This is at Colonial Craftsman Weekend at Jerusalem Mill Village, where I was attempting to demonstrate colonial laundry techniques. Letting visitng kids beat the laundry with a washing bat and lay the clothes on the freshly cut grass left them dirtier than before we started, so I have a lot to learn yet. Here I'm taking a break from the demonstration and actually trying to get something clean for one of my neighbors in camp. I think my daughter is asking if she can stop fetching water and go play in the woods for a while.

About Maryland in the 18th Century

This webpage is divided into three parts - a brief history blurb, a bibliography with information (and my opinions) about books that cover 18th Century Maryland and a list (and more of my opinions) of 18th Century Maryland sites that are open to the public.

At the recent Colonial Craftsman Weekend at Jerusalem Mill Village (picture at left), a visitor suggested that I include living history events in the area, so I'm now starting a list of those as well. These lists are by no means complete and I will be adding to them often. Please feel free to email me with corrections or suggestions for additions.  

I. Maryland in the 18th Century - The Quick Tour (full of Sweeping Generalizations)

At the dawn of the 18th Century, Maryland was a backwater colony virtually owned by one private family. It had no major towns - even towns that were drawn up and incorporated remained virtually empty. There was no reason for anyone to live in town. Tobacco was the driving force behind settlement, and it was a crop that depleted the soil quickly. So the planters built near water, where they could transport their crop as cheaply as possible from their own landings. Many of them kept moving inland as they cleared new fields to replace the ones that were no longer productive. Most people weren’t building elegant homes or spinning wool and flax to make homespun clothing - they were raising subsistence crops and trying to get tobacco to market during a good year. Visitors from Europe were appalled at the primitive conditions - and the lack of social structure. The “lesser sort” frequently failed to show deference to their “betters.” Of course, their “betters” might have come over as indentured servants only a generation before, so many were quite willing to put up with a bit of familiarity.

The frontier atmosphere rapidly dissipated as the century progressed, however. Second and third generation families started spending the money the original settlers worked so slavishly to obtain. And then they spent a little more. Even the wealthiest planters often lived in a continual state of debt, having goods sent over from England and attempting to pay for them with tobacco shipments the following year. But if the economy was fragile, the buildings were becoming less so. More brick and stone houses appeared, with paint, and plaster - some of them even designed by architects. By the middle of the Century, the capital city of Annapolis was flourishing with gentlemen’s clubs, horse racing and a growing middle class of merchants and artisans who catered to the needs of the governing class. Many of the leading families had a string of plantations, engaged in shipping and merchant ventures, and sent their sons to be educated in Europe. Indentured labor became expensive and unreliable, so plantations were increasingly run with slave labor. Free blacks had less mobility than in the earliest days of settlement. Society as a whole became increasingly stratified, and more like Europe.

Since the colony was becoming more like Europe, it is not surprising that colonists thought of themselves as Englishmen. They were incensed that they were denied the rights of Englishmen. They wanted representation in Parliament. Maryland was known for the moderation of her politicians - most had no desire to be independent from Britain any more than they would have expected their feet to exist independent from the rest of their bodies. If any of them saw the need to fight against England, it was only to get attention to redress the wrongs.   

Well, they got attention. But they didn’t get the chance to come back into the Empire. The rebellion was considered treason, so the conflict quickly turned into an “all or nothing” fight.

Fortunately for the rebels, the Atlantic is a big ocean, North America is a big continent, and England just did not have enough force to subdue all of it. They came damned close, however. So the United States gained its nominal independence and then set about trying to obtain actual economic independence - our economy was tied so heavily to European trade that we could not avoid being sucked into the next conflict between France and Britain, and almost became a British dominion once again.

But that’s a story for another century…

II. Bibliography - Books I have Found Useful (or not)
(The best ones are marked with an asterisk.)

Anderson, Elizabeth B. Annapolis: A Walk Through History. Centreville, MD: Tidewater Publishers, 1984. (Helpful if you’re walking the streets of Annapolis and want to know what you’re looking at or how to find something else. But it’s full of inaccuracies, so be sure to corroborate everything.)

