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Shades of Hilton
  • Home
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While there are scant primary sources created by the enslaved and free Blacks who built, lived, and worked at the Hilton Estate, we must learn to listen for their voices in the letters, newspapers, census records, and other written words created by the wealthy White men who documented the land.


Michelle Diane Wright

Taillor/Taylor (Ownership 1677-1742)

Primary sources related to the stewardship of the Hilton Estate by Thomas Taylor (alternate spelling Taillor) (and 

John Taylor (Taillor) between the years 1678-1742. The arrangement was a Fee Simple whereby the land was actually rented 

from Charles Calvert, 3rd Lord Baltimore. Neither of these  men resided at the Hilton Estate 

from Charles Calvert, 3rd Lord Baltimore. Neither of these  men resided at the Hilton Estate he acreage was 1800.  This early era is immensely important to understand enslavement in Maryland because this virtually free land was contingent upon developing the land, which necessitated coerced labor.  

1677 Taylor Land Patent Record - Page 1 (pdf)Download
1677 Taylor Land Patent Record - Page 2 (pdf)Download
1678 Survey of "Taylor's Forest" (JPG)Download
1684 - Taillor Land Survey Order (pdf)Download

Galloway (Ownership 1742-1761)

These are primary sources concerning Samuel Galloway III (1720-1785), who owned the Hilton Estate for almost twenty years between 1742-1761. Galloway was a Quaker who never lived on the Hilton Estate, but was a trader of enslaved Africans in Annapolis. The size of the estate remained the same size at this time, 1800 acres.

1746 Runaway Slave Ad - Virginia Gazette (jpg)Download
1748 Samuel Galloway Slave Imports (pdf)Download
1754 Galloway Negro Property (pdf)Download
1760 Slave Ship Record (png)Download
1760 - Galloway Slave Sale-Maryland Gazette (pdf)Download
1761-Galloway to Dorsey Bill of Sale -1 (pdf)Download
1761-Galloway to Dorsey Bill of Sale -2 (pdf)Download
1761- Galloway-AngolaSlaves-Maryland Gazette (pdf)Download
1785 Samuel Galloway Inventory (pdf)Download

Dorsey (Ownership 1761-1818)

Between the years 1761-1818, six different members of the Dorsey family owned the land that would come to be known as the Hilton Estate.  For the most part, the land at this time was known as "Dorsey's Manor." The Dorsey's added a piece of land that they named "Long Acre" and the total acreage of the property was 2175 during their stewardship.  The property now had frontage to Elkridge Landing (present-day Howard County) and was utilized primarily for an iron plantation and related needs and employed all forms of coerced labor including indentured, convict, and enslaved.

1760 Dorsey Fugitive Ad (jpg)Download
1761 Dorsey Fugitive Ad (jpg)Download
1765 Dorsey Fugitive Ad (jpg)Download
1766- Slaves Leased to Caleb Dorsey (png)Download
1768 Dorsey Fugitive Ad (jpg)Download
1769 Dorsey Slave Auction (jpeg)Download
1770 Dorsey Fugitive Ad (jpg)Download
1774 Dorsey Fugitive Ad (jpg)Download
1775 Dorsey Fugitive Ad (jpg)Download
1777-Caleb Dorsey Will (jpg)Download
1777-Caleb Dorsey Will Transcribed (png)Download
1781 Dorsey Fugitive Ad (jpg)Download
1787 - Elk Ridge Furnace Accounts - 1 (jpg)Download
1787 - Elk Ridge Frunace Accounts - 2 (jpg)Download
1787 - Elk Ridge Furnace Accounts - 3 (jpg)Download

McCulloch (Ownership 1818-1825)

James William McCulloch purchased the Hilton Estate for $35,000 and used it as a working farm for industrial stock, grain, as well as an orchard. McCulloch lived on the farm while he owned it. By this time, the estate consisted of only 511 acres as the Dorsey family sold off a significant amount of the land. As federal cashier of the Second National Bank in Baltimore City, is is best known as being the namesake 1819 Supreme Court case McCulloch v. Maryland, that defined the scope of the U.S. Congress's legislative power and how it relates to the powers of American state legislatures. Census data indicates that he enslaved six Blacks while residing at the Hilton Estate, presumably to work on the farm and perform domestic labor.

