Salisbury, Maryland in 1763.

I'M BACK! After a 5-year hiatus, I am beginning to publish articles to this history blog again! I hope to keep a pace of at least 10 per year now that I have retired from NASA. The first of my return "shows" will be Salisbury, Maryland in the 18th century - ENJOY!

The historic signs around Salisbury, Maryland say "Founded 1732" but it seems that the embryonic town took quite a while to get fully established. In the Archives of Maryland, we find a record from 1763 that described an effort to fuel more development in the fledgling town. It seems that, even 31 years after it's "founding," not many people were living in the actual town itself. So, an Act was put forth to the Provincial government of Maryland in an attempt to entice people to came settle an better incorporate the town.

In that record, there are 138 men (if I counted correctly) who signed on in support of the effort and, so we get a unique snapshot of the citizens who lived near to the town that eventually became the modern city of Salisbury, MD. The reader is prompted to remember that, in 1763, there was no Wicomico County (formed in 1867), but only Somerset and Worcester counties. Worcester had been formed in 1742 so even it did not exist when the town was originally founded in 1732 as the whole area was still 'old' Somerset County. In 1742, Worcester formed and practically bisected Somerset north-to-south through the heart of where Salisbury was to eventually exist. In fact, to this day, Division Street runs from Fruitland through Salisbury along the old county line dividing Somerset and Worcester until the time Wicomico was formed in 1867.

Here is the record mentioned as it is transcribed in the Archives of Maryland book series:

PETITION FOR AN ACT TO PROMOTE THE ADVANTAGES OF THE TOWN OF SALISBURY, SOMERSET COUNTY, 1763 [THIS PETITION WHICH WAS PRESENTED IN THE LOWER HOUSE OCTOBER 22, 1763, AND THERE REJECTED, PRAYED THAT THE ACT OF ASSEMBLY PASSED IN 1732 FOR ERECTING A TOWN AT THE HEAD OF WICOMICO RIVER, SOMERSET COUNTY, AT HANDY'S OR CARR'S LANDING, ON FIFTEEN ACRES OF LAND LAID OUT IN TWENTY LOTS, CALLED SALISBURY, BE REPEALED AND A NEW ACT PASSED TO BE FRAMED BY THE PETITIONERS FOR THE PURPOSE OF BETTER PROMOTING THE ADVANTAGES OF THE TOWN.]

To The Hon.ble Lower House of Assembly, The Humble Petition of many Inhabitants of Somerset County, Sheweth That on or about the Year 1732 an Act of Assembly of this province passed Entituled An Act for the Erecting a Town at the Head of Wiccomoco River in Somerset for laying into Lots fifteen Acres of Land in the Fork thereof and at the Landing commonly now called Handy's or Carr's Landing by which Twenty Lots were laid out & a Town was erected & called Salisbury That although the said Town is very comodiously situated for Trade and Navigation very few Lots were taken up under the said Law it being thought insufficient through the Omission of several Clauses which are now deemed essentially necessary for many persons inclinable to purchase Lots in the said Town That your Petitioners humbly conceive it would be of great Utility to all the Inhabitants in or near the said Town and to all persons trading to and from thence to have an Act passed by the Legislature to repeal the aforesaid Law and to have Leave given to your Petitioners to frame a new Bill particularly adapted for the Uses and purposes of the encreasing and promoting of the Advantages of the said Town Your Petitioners therefore humbly pray that your Honours will give Leave to bring in a Bill for the purposes aforesaid And your Petitioners in Duty bound will pray:

