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Hite vs Fairfax and the End of the Colonial Period1786The Hite-Fairfax lawsuit again. The Hite v Fairfax lawsuit regarding competing land claims was brought before the Virginia Courts for another round of acrimonious debate. The scales of justice this time tipped in favor of the Hite heirs, reinstating the original court decree of 1769 that nullified Fairfax grants on land the Hites had surveyed but had not been able to patent back in the 1730s! It’s understandable how a Virginia court would tend to favor a grant given by the colonial Council to Hite, rather than honor grants issued by the former Proprietor who had ties to the hated European feudal system. All those Fairfax grantees living on land originally surveyed by the Hites, including the Swearingens, were now required to pay to the Hite heirs the rents and fees dating from 1750 - a very large sum of money. The Fairfax land office, now run by Thomas Bryan Martin, (Fairfax’s nephew and namesake of Martinsburg), was no longer in a strong legal position to protect landowners holding a Fairfax title. The Hite heirs were not only seeking title to surveyed but unpatented lands once held by the family, as their original 1749 lawsuit requested, but also all those surveyed lands that couldn’t show clear documentation of purchase from the Hites in the 1730s! In other words, the burden of proof was now on landholders to prove, with documents, that they had actually purchased their land from the Hites, ignoring the fact that the 1770 Commission had found the Hites notoriously lax in their documentation and record keeping. The Hite lawyers urged the Hites to try to “recover of all intruders tho it should appear that we actually sold the land to others” (Hyman 1996). Landholders on property claimed by the Hites without a clear chain of title back to the Hites were usually given the choice of buying or renting the property back from the Hite heirs at current prices. Judge Wythe described the Hites and their lawsuit “vexatious and oppressive” in part because of their unwillingness to settle out of court (Hyman 1996). Col. Van Swearingen was in an impossible situation because there couldn’t be any documentation showing chain of ownership back to Hite on about 184 acres he currently held on Terrapin Neck--he and others on the Neck had only held title via Fairfax for 25+ years. His property within the original Poulson, Mounts and Jones patent was not in question, including most of Springwood, because it was clearly within a Hite patent. There were about 100 farm units in Jefferson and Berkeley counties affected by this ruling, but uniquely, the 1200 acre parcel on Terrapin Neck was the only property in question that was never settled by a Hite purchaser, and the only one that was surveyed past the 1735 deadline. Landowners were given 90 days after being served with papers to appear in Court and defend their property. Because Van Swearingen had chased off the Commission in 1770, Van Swearingen was the only property holder on the Neck on the court’s list asked to appear in court. His strategy appeared to be to find “some old paper” showing ownership back to Hite, which perhaps wasn’t a bad strategy considering the Hite’s notoriety for poor record keeping, fraud, etc. He did have documents from the sale of Jonathon Simmons/Peter Beller’s land in 1762 (Springwood), and Joseph Poulson (RiverView Farm) in 1758. But this strategy did not allow him to bring up the fact that the 1736 survey on Terrapin Neck was invalid, or that the Brownings had never occupied the land; apparently previous rulings forced him to concede that these facts held no power. Surveyor Jonathan Clark (brother of both William Clark of “Lewis and Clark” fame, and frontier military leader George Rogers Clark) came to Terrapin Neck to survey boundaries and report on improvements and agricultural acreage for the court and the Hite heirs; he had a personal interest since he was married to a Hite. Clark described two Swearingen tracts within the Browning claim. The first tract of 184 acres, now roughly the area east of the footbridge and south of the guardshack at NCTC, contained three “cabbins”, and the portion in cultivation and “in pretty good order” included “60 a. first rate high land”. A second tract, the old York plantation out on the end of the Neck claimed by Indian Van Swearingen, was described as occupied by “Peter Palmer tenant to Van Swearingham” and contained “one indifferent cabin”, 30 acres of bottom land and 40 acres of first rate high land, as well as 50 apple trees (P.S. Joyner n.d.). Other landholders on the Neck generally had small (16 by 20 feet) round-logged cabins with chimneys made of mud and sticks (“cat and clay”), small outbuildings without any doors, some cropland, and apple orchards containing 50 to 200 trees. This was of course in stark contrast to the large stone Swearingen mansion house in the neighborhood, with fireplaces in every room. You can imagine the steam coming out of old Col. Van Swearingen’s ears as this survey took place, and since his 3 cabins were not described in any detail compared to the others on Terrapin Neck, this may suggest that Clark was not invited to take a closer look. A list of these Terrapin Neck property descriptions is included in the appendix. Josiah
