maryland historical trust€¦ · woodborough boundary stone does not mark a boundary of the...

Maryland Historical Trust Inventory No. PG: 87A-058

Maryland Inventory of Historic Properties Form 1. Name of Property (indicate preferred name)

historic Woodborough Boundary Stone

other

2. Location

street and number 19511 Croom Road

city, town Brandywine

not for publication

county Prince George's

vicinity

3. Owner of Property (give names and mailing addresses of all owners) name Ethel Mae Young street and number 19501 Croom Road telephone city, town Brandywine state MD zip code 20613-8262

4. Location of Legal Description courthouse, registry of deeds, etc. Prince George's County Courthouse liber 2332 folio 1 city, town Upper Marlboro tax map 178 tax parcel 81 tax ID number 08 0846071

5. Primary Location of Additional Data

Contributing Resource in National Register District

Contributing Resource in Local Historic District

Determined Eligible for the National Register/Maryland Register

Determined Ineligible for the National Register/Maryland Register

Recorded by HABS/HAER

Historic Structure Report or Research Report at MHT

X Other:

6. Classification Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission, Prince George's County Planning Department

Category Ownership Current Function Resource Count district public agriculture

landscape Contributing Noncontributing building(s) X private commerce/trade recreation/culture

buildings

structure both defense religion

sites site domestic social

structures

X object education transportation 1

objects funerary work in progress 1 0

Total

X government

unknown health care

vacant/not in use Number of Contributing Resources

industry

other: previously listed in the Inventory 0

7. Description Inventory No. PG: 87A-058 Condition

excellent

deteriorated good

ruins X fair

altered

Prepare both a one paragraph summary and a comprehensive description of the resource and its various elements as it exists today. The Woodborough Boundary Stone is located approximately seventy-five feet north of Croom Road (MD 382) and is associated with the property at 19511 Croom Road in Brandywine, Maryland. This property includes a dwelling, which was not documented as part of this survey because is has no direct association with the boundary stone. The stone is located approximately ten feet south of a small creek bed set amongst mature trees and underbrush. The stone is not seen easily from Croom Road.

BOUNDARY STONE

This granite boundary stone is approximately four feet tall and three feet wide. The irregular shape of the uncut stone suggests that it was collected locally and selected for its distinctive appearance. Inscriptions on the southwest face of the stone are partially indecipherable. As far as can be determined, the stone is inscribed “1759” and “B W”. Moss, lichen, and other biological agents are growing on the stone, causing deterioration.

INTEGRITY

The Woodborough Boundary Stone presents a moderate integrity of design, materials, and workmanship. The carved script on the stone is presumably more than two hundred years old and is only partially legible. Moss, lichen, and other biological growth is prevalent. Deterioration of the stone and the inscriptions is normal and expected. No sections of the stone appear to be missing and no cracks are visible. The Woodborough Boundary Stone has diminished integrity of setting, feeling, and association as a boundary stone associated with the Woodborough tract, which is not longer intact. The stone maintains its integrity of location. Overall, the Woodborough Boundary Stone presents a diminished level of integrity.

8. Significance Inventory No. PG: 87A-058

Period Areas of Significance Check and justify below 1600-1699 agriculture economics health/medicine X 1700-1799

performing arts archeology education industry

philosophy

1800-1899 architecture engineering invention

politics/government 1900-1999 art entertainment/ landscape architecture

religion 2000- commerce recreation law

science communications ethnic heritage literature

social history

community planning exploration/ maritime history

transportation conservation settlement military X other: Local History

Specific dates 1759 Architect/Builder unknown Construction dates 1759 Evaluation for: National Register Maryland Register

not evaluated

Prepare a one-paragraph summary statement of significance addressing applicable criteria, followed by a narrative discussion of the history of the resource and its context. (For compliance projects, complete evaluation on a DOE Form – see manual.)

STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE

The Woodborough Boundary Stone is located on the north side of Croom Road (MD 382), just west of the intersection of Croom Road and Aquasco Road (MD 381). Woodborough was a large land tract patented in 1679 to Thomas Greenfield. This patent was granted 17 years before to the establishment of Prince George’s County (created from Calvert and Charles Counties) in 1696. Greenfield was the first sheriff of Prince George’s County, appointed by Governor Francis Nicholson on April 22, 1696.1

The stone is a rare extant example of a boundary marker, delineating one of the earliest and largest tracts of land patented in Prince George’s County.

