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CATHOLICS IN COLONIAL DELMARVAAn Article by Reverend Thomas J. Peterman
INTRODUCTION
There are eight counties of Maryland on the Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake Bay. This presents the history of Catholicism there up to the founding of the Diocese of Wilmington in 1868The first European to make landfall on what is now the Eastern Shore of Maryland was Verrazano, who in 1524 dropped anchor in Sinepuxent Bay and marched eight miles into what is now Worcester County. In 1564 Menendez de Aviles, Spanish governor of Florida, sailed into what is now Chesapeake Bay and named it Bahia De Madre de Dios. Twenty four years later Vincente Gonzales entered the bay and sailed as far as the mouth of the Susquehanna River. When a map was published in Frankfort, Germany, in 1590, the Indian name Chesepioc prevailed over the Spanish name for the bay.
Shortly after the Calvert colony was founded in 1634, Giles Brent was sent as commander to Kent Island, where in 1640 he built Fort Kent Manor. Father John Gravenor, a Jesuit, celebrated Mass there in an Indian hut as early as 1635. Margaret Brent, Giles' sister, owned 1000 acres on Kent Island by 1640. When the Puritans from Virginia encroached on the Maryland government in 1645, under Richard Ingle, Giles was captured and sent back to England in chains. Margaret Brent was compelled to hide out while Ingle plundered her farm, livestock, and goods. Margaret Brent, an attorney for the Calverts, brought lawsuits against several prejudiced persons. In a disposition made at one court session, it was alleged that Edward Comins did "go up into Brent's loft and throw down the books, saying 'Burn the Papist Devils' or words to that effect." In an action for which she is best known, Margaret Brent requested from Governor Greene and his council a vote in the Maryland Assembly. The request was denied but Margaret from that action earned the title "America's First Woman Suffragist." Her name appears 124 times in the Testimentary Records of the Provincial Court from 1642 to 1650. She is the most famous woman in early Maryland annals.
After the downfall of the Puritan Commonwealth in 1660, Philip Calvert, described as "a rigid Papist," was appointed chancellor of the colony. He was granted land on the southernmost tip of Talbot County now called Chancellor's Point, where he grew a large crop of tobacco. He also was granted land where the Bohemia River connects with the Elk River. He planned a large port town there which never developed but it is still called Towne Point today. Other tracts granted to Philip Calvert were Hazelmore and The Grove or Grove Point near Cecilton in Cecil County.
In 1659 Augustine Herman was granted 4,000 acres which he named Bohemia Manor. Herman met George Hack in New York, and the two operated there one of the largest tobacco houses in America. Herman was not Catholic, but George Hack was baptized Catholic in the Cologne Cathedral. They married sisters and when Herman moved to Maryland, Hack settled opposite Bohemia Manor across the river at what is now known as Hack's Point.
By 1662 the Wye River Basin had become a safe haven for the largest and most flourishing Catholic population on the Eastern Shore at that time. The chapel at Wye is considered primarily the work of Peter Sayer, an architect. It was built on a tract called Morgan - St. Michael's, near the home of Peter and Frances (Morgan) Sayer. Peter Sayer was a Catholic gentleman whose father William had come over on the Ark and Dove in 1634. Peter had been educated in Paris by the English Benedictines. He remained until his death a close friend and confidante of the Calverts. In 1675 he married Frances Morgan, and built around that time the first structure dedicated exclusively to Catholic worship on the Delmarva peninsula. The Peter Sayer chalice is displayed now with other Recusant chalices in the Jesuit archives at Georgetown University.
Charles Blake, a nephew of Peter Sayer, was also educated by the Benedictine monks in Paris. He lived first with his uncle, until he married Henrietta Maria Lloyd II and reared a family at Blakeford, referred to by the Jesuits as "Blakes on Chester," where Mass was offered in a chapel room fro several generations. His son, John Sayer Blake I, lived at Sportsman's Hall, referred to by the Jesuits as "Blakes on Wye." Another son, Philemon Charles Blake I, continued to live at Blakeford. John Sayer Blake's daughter Mary wed Conrad Wederstrandt and lived in Queen Anne County near Queenstown at "Bennetts Regulation," referred to by the Jesuits as "Blakes on Corsica." Their son Philemon was the second student to enroll at Georgetown College.
