The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1886-08-20
The Egis & Intelligencer
Bel Air, Md, August 90, 1886.
Gleanings from Ye OIden Tim
COLONIsTs OF WINTERS RUN.
For The Egis and Intelligencer.


No. /.
What am about to write has been CLEANED
mainly from the papers OF the late DIR. Joshua
Wilson. Here and there among the items thus
obtained Nave nterspersed, when pertinent to
the particular subject, such information as have
gathered from various other Sources as well as
explanatory and conJectural remarks of my own,
go as TO give a continuous character to my COM
munication, which otherwise must necessarily
appear fragmentary, and therefore tedious. And
here IT may not be irrelevant to say that 1t is Just
such documents as these from which much of
the early history of the county is to be obtained
people are Withholding. apparently under the i'm
preston that they are worthless. member of
some of our older families, who has just read one
of our appeals for historical data, goes to his
strong-box, gances at the backs of his old papers,
of which he has several pecks-or perhaps bar
and testament of Barnaby Blank" 'Indenture
between Theodore Thus and Solomon SO, ""Deed
tances of Felix's Folly" and so on, he does not
even take the trouble to open them, but decides
at once that such dry. old legal documents can be
of no manner of use historically, turns the key,
and walks off, with the honest conviction that he
had done his duty. l venture to say, however
that If he would be at the trouble of examining
the inside of those papers, even ,cursory, he
would find many facts of the very kind we need
such facts are, for the most part incidentally
given being OFTEN necessary to make clear the
intentions of the testator, surveyor, sc. A will
often mentions not only the names of all the
ing facts in the history of individuals or of tracts
of land Old certificates of survey mostly state
to whom the land was patented in the last CEN
fury and not infrequently give valuable items
concerning adjoining tracts and their owners or
patentees And what could be more interesting,
80 far as our local history is concerned, than to
ascertain precisely when and by whom the differ
ent sections of the county were originally occu-
pied and settled? To be sure, it is not so impor-
tant-though still highly desirable-iE cases when
such papers are of date subsequent to the es-
Enlistment of Hartford as a separate county
Q7i3), as copies of them may, it is presumed be
found in the clerks and registers Offices here
but with regard to older ones it is of very great
moment, and would save a vast deal of trouble.
DR.. Wilson's great-grandfather, William Will
son, removed, some time between 1725 and 1880,
from Herring Bay, in Anne Arundel, to Hartford
two sons, William and Henry. The TRANSFORM
ton of a family by land was, in those early days
such formidable undertaking that he preferred
embarking on a vessel destined for some point
near the head Of the bay-most probably Joppa
which was then at the height of its prosperity
bay craft, however, were, at that time-exoept in
special cases-of the rudest and most primitive
kind. That this particular vessel was no excep-
ton is proved by the fact that third child-an
Enthusiastically persisted on the way, from the
severity of the cold. William Wilson, soon after
reaching react his Destination, purchased "Gibson's
Park, on winters Run, consisting of 800 acres
presumably from AquiIa Paca, Jr., as there is
evidence that the latter owned the tract in 1874
years afterwards.
Gibsons Park is very old tract. 1t was bought
BY Aquila Paea, sr., in l7o5 or 8, from Robert
patentee thereof, from whomit, no doubt de-
rives It's name Robert Gibson married grand
daughter of Edward Beade Whose residence in
the county can be traced back to 1883; but died
leaving no issue. The land along Winters Run
was discovered and availed of at very early
date. This is indirectly shown by several certiti-
Gates of survey among these papers, of land laid
out there only thirtytlve years after the landing
the distance from that initial point of coloniza-
ton, and the intervention of almost impenetra-
BILE forests swarming with savages, often hostile,
certainly indicates rapid progress, and shows
most conclusively that the fertility of our soil
was no less attractive two centuries ago than it is
now. OF course, all who were willing to incur the
risk of exposure to malarial nfiuences--and there
were, and always Will be- many sueh-preferred
to take up their abode nearer the bay, inasmuch
as that locality presented, apart from these in
tiuences, as 1t does to-day many substantial adj
yantages over the interior regions. Many, per-
haps the majority of the first settlers, however,
regarding health as of prime Importance. cast
their lot amid the uplands of the smaller trbuta-
ries; and Winters Run, in this first distribution
head of Bush River, into which it empties, was
probably held then as it is now to be the dividing
line between the malara and the non maiarial
sections. The tract called "Chillberry Hail."
however, situated just above that point, would
seem, from its name, to signify that chills were
rect photography is "Chillbury," as sometimes
see 1t spelled, the appellation would be of truly
ominous import, too grosslyhinting of the grave
yard.
There are copies of two very old certificates of
survey, transcribed by Greenburry Dorsey, from
them dated 1885, little over two centuries ago,
gives the courses of "Hatnaway's Trust" con,
tanning 100 acres and designates 1t as the tract
next above "Chllberry Hail." and bordering on
AHA Run" These names possibly indicate, LIST,
that one Hathaway put his trust in that tract,
as entirely free from malaria, although touching
the danger line and 3D. that the very odd name,
ANA, is merely the perpetuation of the impul-
sive expressions of triumph wherewitht the exempt
the less favored juveniles of "Chillberry," when
they deserted them shiverng and heard their
teeth ,chattering, just beyond that narrow stream
Another idea, however, that strikes me with no
less force, is that AHA Run" is corruption of
'"Acheron. accented on the first syllabe) river
bordering the lower regions, between life and
death-the ch in the Greek word having the sound
of cultural q. need hardly say that these mere
be received as strictly historical The other
eertliicate gives the courses, &C., of "Stoak
laid out for Vincent Elliott Boatwright," Sept.
h and years ago
clusion from the documents Of all punctuation
points-a practice almost universal in those days
or "Boatwrght" is part of the patentees name,
or only dosgnates his vocation. If the former
he fGreSt only
should be 80 marred. From the courses and dis
tances given, the tract must have formed par
allelogram bordering on the north bank of Win
ters Run, two miles in length, and quarter of a
mile wide: The paper is endorsed by the trans
crlber as follows: IN. B. Stoak Flemmin was
settled by commissioners according to these
courses, on dispute between Mr.. Aquila Paca
and st. John s vestry, in the year It'll The re-
cord is in Baltimore county court"
IN. b. That Mr.. John Paca says that it was,
soon after, confirmed to the Parish by an Act OF
Assembly"
From Bacon's Laws we find that "Stoakly
Manor, alias Stoak Flemmon'' was in 1875, devils
ed by Jeremiah Eaton ito the first Protestant
Minister who should reside in Baltimore county,
and his successors forever" Also that an act
was passed by the Assembly in 17l9 mot after 72i
as stated by Paca), to confirm this tract to the
rector of ST Johns parish and his successors, as
above. BY virtue of this act "Stoakly Manor
So does not appear. The greater portion of it is
now the property of Mr.. Thomas w. Hall-being
part of the estate on which he resides. Unless it
was confscated, as glebe. during the revolution,
II must have been disposed of many years ago by
the church authorities no doubt from motives Of
economy. and thus passed into the hands of pri-
To ir,diu idianln