Brooks, Neal A. and Eric G. Rockel. A History of Baltimore County. Towson, MD: Friends of the Towson Library, 1979. (Fairly comprehensive, covers everything from politics to water quality, but arranged topically and geographically and concerns mostly 19th and 20th century.)

Brugger, Robert J.  Maryland A Middle Temperament 1634-1980. Johns Hopkins Press, 1988.  Pratt Library# MD F 174.B78 1988. (Recommended by the librarian. Lots of good detail, but arranged by topical discussion, so information may be out of that chapter’s “time” For example, stuff about early colonial debtor’s prison is located in chapter on the Revolution, etc.)

Bunting, Elaine and Patricia D’Amario. Counties of Northern Maryland. Tidewater Publishers,2000. Baltimore County Public Library# J Md 975.27 B (Children’s book, but some useful local facts -- accuracy may be off.)

Burnard, Trevor. Creole Gentlemen:  The Maryland Elite 1691-1776. Routledge, 2002. Pratt Library# MD F 174.5 .B87 2002. (Great cover, detailed footnotes, deadly dull statistical analysis of upper wealth strata).

Bushman, Richard L. The Refinement of America: Persons, Houses, Cities. New York: Vintage Books, 1992. (Okay, technically this book shouldn't be on the list because the research is all taken from rural Delaware. But it's such a good book, and the generalizations logically seem to apply to at least the mid-Atlantic region.)

Callcott, Margaret Law, ed. Mistress of Riversdale: The Plantation Letters of Rosalie Stier Calvert. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1991. (Though the focus is really on the early 19th Century, this is a fabulous, easy to read collection of correspondence between an European aristocratic family and the daughter they left behind in Maryland.)

Carey, George G., Maryland Folklore and Folklife.  Cambridge, MD:  Tidewater Publishers, 1970.

*Carr, Lois Green, Philip D. Morgan and Jean B. Russo (editors), Colonial Chesapeake Society. University of North Carolina Press, 1988. Pratt Library# Md. F 174.2.C5.C65 1988. (Essays on a variety of topics by different authors.)

Darnell’s Chance House Museum, Obedient Wife, Dutiful Mother: 18th Century Women. Prince George’s County, MD: Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission. (This is a subject deserving of much more observation, discussion and analysis than it’s given in this little booklet based on the life of Lettice Lee)

Dolan, Kate. Everyday Life in 18th Century Maryland. 2006. (A brilliant and entertaining booklet that covers a myriad of topics including bathing, food poisoning and how the circumcision of baby Jesus caused eleven days to vanish from the calendar without a trace.)

Dole, Esther Mohr, Maryland During the American Revolution. 1941.  Pratt Library Md. F 174.6.D6

Duvall, Charles T. The Maryland Scene: A Rhymed Presentation of Events, People and Places Contributing to the Story of the State Accompanied by Camera Reproductions. Baltimore: Remington Putnam Book Co., 1943. (I think the 4000-word title gives a pretty good clue as to just how valuable this book is going to be. I was really hoping for life-size three dimensional reproductions, instead of just the camera variety. Actually the book does contain many good photos of colonial buildings that are either no longer standing or whose settings have changed a great deal since the 1940s, so it is worth looking at the pictures.)

*Eddis, William. Letters from America (ed. Aubrey C. Land).  Cambridge, MA:  Harvard University Press, 1969. Pratt Library# Md. F 174.6.E42. (Letters written by a gentleman from England who comes to work for the government in Annapolis from 1769-1777. Filled with invaluable observations about social and political culture.)

Every Man his own Doctor or The Poor Planter's Physician: Prescribing Plain and Easy Means for Persons to Cure Themselves of All or Most of the Distempers, Incident to this Climate, and With Very Little Change, The Medicines Being Chiefly of the Growth and Production of this Country. Annapolis: Wil. Parks, 1736 (Reprinted by The Nova Anglia Press) (Written in first person, but no author's name is given - it is most likely someone from Maryland or Virginia)

Friends of Jerusalem Mill, Recipes from the Jerusalem Village Kitchen.  Kingsville, MD 

Hurry, Silas D. Once the Metropolis of Maryland: The History and Archaeology of Maryland's First Capitol. St. Mary's City, MD: Historic St. Mary's City Commission, 2001. (Mostly pictoral book, beautiful photographs of artifacts from St. Mary's excavations.)

