Bennett's Point Site (18QU28)

The Bennett’s Point site (18QU28) is part of a colonial period tobacco plantation located in Queen Anne’s County. The site was the core of the plantation during the first half of the 18th century, and is one of only a handful of excavated sites from that era on the Eastern Shore.

Bennett’s Point was the home of Peter and Frances Sayer between 1675 and 1698, and Elizabeth and Richard Bennett III between 1700 and 1749. It was also a major port. 18QU28 primarily dates to the period when the Bennetts lived there. Richard Bennett was a lawyer, planter, and merchant, and was known as America’s first millionaire.

Members of the Archaeological Society of Delaware (ASD) conducted intermittent excavations at Bennett’s Point between 1966 and 1974, before and during the construction of a housing development. Because this was salvage work, field notes and other records are limited. ASD volunteers first excavated shovel test pits to locate activity areas. Over the course of the investigation, they found between three and seven structures on the property, but their primary focus was Icehouse Point, where several sub-surface features were uncovered. These included Pit A, the brick foundation of a dwelling, and an eroding foundation of a second building.

During June/July 1968 and May 1969, ASD archaeologists focused on the excavation of Pit A at Icehouse Point, which they interpreted as a three-foot deep 18th-century trash pit. ASD members uncovered the southwest corner of a brick foundation at Icehouse Point in August 1969. Forty-eight test units were excavated to reveal the foundation, which measured 22 feet by 80 feet. Two massive H-shaped hearth foundations were located in the center of the dwelling’s western half, with four rectangular pits on either side. This structure was probably built in the late 17th century and was used as a residence until the mid-1760s, when it was destroyed by fire. Excavation ended in June 1973 to allow for the construction of a new house on the site.

In 1969, an eroding foundation on the beach at Icehouse Point was examined through the excavation of four test units. This area was revisited in 1973, when two units were opened to reveal an associated refuse pit. The pit produced a wide variety of late 17th- and 18th-century artifacts.

ASD members also documented the Bennett’s Point cemetery in May 1969. They discovered a number of underground, vaulted brick crypts, several headstones, and a brick wall foundation surrounding the graveyard. Gravestones were recorded for Richard Bennett, Elizabeth Bennett, D. Caroll, and an unknown sailor.

Nearly 30,.000 artifacts were recovered at 18QU28, including many ceramic vessels, 12 wine bottle seals (most with Richard Bennett’s mark), a gold-plated button, two book hinges, a coin weight, a copper alloy pestle handle, a carved bone medallion, a complete fireplace shovel, and an ornamental architectural plaster fragment. The collection is useful for documenting the kinds of material culture found on an 18th-century plantation on Maryland’s Eastern Shore.

(Edited from Archaeological Collections in Maryland)