Joseph Hitch, Benjamin Hitch, David Gray, Charles Shockly, John Richardson, Levin Huffington, Peter Gordy, Wm. Parsons, George Collier, Eze:ll Humphriss, Wm. Mills, Rogger fillips. Smith Hath, WM. Driskell, George Wilson, William Hath, John Perdue Sr., John Anderson, Henry White, Daniel Phillips, George Wails, John Jinkins, Edward Elliss, Abraham Taber, Joseph Jinkins, George Dashiell, William Stephens, Mathias Christopher, Leaven Tayler, Arnal elsey, Thomas Cox, Joseph Elliss Jr., George Stephen, Elisha Parker, Stephen Elliss, Jesse Byard, Ezekiel James, Joshua Hitch, Lawrence Rickcord, Isaac Crouch, Geor: Green, William Taber, George Handy, Solomon Russall, Wm. Adams, Isaac Handy, John godard, ___ Dashiell, John Crouch, John Martin, John Wales, Stephen Roach, Jonathan Venson, Robt Handy, Jonathan Dasons, Henry Spear, Wm McWilliams, Archabald Smith, Isaac Handy, Joseph Forman, James Cathall, Levin Callaway, James Benson, John Christopher, William Roach, William hath, Joshua W Nelms, Wm. Madux, Wm. Venables, Joshua Hitch, Geo: Dasons, Mitchell Realph, Richard Mills, Geo: Dasons Jun.r, Jesse Pasmore, Isaac Moor, James Hall, Robert Dashiell, John Hitch, Waltar Taylor, Zadoch Turner, Nathaniel Thrift, Nehemiah Morris, Joshua Sturgis, John Nelms, Wm. Twilly, Jonathan Beech, George Todvine, James Houston, Charles Vaughan, Elijah Hearn, Joshua Venables, Joseph Leonard, Thos. Relph, Alextio Russell, Tho.s Nobb, Thomas Langford, Price Russell, george smith, Tho.s Moor, Nath Collier, Dannil Dikes, George Vance, John Hearn, George Short, George Low, Risdon Dixon, George Dish. ,Thos. Fletcher, Constant Disharoon, Joseph Scrogin, Joseph Ellis, Isaac Dashiell, Matt Piper, John Gusston, Jonathan p. Shockley, Jacob Giles, Wm. Bennett, Elijah Shockley, Benj.n Venablies, Thos Dishroon, John talbt, Matt ——, George Parker, Ebennezer Waller, James fookes, Danl Dulaney, William Waller, Thomas Handy, John Adams, John Shockley, John Low, Thos. Gilliss, David Magee, Affradazi Johnson, Chri. Piper, Isaac Tolevine, James Collins

A petition was presented at the 1763 session, signed by 123 inhabitants of Somerset County, asking for the passage of legislation relating to the town of Salisbury, located at the head of Wicomico River in that county. The petition recited that an act had been passed at the 1732 Assembly for erecting this town on fifteen acres of land at Handy's or Carr's Landing and dividing it into twenty lots, and declared that although the town was commodiously situated for trade and navigation few lots had been taken up because of defects in the act. The petition prayed that the law of 1732 be repealed and a new act for promoting the advantages of the town, to be framed by the petitioners, be passed.

From this writer's research, it seems that the list of citizens given in this record lived within an approximately 10 mile radius of the center of the town. I will not cover the entire list but I will give a brief bio on several of the residents shown in the following paragraphs:

• Benjamin Hitch (1738/40-1814), one of five (5) Hitches on the list, was this compiler's 5x great grandfather and, in 1763, he was still living with his widowed mother Rachel (Hardy) Hitch (c1705-1773) north of Pemberton Hall over near Rockawalkin. His father Samuel Hitch (1703-1750) had died in the summer of 1750 when he was but a child of 10 or 11 and left a meager estate which included one slave named Jack who first shows up in that household in 1735. Pop-Pop Ben moved away from Pemberton when he purchased his own land in early 1765 on what is now the Worcester County side of Meadow Bridge Road about a mile south of its intersection with McGrath Road a couple miles outside of modern Fruitland, MD. The land was the 150 acre tract called "Mount Pleasant" that was previously owned by George Wilson (also a signer of the above, see SoLR-C:245 for the land transaction). He served for the Mayland Militia during the Revolution and is the basis by which I have helped several people be able to join the Daughters and Sons of the American Revolution (DAR/SAR).

  
  

  Ben Hitch held an account in John Nelms' store in Salisbury who is also listed above. Nelm's store was a center of commerce in early Salisbury and was located about where U.S. Route 50 and Mill Street intersect today and along the waterway of the Wicomico River. In fact, it may have been located under the current bed of Route 50 itself. You can see where, in a surviving old store ledger from the 1760s below, Ben Hitch had run a credit at the store for a pair of show buckles, chest & lock, 'gambilitos?), a pair of garters, two linen handkerchiefs, and a dozen tacks purchased on his behalf by Thomas Price (1720-1801), his cousin, neighbor and this writer's 6x great grandfather.

