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Show Northerner Purchases Historic 5 Southern Country Seat t BY- KE2TNETH C. KERR. TTiTTTTTTlTTTTTillITTITITI N a recent issuo of .tho Gazette, pub- llshed at Easton on the eastern shore of Maryland, is given a brief account of the sale to Henry Benedict Lock-wood Lock-wood of New York City of the hand- I somo country scat on Miles river known as "The Villa." The price paid was stated stat-ed as being ?25,000vand two half-tones of I the property arc given with tho new3 story. It Js one of tho handsomest country seats in Talbot county, the grounds comprising com-prising about forty acres and beautifully laid out In lawn, fiowcrs and shrubocry, in fact it is ono of the show places of that section, a region by the way that presents a rich and rare field for tho historian. his-torian. And tho moro fact of this new3 Item appearing In tho Gazette recalls tho story of tho Villa which is well worth repeating. Col. Prcntess Ingrnham In his "Land of Legendary Lore" related tho history of the house and other facts tre well known to those who havo lived within with-in the shadow of its beautiful grove of trees. There Is nothing original In this historical rcmlnlsconco. It Is but tho ie-cltal ie-cltal of events surrounding tho house in question. In the year 1CC1 occurred In Boston tho memorable trial of Wcnlock Chrlstlson. for the crime of being a Quaker, aatulls of which appeared In publications of that porlod. Having been exiled he returned to Boston to protest against the murder of a fellow Quaker named Leddra. He was seized by a mob led by the Rov. Seabury Cotton and subsequently he, with others of his faith, was condemned to death by Gov. Endlcott. The day beforo the execution exe-cution came the pardon of tho King r.nd tho prisoners wore released. Wt-nlock Chrlstlson then emigrated to Maryland, taking advantage of tho religious re-ligious toleration extended by tho Cal-verta. Cal-verta. In 1C61 he received from Lord Baltimore Bal-timore a grant of land on tho stream now known as Miles river and this land is tho site of tho Villa. The Miles river is one of those broad salt water streams, the homo of tho ter- ; rapln and oyster and wild ducks, that pierce tho peninsula of tho eastern shore of Maryland, and according to all writers io ono of tho brightest spots in the United States. It Is unnecessary to dwell on tho descendants de-scendants of Chrlstlson but at last tho property passed into tho control of Richard Rich-ard France, the lottery king of Maryland. That State recognized and legalized tho lottery at ono tlmo and France became Immensely wealthy. He bought a great mansion in Baltimore and on tho slto of the Chrlstlson homo hb built tho Villa which In that day was a veritable palace. A tall red tower loomed abovo tho trees and the garden was tilled with winding walks, rare plants and flowers, fountains, vases -and marble statuary. Itvwas the wonder of all tho neighborhood. Neither Is it necessary to dotall how Broadbent set up a rival lottery and how Franco had to tako him into partnership, how Maryland at last took away tho license li-cense and the lottery had to move to Delaware, Del-aware, how at last the illegal business was not recognized by any of tho States and Richard France, trying to secure a legal homo for his gamo of chanco went Into bankruptcy, his very person was seized for debt in Delaware and he died In prison, a pauper. Thoso aro others yarns. But to return to the Villa. It fell Into tho hands of Henry May of Baltimore. This was beforo be-foro the war. It was still the finest placo In tho country and again becamo noted for Its lavish Southern hospitality, that hospitality hos-pitality which was characteristic of Marv-lnnd. Marv-lnnd. Then the war broke out and May Invested his fortune In gold and, quoting from Ingraham. "His broker was a bank- I cr named Carson of Baltimore. All went well until tho surrender of Leo, when gold declined and swept Henry May along with unfilled margins. But between him and ruin slopd tho broker Carson, lie, abandoned by May, went down In the crash. In vain ho called upon his client to protect him. A suit was brought and, against the feelings and temper tem-per of the community, it was won by Henry Mny. Tho broker Carson never recovered, re-covered, but died a few months after, literally lit-erally of a broken heart. "Henry May returned to Baltimore, but his old friends turned their faces. An isolated, iso-lated, ostracized man, ho returned to mo Villa and in a few months, ho, too, died, It Is said, of puro chagrin." The Villa was next bought bv a wealthy young man whoso name was Randall and ho. wuu blu young wife, moro than re- , vlved Its ancient hospitality. But he kept ' up such a lavish display that hla fortunn i was dissipated and he lost tho homo which next becamo tho properly of a Mr. Bradv of Nov York. " ' rile lived a lonely life according to all accounts and tho place soon became a favorite fa-vorite one among the superstitious nogrocH for ghost Btorles nud acrnnge tales of yachts secretly plying between the bay and the landing of the estate became rife In tho county. It was ideally situated for the ontrancc of a sailing vessel from an Atlantic port which could come almost to the door of the house, and when the news of Bobs Tvued'a escape from New York was first talked of tho negroes and others had much to say of a strange, old, bearded beard-ed man who hnd been landed on tho estate es-tate and wa! seen by chmco. it ac-mi that Brady was a friend of Tweed and it soon became current gossip that .boss i Tweed was hlalnsr at the Villa, To com- I pleto tho talc a party of officers raided the'place but what they found or did was forever a mystery. However, it was a good sequel to tho story of tho estate and its lino house, and even today tho Villa is pointed out as the hiding placo of Bos3 Tweed when the newspapers of the country thought ho was In Florida. And it might be added that on tho authority au-thority of ono of the principals of the midnight adventure, that hero Tweed lay concealed and from hero ho was taken away one midnight by tho son of a prominent prom-inent Democratic politician of Maryland, who was onco tho political ally of tho boss. They walkod down the path between be-tween tho fountains -and marbles and stepping aboard a yacht sailed away down the Chesapeake and out Into the ocean. In 1SS5 the place passed into tho hands of George F. Nlckerson. who sold it to Mrs- Fleming of Washington. D C It hnsately boon used by tho Maryland Nautical academy under the management of PI. H. Balch of New York, whoso widow wid-ow has now sold It (o Mr. Lockwood. It has to dato been the show placo of tho county and presents much of Its former for-mer grandeur Tho original house is said to have cost $60.000. |
