The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1890-07-18
The Egis & Intelligencer
Bel Air. Md, July is. 1880.
THE EARLY SETTLEMENTS OF BUSH
RIVER NECK.
Introductory to History of st. Georges
Parish.
BY DIR. G. W. ARCHER


Introductory to a History of st. Georges
Parish.
BY DIR. C. W. ARCHER.
No. IL.
About this time Q67O) the whole OF Baltimore
county contained some two thousand inhabitants
of which number it will perhaps be tolerably fair
estimate to give about one-third to Bush River
Neck, dividing the remainder almost equally be,
tween the Patapsco settlements and those OF Cecil
eounty-the settlers at the head of the Gunpowder
being as yet very few in number.
to have had little effect in barring out the intrusive
aud ubiquitous Cupid, for there was great marry
ing and giving in marriage hereaboats from the
said to have married daughter of Edward Beadle,
who was perhaps the second settler. The CoonePs
brother, George, married daughter of Major
Samuel Goldsmith. Geo. Goldsmith, Jr., and Geo.
Ute, Jr., each also married a daughter of Edward
Beadle. Col. George Wells, one OF the most prom
inent citizens of The county married one of Mai.
Goldsmitll's daughters. and SO the good work went
pari passu with clearing off the forests. construct
ing The great staple which the basis of all their
material prosperity, cutting bridle-paths from
house to house, through the dense underground of
the forest, for social intercourse, building boats
such as they were. to coast along the bay shore,
lets and creeks on visits of business or friendship
Ito say nothing of stronger aifecton) or in procur
ing fish and game, both Of which We're most excel
lent in quality and in quantity unlimited.
generation mtermarried with the Collects, Todds.
sons, Osborns. Gibsons, Phlipses, Presburys,
Stokeses, and others who had come in few years
later. Although the blood of nearly all OF these,
our first pioneers, flows in the veins of many now
among us. it Is sad TO think that in but two in
stances those OF the Halls ana the Osborns,) 90
considerable number. To be sure some of
them removed to other parts of the province,
as the Sockets and Wellses to Ann Arundel, the
former early 1868 or '9-but by far the greater
number of family names above given have either
died out. root and branch, or have been merged
in that of some other family by intermarriages
Herewith of daughters.
OF the practical religion of these pioneers mean
while, we have no means of Judging. They were
God-fearing community. however and were, no
doubt. almost without exception of the Protestant
faith, and nearly all of the church OF England or
at least inclined thereto, if not actual MEMBERS
ed enumeration by the sheriff revealed the fact that
only fifty three Catholics were living within the
Cecil and Kent had by that time been separated
or rather formed. OF the various dissenting demo-
had entered Maryland at ali, the latter Of whom
within the bounds of Baltimore county could have
been counted on ones fingers while the influx of
Presbyterians, afterwards so numerous and inf1u-
entail hereabouts had not yet set in this direction,
from their stronghold on the Severn: And when
they came some thirty years later, they selected,
for the most part as the place OF their abode the
fertile regions watered by Deer Greek and its
tributaries.
The only connected account of these early settle
ments by an actual observer is that of George
Alsop, published IN london IN 1866; ana ~ Is
upon many subjects, he lets religion severely alone.
AS It is not generally known that Alsop was once
resident of what is now Hartford county it may be
well TO cite here a few brief extracts giving his
views of certain matters in the little settlement
tenious work is all the more interesting from the
TACT that he was, by many generations, our ear
liest author, Indeed, can just now recall but one
earlier in the proynce) and after having stood the
test of good deal more than two centuries his lit
meris certainly for Il has mons. but simply because
he had something to tell which D0AOe ase baS told
from actual observation; he was . Rsolcpdist 10
He gives among other things glimpse OF the CON
dition, in our own county. OF a numerous class
whom adverse fortune destined to move, like him.
self. in an humble circle, but whose descendants
in not few instances. attained i'll after times to
places of honor. From the very nature of the
Alsop an impartial observer and reporter of
what he saw here for coming over in 1858 as q
ing. it is supposed. spoken disparagingy of Crom
well, then i'll almost aulOcratic power he returned
to his native country as soon as possible after the
expiration of his four years term of service. being
detained several months beyond it by desperate |
illnessthe protector being then some years dead |
and his old friends, the Stewards, restored. Under
these circumstances he could have had no interest
either in unduly euogizng the country of his tenn
As a redemptioner Alsop fell, in Maryland to the |
lot of Capt Thomas StOekett who came over about
the same time with three of his brothers, two of |
whom, Henry and Dr. Francis, settled with him in |
Bush River Neck, while Lewis, the oldest, estab |
lished himself in Ann Arundel county. Being |
the kings cause and had come hither to retrieve
their fortunes. These facts no doubt, tended to |
bring together on these shores the Captain and |
our rOyaliSt author.
