Archives of Maryland
(Biographical Series)

Mathias Clarke (b. circa 1766 - d. before 1840)
MSA SC 5496-050627
War of 1812 Claimant, St. Mary's County, Maryland

Biography:

Mathias Clarke, also spelled Matthias, was born around 1766 to Robert and Mary Clarke.1 A member of the St. Mary's County militia,2 Clarke served as a sheriff for the county in 1794, and as a county justice in 1795. From 1801 to 1803, and from 1805 to 1808, Clarke served on the Saint Mary's County Levy Court.3

Between 1798 and 1805, Clarke built "Trinity Manor," a Federal-style, wood frame house with brick ends and four chimneys.4 The two-story house overlooked Calvert Creek, which emptied into Calvert Bay on the Potomac River.5 Later known as Woodlawn, the house stood on parts of tracts including "Trinity Manor," "Tripple Defence," "Hopkins Choice," and "Piney Land" in St. Michael's Hundred. The Trinity Manor tract contained 600 acres when Maryland's first governor, Leonard Calvert, patented the land in 1641.6 The property later appeared in an 1865 map of the county, in what had then become the St. Inigoes District.7

An importer by trade, Clarke owned a 64-foot pilot schooner, the Republican, which John Hopkins had built in 1805. Clarke used the vessel to transport hogsheads of tobacco from St. Mary's County to Baltimore City.8 Prior to purchasing the Republican, Clarke had co-owned another vessel with a business partner, Walter Leigh (b. 1760 - d. 1806) of the same county.9 In 1800, Leigh sued Clarke for selling five hogsheads of Leigh's tobacco on credit, rather than for cash as they had agreed. Clarke, on the other hand, claimed that his partner had authorized him to sell the tobacco "on such terms...as [Clarke] should think proper."10sLeigh had sued Clarke after the purchaser, William B. Magruder, failed to repay the credit. However, on September 1, 1803, Leigh asked the St. Mary's County Court to dismiss the case.

The 1810 census showed a wife and ten children living in Mathias Clarke's household. Although the census listed dependents' age groups rather their names, court and probate records identified a daughter, Mary, and a son, Robert A.11 The household also included eleven slaves in 1810, a number that had remained consistent for the past twenty years.12The 1813 slave assessments recorded the names and ages of thirteen slaves. The number nearly doubled by 1820, when Clarke owned twenty slaves.13

On February 19, 1815, Clarke's slave Nathaniel Johnson escaped to the British frigate Havannah. Clarke's neighbor, George Loker, lost eight slaves to the Havannah on the same day. The flight of slaves to the British ships near Point Lookout, just east of Clarke's property, reached such large numbers that one U.S. militiaman reported that "nine-tenths of them will abscond unless the enemy can be driven from the Point."14 On February 27th, George Loker "hired a small schooner,"—perhaps Clarke's 64-foot Republican—"and went down the bay after them."15 Mathias Clarke, his son Robert, and their neighbors William Smith and Peter U. Thomson accompanied Loker, but were unable to retrieve the slaves.16 In April 1815, Clarke informed the St. Mary's County tax commissioners that his slave "Natt" had "gone to the British."17 Twelve years later, Clarke was awarded $280 as compensation under the Treaty of Ghent.18

Mathias Clarke served as the postmaster for his hometown of Ridge from around 1813 to at least 1828.19 During the War of 1812, his duties included reporting the movements of British troops in the area. In June 1813, the Postmaster General Gideon Granger (1801-1814)20 instructed Clarke to "drop me a line by the mail informing me of Interesting events, particularly of the state of our troops & of the motions and strength of the enemy."21 Granger sent similar orders to other postmasters and special agents in waterfront towns throughout Maryland, such as Benedict and Port Tobacco in Charles County, Leonardtown and St. Inigoes in St. Mary's County, Piscataway in Prince George's County, and Annapolis and Baltimore City.22

In 1829, Clarke sold Trinity Manor to James Kirk, who renamed it Woodlawn.23 Clarke died intestate sometime before 1840. Although he had sold Trinity Manor for the payment of debts, he still owed a total of five thousand dollars to James Kirk, Phillip Griffin, and Walter Langley at the time of his death. In 1840, the St. Mary's County Court confiscated the remaining land—at least 315 acres—for the payment of debts.24
 

Footnotes

1.     Leona Cryer, Deaths and Burials in St. Mary's County, Maryland (Bowie, MD: Heritage Books, Inc., 1995) 335.

2.     Timothy J. O'Rourke, Catholic families of Southern Maryland (Baltimore, MD: Clearfield Company, Inc., 2001) 84.

3.     Regina Combs Hammett, History of St. Mary's County, Maryland. (Published by the author, 1977) 425, 426, and 437.

4.     "Woodlawn," SM-21, Maryland Historical Trust. Inventory of Historic Properties. www.mdihhp.net.
        "Woodlawn: A Maryland Estate," Woodlawn Properties, LLC, www.woodlawn-farm.com.
         Maryland Bureau of Statistics and Information, Seventeenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Statistics and Information of Maryland (Baltimore, MD: Kohn & Pollock, 1908) 430.
         Cyril M. Harris, American Architecture: An Illustrated Encyclopedia (New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, 1998) 58.

5.     "Woodlawn," www.mdihhp.net.

6.     LAND OFFICE, (Patent Record), Liber 1, Folio 218, MSA S11-2. Leonard Calvert, 1641, Trinity Manor, 600 acres.
        Robert E.T. Pogue, Yesterday in Old St. Mary's County (New York, NY: Carlton Press, 1968) 104.
        Hester Dorsey Richardson, Side-lights on Maryland History: With Sketches of Early Maryland, Vol. 1 (Baltimore, MD: Williams and Wilkins Company, 1913) 263.