When the Maryland Government had been threatened by the Puritans from Virginia, Richard Bennett, the governor of Virginia had stood by the Calverts and as a reward had been given large land grants on the Wye River. His son married Henrietta Maria Neale a Catholic, settled there, having first a daughter Susanna Maria in 1665. His wife was expecting a second child when he drowned at age 35. The son was named Richard Bennett III. Widowed at 21, Henrietta Maria in 1669 married Philemon Lloyd, and became Madam Lloyd of Wye. They had three sons and six daughters. Philemon died at age 39, and Henrietta lived on a dozen more years. Her background, wealth, and beauty dazzled those who might otherwise have snubbed her for her open espousal of Catholicism. The Catholic church built at Wye is often referred to as "Madam Lloyd's Chapel." Father Nicholas Gulick was resident priest there till the chapel was closed in 1689. In her will Henrietta Maria Neale Bennett Lloyd left 300 acres near the chapel. "She threw over the Roman Catholic priests the protection of her long social standing in Maryland on both shores. No archbishop could have been more of a stay and prop for Roman Catholicism than this estimable woman." Henrietta Maria is credited with a share in the establishment and maintenance of the chapel. She was 28 years old when the chapel was built in 1675, at "Chapel Cove." It was the only Catholic church structure on the entire Eastern Shore during the years of its existence.
In Somerset County there was no chapel nor were Catholics regularly visited by the Jesuit missionaries. The county had 72 Catholics at the turn of the seventeenth century as reported by the county sheriff - the second greatest number in all the Eastern Shore counties. These were mostly Irish indentured servants or tenant farmers involved in raising tobacco. Berlin, Maryland, then in Somerset County is a derivation of "Burleigh's Inn," named for its first proprietor William Burleigh, who was arrested as a papist in 1669. In 1685 Donnock Dennis, a Catholic, was appointed high sheriff of Somerset County. He took up a grant in the lower Pocomoke area, and together with Irishmen O'Cain and Blake, formed a settlement called Irish Grove.
In Dorchester County, Raymond Staplefort, a Catholic, served as high sheriff when the county was founded in 1669. His daughter Eleanor married Richard Tubman I, a Catholic gentleman from Scotland. The missionaries regularly visited the "Isles of Dorset" on the western side of the county (James, Taylor, Barren, and Hooper islands). Richard Tubman II gave the land for the first Catholic chapel in the county, built in 1767, St. Mary's, Star of the Sea, at Meekins Neck.
In 1663 Cecil Calvert sent his secretary Henry Sewall to Maryland to guide his son Charles Calvert as governor of Maryland. Henry Sewall had married Lady Jane Lowe, and was granted land on the Eastern Shore on what came to be called Secretary Creek, a tributary on the south side of the Choptank River. After Henry Sewall's early death, Jane married governor Charles Calvert, later becoming Lady Baltimore in 1675 when Cecil Calvert died. Her home on Secretary Creek still exists as "My Lady Sewall's Manor House."
The town of Oxford on the Tred Avon is the Eastern Shore's oldest surviving town. The first map of Maryland drawn by Augustine Herman in 1670 included the port of Oxford. Lady Jane's brother, Vincent Lowe, played a major role in the establishment of the port town. Peter Sayer and Henrietta Maria Lloyd of Wye were among those who purchased early plots in the town.
Susanna Maria Bennett, Madan Lloyd's oldest child was 17 when she married Lord Baltimore's brother-in-law John Darnall. At his death she married again Colonel Henry Lowe, Lady Baltimore's nephew. She died at 48 after having reared a dozen children. As is her mother, she is referred to as the "ancestress of the Eastern Shore."
Madam Lloyd's eldest son, Richard Bennett III, attended a Jesuit school in Paris, and at 19 conducted a general store in Wye Town. He married Elizabeth Rousby and lived most of his life at Bennett's Point. They had no children. His wife died at 58, and Richard Bennett never remarried. (Their dwelling was excavated in 1973).
Richard Bennett III kept a chapel room where visiting Jesuits offered Mass regularly. When he died in 1749 Richard Bennett III had become the province's greatest landowner, its largest ship owner, and its most important merchant and financier. "Poor Dick of Wye - the richest man in all his majesty's colonies," was the Eastern Shore's biggest producer of tobacco. The settlement of his estate in 1749 precipitated one of the bitterest and longest legal battles in provincial history. In his will Bennett directed that a chapel be constructed over his and his wife's graves. An elegant chapel was constructed in the Morgan - Sayer cemetery (excavated in 1975) near the road at the southern tip of Bennett's Point. (In 1982 the foundations were reconstructed and two historical markers were placed there). Sunnyside at Bennett's Point was the home of Captain John Griffin. Sedgewick at Bennett's Point was the home of Alfred Bryan.
