Introduction:

John Anthony LeCompte Radcliffe was the oldest of a family of 12 children born to James Sewell Radcliffe and Margaret Harris. His 3rd great grandfather was Richard Radcliffe who emigrated from England in 1682 at the age of 21. He settled in Talbot County, Maryland, and it was Richard’s great grandson John who moved south to Talbot County to marry Frances LeCompte. These were John Anthony LeCompte Radcliffe’s grandparents. John is also descended from his namesake Anthony LeCompte, one of Dorchester County’s earliest settlers (1659) and Stephen Gary, who in 1662 got the original patent for Spocott, which was to become John’s home for most of his lifetime. John is also descended from Charles Powell, probably Dorchester County’s first lawyer, and Dr. Robert Winsmore, Dorchester’s first physician. The one thing that most of his ancestors had in common was a connection to land and water. John is descended from a whole line of farmers and shipbuilders, individuals who not only reaped the produce from land and sea but could market it also.

Early Life:

John was born in 1818, the eldest of what was to be a large family. His father James owned property in Cornersville, several miles west of Spocott in Dorchester County. James worked the land and built ships. As the eldest John started learning his father’s trade at an early age. As a young man he was of impressive stature and very strong. Shipbuilding and farming suited him well. Opportunities for schooling were extremely limited, but John was an avid reader. He soon became well versed in History, Theology, and Philosophy. Even at an early age, he showed the intelligence, leadership, and determination which were to be his trademark throughout life.

An incident early in his life illustrates both his impressive character and strength. He was visiting his Aunt Catharine in approximately the year 1832. She was crippled and had been confined to a chair for her entire life. A small fire started in her home, and it quickly grew out of control. In the ensuing chaos of getting people out of the house, he suddenly realized that Catharine would be unable to move. Rushing back into the burning home, he lifted her in her favorite chair an carried both out of the house to safety, an impressive feat in several ways for a boy of 14.

As his family grew in size John was called upon more and more to take a leadership role in the family. He was grown and married before his youngest sibling Cornelia was born. It was to be a family of 13 with 6 boys and 7 girls. One brother Jeremiah died at a young age in 1833, but the rest were healthy and strong. He quickly learned the shipbuilding trade, working with his father, who had been an only child. In 1843 he married Rebecca Beckwith, also from the same area. Rebecca was a distant cousin because John also was descended from Henry Beckwith, another early Dorchester County settler. They were to have 10 children, but tragically lost many at an early age. Their first child Rebecca died soon after birth, and of their 5 sons and 5 daughters, only 3 would outlive their father. John was an incredibly strong person with deeply religious convictions, and he always remained the patriarch of the family.

John’s military stint was during the Mexican War, becoming a Captain in the Cambridge Blues, and his sword still hangs in the dining room at Spocott. After the War, he returned to help his father with his shipbuilding at the family shipyard in Cornersville. In January of 1847, however, he formed a partnership with two of his brothers, William and Nehemiah to begin their own shipbuilding venture. They soon were building ships at a nearby shipyard owned by a distant cousin, Peter Wheeler, and 2 years later, he was to purchase the shipyard and accompanying 149 acres. This was Spocott, the property settled by his ancestor Stephen Gary almost 200 years earlier. John, in the next 50 years was to build Spocott into as well known a property as there was in Dorchester County.

Shipbuilding Period (1847 – 1860):

This was one of the periods in Spocott history where the property was the hub of activity. The three brothers all began their shipbuilding operation while in their 20’s and very quickly became extremely busy.  John and William took charge of the shipbuilding operation while Nehemiah frequently took over as master of one of the ships, traveling up and down the Atlantic Coast. The shipyard built primarily two-masted schooners, and we have the record of many of the shipbuilding related transactions recorded in John’s Cash Book. The Spocott Shipyards were located south of the main house on Gary’s Creek, at the head of the Little Choptank River.

The brothers were obviously successful right away. The records show them building their third “vessail” early in 1848. The prices were meager by today’s standards. The records show them in 1847 contracting to build a ship for $24 per ton. One boat referred to as the “Stafford vessail” sold for $2,274.32 and was built at a cost of $1,621.62. The profit split three ways left each brother about $217 income. The Cash Book also shows all the workers who assisted, i.e. Ned Wilson, Aaron Richardson, Levin Jolley, and Charles Hubbard. Workers were sometimes paid by the job and sometimes by a daily rate ranging from $1.00/hour up to $1.75/hour. What is not listed of course is the slave labor, which was a critical part of the shipbuilding operation. John had acquired quite a number of slaves when he purchased Spocott. Had the slaves been paid, the brothers clearly would have had no profit. As will be seen, however, John’s views toward slavery were to change dramatically.

