cocheague, and near some ponds of fresh water in said Antietam, partly cultivated," a warrant for its survey was issued in his favor, March 10, 1738. This was executed by J. P. Dent, deputy surveyor of Prince George's County, June 14, 1739, and his return describes the boundaries as "Beginning at a bounded red oak, standing on the west side of Neal's meadow, below the mouth of a drain that comes out of a great pond being in the said land." The area of the tract was 550 acres.

Colonel Cresap resided at Longmeadows from 1738 to 1741. The improvements he erected here included a stone building in which he resided and which also served the purposes of a fortification and trading post. It stood on the east bank of Marsh run, on the farm now owned by Mrs. William S. Young, and was doubtless at the time of its erection the most substantial building in Leitersburg District.

The original area of Longmeadows was twice enlarged by Colonel Cresap July 30, 1742, by an additon of 110 acres, and August 8, 1743, by an addition of one hundred acres. Daniel Dulany secured the entire tract, aggregating 760 acres, in 1746. Within a few years he had it resurveyed, resulting in the acquisition of 1,371 acres of vacant land, thus increasing the area to 2,131 acres, for which he secured a patent, November 7, 1751. In the following year he was granted a warrant for a second resurvey, by which 2,370 acres were added, but owing to disputes with other claimants no patent was issued. He sold the tract to Colonel Henry Bouquet, a native of Switzerland and a British officer of distinction in the French and Indian War, who, "being willing and desirous to adjust the said disputes," secured a second. resurvey, as the result of which the area of the tract was increased to 4,163 acres, for which he was granted a patent, September 16, 1763.

Bouquet made the following disposition of Longmeadows by his will, executed on the 25th of June, 1765:

I constitute and appoint my friend, Colonel Frederick Haldimand, my heir and executor, and to him I give and bequeath all and everything which I may die possessed of in North America, without any exception whatever, upon the condition of paying my just debts and above legacies: my estate, consisting for the present in the farm called Long Meadows Enlarged, situate in Frederick County in the Province of Maryland, * * the said farm to be sold with

* *

the saw-mill, tan-yard, houses, tenements, and appurtenances on the same for the payment of my debts and legacies.*

It does not appear that Bouquet ever remained at Longmeadows any length of time, although it is not improbable that he designed to make it the place of his residence in the event of his retirement from the army.

Colonel Haldimand was a compatriot of Bouquet. His early military experience was obtained on the Continent, where, like Bouquet, he had been in the service of the Dutch against the French. He entered the British army with the same rank as Bouquet, that of colonel in the Royal American Brigade. The Longmeadows estate continued in his possession until November 6, 1773, when he sold it to Joseph Sprigg of Prince George's County, Md. It is not probable that he ever resided here, although in some legal documents relating to this locality Longmeadows is referred to as "Colonel Haldimand's plantation." In the deed of conveyance to Sprigg he is described as "Frederick Haldimand, at present of the City of New York in the Province of New York, and major general in His Majesty's army."

The Longmeadows tract extended along the western boundary of Leitersburg District from Paradise school house almost to the Pennsylvania line. A considerable part of its area was also beyond the District line on the west and south. It embraced one of the most fertile and desirable sections of Washington County. Fortunately for the development of the District Joseph Sprigg was the last individual owner of this extensive tract, the disintegration of which began about the close of the Revolutionary War. In 1779 he sold to Samuel Hughes 1,300 acres, to John McConkey 521 acres, and to Dr. Henry Schnebley 322 acres, and in the following year 781 acres to Thomas Sprigg.

The purchase of Samuel Hughes embraced the original Longmeadows tract and improvements. In 1789 he sold the entire tract of 1,300 acres to Thomas Hart, who came to Hagerstown in 1780 from Hillsboro, N. C., a locality that he was obliged to leave on account of the depredations of his Tory neighbors. At Hagerstown he engaged in merchandising and was for some years the partner of Nathaniel Rochester, the founder of Rochester, N. Y. He resided at Longmeadows for a time and here a daugh

* Colonel Henry Bouquet and his Campaigns of 1763 and 1764, by Rev. Cyrus Cort, p 76.

ter was born, who afterward became the wife of Henry Clay, the Whig candidate for President in 1844. Hart removed to Kentucky in 1794.

Thomas B. Hall succeeded Colonel Hart in the ownership of 510 acres of the Longmeadows tract, now embraced principally in the farms of Mrs. William S. Young and Abraham Lehman. Hall was connected with the internal revenue service of the United States as collector of direct taxes for the Eighth district of Maryland. There was a deficit of $17,916.68 in his accounts for the years 1815-16, for the recovery of which the United States marshal levied upon the Longmeadows farm; it was sold at public sale, March 30, 1827, and purchased for the United States, to which the marshal accordingly executed a deed, February 15, 1831. From this circumstance it was long known as "the United States farm," and such in fact it was. In 1831 Richard Ragan and William D. Magill, of Hagerstown, purchased it from Virgil Maxey, solicitor of the Treasury of the United States, by deeds "signed, sealed, and delivered in the presence of J. Marshall, Joseph Story," chief justice and associate justice, respectively, of the Supreme Court of the United States. The part purchased by Ragan is now owned by Mrs. William S. Young of Baltimore and that purchased by Magill by Abraham Lehman.

