Tench Tilghman's Swords
February 4, 1998.
Hall of Records Commission Chairman Louis L. Goldstein announced a significant
new addition to the collections of the Maryland State Archives. Two swords
which belonged to Tench Tilghman, aide-de-camp to General George Washington
during the Revolutionary War, were left to the state of Maryland by a direct
descendent of Colonel Tilghman, Judith Goldsborough Oates. Mrs. Oates was
a resident of Baltimore who died on December 26, 1997. The swords were
turned over to the Maryland State Archives on January 7, 1998, and were
accepted by Governor Parris N. Glendening at today's Board of Public Works
meeting. Both swords form Maryland State Archives Special Collection 4873
(MSA SC 4873), and will go on display in the Old Senate Chamber
near the portrait of Washington, Lafayette and Tilghman at Yorktown
by Charles Willson Peale in a special ceremony on February 16. One
of the two swords given to the state is worn by Tench Tilghman in the Peale
portrait.