Swearingen continued his duties as the new surveyor of Berkeley
County. Tragically, Josiah’s wife Phoebe died this same fateful
year. She was only 29 years old, and left four children, 9,7,4 and
2 years old. She was buried at Springwood in the Swearingen cemetery
adjacent to the present-day Hendrix house on NCTC property, near
Hezekiah’s wife who had died 5 years before. Phoebe was a
sister to Abraham Shepherd’s wife Eleanor, so presumably the
Swearingen and Shepherd families would both have mourned at her
graveside on the little hill east of the house (this hill and cemetery
were part of a large orchard described in a 1797 property division,
so you can also imagine the mourners surrounded by young apple trees
on three sides.) 1787Indian Van Swearingen had more important issues than fighting over land on Terrapin Neck this year. Writing from his home on the Ohio River, he penned a letter to the military authorities describing what had recently happened to his son Thomas, and asking for help. A father’s anguish is clear as he writes to a Col. Butler on 29th September, 1787: Sir Another
account of the incident is in the form of a 16 Dec. 1787 letter
from Indian Van Swearingen to his cousin Josiah Swearingen in Shepherds
Town after the disappearance of Thomas: 1788Death of
another patriarch - Col. Van Swearingen died, 69
years old. In his will, written several
months before his
death,
he first told his heirs to divide his property between
themselves equally (his wife and four children were
each to get a fifth),
then a day later added a codicil to ensure that his daughters
received specific properties. His will specified, among
other details, that
the land was to be divided up so that water access was
retained for each of the parcels, and son Hezekiah
was to retain his
use of the “water meadow” just west of the
estate house (BCWB 1, p489). Van’s direct heirs included
4 adult children, and his widow and second wife Priscilla
and her daughter
Peggy,
who was still a child. A list of his personal property
included 13 slaves, 24 horses, about 30 beef or dairy cattle,
65 sheep,
66 hogs, various household goods and farming implements,
and 9 beehives. The complete list is included in the appendix.
Later
additions to this list include 2 casks of “Cyder”,
7 mill bags, 60 flour casks, 1 wagon, 1 harrow, over 260
bushels of wheat, 39 1/2 bushels of rye, 4 barrels of corn,
1 ton of
hay, and 18 barrels of flour in Baltimore (BCWB 2, p39,
146). His estate
also paid 320 pounds of tobacco for the recording of the
will and appraisement of the estate, paid for the repair
of three
tobacco
hogsheads, and sold 6 hogsheads of tobacco (for over £47),
all suggesting that tobacco was still a cash crop on Swearingen
land at this time. 1789The
Swearingen siblings and heirs of Col. Van had not yet reached a
final agreement over settlement of their father’s estate,
but apparently the 4 siblings expected trouble from their young
stepmother: “...whereas doubts have arisen and controverseys
are like to take place respecting the will of the said Van Swearingen,
so far as relates to the said Priscilla...”, Priscilla
was given 150 acres on the eastern side of the home tract - which
was, of course, the acreage on Terrapin Neck that was involved with
the Hite controversy! This parcel included “the tenement
whereon Elizabeth Eade now lives”, a spring at the river,
and about 4 acres of meadow (suggesting 146 acres was not a meadow).
She was also given the negro man James, a woman named Grace, and
a boy named Clem, all to be “held during her natural lifetime
and no longer”. She and her heirs “forever”
were given horses, furniture, kitchen items, 40 barrels of Indian
corn, 100 bushels of wheat and one stack of hay in the meadow. She
was forgiven a debt of 42 pounds, 15 shillings, eleven pence “for
sundry articles purchased at the sale of the said Van Swearingen”.
The siblings also agreed to “in some short convenient
time finish the dwelling house of Elizabeth Eade” for
Priscilla “in a complete manner”, and fence
in a plot for a garden and build a barn. In return Priscilla had
to agree to give up any further claim on the Swearingen estate.
Priscilla, apparently unable to sign her name, made “her mark”
on the agreement. Van’s daughters Luranna and Drusilla, on
the other hand, were able to sign their names to the document (Berkeley
County Deed Book 10, p. 282 – a transcription is in the appendix).
It seems apparent that the four siblings had no intention of letting
their step-mother retain any control of their father’s house
and lands, though it had been her home for about 10 years or longer.
