Belvoir Tour Map - Severn River Association

Belvoir Tour Map
Index
1. Tour Start
2. Lawn Bowling Green
3. Tree of Heaven
4. Central Arboretum
5. Plaque at Manor
6. Champion Copper Beech
7. Entrance to Manor
8. Rochambeau Plaque
9. Archeology Dig
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Page 2
The Manor House and its famous Beech Tree
Severn Side Farm, 4 S. Winchester Rd., Annapolis, MD
Step back in time and experience sweeping lots adjacent to the house. The property
waterfront views of the Severn River with has a total of 21 available acres. Call listrolling lawn to water's edge. This very pri- ing agent Anne Harrington for details,
vate circa 1848 home boasts of 883' of wa- 4 Church Circle, Annapolis, MD 21401
terfrontage overlooking Annapolis.
410-263-8686 (o) 410-340-9961(cell)
Deep water pier as well as protected cove
with deeded slips. The house sits on more
than 9 acres and there are two buildable
Page 3
The Arboretum
Drawing by Matt Rhoderick, registered landscape architect,
McHale Landscape Design
Page 4
(The Arboretum, continued from p. 3)
tensive orchards of apples and peaches… chestnuts for rails… wood for all
purposes … 100 acres of low ground
meadow which affords a large quantity
of hay… a creek affording a landing…
bay craft can load with produce…
never-failing springs of fine water, and
two streams running through it.”
Today the state champion Copper
Beech is the big attraction, transplanted when it was ten in 1927.
The next page depicts the topography
of the grounds as measured by aerial
LIDAR (LIght Detection And Ranging) using lasers.
Six terraces slope gradually from the
east side of the house to the water, with
a collection of trees in this, one of the
country’s oldest arboretums. It was
likely planned by Upton Scott on return from exile in Ireland and executed
at the time of his retirement.
He had a well-known passion for Botany. He kept a tropical greenhouse at
his town house in Annapolis, and perhaps one here tool.
He gave possession of Belvoir to the
Maynadiers in 1788 and moved into
his Annapolis Town House in 1789.
In 1816 Maynadier tried to sell Belvoir
with an ad in the Maryland Gazette
that read, “…a handsome view of the
Severn River … a bowling green, exPage 5
LIDAR (laser ranging) map shows six terraces cut
into the arboretum for walkways and plantings.
Page 6
Page 7
The Manor House
The short stem of the now T-shaped
Manor House is its first section. It was
built in the style of a 17th century manor house perhaps soon after John Ross
purchased Belvoir in 1736. Its sides
are native field stone. Its visible end is
brick with four segmental brick arched
windows.
One story high, its dimensions were 21
by 35 feet. It is covered with a steep
gambrel roof with two gable roofed
dormers on each side. There was probably a winder stair next to the chimney
that led to a loft. The kitchen would
have been in a separate building to the
north.
Upton Scott, who acquired the property in 1758, could well have had the
vision to turn it into a brick Georgian
country home.
The second section, now the library, was probably constructed in
two phases since there is both English brick below and Flemish brick
above the belt. Possibly started in
the mid 1760’s, it measures 22 feet
by 21 feet and connects to the original stone house through a door in
the northwest corner. The main
entry would likely have been on the
east end opened onto a wood frame
porch. It was common at this time
for the parlor to double as a sleeping room.
Page 8
Manor House circa 1690-1730
The third section now the entry
hall and dining room replaced a
temporary wood frame structure
probably in the early 1770’s. It is
44 feet by 21 feet. The east wall
of the stone house was likely removed at this time and the first
floor reached its present configuration.
The fourth section, a brick second floor and attic for servants,
probably dates to the early 1780’s.
Upstairs were three large, heated
chambers, and one small unheated chamber. The main staircase
closely matches that in Upton
Scott’s town house.
The entrance porch is similar to
Gunston Hall’s in Virginia, with
its English Baroque pediment
and four columns and four pilasters. The porch rests on a 1920
base and may be of that vintage.
The separate kitchen burned
down and William Coleman
Rogers built the single story
white frame kitchen extension
on the north end of the manor
house. It had a greenhouse in the
basement and a sleeping porch
on the second level.
During the 1960’s Archibald Rogers heavily
remodeled the kitchen adding a second story.
He installed the pool.
Page 9
The History of the Belvoir Plantation
Owners of Belvoir
From first owner, the land area for Belvoir changed as owners either sold off
parts of it or added to it. Its name also
varied: Beare Ridge, Providence, …
Nicholas Wyatt (1620–1673), the first
owner, was a wealthy planter who came
from Virginia in 1649 with wife Damarias and a group of nonconformist
Quakers. Virginia was harassing those
deviating from the Anglican Church.
