Michael Carey

Michael Carey lived adjacent (across the modern road) to the Hitch farm where this compiler grew up on St. Lukes Road about 2 miles east of Fruitland, MD.

Some Musings of the Careys in Fruitland, Maryland
Michael G. (Mike) Hitch

Fruitland, Maryland, or Disharoon's Crossroads as it was first called, sprang up at the confluence of several old colonial roads back just before the American Revolution in the 1760s and early 1770s. Those roads led to points north at Salisbury and on to mills at Barren Creek, Rockawalkin, Parkers mills and others up towards the Delaware line. Heading south, you had roads leading to Princess Anne and to the Pocomoke River at Dividing Creek and also down towards Wicomico Creek and the old hamlet called Upper Trappe (modern-day Allen). The Carey family made up a small group of the early settlers in the area.

At that time also, the roads that became modern-day Division Street and Meadow Bridge Road actually formed the boundary line between Somerset County to the west and Worcester County to the east - it wasn't until 1867 that Wicomico County gobbled up the entirety of Fruitland within its bounds. By then the town was named Forktown, as it had been called since the Federal Period (c1820), probably because of the forking of the roads at the current crossroads that make up Meadow Bridge Road and Division and Main Street today. It was a stopping point for stages heading north/south along the eastern shore. It was renamed Fruitland in 1873 to reflect farming practices and an abundance of crops like tomatoes and strawberries.

The land where Fruitland is located was slower to blossom because it was inland and part of a large tract called "Wicomico Manor" surveyed in 1674 for 6000 acres as a tract of "Reserves and Manors Reserved and Surveyed for His Lordship the Lord Proprietary of this Province." In other words, it was reserved for Lord Baltimore to do as he pleased - one could live there but not own the land. 6000 acres is roughly nine square miles in breadth and Wicomico Manor was laid out like a large rectangle with its length running NE to SW. The northernmost corner of the tract began where the Port Authority Building is currently located in downtown Salisbury and ran down the Wicomico (then called the Rockawalkin River) all the way to Sharps Point south of Shad Point. The line then turned inland to the southeast and ran through Fruitland to about where the modern Route 13 bypass and St. Lukes Road meet and then turns to the northeast, running to about a point at the eastern end of Schumaker Pond. The last line closes the rectangle by returning to the first point in Downtown Salisbury. As you can imagine this encompasses nearly all of where modern Fruitland now lies except for its southwest edge.

At the point where the "crossroads" was (and still is today), George Disharoon had the tract "Disharoons Adventure" surveyed for him on Mar 12 1772 for 123¼ acres described as "part in Worcester, part in Somerset, and by Disharoon's plantation." The land was rather meager as the old survey says this about it: "improvements are 120 ac of cultivated land, half under fence, other half unfenced and consists of white sandy soil, worn out." In the modern day, that tract is in the heart of the Town of Fruitland. While Disharoon never received a royal patent for his land because of the Revolution, in 1783, after the United States had won its freedom, the County Commissioners carried through the sale of all the tracts in Wicomico Manor as "Confiscated British Property" and awarded "Disharoons Adventure" to George Disharoon, for £27.12.06 (27 pounds, 12 shillings, 6 pence), citing original 1772 sale of Manor lands at £25 per 100 acres.

George Disharoon (c1741-1789) was the brother of Francis Disharoon (c1743-1788) and both were sons of John Disharoon (c1699-1761) and his wife Mary Langkake (the surname was later shortened to Lank) and grandsons of John Disharoon Sr. (1677-c1754). John Disharoon Sr. had patented the tract "Come By Chance" for 85 acres in 1713 and it borders the tract his grandson George had surveyed for him in 1772. One can see why the early name for Fruitland was "Disharoon's Crossroads"!

Many of the Carey family have lived in and around Fruitland and this writer was intrigued when he found a deed of my great grandfather Hitch from 1903 among my dad's papers for the land he was raised upon and it mentioned that it bordered Michael Carey's land. See the Figure below with a map showing some Carey land tracts in the vicinity of Fruitland, an inset of the deed mentioned and a red dot showing where this writer grew up next to Michael Carey's land. This deed caused me to do a bit more research as to who Michael Carey was.


I use the land records to help solve local history and family genealogy mysteries. The old land patents are rich with information about the land the early settlers owned and the places they lived. Old Somerset County, Maryland was formed in 1666 and encompasses all of the area of where the modern counties of Wicomico, Worcester and Somerset in Maryland now lie and 2/3rds of modern Sussex County, Delaware. I had the pleasure of working with the late John Lyon who assembled a massive
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computer database of all the old land patents and other land records there that were part of Old Somerset. His work allows the researcher to quickly sort through the mountains of data there to quickly ascertain information about the early settlers and their progeny up to the time of the American Revolution.