Estate documents some years later confirm that Josiah and Van’s
estates did pay some money to fix up a house for Priscilla, though
it is unknown how long she actually lived there. Considering that
Priscilla was still young enough to remarry, it was perhaps a prudent
move on the part of the Swearingen siblings if they wished the bulk
of the Springwood property to remain connected with the Swearingen
family (though it wasn’t particularly honest and forthright
to give her land that was tied up in a lawsuit). A note about Elizabeth
Eade: her husband Robert Eade died a few months before Van Swearingen,
the will witnessed by Van and Hezekiah (BCWB 2, p2). The Eades had
purchased Lot 41 in Mecklenburg in May of 1768 and it is unknown
why Elizabeth was now living in an unfinished cabin near Springwood.
Since another bereaved widow- Priscilla -was now moving in, the
arrangement must have been a temporary one. (A reasonable guess
for this cabin site would be east of the NCTC commons building on
a site overlooking the river where an old foundation can still be
seen, referred to as the Entler house; the Entlers occupied this
house site starting in the 1850s.) 1790Because “maney unreasonable delays has hitherto prevented a division of the said lands among the divisees” Drusilla Swearingen Rutherford, one of the 4 sibling heirs of the deceased Col. Van Swearingen, apparently became impatient and took legal action to force her two brothers, Josiah and Hezekiah, and her sister Lurannah, into an agreement that would select several men to appraise and subdivide their late father’s estate (BCDB 9, p. 344). So the appraisers were chosen and went to work. The 315 acres of the Springwood tract were valued at £1260 pounds; 190 acres of this property including the estate house went to Josiah, while the western remainder of 124 acres, including the river frontage, went to Hezekiah (now called RiverView Farm); Priscilla had received her 150 acres of this tract the year before. Hezekiah’s new acreage included an odd corridor that cut across Josiah’s property to the east, possibly in order to retain a route to the Terrapin Neck road and Shepherds Town, or perhaps to retain property where several slave cabins were likely located (what we now know as Shepherd Grade probably did not yet exist). The 242- acre tract close to Shepherdstown along the Potomac that Van had received in a 1760 Fairfax grant was valued at a little over £302 pounds, and was given to Lurannah and her husband William Bennett. Land in the old Van Meter Marsh patent (now the Heatherfield subdivision) totaling 173 acres, valued at over £432 pounds, went to Drusilla and her husband. To make up the difference in value between the properties, Josiah was required to pay sister Drusilla £64 pounds, 5 shillings in 3 equal payments over several years. Van’s will had earlier specified that Drusilla should receive the 2 houses and lots in Shepherdstown while the sibling’s half-sister Peggy, still a juvenile, was to receive 400 acres of land near “Big Sandy Creek”, a tributary of the Ohio River, (her mother is 2nd wife Priscilla) - this was bounty land given to Van for war-time service. The old Hite - Fairfax lawsuit continued to add to the family tension at this time. Judge Wythe threw out the Swearingen claim for their remaining Fairfax grants on Terrapin Neck in Hite v Fairfax. The “old paper from the Hites” strategy didn’t work--the Swearingen case no doubt also weakened because of the death of the venerable Van. An attachment was ordered against the Swearingen estate in order to pay the back rent and profits to the Hites. But inexplicably, Judge Wythe then ruled that the 1786 ruling should not go into effect on Terrapin Neck, and title should go to the present holders of the land - his phrase was they “should be quieted in their possession”. The Swearingen heirs and others on Terrapin Neck no doubt rejoiced at this turn of affairs, and Priscilla, Josiah and Indian Van could now retain their parcels in question, but unfortunately, Wythe’s ruling described them as “Tenants of Browning’s representatives”, opening the door for a Browning appeal. The Swearingens did not appeal the ruling, perhaps because the end result was they retained title to the land, albeit as “tenants” of Abraham Shepherd. The other Terrapin Neck landowners, i.e. Boydston, Metcalf, Lewis, and Williamson, had still not been officially notified by any court that their titles were in question. Several months later Abraham Shepherd, the Browning representative who now, courtesy of the court, had some “tenants”, urgently filed an appeal on behalf of the Browning heirs after he inadvertently heard about the Swearingen ruling (Hyman 1996). Abraham
Shepherd had other business to attend to that year
as well. Late in 1790 George Washington
visited
the area
on a tour of potential
sites for a national capital. Shepherd and several
other prominent local boosters had taken the trouble
to collect
subscriptions totaling
$20,662.66 to help show their ability to defray
the costs of constructing federal buildings
(Crothers,
n.d.). The
Shepherdstown area, located
in a region that could supply farm products to
a rapidly growing new country, was experiencing
a business
boom
as well; two towns
in Berkeley County now exceeded 1000 people, Shepherds
Town and Martinsburg. The first federal census
in 1790 estimated that there
were 3,893,635 people in the new United States.