John’s brother Nehemiah was often listed as “master” of a ship, visiting place such as Fredericksburg, Richmond, Charleston, and Albany, carrying a variety of cargo including coal, lumber, and produce. Sometimes these were Spocott-built ships, but often they were not. John told his son, George L. Radcliffe, that one of the ships built at Spocott actually traveled completely around the globe. Unfortunately the name of this ship was not passed on to George. Also George in 1940 found one of his father’s ships in Annapolis; it was being used as a barge at that time. The owner told him that the vessel was still in such good shape that water had to be added inside the hull.

As quickly as the Radcliffe Shipyards rose in fame, so they quickly came to an end in 1860. Several factors may have been at play. First and foremost, William Harris Radcliffe purchased a property, Unity Hill, on Lee’s Creek on the other side of the property, He began and continued shipbuilding there for a number of years. Nehemiah joined the Confederate Navy almost as soon as the Civil War commenced and was wounded in action in 1864 and died on the way home. John, from 1860 on, put all his energies into farming and construction around the property.

There are still vestiges of this significant shipbuilding still at Spocott. The Shipbuilding Office/Carpentry Shop which John used is still on the property. It has been moved from the River to its present location inland. Many of John’s carpentry tools have been saved and are on display.

The Construction Period (1860 – 1870):

After the Spocott Shipyards ceased operation, John put his significant carpentry skills to work around the property. He had done some construction prior to this period. His Cash Book indicated that he had done some renovation to the Spocott House in 1851 and had built the windmill at the head of Gary’s Creek in 1852. But the projects increased dramatically from 1860 on. At the site of the shipbuilding in 1860 he built the large granary, which still exists today. During this period, he built the dwelling at the store complex near the windmill, added a major renovation to the Boston Farm House on Lee’s Creek, and built many of the outbuildings on the Spocott Property including dairy, blacksmith shop, outdoor kitchen, and stables. At this time he did not own Windemere Farms, which had been part of the original Spocott grant but had been sold by family earlier in the Century. His son George would buy this back after John’s death. In 1870 John built the Castle Haven Schoolhouse which his children would attend and which his son George would later have moved to the property, He also apparently did major construction on several building in the community including his church, Spedden United Methodist Church.

His Personal Life:

John was an extremely intense person. His son George said that John arose every morning at 4 AM and spent the next two hours just in reflection. He was extremely intelligent and a very spiritual man. As we will see later, his ideas were to continue to evolve throughout his life, and it is undoubtedly true that many of his ideas reached fruition during the periods of deep thought. He also found time to read a considerable amount each day. But at 6 AM he was ready to start his long day of work.

By 1870, he personally had experienced considerable family tragedy. Half of his children were deceased and the Civil War period saw the death of 3 of his brothers. Nehemiah had been killed in battle, and we do not know if the deaths of James and George W W Radcliffe were a result of the War. Then in 1870 his wife Rebecca passed away, leaving him the sole caregiver for 5 children, with the youngest William being just 4. The 1870’s would also see the death of 2 more of his children.

John had already proven himself to be a strong individual, and clearly his deep religious convictions were a major source of his strength. But as fate would have it, his life also took a major upturn during this decade. In 1871 he married Sophie Delila Travers from nearby Taylor’s Island. Sophie had just suffered the loss of her husband Andrew J Robinson. Sophie had been left with at least 4 children, all under the age of 8, including 1 born after Andrew’s death. Although 18 years younger than John, this marriage seemed to be built as much out of convenience as love. But whether out of convenience or not, their marriage was a close one. He clearly wore the pants in the family although Sophie was a magnificent mother and grandmother. John’s son George always heard his mother refer to his father as “Mr. Radcliffe”. With Sophie and her 4 young ones moving into Spocott, the house suddenly came alive again. John at this time extended Spocott to the north and added the “T”.