Jensen, Ann. The World Turned Upside Down: Children of 1776. Tidewater Publishers, 2001. (Children's novel, but based on family history, with historical explanations at end. Good descriptions of colonial Annapolis and a period map.)

Hammond-Harwood House Association, Maryland’s Way:  The Hammond-Harwood House Cook Book. Annapolis, MD:  Hammond-Harwood House Association, 1963.

Hennighausen, Louis P. History of the German Society of Maryland. Baltimore: Sun Job Printing Office, 1909. (Hard to find information about churches, redemptioners, lists the names of many German immigrants)

Historical Society of Harford County, Inc. Harford Historical Bulletin. (Number 28, Spring 1986, contains several essays about the 18th Century mill village of Jerusalem.)

McGrain, John. Harford County’s Mill Heritage. Bel Air, MD: Historical Society of Harford County, Inc. (Harford Historical Bulletin #75, Winter 1998) (Good detailed description of mills in the county.)

Hoffman, Ronald, Princes of Ireland, Planters of Maryland  A Carroll Saga, 1500-1782.  University of North Carolina Press, 2000.  Pratt Library# Md. F 174.5.C32 H64 2000.

Hoffman, Ronald, and Peter J. Albert, ed. Women in the Age of the American Revolution. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1989. (A collection of scholarly essays, some about Maryland women.)

Kerns, Mechelle and Mollie Ridout. Dr. Richard Hill of London Town: Economic and Social Perspectives on Life in Colonial America. Edgewater, MD: London Town Foundation. (I forgot I bought this and I’ve never read it. So will have to report back later. It’s less than 50 pages long.)

Land, Aubrey. Colonial Maryland:  A History.  KTO Press, 1981.  Baltimore County Public Library# MD 975.202

Land, Aubrey C. The Dulany’s of Maryland.  Baltimore:  Maryland Historical Society 1955.  Baltimore County Public Library# MD B Dulany.

*Lanier, Gabrielle M. and Bernard L. Herman.  Everyday Architecture of the Mid-Atlantic:  Looking at Buildings and Landscapes. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997.  ISBN#  0-8018-5325-7.

Letzer, Mark B. and Jean B. Russo, editors, The Diary of William Faris: The Daily Life of an Annapolis Silversmith. Baltimore: Maryland Historical Society Press, 2003. (Diary of master craftsman from 1792 to 1804. The introductory chapters paint an excellent picture of the man and his world. The diary itself consists primarily of descriptions of weather and planting seeds in the garden and makes for rather dull reading. Footnotes explain the people and places he refers to.)

Martin, Wendy, ed. Colonial American Travel Narratives. New York: Penguin Books, 1994. (Four primary source narratives of travel in colonial America - "The Itinerarium of Dr. Alexander Hamilton" includes travel through Maryland in 1744)

Maryland Sesqui-Centennial Committee. Maryland’s Wonderful Record in the Revolutionary War. Baltimore: Baltimore Association of Commerce, 1926. (A magazine full of ads, pictures and some patriotic, self-congratulatory articles. May be useful if corroborated.)

Mason, Sally D. "Mama, Rachel and Molly: Three Generations of Carroll Women" in Women in the Age of the American Revolution ed. by Ronald Hoffman and Peter J. Albert. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 1989. (There has been a lot written about the male members of this powerful family, so this article, which draws heavily on family letters, is very helpful in giving insight to the lives of the nearly invisible females.)(This book is in my "borrowed books" pile but I have no idea who lent it to me. If it's yours, please let me know!)