  

• Peter Gordy (1698-1775) was a relative to this compiler several ways with the closest being 6th great grand-uncle. He owned a large estate and lived up in the northern part of modern Wicomico County to the south and east of Delmar, MD/DE.

• Isaac Handy (c1743-1772) was the son of Isaac Handy who built Pemberton Manor just west of Salisbury in 1741, the house still stands today. The son may have been the signer of this record but this compilers feels it is more probable that the elder Isaac, a very prominent member of the community and wealthy plantation owner, had signed the petition just prior to his death in late 1762. The elder Handy was a lawyer, Justice of the Peace, a planter, and helped to establish the original Salisbury Town in 1732.

• William Venables (c1710-1776) actually lived within the current environs of Salisbury itself. In fact, he had built a mill (grist and saw) with a dam in about 1740 where he conducted business near where the old firehouse building is at the intersection of Division and Market Streets in modern day. That dam, on the eastern branch of the Wicomico River, backed up water that formed Humphreys Pond/Lake that was a focal point of the community from the time it was built in the 1740s till it collapsed in a storm in May of 1909.

  
  

  That old lake bottom is now bustling with businesses east of the old courthouse on Main Street down to Route 13. It continued down under the railway trestle over Main Street to where the City Park now exists. When William Venable died in February of 1776, he left the property to his son, John Venables, described as a tract of land standing between his dwelling house and Salisbury thence with a property line to ran to "my mill pon(d)" then over to the property lines of William Dimmock "lands bought of William McClemmy.

• Price Russell (c1740-1790) lived over near Whitehaven in modern Wicomico County and owned a large and wealthy plantation where the new Pirate's Wharf Park now stands. The county commissioned me to do a deep-dive historical study of that land when they began plans for its development several years ago. I'll do a separate article on it later but we know that he died without leaving a will, but an inventory of his estate was conducted by his wife Anne (nee McMurray) as administrator in June of 1790. It is a comprehensive list of 161 items worth £686.4.1 representing his personal possessions (not including his real estate) - huge in the standards of the day.

• Joshua A. Hitch (1729-1792) was a very wealthy plantation owner who lived out west of town in modern Wicomico County near Spring Hill. He was very influential at the time and would have probably brought a high level of influence to the petition we see here. He was also very influential in the Stepney Parish churches at the time including old Green Hill built in 1733 and then the Spring Hill Parish church that was on Route 50 built c1774 (it unfortunately burned several years ago).

These are just a representative few of the 138 people who signed the petition above. I will be reporting on more of them in later articles but you can tell they were fairly far-reaching in location (a 10-mile radius around the center of modern Salisbury) and represented everyone from the simple farmer to the wealthy plantation owners and business men.

Unfortunately, I can find no other records in the Maryland Archives to tell us what happened after this petition was submitted in 1763. What I do know is that we had William Venables' mills running there in downtown Salisbury. Additionally, we know that John Nelms had established his store offering dry goods, farm products, and even slaves and sailing vessels for purchase and rent by the mid 1760s in the downtown area. It seems that this was enough to reach a sense of 'critical mass' to jump-start the development of the infant town of Salisbury. Unlike the first 35 years or so, where there was very little growth or development, the next 50 saw significant growth of the town and, by the War of 1812, had established itself as a bustling center of commerce.

The following is a map of the city surveyed in 1817 I found in the old records. It shows the layout of the town and gives a list of heads of households there that totaled 80 at the time. John Nelms, who owned the 18th century store, had died but his heirs still owned land. Also, Col. Thomas Humphreys had taken over the lot and mills that the Venables family had owned during the 1700s, his name now graced the name of the dam lake. I'll cover more of the Salisbury of 1817 in later articles but you can get an idea here how the town had grown.

That's it for now - I hope you enjoyed my little treatise of 18th century Salisbury...!