Gilmor, Robert and William Trippe

Background

The Robert Gilmor and William Trippe papers focus on the people and places of Dorchester County, a heart-shaped area of 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.

This collection brings together the men and places of Dorchester County and provides a window on their lives for a seven month period from November 1776 to May 1777.

People

Robert Gilmor (1748-1822), born in Scotland, immigrated to America in 1766-1767. He settled in Oxford, Md., married Louisa Airey (1745-1827) of Dorchester County and became a merchant on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Around 1781, he and his family moved to Baltimore. Robert Gilmor & Co. was a successful business there for many years.

William Trippe (Tripp) (1725-1777) was probably born at Todd's Point, Dorchester County, Maryland. In 1776 and 1777, Trippe captained the schooner "Hazzard" ("Hazard") that traveled between Chincoteague, Va., and Cap Francois, Hispaniola. The vessel carried tobacco and other goods from Maryland and Virginia to Cap Francois and returned with salt, coffee, molasses, sugar and other items for the colonists.

Andrew Skinner Ennalls, James Murray, and John Smoot were among several farmers and merchants on Maryland's Eastern Shore who grew tobacco, flour, corn, and other items produced in the region to be sold in Hispaniola and bought the goods that were carried back from there. Stephen Byers was a Chesapeake Bay boat captain who delivered goods between the Eastern Shore and Baltimore.

Thomas Brereton, William Neill, Robert Purviance, and George Woolsey were Baltimore merchants eager to have the goods brought back from Hispaniola to sell in Baltimore.

Dr. Thomas Bourk captained "The Cambridge Blues", one of several Dorchester County militias in the American Revolution.

James Sulivan (1737-1807), a merchant in New Market, Md., organized "The New Market Blues," a local militia who fought in the American Revolution.

Thomas Brumfield, Daniel Darby, John Fraser, Scarborough Hill, Cornelius Hogan, John Kilby, Solomon Kimmey, and John Marrett were seamen, some of whom Robert Gilmor hired to work on the "Hazzard."

Places

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.

From the guide to the Robert Gilmor and William Trippe Papers, 1776-1777, 1776-1777, (State of Maryland and Historical Collections)