McNeill, Ernest, Editor, Chesapeake Bay in the American Revolution.  Centreville, MD:  Tidewater Publishers, 1981. Pratt Library# E 230.5.C42 (Essays by different authors, some very good, well annotated, more maritime than anything else – VA & MD)

*Middleton, Arthur Pierce. Tobacco Coast:  A Maritime History of Chesapeake Bay in the Colonial Era.  Johns Hopkins University Press, 1953 Baltimore County Public Library#  MD 975.518 M

Mitchell, Mary. Annapolis Visit:  A Photographic Essay on Maryland’s Ancient City.  Barre Publishers, 1969. Pratt Library# MD F 181. M4. (Fascinating stories about people and places in Annapolis. But might need corroboration)

National Society of the Colonial Dames of America in the State of Maryland, Behind the Maryland Scene: Women of Influence 1600-1800. NSCDA, 1977. (A collection of essays by members of the society.)

New, M. Christopher, Maryland Loyalists in the American Revolution. Centreville, MD:  Tidewater Publishers, 1996.  Baltimore County Public Library#  Md 973.3 N  (Excellent stories about the adventures of the members of the Maryland loyalist regiment.)

Next Stop Baltimore:  Foreign Visitors to the Chesapeake Metropolis 1794-1880.  University of Maryland Baltimore County Library, Selection of Travel Accounts from the Edward G. Howard Collection of Marylandia.  Pratt Library# MD F 187 .4 .A76. (summary of primary source accounts AND a catalog listing of the travel accounts in the collection).

Norris, Walter B. Annapolis:  It’s Colonial and Naval Story.  Thomas Crowell Co. 1925.  Baltimore County Public Library MD 975.256 N.  (Has major inaccuracies concerning James Brice, which makes me suspect the accuracy of the rest of it.) 

Parkison, Ed. H. Colonial History of Catonsville by George C. Keidel. Catonsville, MD: Catonsville Historical Society, 2000. (Updated version of history of region just southwest of Baltimore, including Carroll and Caton families)

Passano, L. Magruder. History of Maryland. Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins, Co., 1901. (Written for schools, so pretty simplistic. Some good photos and illustrations. You get a sense of how old this book is when you read a heading like “Baltimore loses Much of its Trade During the War.” Not the Great War, mind you, or WWII. The author is referring to the Civil War).

Passano, L. Magruder. Maryland:  Stories of Her People and of Her History.  Baltimore:  Williams & Wilkins Co., 1905. Pratt Library# MD F174.P32 1924.  (Kind of anecdotal but not too bad, 1634-1920).

Peden, Henry C., Jr. Revolutionary Patriots of Maryland 1775-1783:  A supplement.  (don’t know what it supplements) Westminster, MD:  Willow Bend Books, 2000. Pratt Library#  MD F 174.6.P43 2000. (Names of those who served, where they lived, when they applied for pensions.)

Pitch, Anthony S. The Burning of Washington: The British Invasion of 1814. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1998. (Though most of the book deals with the 19th Century, there is a chapter on Washington and the surrounding area in the late 18th Century.)

Riley, Elihu S.  “The Ancient City”:  A History of Annapolis, in Maryland 1649-1887. Pratt Library#  MD F 181 .R5082.  (Old.  Seems to go through newspapers chronologically, so lots of useful info in no topical order.)

*Risjord, Norman K., Builders of Annapolis:  Enterprise and Politics in a Colonial Capital. Maryland Historical Society 1997. Baltimore County Public Library# MD 975.256 R (Excellent overall MD history, arranged under headings of prominent Maryland men such as Dulany, Carroll, etc.)

Russo, Jean B. A Question of Reputation: William Paca’s Courtship of Polly Tilghman. Annapolis, MD: Historic Annapolis Foundation, 2000. (The scandal hinted at by the title does not come through in the vivid detail we’re used to - you really have to put yourself in an 18th century mindset to understand what’s said and unsaid in the letters amongst family members.)

Russo, Jean B. William Paca’s Education: The Making of an Eighteenth-Century Gentleman and American Patriot. Annapolis, MD: Historic Annapolis Foundation, 1999. (Good detail, researcher with excellent reputation, narrow subject. Not casual reading for anyone but a real history enthusiast.)