The large brick mansion near the terminus of the Marsh turnpike was built by Thomas Sprigg, whose purchase of 781 acres from the Longmeadows tract has been mentioned. His estate eventually comprised 1,754 acres and bore the name of Sprigg's Paradise. It consisted of 1,581 acres from Longmeadows Enlarged, Pleasant Spring (seventy-eight acres, patented by John Rench in 1760), Race Ground (twelve acres, patented by Joseph Sprigg in 1776), and The Grove (eighty-five acres, patented by Joseph Sprigg in 1777). General Sprigg secured a warrant for the resurvey of these tracts in 1785, but the patent was not issued until December 12, 1804. Sprigg's Paradise was situated on both sides of the Marsh turnpike. The proprietor, who was a member of Congress, brigadier general in the State militia, and otherwise prominent in public affairs, resided here until his death in 1809, and in 1810 the estate was divided among his three children. The Sprigg residence and several hundred acres adjacent thereto are now owned by the Messrs. Cressler.

In 1780 McConkey sold the land he had purchased from Joseph

Sprigg to John Rench, whose son, Peter Rench, resided thereon; in 1833 the larger part of this tract was purchased from his heirs. by Jacob B. Lehman.

In 1789 Thomas Hart sold to John Dorsett six hundred acres of land, of which 395 acres were purchased from Dorsett by Wendell Gilbert in 1791. Samuel Gilbert, his son, subsequently owned part of this land, which embraced the Paradise spring and the site of Longmeadows church.

SKIPTON-ON-CRAVEN.

Colonel Cresap was also the owner of an original tract several miles east of Longmeadows, and to this he gave the name of Skipton-on-Craven, his native place in England. The certificate of survey, returned under date of November 27, 1740, describes the boundaries as "Beginning at a bounded Spanish oak standing on the south side of a branch of Antietam known by the name of Forbush's branch;" and in the preamble to the patent, which was granted March 27, 1744, the tract is described as "lying and being in the County aforesaid in the fork of Antietam creek, whereon a certain Thomas Catens formerly settled and made some improvements."

In 1749 "Michael Miller, yeoman, of Frederick County," purchased Skipton-on-Craven from Colonel Cresap. Nothing is known regarding his personal history, although it may be stated with certainty that he resided for many years in the vicinity of Leitersburg near the mouth of Little Antietam. Here he owned at one time about seven hundred acres of land, now embraced in the Ziegler, Hartle, and Stockslager farms. In 1760 he was constable for Upper Antietam Hundred.

In 1765 John Reiff purchased from Michael Miller 117 acres of land, part of Skipton-on-Craven, "whereon John Reiff now lives." He was therefore an actual resident of the District and a near neighbor to Jacob Leiter. By successive purchases he eventually acquired more than four hundred acres of land, southwest of Leitersburg and on both sides of the Antietam and the turnpike, much of which was doubtless reduced to cultivation and improved by him.

Jacob Good was also a resident of the District as early as 1765, when he purchased from Michael Miller 163 acres, part of

Skipton-on-Craven, "being the land whereon the said Good now lives." Good's house was a log building and stood between the Little Antietam and the stone residence of Harvey J. Hartle. It was near the bank of the creek, and on the opposite side there was a saw-mill. Surrounding these improvements Good owned 350 acres of land, embracing the confluence of Antietam and Little Antietam, the whole of Harvey J. Hartle's farm, and adjacent lands now owned by Levi Hartle, John Hartle, and Alveh L. Stockslager. In 1787 he sold this land to Joseph Long, his sonin-law, from whom in 1795 it passed to John Barr, of Lancaster County, Pa.

In 1775 Christian Lantz, formerly a resident of Lancaster County, Pa., purchased from John Reiff 476 acres of land southwest of Leitersburg, along the turnpike and Antietam creek. Here he resided until his death in 1798. In 1776 he was a member of the County Committee of Safety. A large part of his landed estate is still in possession of his descendants. He built one of the first mills in the District.

DECEIT.

"Forbush's branch" is now known as Little Antietam, the latter designation having completely superseded the former, which would no longer be recognized in this locality. Yet George Forbush, from whom the stream derived the name by which it was known in 1740, was undoubtedly one of the earliest settlers along its course; and although he took his departure about the time the first permanent settlers began to arrive, the location of his plantation can be determined with a fair degree of probability. On the 23d of August, 1743, John Darling secured a patent for Deceit, a tract of 108 acres, the boundaries of which are described as "Beginning at a bounded white oak standing nigh a branch of Antietam on the top of a steep hill and near the place that George Forbush formerly lived on." In the patent for Darling's Sale (surveyed in 1739), its boundaries are described as "Beginning at a bounded white oak standing on the southeast side of Little Antietam creek, near the plantation of one George Forbush." From a plot of the Stoner lands entered in the land records of Washington County in 1820, it is ascertained that this "bounded white oak" stood on the present line between the lands of Daniel W.