HISTORIC CONTEXT

The Woodborough Boundary Stone is located northwest of Aquasco, Maryland. Located in southern Prince George’s County, Aquasco developed as a small crossroads village. The center of Aquasco is marked by the intersection of Aquasco Road (MD 381), St. Mary’s Church Road, and Dr. Bowen Road. Aquasco Road led southeast from Baden toward Benedict in Charles County, and was completed between 1740 and 1762.2 This road ran directly through Aquasco. This rural area was historically a tobacco farming region and today is primarily an area characterized by agricultural fields. In the eighteenth century, the area around Aquasco was divided into large tobacco plantations.

3

The surveying of plantations was an important proprietary function during the colonial era. The limits of each plantation were defined by metes and bounds; no grid pattern of townships and sections was ever superimposed on the land of Prince George’s County.4 Common examples of boundary markers are stones, hickory stumps, and cherry trees; thus the vast majority of these markers are no longer extant or recognizable as such.

5

The Woodborough Boundary Stone is one such legal boundary marker denoting the periphery of Woodborough, a 301.89-acre tract in southern Prince George’s County.6 Laid out in 1679, Woodborough was

Maryland Historical Trust Maryland Inventory of Inventory No. PG: 87A-058 Historic Properties Form Woodborough Boundary Stone Continuation Sheet Number 8 Page 1 a tract of land owned by Thomas Greenfield in what was then Calvert County. In 1696, Woodborough became part of Prince George’s County.7

In May of 1698, Thomas Greenfield (Greenwell) sold 200,000 acres of land to George Naylor, which was to be known as “Naylors Purchase.” Naylor also purchased a tract of land known as “Woodborough” from Greenfield.8 Other properties owned by Naylor in the vicinity were Stainland, Thatham (Tatham), and Naylor’s Range. Naylor purchased land adjacent to Woodborough, increasing its original dimensions. Local historian Franklin Robinson notes that the original patent was south of this stone, but with the addition of surrounding properties, the Naylor family owned land well past where the stone was located. At some point, instead of calling the tracts by their separate names, they were amalgamated as Woodborough.9

As such, the Woodborough Boundary Stone does not mark a boundary of the Woodborough tract at its largest during the ownership of George Naylor.

George Naylor, born 1654 in Yorkshire, England, immigrated to the British Colonies of North America in 1668 with the aid of Henry Cole of Calvert County, Maryland. Naylor and his wife, Elizabeth, had two sons, George Jr. (1686) and James (1688), and a daughter Elizabeth (1690). Following George Naylor’s death in 1734, his estate was divided amongst his wife and heirs. His wife was bequeathed “Stainland” and part of “Woodborough.” Elizabeth Adams [nee Naylor], received 164 acres of land known as “Naylor’s Ridge.” The owner of the tract where the Woodborough Boundary Stone is located following the death of Naylor and its subsequent ownership by the Watson family is unclear; the conveyance is not certain during this period. In 1861, the Martenet Atlas of Prince George’s County documents William T. Watson and F. Watson living in proximity to the Woodborough Boundary Stone.10 The 1878 Hopkins Atlas documents Benjamin Watson living northwest of the intersection of Croom Road and Aquasco Road. Further, four dwellings owned by members of the Watson family were located along the west side of Aquasco Road just north of the Woodborough Boundary Stone.11 William F. Watson, born about 1845, was a prominent farmer and planter in Prince George’s County. Watson was married to Sarah Watson, born about 1847. At the time of the 1880 U.S. Federal Census, the farming family had five small children and an African-American servant.12 Their land, upon which the Woodborough Boundary Stone is located, was known as “Watson’s Forest.” The boundary stone is inscribed either “B. W.” (or possibly “P. W.”) with a year of “1759.” The meaning of “B. W.” is unknown, although local historian Franklin Robinson suggests that it could mark the line P of Woodborough in reference to a survey.13 If the inscription is “B W” then it could be the initials of Benjamin Watson, a landowner in the area during the nineteenth century.

14

The significance of 1759 is unknown. There is a chance that this particular inscription is being misread as well. The “1” is slanted sharply as to almost form a triangle with the “7”. The stone’s placement may be the result of a dispute over a property line or a replacement for a fallen boundary tree.

