Hampton Mansion, Hampton National Historic Site

CAPTAIN CHARLES RIDGELY AND REBECCA DORSEY
1^st Owners, 1783-1790

The saga of the Ridgely family, one of the wealthiest families in America up through the Civil War, began in 1745 when Colonel Charles Ridgely purchased 1,500 acres of land called Northampton in Baltimore County from the original owners, the Darnall-Hill family. In 1760, he gave 2,000 acres, including the northern two-thirds of Northampton, to his son Charles as a wedding present. The Colonel had tried operating a tobacco plantation on the land, but being far from the coast, it was hard to compete with the plantations closer to port cities. Charles Jr., who was referred to as The Captain due to a career as a mariner, switched to growing wheat and other grains with the goal of being the major supplier of produce to the Baltimore area. This would eliminate the shipping discrepancies he faced when trying to compete with plantations that sold goods mainly to England.

Also in 1760, the Colonel purchased 100 acres of land adjacent to the northern boundary of the Northampton plantation, and the following year he, Charles, and his second son John opened the Northampton Iron Furnace. When John died in 1771, Captain Charles purchased his share of the company, now giving him two-thirds ownership. The Colonel died a year later, but gave his share to his three daughters. It is from the iron industry that Captain Charles Ridgely would make his fortune.

During the American Revolution, the Northampton Iron Furnace was a major supplier of artillery and other iron products to the Continental Army. However, as with most government contracts at the time, everything was done on credit, with payback hinging on an American victory. When a treaty was finally signed in 1783 sealing America’s independence from England, Ridgely was paid in full for the services he had provided. He was now a rich man, but more was yet to come.

In 1781, the General Assembly of Maryland passed a law that forced all British Loyalists to forfeit their land in Maryland and to leave the country, assuming of course, the Americans won the war. Subsequently, those with the proper connections were able to buy the confiscated land for a song. The Captain, being active in politics, had these connections, and he was able to expand his land holdings to around 25,000 acres, making him one of the wealthiest men in America almost overnight. With all this wealth, he set out to build the largest private home in the United States at that time, Hampton Mansion.

Construction on the mansion began in 1783, with labor supplied by hired skilled craftsmen, slaves owned by Ridgely, and indentured European servants. Work continued to some extent through early 1790, though the majority of the house was completed by late 1788. When done, the mansion was 24,000 square feet, big enough to fit Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello and George Washington’s Mount Vernon inside and still have some room left over. The home was built in the Georgian architectural style, which requires complete symmetry. One half of the house is essentially a mirror image of the other half.

The Captain and his wife, Rebecca Dorsey, moved into the mansion in December 1788, but unfortunately they only got to enjoy their new home for a little over a year. The Captain had a stroke and died on June 28, 1790.

CHARLES RIDGELY CARNAN AND PRISCILLA DORSEY
2^nd Owners, 1790-1829

In his will, the Captain left Rebecca the choice of the large overseer’s house and eight acres—part of the farm down the road where the Ridgelys lived during the construction phase—or the mansion, which was being built when he wrote his will. Because the Ridgelys had no children, the rest of the estate was left to his nephew, Charles Ridgely Carnan, whom he and Rebecca had helped raise. In fact, Carnan and his wife Priscilla Dorsey, the sister of Rebecca, were living at Hampton Mansion at the time of the Captain’s death. The only caveat was that Charles had to change his name to Charles Carnan Ridgely, which you can imagine he did as quickly as he could get down to city hall. He also received the Captain’s two-third share of the Northampton Iron Furnace.

Overseer’s House, also known as the Lower House Hampton National Historic Site

Rebecca and Carnan (as I will call him for the sake of clarity) did not get along. To remedy the situation, the two worked out a deal where she agreed to give up her ownership of all Hampton property in exchange for Carnan purchasing for her 244 acres of land at another location, building her a house, a carriage house, and a stable, fencing in the property, and paying her £1000 a year for the rest of her life. She lived another 22 years. (Even though the currency of dollars was established after the war, Spanish and English currencies were commonly used to track financial transactions all the way up until the Civil War).

When Carnan and Priscilla moved into Hampton, they began completing tasks at the estate that the Captain never got around to. For example, the mansion had never been painted and the gardens had never been completed, so the new owners got it done. Other upgrades to the property during Carnan’s ownership include the installation of a pull-bell system that could summon servants to various places around the house, the installation of a wooden pipe system that brought water to the kitchen and laundry room, and the installation of an irrigation system for the garden. He also built a new stable, which is located near today’s Hampton Lane.

