MSA SC5300

Recently I have contributed two articles on teachers in early Maryland: Michael Piper and Mary Ann March. The data on these teachers came from my files. Some twenty-six years ago, I was working on my master's thesis, "The Status of School Teachers in Early Maryland." I wanted to prove or refute the statement originally made by Rev. Jonathan Boucher, ca. 1770, and repeated by later historians, that most school teachers in colonial Maryland were either indentured servants or convicts. I collected 600 names of men and women who were referred to at least once as school teachers. I then set out to establish how many were servants and convicts, how many were native born Marylanders, and how many had other careers. After completing the thesis I continued to add names to the file. 

As a way to preserve and share this information the data has been moved to an online Special Collection [MSA SC5300]. The initial list contains over 450 names of individuals who have been identified as teachers, with the county and the dates they were known to have been teaching. Supplemental information may include the teacher's status on arrival in Maryland, family data, property owned, other activities, and death and probate records. As more biographical data is found, it will be
incorporated into the site off the Historical and Biographical Research page. I have many more names to add, and more information on some of the names already posted. I welcome any additional research notes. Please contact me at bobb@mdarchives.state.md.us. 

The State Chancery Court handled equity proceedings until it was abolished by the Constitution of 1851. Among the (Chancery Papers) in series S512 are found cases that mention the existence of schoolhouses, peripheral to the issues under consideration. 

In case 7937 the trustees of Primary School District Number 45 in Howard District filed a bill of complaint against William McLaughlin, Andrew McLaughlin, and James C. Barry on July 4, 1845. William McLaughlin, being indebted to the trustees, executed a mortgage on a lot in Ellicott Mills in 1842. The trustees wanted to foreclose because the debt was not paid within the specified two years. Andrew McLaughlin was named as a defendant because he held a second mortgage. Barry became a party as a result of being named trustee for the creditors of William McLaughlin who has declared himself insolvent. 

The court ordered a sale of the property which was divided into two lots. The ad for the sale listed improvements as "a large stone and frame dwelling, formerly known as the Primary School house." The trustees successfully bid on one of the lots, presumably the one with the schoolhouse. 

In case 11448 Thomas Tongue, Jr. filed a bill of complaint against Tolly Moore on June 11, 1823. Tongue was seeking a foreclosure on a mortgage executed by Moore in 1821 to secure payment of a debt of $203.60 and not yet paid by him. A copy of the mortgage was filed as an exhibit. The property being mortgaged included land that originally was part of  Portland Manor and on which sat "a house formerly occupied as a school house wherein the said Tolly Moore now resides...." Also being mortgaged were one yoke of steers, one heifer, one cow, three horses, and tobacco crop. 

As indemnification for assumption of these debts, Tongue requested a mortgage on Moore's land and personal property. Three different documents were executed because Tongue kept forgetting to record the instrument. In the meantime, Moore had delivered to Tongue two more crops of tobacco and all livestock except the horses and had received no accounting for any of them. In addition, Tongue had not paid any of the debts as promised. Moore believed that the mortgage he signed outlined the debts Tongue was supposed to pay out of the tobacco sales. The copy filed by Tongue did not contain these provisions. The cross bill of complaint described Tongue's actions as "artful and fraudulent misrepresentations" and "artful misrepresentations and fraudulent contrivances." 

The outcome of the case could not be determined because no other papers appear in the file and it was not recorded. 

Baker, Gordon C. Peter Baker of Springhill, The Descendants of Peter and Mary Baker of Springhill Township, Fayette County, Pennsylvania
Callum, Agnes Kane. Colored Volunteers of Maryland: Volunteers of Maryland, Civil War, 1863 - 1866 
Flowers, Susanne Files. Frederick County, Maryland Will Index, 1744 - 1946 
Green, Karen Mauer. Maryland Gazette 1717 - 1761: Genealogical and Historical Abstracts 
New, M. Christopher. Maryland Loyalists in the American Revolution 
Ogilvie, Philip. W. Along the Potomac 
Potter, D. Frank and Emma Jean Goade. Busicks of Baltimore 
Rahn, Claude J. and Janice Yingling. Yingling Genealogy 
Robillard, Walter G. Clark on Surveying and Boundaries 
Skinner, V. L., Jr. Abstracts of the Administration Accounts of the Prerogative Court of Maryland, Libers 52 Through 58, 1764 - 1768 
_____. Abstracts of the Administration Accounts of the Prerogative Court of Maryland, Libers 59 - 66, 1764 - 1768 

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Dissertations: 
Buckley, Geoffrey Littlefield. Tapping the Big Vein: Coal Mining and Environmental Alternation in Maryland's Appalachian Region, 1789 - 1906 
Cianci, Marlene Hockenberry. Public Health Nursing During the Great Depression: The Maryland Experience 
Durr, Kenneth D. "Why We Are Troubled": White Working-Class Politics in Baltimore, 1940 - 1980 
Hamilton, Andrea Dale. Vision for Girls: A Study of Gender, Education, and the Bryn Mawr School 
Lackney, Jeffrey A. Quality in School Environments: A Multiple Case Study of the Diagnosis, Design and Management of Environmental Quality in Five Elementary Schools in the Baltimore City Schools from an Action Research Perspective, vol. 1 
Locke, Diana. Oyster Fisheries Management of Maryland's Chesapeake Bay 
Northcott, Felicity Sackville. "Acting in a Manner Not Usual for Law-Abiding Individuals": Constructing Homelessness in Baltimore 
Pennell, Nancy Kay. First Theatres of Baltimore: An Investigation of Baltimore's Theatres During the Age of the Early American Republic 
Pogue, Dennis J. Culture Change Along the Tobacco Coast: 1670 - 1720