Henry Harding (b. circa 1782 - d. circa 1867)
MSA SC 5496-036386
Property Owner, Rockville, Montgomery County, Maryland
Biography:
A lifelong resident of Rockville, Henry Harding was born around 1782 to Edward Harding and his wife Ann Butler.1 One of five children, Henry's siblings included Edward Jr., Josiah, Mariah, and Caroline Frances.2 On June 2, 1812, he wed Catherine Ann Robb (b. circa 1792), the daughter of Adam Robb of Rockville.3 The Hardings and their children lived on Harding's farm south of Rockville near Cabin John Creek.4 In 1856, Harding purchased ninety-five and a half acres from his father-in-law. The purchase included parts of tracts bearing names like "Spittlefields," "Smoch Alley," "The Resurvey on the Wheel of Fortune," and "The Resurvey on Valentine's Garden Enlarged."5
Harding served as a judge for the Orphan's Court from 1819-1820, 1828-1830, 1831-1839, and 1845-1847. He was also a member of the Maryland House of Delegates in 1820, 1830-1834, and 1836.6 Harding also served as sheriff and tax collector from around 1824 until 1843.7 He held the position of Register of Wills for Montgomery County from 1847 until at least 1851.8
He owned thirteen slaves in 1840 and 1850. In 1860, the census
recorded fifteen slaves living in two slave houses.9 The
names
of Harding's slaves appeared in slave assessment records for 1853,
1855, and 1863. Catherine Harding had acquired another sixteen
slaves when her father, Adam Robb, died intestate in 1847.10
In 1852, Henry Harding sold eight of the late Robb's slaves to slave dealers, receiving $3,300 for Arabella Weems and her children, Sylvester, William Augustus, Thomas Richard, Charles Adam, Joseph, John Lewis, Ann Maria, and Catharine Ann.11
According to runaway slave advertisements and slave jail records, at least three slaves fled from Hardings' farm, with the 1850 slave census listing one as a "fugitive from the state."12 Although slave census records listed slaves' ages rather than their names, this was likely Frederick, who had embarked on an ultimately unsuccessful escape attempt in 1849.13 Several members of the Weems family (whom the Hardings had sold in 1852) also fled after their sale.14 In 1856, Henry Harding advertised a $200 reward for the capture of his slave Edward Brannum, who had fled in July.15 In 1858, Catherine Harding's slave Mary Jones escaped from Washington D.C. where she had received permission to hire herself out. When the Philadelphia Vigilance Committee interviewed Jones, she described Henry and Catherine Harding as "bad enough," while "the younger set...can't be pleased," referring to the Hardings' children: Elizabeth Ann (b. 1815), Charles Adam (b. 1821), and Catherine Jane (b. 1825), who married Dr. Charles J. Maddox.16
Catherine Harding passed away in 1863,17 while Henry Harding
died intestate about four years later.18
1. Maryland Marriage Record
for Edward Harding and Ann Butler, May 12, 1778. Jordan Dodd, Liahona Research,
comp. Maryland Marriages, 1655-1850. Ancestry.com Operations Inc,
2004. www.ancestry.com.
College of
William and Mary. "Notes and Queries." William and Mary College
Quarterly Historical Magazine 8 (1900): 75.
2. MONTGOMERY COUNTY COURT (Land Records), Liber BS 1, Folio 338, 1827-1828, [MSA CE 148-27]. Edward Harding, Sr., to Edward Harding, Jr., November 27, 1827.
3. MONTGOMERY COUNTY COURT,
(Marriage Licenses), 1798-1839, Film Reel: CR 8920, [MSA CM724-1]. Henry
Harding and Catherine Ann Robb, June 2, 1812, Montgomery County.
"7 Janeta
Houses Survey District 808-822, Veirs Mill Road (MD 28), Rockville." M:
26-13-9. Maryland Historical Trust. www.mdihp.net
4. Montgomery County District 4, Simon J. Martenet, Martenet and Bond's Map of Montgomery County, 1865, Library of Congress, [MSA SC 1213-1-464].
5. MONTGOMERY COUNTY COURT (Land Records), Liber STS 1, Folio 536, 1845-1846, [MSA CE 148-39]. Adam Robb to Henry Harding, March 14, 1846.
6. J. Thomas Scharf.
History of
Western Maryland: Being a History of Frederick, Montgomery, Carroll, Washington,
Allegany, and Garrett Counties from the Earliest Period to the Present
Day. Vol. 1. (Philadelphia, PA: Louis H. Everts, 1882) 665-667.
"Maryland
Legislature."
The Hagerstown Mail 14 December 1832: 1. Access Newspaper
Archive.
U.S. Census
Bureau (Census Record, MD) for Henry Harding, 1850, Montgomery County,
Rockville District, Page 5, Line 17 [MSA SM61-142, M 1499-1].
7. GENERAL ASSEMBLY, (Laws, Original),
1844, Description: Ch. 45, [MSA S966-297].
MONTGOMERY
COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT (Land Records, Grantor Index, Original), H, given
names A-J, pp. 110-960, 1777-1927 [MSA CE 218-11].
9. U.S. Census Bureau (Census
Record, MD) for Henry Harding, 1840, Montgomery County, Rockville District,
Page 28, 10th line from bottom [MSA SM61-113, M 4722]. Slaves are listed
on Page 29, 10th line from bottom.
U.S. Census
Bureau (Census Record, MD) for Henry Harding, Slaves, 1850, Montgomery
County, Rockville District, Page 2, Line 34 [MSA SM61-168, M 1505-5].
U.S. Census
Bureau (Census Record, MD) for Henry Harding, Slaves, 1860, Montgomery
County, Rockville District, Page 17, Line 35 [MSA SM61-239, M 7230-2].
10. Bryan Prince. A Shadow on the Household: One Enslaved Family's Incredible Struggle for Freedom (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 2009) Prince 27-28, 36.
11. Prince vii, 64, 67, 75.
12. U.S. Census Bureau (Census Record, MD) for Henry Harding, Slaves, 1850, Montgomery County, Rockville District, Page 2, Line 34 [MSA SM61-168, M 1505-5].
13. Prince 37.
14. Ibid.
15. "Two Hundred Dollars Reward." Baltimore Sun 10 July 1856: 2. Baltimore Sun Historical Archive.
16. William Still.
The Underground
Railroad (Philadelphia, PA: Porter & Coates, 1872) 463-464.
U.S. Census Bureau (Census
Record, MD) for Henry Harding, 1850, Montgomery County, Rockville District,
Page 5, Line 17 [MSA SM61-142, M 1499-1].
U.S. Census
Bureau (Census Record, MD) for Henry Harding, 1860, Montgomery County,
Rockville District, Page 83, Line 19 [MSA SM61-213, M 7223-1].
Prince 26.
17. MONTGOMERY COUNTY, REGISTER OF WILLS, (Wills), 1858-1872, Liber JWS 1, Folio 148, Film Reel: CR 43-3, [MSA CM756-2]. Cahterine A. Harding, September, 29, 1863.
18. MONTGOMERY COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT
(Land Records), Liber EBP 4, Folio 160, 1867-1868, [MSA CE 63-14]. Henry
Harding, Trust, to James H. Higgins and Catherine E. Higgins, May 16, 1867.
MONTGOMERY
COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT (Land Records), Liber EBP 4, Folio 161, 1867-1868,
[MSA CE 63-14]. Henry Harding, Trust, to William Pumphrey, Robert Connell,
and Ann Connell, May 16, 1867.
Researched and written by Rachel Frazier, 2010.
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