After patenting 700 acres along the
Severn River’s southern side, he secured the 175 acres of land that would
become Belvoir on 11 August 1664,
by paying for its survey. He arranged
transportation and land purchase for
immigrants to Maryland. As a Quaker
he refused to take an oath to bear arms
and was fined 500 pounds of tobacco.
Belvoir was run as a bare (without residence) plantation. Shortly after his
death, his young son Samuel also died
so Belvoir was inherited by his daughter Sarah Watt and her husband Colonel Edward Dorsey. Half the property was sold and changed hands. The
Dorsey half passed to their son, and to
his sons who sold it to Amos Garrett
(1671-1727) who immigrated from
England to became one of Maryland’s
richest land owners. His 8,000 acres
stretched from the Severn to the South
River. Never married, he served as Annapolis’ first mayor (1708-1720. He offered Beare Ridge to St. Anne’s Episcopal Church church in his will. But they
could not conduct a required Sunday
sermon at Belvoir, so his administrators divided and sold his property.
The 585 acre block containing Belvoir
was bought by John Ross (1696-1766),
great grandfather of Francis Scott Key.
Immigrants from London, Ross and
his wife Alicia had two daughters Ann
Arnold Ross (1727-1811) (grandmother to FSK) and Elizabeth (17301819). Ross is thought to be the first
owner to build at Belvoir. Ann Arnold
married Francis Key and moved to
Cecil County where he was clerk. He
died in 1770.
They had two boys John Ross Key (father to FSK) and Philip Barton Key
and one girl Elizabeth Key. Elizabeth
married Dr. Upton Scott, physician to
the Royal Governor of Maryland. They
had no living children. Upon the marriage of his daughters John Ross gave
them parcels of land, and Scott paid
£500 for three parcels of Belvoir sold
by heirs to Brice John Worthington.
Upton Scott, a loyalist, returned to Ireland during the Revolution to protect
rights to multiple properties. His wife
Elizabeth Scott stayed at Belvoir with
niece Elizabeth Key who received a
1777 letter addressed to “Elizabeth Key
[at] Belvoir,” the first known use of this
name, French for “beautiful view”.
Colonel Henry Maynadier (1759–
1849), famous for helping remove a
bullet from Marquis de Lafayette’s leg
during the 1777 Battle of Brandywine,
married the widowed Elizabeth Key*
Page 10
Col. Henry E.
Maynadier
in 1781. They lived alternately at Belvoir and Wingfield in Frederick. Their
two infant daughters died.* Plaster of
Paris was used to restore the pH of the
land.
Elizabeth’s mother Ann Arnold Key’s*
home burned. Legend has her reentering the house to save the servants. She
went blind and went to live at Belvoir
with the Scotts, and Maynadiers who
took possession of Belvoir in 1788.
Maynadier sold Belvoir to Brice John
Worthington in 1816. It passed among
family members until sold to Thomas
Welsh in 1850 who left it to his children, who sold to Anne C. Hinckley
in 1887, who rented it out until it was
sold to James J. Crum in 1891, whose
heirs sold it to Casimir Poluyanski in
1911, who sold it to William Coleman
Rogers in 1919.
Additions were made to the house and
captured WWII prisoners came from
Camp Meade to work the tobacco
fields. His wife Margaret Bryan held
weekly dances on the front lawn. Archibald Rogers one of the three sons
who inherited it, started the architectural firm RTKL.
turned Belvoir into a you-pick strawberry farm. In 1985 Archibald, Samuel and Margaret Ann Rogers sold 245
acres of Belvoir to Johannes Greco,
Inc. (Magnum Enterprises, Ltd.) for
the development Belvoir Farms. Archibald kept the right to live in the
Manor House and died in 2011.
Anne Arundel County and Magnum
created an 8.39 acre preservation easement for the Manor House and log
outbuilding. The Rockbridge Academy acquired Belvoir and 144 acres in
2006.
* Buried in the cemetery at Belvoir
Visitors to Belvoir
4500 French troops of Count de Rochambeau are supposed to have made
camp at Belvoir on their way to Yorktown on September 16-17, 1781.
George Washington left his trunk at
Belvoir for over 100 years. The Smithsonian Museum was called and they
put it on display.
Francis Scott Key (FSK)(Aug1, 1779 January 11, 1843). There is much lore
about Key, author of The Star Spangled
Banner, visiting his blind grandmother,
Ann Arnold Ross, who died January 5,
1811 and is buried at Belvoir.