War of 1812 - Ultor, Partially owned by McCulloch (jpg)Download
1816 - McCulloch Military Record (jpg)Download
1816-1820 - McCulloch Record (jpg)Download
McCulloch vs. Maryland Decision (png)Download
1820 McCulloch Census (jpg)Download
1820 McCulloch Census - Transcription (pdf)Download
1820-McCulloch Military Pension Record (jpg)Download
1830 Census - McCulloch (jpg)Download

Buchanan (Ownership 1825-1828)

After McCulloch v. Maryland, James W. McCulloch was forced to relinquish Hilton Estate and the property was sold to John Lewis Buchanan at 

auction for $20,961.30. At that time, the estate consisted of 511 acres.  The Buchanan ownership was short-lived as he passed away in 1827, 

and his aunt Sydney Birckhead maintained the land from 1827-1828 until it was sold again.

1825 - Bucchanan Letter about Hilton - 1 (jpg)Download
1825 - Bucchanan Letter about Hilton - 2 (jpg)Download
1825 - Bucchanan Letter about Hilton - 3 (jpg)Download
1825 - Bucchanan Letter about Hilton - 4 (jpg)Download
1825 - Bucchanan Letter about Hilton Transcription (jpg)Download
1835 Bucchanan Letter - 1 (jpg)Download
1835 Bucchanan Letter - 2 (jpg)Download
1835 Bucchanan Letter Transcription (jpg)Download

Birckhead (Ownership 1828-1837)

Dr. Lennox Birckhead purchased Hilton Estate from Sydney Buchanan in 1828. Lennox Birckhead was the son of Solomon Birckheard, the business partner of James W. McCulloch.  Dr. Birckhead was a well-known physician in the Baltimore area and simultaneously utilized the land as a working farm. In 1835, Dr. Birckhead built a stone house on the property that is still present. He was also the individual that named the property Hilton Estate because it was located on a hill with a beautiful vista.  During his stewardship, the property consisted of 511 acres.

1813 Dickenson College Commencement (pdf)Download
Birckhead - War of 1812 Pension Record (jpg)Download
1830 Census - Birckhead (jpg)Download
1887-Letter About Birckhead Estate (jpg)Download

Glenn (Ownership 1837-1917)

For 80 years, four members of the Glenn family were the stewards of the Hilton Estate.  The owners and the dates of their ownership were as follows: William Carson Glenn (1837-1842), John Glenn (1842-1853), William Wilkins Glenn (1853-1876), and John Mark Glenn (1876-1917). The Glenns utilized the property for farming and the breeding of livestock, particularly thoroughbred horses.  William Wilkins Glenn was particularly engaged in horse racing and used the land to that end.  For the Glenns, the home was a summer residence as during the remainder of the year the family lived in Baltimore City on Charles Street in the Mount Vernon neighborhood. During the Civil War, the Glenns were Confederate sympathizers and notables such as Jefferson Davis and Roger Brooke Taney visited the mansion. During the Glenn ownership, the acreage was approximately 1100. In 1907 John M. Glenn donated 43 acres of the land to the Maryland State Board of Forestry, and the land eventually became Patapsco Valley State Park.

Glenn House on Charles Street (tif)Download
1850 Census - John Glenn-1 (jpg)Download
1850 Cenus - John Glenn -2 (jpg)Download
1860-John Glenn Ad - Pigs for Sale (pdf)Download
1861 - John Glenn Ad - Horse for Sale (pdf)Download
1872 -Letter to William Wilkins Glenn from Son (pdf)Download
1872- Letter from William Wilkins Glenn to Son (pdf)Download
1872 - Letter about Meredoc from Wood Stringfield (JPG)Download
1873-Pimlico_Races-Glenn's Horse Meredoc (pdf)Download
1873-From Walton the Hilton Estate Caretaker (JPG)Download

Knapp (Ownership 1917-1957)

In 1917 when George Worth Knapp purchased the Hilton Estate, the property had dwindled to 279 acres. In 1917, architect Edward Palmer was hired to renovate the mansion in a Georgian style and other property buildings using a Tudor style. In 1935, Alfred M. Knapp took over the stewardship of the property and renovated the property again in 1937. In 1957, the Knapp family relinquished the property and it was taken over by the Baltimore County Board of Education.  The 103 remaining acres known as the Hilton Estate became the Catonsville Community College in 1962.

1928-"Power Pictorial" Article (jpg)Download
1935-George Knapp Death (jpg)Download
1941-Hilton Farm Dairy Help Wanted Ad (jpg)Download
1944 - Hilton Farm Dairy - Help Wanted Ad (jpeg)Download
Hilton Farm Dairy Half Pint Milk Bottles (jpg)Download

Copyright © 2023 Shades of Hilton - All Rights Reserved.

Historian-Michelle Diane Wright / IT -Alexis Brown

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