Schaun, George and Virginia, Maryland:  Biographical Sketches. Lanham, MD:  Maryland Historical Press, 1984. Pratt Library# MD.F173.85.S32 1984Q  (Rather general and amateurish.)

Shackel, Paul A., Personal Discipline and Material Culture: An Archaeology of Annapolis Maryland, 1695-1870.  Pratt Library# Md. F 181 .S48 1993.  (Rather far-fetched, arcane conclusions drawn from information like the variation in plate sizes found at different sites. HOWEVER, chapters 4 and 5 contain excellent history of change in etiquette.)

Shomette, Donald G., Pirates on the Chesapeake: Being a True History of Pirates, Picaroons, and Raiders on Chesapeake Bay, 1610-1807. Centreville, MD: Tidewater Publishers, 1985. (A fascinating subject, but I have to confess that the writing is so dry that I was never able to get very far through this one. I need to try again, though-- it is very well documented).

Stevens, William O. Annapolis:  Anne Arundel’s Town.  Dodd, Mead & Co. 1954.  Baltimore County Public Library# MD975.256 S.

Travers, Paul J. The Patapsco: Baltimore’s River of History. Centreville, MD: Tidewater Publishers, 1990. (Mostly chronological, so though it covers a long period of history, it is easy to pinpoint pages of interest. Crammed with details, yet pretty easy to read.)

III. Sites that Bring 18th Century Maryland to Life (or Not)

Accoceek Plantation

Annapolis
There is more 18th Century architecture clustered here than any other “living” town I’ve been to in this region. It’s not a quaint, preserved collection of buildings turned into museums like Williamsburg or Old Salem, it’s the modern center of government for the state. So the 18th Century buildings may have an ATM or a Starbucks inside. But you can still walk the streets, try to ignore the cars and cellphones, and try to imagine life in this elegant capitol. My favorite is the new audio tour where you get headphones and a map. You walk around until you find a site you’re interested in, then punch in the corresponding number to hear the information. If it’s boring, you walk away without insulting anyone. If you missed something, hit the button and listen again. I took a guided walking tour several years ago and thought the tour guide was overbearing and rude. And she gave out false information. But other than that...
Sites of particular note:
Bladen’s Folly/St. John’s College
Carroll House
Hammond Harwood House
History Quest, 99 Main Street. A small museum, gift shop and the place to start the audio tours.
Paca House

The Historic Annapolis Foundation now offers tours of some private homes, including the Sands and Green houses, which I have dying to see. So reviews of these tours will be added shortly - I hope!

Belair Mansion

Darnall’s Chance

Elkridge Furnace Inn, 5745 Furnace Ave., Elkridge. Built as a tavern in 1744, the inn originally sat on the busy Patapsco River at the busy port of Elkridge Landing. It’s hard to imagine now, because the river silted up badly - so badly, in fact, the the port lost most of its traffic by the end of the 18th Century, and Baltimore took over. Without the river traffic, Elkridge Landing fell on hard times, and then a hurricane wiped most of the town away in the 1840s. The upper town of Elkridge was all that remained. The Elkridge Furnace was not for baking bread but smelting pig iron. Again, the setting is now so pastoral and secluded that it’s hard to imagine the place as the center of industry and traffic. Great food, with a staff and owner who are proud of the history, so try to get a tour if you can.

Ellicott City, at the Patapsco River in Howard County. One of my favorite places to wander and explore, this old mill town was founded in 1772 by the Ellicott brothers who convinced many of the local farmers to switch from tobacco to grain production. The hilly streets are lined with stone and clapboard buildings that date to the early 1800s. On Main Street, most of these have been turned into shops that sell everything from antiques to pet jewelry. Some of my favorite places are the 1831 B&O Railroad Museum, The Trolley Stop (which really looks like it has operated as a tavern for nearly 200 years), the Forget Me Not Factory and Ellicott's Country Store (both three story shops with endless rooms decorated with different elaborate things) and Yates Market, a grocery store that would be described as old fashioned, but there's nothing "fashioned" about it. It's just really old, and didn't change much with the times. Very cool.

