Phase II and Phase III Archaeological Database and Inventory
18TA355 Pleasant Valley Farm
Diagnostic Artifact Data
Features
Summary
Pleasant Valley Farm, 18TA355, is the archeological deposits associated with 17th and 18th-19th century occupations of a plantation and manor house near Easton on Maryland’s eastern shore. The site is in Talbot County, directly east of the Miles River on 325 acres of privately-owned land. The property is dominated by a fine brick Georgian manor house built ca. 1773. The bulk of the site and surrounding landscape is in agricultural production (i.e. fields). Soils at the site are primarily Mattapex silt loams and soils of the Hambrook-Sassafras complex.
In the historic period, a succession of owners, tenants, and slaves are known to have occupied the property presently known as Pleasant Valley Farm. While the manor house dates to the late 18th century, the property was settled as early as 1669 by Richard Carter, who named it St. Michaels Fresh Run. Carter managed to accumulate a considerable fortune from his plantation, a grain milling operation, and merchant trading. After his death in 1708/09, the property was divided three ways among the heirs of his brother, but his wife retained dower rights to the dwelling and one-third of the acreage. She appears to have returned to England in 1711.
It is unclear who operated the plantation through 1743 when Robert Goldsborough, of Myrtle Grove on the St. Michale’s River, acquired a lease on the property. He purchased the plantation in 1760. At some point Goldsborough installed the oldest son of his second marriage, Howes Goldsborough, on the property. The existing manor house was built in 1773 when Howes married a cousin, Rebecca Goldsborough. The Goldsboroughs and their heirs prospered on the plantation into the 19th century. However, hard times after the War of 1812 and the Panic of 1819 eventually resulted in the public sale of the property in 1829.
Col. William Hughlett purchased the property at that sale and added it to his extensive holdings in the area. His will of 1845 is the first to refer to the property as Pleasant Valley. The property was included in his wife’s dower estate, with the provision that it go to their daughter Martha upon the wife’s death. Martha deeded her interest to her mother in 1859. Grandson Thomas Hughlett was willed the property in 1863. Thomas and his wife resided at Pleasant Valley into the 20th century.
In 1910, Lydia Hughlett, Thomas’ widow, sold Pleasant Valley to Clinton Henry. The property did not prosper in this period and passed through a number of hands until 1934 when Authur Dodge and his wife Frances purchased the property. Dodge was a retired businessman, and put considerable resources into restoring the property. Heisler Harrington and his wife, Ethel, purchased the estate in 1946 and continued to maintain the property. Subsequent to the Harringtons’ death, the property was sold to John and Jennifer Waters in 1984.
The site was first documented archeologically in 2001 during the Annual Field Session in Maryland Archeology. The Annual Field Session is a cooperative venture between the Archeological Society of Maryland, Inc. (ASM), and the Maryland Historical Trust (MHT). The purpose of the field session is to train lay persons in archeological methods and to teach Maryland’s past through hands-on involvement, while making meaningful contributions to the study of Maryland archeology. Sites are selected for their research potential, endangerment, and for their suitability as a training site.
In a non-systematic way, archeological resources had been documented in the immediate area of the extant Georgian manor house, including materials that could date to the earliest period of historic occupation on the property. In addition, several other historic occupation areas are known (through documentation of imagery) and several areas appear to possess a high sensitivity for prehistoric resources.
The 2001 Field Session focused primarily on an area located a few hundred meters from the manor house where a substantial brick foundation had been identified in a plowed field. Artifacts dating from the late 17th through mid 18th century had been recovered at this location. It was thought that this site was either the first or second main plantation residence on the property. In addition, Archaic and Woodland period prehistoric materials had also been found in this area. A nearly 70 m2 area was excavated in this main area of excavation. An area in the front yard, west of the extant house was subject to limited investigation consisting of remote sensing and test excavations. Four 1 X 1 m units were excavated in this area, with a much larger area surveyed via ground penetrating radar and magnetometer.
Excavations proceeded in two meter square excavation units, with some units being only 1 m square. Plowzone soils were excavated by shovel, and the plowzone-subsoil interface was carefully scraped and examined for evidence of features. Features were recorded in plan and selected features were sampled through sectional excavation by trowel and other hand tools. All excavated soil was screened through hardware cloth to insure uniform recovery of cultural material. Soil samples for flotation or other analyses were collected at the supervisor’s discretion.
