Acquinsicke

Last updated
Acquinsicke
USA Maryland location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Usa edcp location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Nearest city Pomfret, Maryland
Coordinates 38°36′30″N77°2′14″W / 38.60833°N 77.03722°W / 38.60833; -77.03722 Coordinates: 38°36′30″N77°2′14″W / 38.60833°N 77.03722°W / 38.60833; -77.03722
Area15.2 acres (62,000 m2)
Architectural styleFederal
NRHP reference No. 92000070 [1]
Added to NRHPFebruary 20, 1992

Acquinsicke is a historic home located near Pomfret, Charles County, Maryland, United States. It was built between 1783 and 1798, is a highly significant example of late 18th century, early Federal architecture. It is a rectangular, two story, five bay, clapboarded frame dwelling with one-story additions to each end. The house's landscape features include a series of two terraced falls. [2]

Contents

History

Acquinsicke takes its name from a 1,000-acre (4 km2) tract of escheat land patented by Anthony Neale in 1704. [3] Originally known as White's Ford and renamed Acquinsicke by Neale, the 1,000 acres (4 km2) had formerly been granted to Jerome White in 1669. White had immigrated to Maryland from England as a free adult about 1661. A Catholic, apparently well educated, he held a number of important and influential positions, including that of deputy governor in 1669 and the colony's Surveyor General, 1661–1671. White received land grants totaling more than 1,000 acres (4 km2) — most of which reverted to the Lords Baltimore [4] when White died in England intestate and without heirs in 1677. The White's Ford grc: of 1,000 acres (4 km2) was one of those that es cheated to the proprietor. When the tract was resurveyed for Anthony Neale the boundaries were found to embrace 572 acres (2.3 km2) more than the 1,000 acres (4 km2) stipulated in White's grant. To correct this discrepancy. Neale was requested to " ... leave out the surplus age where [he] should think convenient . .. " [5] The origin of the name Anthony Neale gave to the property is not precisely known. It is known to have derived from a word or descriptive term used by Native Americans who continued to occupy this section of Charles County at the time that Neale patented the property. It may even have been the name of a small village that once existed on or near the land.

Anthony Neale's patent was recorded in 1706 and it was probably not long afterward that he established Acquinsicke as his dwelling plantation. Previous to that time he is believed to have lived on part of his father's plantation, Wollaston Manor, in the southeastern section of the county. [6] Neale's father, Capt. James Neale, was a highly educated and well-travelled member of colonial Maryland society. He first arrived in Maryland in 1635 but did not establish formal residence in the colony until 1642 . A planter and assemblyman. James Neale held a number of provincial offices, and between 1649 and 1659 served as ambassador for Charles II and the Duke of York in Spain and Portugal. [7] The Neales were staunch Roman Catholics and continued to be openly so throughout the 1691–1776 period when Catholics in Maryland were denied their basic civil rights. Anthony Neale's parents and their descendants established and supported a private mission at Wollaston Manor, [8] and Anthony Neale is said to have supported the work of the Church by providing his home at Acquinsicke Society of Jesus headquartered at as a mission chapel of the St. Thomas Manor (CH-6;NR). [9]

Anthony Neale died in 1723. His will devised one-half of the Acquinsicke plantation to his son Edward stipulating that "...it be that moiety whereon my dwelling house stands that I now live in." Edward was also given "...my silver Chalice & suit[e] of Church Stuff to be kept and remained in my said Dwelling House and to go from heir to heir for the use of our family etc. so long as any of mine shall inhabit in the said place." Edward's share of Acquinsicke was to lie south of and include the dwelling; his brother, Charles, was bequeathed the part of the plantation lying north of the dwelling together with "...one thousand foot of one inch pine plank to be used towards ... building him a house ..." [10]

