Beckford
Beckford, a late Georgian architectural style mansion, rests on a bank of the Manokin River in Princess Anne, in Somerset County, Maryland.
Built in the nineteenth century, Beckford became a focal point of Princess Anne as settlement and maritime traffic transformed the area into a prominent port. The tract of land which became Beckford was originally surveyed by Colonel William Stevens in 1679 and later patented to Edmund Howard in 1681 for 500 acres. Stevens himself was a successful merchant and large landowner in newly formed Somerset County. Indeed, he served as the first judge of the Somerset County Court in 1666 until his death in 1687.
An Act of the Maryland Assembly in 1743 set aside two dozen acres of the Beckford tract to establish a new town called Princess Anne. By 1771, merchant and planter Henry Jackson acquired the land. On May 19, 1802, John Dennis purchased from George Wilson Jackson, his brother-in-law, a tract of land “contiguous to the town of Princess Anne” in Somerset County, Maryland, known as “Beckford.”[1] Two years later, on December 11, 1804, Dennis sold part of the Beckford land to his nephew and Somerset County merchant, Littleton Dennis Teackle.[2] The latter eventually used his portion of the Beckford tract to build the Teackle Mansion.[3]
John Dennis was the “probable builder” of the Beckford mansion. Incredibly, Beckford’s exterior and interior features have remained largely unchanged since original construction in the early nineteenth century. Historians estimate that Dennis built the structure around 1803 after George Wilson Jackson (son of Henry Jackson and brother of Dennis' wife, Elinor) deeded him the land. One correlating fact that indicates this estimated timeline is the similar construction and architectural inspirations on display at Teackle Mansion. Built around the same time, both structures are of the late Georgian domestic style and utilized Federal elements that were just coming into favor.[4]
Footnotes
- ^ Somerset County Court Land Records, MSA CE 102-38, “George Wilson Jackson to John Dennis Esquire,” 05/19/1802, MDLandRec, 1800-1802, Liber N. p. 529. The Justice of the Peace who facilitated and validated this transaction was Levin Winder who, a decade later during the War of 1812, became Governor of Maryland; “Beckford, Somerset County, Maryland,” Digital Maryland, https://collections.digitalmaryland.org/digital/collection/bama/id/5/
- ^ Somerset County Court Land Records, MSA CE 102-40, “John Dennis Esquire to Littleton Dennis Teackle,” 12/11/1804, MDLandRec, 1803-1805, Liber. P, pp. 402
- ^ Somerset County Court Land Records, MSA CE 102-40, “Littleton Dennis Teackle to John Dennis Esquire,” 12/11/1804, MDLandRec, Liber. P, pp. 399; “Teackle Mansion,” Society of Architectural Historians, https://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/MD-01-039-0127; “Teackle Mansion,” Maryland Historical Trust, https://apps.mht.maryland.gov/nr/NRDetail.aspx?NRID=61&COUNTY=Somerset&FROM=NRCountyList.aspx; “Beckford, National Register of Historic Places Inventory - Nomination Form” (National Park Service, April 3, 1974).
- ^ NPS application