SAMUEL SPRIGG

soldier surrounded by his cavalry, nearly all of whom are farmers residing in the county he lives in, continually employing himself with their military improvement and the perfection of their organization, and especially with the development of their patriotic sentiments, which his conversation and example daily augments. Captain Sprigg is also a tender parent, and an active and enlightened agriculturist.” On 16 December 1824, Lafayette accepted the invitation of the Maryland General Assembly for a public reception in Annapolis. He left Washington that morning, accompanied by Dr. Joseph Kent, at that time a member of the United States Congress, and soon (1826-29) to become Governor of Maryland. (Governor Kent was, incidentally, the 1986 inductee into the Prince George’s County Hall of Fame.) On the way Lafayette visited the “family and beautiful farm of Captain Sprigg” at Northampton, and arrived at Annapolis in the afternoon. During all of Lafayette’s tour, it was clear from letters to newspaper editors that the general population felt that the Frenchman, who had spent much of his personal fortune in helping the United States to establish its independence, should be repaid in a way more substantial than balls, banquets and processions. Samuel Sprigg was vocal in his support of appropriate recompense to Lafayette; at the Maryland State House on 24 December, he gave the following toast: “May the national gratitude be now more manifest by public munificence.” Little more than a week later, Congress presented to Lafayette the gift of $200,000, as well as one full township in Florida of 24,000 acres. Lafayette returned to France in September 1825. Samuel Sprigg, after his term in the governor’s office, retired to Northampton to manage his large plantation; he continued to be active, especially regarding the development of transportation. In 1825, he was one of seven delegates from Prince George’s County at a Convention in Baltimore regarding internal improvements; the principal thrust of this Convention was support for the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal. He continued to serve as one of the directors of the Planters’ Bank in Upper Marlborough. In 1827, his daughter Sallie married, at Northampton, William Thomas Carroll, who served for more than forty years as a clerk to the United States Supreme Court. Sprigg’s son, Osborn, did not marry until 1840; in December of that year, Osborn Sprigg married Caroline, daughter of Robert W. Bowie, at the Bowie family plantation, Mattaponi. The young couple set up housekeeping at Northampton, and remained there even after the Governor’s death, until Violetta Sprigg sold the plantation in 1865. We do not know very much about Governor Sprigg’s activities during the 183Os and 184Os; he served on various committees involving industry and agriculture, and on the Vestry of St. Barnabas’ Church. His son and his growing family continued to live at Northampton. By 1850, Samuel Sprigg had sold off parts of his plantation to his neighbor, Dr. Benjamin Lee, but on the remaining 800 acres of Northampton he still had an annual yield of 62,000 pounds of tobacco (high for that period), and concentrated also on the production of dairy cattle, corn and wheat, but no orchards. Northampton at this time maintained a slave force of 78 individuals; it is interesting to note that two of the dwellings which housed the members of this slave force have been recently examined archaeologically and will in the very near future be presented to the public for study and the interpretation of slave life.

soldier surrounded by his cavalry, nearly all of whom are farmers residing in the county he lives in, continually employing himself with their military improvement and the perfection of their organization, and especially with the development of their patriotic sentiments, which his conversation and example daily augments. Captain Sprigg is also a tender parent, and an active and enlightened agriculturist.”

On 16 December 1824, Lafayette accepted the invitation of the Maryland General Assembly for a public reception in Annapolis. He left Washington that morning, accompanied by Dr. Joseph Kent, at that time a member of the United States Congress, and soon (1826-29) to become Governor of Maryland. (Governor Kent was, incidentally, the 1986 inductee into the Prince George’s County Hall of Fame.) On the way Lafayette visited the “family and beautiful farm of Captain Sprigg” at Northampton, and arrived at Annapolis in the afternoon. During all of Lafayette’s tour, it was clear from letters to newspaper editors that the general population felt that the Frenchman, who had spent much of his personal fortune in helping the United States to establish its independence, should be repaid in a way more substantial than balls, banquets and processions. Samuel Sprigg was vocal in his support of appropriate recompense to Lafayette; at the Maryland State House on 24 December, he gave the following toast: “May the national gratitude be now more manifest by public munificence.” Little more than a week later, Congress presented to Lafayette the gift of $200,000, as well as one full township in Florida of 24,000 acres. Lafayette returned to France in September 1825.

Samuel Sprigg, after his term in the governor’s office, retired to Northampton to manage his large plantation; he continued to be active, especially regarding the development of transportation. In 1825, he was one of seven delegates from Prince George’s County at a Convention in Baltimore regarding internal improvements; the principal thrust of this Convention was support for the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal. He continued to serve as one of the directors of the Planters’ Bank in Upper Marlborough. In 1827, his daughter Sallie married, at Northampton, William Thomas Carroll, who served for more than forty years as a clerk to the United States Supreme Court. Sprigg’s son, Osborn, did not marry until 1840; in December of that year, Osborn Sprigg married Caroline, daughter of Robert W. Bowie, at the Bowie family plantation, Mattaponi. The young couple set up housekeeping at Northampton, and remained there even after the Governor’s death, until Violetta Sprigg sold the plantation in 1865.

We do not know very much about Governor Sprigg’s activities during the 183Os and 184Os; he served on various committees involving industry and agriculture, and on the Vestry of St. Barnabas’ Church. His son and his growing family continued to live at Northampton. By 1850, Samuel Sprigg had sold off parts of his plantation to his neighbor, Dr. Benjamin Lee, but on the remaining 800 acres of Northampton he still had an annual yield of 62,000 pounds of tobacco (high for that period), and concentrated also on the production of dairy cattle, corn and wheat, but no orchards. Northampton at this time maintained a slave force of 78 individuals; it is interesting to note that two of the dwellings which housed the members of this slave force have been recently examined archaeologically and will in the very near future be presented to the public for study and the interpretation of slave life.