Patuxent Point(18CV271)

The Patuxent Point Site (18CV271) was the domestic core of an approximately 100-acre tobacco plantation occupied from c.1658 through the 1690s in Calvert County, Maryland. Excavations at the site revealed an earthfast dwelling, borrow pits, an ash-filled pit, middens, post holes, post molds, and eighteen human graves.

The Patuxent Point Site was part of Hodgkin’s Neck, a 100-acre tract of land first patented in 1651 by John Hodgins or Hodges. Hodgins died in 1655, and in 1658 his widow assigned her rights to the property to Captain John Obder. Obder probably took up residence at the site in 1658. By 1663, Obder was living on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, having apparently abandoned or leased Patuxent Point. An as-yet unidentified tenant family appears to have lived at the site until the end of the 17th century.

When the Patuxent Point Site was first occupied, the Maryland colony was embarking on what has been described as the "golden age" of the yeoman tobacco planter in the Chesapeake. Political stability and economic growth allowed many white, free male immigrants to accumulate wealth throughout the third quarter of the 17th century. By the 1680s, however, the tobacco economy was moving towards collapse, and the region entered a period of economic depression that lasted into the early 18th century. The Patuxent Point collection can be used to examine the material conditions of life during this period of growth and decline. It was also a time when enslaved African men and women began to replace indentured servants as the primarily labor force.

Thunderbird Archaeological Associates identified the Patuxent Point Site during a Phase I investigation in 1986, prior to the construction of a residential subdivision. Julia A. King of the Jefferson Patterson Park and Museum (JPPM) conducted Phase II and III excavations at the site in 1989 and 1990. These investigations included the controlled surface collection of 786 ten-by-ten-foot units and the excavation of 72 five-by-five-foot plow zone units. The plow zone was then stripped from the site, revealing numerous subsurface features and a previously undetected cemetery. Sixty-four 17th-century subsurface features were excavated, as well as several prehistoric Middle Woodland features.

The principal dwelling at Patuxent Point measured 20.5-by-40-feet, relatively large by 17th-century standards, and was of earthfast construction erected in pre-assembled sidewalls. It was divided into two or possibly three rooms on the ground floor with a loft above. At least one chimney of frame and clay construction heated a portion of the dwelling, and the floor was covered with wooden boards. Fragments of window glass and lead cames indicate that at least some of the windows were glazed. Late in the site’s occupation, the building’s rotten posts at its eastern end were replaced with wooden blocks to underpin the building. While evidence for other buildings at the site is sparse, at least one and perhaps more outbuildings probably existed. Numerous post holes and molds may indicate the locations of structures, but their arrangement is confusing. Interestingly, no evidence for ditch-set paling fences were recovered, despite extensive stripping of the plow zone following its sampling.

The cemetery at Patuxent Point is the earliest colonial family cemetery yet reported in Maryland, and is located 80 feet west of the principal dwelling. This 17th-century graveyard served as the burial ground for the Patuxent Point Site and possibly the nearby Compton Site (18CV279). JPPM archaeologists excavated all grave shafts by hand, and their fill was screened through ¼-inch mesh. The graves consisted of the skeletal remains of 19 remarkably well preserved individuals, including a fetus or newborn interred with a female presumed to be the mother. Interments were organized into two clusters, and all but one individual appears to be of European descent. The exception is a young man, buried holding a white clay tobacco pipe, who may have been of African ancestry.

(Edited from Archaeological Collections in Maryland)