James Hepbourne migrated from Scotland in 1665 and purchased Shepherd's Delight in Kent County near Still Pond. He kept a chapel there and had the priest say Mass whenever he visited.
In 1685 Peter Sayer brought another Catholic into the Wye area in the person of Jacobus Seth. The Seths made their home on the Back Wye at Mount Mill, a tract owned by Seth's descendants for the next 200 years. Mount Mill was a Mass station. Charles Seth, the eldest son, operated mills at Mount Mill, at Island Creek in Queen Anne County, and at Tuckahoe in Caroline County. The Jesuits visited Piney Neck on the southern tip of the peninsula on the east side of Greenwood Creek in Talbot County. Missionaries also visited "Clifton" at Easton Landing, the home of David Jones, a family doctor. Nearby was another Mass station, Island Creek, the home of Thomas Browning, Sr.
Colonel George Talbot, Charles Calvert's cousin, was responsible for the largest settlement of Irish Catholics on the Eastern Shore by the end of the 17th century. An openly professed Catholic, "our right trusty and beloved cozen," was granted a total of 32,000 acres of land, Susquehanna Manor, extending from Delaware to Octoraro Creek, 80 miles at top of the Bay to above the present Pennsylvania line. In 1683 he established New Munster (6,000 acres), which extended over the Pennsylvania line. Talbot was placed there to be a thorn in the side of William Penn, who was encroaching on Maryland territory. The boundary dispute between the Penns and Calverts was a war. Talbot set up a fort at the head of the Christina River. Charles Calvert rode to Bohemia then to New Castle to meet with Markham, Penn's governor. The 40th degree of latitude reached to Upland, near Philadelphia. Bacon Hill on Route 7 between Elkton and North East was the lookout or beacon spot for Talbot's men. Charles Calvert sailed for England leaving Talbot in charge as president of the Provincial Council. Talbot was fiery, impetuous by nature. He boarded the Quaker on the Patuxent, stabbed the king's agent in a fight, was arrested and taken to Virginia. His wife sailed down with two Irishmen and rescued him from jail. He hid out for weeks at Susquehanna Manor in a cave below Port Deposit. He was persuaded to surrender and was taken to England where King James II exonerated him. Eventually he died later in the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. While in hiding, he was spotted off Oldfield's Landing, named for George Oldfield, first attorney for Cecil County when it was founded. "Historic Oldfield" is where the British landed on the Elk River in 1777. In 1690, George Oldfield refused to take the Oath of Supremacy and moved to Pennsylvania.
After the "Glorious Revolution" in England in 1688, Calvert lost control of his Maryland government through the Coode rebellion in Maryland in 1689. The Anglican Church was established in Maryland and the capital moved to Annapolis. Catholics were denied public worship and political office. Peter Sayer kept Lord Baltimore informed by letters. His and Madam Lloyd's firearms were confiscated. Richard Bennett III at 31 rode his horse into the courthouse to protest the Protestant takeover. Madam Lloyd preceded Peter Sayer in death in 1697 by six months.
In 1704, the St. Francis Xavier Mission was established by Father Thomas Mansell at Bohemia in Cecil County. It was the first permanent Catholic foundation on the Eastern Shore. In 1745 Father Thomas Poulton opened an academy for boys there. Nearby at Mount Harmon on the Sassafras, James Heath built a chapel and ran an academy for girls.
The French and Indian War resulted in one of the worst periods for Roman Catholics in the colony. Fearing the increase of Irish immigrants, Maryland passed the "Act to Prevent The Growth of Popery." In 1757 Father James Beadnall was tried for saying Mass. In 1755 groups of French Acadians were unloaded at places on the Eastern Shore, at Wye River, Oxford, Chestertown, and Elk River. In 1758 the sheriffs of each county were required to report properties owned by Catholics in their county. Severe intolerance against Catholics evaporated as victory came to the British.