Virginia was the most populous state with 747,610
people counted
(59% were white,
39% were enslaved Africans, 2% were free blacks
- U.S. Bureau of Census First Census of the
United
States) 1791John
Marshall was another prominent Virginia attorney retained by Shepherd
and the Brownings in this case. Within a few years he would become
the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States under
the Jefferson administration, and he personally would eventually
buy the remainder of the Fairfax holdings in Virginia. Shepherd
did not have the legal stature of John Marshall and other prominent
attorneys involved in the case, and Shepherd probably followed Marshall’s
lead in many aspects of the legal proceedings. In March of 1791,
for example, John Marshall wrote Shepherd regarding the landholders
on Terrapin Neck who held title via Fairfax, telling Shepherd “to
demand possession of them and if they refuse to give it, Let me
know immediately - only their names, that I may commence suits against
them - Let me know by what title they hold..” Marshall
had been involved in the Hite-Fairfax controversy for most of his
legal career, arguing the case on the side of Fairfax. His added
role in the Browning case on Terrapin Neck stemmed not necessarily
from being for the Browning cause, but only because the Brownings
were arguing, like the Fairfax estate, against the Hite claim (Hyman
1996). 1792In February,
the heirs of Col. Van Swearingen signed a conveyance of the Terrapin
Neck land in contention to the Browning heirs (BCDB 10, p.151) after
being threatened with contempt of court and a jail sentence by Shepherd
- the Brownings paid the Swearingens 5 shillings for the land, the
traditional token amount. In fact, Shepherd had won only an attachment
to the Swearingen property, but he seems to have convinced the Swearingens
that this meant that they had to turn over the property, or perhaps
they preferred to lose the property rather than other resources.
This transaction now required that about 184 acres of the northern
portion of Terrapin Neck be turned over to the Browning heirs -
and 100 acres of this total came out of step-mother Priscilla and
her new husband’s 150 acres!!! Perhaps from the perspective
of the four Swearingen siblings, this property had already been
“lost” in 1789 when they had deeded it over to Priscilla
for the duration of her natural life. Josiah Swearingen would lose
(temporarily) 84 1/2 acres from the remaining Springwood estate,
now the southern portion of NCTC adjacent to Shepherd Grade and
Terrapin Neck road. The Swearingen heirs also had to worry about
paying the rents and profits dated from 1786. One wonders if Abraham
Shepherd felt uncomfortable about relieving his fellow Revolutionary
War comrade-in-arms and brother-in-law Josiah of his land and money. 1793In December,
Abraham Shepherd successfully argued in Chancery
Court to get Terrapin
Neck holders to move
off the
land and give
title over to the Browning heirs. The
court was also asked to figure out how much rent
and profit
the
Browning heirs
were owed.
Neighbor
Boydston was thrown in jail for a day
after refusing to move off his land. A jury summoned
into Shepherdstown
by
Shepherd
had heard
the case, and actually voted against
Shepherd!
in favor of the current land holders
on the Neck. Local
opinion
apparently
wasn’t
going to get Shepherd very far, so Shepherd
appealed to the District Court at Winchester.
The Winchester jury
found for
Shepherd and
the Browning heirs, allowing the eviction
of Boydston and others on the Neck. Boydston
asked
for an injunction
against this
ruling, which was granted. 1794“In
the year 1794 the French Revolution
broke out, when
bread stuffs of every kind suddenly
became enormously
high; in consequence of which the
farmers in the Valley abandoned the cultivation
of tobacco and turned their attention
to wheat,
which they raised in vast quantities
for several years. It was no uncommon
thing for the farmer, for several
years
after the commencement
of the French Revolution, to sell
his crops of wheat from one to two, and sometimes
at two and a half dollars per bushel,
and his
flour from ten to fourteen dollars
per
barrel in our seaport towns.” (from
Kercheval 1833) 1795 Tragedy
strikes again - on August 9, Josiah Swearingen died,
51 years
old (his cousin
Van
and his uncle Thomas
died at almost
the exact same age). There was
not a will recorded at the courthouse,
suggesting
a more sudden
death; the settlement
of the estate
over the next several years as
the probate legalities were
followed is detailed in over
9
pages in
Berkeley County Will Book 3,
pages 463-72. The children, now orphans,
were 18, 16, 13 and 11 years
old. Josiah was
buried
next to
his wife,
sister-in-law
and
two young nieces at Springwood.
