Rich Henry Hubbard of James was one of the seven investors in Samuel L. Byrn’s Oakley Farm. In 1875 he loaned Byrn $3300. The loan was secured with a mortgage against Byrn’s Oakley acreage (78 acres at that time). Then, as Byrn continued to sell off his acreage to other investors, he paid Hubbard a portion of the selling prices to get clear title for each sale. Upon Byrn’s death in 1878, Hubbard, as the Oakley mortgage holder, auctioned off what was then a 53-acre farm. We begin the 2024 Oakley Farm posts with what we know about Mr. Hubbard’s life.
In 1803 Henry Hubbard was the first child born to farmer James Henry Hubbard and his wife Amelia Marshall Hubbard. They lived in the Neck District of Dorchester County in a neighborhood called James. James was centered at the intersection of Hudson, Hills Point, and Cassons Neck roads. We have no current population total for James, but a 1940’s Cambridge map estimated it as about 300 people.
As a young man Henry started working on a bay vessel as a cook. Eventually he purchased a bay vessel of his own. We therefor assume that he was a waterman in his early years.
When he was 30 years old, Henry married Ann Applegarth. They lived on one acre on the east edge of Brooks Creek. Two years later he purchased the 75-acre Dail’s Addition farm. Census records from 1840 through the end of his life indicate that Henry continued to live on a farm in the James area and described himself as a farmer. He also acquired many more acres of land in the period leading up to the Civil War. By the eve of the Civil War, he reported on the 1860 census that his property was worth $5000, and that he had a personal estate worth $10,000. So, by 1860 at the age of 57 Henry Hubbard was a moderately successful farmer and waterman.
What a difference a decade makes! Henry Hubbard’s fortunes changed during the 1860’s, specifically during the Civil War. He was hired by the Federal government to transport supplies to Union troops engaged in a standoff with Confederate troops along the Rappahannock River in Virginia. Two facts stand out from this period of Henry’s life. First, he was involved in a risky business. In fact, per the Baltimore Sun, his boat came under fire and was once hit and nearly sunk. Secondly, the risk was high, but the rewards were higher. His transportation of supplies for the Union Army was so lucrative, he became a very wealthy man.
After 1870 we find Henry referred to as “Rich Henry Hubbard of James”. People in Dorchester County added the nickname of “Rich Henry”, but it appears that Henry added “of James” to his title. He is referred to as Henry Hubbard of James in all of his deeds and mortgage documents at the Dorchester County Court House after 1870. In addition to his mortgage on Oakley Farm he became one of the major providers of mortgages in Dorchester County between 1870 and his death in 1885.
As previously mentioned Hubbard lived in James his entire life. In 1815 the Spedden family donated land to build the Spedden M. E. Church at the center of James. This was the church that the Hubbards attended. So, it should not be surprising that when the church members decided to build a new church building on the same site in 1874, Henry Hubbard stepped up and made a big donation to the building fund. However, Henry “requested” that the church name be changed to the Hubbard’s Chapel M. E. Church. The church name was changed per Hubbard’s request. At a later date the church name was changed again. Today the Spedden United Methodist Church can still be found in the center of James.
On October 14, 1885, the Baltimore Sun reported that at the age of 82, “Rich” Henry Hubbard had died at his home on Ross Neck in Dorchester County. The newspapers estimated that he had accumulated property worth over $60,000. That would be equivalent to approximately $2,000,000 today!
For its first 150 years 100-acre Oakley Farm was owned by a succession of owners – including Foulkes, Watson, a few Lockermans, Haskins, Scott, 2 Ecclestons, Pattison, and a Jackson. However, in 1853 Samuel L. Byrn became the final Oakley Farm owner. Byrn purchased Oakley Farm in 1853 from a trustee in a court case involving Oakley owner Benjamin D. Jackson. He maintained the farm, but also during the 1850’s Byrn was a partner in the Byrn & Rea dry goods store on Poplar Street. In 1866 he considered selling some Oakley land to the Dorchester and Delaware RR, but the railroad instead opted for a site on Cambridge Creek for their new terminal.
Next in 1870 after he paid off his Oakley mortgage, he bought Wilton farm located on Hurst Creek. The location of Wilton’s main house is labeled with “Saml Byrns” on the 1877 Dorchester County map to the left. We are not sure if it was his intention at the time to move to Wilton or if it was just an investment.
For whatever reason, Byrn’s Oakley land sales began in 1874. Why did he begin to sell then? It is not clear why, but here are a few obvious possibilities. He paid $6000 for Wilton in 1870. That may have caused some cash flow problems. Or he may have been facing financial problems related to the Great Depression spawned by The Panic of 1873. Of course, there is also the possibility that he simply saw the potential for a western suburb for Cambridge and created a plan to subdivide and sell off Oakley and move to Wilton.
