Site History

Site 18CH778 is located about two miles south of the current Charles County seat of La Plata, Maryland. In 1661, Daniel Johnson and William Morris patented 700 acres there called the “Johnsontown” tract. It is unclear whether they lived at the site, but they sold it only four years later to Henry Hawkins who indeed did reside there until his death in 1699. After Hawkins died, his widow, Elizabeth, may have continued to live there until she died in 1717. Their son, also named Henry Hawkins, inherited the property, but he moved to another tract called “Faire Fountain” several miles away. More research is necessary to determine who, if anyone, resided at Johnsontown after Elizabeth Hawkins’ death.

Archaeology

No systematic archaeological study has ever been undertaken at Johnsontown, but random surface collections in the 1980s and 1990s compiled a collection of artifacts that date the site from c. 1670-1740. Diagnostic tobacco pipes with maker’s marks and ceramics such as Rhenish brown stoneware, Staffordshire slipware, and white salt-glaze stoneware are the basis of the site’s date range.

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The Johnsontown archaeological collection is owned by the Maryland Historical Trust, and is curated at the Maryland Archaeological Conservation Laboratory.