Maryland Historical Trust Maryland Inventory of Inventory No. PG: 87A-058 Historic Properties Form Woodborough Boundary Stone Continuation Sheet Number 8 Page 2 Another plausible explanation may be that the markings on the stone were inscribed there by a passersby of the irregularly-shaped stone in much the same way people mark trees with their initials. The initials and year could be unrelated, leaving open the possibility that the Woodborough Boundary Stone is, in fact, not a boundary stone at all. Roy Young purchased 3.5 acres of “Watson’s Forest” at public auction in 1939.15

This acreage supplemented 25 acres of “Watson’s Forest” he had purchased in 1920. The 3.5-acre parcel came to public auction again in 1937 following an equity case involving David T. Young. The property was sold to pay for taxes due and in arrears for the year 1936.

In 1959, Roy and Nellie Young sold part of Parcel A and all of Parcel B to their son Robert M. Young and his wife, Ethel Mae Young.16

Roy and Nellie Young are the current owners of 19511 Croom Road, but reside at 19501 Croom Road.

The Woodborough Boundary Stone is mentioned as “old boundary stone” in Deed 2331, Folio 595, which is dated May 26, 1959. 1 Lt. Lou Oertly, “The Fascinating History of the Office of Sheriff, 1696-1996,” Prince George’s County History, http://www.pghistory.org/PG/PG300/sherifhist.html (accessed August 20, 2009). 2 Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission Planning Department, Historic Contexts in Prince George’s County (1991), 25. 3 Mark Andrich, et al., “Aquasco Historic District (PG: 87B-36),” Maryland Historical Trust State Historic Sites Inventory Form (1984), 7:1. 4 During the Colonial era of Prince George’s County. 5 Alan Virta, Prince George’s County: A Pictorial History (Virginia Beach: The Donning Company/Publishers, 1991), 46. 6 Edna Wilson and Nova Keefer to Robert M. Young and Ethel M. Young, Prince George's County Land Records, 4898:748. 7 Prince George’s County, Maryland, “Land Owners at the Time PGC Was Formed,” Rootsweb, http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~mdpgeorg/text/1696-land-recs.txt (accessed June 26, 2009). 8 Email from Franklin Robinson, November 3, 2009. 9 Email from Franklin Robinson, November 3, 2009. 10 Simon J. Martenet, “Atlas of Prince George’s County, Maryland, 1861,” Adapted from Martenet’s Map of Prince George’s County, Maryland (Baltimore: Simon J. Martenet C.E., 1861). 11 G.M. Hopkins, Atlas of Fifteen Miles Around Washington, Including the County of Prince George Maryland (Philadelphia: G.M. Hopkins, C.E., 1878). 12 1880 U.S. Federal Census, Brandywine, Prince George’s, Maryland, Series T9, Roll 514, Family History Film 1254514, Page 234.3000, Enumeration District 131, Image 0089, William F. Watson. 13 Email from Franklin Robinson, November 3, 2009. 14 Simon J. Martenet, “Atlas of Prince George’s County, Maryland, 1861,” Adapted from Martenet’s Map of Prince George’s County, Maryland (Baltimore: Simon J. Martenet C.E., 1861). 15 County Commissioners of Prince George’s County to Roy Young, Prince George's County Land Records, 533:419. 16 Roy Young and Nellie B. Young to Robert M. Young and Ethel Mae Young, Prince George's County Land Records, 2332:1.

Maryland Historical Trust Maryland Inventory of Inventory No. PG: 87A-058 Historic Properties Form Woodborough Boundary Stone Continuation Sheet Number 8 Page 3

9. Major Bibliographical References Inventory No. PG: 87A-058 Hopkins, G.M. Prince George’s County, from Atlas of Fifteen Miles Around Washington. Philadelphia: G.M. Hopkins, C.E., 1878. Martenet, Simon J. Pearl, Susan G. Correspondence with author. (December 22, 2009).

Martenet's Map of Prince George’s County, Maryland. Baltimore: Simon J. Martenet, 1861.

Prince George’s County Land Records. Robinson, Franklin. Correspondence with author. (November 3, 2009).

10. Geographical Data Acreage of surveyed property Acreage of historical setting

6

Quadrangle name 301.89 Brandywine Quadrangle scale:

1:24,000

Verbal boundary description and justification The Woodborough Boundary Stone is located in Brandywine, Maryland, on a 6-acre parcel. The southern edge of the property is bounded by Croom Road. The eastern, western, and northern boundaries extend through mature forest and open fields with no physical landmark. The western boundary is marked by the Woodborough Boundary Stone. This property is associated with Parcel 81 as noted on Tax Map 178.