From it, I began my quest to find out who Michael Carey was of the deed and that led me to find a nice bit of information about the Carey family who lived around the Fruitland area. This included the finding of the earliest Carey in the area, Thomas Carey, who had the 300 acre tract "Carys Adventure" surveyed for him on November 20, 1666 - he was called a "planter" in that record. It is thought that he is the earliest ancestor of all the Careys on the Delmarva Peninsula. See the Figure for a map locating where this tract was located and the computerized output that shows background of transactions involving the land up to the time of the Revolution. Note that it is northwest of Princess Anne, MD along modern day Mt. Vernon Road.
From the background information shown, we find that the settler Thomas wrote a will on May 20, 1681 that was proven June 17, 1687 that left the land to his son, Thomas Carey. Then, on March 21, 1709, the son Thomas (designated as a cooper) sold the land to Richard Carey, planter, for 30,000 pounds of tobacco. Five days later, Richard sold the land to Thomas Carey for a like amount. The land leaves the Carey family on March 26, 1722 when Richard Carey's son, Thomas, sold the land to Betty Gale for £30.

Back to my quest to find out who Michael Carey of Fruitland was. We know he descended from Thomas Carey who died sometime between 1681 and 1687, likely towards the later end of that range. Since he had land surveyed for him in 1666, he was at least age 21 at the time and probably a bit older. More research shows that Thomas Carey was named as a headright on November 14, 1653 in Lancester County, VA. It was probably him who was shown as Thomas Carey and along with 5 others was transported into that county VA by Col. Richard Lee. That record suggests his birth year was sometime around 1633 and he came from the British Isles. His will proven in 1687 gives more clues about his family and is transcribed follows:

In the name of God Amen, I Thomas Cary of Great Monye in the County of Somerset and province of Maryland planter being in good health of body and of sound and perfect memory praise be therefore given to Almighty God doe make and ordain this my present last Will and testament in manner and form following, that is to say first and principally I commend my Soule into the hands of Almighty God hoping through the merits death and passion of my Savior Jesus Christ to have full and free pardon and forgiveness of all my Sins and t o inherit everlasting life , and my body I: commend it to the Earth to be decently buried at; the discretion of my Executor hereafter named and touching the disposition of all such temporal Estate as it hath pleased Almighty God to bestow upon me I give and dispose thereof as follows - First, I will that my debts and funeral charges shall be paid and discharged - Item. I give unto my son Richard Cary one hundred pounds of Tobacco - Item. I give unto my son Edward Cary one Cow yearling, Item. I give unto my son Thomas Cary after ye decease of my wife Jane Cary three hundred acres of Land called by the name of Caries Adventure. Item. I give unto my son John Cary a cow. Item. I give unto my son William Cary and my aforesaid son John Cary one hundred and fifty acres of Land to be equally divided between them called by the name of Washford. Item. I give unto my daughters Sarah Carey and Mary Carey one Iron gray mare and her increase. Item. I give unto my son Samuel1 Cary one cow - all the rest and residue of my personal Estate goods and cattle whatsoever I doe give and bequeath unto my loving wife Jane Cary and likewise all my children until they be of the age of one and twenty and her to be my full and sole executor of this my last will and testament. And I doe hereby disavow and revoke and make void all forgoing Wills and Testaments by me heretofore made. In Witness whereof I the said Thomas Cary to this my last Will and testament set my hand and seal this twentieth day of Play one thousand six hundred and Eighty one. This written will was proved by the within mentioned Dom: Copinger before me appointed by Commission. Wm. Brereton sealed John Pierce ye other witness out of the Province - Fifty acres of Land in the Forrest divided between Wm Cary and Sarah Cary, he that dyes first the other shall have it. Tomes Cary The last part of this will, a codicil, was written after the main body of the will arm would refer to fifty acres patented in 1683 by Edward Cary, in Thomas Cary's name, called Advance.

We see from here that he had eight children living at the time of his death. The one we are most interested in here is William Carey for it was his line that drifted northward from the "Carys Adventure" tract near Princess Anne to the Fruitland area. William Carey owned a lot of land during his lifetime but the tract we are most interested in for our quest for Michael Carey is "Williams Chance," a 100 acre plot William had surveyed on March 8, 1715. When William Carey's will was proven on June 19, 1734, it describes this tract as his "dwelling plantation" that he left to his son Levin Carey. The tract is located on the east side of St. Lukes Road about one mile outside the Route 13 bypass in modern day. This is near the location where this writer grew up. One further clue here was that son Levin Carey had a 50 acre plot of land surveyed for him on August 20, 1762 that bordered the south side of "William's Chance," which he named the tract "Levin's Chance." This line of Carey's also later purchased adjacent lands around the area of which Michael Carey came to own.

A better illustration for the location of both of these tracts is on the first Figure mentioned previously in this chapter and, this is at the exact location referenced in my great grandfather's 1903 deed that contained "Michael Carey's field." Michael Carey (1821-1896) was the great-great-great-grandson of William Carey who died in 1734 through his son Levin Carey's (c1708-1783) line. Levin had a son William Carey (c1734-1774) who himself had a son William (c1770-1820) who had son Thomas Carey (c1794-1847) who had Michael Carey. My mystery had been solved by digging into the the old land patent records.

Michael G. (Mike) Hitch

Chairman, Board of Directors, Edward H. Nabb Research Center for Delmarva History & Culture
Special Liaison to Director of NASA Wallops Flight Facility, Wallops Island, VA

Michael married Sarah A. Jones on 26 Nov 1844 in Somerset Co., MD. (Sarah A. Jones was born in 1827-1828 in MD ^{6 7 8 9}.)