Buck House | |
![]() Darnall's Chance in July, 2007 | |
Location | 14800 Governor Oden Bowie Drive, Upper Marlboro, Maryland |
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Coordinates | 38°49′09.22″N76°44′57.51″W / 38.8192278°N 76.7493083°W |
Built | 1742 |
NRHP reference No. | 78003118 [1] |
Added to NRHP | April 20, 1978 |
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.
It is named after Colonel Henry Darnall, a wealthy Roman Catholic planter, who was the Proprietary Agent of Charles Calvert, 3rd Baron Baltimore and who served for a time as Deputy Governor of the Province. The house itself was built c. 1742 by a merchant named James Wardrop who bought some of Darnall's land from Eleanor Darnall Carroll and her husband Daniel Carroll, a politician and wealthy planter. Wardrop enslaved 32 people at the house. [2]
Today, Darnall's Chance houses the Darnall's Chance House Museum, a historic house museum which opened to the public in 1988.
The tract of land the house sits on was patented in 1704[ citation needed ] by Col. Henry Darnall (1645–1711), [3] a wealthy Maryland Roman Catholic planter, Proprietary Agent of Charles Calvert, 3rd Baron Baltimore and, for a time, Deputy Governor of Maryland. However, during the Protestant Revolution of 1689, Darnall's proprietarial army was defeated by the Puritan army of Colonel John Coode, and he was stripped of his numerous offices.
When Col. Darnall died in 1711, he owned 27,000 acres (11,000 ha) in Prince George's County, as well as holdings in four other counties. [4] The property of what became known as Darnall's Chance passed through his family to his granddaughter Eleanor Darnall, who married Daniel Carroll I in 1727.
Their family was reared on the large landholding and plantation. Two Carroll sons were prominent members of colonial and early United States society: Daniel Carroll became a politician in the Continental Congress and Maryland Senate, and member of the Constitutional Convention; and John Carroll became the first Roman Catholic bishop in the United States, and founder of Georgetown University.
In 1741, the Carrolls sold 63⁄4 acres of their land to James Wardrop, a Scottish merchant. Wardrop built a 15-room brick dwelling house within a year, originally a 1+1⁄2-story, Flemish bond brick house. It is that house that currently stands on the property. After living at Darnall's Chance as a bachelor for six years, Wardrop married 22-year-old Lettice Lee, whose father, Philip Lee Sr., was a member of the Lee family of Westmoreland County, Virginia.
In the mid-19th century, the house was remodeled to two stories, of stuccoed brick, with Italianate and Greek Revival stylistic elements. The major alterations to the property were probably carried out under the ownership of Edward Grafton W. Hall, who owned it between 1857 and 1887. [4] [5]
The house and property were acquired by the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission in 1974, for administrative offices, but was later renovated and reopened as a house museum.
Darnall's Chance was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978. [1] The official name for the house, the Buck House, is for a late-20th-century owner, Harry Buck, Sr. After renovations and opening as a house museum, the property was subsequently renamed Darnall's Chance, after its first owner.
In 1986, the entire second floor and roof were removed, and the house was reconstructed to its 18th-century appearance. [4] Two years later, it opened as Darnall's Chance House Museum.
Darnall's Chance House Museum is a historic house museum which opened to the public in 1988. It is operated by the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission. The tour at Darnall's Chance focuses on the life of Lettice Lee, as she lived in the house for almost thirty years, married three times, and was an unusual 18th-century woman. It also includes more general information on the other women who lived at Darnall's Chance and in Prince George's County at that time.
The house is open for tours on Friday from noon to 4 pm, Sunday from noon to 4 pm, and at other times by appointment. Public programs offered at the Museum include tea lessons for young ladies, a pirate-for-a-day program, and an annual gingerbread house contest and show. The Museum rents its tented patio, which has a capacity of 125, for weddings and other events.
During 1987, an underground vault Archived 5 May 2018 at the Wayback Machine was discovered on the property. The vault when discovered, was filled with 8 feet of trash from the 18th and 19th century. Under the trash were found nine sets of human remains: three adults and six children. It was later determined that five of those remains were of native-born Americans. [2] It was concluded that the people died of various illnesses. [6]
Upper Marlboro, officially the Town of Upper Marlboro, is the seat of Prince George's County, Maryland. As of the 2020 census, the population within the town limits was 652, although Greater Upper Marlboro, which covers a large area outside the town limits, is many times larger.
