The Shipley family's association with Maryland began with Adam Shipley's arrival from England in 1668. After serving several years as an indentured servant, Adam began to acquire land on the south side of the Severn River near Annapolis, thus beginning the Shipley family's close identification with this part of the state. During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, numerous Shipley family farms were located in the fourth and fifth districts of Anne Arundel County.
Five generations after Adam's arrival in the new world, Arthur M. Shipley was born in 1878 to Roderick O. and Wilhelmina Clark Shipley. Arthur graduated from the University of Maryland Medical School in 1902 and served as Chief of Surgical Services for Evacuation Hospital #8 during World War I. After the war, Dr. Shipleyreturned to the University of Maryland as a professor of surgery, eventually retiring in1948. Dr. Shipley died in 1955.
E. (Edgar) Roderick Shipley was born in 1915. His mother, Edna Roberta Shipley, was the sister of Arthur Shipley. E. Roderick's father, Edgar Larkin Shipley, was a son of Larkin Rodolphus Shipley, a brother of Roderick O. Shipley. E. Roderick Shipley's maternal grandfather was Larkin Rodolphus Shipley, whose pickers' checks form a large portion of this collection.
E. Roderick Shipley graduated from the Johns Hopkins University and the University of Maryland with degrees in medicine. He did post-graduate work in surgery at the University of Pennsylvania and became a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons. E. Roderick eventually became a General Surgeon and Associate Professor of Physiology at the University of Maryland School of Dentistry. He was also president of the Anne Arundel County Historical Society and of the Shipleys of Maryland. A Shipley family tree is available in print form. E. Roderick Shipley died in 1984.
From the guide to the E. Roderick and Arthur Shipley papers, 1901-1975, null, (State of Maryland and Historical Collections)
