Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-11-10
RESULT OF sYRESEARCH
MIR. GEORGE AFFIXED TOWNSEND
coMBATs POPULAR BELIEF.
English Brick Not Used Here in Co.
lonial Perf6d-Historical So
~for y
etyDisenssion.

The first meeting since the summer va
cation of the Columbia Historical Society
was held last evening in the banquet hall
| or the Shorehamf and was well attended
| The prevalent belief that brick imported
from England was used in the construc-
| ton of houses in the colonial period was
discussed IN a paper read by Mr.. George
Alfred Townsend. AS the result of re-
searches Mr.. Townsend was able to fully
confute this notion, and while natural
regret was expressed by some that one of
their cherished beliefs had been dissipated,
still 1t was thought that the truth of his
tory had been served by Mr.. Townsend S
study.
amusing as well as interesting statements
were made relative to the strong hold
which this myth maintained in the minds
Of people, especially in this section OF the
country.
Mr.. Townsend took the view that no such
house exists anywhere, and adduced or1ei-
nal as Well as documentary testimony IN
that behalf. The entire record OF imported
bricks was 10000 to Massachusetts In 1879,
for fireplaces; 1900 to Albany, sent by a
misrepresentation from Holland, in lb42. ana
5000 from Bristol England. to Annapolis,
in 1TGS The first two impOrtations were
before the settlement of Maryland, the last
only at the brink of the American revolu-
ton.
Private Letter in Evidence.
Mr.. Townsend quoted from Judge j. Up
shur Dennis of Baltimore this private let
ter:
s"Pocomoke river, which divides peninsular
Maryland from Virginia and was settled in
1865, has at its mouth the best brick house,
and almost the only one visible from the
water, Beverly | wrote to Judge j. Up
shur Dennis of Baltimore for the age Of
this house, and to learn if he knew of any
imported brick houses ON the eastern shore.
This is his answer:
Beverly was certainly not built of i'm
ported brick. The present building was
commenced in 1T7i by my greatgreat-
grandfather, Littleton Dennis the fourth
in descent from Donnoch Dennis, who was
the first settler in this colony, coming from
the eastern shore of Virginia with the
Quakers in 1860, and it was finished by his
widow. Susanna daughter of Arthur Up
shur of Upshur's Neck, Northampton coun-
ty. Va). in III. The former house there
was built also of brick. but / have no idea
that it, or, in fact, any other house in this
colony was built of imported brick.
n priori,' continues Judge Dennis. one
must almost inevitably reach the conclusion
that the theory of imported brick is misty
fable, when it is considered how lily
equipped for the storms of the north At
lantic the small ships of those early days
We're and how unlikely they would be to
burden themselves with such cargo, eS-
pecially when the crying need of the col
onies was for manufactured goods, from
which the freight profits must have enor-
mously exceeded any profits possible to
have been derived from the limited cargo
Of bricks. Mr.. Philip A. Bruces publica-
ton of the Virginia Historical Society has
completely exploded the misty myth. The
persistence of the fable has always been
in a direct ratio with the size and squalor
of the building