By the standards of the period, Neale clearly enjoyed a privileged lifestyle, despite the fact that the inventory of his personality suggested that his house was probably of only two rooms with small sleeping chamber above. Although he did own a "house clock, a small library of books. assorted pieces of silver, a violin and 5 packs of playing cards", his house was as modestly furnished as it was small. Nevertheless, this was true of nearly all dwellings occupied by those of Neale's stature. The estate, which included 33 slaves, was estimated to be worth over 1.108 pounds sterling, placing Neale among the county's wealthier inhabitants. [11] Neale also owned several other valuable properties, including a mill seat and two unimproved lots in Chandlers Town (Port Tobacco;NR) in the same county. [12]

Edward Neale was probably living at the home plantation at the time of his father's death, and is known to have continued to reside there until the mid-1740s when he moved to Queen Anne's County on Maryland's Eastern Shore. [13] According to several local histories, Acquinsicke continued to be used as a place of worship for local Catholics throughout Neale's occupation of the land. In 1751 Edward Neale, who had no surviving sons, conveyed the 500 acres (2 km2) of Acquinsicke he had inherited from his father, plus an additional contiguous tract of 611 acres (2.5 km2) he patented under the name Acquinsicke Enlarged to his eldest daughter Eleanor and her husband Henry Rozer of Prince George's County. [14] Eleanor and Henry Rozer were then living at Notley Hall, a large estate binding on the Potomac River near present-day Fort Washington which Henry had inherited from his father Notley Rozer. [15] Seven years later Charles Neale, Edward's brother, sold his half share of Acquinsicke to Col. Samuel Hanson [16] necessitating a formally surveyed division of the two parts of the original tract they had inherited on their father's death in 1723.

Historical context

Acquinsicke was built in the last two decades of the 18th century, a very important time of transition in the development of domestic architecture in Southern Maryland. From about 1720 until the end of the American Revolution housing forms in Southern Maryland were fairly unchanged- homes of the middle and lower economic classes were usually one-story with one or two lower rooms and small attic chambers above, while those of the more prosperous merchant planters almost invariably contained four rooms off a centered rear stair hall and with bed chambers within a gable or gambrel roof. Surviving buildings combined with historical research has provided convincing evidence that houses with central through passages and houses of a full two-story height were relatively rare before the close of the 18th century. It was not until about the second decade of the 19th century, when improved economic conditions spawned a building boom that continued well into the 1840s, that two-story dwellings with central or side passages extending the full depth of the house became increasingly common. Similarly, changing fashions in a broader American context was slow to influence local architectural trends.

Consequently, there are remarkably few late-18th-century houses in Charles County whose architectural embellishments reflect to any significant degree the neoclassicism so widely embraced elsewhere in the decades following the Revolutionary War. The land on which Acquinsicke stands is part of what was once one of Charles County's largest plantations and was initially established by Anthony Neale, member of one of Maryland's most historically important Catholic families. Neale's dwelling, which is believed to have stood on or near the site of the present house, was used as both a private residence and as a mission chapel of the Society of Jesus headquartered at St. Thomas Manor INRI. The survival and growth of Catholicism in Maryland during the 1690–1116 period was almost entirely dependent on the support of these mission chapels by families such as the Neales. All of these mission chapels have disappeared, and the precise locations of nearly all of them remain unknown. Today, only St. Thomas Manor and the property encompassing St. Mary's Church, Newport INRI have documented associations with the pre-1776 history of Roman Catholicism in this area, and Acquinsicke is the only extant non-church owned site to have historically proven associations with the missionary activities of the society of Jesus in this locality .

Aquinsicke is currently privately owned.

Impact

Acquinsicke is a very significant example of late 18th century, early Federal architecture. Remarkably enough, only a few examples of domestic architectural farms survive in this region that illustrate as well as Acquinsicke the transitional phase between entirely vernacular building traditions and those buildings whose overall designs and carpentry were obviously influenced by outside sources. In this sense, Acquinsicke's full two-story height, one-room-deep design, finished (and heated!) attic chambers, and intrepidly corbelled and plaster banded chimney stacks are of specific note. Viewed independently, each of these details is unique in a late 18th-century architectural context: Together, they establish Acquinsicke as entirely matchless.