In 1911 Francis Scott Key Smith
wrote that FSK was tutored in liberal
education and religious instruction at
After tobacco depleted the soil, he Belvoir. In 2007 Victor Weybright
wrote both FSK and his sister made
Page 11
the rounds of family with visits to
Bushwood, Runnymead, or Belvoir,
and while at Belvoir, FSK’s “very pious
and somewhat haughty” grandmother
hired him a tutor and took him to
church. But there is no documentation
met Elizabeth and Upton Scott, then
in their 80’s living in Annapolis.
The Marquis de Lafayette (September
6, 1757 - May 20, 1834) fought in the
American Revolution alongside General George Washington at Brandywine and with Count de Rochambeau
at Valley Forge.
He accepted President James Monroe’s invitation to a tour celebrating
America’s 50th birthday and the spirit
of independence.
He was honored in all the states with
parades and parties. While in Annapolis he spent time at Belvoir with
Colonel Henry Maynadier, who had
removed a bullet from Lafayette’s leg
at Brandywine.
of these visits.
In 1789 FSK moved in with his great
aunt and great uncle Elizabeth and
Upton Scott in Annapolis. He began
his studies at St. John’s College, which
had no dorm in its first year.
Irish immigrant David Bailie Warden
was waiting for his ship back to Paris, where he had been secretary of the
American legation. He wrote in his
journal on 29 July 1811 that Colonel
Henry Maynadier and General Mason brought him to dine at Belvoir on
the US Hornet sloop of war.
He commented on the beauty of Belvoir and Col. Maynadier’s fondness
for farming and gardening. He also
Page 12
The Marquis de Lafayette
10 Ways to Save the Severn River
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
Create tree and bush buffers at roads and shoreline to capture runoff
Properly maintain your septic system to reduce nitrates reaching waterways
Replace grass with native plants and shade trees to catch more stormwater
Install rain barrels to slow and absorb rain
Minimize fertilizers and lawn chemicals to keep them from our waterways
Retain and absorb stormwater runoff on your property with rain gardens
Pick up after pets to keep fecal matter out of our streams
Grow oysters on your dock with the SRA Oyster Program
Remove invasive plants like bamboo, tree of heaven, and mile a minute weed
that push out native plants and increase stormwater flow
10. Join Severn River Association to make our river safe for swimming and fishing
To find out more about these practices go to severnriver.org or email
president@severnriver.org
Page 13
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Page 14
Rochambeau
York to the famous Battle of Yorktown.
The Historic Marker reads September
16–17, 1781 but the document trail is
almost as sparse as the last year’s archaeological dig that found not a single French button. Perhaps, it was the
quick change of plans that was responsible for the lack of journal entries.
The Baron de Viomenil, second in
command, had found the ships reserved in Baltimore too small and
“shamefully” equipped to transport
Not exactly a needle in a haystack,
some 4,500 of Count de Rochambeau’s
troops – a group larger than most cities
in Maryland at the time—supposedly
made their 36th encampment at “Dr.
Scott’s House” on their way from New
The Baron de Viomenil
the troops to Yorktown, so he switched
plans to march to the land route to
Williamsburg, setting up camp at
Spurrier’s Tavern. While there, a courier arrived with news that Admiral
de Grasse had reached Annapolis with
transport. Another detour!
Page 15
The next day was a tough, hot, dry 17
mile march to Scott’s Plantation, Belvoir. No map and only three published
sources among the some three dozen
existing journals mention that they
spent the night. One map shows the
camp layout at Spurrier’s the night before, and one map for Annapolis the
next night on property that is now St.
John’s College, reached at 7 am. Perhaps the diary keepers were not at Belvoir?
By then Rochambeau and his diary
keepers were riding ahead. Two more
units had left from other ports, and
one group from Baltimore did not take
the General’s Highway detour.
A typical encampment following strict
ordinance rules would need some ten
acres for about a thousand tents set
in formation, 300 wagons, land to dig
wells and latrines, and pastures for the
wagon oxen and horses, etc.
A typical meal required a dozen cows,
requiring a butchery and a set-up of
several circular earthen cook stoves
16 feet in diameter. At the time of the
encampment Belvoir was much larger,
including the Belvoir Farms housing
development land. Could the troops
have camped there?
left Annapolis in 1776 for his homeland Ireland, under pretense of dealing
with his father’s will.
Before returning, he had a friend write
a letter to Benjamin Franklin to request a passport so he could make safe
passage through the troops in New
York, his port of entry.
Franklin sent the papers, Scott arrived
in Annapolis November 30, 1780 presenting himself to the Council, and
asked to take an oath of allegiance to
the United States.
Several of his loyalist friends lost all
their possessions, but by mid 1781
Scott was back in the government’s
good graces. His property was intact
as shown on his 1783 tax assessment.
