Original Owners of Lots in Taneytown which was completed and recorded in 1762. The map appeared in the Program for the Bicentennial Celebration of Taneytown in 1954.
"In the History of Western Maryland, Scharf states that Taneytown was laid out about 1750 by one Frederick Taney, who came from Calvert County. But I am convinced that both the date and the person are wrongly given, while the only Frederick Taney living at this time, of whom I find traces, spent most of his life and died in Frederick County. Among the land records of Frederick County, liber H, folio 151, under date 1st May 1762 is an agreement between Raphael Taney (of St. Mary’s County) and the Province of Maryland, according to which the former has laid out a parcill of lotts of ground to the number of Forty-Six Lots containing half an acre to each Lott on his part of a Tract of Land Commonly known by the name of the Resurvey on Brothers Agreement."
He obligates himself to makeover to each purchaser (or lessee) his lot or lots by deeds of conveyance by 1st May 1765, or else forfeit £500 to each purchaser, provided the purchaser improves his lot by that date with a good dwelling house well "duftailed" and shingled, in size at least 24 ft. by 20 ft. and possessing a stone or brick chimney. The purchaser, moreover, is to pay a yearly ground rent of two shillings sixpence. Raphael Taney of St. Mary’s County gives a bond in the sum of £1000 for the faithful discharge of his obligations under the agreement. This became Taney’s Town.
In liber H and liber J are records of the sales of these lots (or leases) "in Taneytown on the main road that leads from Frederick to York," (but the place is also referred to as Tansy’s Town). By the next year, the number of lots had increased from 46 to 76; Raphael Taney was charging a bonus of 35 shillings on each lot leased, and the ground rent had increased to three shillings and six pence per annum on each lot. Some of the persons to whom these lots were leased were Jacob Koontz, George Seagler, Joseph Groves, George Hockersmith, Christian Bowers, Thomas Kenard, Abraham King, Christian Hemper, Henry Brothers, Ulrich Hoover, John Hoover, Augustus Sharer, John Weaver, Emrick Potts, Richard Vandeker, John Oliver, Michael Kuner, George Clarke, John H. Rosenpelt, Conrad Hockensmith, William Mumford, Jacob Richards, John Shrier and N. Huber, John Weiner, Francis Hammon, Michael Lavely, Michael Taner, Philip Smith, Samuel Emmett, Stifiie Lewis,
Andrew Sharron, Conrod Bonner, Jacob Good, Simon Slyder, Peter Hoffman, George Sexton, George Sigler, John Stevenson, Archibald Crawford, John Fletcher, Mark Alexander, Henry Obleman, Caleb Wilson, and Catherine Toms. In several instances more than one lot was disposed of at once to a single party, while several persons bought more than once.
This Raphael Taney, who died 1791, married Eleanor, the Sister of William Digges. To the brothers-in- law was patented in 1754 the tract of land embracing some 7,900 acres and known as Brothers Agreement. The Michael Taney, who died 1743 and was the great-grandfather of Chief Justice Roger Brooke Taney, was the brother of the Thomas Taney who was the father of Raphael. This Michael and Thomas were grandsons of the Michael Taney who died 1692 after being sheriff of Calvert County during the stormy period of 1687-89.
If further evidence were needed to determine who laid out Taneytown and gave the place its name, there is in the land records of Carroll County at Westminster a plan of the town described, Raphael Taney to Joseph Good. Received May 12, 1762, to be recorded and the same day recorded in Liber N, folios 83, one of the Land Records of St. Mary’ s County and Examined per Timothy Bowes, Clerk."
This concludes part two in a yearlong series that will cover the chronological development of Taneytown and its citizens. Next week I examine Taneytown and the American Revolution.
David Buie is a Taneytown Resident who has a passion for
Carroll County and its place in history.
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