Talbot County History

  
Talbot County, Maryland is one of the oldest centers of European settlement in the
New World. Talbot County's long history has always been linked to the water that surrounds it. With over 600 miles of tidal shoreline, the most of any county in the United States, it retains a maritime flavor to an unusual degree. Like the Native Americans who moved through this area many centuries ago, European settlers were drawn to Talbot County's wealth of natural resources and profusion of waterways for ease in travel. Its first English settlers, arriving by boat in the 1630s, established tobacco plantations along the shores of the Choptank, Wye, Tred Avon, and St. Michaels, (now Miles) rivers, on the long stretch of Chesapeake Bay coast known as Bayside, and on its countless creeks and coves. By 1662, these settlers had formally created Talbot County. Boundary adjustments were made in 1706 with the establishment of Queen Anne's County to the north and again in 1773 with the creation of Caroline County to the east, resulting in the Talbot County of today.

For a century Talbot life centered around tidewater and tobacco, which served as money and was traded for English manufactured goods with ships which anchored directly off the plantation wharves. Its first town, Oxford, laid out in 1683, served as a port of call for vessels from all over the world. Its early shipbuilding center, St. Michaels, created the swift, sharp-hulled sailing craft later known as the "Baltimore Clipper" famous in the War of 1812.

Established in 1661 and named for Lady Grace Talbot, sister of the second Lord Baltimore, the county soon became the geographical and spiritual heartland of the Eastern Shore. Here the great families, which dominated the Eastern Shore social, political, and economic history-the Tilghmans, Lloyds, Goldsboroughs, Hollydays and their kinfolk-had their principal seats of residence, many of which are still standing today. The county town, first known as Talbot Courthouse and later as Easton, was known as the "East Capital" of Maryland because the Eastern Shore's courts and governmental offices were located there. Easton had the Shore's finest bank, its first newspaper, its first Federal offices, its first brick hotel.

Many of Talbot's early settlers were Quakers, seeking a haven from persecution; their Third Haven Meeting House, completed in 1684, is still in active service as a house of worship. Others were Puritans driven from Cavalier Virginia in the Cromwell era, or Irish and Scottish rebels transported to the colony as indentured servants. The county's African-Americans, both slave and free (Talbot County had one of the highest percentages of free blacks in the country), produced in Frederick Douglass the nation's greatest 19th century advocate of black freedom and justice.

In the Revolution, Talbot Countians played key roles. Mathew Tilghman was Maryland's acknowledged leader in the events leading to independence, and his son-in-law, Tench Tilghman, was General Washington's aide, famous for his ride to carry the news of Cornwallis' surrender to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia. Young Perry Benson was a Revolutionary War hero and later as Brigadier General, he headed a citizen army which repulsed a British attack on St. Michaels in 1813.

The Civil War found the county deeply divided, with scores of fighting men on both sides. Unionville, a Talbot County town, was settled by Union soldiers who were freed slaves returning to their homes. In post Civil War times, the county gained national note as a site of summer homes for wealthy Northerners and a vacation resort for summer boarders from nearby cities.

From its very beginning as an English colony, agriculture and products of the Bay have always provided Talbot County's chief sources of income. Talbot County originally had an economy based on tobacco agriculture, but "King Tobacco" died with the Revolution, replaced by wheat to feed Washington's Continental Army. In more recent years tomatoes, fruit, and dairy products, and today corn, soybeans and poultry, have sustained the county's basic population of sturdy family farmers.

Equally as important have been the maritime industries of shipbuilding, seafood harvesting and processing, and today, water-related tourism such as sailing and sport fishing. Several vibrant small towns have supported both the farming and maritime industries by providing centers for trade, craftsmen, and moderate manufacturing concerns.

Completion of the Bay Bridge in 1951 brought increasing population pressure and ended the county's isolation. Also with the bridge, U.S. Route 50 and other major signs of "progress" have come the benefits of travel and tourism but also concerns over preservation of the past. The history of Talbot County is still being written and the landscape is ever-changing.

Some Facts About Talbot County

More Information on Frederick Douglass

 Did you know... all of this history and more can be found 
by visiting the Historical Society of Talbot County?