Collection: Robert Gilmor and William Trippe papers

The Robert Gilmor and William Trippe papers bring together the men and places of Dorchester County, a heart-shaped area of the Eastern Shore of Maryland, and provides a window on their lives for a seven month period from November 1776 to May 1777. The collection focuses on Captain William Trippe's (1725-1777) schooner "Hazzard" and trips made for Robert Gilmor and Co. for supplies during the Revolutionary War. It includes business accounts for goods received, goods delivered, and wages paid to sailors, as well as correspondence and intelligence reports concerning the British fleet in the Chesapeake Bay.

Dates

1776-1777

Use and Access to Collection

This collection is open for research.

Duplication and Copyright Information

Photocopies of original materials may be provided for a fee and at the discretion of the curator. Please see our Duplication of Materials policy for more information. Queries regarding publication rights and copyright status of materials within this collection should be directed to the appropriate curator.

Extent

0.25 Linear Feet

Additional Description

Scope and Content of Collection

The Robert Gilmor and William Trippe papers consists of 31 items, including correspondence, receipts and account statements, dating from November 1776 to May 1777, between merchants, militia officers and seamen in residence on the Eastern Shore of Maryland and Chincoteague Island, Virginia, and between merchants in Dorchester County and Baltimore.

Geographical History

Located on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, Dorchester County is bounded on the three sides by water. In the eighteenth century, the people of Dorchester County depended on the rivers and bays for transportation of their products. The Choptank River, the city of Cambridge, the small town of New Market, and Ennalls Ferry are on its northern border with Talbot County. Its western border is unbroken by the Chesapeake Bay. To the south is the Nanticoke River and Vienne. To the southeast beyond Somerset County are the Pocomoke River, Pitts Landing and Chincoteague, Virginia and finally the Atlantic Ocean.

In 1776 and 1777, the principal crops of Eastern Shore farmers were tobacco, corn and wheat. Area merchants bought the tobacco and other crops grown in the area and hired schooners to take it to the French West Indies for sale. The schooners returned with molasses, salt, coffee and rum and other commodities to be sold mainly in Baltimore. Many Eastern Shore men joined colonial militias to fight the British who had warships in the Chesapeake and along the Atlantic coastline.

Cap Francois, Hispaniola is now known as Cap Haitien, Haiti and is located on the northern coast of that island. The island is one of several formerly referred to as the French West Indies.

Chincoteague Island, Va., was a safe haven on the Atlantic where the "Hazzard" docked to and from Cap Francois.

Ennals Ferry was on the Choptank River near New Market, Md., in Dorchester County.

New Market, Md., is today known as East New Market and is about 11 miles east of Cambridge, Md.

Pitts Landing in Accomack County, Va., was on the Pocomoke River, across from Maryland; it had a tobacco warehouse.

Vienne, now Vienna, Md., is located on the western bank of the Nanticoke River in Dorchester County. In 1776, it was a trading center with a tobacco warehouse.

Arrangement

The collection is organized into one series

Series 1: Documents

Custodial History and Acquisition Information

The Robert Gilmor and William Trippe papers were purchased by the University of Maryland Archives from Chesapeake Galleries, Baltimore, in 1982.

Related Material

The Bench and Bar of Maryland: a History 1634 to 1901 by Conway W. Sams and Elihu S. Riley. (Chicago: Lewis, 1901). (UMCP HBK Maryland Room Maryland Stacks KF354.M3 S35)
Colonial Families of the Eastern Shore of Maryland by Robert William Barnes. (Westminster, Md.: Family Line Publications, 1996). (UMCP HBK Maryland Room Maryland Stacks F187.E2B37 v.16)
Maryland Historical Magazine, v. X, No. 1, March 1915, 376-384. “Genealogies of Four Families of Dorchester County” by Joseph S. Ames. (UMCP HBK Maryland Room Maryland Stacks F176 .M18)
New revised History of Dorchester County, Maryland by Elias Jones. (Cambridge, Md.: Tidewater Publishers, 1966). (UMCP HBK Maryland Room Maryland Reference F187.D6 J7 1966)
Scots in Maryland & a History of the St. Andrew’s Society of Baltimore, 1806-2006 by Christopher T. George. (Timonium, Md.: St. Andrew’s Society of Baltimore, 2007). (UMCP HBK Maryland Room Maryland Stacks F190.S3 G46 2007)

The following websites were accessed on August 14, 2017:

Trippe family in Dorchester County, MD

East New Market, MD history

East New Market, MD history

Processing Information

The collection was processed in May 1982 by Mary Boccaccio. In 2012, Terry Ann Sayler reorganized the papers and created a new guide for the collection.

Topics

Administrative Information

Title: Guide to the Robert Gilmor and William Trippe Papers
Status: Completed
Author: Processed by Mary Boccaccio in May 1982. Papers reprocessed by Terry Ann Sayler in March 2012.
Description rules: Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description: English
Script of description: Code for undetermined script
Language of description note: Finding aid written in English

Library Details

Part of the Special Collections and University Archives

http://www.lib.umd.edu/special

Contact:
University of Maryland Libraries
Hornbake Library
4130 Campus Drive
College Park Maryland 20742
301-405-9212
askhornbake@umd.edu

Robert Gilmor and William Trippe papers

Dates

Use and Access to Collection

Duplication and Copyright Information

Extent

Additional Description

Scope and Content of Collection

Geographical History

Arrangement

Custodial History and Acquisition Information

Related Material

Processing Information

Topics

Administrative Information

Library Details

Library Details

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