Curtis Bay (18ST74)
Site History
The Notley Hall site (18ST74) is a precontact period site with Early, Middle, and Late Woodland components, as well as a 17th-century governor's house. The site is located on an unnamed tributary of Manahowic Creek in St. Mary’s County, Maryland.
Notley Hall was the plantation residence of Governor Thomas Notley from 1663 until 1679 and, after his death, Colonel William Digges. The documentary and archaeological evidence indicates that, in 1664, Thomas Notley, who had arrived in Maryland from Barbados in 1662, purchased the property from Thomas Gerard. Notley Hall was then known as Manahowick's Neck and was a part of St. Clement's Manor. Notley either built a dwelling or moved into an existing dwelling probably of earthfast construction. In 1672 or later, Notley built a new house of substantial size and proportion. During Notley’s residence, Manahowick's Neck occasionally served as a meeting place for the Maryland Council and became an important meeting location when the Calvert government would meet with the Piscataway and other Indian nations. A Court of Admiralty held at Manahowick's Neck in 1672 resulted in the confiscation of a Swedish ship's cargo and is probably the source of the yellow brick observed at the Notley Hall site and at a number of other contemporary sites in the Wicomico River.
Thomas Notley died in 1679 and he left the property to Charles Calvert, his friend and the third Lord Baltimore. Baltimore placed his step-daughter and her husband, Elizabeth and William Digges, in the house and renamed the property Notley Hall. "Notley Hall field" became an important space for militia and other political events, and at least some weapons from the colony's principal magazine at Mattapany were kept at Notley Hall. In 1689, the Protestant Associators seized Notley Hall in an uprising that ended Calvert rule in Maryland. Digges and his family fled the colony for Virginia and Notley Hall was put into use as a prison by the rebels. The property was restored to Baltimore in 1692. Archaeological evidence suggests the site was abandoned completely by 1700.
Archaeological Investigations
The site was originally recorded (initially as 18ST52) by archaeologist Barbara McMillan in 1972. This work was conducted as part of an archaeological survey of St. Mary's County in connection with her master’s degree at American University. The section on Notley Hall is sparse and only mentions prehistoric artifacts. McMillan described the site as measuring 1500 by 600 feet and consisting mostly of oyster shells in rich dark soil.
A small surface collection of artifacts was made in 1981 by Dennis Pogue and Michael Smolek to verify the site's 17th-century date. Smolek and Pogue divided the site into three main areas: A, B, and C. Area A, the northernmost area, was an intense scatter of red brick fragments with a few domestic artifacts. Artifacts seemed to be late in period (19th-20th century). North of the brick scatter is an extensive area of shell along Manahowic Creek. Area B, to the south, was a 100x50m dense scatter of architectural and domestic artifacts, including late 17th/early 18th century artifacts. Area C, to the south of that, was also a dense scatter of structural and domestic debris, also dating to the late 17th or early 18th centuries. Area B and/or Area C was thought to be the site of the home of colonial governor Thomas Notley (1676-1679). The site lies west of Notley Hall, a mid-late 18th-century structure with yellow brick nogging probably salvaged from this site.
In 2011, archaeologists from St. Mary's College of Maryland undertook the first systematic survey of the site's colonial portion. A total of 349 shovel tests were excavated over an area of 4.5 acres. This testing revealed the location of an intact brick foundation at least 16 inches wide which, when probed, appeared to measure at least 20-feet-by-40-feet in size. Artifact distributions suggest a building with an internal central chimney of red and yellow brick with a rear wing of "back rooms" heated by a gable end chimney. Evidence for at least two other structures and seven additional feature deposits, including a brick rubble feature, were found. The brick rubble feature may represent the remains of a cellar in the area of the building's "back room."
A magnetometer survey conducted in December 2013 by Dr. Tim Horsley revealed a "T"-shaped house plan with foundations at least partially of brick, with what may have been an approximately 200-foot brick drain leading from the house to the ravine draining into Manahowick's Creek.
This site had been collected for years by the landowners, who have an extensive collection including thousands of 17th-20th century and prehistoric artifacts including both ground stone and ceramics. Some of these artifacts were donated by the landowner to St. Mary's County and are likely curated at the St. Clements Island Museum.
References
2013 Archaeological Investigations at Notley Hall near Chaptico, Maryland. (St. Mary's College of Maryland) MHT # ST 262.
1972 An Archaeological Survey of St. Mary's County, Maryland. M.A. Thesis, American University. MHT# ST 107.
1981 Archaeological Investigations at Notley Hall (18 ST 75), St. Mary's County, MD. MHT# ST 27.