In 1763 the Penns and Calverts employed Mason and Dixon to conduct a survey and to settle finally the boundary dispute. In the same year, Father Joseph Mosley established St. Joseph's Mission at Tuckahoe in Talbot County. It was a farm in 1764. Mosley wrote "I began my mission with a hole in the roof for a chimney." His sacramental record, is now preserved at Georgetown University and, is one of only two known Catholic sacramental registers to have survived from colonial times in Maryland. The church is the oldest still in regular use in the Diocese of Wilmington. Mosley served there for 22 years. The nearest priest was fifty miles away at Bohemia. Around 1765 (definitely by 1777) Father Mosley built the first Mass house of St. Peter's in Queenstown. (This first building, enlarged in 1813, was razed in 1967). Another church was built in 1825 and enlarged in 1877).
Bolingly, located at Queenstown was given to Edward Neale, his nephew, by Richard Bennett III as a wedding gift. Martha Neale, his daughter, married Francis Hall and together they reared ten children at Bolingly. One daughter, Mary Theresa Hall, married Dr. Thomas Bennett Willson shortly after the American Declaration of Independence in 1776.
The Jesuits and their congregations were loyal to the patriot cause in the American Revolutionary War. The Blakes, the Halls, the Willsons and many other Catholic families sent sons to fight the war and provided supplies from their farms for the army. The counties of the Eastern Shore merited the title "The Breadbasket of the Revolution." Colonel William Richardson served as commander of the Eastern Shore Battalion of the Maryland Continental forces. His wife Elizabeth Green was a fervent Catholic. The Richardson home at Gilpin Point was a Mass station over many years. Colonel Richardson is regarded as the father of Caroline County. His son Joseph fought in the Revolutionary War. His daughter Ann married Colonel Billy Potter. Billy Potter's Landing on the Choptank River was for a long time a Mass station. The Richardsons and Potters were largely responsible for the building of St. Elizabeth Church in Denton.
At Tully's Neck, between Bridgeton and Rae's Crossroads, on the western side of Tuckahoe Creek in Caroline County, the Councells and Ewings welcomed missionaries regularly to offer Mass. James Ewing married Anastasia Councell in 1767, and reared seven children.
John Willson, another progenitor of a large Eastern Shore Catholic family, settled on the Wye River and was a close friend of Richard Bennett III. His son Thomas Bennett Willson married Mary Theresa Hall and lived at the Willson home in Warrington near Queenstown.
John Carroll became the first Bishop of Baltimore in 1789. The congratulatory letter he sent to President George Washington in 1790 on behalf of American Catholics was answered by a friendly letter from the first president. The Carey Bible, first edition in America of the Douay-Rheims Bible was subscribed to by many from the Eastern Shore. John Carroll had attended the Jesuit Academy at Bohemia. From 1806 till his death in 1815, in lieu of a salary from the Corporation of the Clergy, Carroll accepted the income from the Bohemia Plantation as his benefice, his "table," his "manse." In the archives of the Baltimore Archdiocese is a record he kept entitled "Bohemia Plantation Book 1790-1796." The 24 slaves on the Bohemia Plantation at that time technically belonged tot he Corporation, but Carroll did not avoid involvement in decisions concerning the slaves. Carroll personally visited Bohemia in 1797 on a confirmation tour when he confirmed 50 persons. He visited there again in 1810, and again in June, 1812, when he wrote a lengthy letter from Bohemia. In the last year of his life, in May, 1815, Carroll went to Bohemia to investigate for himself the status of the slaves and the state of the congregation at Bohemia. He visited Bohemia again in September, 1815, as he was looking for a replacement for the pastor there. Carroll died in December, 1815.
In the 25 years of his episcopate, Carroll assigned to Bohemia first, Father Robert Molyneux, who began the baptismal and marriage registers there in 1790. Molyneux became president of Georgetown College and first provincial of the restored Jesuit Order in the United States. Carroll next sent Francis Beeston, who in 1792 threw down the old chapel and began to rebuild the church of St. Francis Xavier. Beeston began the house diary at Bohemia, first entry July 1, 1790. The plantation then had by then 49 slaves. Beeston was transferred before the church was finished. Carroll then invited the Sulpician Fathers, who had opened St. Mary's Seminary in Baltimore, to take over Bohemia. Newly-ordained Ambrose Maréchal became the first Sulpician pastor, and proceeded to complete the church, turning the altar railing on the lave himself. Maréchal visited Chestertown, Kingstown, Sassafras Neck and all the missions on the upper shore. Jean Tessier and Antoine Garnier served as missionary pastors at Bohemia until 1799 when the Corporation called for a return to themselves of the Bohemia Plantation. Before the end of Carroll's episcopate, an Irish Augustinian, an Irish Capuchin, and a French secular priest served as pastors at Bohemia. The Chesapeake and Delaware Canal was begun in 1803 under the direction of Benjamin Latrobe. There was an Irish riot in Elkton in 1804. Many Irish laborers were employed there. A trans-peninsular turnpike was constructed by Irish laborers in 1813. The first steamboat crossed the Chesapeake Bay and gave new impetus to the project.
