In 1632 the Charter for the Province of Maryland was granted to Lord Baltimore, but it would take another 37 years (1669) before Dorchester County was established. During those pre-Dorchester County years there were a number of land grants issued in the area around what would become Cambridge. One of the first and biggest grants went to George Busby in 1639 for 500 acres. He named his grant Busby and it stretched NW along the Choptank River from the edge of the future Oakley Farm to include what is now called Hambrooks. For the next 25 years Busby would cast the biggest shadow in this area.
However, another plantation that would double the size of Busby was created in the second half of the 17th century by William Dorrington. The story begins in 1655 when an unmarried Quaker immigrant in his late 20’s named William Dorrington arrived in Patuxent County in Maryland from Bristol, England. It appears that Dorrington was only in the Colonies a short time before Captain Peter Johnson’s death presented him with a unique employment opportunity. Johnson was a well-known Militia leader during the Puritan Uprisings who owned extensive land holdings. Upon his death his widow, Anne, had to find someone to manage the land holdings and she hired Dorrington. Apparently, they had a good relationship because on May 27, 1656 they were also married. Anne had 4 children from her first marriage, so the day before their marriage she provided in a will that her male children would receive her inherited land holdings when they came of age. Then in 1657 a daughter, Sarah, was born to William and Anne. And in 1658 William started to build up his own Patuxent land holdings by filing Patents on 2 new parcels totaling 215 acres. He also became a merchant and justice of the peace.
Although William and Anne continued to live in Patuxent which had been renamed to Calvert County, they also made large investments in Dorchester. They sold a 400-acre property on the South side of the Patuxent River in 1660 and 4 years later bought a total of 1850 acres in Dorchester. This included the 500-acre Busby referenced above. And then by the end of the decade he inherited 600-acre Island Neck in Calvert from his deceased stepson, James Johnson.
William not surprisingly finally made his move to Dorchester around 1670. I think there were at least 3 reasons for him to leave Calvert County. First he had taken advantage of attractive land values in the new county of Dorchester to amass a plantation of over 1000 acres in the large area west of Cambridge as well as close to 1000 acres along the Blackwater River. And now it was important for him to give more attention to his holdings in Dorchester. Secondly, there was still a lot of bad feelings in Calvert between the Anglican/Royalist settlers who strongly supported Lord Baltimore and the Puritan/Cromwell supporters. Dorrington was a Quaker who supported Lord Baltimore. This would continue to be a source of conflict even after the English Monarchy was restored in 1660. Lastly and most importantly, we will see in my next post that there was a traumatic family event that involved Sarah in 1669.