Henry C. Hicks (b. 1765 - d. 1825)
MSA SC 5496-51915
Property Owner, Dorchester County, Maryland
Biography:
Henry C. Hicks, Esq. was a planter and slave owner from near Vienna, Dorchester County, Maryland.1 The exact date of the establishment of Vienna is not known, but it appears to be date back prior to 1709, when a "Chapel of Ease" was built there.2 Vienna as a Custom District was most likely formed around 1768.3 Leading up the War of Independence, Vienna thrived as a port town.4 Henry C. Hicks and his wife, Mary Sewell Hicks, had two children together: Thomas Holliday Hicks (b. 1798) and Henry Hicks (b. 1812).5 Thomas Holliday Hicks would serve as Governor of Maryland and United States Senator.6 Thomas Holliday Hicks also resided in Vienna in 1829 until he removed to Cambridge in 1840.7
According to the 1810 census, Hicks was residing in a household of 14 members.8 Of those 14 members, six were slaves and the other eight were free white persons. Ten years later, in 1820, Hicks was residing in Election District 4.9 The number of household members increased to 17. Of those 17 members, 10 were free white persons and seven were slaves. On April 9, 1825, Hicks placed a runaway advertisement in the Cambridge Chronicle & Eastern Shore Advertiser as an attempt to spread the word that his slave had ran away.10 James was said to have runaway on April 5, 1825 from Hicks. Hicks described James as "height 5 feet 6 and a half inches, light black, with a small scar on the nose between the eyes, walks very proper, his foot eleven inches and a half long when bare, smiling and diffident countenance when interrogated."11 The description was fairly detailed especially by describing the small scar on the nose between the eyes, which could be helpful for slave catchers when locating James. Hicks offered a fifty dollar reward for the apprehension and return of his slave.
Henry C. Hicks died on September 13, 1825 in Dorchester County, Maryland.12 Hicks' gravestone was removed from the Hicks Family Gravestone near Payne's Mill, Vienna and placed at Saint Johns Chapel Cemetery in Hudson, Dorchester County.13 According to the obituary for Henry C. Hicks, he died at his residence on a Tuesday morning, at about nine o'clock.14 Hicks was described as "the benefactor of his family, he was kind and vigilant in supplying them all the comforts of life; as a neighbour and citizen liberal and useful; he was very remarkable for his perseverance, and displayed in all his proceedings through life, a manly fortitude which has been surpassed by few."15 The obituary for Hicks clearly outlined what a respected individual he was within the community.
Endnotes:
1. Elias Jones. Revised History of Dorchester County, Maryland (Baltimore, MD: The Read-Taylor Press, 1925), 343.
2. Ibid., 82.
3. Ibid., 85.
4. Ibid.
5. "Henry C. Hicks." Find a Grave. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=pv&GRid=70290649&PIpi=101539477
6. Jones. Revised History of Dorchester County, Maryland. 343.
7. Ibid., 85-86.
10. "Fifty Dollars Reward." Cambridge Chronicle & Eastern Shore Advertiser. April 9, 1825.
11. Ibid.
12. "Henry C. Hicks." Find a Grave. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=pv&GRid=70290649&PIpi=101539477Written and Researched by Tanner Sparks, 2014
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