The War of 1812 was fought out on the Eastern Shore at the Battle of Cauk's Field in 1813. Captain Peter Parker was wounded, and died at the Mitchell House
.
At the other parish on the Eastern Shore, St. Joseph's, Cordova, John Bolton, a Jesuit had succeeded Father Mosley in 1787. He was succeed by a French secular priest, Ambrose Sougé, who wrote many letters to Carroll on the sad condition of Catholicism on the Eastern Shore. He was succeeded by an Irish secular Thomas Monnelly who served at St. Joseph's for 14 years. His many letters are preserved in the AAB. Monnelly wrote Neale after Carroll's death that the slaves "thought themselves free at Doctor Carroll's death and would not work for two months."
Leonard Neale succeeded Carroll in 1815, at age 68. He was a relative of Henrietta Maria Neale Bennett Lloyd. Though he had attended Bohemia Academy, there is no record of any visit by him as bishop. Father James Moynihan, an Irish secular, was ordained two years earlier by Carroll. Neale felt he was too young to manage Bohemia, so he transferred him to Cordova. Moynihan wanted to finish the plastering of the interior of St. Francis Xavier, and argued that the Irish building the C&D canal needed his ministry, but Neale replaced him with a Belgian-Jesuit, John Henry. "After years of loose supervision the negroes had become ungovernable and very loose in their morals." For that reason, Henry began removing the slaves by selling five to a neighbor who was sending them south. The stage was stopped at Centreville and Henry was under arrest for "kidnapping" - against which a severe law had been passed in Maryland. It was a misunderstanding but Father Henry asked to be transferred to the western shore to avoid jail.
James Moynihan reported as pastor to St. Joseph's Cordova and did well in serving the five small congregations under his care. (Queenstown, Tully's Neck, Meekins Neck, Denton, Eastern Landing). He reported that about 300 received the sacraments regularly in his parish. A parishioner wrote that he was "gathering up our strayed flock from every quarter."
Moynihan continued to serve at St. Joseph's under Ambrose Maréchal, who became the third Archbishop in 1817. He wrote Maréchal: "Religion has considerably declined on this shore since the time you lived at Bohemia."
In October, 1819, Abp. Maréchal made a Confirmation tour of the lower Eastern Shore. Accompanied by Rev. James Whitfield of the Baltimore Cathedral, he arrived by steamboat at Queenstown. Dr. Thomas Bennett Willson met him and conducted him to the home of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Corcoran Browne (Wheatlands). Next day they breakfasted at Dr. Willson's (Warrington), confirmed 14 at St. Peter's, dined at Richmond's near Centreville, dinner at Mrs. Eleanore Hall Tilghman's, Confirmed at White House Farm, dined at Bolingly, on the Wheatlands, dined and out to St. Joseph's, Tuckahoe, on to Denton, Richardsons and Billy Potter's, on to New Market through Cambridge to Mrs. Staplefort's, to Tubman Chapel and dined at Richard Tubman's to Centreville, to Queenstown, boat to Baltimore. Maréchal noted that - 166 persons were confirmed total on tour. In 1823 - Moynihan began the church in Denton (replaced by a new church in 1890). Under Maréchal, at Pilottown, above Conowingo, a small church was built by Irish riverpilots in 1819. Father Roger Smith served the church from St. Ignatius Church, Hickory, Maryland.
Father Michael Cousinne, a Belgium Jesuit, succeeded Moynihan at Bohemia. Among his missions were Elkton, Chestertown, Frenchtown, and Grove Point.
At Grove Point, in Cecil County, David Lee owned a large farm. The Jesuits visited regularly and baptized his children and slaves. Peter Epinette, a French Jesuit, succeeded Cousinne and served well, especially the Irish at Canal. The canal project was completed in 1830.