Acquinsicke is also of significance for the historical connection of the site it occupies with the history of Roman Catholicism in Southern Maryland. There is compelling historical evidence that the house rests on or immediately next to the site of an earlier structure that from about 1706 until at least the middle of that century served the dual function of private home and mission chapel served by Jesuits headquartered at St. Thomas Manor. Acquinsicke is one of only three sites in Charles County with documented affiliations with the pastoral activities of the Roman Catholic Church during the 1690–1776 period when Catholics in Maryland were denied their basic civil rights.

Related Research Articles

Port Tobacco Village, Maryland Town in Maryland, United States

Port Tobacco, officially Port Tobacco Village, is a town in Charles County, in southern Maryland, United States. The population was 13 at the 2010 census, making Port Tobacco the smallest incorporated town in Maryland.

Oakland Mills, Columbia, Maryland Village in Maryland, United States

Oakland Mills is one of the 10 villages in Columbia, Maryland, United States. It is located immediately east of Town Center, across U.S. Route 29.

Doughoregan Manor Historic house in Maryland, United States

Doughoregan Manor is a plantation house and estate located on Manor Lane west of Ellicott City, Maryland, United States. Established in the early 18th century as the seat of Maryland's prominent Carroll family, it was home to Charles Carroll, a signer of the United States Declaration of Independence, during the late 18th century. A portion of the estate, including the main house, was designated a National Historic Landmark on November 11, 1971. It remains in the Carroll family and is not open to the public.

Leonard Neale American Catholic bishop

Leonard Neale was an American Catholic prelate and Jesuit who became the Archbishop of Baltimore and the first Catholic bishop to be ordained in the United States. While president of Georgetown College, Neale became the coadjutor bishop to John Carroll and founded the Georgetown Visitation Monastery and Academy.

Francis Neale 19th-century American Jesuit

Francis Ignatius Neale, also known as Francis Xavier Neale, was an American Catholic priest and Jesuit who led several academic and religious institutions in Washington, D.C. and Maryland. He played a substantial role in the Jesuit order's restoration in the United States.

Sacred Heart Church (Bowie, Maryland) Church in Maryland, United States

Sacred Heart Church in Bowie, Maryland is a Catholic Church established in 1729. The church was originally built on part of the Jesuit estate known as White Marsh Manor.

Darnalls Chance Historic house in Maryland, United States

Darnall's Chance, also known as Buck House, Buck-Wardrop House, or James Wardrop House, is a historic home located at 14800 Governor Oden Bowie Drive, in Upper Marlboro, Prince George's County, Maryland, United States.

Richard Bennett was an English planter and Governor of the Colony of Virginia, serving 1652–1655. He had first come to the colony in 1629 to represent his uncle Edward Bennett's business interests, managing his plantation known as Bennett's Welcome in Warrascoyack.

Shrine of St. Anthony (Maryland) Franciscan shrine in Ellicott City, Maryland

The Shrine of St. Anthony is a Roman Catholic shrine honoring St. Anthony of Padua. The shrine is located within the St. Joseph Cupertino Friary in Ellicott City, Maryland, USA. The shrine is a ministry of the Conventual Franciscan Friars, Our Lady of the Angels Province, USA.

Nicholas Spencer

Colonel Nicholas Spencer, Jr. (1633–1689) was a merchant, planter and politician in colonial Virginia. Born in Cople, Bedfordshire, Spencer migrated to the Westmoreland County, Virginia, where he became a planter and which he represented in the Virginia House of Burgesses. Spencer later served as Secretary and President of the Council of the Virginia Colony, and on the departure of his cousin Thomas Colepeper, 2nd Baron Colepeper in 1683, was named Acting Governor (1683–84), in which capacity Spencer served until the arrival of Governor Lord Howard of Effingham. Spencer's role as agent for the Culpepers helped him and his cousin Lt. Col. John Washington, ancestor of George Washington, secure the patent for their joint land grant of the Mount Vernon estate.

