Named for Thorndale in Belfast, Northern Ireland, Taneytown’s Thorndale was the centerpiece of a 3000-acre tract of land known as "Runnymede Enlarged" that first belonged to Dr. Upton Scott (1724-1814) of Annapolis. In 1810, Belfast businessman Clotworthy Birnie (1765-1845), Scott’s nephew, arrived in America with his family to manage Runnymede for his uncle; in a short time, he inherited the entire property.

Initially, Birnie built a frame house for himself and his family near Bear Branch, east of Taneytown along the road to Westminster. Just when he began making plans to build Thorndale, a much larger house, is unknown, but they had been discussed by 8 June 1831, when his son, Attorney Clotworthy Birnie, Jr., wrote from Baltimore:

"I hear some gentlemen speaking of house building & they said lumber was rising very fast. Mr. Stewart's house will be little more than the size of yrs. & he calculates that the Lot & all will cost him not much short of $9,000, so I hope you will begin this summer & have it under roof by fall, if you do not you may spend 2 more winters where you are. - I tried to form you a house under one roof but owing to the negroes & working people, I could not. - The plan I left you last is the best for economy I can devise having the size of the rooms to yourself."

His son would prove to be prophetic as the house was not started in the summer of 1831, and the father did spend two more winters before moving into his new abode.

Birnie noted in his diary on 7 February 1832, "I bargained with Henry Geatty to build my house agreeable to my plan for $500 & 4 barrels flour & 400 Bacon & with Ephraim Swope for $437 to commence 1st June." Geatty was a carpenter in Westminster and is known from an advertisement he placed in the Westminster Carrolltonian in 1833. Swope was a mason who would later work on Carroll’s brick courthouse and stone jail in Westminster in 1837-38. For unknown reasons, Geatty backed out of the contract by mid-March 1832 and Birnie gave the job to carpenter Winchester Clingan. The foundation of the house was laid out on the evening of 6 April 1832, and excavation began. As most of Birnie's papers survive, there are useful details on the home's construction. On Friday, 29 November 1833, Birnie noted in his diary, "The family removed to the new House."

Until 1837 Thorndale functioned primarily as a farm. The late Dr. Basil Crapster, a Taneytown historian, provided insight into Birnie's agricultural practices. "Birnie began by working the home farm with paid workers, slaves, and indentured servants, in a style not usual in the area. The ease with which slaves escaped to Pennsylvania was one reason why he gradually reduced their number through sale, manumission, and encouragement of emigration to Africa. In the effort to reproduce the plantation style of the Tidewater he was backward looking; in other ways Birnie was an innovative farmer. He twice served as vice-president of the Frederick County Agricultural Society and tried to get it to hold shows at Taneytown. He corresponded with the editors of farm journals. In 1819, he had a Baltimore craftsman build a new type plow to his specification. In 1820, he built a copy of a new thresher and in 1821 a corn planter. To improve his flock of sheep he imported a new stock from as far away as Poughkeepsie, NY, in 1830, but soon disposed of his flock as unprofitable. A prize bull and a heifer were shipped to him from England; unfortunately, the bull died on the way. Equally unsuccessful was a decade of effort, begun in 1827, to make and sell wine from his own grapes. Soil chemistry also attracted his attention and led him to import plaster of Paris from Pennsylvania and guano from Baltimore. Much of Birnie's farming resembled that of the usual smaller family farms of the area, growing such products as flax and wheat for both home consumption and sale in Baltimore."

However, in 1837, the year Carroll County was founded, the emphasis at Thorndale shifted from farming to education when Birnie’s six daughters established Thorndale Seminary for Young Ladies. None of the girls ever married, so perhaps opening a school offered an opportunity for them to earn money and continue their activities in the proper social circles.

An advertisement for Thorndale Seminary from an 1839 Westminster newspaper described the school's curriculum - orthography, reading, writing, arithmetic, grammar, geography, history, and needlework plus elements of natural philosophy, which included chemistry, botany, and astronomy. A prospectus for the school carried the following information: "The course of instruction comprises the usual branches of an English education with needlework. The pupils have the advantage of daily association with a family and are under their constant care and supervision. Particular attention is given to religious instruction."

The Birnie sisters relied on their brother, Rogers (1811-1891), to teach mathematics. Margaret (1794-1878) and Hester (1796-1885) taught the other academic subjects. Frances "Fanny" (1809-1904) was the music and painting instructor and tended the garden. Ellen (1805-1890) was in charge of the dairy; Ellen’s twin sister, Ann (1805-1890), was in charge of the farm; Rose (1798-1893) handled butchering and provisions. After their parents died in the 1840s, the six girls ran all aspects of the school and farm, probably with some advice from Rogers, who lived nearby at

Glenburn and operated a school for boys - indeed, a family enterprise.

The Thorndale school year was divided into two terms, each 21 or 22 weeks in length. Boarding and tuition for girls older than 12 cost $80 per term in 1839. That included $5 for washing. There were extra charges for instruction in music, drawing, and painting which could add $32 per term.

On top of that was the cost of books, music, and drawing material. Tuition rose to $110 per term some years later, and French was offered. Given these prices, it is easy to see that only well-to-do families could afford to send their daughters to Thorndale. Still, it boasted recommendations from prominent ministers, doctors, and citizens such as Francis Scott Key, a Birnie relative. Most students came from Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia.

By 1872, when the school closed, the sisters were up in years. Margaret, the eldest, died in 1878 at 83, and Fanny, the youngest, died in 1904 at the age of 94. In 1907, the house was sold outside the family, returning to a working farm. Today, it consists of slightly over one hundred and eight acres but remains one of the most significant structures in Carroll County for its architecture and history.

David Buie is a Taneytown Resident who has a passion for
Carroll County and its place in history.

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