ASSESSMENT OF 1783 FOR MONTGOMERY COUNTY
by Eleanor M.V. Cook
GENERAL ASSEMBLY, HOUSE OF DELEGATES (Assessment Record) 1783 [MSA S1161 and SM59] for Montgomery County has five districts designated as:
Sugarland and Upper Potomac Hundreds
Middle Potomac, Lower Potomac, and Georgetown Hundreds
Lower Newfoundland, Rock Creek, and North West Hundreds
Upper Newfoundland and Seneca Hundreds
Linganore and Sugarloaf Hundreds
In addition, there is a sixth assessment record, designated as:
Upper Potomac Hundred.
I believe this separate assessment for Upper Potomac Hundred is an assessment for 1782, not 1783. This conclusion is based on several factors.
The separate Upper Potomac Hundred assessment is entitled "A Return by Basil Magruder Assessor in Upper Potomac Hundred Montgomery County agreeable to the Act to Raise Supplies for the Year 178-." The last digit is somewhat illegible, but could be a "2" with a flourish at the end. The record is not a supplement to the Sugarland and Upper Potomac Hundreds assessment record. Most, but not all, of the names in Upper Potomac Hundred appear in Sugarland and Upper Potomac Hundreds, valued by Alexander Whitaker, Assessor, 1783. There are differences in the real property listed. For example, one record shows Brooke Beall with 286 acres of Piney Grove, and the other does not.
Even when the land of an individual is the same, the assigned values are much higher in the Upper Potomac Hundred. "An Act to Raise the Supplies for the Year 1782," passed by the General Assembly (Chap. 4, Nov. 1781), set the rate of assessment at 45 shillings current money for every 100 pounds of total worth. At the April 1782 legislative session (Chap. 54) this rate was reduced to 30 shillings per 100 pounds, and persons who had already paid were given credit. The value of land and improvements was to be computed in current money and at the amount they would have sold for in 1774. "An Act to Raise Supplies for the year 1783" (Chap. 6, Nov. 1782) set the rate of assessment at 25 shillings for every 100 pounds of total worth.
The Upper Potomac Hundred assessment is consistently set at the rate of 45 shillings per 100 pounds of total value, and the Sugarland and Upper Potomac Hundreds at the rate of 25 shillings. To compare, keeping in mind that there were 20 shillings in a pound, we have Zachariah Beall of Upper Potomac Hundred with 100 pounds total worth being assessed 2 pounds and 5 shillings and Stephen Caywood of Sugarland and Upper Potomac Hundreds with the same worth being assessed 1 pound and 5 shillings. All other 1783 districts show the same rate as that in Sugarland and Upper Potomac: William Fish of Linganore with a worth of 100 pounds, assessed 1 pound and 5 shillings, and Jeremiah Ducker of Lower Newfoundland with a worth of 105 pounds, assessed 1 pound, 5 shillings, and 3 pence.
The act to raise supplies for 1782 provided that slaves under the age of 8 be valued at 10 pounds, ages 8 to 14 at 25 pounds, males ages 14 to 45 at 70 pounds, and females ages 14 to 36 at 60 pounds. Assessors were at liberty to estimate the value of male slaves who were tradesmen, male slaves over 45, and female slaves over 36. The act to raise supplies for 1783 gave no set value for slaves under the age of 8, stating instead that the assessors were to make the judgment. The Upper Potomac Hundred assessment consistently lists a value of 10 pounds for slaves under 8, whereas in the five 1783 districts the values vary from 3 to 18 pounds.
The act to raise supplies for 1782 required the assessor to list all free males over age 18. This was done in Upper Potomac Hundred. The law for 1783 omitted this provision, and free males over 18 are not enumerated in the five 1783 districts.
The format for the Upper Potomac Hundred differs from that of the other five districts. For each of the latter districts the records contain two lists: one of real property by tract name, showing name of owner, acreage, etc., and a second of people showing values and assessments of real and personal properties, total worth, white inhabitants, etc. The separate Upper Potomac Hundred record contains a single listing for real and personal property, much like the 1782 assessment found in A History of Calvert County, Maryland, by Charles Francis Stein.
[The author is a member of the Search Room Advisory Committee]
OCCUPATIONS
by Pat Melville
A few years ago the Bulldog contained an article about unusual and interesting occupations found in marriage certificates by Paul Goddard, an Archives volunteer processing the records. As his work has continued into the mid-1940s, his list of occupations has grown even longer. Paul uses the term "oddball jobs," and they include the following:
Mining and manufacturing - zinc worker, steel pourer, nickel plater, beveler, parachute packer, silver chaser, and casket trimmer.
Textiles - shirt trimmer, wool washer, silk spotter, bobbin boy, button man, and quiller.
Inspectors - chains, torpedoes, and magnetic.
Food and drink - dough mixer, fish smoker, meat washer, stillman, scallop cutter, tea tester, and egg breaker.
Art and entertainment - airbrush artist, organ voicer, and street photographer.
Military - Spar (member of U.S. Coast Guard women's reserve), demolitionist [wonder how he died], Dutch navy, and army crash crew.
Transportation - track walker and airship rigger.
Medical - drug granulator and penicillin extractor
Religious - church visitor.
Miscellaneous and sometimes mysterious - tobacco caser, wax cutter, stock tracer, tube bender, gate tender, guest house, paper ruler, dipper, car dresser, clock checker, car wrecker, spring worker, jogger, spoiler, umbrella tipper, and matching teeth.
LIBRARY ACCESSIONS
by Shashi Thapar
The McWilliams Family 1757-1990, Maryland, Delaware and New Jersey
The Traders in America: From 1790 to 1996
Andersen, Patricia Abelard, Frederick County Maryland Land Records Liber B Abstracts, 1748-1752
Andersen, Patricia Abelard, Frederick County Maryland Land Records Liber F Abstracts, 1756-1761
Andersen, Patricia Abelard, Frederick County Maryland Land Records Liber E Abstracts, 1752-1756
Andersen, Patricia Abelard, Frederick County Maryland Land Records Liber G & H Abstracts, 1761-1763
Andersen, Patricia Abelard, Frederick County Maryland Land Records Liber J Abstracts, 1763-1767
Ballenger, Bruce G., Ballengers of Tryon
Barnes, Robert, Baltimore County, Maryland Deed Abstracts, 1649-1750
Byram, John Arnold, Byrams in America,2nd ed.
Filby, P. William, Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1997 Supplement
Hunter, Ralph E., History of the Putney Family: The Story Behind an Unusual Family Name
Mann, Marion, The Kigh, Mann, Reagin, and Sykes Families
Maryland Municipal League, Directory of Maryland Municipal Officials, 1997
McDaniel, John H., McDaniel and Related Families
Newman, Harry Wright, Branch of the Douglas Family with Its Maryland and Virginia Connections
Patterson, James Morris, John Morris of Worcester County, Maryland and His Descendants
Potter, D. Frank, Travers of Dorchester
Skinner, V. L. Abstracts of the Administration Accounts of the Prerogative Court of Maryland Libers 11-15, 1731-1737
Waters, Nancy Lee, Family Diversity: The Huhn, Pestorf and Steck Families, 1600 to 1996, vol. 1
Wright, F. Edward, Maryland Eastern Shore Vital Records, 1801-1825, Book 5
|
Tell Us What You Think About the Maryland State Archives Website!
|