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 Talbot County Maryland

Welcome to Maryland American History and Genealogy Project we are in the process of building new State and County pages for the states where the coordinator has moved on to other projects. Talbot County is looking for a new Coordinator would you be interested? If so please contact Webmaster. Many of the present coordinators are always willing to give help and suggestions to newcomers, you can learn, I did and that was after 60!! Read our About Page and see what our requirements are, pretty easy!

"Talbot County was formed in 1660-61. The order by which it was created has not been found, but the Assembly proceedings first show its existence in this year. The existing records of the province have not discovered to us what were its exact limits anterior to the year 1706. In that year they were definitely settled by the existing Act of 1706, which enacts that the bounds of Talbot County shall contain Sharp's Island, Choptank Island, and all the land on the north side of the Great Choptank River; and extend itself up the said river to Tuckahoe Bridge; and from thence with a straight line to the mill commonly called and known by the name of Swetnam's Mill, and thence down the south side of Wye River to its mouth, and thence clown the Bay to the place of beginning, including Poplar Island and Bruffs Island.

The second public school in Maryland was established in Talbot under the Act of 1723. That this school was something more than a mere elementary school is clear from the curriculum laid down in the Act, namely, "Grammar, Good Writing and Mathematics." There is sufficient evidence for believing that the Talbot Free School was better supplied with good teachers than the private subscription schools, which were often filled by indentured servants, Bampfylde Moore Carew, the "King of the Beggars," came to Talbot as an unwilling emigrant, and the captain of the ship that brought him over recommended him to a planter of Bayside as a "great scholar and an excellent schoolmaster." The school seems to have prospered for a long series of years and was "looked upon as the most frequented in the province." But after the year 1764 no record of it has been found. How long it flourished and when it ceased to exist is unknown. It is believed, upon tradition merely, that it continued in successful operation up to the outbreak of the Revolutionary War. Talbot people have long cherished their public schools as their most valued privilege and right.

The county has an area of 285 square miles, and derives its name from Lord Talbot. It is cut up into peninsulas by the Chesapeake and its tributaries, and is famous for its landscapes and waterscapes. Agriculture, canning and oyster-catching are its industries. It has furnished Governors, United States Senators, a Secretary of the Treasury and numerous State and national officials and men of mark. Maryland's first historian came from Talbot, and it was the home of Robert Morris' father and the birthplace of John Dickinson. The Delaware and Chesapeake, and Baltimore, Chesapeake and Atlantic are its transportation lines. Easton,* the county seat, was the former "capital" and seat of government on the Eastern Shore, and the first newspaper on this side of the Bay was established there more than a century ago. Oxford and St. Michael's are also historic.

* Population, 3,074.

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Source: History of Maryland, by L. Magruder Passano, Wm. J.C. Dulany Company, 1901.

 
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