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.