Arthur Denwood

For the Denwood family portion of the modern Pirate's Wharf land (Wicomico County), Arthur Denwood died c1787 and Rebecca (McMurray) Denwood remarried to Thomas Carey by 1789. Her second husband died before 1798 when she is listed as the head of household in the tax assessment of that year as a neighbor of her nephew James Russell owning "an old dwelling house 30x16, one story, three windows much out of repair, kitchen 15x12, 40 perches, $120; an old barn 24x18, corn house 16x6 and 200 acres of land, $820." She also owns 8 slaves of which one is blind and exempt from taxes. It also indicates that Rebecca Carey still holds the original Denwood tract of 200 acres parsed out in 1778. We can infer from the record that the Denwood (Carey by 1789) plantation was aging and had fallen into disrepair maybe because Arthur Denwood had died about 11 years preceding and his widow Rebecca had remarried to a Thomas Carey who had also passed away by 1798.

Like the Price Russell estate inventory covered earlier, we have Arthur Denwood's inventory of his estate from 1787 to offer what the other Pirate's Wharf plantation consisted of in the years just after the Revolution. The administrator of the estate was his wife "Rebecca Carey formerly Denwood" and is quite extensive, similar to the Price Russell inventory of 1790.

Denwood's estate inventory (SoI-EB15:541) is a comprehensive list of 128 items worth almost £558 of his personal possessions (again, no land was listed on these inventories) and we can see just what his plantation contained in the year of 1787. Like his brother-in-law, Price Russell, the primary value of the estate was in thirteen slaves itemized as Sambo (age 52), Jacob (33), George (25), Ishmael (14), Simon (6), Levy (11 months, indicated as dead by the time the inventory was approved in 1789), Moll (41), Mags (27), Minty (13), Hager (10), Rody (9), Jean (7) and Sabow (5) collectively worth £332. Denwood's 13 slaves and ten for Russell indicate that there were 23 slaves on the Pirate's Wharf property in the 1787-90 timeframe.

Other interesting items from the balance of the estate give more clues into the Denwood homestead. Add these to what has already been shown for the Price Russell plantation and we get an intimate view into the operations at the Pirate's Wharf property in the years just after the Revolution. Denwood's livestock included three horses, 28 pigs, 14 sheep, four oxen (two yokes) and 11 cows. Farm items mentioned are a loom and spinning and cotton wheels; two plows/harrows; one-half side of sole leather; a "man's" saddle and bridle; a gun and shot; farm cart with wheels; five cider casks; woodcutting and farm tools; 10 yards of linen and 29 units of thread, all of which would support the plantation business. Additionally, we find 2184 pounds of tobacco; 1100 pounds of salt pork with 30 pounds of lard and 150 bushels of corn. All these items suggest a modest farming operation at the site with primary production of tobacco with corn as a side crop. The meat, textiles and other animal byproducts produced probably went largely to feed the family and slaves.

The household items listed in the inventory round out the information we can glean about the Denwood farm business and family. Here we find items like two pine chests; four sets of bed and bolster suites and blankets/quilts; some clothing and one pair of buckles; 26 pounds of pewter items; earthenware pot and bowls; two "Queens china" dishes; coffee pots, tea kettles/pots and cups & saucers; one silver table spoon and various glass bottles; some books including a small and large Bible and a Psalm book and "10 milled dollars."

Like his brother-in-law, Price Russell, the Denwood inventory allows us to infer quite a lot about the man and his family. Like Russell, Arthur Denwood was also literate from the books he owned and he and/or his plantation hands knew the carpentry and farming trades. The Denwood family made their own clothing with the loom and spinning wheels. Unlike Russell, however, Denwood did not own a still or carriage and only held in cash ten milled dollars versus the large sum of gold and silver Russell had. But, Denwood claimed 13 slaves versus the ten of the Russell household. We can conclude through examination of the Denwood estates of 1787 versus the Russell estate of 1790, that the latter held a bit more wealth, especially in the non-slave value. However, both were very successful plantations and, collectively, they represent a very large and prosperous operation running on the Pirate's Wharf Park land in the 1780s and 1790s.

Arthur married Rebecca McMurray, daughter of James McMurray and Elizabeth (Betty) Stewart, about 1774. (Rebecca McMurray was born about 1752 in Somerset Co., MD and died before 02 Mar 1802 in Somerset Co., MD.)