Bennett's Point (18QU28)

Summary

The Bennett’s Point (18QU28) site represents the principal dwelling at a colonial period tobacco plantation located in Queen Anne’s County, Maryland. The home of Elizabeth and Richard Bennett III between 1700 and 1749, Bennett’s Point was also a major port. Bennett was a lawyer, planter, merchant and one of the wealthiest men in the colony.

The Bennett’s Point collection represents the domestic core of a large tobacco plantation, one of a very few early to mid-18th-century household sites excavated on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. Because of the salvage circumstances of its excavation, field notes, maps, and descriptions are incomplete, limiting the kinds of studies suitable for this collection. Still, the collection is useful for documenting the kinds of material culture found on an 18th-century plantation on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, where planters shifted from tobacco to grain production.

Archaeological Investigations

Members of the Archaeological Society of Delaware (ASD) conducted intermittent excavations at Bennett’s Point between 1966 and 1974, before and during the construction of a housing development on the property. Under the direction of John Ludlow and John and Henry Watkins, ASD volunteers first excavated shovel test pits to locate activity areas. Over the course of the investigation, excavators found between three and seven structures on the property, but their primary focus was Icehouse Point, where several sub-surface features were uncovered. These features included Pit A, the brick foundation of a dwelling, and an eroding foundation of a second building.

During June and July 1968 and May 1969, ASD archaeologists focused on the excavation of Pit A at Icehouse Point, which they interpreted as an 18th-century trash pit. Pit A was excavated following natural stratigraphy, reaching a depth of three feet two inches at its southeastern end. The shape of Pit A is detailed in several sketches, but no complete plan or profile exists.

ASD members uncovered the southwest corner of a brick foundation in a plowed field at Icehouse Point in August 1969. Forty-eight 5-by-5-foot squares were excavated to reveal a brick and a half-wide foundation laid in Flemish bond measuring 22 feet by 80 feet. Two massive H-shaped hearth foundations were located in the center of the dwelling’s western half, with four rectangular pits on either side. This structure, with a height of more than one story, was probably built in the late 17th century and was used as a residence until the mid-1760s, when it was destroyed by fire. Excavation ended in June 1973 to allow for the construction of a new house on the site.

In 1969, an eroding foundation on the beach at Icehouse Point was examined through the excavation of four test units. This area was revisited in 1973, when two units were opened to reveal an associated refuse pit. Excavated in five arbitrary levels, a wide variety of late 17th- and 18th-century artifacts was recovered.

ASD members also documented the location of the cemetery at Bennett’s Point in May 1969. Investigators discovered a number of underground, vaulted brick crypts, several headstones, and a brick foundation wall surrounding the of the graveyard. Gravestones were located and recorded for Richard Bennett, Elizabeth Bennett, D. Caroll, and an unknown sailor.

Artifacts

The Bennett’s Point assemblage consists of 29,192 artifacts, primarily domestic and architectural items dating from c.1690 through the third quarter of the 18th century. A total of 4,683 ceramic sherds from a wide variety of vessel forms and ceramic types are found in the collection. Earthenware types include North Devon gravel-tempered, gravel-free, and sgraffito wares, tin-glazed pottery, Iberian ware, and black-glazed redwares in various forms. A nearly complete burned lead-glazed coarse earthenware bowl was also unearthed, along with 83 manganese and cobalt painted tin-glazed tile fragments. Seven stoneware types, including white salt-glazed, Rhenish blue and gray, and English brown wares, were found in tankard and jug forms. Two polychrome hand-painted white salt-glazed bowls were also discovered, along with one “bellarmine” fragment. Three hundred and thirty Chinese porcelain sherds from bowls and teacups were recovered, including specimens with gilding and polychrome over-glaze decoration.

Wine bottle fragments were the predominant glass container types recovered at 18QU28, but smaller quantities of case bottles and medicine bottles were also found. In addition, twelve wine bottles seals were discovered, including nine for Richard Bennett and three with an unidentified woman’s name and coat of arms. Four complete and 15 broken glass beads of various colors and two fragments of hand-painted glass were also recovered.

Other artifacts reveal the wealth of the occupants at Bennett’s Point during the first half of the 18th century. A gold-plated button, two pairs of white metal cufflinks (one with a central green jewel), and a silver-plated buckle fragment were among the clothing artifacts recovered. Two book hinges, a coin weight, a copper alloy pestle handle, several ornamental copper alloy furniture hardware fragments, and a carved bone medallion were also found. An iron padlock and key, two smoker’s companions, five pewter spoons, a shovel blade, and a complete fireplace shovel also reveal information about the wide range of activities that occurred across at the site. An ornamental brick/daub fragment was used to accentuate architectural features.

References

Jacobe, Stephanie A. 2001. “The Bennett’s Point Site:18QU28.” Manuscript on file at the Maryland Archaeological Conservation Laboratory.

Preston, Dickson. 1972. Ozymandias Beside The Chesapeake: Richard Bennett was at One Time the Richest Man on the Continent, and Now There’s Only a Gravestone. The Sun Magazine, November 5, pp. 20-25.

Wesler, Kit W. 1984. Excavations at Icehouse Point, 18QU28: The Sayer-Bennett Plantation. Bulletin of the Archaeological Society of Delaware 17:1-28.

Further Information on the Collection

The Bennett’s Point collection is owned by the State of Maryland and curated by the Maryland Archaeological Conservation Laboratory. For more information about the collection and collection access, contact Rebecca J. Morehouse, Collections Manager at 410-586-8583; email rmorehouse@mdp.state.md.us.