Excavation also proceeded stratigraphically with soil layers (strata) and then subdivided into 10 cm arbitrary levels. After the depth of the plowzone was known, and in the interest of faster exposure of the plowzone-subsoil interface, the plowzone was excavated as a single layer. Excavation within features also proceeded in the same manner, but as a separate provenience from the larger unit.
A picture of two very different occupations emerged in the two tested areas. In the larger/main excavation area, materials dated primarily to the turn of the 18th century, and a portion of manor house, characterized by a brick-lined cellar and other features, as well as a possible detached kitchen outbuilding, denoted by a large unlined pit and associated and associated postholes were uncovered. By contrast, an area of mid 17th century settlement was identified in the smaller/limited testing area in the front yard.
A total of 19 features were identified in the larger excavation area. These included a brick-lined cellar (measuring approximately 3.75 X 3 meters), associated builder’s trenches, a possible bulkhead entry, several postholes and molds (or suspected postholes), and a large pit (measuring approximately 3.5 X 2.75 m). The brick-lined cellar was interpreted to be the location of an abandoned manor house. However, this area had been previously disturbed by informal investigations making feature identifications difficult. Soils excavated within units placed in the cellar interior suggest possibly three episodes of filling following the abandonment of the cellar.
The large, unlined pit was associated with several of the aforementioned postholes, suggesting a structure. Significant artifact assemblages were recovered from the fill of the unlined pit and appear to relate to the use of the building and its demolition. It was interpreted to possibly represent the remains of a kitchen outbuilding.
The plowzone in the main excavation area included materials deposited during the occupation and demolition of the complex, and seemingly small amounts of material subsequently deposited, probably to help fill a low spot at the brick-lined cellar. Overall, this portion of the site appears to represent a “second-generation” manor built in the early 18th century by a first generation planter, Richard Carter (see above), and then occupied primarily by tenants, servants, and slaves after Carter’s death. The complex seems to have been abandoned and demolished at about the time the extant manor house was completed for Howes Goldsborough, ca. 1773.
Artifacts recovered during the 2001 excavations in this portion of Site 18TA355 included 1,936 architectural artifacts, at least 59 ceramic sherds, 1,505 other kitchen-related items, 59 pipestem fragments, and 1,072 miscellaneous objects. The ceramic assemblage included 1 Buckley sherd, 2 Jackfield sherds, 5 buff-bodied earthenware sherds, 25 delftware sherds, 10 redware sherds, 6 Staffordshire slipware sherds, 3 white salt-glazed stoneware sherds, 1 English Brown Stoneware sherd, 3 Rhenish Brown stoneware sherds, and 3 Westerwald sherds. In addition to these historic finds, a small prehistoric assemblage was obtained, but is not interpreted to be significant. The assemblage included a Kirk projectile point, 1 other point/point fragment, 13 flakes, 2 other lithic tools, 2 pieces of fire-cracked rock, 4 fragments of daub, and 4 prehistoric sherds.
In the front yard area ground penetrating radar and magnetometry were used to survey the landscape for potential anomalies. In summary, 9 potential features were identified, the most promising of these being a magnetic anomaly measuring approximately 2.5 meter in diameter and which radar results suggested might be a pit with a depth of up to 70 cm. Four 1 X 1 m units were excavated over this anomaly revealing evidence of four or five features. These were two pits or swales (possibly two remnants of the same feature), 2 large postholes and a postmold. Unfortunately, there was not sufficient time to fully expose these features and determine their functions and associations. Researchers in 2001 felt confident that the findings in the front yard area were sufficient to suggest that this area was the location of Richard Carter’s first home on the property, ca. 1669.
Archeological resources in both areas of 18TA35 examined in 2001 appear to be significant and eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places for their ability to shed light on the colonial settlement of Maryland, including such topics as frontier consumer behavior, the expression and maintenance of social standing, and the world that planters, servants, and slaves made together on the Eastern Shore during the 17th and 18th centuries. Archeological resources at both locations should be protected from unnecessary disturbances and both are worthy of further research effort.
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