Carnan, among other things, went into politics, becoming a Baltimore County representative in the Maryland legislature in 1790, a Maryland state senator from 1796 to 1800, and governor of Maryland from 1816-1819. He also became a General in the state militia. He was often referred to as The General or The Governor.

Carnan died in 1829 (Priscilla had died earlier in 1814). In his will he gave freedom to many of his 300+ slaves. All males between the ages of 28 and 45 and females between the ages of 25 and 45 were freed. Those over 45 were placed in trust and could not be sold, but they were to be treated kindly and taken care of in old age. All males younger than 28 and females younger than 25 remained slaves, though they would be freed when reaching 28 and 25 years old, respectively. This of course kept the younger, more productive men and woman in slavery.

JOHN CARNAN RIDGELY AND ELIZA EICHLEBERGER RIDGELY
3^rd Owners, 1829-1867

Being the only heir to Captain Charles Ridgely’s fortune, Carnan had not only inherited Hampton and a share of the Northampton Iron Furnace, but all of the Captain’s 25,000 acres of land. He and Priscilla had ten children, so it was upon his death that the estate began to be subdivided. Hampton, which amounted to the original Northampton land purchase plus a few additional parcels, went to his oldest surviving son, John Carnan Ridgely, and the rest of the estate was divided among his other children.

John had married Prudence Carroll in 1812. She came from a wealthy family and had inherited an estate and slaves of her own. Unfortunately, she died in 1822 and never lived at Hampton. He then remarried to Eliza Eichelberger Ridgely (a fifth cousin) in 1828. Eliza also came from a wealthy family and also inherited an estate and slaves. Thus, John was doing alright without any help from his father, and despite the fact that many of Carnan’s slaves had been freed, he was not lacking for slave labor.

Eliza had a huge interest in gardening, and it was under her watch that the gardens at Hampton became known throughout the east as some of the best in the country. She was also the first Ridgely to hire professional gardeners. The gardener’s house, which was originally a small, two room house built around 1840, was enlarged to six rooms in 1855 for the sole purpose of attracting the top gardeners to a position at Hampton.

Gardener’s House at Hampton Mansion, Hampton National Historic Site

John took an interest in building, and most of the outbuildings standing today, including the two greenhouses, the gardener’s house, the second stable, and the original orangery (which burned down in 1928) were built during his time. Upgrades to the mansion itself, aside from general maintenance, were the addition of the north porch—the last major addition to the mansion’s exterior—the installation of bathrooms on the first and second floors, the upgrade from wooden water pipes to iron pipes for both the house and garden, the installation of gas lighting, and the installation of central heating.

John and Eliza were the last of the big spenders in the Ridgely family. By the 1830s, production at the Northampton Iron Furnace had fallen off sharply, and it was shut down completely around 1850. Its machinery and techniques had become outdated, the land was fairly depleted of resources, and transportation costs were much higher than those of ironworks closer to the coast. What remains of the ironworks today lie at the bottom of the Loch Raven Reservoir.

A second blow to the Ridgelys’ finances, though not as impactful as the demise of the ironworks, was the end of slavery in 1864. This not only put an end to free labor, but also the financial value of a slaves was erased, sort of like owning a gold mine when the gold runs out. The Ridgelys continued the agriculture business at Hampton, but they relied more and more on leasing the land to tenant farmers and less on actively farming the land themselves. Some of the tenants were the Ridgely’s former slaves.

None of these financial setbacks had much of an impact on the lifestyle of John and Eliza since they had plenty of money to begin with. However, each of the next three generations of Ridgelys had to cut back on expenses.

CHARLES RIDGELY AND MARGARETTA HOWARD
4^th Owners, 1867-1872

John and Eliza had two children, Charles and Eliza. When John died on July 17, 1867, the Hampton estate went to his wife. However, Eliza herself died only a few months later on December 20th. At that time Hampton passed to Charles, making him the fourth owner. He inherited 3,402 acres, which included the Hampton estate plus some of his parents’ other land.

Charles had been running the family farming business since 1850, so he was no stranger to Hampton. He no longer had income from the iron business, so agriculture was the main source of his active income during his ownership of Hampton. He made money from both rents to tenants and from the sale of his own produce. However, he made two-thirds of his income from passive activities such as investments in stocks and bonds.

The only significant improvement to the mansion during Charles’s time was a new road that ran from the avenue on the west side of the mansion to near the greenhouses. A lack of money may be the first thought that comes to mind as to why nothing much was done other than maintenance, but the truth is much simpler—Charles didn’t live long after inheriting the estate, dying of malaria in Rome, Italy, at age 49 on March 29, 1872.

