Historic St. Mary's City

With the school tours over for the day, I got down to some serious sightseeing. There is a lot to see and do in Historic St. Mary's City. It's actually a huge museum. Come along and we'll take a tour of the place where Maryland was founded. You can follow the tour by visiting the Historic St. Mary's City web site.

St. Mary's City played a significant role in defining our nation's heritage of freedom and opportunity. It was here that Mathias de Sousa became the first man of African descent to vote in a colonial legislature. It was here that Margaret Brent challenged the status quo and requested the right to vote.

The plan of the original city included a town center with streets laid out in two triangles. At the points of the triangles were important buildings, such as the State House and the Brick Chapel. We will start our tour by following a path to St. Mary's River. Here we are able to tour the Dove, a replica (copy) of one of the ships that the first settlers came to Maryland in.

In 1634, approximately 140 English settlers led by Leonard Calvert sailed across the Atlantic on two ships, the Ark and the Dove. It took almost two months for the ships to reach Chesapeake Bay. After arriving in the new world, the Maryland settlers purchased the Dove as a support vessel to carry supplies. It remained in Maryland with them so they could trade with the Indians and other colonies.

Although Leonard Calvert and the settlers arrived in 1634, they were not the first people to live in Maryland. Native Americans had lived in the area for over 600 years.

The settlers wanted to be friends with the Indians. Calvert offered them presents to show how friendly he was. The Indians liked the gifts. The chief instructed some of the braves to go with Leonard and build a large house for the colonists. This house would be used by the settlers until they could build their own houses. The Indians stayed with the colonists for a year before moving back to their village. The Indians provided the settlers with immediate shelter and cultivated land in exchange for axes, hoes, cloth, and hatchets. They helped the villagers start the Maryland colony.

As we walk along the street to the town center of St. Mary's, we pass by Farthing's Ordinary. Farthings Ordinary is like a lodging house for travelers. There were also private inns in the city but they were very expensive and catered mostly to wealthy people. Male travelers would often come to town to do business and they would need a place to stay and eat. At Farthing's, they were provided with one meal a day (at midday) and a place to sleep. The travelers would be charged 10 lbs. of tobacco for a meal and 4 lbs. of tobacco for a night's stay. This price was set by the Assembly.

Attached to the Ordinary was the cooking house. All the meals were prepared in the cooking house. There was a warming fire in the Ordinary itself to heat the food before it was served. Travelers would eat and sleep in the same room. At night the tables were moved aside and bed tickings (like a mattress) were placed on the floor. A bed ticking was like a bag filled with corn husks or straw.

The owners of the Ordinary, Mr. and Mrs. Farthing, would sleep in a more comfortable bed in their private chamber. Ropes stretched across the bottom of the bed would hold the bed tickings. Tickings filled with straw would be placed on top of the ropes to keep them from pressing into your back. Other bed tickings filled with fluffing of wool and rags and softer things would be placed on top of the straw tickings to make the bed comfortable to lay on. The saying "Sleep tight and don't let the bed bugs bite" comes from this time because they had to pull the ropes tight so you wouldn't fall through at night. They didn't take baths very often so that would be where the bed bugs came from!

Underneath the bed, there was a maiden's bed or trundle bed. It was set aside for the occasional lady traveler. This lady might be a widow with no husband to represent her or a servant called to court. The lady traveler would stay in the fancier room with the owner of the Ordinary and his wife.

Continuing past the Ordinary, you will come upon the reconstructed State House. The first State House was built in 1676 but it was poorly constructed and soon collapsed. The State House you see today was rebuilt in 1934 using court records which had very detailed plans of the original building.

Outside the State House, there are stocks where you would be placed as punishment if you committed a crime. This method of punishment allowed all the town to see you and know the crime you had committed. The idea was that this would humiliate you and prevent you from breaking the law again. If you were charged with stealing someone's pig, you might have to spend a day in the stocks. While in the stocks, townspeople might brand you on the forehead with a "T" for thief. If you were charged with gossiping, they might pierce your tongue with a hot piece of metal. Ouch! I think that would stop me from ever gossiping about my neighbors again!

