Site History

The Roberts site (18CV350) contains the remains of what appears to be an 18th-century animal pen along with one or two badly degraded domestic components.  It is located on the outskirts of Prince Frederick in Calvert County, on a knoll overlooking Maryland Highway 2/4.

Unfortunately, destruction of land and judgment records in 19th-century Calvert County Courthouse fires makes the development of a complete chain of title for the property difficult.  However, the 26 acre parcel within which 18CV350 lies has been owned by the Roberts family since the late 19th century.  Prior to that, from at least 1884, it belonged to the Buckmasters.  Its ownership during the rest of the 19th century is less certain, but members of the Buckmaster family were involved in at least two prior transactions involving the parcel.  The tract was originally part of two much larger properties, the 310 acre “Borders Enlarged” tract and the 100 acre “Chance” tract.  Surviving records indicate that Borders Enlarged was owned by the Skinner family from as early as 1704 until sometime after 1810.  A wine bottle seal found during excavations at the Roberts site was marked with the initials I*S, suggesting it belonged to James or Joseph Skinner.  Little is known about the Skinner family from the surviving archival records.

Archaeology

The Roberts site was first identified in 1995 during a Phase I survey along MD Highway 2/4.  The survey consisted of shovel test pits (STPs), 13 of which were within the confines of 18CV350, which was identified as an 18th-century artifact scatter.  Recovered materials included 20 brick fragments, 2 window glass fragments, 2 cut nails, 1 wrought nail, 1 stoneware sherd, 1 whiteware sherd, 1 French wine bottle fragment, 4 other glass fragments, 4 oyster shells, 12 unidentified bone fragments, and 3 ball clay tobacco pipe fragments.  Based on these findings, Phase II/III investigations were conducted at the Roberts site from 2003-2005.  Fieldwork began with a general surface reconnaissance, followed by STPs excavated at 25’ intervals.  Based on the results, five 5’ X 5’ test units and one 2.5’ X 2.5’ test unit were excavated.  The Phase II test units revealed an 18th-century site with a low artifact density.  

During Phase III testing, approximately 0.6 acres of plowzone was mechanically stripped from the site. This revealed a fenced enclosure measuring approximately 90’ on each side, comprised of 37 paired postholes, with a probable gate opening on the west side.  A fifth line of 10 postholes, diverging N 8°E from the west fence line, was also uncovered, as were four largely truncated postholes paralleling, and just south of, the south fence line.  These four truncated postholes all contained burned daub inclusions, suggesting they may have formed part of a chimney bay for an earthfast house.  Within the enclosure were three large features: a rectangular pit in the northeast corner, a squarish feature in the northwest corner, and a very large ovoid feature near the southwest corner.  All features were excavated by natural or cultural levels, with the exception of one large feature excavated by arbitrary levels.  Organically-rich strata were wet-screened through window mesh to recover fish bone and other small finds, and had large flotation samples taken. 

The rectangular feature in the enclosure had sandy fill but no artifacts.  The squarish feature was filled with brick, charcoal, oyster shell, bone, and other artifacts, including a 1719 two-reales coin.  It appeared to be a root cellar, but no structural postholes were found within a 17’ radius of its center.  The possible cellar cut through one of the postholes in the fifth fence line, indicating that the fence predated the root cellar.  The large ovoid feature was difficult to interpret.  It contained only charcoal and a few artifacts and bones.  It was postulated that this feature, the sand-filled feature, and the enclosure were related to animal husbandry in some way. 

Among the artifacts recovered at 18CV350 were 697 brick fragments, 55 daub fragments, 11 window glass fragments, 250 nails (1 cut, 145 wrought, and 104 unidentified), a hinge, 6 buckles, a glass cufflink inset, 2 buttons, a thimble, 5 straight pins,3 furniture handles, a stock lock, 2 brass tacks, possible book clasp, an iron key, a bone etui/needle-case, a table knife, 312 ceramic sherds (58 tin-glazed earthenware, 32 manganese-mottled earthenware, 2 Staffordshire slipware, 4 creamware, 2 Chinese export porcelain, 66 white salt-glazed stoneware, 11 Rhenish stoneware, 4 Nottingham stoneware, 53 English Brown stoneware, 32 Westerwald stoneware, 6 miscellaneous stoneware, 38 redware, and 4 unidentified ceramics ), 246 glass fragments (64 table glass, 95 handmade wine bottle glass, a mason jar glass, and 86 other container glass), 181 tobacco pipe fragments, 4 snuff box pieces, 64 bones (1 cow, 3 sheep, 2 pig, 22 unidentified mammal, 3 bird, 3 terrapin, 7 fish, 23 other animal), 109 oyster shell fragments, and 29 peach pits.

Most of the artifacts from 18CV350 date to the 18th century, and are primarily pre-Revolutionary War.  The tobacco pipe data supports a second quarter of the 18th century date.  The significant historic component at the Roberts site includes an animal pen with at least one, and possibly two, features that may have been related to the care of livestock, as well as at least two earthfast houses, now much degraded by plowing and erosion.  

Summary by Edward Chaney

References

Archaeological collections from the Roberts Site are owned by the Maryland Historical Trust and curated at the Maryland Archaeological Conservation Laboratory.