The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1931-11-12
DUELS, HORSES AND EAT
ING, OCCUPATIONS OF
THE GOOD OLD DAYS
By Mark S. Watson, in the Baltimore
Sunday Sun

AS the Washington blcentenary ap-
proaches, and the Calvert tercenten-
airy as well, interest in the antiquities
of the Chesapeake Bay country con-
tinues to rise. Only few days ago
came the observance of the tercen-
tenary of the first Christian worship
on Maryland soil-on Kent Island.
Shortly before that a group had or
ganized a society for the preserva-
ton of Maryland antiquities which
has ample opportunity to bestir itself
with disasters threatening old struc-
lures in the city itself.
And now comes still another text,
entertaining and attractive to the eye,
dealing with Tidewater Maryland,
written by Paul Wilstach, whose Tide
water Virginia, Potomac Landings
and Mount Vernon have previously
made many readers familiar with the
| country just to the south. 1t would
be astonishing if, after all that has
been written on this fruitful theme,
Mr.. Wilstach were able to present
much information that is new; if he
has not done that in his cleaning of
| fact and tradition and plain fable, at
least he has revived many a tale that
will strike most readers as fresh in
viewpoint. Many Colonial character
whom we are in danger Of forgetting
he revives, and on many site past
which a modern motorist speeds I'M
seeing Tidewater Maryland reenacts
episodes which in their day were of
very great moment.
| Such a site is on the banks of the
lower Patuxent, for example. On the
south, among other estates, lies one
of special interest called Mattaponi,
and on the north another called Pres
toms Cliffs. The oddity of the asso-
citation lies in the fact that Richard
Preston was an embattled Puritan
who, granted 1000 acres, took them
not up around Severn where there was
an active Puritan group, but on the
banks of Patuxent, defiantly facing
the St. Mary's supporters across the
river.
When the Cromwell success in Eng
land became assured the Puritans in
Maryland started their own revolt
against the Catholic Calverts, and
Preston's home became the Puritan
capitol of Maryland. Here the Puri-
tan assembly met and here were kept
| the provincial records until the st.
Mary's government, reviving, sent
out an expedition in 1866 to seize
them.
| And on the South bank little later
rose the walls, of Mattaponi which
Charles Calvert (who became the
third Lord Baltimore) built for his
wife, that Jane Sewall who had been
the wife of Calvert's secretary, Henry
Sewall. 1t was Sewall to whom was
granted an estate on Choptank bor-
dering creek which, from the rela-
tionship, ever since has gone by the
name of Secretary Creek. The little
house on that estate to this day is
known as Lady Sewalps Manor House.
Within a year of Sewall's death his
widow became the Governors lady.
The new home he built for her on the
Patuxent soon became something
more important than a lady's re-
treat, for as the Calvert position be-
came the lass secure during the days
of James 1.-the Provincial Council ar
ranged for garrisoning it and thither
the st. Mary's government fled has
tily when the 1888 revolution finally
broke. There, too, in August, 1889,
took place the formal surrender.
Nearby are two other ancient man.
ors. One is Susquehanna, oddly asso-
ciated with the distant Susquehanna
Manor of George Talbot from the
strange circumstances that just in
front of this Patuxent house Talbot
committed the murder which, for all
his relationship to Lord Baltimore,
sent him a fugitive from justice, to
hide out in a cave near his own vast
estate, north of the Susquehanna riv-
err. Another nearby manor is that
venerable Long Lane Farm, architec-
turally famous for it's thick walls and
its walled chamber to which the fam
lily could retreat should Indians burn
the farmhouse over their heads.
Mr.. Wilstach gives entertaining ac-
counts of how certain names origi-
mated, notably that of Spesutie Island,
in the northern reaches of the bay.
Here, quite simply, dwelt the doughty
Nathaniel Ute, who was BALTIMORE
active supporter in fighting the Dutch
and Swedes of the Delaware country
who claimed Baltimore's territory.
Ute followed the nomenclature of
many Of his contemporaries in NAM
ing his home Utie's Hope, but in his