An English Merchant in the Maryland Frontier: Making Sense of Addison’s Plantation

Esther Rimer

An English Merchant in the Maryland Frontier: Making Sense of Addison’s Plantation

Year: 2020

Summary

This is a poster submission presented at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Captain John Addison’s earthfast dwelling on the frontier of colonial Maryland has remained an enigma since it was discovered almost 35 years ago. Before Addison became a militia captain and moved to a plantation on the upper Potomac river, he had been a merchant in the provincial capital of St. Mary’s City. The mundane and worldly objects found in a cellar and around the dwelling show a preponderance of English and European household goods befitting mercantile activities on the part of John Addison and his son Thomas. The late 17th to early 18th-century home has previously been interpreted as the site of a possible frontier armory, given the number of weaponry artifacts and a curious passageway to the cellar. Recent (re)analysis of the artifacts and historical evidence in consideration of Addison's commercial and political ties may complicate this interpretation.