Burleigh (Ellicott City, Maryland) Historic house in Maryland, United States

Burleigh, or Burleigh Manor, or Hammonds Inheritance is a historic home located at Ellicott City, Howard County, Maryland, built on a 2,300-acre (930 ha) estate. Which included "Hammonds Inheritance" patented in 1796. It is a Federal-style brick dwelling built between 1797 and 1810, laid in Flemish bond. Based on the 1798 Tax assessment of the Elkridge Hundred, the original manor house started as a one-story frame building 24 by 18 foot in size. Also on the landscaped grounds are a 1720 stone smokehouse; a much-altered log, stone, and frame "gatehouse" or "cottage," built in 1820 as a workhouse for slaves and another log outbuilding, as well as an early-20th century bathhouse, 1941 swimming pool, and tennis court. Portions of the estate once included the old Annapolis Road which served the property until the construction of Centennial Lane to connect Clarksville to Ellicott City in 1876. The manor was built by Colonel Rezin Hammond (1745–1809), using the same craftsmen as his brother Mathias Hammond's Hammond–Harwood House in Annapolis. Rezin and his brother Matthias were active in the colonial revolution with notable participation in the burning of the Peggy Stewart (ship). Hammond bequeathed the manor and 4,500 acres (1,800 ha) to his grandnephew Denton Hammond (1785–1813) and his wife Sara who lived there until her death in 1832. All slave labor were offered manumission upon Rezin Hammonds death in 1809, with extra provisions for tools, land and livestock for thirty two slaves. The estate was owned by Civil War veteran Colonel Mathias until his death where he was buried alongside other family members on the estate. His wife Clara Stockdale Hammond maintained ownership afterward. In 1914 the estate was owned by Mary Hanson Hammond with land totaling over 1,000 acres (400 ha) including the outbuildings and slave quarters. In 1935 the Estate was subdivided to 600 acres (240 ha) and purchased by Charles McAlpin Pyle, Grandson of industrialist David Hunter McAlpin. The manor house was renovated with the great kitchen replaced by a "Stirrup Room" where meetings of the Howard County Hunt Club were performed. The house was sold in 1941 to Mrs. Anthony J. Drexel Biddle, Jr. for use of Prince Alexandre Hohenlohoe of Poland during WWII. St. Timothy's School bought the property after the war in 1946, but abandoned plans and sold to Mrs G. Dudley Iverson IV in 1950. The brick was once painted yellow, but by 1956, had almost returned to exposed red brick. As of 2013, it has operated as a livestock shelter.

St. Thomas Manor United States historic place

St. Thomas Manor (1741) is a historic home and Catholic church complex located near Port Tobacco, Charles County, Maryland. Known as St. Ignatius Church and Cemetery, the manor house complex is the oldest continuously occupied Jesuit residence in the world. The mission settlement of Chapel Point was established in 1641 by Father Andrew White, S.J., an English Jesuit missionary. Father White administered to the Potapoco Native Americans, some of whom he converted to Catholicism. Established in 1662, this is the oldest continuously active Roman Catholic parish in the American Thirteen Colonies. With the consecration in 1794 of Bishop John Carroll, St. Thomas became the first Roman Catholic see in the United States.

Stone Hall (Cockeysville, Maryland) Historic house in Maryland, United States

Stone Hall is a historic home located at Cockeysville, Baltimore County, Maryland, United States. It is a manor house set on a 248-acre (1.00 km2) estate that was originally part of a 4,200-acre (17 km2) tract called Nicholson's Manor. It was patented by William Nicholson of Kent County, Maryland in 1719. The property in what is now known as the Worthington Valley was split up in 1754 and sold in 1050-acre lots to Roger Boyce, Corbin Lee, Brian Philpot, and Thinsey Johns.

