Pope's Freehold (18ST2)
Site History
The Pope’s Freehold site (18ST2) is a multicomponent site consisting of a mid-18th- to mid-19th-century house site, a precontact and possibly historic shell midden, and a Woodland artifact scatter located in St. Mary’s City in St. Mary’s County, Maryland. The site is also known as Tabb's Purchase.
The first owner of property near the site was Nathaniel Pope, who purchased his 100-acre "freehold" in 1640. He may never have lived on the property, and by 1645 had moved to Virginia. The property was bought by Thomas Hatton in 1651. He lived there briefly but was killed near present-day Annapolis in the Battle of the Severn. In 1659, the house was owned by "Chancellor" Philip Calvert, son of the first Lord Baltimore, who lived there until at least 1677. However, it is probable that this 17th-century house is not the same as the Tolle-Tabbs House, which seems to be mid-18th century. The 17th century house may be located elsewhere on the property, but its precise location is unknown.
Pope's Freehold, the land on which this site lies, was granted to Robert Tolle in 1746, who developed the property and built a 16x28' home, described in the 1765 Snow Hill Memorandum Book as a "good dwelling house [with] brick chimneys." By 1765, the land and house were in the ownership of Reverend Moses Tabbs, minister of William and Mary Parish in St. Mary's City. He apparently added to the house another section, with two more rooms and a cellar, making the house a total of 30 × 32 feet, as described in the 1799 Federal Tax Assessment. This is close to the 1971-2 excavated dimensions of 28 × 32 feet.
Pope's Freehold was owned by a series of individuals during the first half of the 19th century but was apparently occupied mostly by tenants. Archaeology suggests that the Tolle-Tabbs house stood until about 1860 and domestic habitation of the tract then ceased. The property then passed through several owners, but all subsequent habitation occurred on the west side of MD Route 5 and remains in private ownership. The land on the east side of the road where the site is located was purchased by St. Mary's College in 1969.
Archaeological Investigations
The Pope's Freehold site was excavated in 1971 and 1972 by Historic St. Mary's City under the direction of Garry Wheeler Stone. The foundations of the 28 × 32 ft. house were exposed during the 1972 investigations, as well as a small trench feature filled with brick rubble and household trash located sixty feet from the house. In 1994, a Phase I survey was conducted in advance of streetscape improvements along the east side of MD 5. Five shovel test pits (1 × 1 feet) spaced at 20 and 40 foot intervals were excavated at the site.
A shell midden containing both precontact period and early historic artifacts has been found on the west side of MD 5, at the edge of 18ST2. It may be a precontact midden which was later used by the 17th- or 18th-century inhabitants of the site. Also, Miller et al. (1996) report that Woodland artifacts were found during the 1971-72 excavations of the Tolle-Tabbs house site.
References
1974 "A Tenant Farmer's Tableware: Nineteenth-Century Ceramics from Tabb's Purchase." Maryland Historical Magazine, Vol 69, no. 2 (Summer).
1996 A Phase I Archaeological Survey for the Maryland Route 5 Streetscape Project, St. Mary's City, Maryland. (SHA Rept. # 159). MHT # ST 142.
1972 Pope's Freehold Archaeology. MHT# ST 112.