(There may be other burials there
-
we don’t know where Col. Van, his first wife Sarah, his daughter
Rebecca, or his son Thomas were buried, for example, and this seems
a possible spot). The estate recorded the services of coffin-maker
Robert Selby who made two caskets, one presumably for Josiah, the
other for a negro woman. Two gallons of port wine were provided
by William Blackford, apparently for the memorial services, and
a quantity of whiskey was also necessary for the “Appraisement
of Estate”. A housekeeper, Sally Noland, was retained until
the following March. Daughter Eleanor went to live with the Henry
Bedinger family, while son James, born at Springwood and now 13
years old, took up clerking in Berryville the same year (H.H Swearingen).
Brothers Thomas and Samuel were probably still living in the Shepherdstown
area. Josiah’s estate settlement gives an interesting glimpse
of farming life in the mid-1790s. Crews were contracted over the
next few years to plant, harvest, haul and clean many bushels of
wheat and rye. One of the recurring payments was for whisky and
wine to the field crews, no doubt some or all of them slaves. For
example, on July 9th, 1796 the crew went through 4 gallons of whisky
and two quarts of wine. On November 7th another crew went through
5 1/4 gallons of whiskey while husking corn. Two quarts of whisky
were paid men working for Eleanor. A sequence of payments in 1797
shows how some goods were brought to market: 27 flour casks were
purchased from “Smurr and Williams”, a payment was
made for carriage of these casks to the river, another payment
for 27 barrels of flour floated to “the falls” (Great
Falls), another payment for storage
at the falls, another for carriage
to Alexandria,
and then a final payment
for cooperage
and storage
at Alexandria. Another shipment
of 31 barrels of flour was sold
at Norfolk,
though there
is no mention of how
the flour
got there.
Also mentioned are 1 1/2 bushels
of flax seed,
a sale of timothy seed, and various
quantities of corn. No mention
is made of
tobacco. 1796Josiah’s daughter
Eleanor, now an heiress with land and slaves, married Thomas
Worthington, also from a wealthy, prominent local family. In addition
to administering his family’s estate, Worthington had been
working recently in Shepherdstown as a part-time deputy sheriff.
The wedding took place in the parlor of Eleanor’s aunt and
uncle - Capt. Abraham and Eleanor Shepherd. Apparently the Browning
lawsuit had not lessened Nellie’s affection for her aunt and
uncle, and perhaps she wasn’t aware of her uncle’s role
in all that had transpired . Thomas Worthington also became the
legal guardian of his new wife’s younger brothers. Worthington
had recently returned from Ohio territory, having first been sent
out to Ohio by General Darke to locate and survey Darke’s
land that had been given as bounty lands for his service in the
Revolution; Darke eventually sold the land to Worthington at a low
price. General Darke had become like a father to the young Worthington
after losing all his sons in various military operations, including
St. Clair’s Defeat several years earlier. As a child, Worthington
had lost his father in the Revolutionary War (Dandridge 1910). Josiah
Swearingen didn’t live long enough to acquire land “over
the river” in Ohio, but all of his children would eventually
settle there. 1797Because
of the Boydston appeal, more court-ordered
depositions were
taken concerning
Terrapin Neck
lands. 1798 Taking
up the Terrapin Neck lawsuit
appeal on behalf
of Boydston
and the
Terrapin Neck landowners,
the Richmond
Court again
found in favor of
Shepherd and the Browning heirs.
One of the
witnesses
for Thomas
Boydston was
John Welch,
who,
when questioned by
Abraham Shepherd about why Shepherd
had undertaken the
Browning cause,
answered: 1799Ill
health forced James Swearingen, son of Josiah, to give up his clerking
job, so at 17 years of age, he moved to Chillicothe, Ohio, in 1799
after swapping his Virginia land near Shepherdstown with land owned
by his brother-in-law Thomas Worthington out in Ohio. He began a
long military career a year later. He was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant
in 1803 and was among those given the task of building Ft. Dearborn,
which later grew to become the city of Chicago. (H.H. Swearingen
1884).
