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ELECTION AND DEATH: sold part of lot 11 in Snow
Hill Town, bought lots 17 and 18 in Snow Hill
Town, Worcester County. ADDITIONAL COM-
MENT: Robert Martin, Mary's first husband and
James's cousin, was a large landholder in Snow
Hill Town. James's stepson John inherited all his
father's lands there and from then on he and James
Martin exercised considerable influence over the
development of the town. WEALTH AT DEATH. DIED:
between December 12, 1747, and March 3, 1747/
48, in Worcester County. PERSONAL PROPERTY:
TEV, £1,117.5.7 current money (including 10
slaves, 1 servant man with two and one-half years
to serve, 24 books, and 1 horseboat); FB, estate
overpaid £20.13.5. LAND: 250 acres in Worcester
County, plus part of lot 11 and lots 17 and 18 in
Snow Hill Town, Worcester County.
MARTIN, LUTHER (1748-1826). BORN: on Feb-
ruary 20, 1748, in New Brunswick, Middlesex
County, New Jersey; his father's farm was located
above the Raritan River in the neighborhood of
Piscataway; the third of nine children. IMMI-
GRATED: in 1767 in order to take a position as
schoolteacher; was sixth generation in America.
RESIDED: in Queenstown, Queen Anne's County,
1767-1770; Onancock, Accomac County, Vir-
ginia, 1770-1771; Somerset County, 1771-1778;
Baltimore Town, 1778-1823; Aaron Burr's home
in New York City, 1823 until death. FAMILY BACK-
GROUND. FATHER: Benjamin Martin. MOTHER:
Hannah. BROTHER: Lenox, Esq., who resided in
Montgomery and Allegany counties, was a lawyer
and justice, and who married Elizabeth Cresap,
daughter of Capt. Michael Cresap (1742-1775).
MARRIED on December 25, 1783, Mary Cresap (?-
1796), daughter of Capt. Michael Cresap (1742-
1775), a prominent frontiersman, and wife Mary
Whitehead (?-by 1821), of Philadelphia. Mary
was the stepdaughter of John Jeremiah Jacob
(1757-1839). She was the granddaughter of Thomas
Cresap (ca. 1703-1788). Her brothers were James
Cresap; Michael Cresap, Jr. Her sisters were Eliz-
abeth, who married Lenox Martin, Esq.; Sarah,
who married Osborn Sprigg and resided in Hamp-
shire County, Virginia. CHILDREN. SONS: five chil-
dren, including one child, sex unknown, who died
in 1789. DAUGHTERS: Juliet; Maria, who married
Lawrence Keene, with the marriage ending in
separation and Maria dying in an insane asylum
shortly thereafter; Elinor (1785-1807), who mar-
ried on February 24, 1801, Richard Raynal Keene,
and who was said to have been ill treated by her
husband at the time of her death; and Elizabeth
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Sophia (1791-1792). PRIVATE CAREER. EDUCA-
TION: graduated from the College of New Jersey
in 1766, the head of his class of 35; studied law
and qualified as an attorney in Accomac County,
Virginia, in 1771. RELIGIOUS AFFILIATION: An-
glican; pewholder of St. Paul's Parish in Balti-
more City, 1800-1824. SOCIAL STATUS AND AC-
TIVITIES: Esq. , by 1784; a founder of the Cliosophic
Society, he was elected president at the annual
meeting in 1815, but declined with regret. OC-
CUPATIONAL PROFILE: schoolmaster in Queens-
town, Queen Anne's County, 1767-1770; school-
master of a grammar school, Onancock, Accomack
County, Virginia, 1770-1771; passed the bar in
Williamsburg, Virginia, ca. 1771, and settled in
Somerset County as a lawyer; admitted to the
following courts: Somerset County, from 1773,
qualified to practice before the Supreme Court
of the United States in 1791; officeholder. PUBLIC
CAREER. LEGISLATIVE SERVICE: 3rd Convention,
Somerset County, 1774. OTHER STATE OFFICES:
attorney general, 1778-1805, 1818-1822; Con-
stitution Ratification Convention, Harford County,
1788. LOCAL OFFICES: Committee of Observation,
Somerset County, elected 1774; commissioner to
oppose British claims, Somerset County, ap-
pointed 1774; chief justice, Court of Oyer and
Terminer, city and county of Baltimore, 1 813-
1816; district attorney, Baltimore City, 1818.
MILITARY SERVICE: member of the Baltimore Light
Dragoons (a company of 50 mounted gentlemen);
the Dragoons assisted Lafayette on the Virginia
Peninsula in 1781, but Martin was called back to
Maryland for official duties and apparently saw
no action. OUT OF STATE SERVICE: delegate, Con-
tinental Congress, 1784 (elected on December 17,
1784, to fill a vacancy, but did not attend); del-
egate, Federal Constitutional Convention, 1787.
STANDS ON PUBLIC/PRIVATE ISSUES: At the Con-
stitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787,
Martin's speeches were in vehement opposition
to the Constitution. His views on states' rights
were extreme; he believed the federal govern-
ment was not meant to govern individuals, but
existed only to preserve the state governments.
On his return to Maryland he reiterated his op-
position in arguments before the General Assem-
bly. The federal principles in the Constitution are
largely a result of concessions to his demands. He
took a strong public stand against what he felt
was the license allowed the African slave trade
in the Constitution. His name was consistently
linked in 1789 with Samuel Chase (1741-1811)
for promoting the abolition of slavery. His intense
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