The first purchasers acquired their Oakley Property on 7/30/1874. On that date Byrn sold 2 adjacent lots of land on the Choptank River at the northern tip of Oakley. One 4-acre lot was sold to James and Sophia A. Moodie, newcomers to Cambridge. This lot was at the very corner of Oakley and up against E. N. Clark’s Glenburn Farm. They paid $370 and after adding a dwelling they sold it 2 years later for $700. Moodie’s 4-acre lot, like the other 5 blocks of land discussed below, would eventually be resold and subdivided multiple times before achieving their current shapes.
On the same day in 1874 Byrn sold an adjacent 6-acre lot east of Moodie’s lot to Alfred & Emily Buckner. Alfred Buckner was a waterman. He built a simple house about 40 feet from the shore. The Buckners sold their house and property after only a year. They paid $462 and sold it 1 year later for $700. According to the deeds Byrn also conveyed a 16-foot wide right of way to both properties along the property line with Glenburn Farm all the way from “the road to Sandy Hill”.
Next, we find a mortgage in September of 1875 for Oakley. We learn two important things from the mortgage. First, Byrn owed Henry Hubbard of James $3300 and secured that debt with a mortgage against all his remaining Oakley acreage. Secondly, we learn that Byrn had previously sold a 12-acre lot along the northwest edge of Oakley to prominent Dorchester attorney Sewell T. Milbourne. However, he had failed to file the deed. Milbourne’s lot abutted E. N. Clark’s Glenburn Farm and extended from the road to Sandy Hill to the Moodie property. It did not appear to include the 16 foot right of way Byrn granted to Moodie and Buckner. So, Milbourne became the third investor. Hubbard’s mortgage on Oakley in 1875 actually covered 78 acres and excluded the 22 acres of Oakley land already sold by Byrn.
The fourth Oakley investor, Ann and J. C. Henry, bought a quarter-acre lot in February of 1876 at the southernmost tip of Oakley Farm on what is now Glasgow Street. They then built a new house. We can see the outline of the house on the 1877 map of Cambridge. The house is now numbered 701 Glasgow Street. It is noteworthy because it is the oldest house still standing on Byrn’s Oakley Farm property. The lot it sits on is now only half as big because in 1892 the north half of the lot was sold and a new house facing Locust Street was built (now 800 Locust Street). I believe J. C. Henry was a druggist in Easton and the descendant of the Henrys who were longtime owners of Hambrooks Manor.
In February of 1877 Dr. George Washington Varnum from Missouri became Oakley’s fifth investor when he purchased a 13-acre parcel from Byrn. Actually Dr. Varnum, as executor, made the purchase on behalf of his late father’s estate. His parcel is bordered today by the northern curb of Locust Street, the east curb of Choptank Avenue, the east curb of West End Avenue, and the Choptank River. Varnum immediately began marketing and selling Oakley building lots. His instructions as executor per his father’s will was to make investments that would continue to increase the estate’s value until the grandchildren mentioned in the will reached 21 years old. While it is not clear how much time Varnum spent in Cambridge, a daughter was born in Cambridge in 1877 (with the middle name of Goldsborough) and a son was born in Cambridge 3 years later. Varnum sold some building lots before selling his remaining Oakley property to Cambridge Building and Loan in 1881. Varnum family background and the story of his Choptank Avenue tract will require additional posts. Note that the first name for Choptank Avenue was Varnum’s Alley.
Byrn’s final sale occurred on 11/20/1877. On that date he sold a 12 acre farm to investor number six, Andrew G. Taylor of Wilmington, DE. His tract included most of what is now Belvedere Avenue plus the property between Locust and Glasgow Streets that lined up with the width of the Belvedere block. At its northeast terminus it abutted the property purchased by Buckner referenced above. Taylor’s purchase was unique because he apparently farmed the land and did not intend to subdivide it. We do not know how much time he spent at his farm because he lived in Wilmington, DE and was a painter working for the Philadelphia, Wilmington & Baltimore Railroad. What we do know is that a year later in 1878 he purchased 6 additional acres adjacent to his farm which gave him an 18-acre farm stretching to the Choptank River. This additional 6 acres was the lot that had been previously sold by Byrn to Alfred Buckner in 1874. As previously noted, Buckner had built a house on his property, so Taylor’s farm now also had a house.
