Montgomery County sentinel., 1956-11-01
By Martha Sprigg Poole

"Glenview," since 1854 the
home of the Montgomery Coun-
ty Historical Society, is known
by older residents of Rockville
as the Judge Bowie Place" Rich
ard Johns Bowie acquired it in
the 1830s by combining into one
property tracts formerly known
as mill Land" "Rock Spring."
Burgundy" and "St. Mary's."
All land in the Eastern part of
Maryland at one time belonged to
Lord Baltimore who. disposed of
it by patent" In the earliest
days, patents were granted for
services such as transporting
persons to inhabit in the Colony.
But by the time people were be-
coming interested in settling as
far away from the Coast as what
is now Montgomery County, pat
ents were issued to those who
paid the price asked for the land.
The first patent issued for the
tract now known as "Glenview'
was in 1922, when William Pot
tenger received 300 acres which
he called Easy Come By" It
began at. a bounded white oak on
the South side of a small run
that falleth into Rock Creek. The
land was then in Prince Georges
County. William died soon after
receiving his patent, and the land
descended to his granddaughter,
Rachel Boone who in 1865 decided
Easy Come By" to her father
Henry Boone. He in turn sold
the property to IgnatiUs Diggs
of a prominent Catholic family
of Prince Georges County. BY
that time our county had become
Frederick County.
Ignatius Diggs had easy Come
By resurveved and in so doing
picked up 337 acres of vacant
land. He renamed the property
Burgundy" described as living
on Rock Creek near Rock Creek
Chapel.
It seems odd that as late as
1869 there should have been 337
acres of vacant land in what
must have been by that time
fairly well settled community.
Moreover the Resurvey complete
" surrounded a tract called
'Martha's Delight" which had
been granted in 1746 to a man
named Bigger Head. Things were
quite primitive at the time, for
"Martha's Delight" contained
dwelling house Is feet square
built of logs covered with boards,
and another dwelling house 10
feet square covered with bark.
Only 8 acres of the 85 in the
tract were cultivated But Big
ger Head evidently could not
make a success of his venture,
for in 1855 he sold "Martha's De-
light" to Samuel Beall, jr. and
at the same time mortgaged his
personal property to Beall to
cover a debt of 446h pounds of
tobacco and 3 pounds, 9 shillings,
2 pence and l farthing.
Samuel Beall, ir. was a wealthy
resident of GEORGETOWN who
dealt extensively in real estate.
In 1864 he got a natent to "Re-
survey on Martha's Delight"
which added 81 acres of vacant
land. In 1771 he sold this to
Richard Allison. The Allison
family were living in the area
at least from 1854 and will be
mentioned further in connection
with another tract.
ACCORDING to the Tax Assess
ment of 1888. there were on Rich
ard Allison's property of "Resur-
vev on Martha's Delight" one
cabin, one clapboard tobacco
house, 80 acres cleared land and
four acres of marsh land. The
whole was described as thin,
sapling land.
In 1855 Richard Allison gave
10 acres of "Martha's DELIGHT"
to his son, Elisha Allison. This
became part of Rock Spring Re-
surveyed" which will be discussed
later. The rest of "Martha's De-
light" was sold in 1901 and 1905
respectively to William Magrath
and John Lodge of Loudoun
County, Virginia.
Let us go back now to Ignatius
Diggs and his 632 acres called
Burgundy" In 1776 Diggs sold
so acres Of this property to Rich
ard Allison, owner of the adjoin-
ing "Resurvey on Martha's De-
light On this so acres there
were no buildings and only ;
acres of the thin, sapling land
were cleared.
The part of Burgundy retained
by Diggs was shown by the Tax
Assessment of 1888 to consist of
582 acres, improved by one fran
ed dwelling house 20 x %; 3 log
ditto: 3 framed tobacco houses;
2 out houses: 100 acres cleared
9 marsh which may be converted
into meadows, saphng land and