St. Francis Xavier Church (Warwick, Maryland) United States historic place

St. Francis Xavier Church, or Old Bohemia, is a historic Roman Catholic church located at Warwick, Cecil County, Maryland, United States. It is located on what was once the Jesuit estate known as Bohemia Manor.

St. Inigoes, sometimes called St. Inigoes Shores, is a small, rural, unincorporated farming, fishing and crabbing community at the southern end of St. Mary's County in the U.S. state of Maryland that is undergoing a transition to small residential subdevelopment plots. Its eastern side is bordered by a number of coves and creeks that are connected to the St. Marys River, a brackish tidal river, near where it feeds into the mouth of the Potomac River and close to its entry point into the Chesapeake Bay.

Belmont Estate Historic estate located at Elkridge, Howard County, Maryland, United States

The Belmont Estate, now Belmont Manor and Historic Park, is a former forced-labor farm located at Elkridge, Howard County, Maryland, United States. Founded in the 1730s and known in the Colonial period as "Moore's Morning Choice", it was one of the earliest forced-labor farms in Howard County, Maryland. Its 1738 plantation house is one of the finest examples of Colonial Georgian architectural style in Maryland.

Petersville is an unincorporated community in Frederick County, Maryland, United States. Petersville is located at the junction of Maryland routes 79 and 180, 1.3 miles (2.1 km) northeast of Rosemont.

Athol Manor

Athol is a historic slave manor and rectory located in Columbia (Simpsonville), Howard County, Maryland, U.S.

Belmont Plantation (Albemarle County, Virginia)

Belmont Plantation, also known as Belmont Estate and Belmont, is a locale in Albemarle County, Virginia, and the site of a 19th-century plantation. It was among the first patents in Albemarle County, patented in the 1730s. Matthew Graves sold a 2,500-acre-tract to John Harvie Sr., a friend of Peter Jefferson and a guardian of Thomas Jefferson. After his death in 1767, the property was inherited by his son John Harvie, Jr. Harvie lived at Belmont for several years, but after he was appointed the Registrar of Land Grants, he moved to Richmond, Virginia and John Rogers oversaw the plantation. Rogers was known for his progressive approaches to agriculture, including methods for improving the quality of the soil after years of tobacco crops.

References

  1. ↑ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. March 13, 2009.
  2. ↑ J. Richard Rivoire (August 1991). "National Register of Historic Places Registration: Acquinsicke" (PDF). Maryland Historical Trust. Retrieved 2016-01-01.
  3. ↑ Patents, DD#5:240 (Annapolis).
  4. ↑ Edward C. Papenfuse, et al., A Biographical Dictionary of the Maryland Legislature, 1635–1789, 2 Vols. (Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1985), 2:882.
  5. ↑ Patents; DD#5:240.
  6. ↑ Harry Wright Newman, Maryland Smoots and Kindred Families (Baltimore Maryland Historical Society, 1956), pp. 290.
  7. ↑ Papenfuse, et al., 2:609.
  8. ↑ J. Richard Rivoire, "St. Mary's Church, Newport" (Charles County) National Register nomination form, 1991.
  9. ↑ Margaret Brown Klapthor and Paul D. Brown, History of Charles County, Maryland (LaPlata, Maryland: Charles County Tercentenary, 1958), p.68; Jack D. Brown, et al., Charles County, Maryland, A History (LaPlata, Maryland: Charles County Bicentennial Committee, 1976), p.111.
  10. ↑ Wills, AB#3:166(LaPlata).
  11. ↑ Inventories, 1717–1735:327 (LaPlata).
  12. ↑ Wills, AB#3:166
  13. ↑ Archives of Maryland, XLVI:140-142; Court Proceedings, 1812–1814:2 (LaPlata)
  14. ↑ Deeds, Z#2:502 (LaPlata); Patents, PL#7:273 (Annapolis).
  15. ↑ Effie Gwynn Bowie, Across the Years in Prince George's County (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, report, 1975), p.571.
  16. ↑ Deeds, G#3:177 (LaPlata)
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.