Water Hazards, Ceramics, and a Missing 30 Years

We were back out in the field at the Swann site today and all the units were “swimming pools” i.e. just full of water. Fortunately we’d covered everything with plastic sheets so after a morning spent bailing water, Denise and I discovered that the torrential downpours of the last week and a half hadn’t caused any damage. Quite the opposite, the soil was moist and easy to dig through, unlike the concrete-like levels we dealt with two weeks ago. Because we were on hiatus last week I don’t have much to report in terms of the field work. After we finished bailing and recovering most of the units with plastic, we were finally able to continue excavation. We finished the first level in Unit 5, one of the 5 by 5 feet units out in the rear yard of the Swann House. We discovered that instead of bottoming on the subsoil, as we expected, there’s a second level or a possible feature on the east side of the unit. A feature is a type of artifact that can’t be picked up and taken in the lab. It can be a foundation, a pit, a hearth, etc.  I’m not sure what we’ve encountered and we only managed to get half of the second level completed today before the heat drove us from the field. You know it’s time to call it quits when you walk to the truck three times to get a piece of equipment and can’t remember what the heck you walked the 40 feet over to the truck for. In other words, we were fried.

Kaolin Tobacco Pipe Stem Impressed with [G]lasgo[w]

Most of the crew was in the lab today processing the backlog of artifacts from the excavation. I’ve included a photo of some of the ceramics and pipe stems we’ve recovered from Unit 5. The white tobacco pipe stem fragment has an impressed mark that says [G]lasgo[w]. There were numerous pipe makers in Glasgow, Scotland during the nineteenth century, and I am currently unable to date the stem more precisely. I suspect, based on my husband Tim Doyle’s work with pipe stems from the Harford Furnace site, that it dates to the last three quarters of the nineteenth century, which would place it during the Swann family occupation of the property.

Top Row, Left to Right: Creamware Rim, Chinese Export Porcelain, Red Clay Pipe Stem, Impressed Kaolin Pipe Stem (Glasgow), Whiteware, Unidentified Maker's Mark on Whiteware.
Bottom Row, Left to Right: Creamware Handle, Creamware, Transferprinted Whiteware, Granite Ware.

The three ceramic pieces on the right in the photograph are Creamware, a type of ceramic that first appeared in Chesapeake stores around 1768. There is a small piece of Chinese Export Porcelain (top row, second from left), which is also late eighteenth century in date. And then there’s a gap. Thus far there are no early nineteenth century ceramics. The blue floral transferprinted sherd (bottom row, second from right)  is decorated with a sheet pattern. These were commonly produced between 1826 and 1842. The large white sherd with the molded decoration (bottom row, right) is white granite ware. It was first produced in 1840 and continued to be made into the twentieth century. The last two ceramic pieces date to the occupation of the property by the Swann family. The earlier Creamware and Chinese Export Porcelain date to the occupation of the property by the Graham Family.[1] There appear to be no ceramic deposits associated with the property during the period circa 1800 through circa 1825/1830. The Port Tobacco Archaeology project encountered the same deposition pattern north of the house during their 2009 excavation. This is an interesting problem as the archival data tells us that the property had a substantial number of buildings on it in 1784. What happened to the property in the early nineteenth century?

Patrick Graham the owner of the property from 1774 until his death in late 1777, died intestate (without a will). He was survived by his widow Elizabeth and their three surviving sons: James (born 1769), John (born 1773), and William (born 1774). The household also included three enslaved individuals: a woman named Cambo (born circa 1734) and two children named Samuel (born circa 1773) and Sarah (born circa 1777).[2] The information we have about the property in 1784 comes from Orphans Court records concerning the children’s inheritance.

Section of the 1784 Inventory of Patrick Graham's Estate
With the Enslaved Persons Listed at the Beginning
 They Are Also Listed in the Original 1777 Estate Inventory

Elizabeth remarried a Mr. Jacobs sometime between February 1778 and early 1779. In 1780, to protect the boys’ inheritance from possible mishandling by their new step-father, the Orphans Court of Charles County appointed their mother’s Uncle Ledstone Godfrey as their guardian.[3] This doesn’t necessarily mean that they went to live with their uncle, they probably stayed with their mother and stepfather. Instead, Ledstone took care of their property and managed any monies that were associated with their inheritance. However, within four years, both Uncle Ledstone and the middle brother John were dead. Once again the court appointed a guardian for the children, this time it was their mother’s brother Lansdale Godfrey.[4]

Chimney Pent on West Side of the House

Just what were Uncles Ledstone and Lansdale managing? Shortly after Lansdale became James and William’s guardian in 1784, he approached the court for permission to lease the boys’ real estate so that it generated income. The court ordered an evaluation of the property that resulted in a very detailed description of it.[5] The house measured 18 by 32 feet, the exact dimensions of the stone foundation that is currently on the property. It was a two-story house with two rooms and a passage on each floor. The house had two brick chimneys and there were four small closets below stairs (or the first floor). These may have been located in pents on either side of the chimneys. There was also a cellar with a kitchen. We have uncovered part of the west hearth floor in the cellar during this summer’s excavation, which is probably the kitchen area. This description matches the photograph of the house below. The valuation of the property also states that there was a bake house on the lot, which it described as much out of repair. That makes me wonder if this was the 18 by 12 feet small house with the exterior chimney described in the 1774 certificate of survey for the old Scott lot? (See my June 30th post for more detail about the 1774 survey). There was a stable measuring 14 by 22 feet, a small brick spring house, and other outbuildings. The lot also came with a garden measuring 110 by 60 feet that was surrounded by a paling fence. Uncle Lansdale estimated that the annual value (for leasing) was 17 pounds, 10 shillings.

Front of the Swann House

In 1798, the brothers divided their inheritance. James deeded William half of the land. Unfortunately the deed for William’s moiety of Lot 4 in Port Tobacco doesn’t indicate whether he was given the part with the house on it or not. James held the other half of the moiety, but he’d made some bad financial decisions. In 1802, James Wilson sued James Graham for payment of a $400 loan, as well as court costs of 25 cents and 366 pounds of tobacco. Graham lost the suit and the court took his moiety of Lot 4, selling it at auction to Walter Gray. Gray sold his moiety to Joseph Sheriburn in 1806.[6] For the first half of the nineteenth century Lot 4 was once again divided into 2 halves, one owned by William Graham and his wife Aloysia and the other by the Sheriburn family. Lot 4 would not be reunited as one lot until 1846 when James Swann had purchased the two halves from Aloysia Graham and the Sheriburns. It is precisely during this period that the gap in the ceramics dates occurs. William Graham and Aloysia eventually moved to Washington, D.C., the Sheriburns lived in Charles County but don’t appear to be on the lot. Was Lot 4 simply abandoned in the early nineteenth century? And Why? This is yet another puzzle for us to solve as we continue our excavation

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[1] An accessible source with information about historic ceramics is the Diagnostic Artifacts In Maryland website hosted by the Maryland Archaeology Conservation Lab. The site also includes information about artifacts associated with the pre-Contact Indigenous populations of Maryland. https://apps.jefpat.maryland.gov/diagnostic/index.htm

[2] Even though he died without a will, Patrick Graham’s estate inventory is recorded in Charles County Wills Book 7, page 65.

[3] Charles County Wills Book 7, pages 111, 307, 428, 420, 448, 450-452.

[4] Charles County Wills Book 8, pages 256, 281-282, 354.

[5] Charles County Wills Book 8, page 298.

[6] Charles County Land Records Book IB no. 2, folio 450; IB no. 7, folios 194, 492.