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adjoining Baltimore City and at least 444 acres
in Allegany County, 1808-1810; patented 34 acres
in Allegany County, 1813; leased out over 34 acres
adjoining Baltimore City and at least 3 lots within
Baltimore City, 1813-1815; acquired lots in
Washington, D.C., prior to death. WEALTH AT
DEATH. DIED: on May 3, 1816, at his home near
Baltimore City. Buried in Westminster Church-
yard, Baltimore City. PERSONAL PROPERTY: TEV,
at least $87,821.37, (including leases on 9 houses
and lots in Baltimore City valued at $26,000.00,
10 slaves, books, over 560 shares of stock in var-
ious banks, insurance companies, the Schuylkill
Bridge Company, etc., and shares of both 3 per-
cent and 6 percent U.S. stock). LAND: ca. 95 acres
near Baltimore City under development, lots in
Baltimore City, lots in Washington, D.C., at least
1,000 acres in Allegany County (500 acres of which
had belonged to McHenry's son Daniel and prob-
ably were only controlled by McHenry), and 400
acres of federal bounty land. ADDITIONAL COM-
MENT: rents received from 74 tenants on Balti-
more property totaled $18,238.66, 1818-1821.
McMECHEN, DAVID (ca. 1754-1810). BORN: ca.
1754. IMMIGRATED: by 1774. RESIDED: in Balti-
more County by 1775; Baltimore Town, Balti-
more County, by 1778; owned a house at Calvert
and Second streets, Baltimore Town, and also
maintained a summer residence at "Pot Spring
Farm," Baltimore County, after ca. 1787. FAMILY
BACKGROUND. BROTHER: William, who married in
1800 Eleanor B. Armistead. SISTER: (first name
unknown) Lee "of Cambdon." ADDITION AL COM-
MENT: his father may have been Capt. William
McMechen, who emigrated from Ireland to the
Ohio River Valley before the Revolution and who
died in 1797 at the age of 73. MARRIED on October
22, 1803, Margaret (ca. 1777-1813), daughter of
Daniel Carroll, Esq. (?-1826), of Mt. Dillon,
Baltimore County. Her brother was Richard, who
married in 1813 Judith M. Riddell. Her sister or
half sister was Frances, who married in 1825 A-
lexis Martin. Margaret Carroll McMechen mar-
ried second, in 1812, Samuel D. Harvey of Phil-
adelphia, Pennsylvania and Baltimore County.
CHILDREN. None surviving. PRIVATE CAREER. ED-
UCATION literate. SOCIAL STATUS AND ACTIVI-
TIES: Esq., by 1776; member of the Whig Club,
Baltimore Town, before 1777. OCCUPATIONAL
PROFILE lawyer, admitted to the following courts:
Frederick County, March 1774; Harford County,
August 1774; attorney for the commissioners of
Harford County, 1783. McMechen was also in-
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volved in the development of Baltimore Town,
and he owned a warehouse and wharf on the
harbor by the late 1790s. He purchased the rights
for a water course and dam on Peterson's Run,
Baltimore County, in 1804, and may have built
a mill. PUBLIC CAREER. LEGISLATIVE SERVICE:
Lower House, Baltimore Town, 1779-1780
(Grievances 3; Manufactories 1, 2), 1780-1781
(Manufactories 1, 2), 1781-1782 (Elections 1, 2),
1782-1783 (Elections 1, 2; Manufactories 1, 2),
1783, 1784 (Laws to Expire), 1785 (Grievances),
1786-1787 (Elections 1, 2; Laws to Expire 2),
1787-1788 (Grievances 1), 1790, 1791-1792, 1792,
1793, 1795, 1796 (resigned); Senate, Western
Shore, Term of 1796-1801 (elected on December
8, 1796, to fill vacancy): 1796, 1797, 1798, 1799,
1800. LOCAL OFFICE, commissioner, Baltimore
Town, 1795-1796. STANDS ON PUBLIC/PRIVATE IS-
SUES: Antifederalist; appointed as a commis-
sioner to express disapproval of Jay's Treaty to
President Washington, 1792. WEALTH DURING
LIFETIME. PERSONAL PROPERTY: In 1781 Mc-
Mechen was asked by the commissioners of con-
fiscated British property to inventory the law li-
brary of Robert Alexander (1740-1805). McMechen
offered to purchase 61 of Alexander's volumes,
noting that his own library had "burned the be-
ginning of the war." Alexander's books were sold
to McMechen in 1783 for £108.5.9. In 1782
McMechen purchased 36 volumes confiscated from
Lloyd Dulany for £34.17.6. LAND AT FIRST ELEC-
TION: 4 lots in Baltimore Town and 2 acres ad-
joining Baltimore Town, all held on long-term
leases; may have owned land in Delaware. SIG-
NIFICANT CHANGES IN LAND BETWEEN FIRST ELEC-
TION AND DEATH: took leases on more than 10
lots and 11 acres in or adjoining Baltimore Town
and Fell's Point, 1782-1783; with William Ham-
mond took leases on additional land adjoining
Baltimore Town in 1783, most of which they sub-
let in 1783-1784; purchased title to 9 of his leased
lots and land between Fell's Point and Baltimore
Town, 1786; continued to purchase lots and either
sold them outright or gave long-term leases on
them, 1792-1800; began purchasing Baltimore
County land in 1784 and had acquired almost
4,500 acres by 1792, including a 113-acre net loss
from two tracts resurveyed and patented; sold 100
acres in Baltimore County, 1790; purchased prob-
ably 600 acres in Washington County, 1791; pur-
chased 243 acres in Baltimore County, 1793-1800,
and patented ca. 12 acres in Baltimore County,
1797; sold 490 acres in Baltimore County, 1793-
1800; purchased more than 890 acres in Balti-
590
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