and queer
that we ran the risk of breaking our jaw in
trying to read it. Bat upon these old books
which our friend purchased at Il second hand
hook str Rp1ti,pra tbera hnnrs tn1u
which may he interesting to our readers.
Many years ago, our friend Thomas L.
Van Bibher, of Carroll county, Maryland,
inherited 4 fine farm of several hundred
acres, situated Il mile or two beyond the
pretty little town of Westminster and cloSt.
by the line of the Western Maryland Rail
road, near Avondale Station. Upon this
farm was Il large deposit of iron ore and the
marks of an old furnace, where somebody
in the long ago had Smelted the ore, and
underneath the shade Of Il weeping willow,
near the iron mine. was .; marble slab, sup
ported on some rather rude masonry, con-
tanning the following cptaph:
LEIGH MASTER, Esquire,
late of New Hail, in lancashire, England,
died 22nd day OF March, 1896.
aged ~ years.
Underneath the shade of this tree the then
youthful proprietor Of the farm played with
his brothers and sisters in their childhood,
and grew up to manhood imbued with much
reverence and respect for the memory Of the
man with the singular name, whose remains
Il, 1
and whose history was unknown. In the
fulness OF time Mr. Van BibherS ancestors
were gathered to their fathers, and he came
into possession of the farm and leased the
iron mine to Il company, who proceeded to
enlarge the excavation from which the ore
was obtained, until finally the grave was
about to be undermined, when Mr.. Van
Bihber had the remains it contained taken
up and reinforced in the grave yard of the
Episcopal Church in Westminster, where
We copied the incription from the tombstone
about year ago. Still nobody knew any
thing of the history of Leigh Master, except
Il tradition that he was an Englishman and
had been proprietor Of the furnace, into
which, if our memory serves us right, he
was said to have cast one of his workmen,
who had displeased him, with what effect
tradition said not, but which can be easily
imagined.
The Rev. j. l.. Nicholson, then rector of
the church at Westminster, now of the st.
Marks Episcopal Church, in Philadelphia,
at this time became interested in the history
# the p1r1v i.r and NV linz
with certain parties in England, exhumed
this much of it, namely: That Leigh Master
was born in London, in III; was educated
at oxford; was six years a member of the
British Parliament: married an heirrSs; in
1850 converted much of his large estate into
money and chartered three vessels to con-
vcy his furniture, pictures, carriage, etc, to
America: established Leigh Furnace and
made iron for the British ordnance depart
penti at the breaking out of the Reyolu-
tinnary war his estate III Maryland was
oontiscated, but was subsequently restored
to him, he having effected the release of
some prisoners. When he came to Mary
land, he is said to have been worth $3.50
900.
Such was the story of the old mans life
as uncarthed by Mr.. Nicholson and told by
Mr.. Van Bibber. Tie law books contain
ing the suggestive motto, which we com
mend to the attention of those interested
no doubt belonged to him, and after his
death found their way to Baltimore. where
our friend Evans purchased them.
Icy Prices remain the same as before the
advance at the GLASS FRONT,