1800Abraham
Shepherd and his wife had
the last
of their 8
children
this year, with
the birth of
Charles
M. Shepherd.
Older
brothers
still alive
included Henry, Rezin
Davis,
Abram, and
James Hervey,
along
with
sisters Annie
and Eliza.
Young Rezin
was named
for Rezin Davis,
a Revolutionary
War
colleague
of Abraham’s
that had commanded
the Light Horse
Brigade from
Hagerstown,
Maryland 1802-1803The
court made its final decree on the judgement levied against the
Swearingen estate. Abraham Shepherd, the “thin-visaged little
man, of prominent features, full of energy” would shortly
begin acquiring various parcels of Terrapin Neck, and within a few
years would own 750 acres of Terrapin Neck and the surrounding area.
Much of the land acquired by Abraham Shepherd would stay in the
Shepherd family for almost a century. 1805-1806Final
depositions
were
taken
at
Abert’s
Tavern
in Shepherdstown
regarding
the Hite-Browning-Fairfax
legal
proceedings
on Terrapin
Neck.
Local
people
were
still
perplexed
at how
the landholders
on Terrapin
Neck
had lost
their
land.
The merits
of
the landholder’s
claims
had clearly
not been
presented
to a
court,
and even
back
then
the landholders
on Terrapin
Neck
were
considered
victims
of legal
maneuvers
to gather
Fairfax
assets
in the
wake
of the
Revolutionary
War.
1807More
of the Springwood tract was sold to Abraham Shepherd. Abraham prior
to this time owned only the 50 acre parcel once owned by Priscilla,
but now Josiah’s son Thomas Swearingen, described in the deed
as a resident of the “Northwestern Territory” sold his
inherited 138 acres of Springwood to uncle Abraham Shepherd for
$1380 dollars “current money of Pennsylvania” (JCDB
3, p325). This left 137 acres of Springwood adjacent to the river
still in his brother Samuel’s hands, though brother Samuel
would also sell his portion to uncle Abraham in a couple of years.
RiverView Farm to the west was still owned by Hezekiah Swearingen
and his son Van, while the ferry service across the Potomac, the
original Bellevue mansion and surrounding lands were also still
owned by heirs of Thomas “of the Ferry” Swearingen.
Another Thomas Swearingen with his wife Margery still owned and
operated the mill and surrounding lands near Scrabble at this time.
Why didn’t young Thomas sell or rent the Springwood property
to one of his numerous Swearingen relatives in the area? Hezekiah
in particular should have been interested in the property, though
it should be noted that there are no records of Hezekiah acquiring
any local property other than that given to him by his father. Family
feud? Did young Thomas, like his sister, have a warm regard for
his uncle Abraham? Did Abraham Shepherd offer more than the Swearingens?
Were the remaining Swearingens concerned about retaining title after
over 35 years of wrangling over ownership of adjacent property,
or just uninterested, or perhaps hard up for money after years of
court battles? The young brothers could not hope to make a living
from the small acreage on the Potomac, and many of their peers and
neighbors were moving to Ohio and Kentucky. Perhaps it should not
be too surprising that Abraham Shepherd ultimately ended up with
the property, though not everyone in the neighborhood was happy
with his methods of acquiring land. It’s interesting that
Hezekiah deeded the northern 140 acres of RiverView Farm adjacent
to the new Shepherd property to his son Van this year, while he
kept the southern half of the property. Son Van likely built the
house and building complex west of the present-day NCTC water treatment
plant shortly before or after this time. In the 1807 deed Hezekiah
specifically asked that he be given the right to occupy and gain
profit for his own benefit for the remainder of his life “a
piece of meadow ground containing about 4 acres called the wet meadow
near Abraham Shepherd being part of the land conveyed to me by my
father” (JCDB 4, p. 106). The springs within the wet
meadow were perhaps the most reliable source of water for Hezekiah’s
property to the south, but were also the closest water supply to
Shepherd’s new house, the property line giving each of them
access to a part of the spring, a legacy of the instructions given
to the surveyors for Lord Fairfax in the 1750s. This 4 acres is
the area west of the estate house where the pond and cottage are
today. At the time, the route from Shepherdstown to the estate house
may not have been as direct, as “Shepherd Grade” had
probably not been built yet in its current alignment. The road to
Shepherd’s house would have had to go around the narrow corridor
owned by the Swearingens on RiverView Farm, and entered from further
east on Terrapin Neck.
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