Joshua Caulk, MSA SC 5496-51541

Joshua Caulk was born between 1778 and 1785.¹ He and his brother Ellis were manumitted and “discharged from all manners of servitude” by their father Isaac Cork, from their owner Samuel Eccleston, deceased, in 1806. Joshua was twenty-one years old at the time of his manumission.²

By 1840, Joshua was head of a household of eight. The one female on the census aged between 35 years and 55 years old, same as Joshua, was most likely his wife, Martha. They had two sons and one daughter born between 1830 and 1840, as well as, two sons and one daughter born between 1816 and 1830.³ One of his sons, Albert James (born in 1833), was a 17-year-old mulatto laborer in 1850. In 1863, Albert registered for the military draft and was enlisted into the United States Colored Troops by 1864.⁴ In addition to Albert, Joshua and Martha also had two sons: William (born around 1836) and John (born around 1838), and one daughter named Julia (born around 1834).⁵ At this point, the names and vital information of the other children have not been found.

In 1850, Joshua Caulk was listed as a mulatto laborer with no real estate value, but by 1860, he was a farmer and had $800 real estate and $300 personal estate.⁶ In 1858, Joshua and Martha sold two acres of “Hurtt’s Lott” to John Thomas, another free negro, for $107.⁷ In 1860, Joshua Caulk, as highest bidder at a public sale, paid the charges due on one acre of land in Morgan’s Creek Neck belonging to Jacob Cork, and bought the land for $2.83.⁸ In 1861, Joshua Cork, Minty Cork, Isaiah Cork, and Ellis Cork sold a tract of land containing about twenty acres, adjoining the lands of Jonathan Slaughter, for $200 to Jacob Barkman and Budd S. Ford.⁹ In 1859, Joshua Cork had a twenty-five acre plat of land surveyed; this land is near the "road to Millington" and is there suspected to be around the location of Joshua Chapel and, perhaps, part of the same tract of land sold to Barkman and Ford.¹⁰ There is also a land sketch for Francis and Ellis Caulk's property of twenty acres (possibly the same land sold to Barkman) near Minty Caulk's land and a church.¹¹

Joshua died in 1867 and Martha died in 1878.¹² They are both buried together at the Joshua Chapel cemetery in Morgnec, Kent County, Maryland.¹³ Isaac Caulk, trustee of Joshua Chapel, served as Joshua Caulk’s administrator, and his estate was witnessed by Isaac Cotton and Marshall Jones, also Joshua Chapel trustees.¹⁴ Joshua’s inventory, which included a red cow, a white bull, a grind stone, a Number 4 Wiley Plow, carpenter tools, and rent for a house and lot, as well as a house and garden corroborates that he was a farmer and a land owner.¹⁵

1. 1778 according to the his gravestone at Joshua Chapel in Morgnec, Md; 1785 according to his deed of manumission by his father Isaac Cork.

2. Kent County Court (Chattel Records), 1804-1809, C1035, Isaac Cork of Joshua and Ellis Cork, JW Liber 2, Folio 108.

3. U.S Census Bureau (Census Record, MD), Joshua Caulk, 1840, p.170, Kent, 2^nd Election District, SCM 4721, MSA SM 61-112.

4. Ancestry.com, U.S Military Union Colored Troops Military Service Records, National Archives and Records Administration; Washington, D.C; Compiled Military Service Records of Volunterr Union Soldiers Who Served with the United States Colored Troops; Infantry Organizations, 20^th through 25^th; Microfilm Serial: M1823; Microfilm Roll: 73

Ancestry.com, National Archives and Records Administration; Washington, D.C.; Consolidated Lists of Civil War Draft Registration Records (Provost Marshal General’s Bureau; Consolidated Enrollment Lists, 1863-1865); Record Group: 110, Records of the Provost Marshal General’s Bureau (Civil War); Collection Name: Consolidated Enrollment Lists, 1863-185 (Civil War Union Draft Records); ARC Identifier: 4213514; Archive Volume Number: 1 of 3.

5. U.S. Census Bureau (Census Record, MD), Joshua Cork, 1850, p.225, Kent, 2^nd Election District, SCM 1498, MSA SM 61-141.

6. U.S Census Bureau (Census Record, MD), Joshua Cork, 1850, p.225, Kent, 2^nd Election District, SCM 1498, MSA SM 61-141; U.S Census Bureau (Census Record, MD), Joshua Caulk, 1860, p. 64, Kent, 2^nd Election District, SCM 7222-2, MSA SM 61-212.

7. Kent County Circuit Court (Land Records), Joshua Caulk to John Thomas, 1857-1860, MSA CE 57-7, JKH Liber 1 Folio 245.

8. Kent County Circuit Court (Land Records), George Handy to Joshua Cork, 1860-1861, MSA CE 57-8, JKH Liber 2, Folio 392.

9. Kent County Circuit Court (Land Records), Joshua Cork et al to Jacob Barkman, 1860-1861, MSA CE 57-8, JKH Liber 2, Folio 461; Kent County Register of Wills (Estate Records), 1749-1940, T4834, Box 11, Joshua Caulk, Land Purchase Caulk et al.

10. Kent County Register of Wills (Estate Papers), 1749-1940, T4834, Box 11, Isaac Caulk, Land Plat surveyed for Joshua Cork, Baltimore City Archives

11. Kent County Register of Wills (Estate Papers), 1749-1940, T4834, Box 11, Isaac Caulk, church property sketch, Baltimore City Archives.