Their combined large family grew larger as John and Sophie had 3 children together in the next 6 years: Thomas Broome, James Sewell and George Lovic Pierce Radcliffe. With all three, education was paramount, with each getting the education not afforded to John. In addition to schooling at the nearby schoolhouse which John built, Sophie did a lot of schooling at home, and each was afforded access to an extensive family library. The youngest George was to not only attend Johns Hopkins but to go on to get his PhD and law degree.

Slavery:

John’s attitude toward slavery provides a glimpse into John’s character and beliefs. Slavery was clearly a part of the shipbuilding early in his life. As abhorrent as slavery is to us today, economics clearly made it an appealing and seemingly necessary aspect of early life. Looking back at the slim profit margin which John and his brothers had when building and selling a vessel, it is doubtful that they could have made any profit at all without the use of slaves. There is no excuse for slavery, but the economics of the situation at least helps us understand the motivation. With John it was clearly a matter of economics, not one of blatant racism.

As will be evident, John Anthony LeCompte Radcliffe grew up with and accepted slavery but never regarded them as an inferior form of life. Although slaves came with his purchase of Spocott, his views on slavery began to dramatically change in the 1850’s. He always treated them with respect and deeply appreciated their important contributions to Spocott. A clue to his dramatically changing ideas came with the middle name which he gave his last child, George Lovic Pierce Radcliffe. George until the day he died never knew where this middle name came from. His father passed when George was 24, and it always seemed strange to those in the family that he never knew the origin of “Lovic Pierce”. Well over 100 years after George’s birth, the family finally learned that Lovick Pierce was a Methodist minister in Georgia who espoused treating all with respect. While Lovick was not an abolitionist, he was committed to improving the lot of slaves in the South. He believed in the value of every person and espoused education as a way to elevate the plight of slaves.

His son George also shared an incident in the 1850s which indicated John’s changing views. John was clearly a devoutly religious man and an avid church goer. At one particular meeting or service John arose and made a passionate plea for all in the parish to free their female slaves. This was clearly not well received as he then was a very infrequent member of the parish. Whether he was asked to leave or did so of his own accord is not known. Several letters to John in later years asked him to return to the church. Whatever the specifics, it is clear that John’s ideas on slavery dramatically changed. With the dissolution of the Spocott Shipyard in 1860, any remaining slaves were granted their freedom. Robert Bell’s Book of Slave Statistics, 1864 – 1868 list 14 slaves still belonging to John Anthony LeCompte Radcliffe although most of those listed are children. We do know that they were freed well before this but still lived on the property. Most prominent of those listed was John Columbus Wheatley and his brother Augustus. Columbus Wheatley after a stint in the Union Army and Navy returned to Spocott, married Adeline, and lived there his entire life. They were beloved by the family and included I most family ventures. John and Adeline’s children were each raised, educated at Spocott, and given their first employment by John. Some of their descendants worked and lived at Spocott until the early 1960s. John always considered Columbus his key handyman, and the two remained close throughout their lives, both passing about the turn of the century.

It is hard for us today to understand slavery, but we have to examine it in the context of those times. While the racism behind slavery was still rampant long after John’s death, it is admirable to see how his ideas evolved. For the area he lived, he was far ahead of his times. An abolitionist point of view was almost a dangerous one in an area where slavery was regarded as an economic necessity. It has also been interesting to the family that John, with his earlier military background, did not fight in the Civil War. Two of his brothers fought for the Confederacy, and it seems logical that by 1861 John could not have sided with this cause. Whether this was behind his unwillingness to fight or whether it was because of a need to support his family will remain a mystery. The fact that even in 1877 he would give his child the name of an abolitionist minister and then keep the source hidden from all tells us much of the times and that freedom of slaves was not setting well in that area well after the War.

The final piece in understanding John’s beliefs here came during the 1870’s when he became politically active. Public funding for education for “Negroes” became one of his causes. He had built a school which could be used by the white children in the area but not the children of the freed slaves. The community had to accept the end to slavery, but that did nothing whatsoever to alleviate the problem of racial inequality. Freedom sounded good but with no chance for education, no availability of jobs, and no capital for economic ventures, the freed slaves were still bound in slavery in an economic sense. John and Sophie in later years made sure that all at Spocott, received a degree of education on the farm, but true change was years away.