7.     ST. MARY'S COUNTY COURT (Land Records), Liber JH 12, Folio 80, 1840-1842, [MSA CE 121-6]. Thomas McMorgan to James Kirk, December 15, 1840.
         St. Mary's County District 1, Simon J. Martenet, Map of St. Mary's County, 1865, Huntingfield Collection, [MSA SC 1399-1-75].
         Nancy L. Ross, "Riverfront Manor's Painstaking Restoration," Washington Post 31 January 1991: 3. Historical Newspapers. ProQuest databases.

8.     CHANCERY COURT, (Chancery Papers), 1713-1853. Mathias Clarke vs. Millison Biscoe, et al, June 18, 1798, Saint Mary's County, Case Number 787. [MSA S512-1- 816].
        Edwin W. Beitzell, Life on the Potomac River. (Published by the author, 1968) 156-157.
        "Woodlawn." SM-21. Maryland Historical Trust. Inventory of Historic Properties. www.mdihhp.net.
        Geoffrey M. Footner, Tidewater Triumph: The Development and Worldwide Success of the Chesapeake Bay Pilot Schooners (Dexter, MI: Thomson-Shore, 1998) 53.

9.     CHANCERY COURT, (Chancery Papers), 1713-1853, Mathias Clarke vs. Millison Biscoe, et al, June 18, 1798, Saint Mary's County, Case Number 787. [MSA S512-1- 816].
        U.S. Census Bureau (Census Record, MD) for Walter Leigh, 1800, St. Mary's County, Page 3, Line 8 [MSA SM61-36, M 2057-1].

10.   Ibid.

11.   1800 U.S. Federal Census Record (MD) for Walter Leigh, St. Mary's County, Page 3, Line 8.
         Claim of Matthias Clarke, Case Files, compiled ca. 1827 - ca. 1828, documenting the period ca. 1814 - ca. 1828. *ARC Identifier 1174160 / MLR Number PI 177 190*. National Archives, College Park.
         ST. MARY'S COUNTY REGISTER OF WILLS, (Inventories), 1840-1845, Liber GC 2, Folio 323, Film Reel: CR 35709-1, [MSA CE443-13]. Dr. Robert A. Clarke, November 14, 1843.

12.   U.S. Census Bureau (Census Record, MD) for Mathias Clark, 1790, St. Mary's County, Page 23, Column 2, 3rd line from bottom. [MSA SM61-17, M 2053-1].
         U.S. Census Bureau (Census Record, MD) for Matthias Clarke, 1800, St. Mary's County, Page 3, 3rd line from bottom [MSA SM61-36, M 2057-1].
         U.S. Census Bureau (Census Record, MD) for Mathias Clarke, 1810, St. Mary's County, Page 26, 11th line from bottom [MSA SM61-56, M 2061-3].

13.   U.S. Census Bureau (Census Record, MD) for Col. Matthias Clarke, 1820, St. Mary's County, District 1, Page 1a, third line from bottom [MSA SM61-76, M 2067-2].

14.   Qtd. in Frank A. Cassel, “Slaves of the Chesapeake Bay Area and the War of 1812,” Journal of Negro History 57 (April 1972): 146.

15.   Thomas M. Bayly, No. III, Bayly's List (RG 76. Records of Boundary and Claims Commissions and Arbitration. Records of the Mixed Claims Commission: Miscellaneous Records) 107, 112.
        Claim of George Loker, Case 121, Case Files, compiled ca. 1827 - ca. 1828, documenting the period ca. 1814 - ca. 1828. *ARC Identifier 1174160 / MLR Number PI 177 190*. National Archives, College Park.

16.   Claim of Mathias Clarke, Case 120, Case Files, compiled ca. 1827 - ca. 1828, documenting the period ca. 1814 - ca. 1828. *ARC Identifier 1174160 / MLR Number PI 177 190*. National Archives, College Park.
         Claim of William Smith, Case 119, Case Files, compiled ca. 1827 - ca. 1828, documenting the period ca. 1814 - ca. 1828. *ARC Identifier 1174160 / MLR Number PI 177 190*. National Archives, College Park.

17.   Minute Book No 16 of the Commissioners of the Tax for St. Mary’s County, 1810-1815. Book in possession of Charles Fenwick Jr. Leonardtown, Md. courtesy of the St. Mary's County Historical Society.

18.   Mathias Clarke, No. 120, RG 76, Records of Boundary and Claims Commissions and Arbitration. Records of the Mixed Claims Commission: Miscellaneous Records. Ca. 1814-28, 7 vols., entry 185. Vol. 4 of 11. National Archives, College Park.

19.   United States Post Office Department, United States Official Postal Guide (Washington City: Way & Gideon, 1813) 61.
         United States Post Office Department, United States Official Postal Guide (Washington City: Way & Gideon, 1828) 100.

20.   Everit Brown and Albert Strauss, A Dictionary of American Politics (New York, NY: A.L. Burt, 1892) 430.

21.   Arthur Hecht, "The Post Office Department in St. Mary's County in the War of 1812." Maryland Historical Magazine 52 (1957): 150.

22.   Ibid. 146-151.

23.   "Woodlawn," www.mdihhp.net.

24.   ST. MARY'S COUNTY COURT (Land Records), Liber JH 12, Folio 80, 1840-1842, [MSA CE 121-6]. Thomas McMorgan to James Kirk, December 15, 1840.
 

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