Following a street to the opposite corner of town, you will discover the remains of the Brick Chapel. In the floor of the Brick Chapel, three lead coffins were discovered in 1992. These coffins contained the bodies of Phillip Calvert (the half brother of Cecil Calvert), his wife, and his daughter. Philip was a prominent leader in the 1600's and a key person in the efforts to develop St. Mary's City.

You can be a junior archaeologist and join in the exciting discovery and opening of these mysterious coffins. Put on your Sherlock Holmes hat and click on Project Lead Coffins.

Another very interesting place to visit in Historic St. Mary's City is Godiah Spray's plantation. The word "plantation" was used like the word "farm" is today. Godiah Spray was a wealthy tobacco planter who owned a large plantation, or farm. Fourteen people lived in Master Spray's house. He and his wife had six children and six indentured servants. An indentured servant was a person who had to work for the Master for a certain number of years, usually to pay off his or her passage from England. After working for the agreed number of years, the indentured servant would be free to leave the Master's plantation. (Slaves, on the other hand, could never earn their freedom.)

Indentured servants, as well as family members, lived in the house. This indentured servant is knitting a pair of stockings for Master Spray to help keep his legs warm. If you were a child on the plantation, you would have lots of chores, like bringing in fire wood, feeding chickens, and gathering the eggs. If you were a boy, you would spend most of your time in the fields working with tobacco.

The main house on the plantation has two rooms and an upstairs. Upstairs, the boys would sleep on one side of the room and the girls on the other with a wall dividing them. The boys had to climb a ladder from the kitchen to get to their bedroom. The girls could walk up the stairs. Mr. and Mrs. Godiah Spray got to sleep in front of the fireplace. They would move the table and place their bed tickings on the floor. You will notice marigold pedals hanging in the window of the Spray house. They are helpful in keeping the bugs out. You might wear a bag around your neck with herbs that smelled good because you would only take a bath once or twice a year!!!

There is a tenant farmer's house on the plantation. His house is very sparse and small. The tenant rents land from Godiah Spray and farms it.

How do we know what a person had in their house and on their plantation in colonial times? Well, back then, when a man died, a list was made of all his belongings and their value. There was a list of everything found in each room of his house along with servants, animals, and food. These lists are called inventories. Inventories can be found in each county's records. They tell a lot about how people lived at the time. Inventories of actual settlers were used to re-create the Godiah Spray plantation.

I hope you have enjoyed this brief tour of Historic St. Mary's City. Maybe someday you can visit here yourself. In the meantime, visit their web site to learn more about Maryland's first, historic capital. Or you can work through the Maryland Exploration about St. Mary's City. You can become an expert on Maryland's colonial capital!

Bye for now, mates.

Teacher Aboard Jamie Pepper
Banneker-Loveville Elementary School Loveville, MD

YOUR THOUGHTS

1. Ms. Pepper, who was new to sailing, had some trouble keeping her balance while the ship was rocking. The crew had no problem because they are used to it. Think of some activities that you have gotten better at with practice and experience. What are you good at now that you used to have trouble doing?
2. Looking at the pictures and reading about the School Tours described in this log, which of the four stations do you think you would enjoy the most? Why?
3. Today we honor Mathias de Sousa and Margaret Brent as pioneers for freedom and equality. What did they do that was important? How were things different for African-Americans and women in colonial Maryland than it is now?
4. If you were the child of an indentured servant on Godiah Spray's plantation, what are some of the things you would be doing? Would you rather live then, on Godiah Spray's plantation, or now at your house?
5. How do we know what the original State House, the Brick Chapel, and Godiah Spray's plantation looked like so they could be reconstructed? Do you think digging into the past to find out how people lived might be something you are interested in?

Return to Part 1 of the Oct. 25, 1999 Log