Daniel Carroll was an American politician and plantation owner from Maryland and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. He supported the American Revolution, served in the Confederation Congress, was a delegate to the Philadelphia Convention of 1787 which penned the Constitution of the United States, and was a U.S. Representative in the First Congress. Carroll was one of five men to sign both the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution. He was one of the few Roman Catholics among the Founders.
Benedict Leonard Calvert, 4th Baron Baltimore was an English peer and politician. He was the second son of Charles Calvert, 3rd Baron Baltimore (1637–1715) by Jane Lowe, and became his father's heir upon the death of his elder brother Cecil in 1681. The 3rd Lord Baltimore was a devout Roman Catholic, and had lost his title to the Province of Maryland shortly after the events of the Glorious Revolution in 1688, when the Protestant monarchs William III and Mary II acceded to the British throne. Benedict Calvert made strenuous attempts to have his family's title to Maryland restored by renouncing Roman Catholicism and joining the Church of England.
Thomas Sim Lee was an American planter, patriot and politician who served as Maryland Governor for five one-year terms, as well as in the Congress of the Confederation (1783-84), Maryland Ratification Convention of 1788 and House of Delegates in 1787. He also held local offices and owned many town lots in Georgetown (which became part of the new federal city, Washington, District of Columbia,and spent his final decades operating "Needwood" plantation in Frederick County, Maryland. In addition to working closely with many of the Founding fathers, he played an important part in the birth of his state and the nation.
Colonel Thomas Brooke Jr. of Brookefield was President of the Council in Maryland and acting 13th Proprietary Governor of the Province of Maryland. He was the son of Major Thomas Brooke Sr. and Esquire and his second wife Eleanor Hatton who later remarried Col. Henry Darnall. He was grandson of the Reverend Robert Brooke Sr., who had similarly held the office briefly during the Cromwellian period in 1652.
The Belair Mansion, located in the historic Collington area and in Bowie, Maryland, United States, built c. 1745, is the Georgian style plantation house of Provincial Governor of Maryland, Samuel Ogle. Later home to another Maryland governor, the mansion is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
William Duckett Bowie, was an American politician. The eldest child of William Bowie and Kitty Beanes Duckett, he was born at Fairview Plantation in Prince George's County, Maryland.
Mount Pleasant is 2+1⁄2-story brick structure with a gambrel roof and is about two-thirds its original length. It is located near Upper Marlboro in Prince George's County, Maryland. Mount Pleasant was patented in 1697 to Richard Marsham, whose wife Anne was the daughter of Leonard Calvert, Governor of Maryland. Their grandson, Marsham Waring, inherited the home from his grandfather in 1713. His son, Richard Marsham Waring had a son, Richard Marsham Jr., born in 1733, who then inherited Mount Pleasant and Patented and Certified the tract of land dubbed "Mount Pleasant Enlarged" in 1760. On August 21, 1764, Richard Marsham Jr. sold the 451+3⁄4 acre tract of land to his brother John for £474.6s.9d. John later built the standing house in the years between 1764 and 1785. John died in 1813 and was buried at Mount Pleasant.
His Lordship's Kindness, also known as Poplar Hill, is a historic plantation estate on Woodyard Road east of Clinton, Maryland. It was built in the 1780s for Prince George's County planter Robert Darnall. The five-part Georgian mansion retains a number of subsidiary buildings including a slave's hospital and a dovecote. The property is now operated as a museum by a local nonprofit preservation group. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1970.
Bowieville is a historic home located near Upper Marlboro in Prince George's County, Maryland, United States. It is an elegant two-part plantation house of the late Federal style, built of brick and covered with stucco. The architectural detail is transitional between the Federal and Greek Revival styles.
Content, also known as the Bowling House, is a historic home located in Upper Marlboro, Prince George's County, Maryland, United States, across the street from the county courthouse. The home is a 2+1⁄2-story, two-part frame structure built in three stages. The first section, built in 1787, consisted of the present main block, with a stair hall and porch added ca. 1800. A north wing was added before 1844. Content is one of the oldest buildings remaining in the county seat of Upper Marlboro, along with Kingston and the Buck House. Content has always been owned by prominent families in the civic, economic, and social affairs of town, county, and state including the Magruder, Beanes, and Lee families; and the Bowling and Smith families of the 20th century.
Melwood Park is a historic home located near Upper Marlboro in Prince George's County, Maryland, United States. It is a 2+1⁄2-story, Flemish bond brick structure, with Georgian details. As of 2009, it is undergoing an extensive restoration. This unique dwelling was visited by George Washington on several occasions and the British Army camped here during their march to Washington, D.C. in August 1814, during the War of 1812.