The only tract, so far as can find from the Bal |
timore county records, which Capt. Thomas Stock |
EFT owned in our county is shown by the recitatons
in indenture of 1882 to have been at near the
present Darlington, on the Bay shore. This there
lived author from 1858 1868 Much of Alsop's
narrative consists of reproduced letters which he
exile. He speaks highly of the treatment he re- |
ceiyed from his master and OF the abundance
on this point by saying that altogether his 'yoak
was easie under Mr.. or Capt. Stockett.
TO complain either tor strictness of servitude
want OF proyisionsor need of apparel Five days
and half in the summer weeks is the allotted time
that they work in, and for three months they may
repose three hours in the day in the house: In
three months of winter they do little cutting
of wood to make fires to sit by, or they may hunt
deer and bear, swans geese or turkeys. At the
end OF their four years they get fifty acres for
year, three suits of apparel and tools to work
England vessels. mostly Ketehes or Barkes, arrive
mostly in September, with Medira wines, sugar,
salt, wicker chairs and tin candlestcks dispensing
into the creeks"
This was several years before any ports of entry
had been established in the province. and we here
get an inkling of one of the early settlers many
Inconvenience. While those who lived directly
the shores of the Bay or its tributaries doubt
erected rude wharves of logs at which vessel
could discharge her cargo, those living inland had
to cut paths through the t dense woods over which
ed, packed upon horses, or in some instances, no
doubt, upon their own shoulders going through
leaves with which the imported goods were paid
for.
The year after his arrival in Maryland he writes
to friend who had asked his advice about traffic.
Il beg you to let the
factor whom you employ be man of brain,
Otherwise the planter will go near making skim
ming dish of his skull. The
people of this place are more acute people in
any other place of the world Here is a compli-
ment 10 our pioneers daughters "He that in
too NTarx Land rla
thing more than the Tautologies of a long-wnded
speech to carry on his design"
The following illustration from Holy Writ, while
it wildly sets forth striking feature of the times,
is perhaps our authors nearest approach to reli-
@ oU oe eopy n Of the B5e oM this Wdeess
Here" he says, IF the devil had such vagary as
he once had among the Gadarenes, he. might
be missed-the very woods swarm with them
He then pictures forth in :. few lines the Indians
are mostly seven foot. They paint their faces one
streak of red. of green, of white. of black" With
such hideousness as this stalking around amid the
thickets and swamps, there could have been little
need of veritable Gadarene devil to put the plant
er's hogs to flight, or drive them to watery sui
eide.
One of the first essentials for. the convenience
and prosperity of a settlement is, beyond doubt,
free REORGANIZATION, not only between its
own individual members, but also between these
and neighboring settlements. Hence an act of
Assembly was passed i'll 1866, ordering that 1.-THE
Commissioners of each county meet every year
thereafter in October and decide what highways
sable for horse and foot the heads of rivers creeks
branches and swamps-tO begiu this year and 10
be finished March. 4G2- D~krSeeFS QEG 70 Ge d4~
pointed to mark and make them.o
Under this act. which was in fGsce Mnn l66,
there can be little doubt that road was made uf
it had not already been done by individual enter
prise,) having substantially the same course as
the present one from the vicinity of Spesutie Mar
rows westward, past the spot where afterwards
stood the old Gravelly Church. to the settlement
on Bush River, where i'll the following year a port
of entry was established by act Of Assembly lahore
the Town Land and where, two years later, an
other port of entry ordered to be erected ION
the land of Thomas Samson" mile above
and near the mouth of what is now Sod Tor Hunt
ing Creek.) This latter Gntended) town probably
never came into existence; but the former was
soon afterwards-probably in 1874 though the ex-
act date is not known-made the county seat, bear
ing the name of the county ITSELF
About this time a ferry was established here,
from the western terminus of which road was
made around the head of Lodericks (or LudOvick's)
creek to the fork Of the GunpOwder, where a few
settlers had established themselves only a year
or two after the seating of Spesutie Island. From
the Gunpowder the road was, no doubt, continued
to the Patapse0. AS several tracts had been taken
up a mile or two above the mouth of the Susque-
hanna early 1861 or 2, and three years later,
far upa as the present Lapdum, there is
little doubt that at the time of the establishment