August 2020
August 8, 2020
With all the fear, (Montgomery County is particularly bad.) we are finding ourselves in the car doing a lot of road trips. Today we headed out to Charles County where we found Rich Hill.
Rich Hill Has a quite dramatic history. In April of 1666, an immigrant from Wales named Hugh Thomas was assigned and patented 600 acres of land on the west side of the Wicomico River. He sold 300 acres to Thomas Lomax in 1668. In 1676 Thomas gave his brother, Cleborne, 100 acres. When he died in 1680 the remaining property went to his brother. In 1710 the property was sold to Mary Contee.
Mary Contee became a very wealthy woman due to some sketchy doings of the Governor of Virginia and some manipulation of her husbands' will. She remarried and her husband arranged to sell the land to Gustavus Brown.
Gustavus has some interesting events in his life. He was from Scotland and a surgeon's mate aboard a King's Ship that came to the Colony in 1708. While he was ashore a severe storm arose and his ship had to leave him with nothing but the clothes on his back. He quickly informed the local planters of his willingness to serve if he could be provided with instruments and medicines. He proved himself a valuable doctor.
He built the house on Rose Hill most likely around 1720. His daughter Margaret married Thomas Stone a signer of the Declaration of Independence.
Samuel Cox eventually became the owner of Rose Hill. He was a southern sympathizer. In the early hours of April 16, 1865, David Herold and John Wilkes Booth would arrive and be given aid during their escape after Booth assassinated Lincoln.
Continuing on our road trip, we found this really neat shop called Glory Days Antiques in Newburg, Maryland. It was definitely worth a stop.
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| Along the drive, someone was having fun. |
We eventually got to Gettysburg. This battlefield is so large and unfortunately, it was a typically hot August day. We decided to do as much of the tour as the heat would allow and plan to go back and pick up where we left off. We didn't last too long, so Gettysburg goes back on the things-to-do list.