The Glory Years at Spocott (1870 – 1890):

While the post-Civil War Period saw a significant economic decline throughout the local area, Spocott thrived. John created literally a self-sufficient community at Spocott where both Blacks and Whites were welcome. Everything that was needed was grown or made at Spocott. The farms provided the food for all. The surrounding waters contained plentiful seafood. Horses and mules assisted with the labor, and farming provided most of the materials. Cotton was grown for clothing, and sheep provided the necessary wool for winter clothing. Cows, pigs, and chickens provided the meat, milk, and eggs, and hides provided the leather from which shoes, satchels, and tack for the horses and mules were made. The shoe molds still exist at Spocott and are on display. John built a smokehouse for preserving meats and tanning hides. He built a dairy near the house where things such as milk could be kept cool in troughs, which were below grand level. Milk was churned into butter on the property, and the wax from the plentiful bayberry was used to make soap and candles.

Vegetables were grown in the fields, and apples, crabapples, pears, and grapes grew around the property. Grains were ground into meal at the Spocott Windmill. The surrounding woodlots which John had purchased for shipbuilding now provided the lumber for buildings and furniture. Often a visitor would stay for a while, and their payment for room and board might be to make a piece of furniture or to help erect a barn.

But what most remembered about these days at Spocott was the unprecedented hospitality. John and Sophie’s children and grandchildren had warranted almost doubling the size of Spocott House, but there was always room for guests. Any particular night might have family visiting and often guests from around the Eastern Shore or even from across the Bay. John’s son George recounted stories of many nights where the house was overflowing with guests. Two or three might be piled into a small bed, and the overflow frequently ended up on the floor. George remembered one night where the Governor of Maryland slept on the floor because every bed was taken. The large northeast bedroom was often used for community get-togethers and dances. When the dance ended, guests would roll out blankets to sleep on the floor.

Behind much of this incredible hospitality was Adeline Wheatley, wife of Columbus Wheatley, the former slave. Aunt Adeline, as she was called, was not only the cook for these frequently large assemblages, but also the house manager. While John and Sophie were clearly patriarch and matriarch of the family, Adeline’s role was key, and her advice was highly sought after.

As described in an excerpt in a book about prominent Marylanders, “Possibly the predominating characteristic of his [John’s] life was the desire to be truly helpful to those around him. He was the last in his community to continue the old-fashioned hospitable but expensive method of keeping ‘open house’ throughout the year to which his relatives and friends were at all times welcome. It is undoubtedly true that there was no place in Dorchester County where hospitality was so freely, so cordially, and so generously extended as at Spocott.” (Genealogical and Memorial, p. 260)

The Political Years:

John’s ongoing leadership role in the community soon took him into the political arena. He was so highly thought of that for each office he ran for, he won by a significant vote. He was appointed Trustee of the Poor in 1872 and was elected to the Maryland House of Delegates. He also elected as President of the Board of County Commissioners. His opinion was frequently sought after, both by local officials and by 2 Governors of Maryland. He clearly threw his energy into the causes of the underprivileged as well as the Black community. Education was always at the top of his list, and he personally remained a voracious reader his entire life.

As important as politics and causes were, he always put family first, and his family grew larger and larger with the continued addition of grandchildren. He was the archtypal patriarch, a true gentle giant. He clearly was beloved and respected by his children, and his influence on his youngest son George was profound.

 End of an Era (1890 – 1901):

John retired from farming in 1890 although he remained active in the community. The farming was handled by several tenant farmers in the area. Adline continued to mange the house ably, and guests and family did continue to visit. John was such a powerful man that it is was difficult seeing him slow down.

The farming was generating less income and things began to decline somewhat. A letter from Sophie to a relative in the early 1890’s sought to get George a badly needed winter coat. John had never been wealthy but the shipbuilding and farming had allowed him to significantly upgrade the property. John had worked hard every day of his life, but in his 70’s saw much less production.

On the 9th of June in 1901 he passed away. Sophie would live another quarter of a century, but by her death, the family had fallen on hard times. Shortly after her death the Depression hit, financially wiping out 2 of John and Sophie’s children. It would be up to the youngest George to save the day, nd under his “reign” Spocott would rise again.

John was certainly a significant part of the 19th Century Dorchester County. He helped usher in a post-slavery attitude, and his moral character and strength went a long way to starting the County on the road to racial equality.

One can walk through Spocott House today and imagine those amazing 19th Century Days: hard work, both races sharing a table, guests and family roaming the property on those pleasant summer days, those magnificent feasts orchestrated by Aunt Adeline, and dances going well into the night. It truly was a special time.