Stories

If you ask historians what are the most important sources of information about early Maryland, what would they say? First on the list would undoubtedly be the government records of the colony. It is remarkable that so much of the original documents of the legislature, court cases, estate inventories, land records, and other items have survived at Annapolis. Many historians agree that Maryland has the . . .

Rent is a part of life. Some of us pay monthly rent for a place to live. But land owners also pay a “rent” in the form of property taxes. Think not? If you stop paying property taxes, see how fast your real estate become a no estate. Seventeenth-century Maryland landowners had an annual fee called a quit rent owed to Lord Baltimore. But even . . .

We sometimes metaphorically speak of following in our ancestor’s footsteps, but can we find their actual footsteps? That is a question I have long pondered after a surprise find in 1978. In that year we were digging at the Garrett Van Sweringen site occupied between 1664-c.1745. Although the buildings were all of earthfast or post-in-the-ground construction, Van Sweringen had added a brick veneer to a . . .

Back in late 2014, I received a phone call from a retired school teacher in Mexico City named Tobyanne Berenberg. Her mother was Fredericka Martin and among the possessions she left to Tobyanne were artifacts she had collected while assisting on an archaeological dig at a place called St. Mary’s City in 1940. Tobyanne is seen here in 2008 at her mother’s burial site in . . .

Who was the first person we would call a scientist in Maryland? The answer is a little known person named Arthur Storer. A talented astronomer, he is almost completely forgotten today but has a remarkable story which I will summarize here. Arthur Storer was born in Buckminister, Leicestershire, England in early 1645, just a few months after his father died. His mother remarried to a . . .

Discovering a Coffee House Identifying the purpose of long vanished buildings is one of the challenges confronting archaeologists. The form and construction of a building is important along with the associated artifacts. For historical archaeologists, clues often come from documents. One fascinating example of this is found in the 1698 will of one of St. Mary’s City’s most prominent residents, Garrett van Swearingen. In it, . . .