A Portrait of Old George Town

ings o

Williamsburgs named for the sovereign of the time, but this George Town of which I write was in Maryland on the Potomac River, and because it was situated at the head o

The Capital City of the great United States of America, concerns

Historie of Virginie of "the mildness of the aire, the fertilitie of the soil, and the situation of the rivers to the nature and use of man as no place more con

e river as far as the Little Falls, trading furs with

estion the most pleasant in all this country and most convenient for habitation; the air temperate in summer and not violent in winter. The riv

ptive is not quite certain, but evidently this writing of his was to good purpose, for, in the nex

Ocean and the Potomac River. The tribe living within the limits of the present District of Columbia was the Nacotchankes or Anacostians, as the British called them, hence, the name given to t

strung out along the river. From it came a large part of their food

hed down by the river ages before. In later years they paved the streets of Georgetown, but these Indians used them to form arrow-darts, knives, spear points, scrapers, and drills

e, and from it and from clay, the Indians

r their goods for these implements, and so, over three hundred

olony of Maryland differed from the other colonies in the fact that all the land was the property of Lord Baltimore, to give or sell as he pleased. Another differe

acres was made to Ninia

and Proprietor of the

nian Beall of Prince Georges County had due un

James

Chapt

Rock of Dunbarton, lying in the said County, beginning at the Southwest corner Tree, of a trac

y only for all manner of services yielding and paying therefor yearly unto us and our heirs at our receipt at the City of St. Maries at the two most usual feasts in the year-at the feast of

ousand seven hundred and three, witness our trusty and well beloved Colonel He

ll; he was made a prisoner at the battle of Dunbar, September 3, 1650, and sentenced to five years servitude in the Barbadoes, West Indies. Many gentlemen were so sentenced as political prisoners and sent out as industrial

d, in 1699, the General Assembly passed an Act of Gratitude

the Falls and so knew this region long before he was granted this tract of the Rock of Dunbarton. He

ear Upper Marlboro, Maryland. From a description of h

nusually heavy growth of long red hair, and was over six feet in heig

ix sons and six daughters

on, lying and being at Rock Creek, containing four hundred and eight acres, with all the stock thereon

er beds, bolster and pillow and other furniture thereunto belonging, with two cows and calv

yled himself Thomas Beall of George; of him we shall hear more later on. The family was not

manufacture at Leith, near Edinburgh, so it is evident that, when he came to this country, he had means which he invested in Prince Geo

rchant." The tract conveyed was one hundred acres, known as "Knaves' Disappointment," a part of three hundred acre

house lot," an acre close to the southwest intersection of Falls and Water Streets (M Street and Wisconsin Avenue). He resided nearby at the site of 3206 M. Street. Later on, in 1745, George Gordon bought an estate for a permanent hom

r, who had married Tobias Belt. To his son, John, "mariner," who was in the East India service, he devised

ter called it "the meat, drink, clothing, and money of the colonists."

h head and an axle run through from one end to another. To this axle a shaft was attached, and drawn by a horse or an ox, so rolled along over the rough roads o

ruder III, Josiah Beall, David Lynn. Appointed as their successors from time to time as vacancies occurred, were: Andrew Heugh, 1754; Robert Peter, 1757; John Murdock, 1766; Thomas Richardson, 1772; William Deakins, Jr., 1772; Bernard O'Neill, 1782; Thomas Beall, of George, 1782; Benj. Sto

Beall, 1757-1774; Robert Ferguson,

hrough all the years until 1789, when,

y of ground for the town was made, among the tra

Disappointm

(Thomas

ppointment (

y (Rober

Salop (Joh

pect (Benja

d Rock of Dumbart

nation. George Gordon chose numbers 48 and 52. George Beall had refused to recognize the proceedings of the commissioners in any way, so he was notified that "if he did

72 and 79, said to be Mr. Henderson's and Mr. Edmonston's. But I do hereby protest and declare that my acceptance of the said lots, which is b

ge B

h 7,

rds, have been about sixty years of age or more) to cooperate with the changes that

e eastern a few feet west of the present 30th Street, and the northern boundary was a few feet south of the present N Street. The only boundary stone still existing is t

ges from whom the land was taken, and to George Washington, which last is, of course, absurd