The final chapter to this part of the Oakley story began when Samuel Byrn died the following year in 1878. At that time, he owned less than 53 acres and all of that was mortgaged to Oakley’s seventh investor, Henry Hubbard. You may also be wondering how Byrn was able to sell the last 3 properties while Hubbard held a mortgage on them. In each case there is evidence that Byrn paid an agreed upon amount to Hubbard from each sale in order to clear the titles. So, when Byrn died Rich Henry Hubbard, as he was known, had a mortgage on a 53-acre Oakley Farm. Hubbard was referred to as Rich Henry Hubbard because he was a shrewd investor who owned close to $2,000,000 in property in today’s dollars. In September of 1878 Byrn’s Oakley property was sold by mortgagee Hubbard to farmer, real estate investor, and former boat yard owner William Hopkins for $3000. In the meantime, Mrs. Margaret Byrn and 4 of her children moved to Wilton Farm. The children were all adults except 15-year-old Samuel. However, Samuel would, in fact, return to Oakley (Street) to live almost 50 years later!
With one exception the map below shows the name of the property owner who purchased the tract of land from Samuel Byrn. However, the area labelled “Hubbard” was Byrn’s land that had been mortgaged to Hubbard. Upon Byrn’s death on 5/29/1878 a mortgage sale was triggered that resulted in Byrn’s 53 acres being conveyed to William Hopkins. One other clarification is that the Moodie and Buckner lots total 10 acres according to their original deeds (4 for Moodie & 6 for Buckner). The map rendering below is a bit skewed for these lots because the actual 1874 shoreline and marsh land are not taken into account. In a future post about the development of these 2 parcels an interesting 1916 court case will provide a more accurate depiction of these lots.
The year was 1678, the place was St. Mary’s County, Maryland and 27-year-old Dr. Jacob Lockerman of New York City was marrying for the first time. His bride Helena Keiting was a native of the County and a widow with 2 children. If this had been 200 years later, this wedding would have been covered by all the New York City newspapers’ Society pages. For Dr. Jacob Lockerman was the only son of the late Govert Lockerman, the wealthiest man in the New World.
Govert Loockermans (original spelling), the father of Jacob, was born in Turnhout in what is now Belgium in 1617. In 1633, when he was 16, he hired on as a cook’s mate on a boat coming to New Amsterdam. It was his dream to come to the New World, but there was no guarantee that that once arrived he could stay in New Amsterdam. Fortunately for him he made a good impression on an official of the Dutch West India Company on the voyage over, so he was able to secure a position with the WIC in return for servitude to them for 5 years. At the end of his servitude in 1638 he made a fateful decision to start his own trading company. That decision started Govert down the road to becoming a successful business man. Not only was he an aggressive dealmaker who was as skilled working with the Indians as with other English and Dutch companies and traders, he was also a savvy investor. He built up his land holdings, buying up properties in the New Amsterdam area as well as up and down the Atlantic Coast. He also married well twice. His first wife was Ariaente Jans, a member of the Verbrugge family. These family connections sealed a business deal as he became an agent for her family’s Dutch trading company, Gillis Verbrugge & Company. In 1649 the widowed Govert acquired more property as a result of his second marriage to Marritje Janse. By 1651 Govert was only 34, but was one of the most successful merchants, traders, and property developers in Manhattan. He had taken Manhattan by storm and in less than 15 years was one of New Amsterdam’s leading citizens. In that year also his only son, Jacob, would be born. And as the years passed by, he was able to proudly watch Jacob establish a successful medical practice in what was now the city of New York. So, the next 20 years (1651-1671) were very good for the Lockermans in New Amsterdam/New York. As far as we know even the arrival of the British in 1665 to seize the city and rename the city to New York was just a minor blip. Govert’s land holdings grew as did his fortune. And even his long running feud with New Amsterdam’s director-general Peter Stuyvesant came to an end a year before the British arrived when his daughter, Maria, married Stuyvesant’s nephew. However, when Govert died in 1671 at the age of 54 without a will, things started to get much more difficult for Jacob Lockerman.
Govert Loockermans New York Residence
First although Jacob had standing as the only son of Govert to inherit his entire fortune (valued today at over $20,000,000), his 3 sisters and their husbands began a legal and emotional battle to claim a share. And because of their claims it took 21 years before the fortune was distributed equally among the children. Secondly, Jacob’s half-sister Elsie was married to Jacob Leisler, who was a very successful merchant and executor of Govert’s estate. Unfortunately, he was also a very politically active local Militia leader in New York. By the late 1670’s Jacob was so uncomfortable with the family infighting and Leisler’s involvement in the unstable local political scene that he decided to leave New York. So, in 1677 after his mother died, he moved south to St. Mary’s County to his late father’s estates and restarted his life.