Perhaps the council forgave him with
the victory at Yorktown, or they were
fond of Scott, or that Scott had the
colonial Council’s papers his cousin
James Brooks, not a loyalist, took to
Belvoir when he was asked to resign
his position of Clerk. Brooks stayed at
Belvoir until he returned to England in
1782. Scott returned his house in Annapolis in the fall of 1780.
A letter by captain of the Romulus
Comte de Villebrune, written in Annapolis on September 16th to Baron
de Viomenil, lists eleven vessels and
the number of 3,500 troops they were
carrying. The rest marched with the
wagon train.
And what about Upton Scott? Did he
see the troops? A known loyalist, Scott
Page 16
Slavery
Slavery began in Maryland in 1642,
eight years after the Ark and the Dove
landed 13 African slaves at St. Mary’s
City.
Until Maryland’s tobacco-based plantation economy expanded at the turn
of the century, white indentured servants outnumbered black slaves. From
1756 to 1775 (a period for which cargo inventories exist) 317 ships arrived
carrying white laborers from Great
Britain and Germany; 48 ships, 10
from Africa, carried slaves.
The Maryland Assembly was intent on
keeping the races separate and in 1661
forbade interracial marriage or cohabitation and in 1664 decreed all slaves
to be so for life, as would children of
women slaves. After a few decades native-born slaves outnumbered those
forcibly brought from Africa.
So what do we know about slavery at
Belvoir? At the first owner’s death,
Nicholas Wyatt’s inventory mentions
one woman servant, one man servant
and one negro slave “at the Landing.”
In 1725, Amos Garrett inventoried his
possessions as 8,000 acres including
Belvoir, and 68 slaves. Great grandfather to Francis Scott Key, and the man
who probably built the first section of
the Manor House, John Ross, owned
and farmed many properties as well as
Belvoir.
In his 1776 will 1776 Ross listed “32
black slaves and two mulattoes.” The
men lived in the city and ran a “bare”
plantation with temporary structures
such as curing and storage sheds for
tobacco. There may have been makeshift shelters for workers. A 1798 Tax
Assessment of Belvoir listed “One Negro Quarter Built of Stone, 32 x 32”,
“One Negro Quarter Built of Log, 30 x
20” and “One Barn of Brick, 36 x 36”.
Upton Scott died in February 1814.
In May of that year an inventory of his
goods had been made and included 10
slaves in Annapolis and 21 at Belvoir.
And onward throughout its existence
Belvoir was home to between 30 and
40 slaves until slavery was abolished in
Maryland in 1864.
Slaves left behind few traces of their
lives. In the Maryland Gazette in January 1780 an ad for a runaway slave
from Belvoir named Tom appeared for
four months.
In 1824 there was a Cinderella story
at Belvoir, but without a happy ending. Nicholas Brice Worthington
had purchased the slave Cinderella
in1840. She was married to Abraham
Brogden, a free Black man living in
Baltimore. In 1848 Brogden heard she
was about to be sold out of Maryland,
helped her escape, but the next day she
was captured.
Brogden went to trial, was found guilty
and sentenced to four years in prison.
Cinderella was sent back to Belvoir.
Both blacks and whites petitioned , and
Govenor Enoch Louis Lowe pardoned
Brogden in 1851, alas after Cinderella
had already died.
Page 17
SRA is the oldest River Group in the nation (1911), and seeks to make the
Severn safe to fish and swim in.
Our core activities in 2015 include:
• Leading the Severn Headwater Coalition to stop the runoff from Interstate
97 and Route 32 interchange
• Providing design grants for stormwater retention at five member home
owner associations
• Helping three communities secure county funding for installation of large
raingardens or bioretention areas
• Planting over 100 trees in our watershed to stop stormwater runoff
• Raising over 1500 cages of oysters at members’ docks to plant in our river
• Hosting 12 educational meetings on topics related to the Severn’s health
Yes, I want to help the Severn River
I am: Name_____________________
Email ______________________
I want to make annual membership donation of: __________
Individual Membership $ 35
Benefactor Membership$100
HOA/Org. Membership$ 55
Sponsoring Member $250
Household Membership$ 60
Special Donation, Your Choice
I would like to volunteer to:
____ Raise Oysters
____ Plant Trees near Streams
____ Patrol River on SRA Boat
____ Create Fund Raising Events
____ Educate about the River
____ Other:
____ Get Grants for Member Communities
Pay online at severnriver.org or by check to: Severn River Association, PO Box 146, Annapolis, MD 21404
Telephone: 443.569.3556 (voicemail)
Email: president@severnriver.org
facebook.com/SRAOnTheRiver
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BOM: 410-266-5505
102 Old Solomons Island Rd, Annapolis