Site History

Sites 18ST329 (Fly) and 18ST330 (St. Inigoes Manor House) are located aboard the Naval Air Station Patuxent River’s Webster Field Annex in St. Inigoes, Maryland. In 1637, Jesuit missionaries purchased the land where the sites are located and established a settlement there. These Jesuits were among the original investors in the Maryland colonial enterprise. The settlement at St. Inigoes was a working farm where inhabitants raised tobacco and other crops to support the Jesuit mission.

The earliest center of activity for the Jesuit plantation is most likely represented by a site that neighbors 18ST329 and 18ST330, Old Chapel Field (18ST233). The Fly/St. Inigoes Manor House site seems to have been the center of domestic activity on the settlement from c. 1680-1750, but a few early artifacts indicate that it also may have served a non-domestic function associated with the nearby mid-17th century occupation.

Archaeology

A series of studies of Webster Field have been conducted by the Southern Maryland Regional Center. The sites were identified by a 1981 field school, and further phase I testing took place in 1984 and 1996. When identified, 18ST329 and 18ST330 were designated separately based upon their location on either side of a modern road. Later projects proved that both sites had a historic component relating to the early 18th-century St. Inigoes Manor House, so the division was unnecessary.

Phase II testing of 18ST329/18ST330 and 18ST233 was undertaken in 2000. This project concentrated on features found during the 1984 survey. One of the features was a brick floor that, when exposed, proved to cover a 10 x 10 ft. area. The bricks appeared to have been lain inside an existing timber framed structure because at the corners they were placed to border posts.

The excavation of the brick floor exposed an older cellar beneath it which had several intact architectural elements such as a wooden sleeper for floor joists, intact studs, and large limestone pavers that ran parallel to the sleeper. The cellar was presumably dug in the late 17th or very early 18th century. The cellar fill included soils that had apparently eroded into the area, covering the limestone pavers. Later rubble from the collapse of a wall and a fireplace added to the fill. The brick floor was then placed atop the old cellar. The function of this structure is unknown, but it is clear that it was adapted and reused over time.

References

The 18ST329 and 18ST330 archaeological collections are owned by the Naval District Washington, Naval Air Station Patuxent River’s Webster Field Annex and curated by the Maryland Archaeological Conservation Laboratory.