Pleasant Hills is a historic home located near Upper Marlboro in Prince George's County, Maryland, United States. It is a large, two-part brick house with Greek Revival detailing. The more recent, main block, was built in 1836 by Zaddock Sasscer.
Charles Carroll II (1702–1782) known as Charles Carroll of Annapolis to distinguish him from his similarly named relatives, was a wealthy Maryland planter and lawyer. His father was Charles Carroll the Settler,, (1661–1720), an immigrant to Maryland who had arrived in the colony in 1689 with a commission as Provincial Attorney General, and had accumulated a vast fortune, emerging as Maryland's wealthiest citizen. Charles Carroll of Annapolis inherited and extended his father's fortune but, as a Roman Catholic, was barred from participation in Maryland politics. It would fall to his son, Charles Carroll of Carrollton, (III), (1737–1832), one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, to see religious toleration restored to Maryland and many political and scientific/technological advances in the newly independent state.
Charles Carroll, sometimes called Charles Carroll the Settler to differentiate him from his son and grandson, was an Irish-born planter and lawyer who spent most of his life in the English Province of Maryland. Carroll, a Catholic, is best known for his efforts to hold office in the Protestant-dominated colony which eventually resulted in the disfranchisement of Maryland's Catholics. The second son of Irish Catholic parents, Carroll was educated in France as a lawyer before returning to England, where he pursued the first steps in a legal career. Before that career developed, he secured a position as Attorney General of the young colony of Maryland. Its founder George Calvert, 1st Baron Baltimore and his descendants intended it as a refuge for persecuted Catholics.
Colonel Henry Darnall was a planter, military officer and politician in colonial Maryland. Darnall served as the Proprietary Agent in the colony for Lord Baltimore; he also briefly served as Deputy Governor of Maryland. During the Protestant Revolution of 1689, his proprietarial army was defeated by the Protestant army of John Coode, and he was stripped of his numerous colonial offices as a result. Darnall died in 1711, leaving the bulk of his substantial estates to his son, Henry Darnall II.
Laetitia "Lettice" Lee, also known as Lettice Lee Wardrop Thompson Sim, was an American colonial planter, society hostess, slaveowner, and châtelaine of Darnall's Chance. A member of the prominent Lee family of Virginia and Maryland, she lived a privileged life typical for members of the planter class. Unusual for her time, Lee was married three times; first to James Wardrop, then Adam Thompson, and lastly to Colonel Joseph Sim. She lived at Darnall's Chance for the second half of her life, throughout all three of her marriages.
Henry Darnall II (1682-1759) was a wealthy Roman Catholic planter in Colonial Maryland. He was the son of the politician and planter Henry Darnall, who was the Proprietary Agent of Charles Calvert, 3rd Baron Baltimore, and served for a time as Deputy Governor of the Province. During the Protestant Revolution of 1689, Henry Darnall I's proprietarial army was defeated by the Puritan army of Colonel John Coode, and he was stripped of his numerous colonial offices. After his father's death, Henry Darnall II did not enjoy political power in Maryland, but he remained wealthy thanks to his family's extensive estates. He married twice, fathering many children. His eldest son Henry Darnall III (c1702-c1783) inherited the bulk of what remained of his estates, and one of his grandchildren, Daniel Carroll, would become one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. A small portion of Darnall's former property, now called Darnall's Chance, can still be visited today.
Henry Darnall III was a wealthy planter in Colonial Maryland. He was the son of the politician and planter Henry Darnall II, and the grandson of Henry Darnall who was the Proprietary Agent of Charles Calvert, 3rd Baron Baltimore (1605–1675), and served for a time as Deputy Governor of the Province. Henry Darnall III converted to Anglicanism and entered politics at a time when the Calvert family had regained their proprietary colony, having lost it during the Protestant Revolution of 1689. Darnall received much criticism for his faith and was accused of being a secret Catholic. Worse, in 1761 he was accused of embezzling almost £1,000 thanks to his position as Naval Officer of the colony, and was forced to flee Maryland for Europe in order to avoid being placed on trial.
Eleanor Darnall Carroll (1703-1796), was a wealthy heiress in colonial Maryland. She was the wife of Daniel Carroll, a politician and wealthy planter. Their son Daniel Carroll became one of the Founding Fathers of the United States; their son John Carroll became the Archbishop of Baltimore and founder of Georgetown University.
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