Ambrose Maréchal died in 1828 and was succeeded by James Whitfield. Epinette continued at Bohemia. He died at Bohemia in 1832 at age 72. Jesuits Fathers Newton, Hardey and Carey, served at St. Joseph's under Whitfield. Hardey reported many sacraments at Railroad, the Frenchtown - New Castle RR. - 17 miles of track - grand opening 1831. 1100 men, mostly Irish, were employed.
In 1832, Father Peter Kenny, Jesuit visitator from Ireland, asked the managers to report to him the number of slaves on each plantation. The final sale of all the slaves began. In 1839, after all slaves had been sold on the other plantations, he received the report that "there still remain at St. Joseph's 6."
Samuel Eccleston succeeded Whitfield at age 33. He was born in Chestertown, Maryland. Rev. George King was born in Laurel, Delaware, entered Jesuits in 1830, was sent to Bohemia in 1835. Father King was a very zealous missionary over many years. In the 1840s, Margaret Butler Lyons offered her home for the regular celebration of Mass in Elkton. An acre of land in western Elkton was purchased. Eccleston purchased an extra 1 ¼ acres to add to the parish property. Stones were brought from the fields in 1849. The Immaculate Conception Church was dedicated August, 1850. George King had a missionary team serving under his direction from Bohemia: a French Jesuit, a Swiss Jesuit, and two German Jesuits. Archbishop Eccleston conducted a confirmation tour (very much like Maréchal's) in June, 1841.
Francis Patrick Kenrick succeeded Eccleston as archbishop in 1852. In his Acta Episcopalia he describes his Confirmation tour on the Eastern Shore in April, 1853. He went from Cambridge to Queenstown, on to Bohemia, and then to the new church in Elkton, returning from there by rail to Baltimore. A Belgian Jesuit, Mathew Sanders was pastor of Bohemia from 1852 to 1856. In August of 1855, Father Sanders assisted Father Thomas Foley in the blessing of the cornerstone for a new church named St. Dennis, to be built at Lambsons Station, near Galena. The church was completed and dedicated on February 3, 1856, again by Father Foley. Kenrick himself came to St. Dennis from Bohemia on Sunday, July 6, 1856. Kenrick preached on the Primacy of St. Peter at a 5 p.m. Confirmation service. Father George King completed his nearly 20 years on the Eastern Shore, and died in 1857. Father George Villiger, a Swiss Jesuit, assisted King at St. Joseph's and became pastor of Bohemia in 1856 where he would serve for 22 years.
Father George Steinhauser was sent by Kenrick, in 1859 from Havre de Grace to open a chapel in his residence in Port Deposit. The church of St. Teresa of Avila was begun in 1866. Steinhauser The German Redemptorists had hardly arrived at Annapolis in 1853 when they crossed the bay to Kent Island to say Mass for Catholics there. In 1857 they accepted an invitation to visit regularly the home of Henry May who lived in Talbot County about three miles above Easton. Father Cornell was the first appointed to cross regularly to Easton. He held a public meeting and announced plans to build a church in Easton. Howes Goldsborough bought land for the new church. Father William Gross became the next pastor in 1863.
Kenrick died July 8, 1863 and was succeeded by Martin John Spalding. The cornerstone for the new church in Easton was laid a week after Lincoln's assassination in April, 1865. The completed church, dedicated to SS. Peter and Paul, was dedicated on December 4, 1866. In 1865 Archbishop Spalding asked Father Joseph Henning, C.SS.R., to tour the lower Eastern Shore and report to him on the state of Catholicism there. In winter 1865 Henning toured Salisbury and celebrated Mass at the old Courthouse there. John Tracy, owner of the Peninsula Hotel, donated property for a new church in Salisbury. Henning went on as far as Princess Anne. The new church of St. Mary's in Salisbury was dedicated by Bishop Becker in 1868. No church was built in Cambridge until 1884. No Catholic Church exists in Princess Anne today.
In 1865, Spalding himself conducted a visitation of the Eastern Shore, starting at Elkton, he made his way to Bohemia, then to St. Dennis, to Chestertown, to Trumpington, to Queenstown, to Centreville, to St. Joseph's, to Denton, and finally to Easton. As a result of his visitation, Archbishop Spalding promoted the establishment of a new diocese to include the entire Delmarva Peninsula. The Diocese of Wilmington was created March 3, 1868.
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