Hays House, 324 Kenmore Ave., Belair. The original house was built in 1788, but it was added to in 1814, so it is usually interpretted to a late 18th or early 19th Century appearance. It is a rare example of a home of the rural gentry from that time periodl. For a small museum with a modest admission fee and volunteer staff, they put together some really fascinating monthly programs and exhibits. Unfortunately, none of these seem to be on the website, which is woefully out-of-date.

Jerusalem Mill Village, Jerusalem Road in Gunpowder Falls State Park. Settled in the mid-18th Century, the village really started to grow when Quaker millwright Isaiah Linton was engaged to repair and improve the iron works and mills. He brought friends and family down from Pennsylvania, and eventually built eight mills along the Little Gunpowder River. One of these is open as a musuem at Jerusalem Mill. The thing about the mill that impressed me most (sad to say) on my first visit to the mill was not the beautiful buildng or bucolic setting but the size of the giant wolf spiders in the basement. The living history program impressed me, too. Every Sunday, living history interpreters demonstrate period arts such as cooking, carpentry, blacksmithing and more. I felt like I had immediately found a new home! I volunteer there now on a regular basis and have lots of fun. My family (all decked out in colonial attire) occasionally joins me and we camp there (spiders and all) once a year for the Colonial Craftsmen Weekend every fall. The site, which is open to the public for free, is truly a hidden gem. Since the volunteer interpreters are all, well, volunteers, you never know from week to week whether there will be lots of demonstrations, or only one or two. But it's always worth the visit - when you step behind the mill, away from the road and toward the river and the stone building labeled "the Gun Factory," modern life fades away with the rush of water and the rustle of leaves. Time really seems to stand still there.

Londontowne (not yet reviewed)

North Star Tavern, 808 Westminster Pike, Reisterstown. The original building opened as an inn and tavern in the 1720s as a stop for wagon trains between Baltimore and Ft. Pitt. Or so they say. There wasn’t much of Baltimore back in the 1720s, so I don’t know if the wagon train story is true. But even though most of the original building is obscured by later, somewhat haphazard additions, inside the center bar area there is a section that feels genuine.  Not worth an extra trip, but if you’re in the area and need to eat, it’s worth a visit. The owner is friendly - ask about the ghost in the bar...

Robert Morris Inn, 314 North Morris Street, Oxford. The inn now consists of several buildings, so if you want 18th Century, ask for the original inn, built in 1710. I was very excited by the crooked floors and ceilings, but of course, other people prefer structural integrity...We came for a Sunday night stay, so it was not busy. The restaurant was outstanding. Great sense of history and stories about the Morris family. I am looking for an excuse to go back.

Sotterley Plantation, 44300 Sotterley Lane, Hollywood. This site offers a rare chance to visit a sizable early 18th Century building built before the Georgian style of closed architecture came into fashion. This started out as a two room house in 1703 and was added onto over the years, so it doesn’t have the grand entry and symmetrical designs of later houses. At the time we visited, I was writing my first book, Langley’s Choice, set in 1713, and the small rooms of Sotterley felt just as I had imagined when creating the Carter’s house. (Unfortunately, when we visited, it was also covered with quilts for a quilt show, so we need to go back when we can actually see the house instead of needlework.)

St. Mary’s City

Union Hotel, 1282 Susquehanna River Rd., Port Deposit. As a log building constructed in the 1790s on the heydey of the Susquehanna Canal, I expected the site to have a great ambience, even though is it no longer an inn, but just a restaurant. I was a bit disappointed. The best room is downstairs, and not generally open to the public anymore. The waitresses dressed is cheesy costumes more suitable for an Aunt Sarah’s Pancake House. And, given the price of the food, I probably would rather have eaten at Aunt Sarah’s. There was nothing wrong with the place as a restaurant, but I wouldn’t drive out of my way again. I had heard so many wonderful things that I was probably bound to be disappointed. (www.unionhotel-restaurant.com)