After Jacob’s marriage, he stayed in St. Mary’s for just a few years. Then he moved across the Bay to Talbot County before eventually settling in Dorchester County by 1690. Incidentally it was also about this time that his worst fears were realized regarding his brother-in-law. His sister Elsie’s husband, Jacob Leisler, seized the southern portion of New York colony in 1689 in what was called Leisler’s Rebellion. This led to Leisler being arrested and executed by the British in 1691 when they reestablished their authority in the colony. In another post I will describe the impact of the Lockermans in Dorchester County including the creation of Lockermans Regulation.
Historic footnote: The house you see above was Govert Lockerman’s large longtime New York City residence that was sold after his wife’s death in 1677. It stood approximately on Pearl at the intersection of Hanover Street. It came into the possession of William Cox in 1688. One year later he died leaving his estate to his widow, Sarah. In 1690, she married John Oort. Oort died within a year. And two days after his death she married the notorious Captain William Kidd. The Kidd marriage lasted about 10 years, but Captain Kidd spent much of that time “working” on the water while she was raising their two daughters in New York. Unfortunately for Sarah and William, after working as a privateer for England for several years, he fell out of favor with the English government. And after having some conflicts with the Royal Navy and pirates, he was branded a wanted pirate himself by the British government. Without any support from former allies in the English government, he was arrested in New York. He was then sent to England for trial where he was convicted and executed in 1701.
For Lord Baltimore and his allies 1657 was a good year. He made peace with Oliver Cromwell and the Puritans, so he could regain control of his Maryland colony. Return to normalcy also brought Richard Collett back to his position as High Sheriff of Patuxent after being banished by the Puritans 15 months earlier. The return of political stability also opened Maryland’s borders to settlers from other colonies. So, Thomas Manning and family were preparing to leave the Virginia colony where they had settled five years earlier and move to Patuxent. Most relevant to our story it was the year Sarah Dorrington was born in Patuxent (Calvert County) to William and Anne Dorrington.
All went well for the next 11 years. William Dorrington acquired many properties and much influence in both Calvert and Dorchester Counties. Richard Collett was reappointed as High Sheriff and as a customs commissioner. Thomas Manning was enjoying even more success in Lord Baltimore’s colony. During this period Manning had various important positions including sheriff, customs commissioner, Maryland Attorney General, Maryland Delegate and eventually Speaker of the Maryland lower house. He also owned a 3000-acre plantation on the cliffs overlooking Chesapeake Bay. As far as we know all 3 of these prominent men were colleagues and acquaintances who did not show any enmity towards each other.
However, one day in early 1668 for some unknown reason Thomas Manning entered Richard Collett’s office and proceeded to severely beat the 66-year-old sheriff. The wounds sustained in this attack apparently were severe enough to contribute to Collett’s death four months later. Though Manning was arrested, he was never convicted of the assault. Then, about a year later in August of 1669 William Dorrington, a Quaker, was forced to go to the Maryland Chancery Court to request protection for his daughter from Thomas Manning. He informed the court that Manning had beaten and molested his twelve-year-old daughter, Sarah. There are no records of prosecution of Manning, but instead he was allowed to return to his plantation where he died a year later. It is unknown why Manning was spared prosecutions. Was it because of his prominence in the Colony or the state of his health? One history suggests that Sarah later succumbed to her wounds and died, but fortunately Sarah did survive.
In 1670, shortly after his daughter’s attack, Dorrington moved with his family to his large plantation west of the future town of Cambridge. This plantation at a minimum included the lands stretching from Jenkins Creek to what would later become the Hambrooks and Glasgow plantations. After William’s wife, Anne, died in the 1670’s, he married Elizabeth Winsloe in 1680. He had a son (William) and daughter (Ann) with Elizabeth, but Elizabeth died soon after in 1687. In the meantime, daughter Sarah married local farmer Thomas Fisher sometime during the 1670’s, but he died by 1677.
In 1679 she married again. This time to a doctor named Thomas Foulkes who was originally from Accomack on the Virginia Eastern Shore. He owned a number of properties in Dorchester, but the important one was the one he patented in 1683, Foulkes Content. Foulkes Content was a 100-acre farm that would be renamed a number of times, but it eventually became Oakley Farm after being purchased by Samuel Byrn 170 years later. It is not clear if Foulkes Content was ever originally part of William Dorrington’s holdings, but the property sat between the plantations of William Dorrington and Daniel Jones.
A year later, in 1684, Foulkes sold Foulkes Content to local planter William Watson for 4000 pounds of tobacco. This was also the year that John Kirk was given authority to purchase 100 acres of land from the Daniel Jones plantation and build the new town of Cambridge. Thomas and Sarah eventually moved south from Dorchester and settled in Somerset County where they both died in the 1720’s.
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.