11. Form Prepared by name/title Paul Weishar and Maria Dayton / Architectural Historians

organization EHT Traceries, Inc., for M-NCPPC date January 2010

street & number 1121 Fifth Street, NW telephone (202) 393-1199

city or town Washington state DC

The Maryland Inventory of Historic Properties was officially created by an Act of the Maryland Legislature to be found in the Annotated Code of Maryland, Article 41, Section 181 KA, 1974 supplement. The survey and inventory are being prepared for information and record purposes only and do not constitute any infringement of individual property rights.

return to: Maryland Historical Trust Maryland Department of Planning 100 Community Place Crownsville, MD 21032-2023 410-514-7600

Maryland Historical Trust Maryland Inventory of Inventory No. PG: 87A-058 Historic Properties Form Woodborough Boundary Stone Continuation Sheet Number 9 Page

1

CHAIN OF TITLE

Parcel A PRINCE GEORGE’S COUNTY LAND RECORDS

Deed Henry Beavin to George Naylor. (Part of a tract of land called “Watson’s Forest”. Deed reads: AB 2:223 …Beginning at a stone standing in a small branch being the second bound of a tract of land called May 20, 1822 “Brightwells”) The Woodborough Boundary Stone is located near a small branch (stream). Deeds Not Located Deed Sarah E. Watson to Charles Cleveland Watson and Earl Watson. 40:172 December 11, 1906 Equity Case Richard L. Watson and Bessie M. Watson v. Charles Cleveland Watson, et al. 4421 (As a result, S. Marvin Peach appointed Trustee with authority to sell the real September 3, 1915 estate in the proceedings. 65 acres sold to James Everett Young and Roy Young on

April 4, 1916 for $600, saving one acre reserved for use as the Watson family burial ground) Deed S. Marvin Peach, Trustee, to James Everett Young and Roy Young, as Tenants in 120:87 Common. September 26, 1916 Deed James Everett Young and Oda R. Young to Roy Young. (25 acres) 153:161 May 1, 1920 Parcel B Deed William F. Watson and Sarah E. Watson to Anna F. Young. (3.5 acres known as HB 11:121 “Watson’s Forest”) November 6, 1875 Equity Case Tax sale held for taxes due and in arrears for the year 1936. (3.5 acres) 10182 March 1, 1937 Deed Sold at public auction for David T. Young by the County Commissioners of Prince 533:419 George’s County to Roy Young. (3.5 acres) September 27, 1939 Part of Parcel A and All of Parcel B Deed Roy Young and Nellie B. Young to Robert M. Young and Ethel Mae Young. (6 acres. Deed reads: WWW 2332:1 ...then (4) southeasterly in line with old landmark stone to a stone on the north bank of Maryland May 26, 1959 Route 382…)


2

19605 Croom Road Deed Roy Young and Nellie B. Young to Robert M. Young and Ethel Mae Young. (Four Parcels totaling 2331:595 approximately 92.5 acres) May 26, 1959 Deed Robert M. Young and Ethel Mae Young to Doyle F. Funkhouser and Ruby J. Funkhouser. (12.2139 NLP 7320:618 acres, being part of the same land and premises acquired in Liber 2331, Folio 595) May 24, 1989 Deed Doyle F. Funkhouser and Ruby J. Funkhouser to Ramon Borras and Dorothy Mae Borras. NLP 7642:906 May 7, 1990


3

Photo: Woodborough Boundary Stone, view of the stone looking north. (May 2009)


4

Photo: Woodborough Boundary Stone, view of the stone looking northwest. (May 2009)


5

Photo: Woodborough Boundary Stone, detail of southern face of stone with inscription “1759”. (May 2009)


6

Photo: Woodborough Boundary Stone, detail of southern face of stone with inscription “B W”. (May 2009)


7

Image: 1861 Martenet Map.


8

Image: 1878 Hopkins Atlas.


9

Image: Deed from 1959. Believed reference to location of the Woodborough Boundary Stone as well as the identification of multiple other stone markers in the area (not surveyed).


10

Photo: Brookefield Boundary Marker (PG: 87A-001), looking northwest. This boundary stone is located on the west side of Croom Road at 15909 Croom Road, approximately four miles from the Woodborough Boundary Stone. Dating from c. 1717, this boundary stone, unlike the Woodborough Boundary Stone, is dressed and has legible inscriptions by a skilled mason.

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