Caleb Jones (b. circa ? - d. circa 1828)
MSA SC 5496-050750
War of 1812 Claimant, St. Mary's County, Maryland
Biography:
Caleb Jones lived on his farm in St. Jeromes near St. Inigoes Creek in St. Mary's County, not far from the farm of Peter U. Thomson.1 He was the brother of Mordecai Jones and Mary Jones, the wife of Robert Dunkinson. On January 6, 1806, Caleb married Eliza Bennett,2 and the 1810 census showed him as owning nine slaves.3
On the night of August 22, 1813, eight of Caleb Jones' slaves escaped to British forces that had landed at St. Jerome's Creek just north of Point Lookout.4 Five slaves, namely Job, Peter, Luce, Suckey, and James, were "taken out of the kitchen & carried to the boat." The British later returned for Suckey's eight-year-old son, Abraham, this time pounding on Jones' door and threatening to burn upon the door if he refused to admit them. They then plundered the house and carried away Abraham. One of Jones' slaves, a man whose name was not mentioned, had guided the British back to the house to rescue Abraham.5 When the British sent Jones to the kitchen for a light, "he found that all his remaining negroes, five in number had been taken out of the kitchen & carried to the boat while he was asleep." Another two slaves, Jack and Jimmy, had already escaped to the British before the raid. 6
According to historian Frank Cassel, the escape of Caleb Jones' slaves resulted in "a well-publicized example of slave 'vengeance.'"7 On August 31, 1813, the National Intelligencer reported that "a negro fellow..., the property of Caleb Jones, ... who was their conductor, was armed with a brace of pistols and a sword and treated his master very insolently."8 Jones did not mention this part of the encounter in his claim, so perhaps Jones had found the event too embarrassing, a role reversal in which the ex-slave demonstrated power over his former master.
On the day following the slaves' escape, a Marylander named Thomas Swann sent a report from Point Lookout to Fort Washington on British movements. Swann stated that "Four negroes deserted from this vicinity on Friday night last two men and a woman from Caleb Jones and a man from Sam1 Bean— It is presumed they have gone on board the two Enemy's vessels laying off Tangier Barr."9 Point Lookout and Smith Point were both near the mouth of Potomac River, in southern St. Mary's County, while Tangier Island stood across the Chesapeake Bay.10 Swann later changed his statement to explain that all, not just four, of Jones' slaves had left with the British.11 Shortly afterwards, Jones accompanied Thomas Smith and James Forrest in boarding a British vessel near Point Lookout in an unsuccessful attempt to bring back the escaped slaves.12
In 1815, Jones submitted a claim for compensation under the Treaty of Ghent. Jones owned eleven slaves in 1820.13 He had died by 1828,14 resulting in Thomas J. Bennett taking over the claim as his administrator.15 Bennett wrote to Jones' agent, Colonel Henry Ashton, that "the representatives
of Caleb Jones are poor orphans, without any means of support, and it would
be highly pleasing to me if the claim could be allowed." Bennett added
that he was having difficulty in learning the last names of the escaped
slaves.16
1. U.S. Census Bureau (Census
Record, MD) for Caleb Jones, 1810, St. Mary's County, Page 24, Line 7,
[MSA SM61-56, M 2061-3].
“Private Correspondence,”
National Intelligencer 31 August 1813: 1.
Helen West
Ridgely, The Old Brick Churches of Maryland (New York, NY: Anson
D.F. Randolph and Company, 1894) 40.
"Cross Manor
(Manor of Cornwaley's Cross)," SM-3, Maryland Inventory of Historic Properties.
Maryland Historical Trust. www.mdihp.net.
2. ST. MARY'S COUNTY COURT, (Marriage Licenses), [CR 7450-1, MSA CM905-1]. Caleb Jones and Eliza Bennett, January 6, 1806.
3. U.S. Census Bureau (Census Record, MD) for Caleb Jones, 1810, St. Mary's County, Page 24, Line 7, [MSA SM61-56, M 2061-3].
4. Claim of Caleb Jones,
St. Mary's County, Case No. 638, Case Files, Ca. 1814-28, entry 190, Record
Group 76, National Archives, College Park.
4.
Stuart Lee Butler, ed., "Thomas Swann and the British in St. Mary's County,"
Maryland
Historical Magazine, 73.1 (March 1978): 76.
5. Claim of Caleb Jones.
5.
“Private Correspondence,”
National Intelligencer 31 August 1813:
1.
6. Claim of Caleb Jones.
7. Frank A. Cassel, “Slaves of the Chesapeake Bay Area and the War of 1812,” Journal of Negro History 57 (April 1972): 149.
8. “Private Correspondence."
9. Butler 75.
10. St. Mary's County District 1, Simon J. Martenet, Map of St. Mary's County, 1865, Huntingfield Collection MSA SC 1399-1-75 .
11. Butler 76.
12. Claim of Thomas Smith, St. Mary's County, Case No. 815, Case Files. Ca. 1814-28, entry 190, Record Group 76, National Archives, College Park.
13. U.S. Census Record (Census Record, MD) for Caleb Jones, 1820, St. Mary's County, Page 1, Line 4 [MSA SM61-76, M 2067-2].
14. Claim of Caleb Jones.
15. Ibid.
15.
U.S. Census Bureau (Census Record, MD) for Thomas J. Bennett, 1820, St.
Mary's County, District 1, Page 4, 8th line from bottom [MSA SM61-76, M
2067-2].
16. Claim of Caleb Jones.
Return to Caleb Jones' Introductory Page
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