JOHN RIDGELY II AND HELEN STEWART
5^TH Owners, 1872-1938

Charles had married Margaretta Howard in 1851 and they had seven children, with John Ridgely II being the oldest son. By terms of the will, John II only received the mansion and what was known as the Home Farm—the farm located down the road from the estate—roughly 1,000 acres. The rest of the 2,402 acres was divided between the remaining children.

John took on the role of what his wife Helen Stewart described as a “gentleman farmer,” which meant that he didn’t do anything. Though technically the owner of Hampton, his mother continued to run the estate until around 1900 (she died in 1904). During this time she authorized the second major renovation of the mansion between 1880 and 1882. This included major repairs to the orangery and the two greenhouses. It wasn’t until after Margaretta’s death and the further decline of his fortune that John took an active part in the affairs of the estate, though in truth, it was Helen who did all of the work.

Because the mansion was so isolated, all Ridgelys prior to John maintained a winter residence in Baltimore. John and Helen became the first Ridgelys to live at Hampton full time, starting in 1906. This was not out of love for the mansion, but to avoid the expenses of maintaining a second home. By 1907 the couple was nearly broke. To help matters, they expanded the farm operation to include the raising of chickens, and Helen received a substantial inheritance in 1908. Despite the hardships, they still maintained the gardens and buildings.

In 1929, John and his son John Jr. opened the Hampton Development Company and attempted to develop residential subdivisions on their land. While Hampton began as a house in the middle of nowhere, by the 1920s Baltimore had grown substantially and there was a market for suburban homes. Of course, opening a real estate company just as the Great Depression hit wasn’t a big success, and they constantly had to sell off family possessions to pay bills.

The most significant improvement to the mansion under the tenure of John II was the conversion from gas lighting to electric lighting in 1929 (the main purpose of electricity in the early days was for lighting, not appliances and other electronic devices). Electricity had been around for a while, but Helen was scared to death of it. When she died in 1929, John immediately set about making the transition.

JOHN RIDGELY JR. AND JANE RODNEY
6^th and Final Owner, 1938-1948

John Ridgely II lived until 1938. He and Helen had seven children, and upon his death the estate passed to John Jr., his oldest son. John Jr. had married Louise Humichouse, and they lived a half-mile west of the mansion. However, by the time he inherited Hampton, Louise had died (1934). He later remarried to Jane Rodney.

John Jr. was the last Ridgely to own the Hampton estate. By the 1940s the place was falling apart and in need of major renovation. John Jr. desperately wanted to sell the estate, but he didn’t want the mansion torn down and the surrounding grounds and gardens bulldozed to make way for another subdivision. As it turned out, a painting that hung in the house for more than one hundred years would save the day.

Artist Thomas Sully had painted a portrait of Eliza Ridgely in 1818 when she was fifteen years old. Sully would go on to became one of the first famous American painters. He is best known for his portraits, particularly those of United States presidents and other dignitaries. He first came to prominence after painting a portrait of John Quincy Adams and one of the Marquis de Lafayette in 1824, so his painting of Eliza was done early in his career and was therefore of great value.

Copy of the original Thomas Sully portrait of Eliza Ridgely

The director of the National Gallery of Art heard about the Sully painting and asked Ridgely to donate it, which he refused. He did agreed to sell it, but added a clause that the purchase must include restoring the mansion, a request that the curator could not accommodate. The National Gallery of Art had been founded by the wealthy Mellon family, which got involved and agreed to Ridgely’s demands in 1947. They purchased the painting and then donated $90,000 to the National Park Service for the purchase of the Hampton estate, which only included the mansion, any remaining furnishings, and 43 acres of surrounding land. The deal did not include the fourteen acres of the Home Farm, the two-acre Ridgely Family Cemetery, and the two acres along Hampton Lane where the two stables are located.

The National Park Service was in no position to take on another property that needed renovation and only agreed to purchase Hampton if an organization could be found to manage the site. This led to a partnership between the National Park Service, the Mellons’ Avalon Foundation, and the Society for the Preservation of Maryland Antiquities (SPMA). With an agreement in place, President Harry Truman authorized the creation of the Hampton National Historic Site, and in 1949, after the required renovations were completed, the mansion was open to the public. The park was run and maintained by the SPMA, which was paid $100,000 a year for this service. The agreement was in effect until 1979, at which time the National Park Service took over the management of the park.

John Jr. and Jane moved into the Lower House on the Home Farm and lived there until their deaths. When Jane died in 1980, the National Park Service purchased the farm. The SPMA had acquired the land containing the cemetery and stables back in 1953. This land was donated to the park in 1990. Today, the total size of the Hampton National Historic Site is 62 acres. It is all that remains of the Ridgely family estate.

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