Rose Hill (Port Tobacco, Maryland)

Rose Hill is a historic house built in the late 18th century near Port Tobacco in Charles County, Maryland, United States. It is a five-part, Georgian-style dwelling house. It has a two-story central block with gable ends. It was restored during the mid 20th century.[2]

Rose Hill
South elevation of Dr. Gustavus Brown's Rose Hill on Rose Hill Road, vicinity of Port Tobacco, Charles County, Maryland. Built late 18th Century, restored 1937. Photograph by Thomas T. Waterman, 1940, for the Historic American Buildings Survey
LocationRose Hill Rd., Port Tobacco, Maryland
Coordinates38°30′43″N 77°1′30″W
Area602.2 acres (243.7 ha)
Built1715 (1715)
Architectural styleGeorgian
NRHP reference No.73000914[1]
Added to NRHPMarch 30, 1973

Rose Hill was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.[1]

It is notable for the following:

Dr. Gustavus Richard Brown

Around 1780, Dr. Gustavus Brown bought and combined four tracts of land[4][5] from his neighbor; the property is now known as "Betty's Delight". Combining this land with his own, he had built the house later named Rose Hill, which was completed in about 1783.[6][7]

The house has been owned by a number of families since it was built. It was restored in 1937[8] and more recently in the early 1970s by Charles Stuart.[9][10][11]

Olivia Floyd

The Maryland archives appear to show that Rose Hill Farm (with the manor) was sold to Ignatius Semmes, but do not provide a clear account, i.e., whether it was to the elder Semmes (born 1773[12]), or the younger (born 1821[13]), and when this took place (from 1804 to the early 1820s). Another Gustavus Brown is mentioned more than once in the same area, up to 1826. But the archives do show that older Semmes died in 1826, and the younger Semmes died in 1843, willing the property to his maternal uncle Holmes and paternal aunt Sarah (Semmes) Floyd, married to David L. Floyd, and her children.

Olivia Floyd was among the family of Sarah and David Floyd who lived at the manor. She is notable as a Confederate agent and blockade runner during the American Civil War.[14][15][16][17] Floyd sold the property to Maryland State Senator, Adrian Posey, in 1892.[18]

The Blue Dog

Port Tobacco village, at the bottom of Rose Hill, is a town. Rose Hill Road (which is outside Port Tobacco) passes a few widely scattered houses.

  • Rose Hill Historic Marker, September 2009
  • Rose Hill Historic Marker, September 2009

Notes
  1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
  2. William Morgan & Nancy Miller (July 1972). "National Register of Historic Places Registration: Rose Hill" (PDF). Maryland Historical Trust. Retrieved 2016-01-01.
  3. "OLIVIA FLOYD DEAD.; Famous Woman Blockade Runner of the Confederacy". The New York Times. December 12, 1905. Retrieved 2007-10-17.
  4. Arnett, pp 44-45
  5. National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form
  6. Sometime after the 1783 tax assessment, according to the Maryland Historical Trust web page.
  7. "Rose Hill". The Historical Marker Database. June 17, 2007. Retrieved 2008-11-01.
  8. The Historic American Buildings Survey notes that it was restored in 1937, when the survey photographed the building.
  9. Before Stuart bought it in 1972, it was owned by Frank Wade for 12 years.
  10. "Memorial Obituaries – Charles Edward Stuart". Brinsfield Echols Funeral Home. August 19, 2007.
  11. "Nixon White House Staffer, Charles Stuart, Dies at 69". The Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace Foundation. Retrieved 2007-10-05.
  12. O'Rourke, pp 12.
  13. Sister Miriam John+, OCD, Discalced Carmelite Nuns, Carmel of Port Tobacco. "The Early Nineteenth Century Burials at Mount Carmel, Maryland". Archived from the original on 2007-07-13. Retrieved 2007-10-19.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
    File modified October 7, 2000. It lists dates on gravestones 1778-1826 and 1821-1843 for the elder and younger Ignatius Semmes. See external link to St. Ignatius Church which shows worn gravestones (1773 may be read as 1778).
  14. "Rose Hill". The Historical Marker Database. June 17, 2007.
  15. Larry G. Eggleston (2003). Women in the Civil War: Extraordinary Stories of Soldiers, Spies, Nurses, Crusaders and Others. McFarland & Company. p. 108. ISBN 978-0-7864-1493-2. olivia floyd.
  16. The Maryland Historical Trust web page states that Olivia Floyd was a descendant of Gustavus Brown.
  17. John T. Marck. "Miss Olivia Floyd". About Famous People. Retrieved 2007-10-05.
  18. Charles County Land Records, Liber JST 5 Folio 317-319, accessed April 25, 2020

References
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